Dancin'

So for months Ben has been stopping what he's doing to dance to music and he's also stopped what he's doing to point at the sound of cars, airplanes, car alarms, construction equipment.

Yesterday, he had to stop in the middle of the street to dance to a car alarm.

Go figure!

From 1st Birthday to 16 months!

If you looked at all of the pictures we have of Ben since his first birthday, you would see that he loved birthday cake,

his mom makes him wear crazy home-made hats for major milestones (the first is a crown the second is the very hungry caterpillar),

had 2 birthday parties (one on his birthday and one with his grandpa's side of the family a week later), has grown attached to a stuffed animal named George,

loves to play the piano and has regular piano lessons with daddy,

enjoys all activities outside including walking, sliding and swinging,

thinks its fun to walk around on dry land in his life preserver and fall down like a sumo wrestler who can't get up,

and has grown into a full-blown toddler in just 4 months!

If we had more pictures, you would see that Ben also loves to have water poured on his head in the bathtub or at the pool, moves his body like crazy to any music, infrequently speaking words like shoes, cheese, out, book and bye, but never on command, and especially loves planes, trains, trucks that make noise as well as animals and expressing his interest with lots of pointing, grunting and screeching and noises that sound like what-ta and oy.

Routines

We've gotten into an afternoon/early evening routine, just like most mom's and baby's that includes cooking dinner, feeding Ben dinner and bath time (see earlier post). While I cook dinner, or any time he's let loose in the kitchen, Ben likes to explore (destroy) the lower cabinets. While not yet baby-proofed in the traditional sense, all kitchen equipment in them are harmless to Ben and not breakable. He's especially developed a fondness for wooden spoons and my pasta pot.

Prince Benjamin

A few weeks ago we went to my cousin's daughter's 3rd birthday and Ben had a lavendar princess crown on his head within minutes of walking in the door (courtesy of the birthday girl's mom, Ashley pictured here with Ben). We know it won't be long that we can dress him any way we like and he won't care. He wore the crown for more than an hour before ripping it off when I laid him down to change a diaper.

He also got to enjoy a Thomas the Tank Engine ride, led by Nana.

Bath time

Bath time has become fun for us, and a little challenging as Ben wants to stand as much as possible. He also likes to pull out the drain stopper and play with it, making it difficult to take a bath with no water in the tub! He really likes the water, even having water poured over his head. We're looking forward to joining the Park District kiddie pool 2 blocks from us this summer.

Here he is doing one of his other favorite activities, standing outside the bathtub, walking back and forth and exploring the bathroom.

Coble University

William's brother George and his wife Debby sent us "Coble University" adult sweatshirts and baby onesie for Christmas and here's Ben showing off his new attire. We know Grandpa Coble would have been tickled!

Standing

Ben surprised us all by learning how to stand last Saturday. We went into his room to get him up from a nap and there he was, standing in his crib.

Now, instead of going to sleep when he's supposed to, he prefers to stand and he's really quite proud of himself. We think it looks like he's composing the next great political speech, and only waiting for the ability to communicate it.

It makes getting him to sleep rather difficult!

Rockin' Rudolph

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

William and Ben have developed a routine where William sings a rock beat and Ben dances. This is how we started Christmas morning - with a rockin' Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer.




A few minutes later he got his first present from Santa - a green wooden worm.

And later in the day, we learned that Ben knows how to open presents... since he's meticulous about studying the details of most objects, we're not surprised!

And the man behind the best pictures we have...Grandpa Bruce caught waiting for a picture.

Crawling OR He Has a Mind of His Own

Ben has begun demonstrating his independence! He started crawling last week, a few days shy of his 8-month birthday. Although he's been up in the crawl position for 2 months, he never quite got the hang of forward motion. Early last week, he started crawling, but with his belly still on the ground. He looks like he's swimming. He moves his arms and legs in the right sequence, just not in the typical crawl position. And, he moves fast and has an interest in going places independently... the bathroom to play with his bathtub, to follow me to let the dog out, his favorite un-babyproofed location (the phone jack in his room), to play with our feet when we're standing near by.

Here's a shaky video for your viewing pleasure:



And another video where I'm hoping he'll demonstrate his newfound crawling, but does a lot of spinning on his stomach.

Happy Halloween!

And this is what Ben's up to lately...

