It's All About The Benjamin

My God... it's full of stars..." Ben in pastina: Celebrating Ben's birthday at play group and his first cupcake: Party at our house on April 1st: More to come: pictures at Nonna's

Yes, I realize this post is over due, as his birthday was April 2nd. It is so hard to find the time... Seeing Ben today, it's incredible to realize this baby boy is growing up; he'll never get any younger or smaller. He'll just keep getting bigger and eventually more independent. I really like his sense of humor... he enjoys fake outs: offering you something to eat, only to put it in his own mouth when you think he's really going to put it in yours. He'll put his arms out to be held by someone, only to turn away at the last moment, wiggling and smiling mischievously . He loves dancing, using his whole body and wiggling his shoulders - it's hysterical! When he coughs, I have instructed him to "Please cover your mouth when you cough", as it's the polite thing to do. Of course he sees mommy & daddy cover their mouths, and he's actually started doing that this week. He has also discovered his tongue , and will be happy to show anyone who inqu...

Ben's eleventh month has been a lot of fun. Here are some shots from February. The reason why so many of them are Ben seated in his high chair? Because he's staying (mostly) still! Goodness that little boy can move! He's not walking yet, but he can crawl lickety split. He's also eating more; he LOVES soy cheese (highly beneficial for those with blood type A, like his Daddy), yogurt, green vegetables... almost everything, although he's fallen out of love with lentils. When I handed him the spoon the other day, he actually held it by the handle and fed himself! Then he put the handle in his mouth. Enjoy the pictures!

I haven't taken a lot of digital pictures lately; we're going to get a new digital camera at some point, so I've ben using the old fashioned filmy - point-and-click camera. Plus, Ben is always moving and the digital just isn't fast enough to capture him. Sadly, I forgot to ask for the latest roll to be put onto CD, but here are a few shots from the last month or so.

Ben had his latest checkup at the pediatrician's and did very well. He's getting long, at 29 inches and weighs 19 pounds. He is a lean, mean, eating machine! He doesn't get a lot of sugary foods; in fact, I just bought plain whole milk yogurt to mix with fruit instead of the yo*baby yogurt which has added sugar. I mean, really... aren't fruits sweet enough? He's cruising, crawling and tries to roll while being changed. He absolutely loves jumping and climbing on the couch, which is soft, leather, and now covered in Ben saliva. While jumping, crawling and dooling his face is just alight! And I just got paged that he's now awake, so I've got to go home and relieve Opa. Here's a pic to tide you over... This is after all the jumping and climbing.

Those would be Ben's first words. He's been saying dada for a while now, since December I think, with some regularity. However not only would he look at Ron and say "dada" but he would also look at the phone, me, food.... you get the picture. Lately , though, he's been saying dada while looking at Ron and seems to mean it. While visiting Daddy at work this evening, and after playing with the mandible on the skeleton (don't worry, it's resin, not real bone), he said: "buh - buh - buh -ba ba ba bye bye dada." We both looked at him and then at each other for confirmation that neither of us was imagining this. He wouldn't repeat it, but it was so cute and groundshaking at the same time. That this tiny little being can actually communicate in words! He's starting to point to things in books, too, so we reinforce this for him. (That's a pineapple, Ben. You like pineapples! It looks odd, doesn't it? But so yummy...) He's also pullin...

Just nine months and Ben has had his first haircut! He did very well, sitting on my lap and playing with/trying to eat a brush during the trim. Not much was cut off, but some of his hair on top was a bit long so it looks much tidier now, as evidenced here: He had a wonderful Christmas with lots of wonderful gifts bestowed upon him by family and friends, but the whole New Year thing doesn't seem to have phazed him, as he went to bed at his usual bedtime and awoke to a new day greeted by Mommy & Daddy. His crawling is improving and he's pulling up on any and everything, including my pants if I stay still long enough. He can walk holding on to someone's fingers, and still babling: Mamama, dada, bababa, nananana... oh it's so cute! He has gotten another tooth, one of the side incisiors on the left. So that makes it three. We're looking for the matching tooth, but no sign yet. He's teething up a storm, though, so we know another one is up there somewhere. His app...

We're so excited for Ben to have his very first Christmas! Well, he was around last year, but this is his first Christmas on the outside . The picture above is the one we used for our Christmas cards - the little man looks perfect! But lest you think that Super Adorable Boy poses like that all the time, here are some other shots for that sitting: Ah, our little cutie pie, always on the go! Now that he's really got the hang of crawling, there is no staying still. He's happy to follow Mommy about the house as chores are attempted, investigating everything as he goes. The rubbish bin in the bathroom holds particular intrest for Ben (well, it is shiny metal and has a lid that goes up & down...) His two little bottom teeth have been here for a couple of months, and now he has a new one on the top - the left incisor, but not one of the front ones. The bottom ones came in together, so it's a little weird to kust see one off to the side up on top. But this certainly explai...

We're about to fly home tomorrow, but just wanted to get a quick entry about our trip to Arizona and Mexico. We've had a wonderful time visiting with dear friends (Rick, Belinda, Harrison and Oliver) and got to relax in gorgeous weather in Puerto Penasco, Mexico - Ben's first trip out of the country! On this trip he crawled for the first time and waved yesterday! He's babling a lot more (mamamama ba ba bababababa dadadadada lalalaalalalala nanananana). He tried guacamole, wheat bread, rice, beans, butternut squash and loved them all. He saw the Sonoran Gulf, palm trees, pelicans, hermit crabs, Mexican markets and sea shells. We have a plane ride tomorrow back to Pennsylvania then it's back to the cold! He's getting over his very first cold, which was harder on Mommy than it was on him (especially because he gave it to me and it's only going away now! ) The picture above was taken on the beach outside our room. More to come! ****Now updated with more pictures...

Ben will be seven months old tomorrow! I'm just constantly amazed, and I'm sure I always will be. Happy seven months, Ben. You've been the absolute light in our lives. We're just so happy you're here with us. He's had a busy seventh month. The beginning got off to a very sad start as we said goodbye to Ben's Uncle Will. I'm sorry he never got to know Will, but we have lots of pictures and stories for Ben as he gets older. I know his Aunt Kris, Noona, Pop-Pop and many others will help flesh out the picture of Will. On his pediatrician's appointment of October 10th, he weighed 15 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 26" long. He handled his immunizations well and barely cried. What a trooper! The two bottom front teeth have come through, after a particularly cranky weekend, but all is well on the dentition front. He's now taking baths in the inflatable tub which fit into the big tub, and he seems to enjoy being able to sit and splash. He has, howeve...

Oh, what a busy month it's been! Ron and I have been swamped with work, having lost our other illustrator so that didn't leave a lot of time for updates. Our new illustrator has started and doing very well, so! On with muffin news! We started Ben on rice cereal, which he wasn't sure quite what to make of it at first, but he now absolutely loves it. Mouth-open-wide-for-next-bite kinda loves. Once he was having cereal for breakfast and dinner, we introduced butternut squash for lunch. He was less than thrilled, but did manage to eat the entire wee jar in three days. Next! On to carrots! He was okay with the carrots, not excited, but again managed to finish the jar in three days. Mommy also learned how much carrots stain! Ooooooh! What a pretty orange! Mommy bought Oxy Clean so we'll give that a whirl. Next stop: peas, glorious peas! Small, green and round! He doesn't spit them out, and that's good enough for me. I think tomorrow we'll go back to the squash and...

Sure, right after I posted the last entry, Ben started waking up in the middle of the night. He wasn't waking up to eat, just waking up and talking animatedly to himself. After a while he'd sound annoyed, so I went in to check on him. He had flipped himself over from his belly to his back, so I let him know it was still very early, he needed some more sleep, but it was great that he rolled over. I rolled him back, which he protested and rolled himself back on to his back. I flipped him back over, and he fussed. I went back to bed, and when he sounded louder, Ron went in to flip him back over. He cried for a bit, then fell back asleep. He eventually awoke for the morning at about 7 am. He repeated this the following few nights, with his "back-to-sleep" time getting shorter. Last night, he woke up at 2:30, chatting. At 3am I got up to say hi, tell him it was still the middle of the night and rolled him back on to his belly. He put his thumb inhis mouth an immediately we...

Okay, we pretty much realize that we are the luckiest parents ever. Ben is sleeping about 11 to 12 hours a night. When he wakes up, do we hear howls of hunger? Nope, he's all smiles and makes adorable noises talking to himself. Sometimes he's on his belly, head held up high propped up on his hands, other times, he has flipped himself onto his back, looking up at his Pat the Bunny mobile. He is so adorable, and we just love him oodles. Oodles of poodle noodles. I love the startled look on his face on his changing table! He had a busy month - get got to meet some more family - his Nona, Uncle Will and Aunt Kris on Long Island, as well as his great great aunts and some cousins! He's starting to get a little shy but he did great. He turned four months old while we were in Boston last week. In fact, he turned 4 months old on our 5th wedding anniversary (August 2nd). We didn't get a chance to celebrate it, as we were attending the 61st conference of the Association of Medical...