Ben is now over 7 months and weighs 16 lbs 10 ounces, 27. 5 inches long. He had his 6 month check up (a little late) last week. He continues to be on the small side among babies, but growing at a steady rate. He now has 6 teeth, 2 on the bottom and 4 on the top. All 4 came in at the same time in the last few weeks. He's a very smiley and social baby. At church this morning, as usual, he spent the whole time either bouncing on my lap or looking around and smiling to see who would smile back.

Since I've last updated, he was baptised and his godmothers were William's sister Jenny and Jen's Aunt Chris. In addition to a nice visit from William's sister (Syracuse, NY), we also had an equally nice visit from William's brother George and his wife Debby this summer.

He's been enjoying solid food and sitting in his high chair. Here's his first solid food feeding with bananas on his face in August.

And last week, eating an appetizing combination of squash and chicken. Look at the lower left to see the spoon slowly working its way toward his mouth and notice the anticipation in his arms and concentration in his face. His arms will start waving any minute (if we had captured this feeding on video).

Rolling is Ben's favorite method of getting around. On the floor of his room, if you leave for a minute he'll find his way under the crib where he likes to examine the bottom of his mattress like a car mechanic. He recently found a basket of bath toys I left under there and now rubber ducks are his favorite chew toy. His other odd fascination are the silky tags on stuffed animal and other toys. He can study one carefully for 15 minutes without a break.

Crawling can't be far off. He's been getting up on all 4s for more than a month now. That's often how we find him first thing in the morning in his crib, rocking back and forth and smiling.

Who can resist a few more adorable pictures of our boy?

And one final picture - Ben's thinking "Who is this?" Why it's my cousin Attica!

Some More Favorite Pics

I've found it difficult to update regularly, so here are some of our favorite photos of the past few weeks. Ben is getting more active, as you would expect. He's pushing up on his legs alot when we hold him and standing up always causes lots of smiling. He's more interested in a variety of toys and grasping objects for long periods of time, rolling over to his side (not to his tummy yet), exploring the world by putting everything in his mouth, smiling constantly. His face and limbs are filling out. He's sleeping better. One night he went 11+ hours and I woke up 3 times to check to see if he was breathing. He also discovered his thumb a few weeks ago, leading us to much debate about thumb versus pacifier.

We had a Father's Day, Part 2 with my dad at White Fence Farm (a family favorite for fried chicken). We snapped this picture of William and Ben while we were waiting for our table.

A few weeks ago, we were lucky to spend a day with my cousins, aunt and uncle, and their families. Here's Hannah (age 9) holding Ben. She's the oldest great-granchild and Ben's the youngest. It's fun to see how good she is with the baby and how much she has grown up!

Having Ben has made both William and me realize how important family is and we've really had some wonderful times over the last few months. So far, it's been mostly with my family but we're looking forward to visits with William's sister and brother and sister-in-law in the next month when they come in from Syracuse.

And the kid photo shoot: Hannah holding Ben, Trevor (age 5), Jessica (age 1) and Mollie (age 8). As can be expected, there were many outtakes - backs of heads, closed eyes looking in different directions, squirming. Even though Ben is about to cry, this is the best one I took.

This is quintessential Ben at age 3 months. He's always dancing when he lays on his back, moving his arms and legs in all different directions and smiling at the same time.

For 4th of July, Ben had a few firsts. We took him to his first 4th of July parade in Riverside Friday morning. We forgot the camera, so no pics. He got lots of candy thrown at him which we gave to neighboring kids who could actually eat it. Every holiday, I think about what we were doing last year and what next year might be like. Last year at this time, we were just about to find out we were expecting and next year, Ben will be walking!

We also enjoyed a barbeque with my dad's family in the afternoon that included Ben's first time in a swimming pool. I wouldn't say he enjoyed it, but he did kick his legs a bit when he was in an inner tube.

And finally, during the barbeque, William took Ben and the camera, and the next thing I know there's a series of pictures with everyone in the family holding Ben. This photo is one of them and really captures how relaxed we were. Gianni is another cousin, almost exactly 5 years older than our little guy. We've been lucky to be able to borrow many of Gianni's baby clothes.

That's all for how now, hope to update sooner next time!

Father's Day: A Visit to the old neighborhood

Father's Day started out with crazy weather and ended with gorgeous blue skies (as you can see from the pictures). We began the day debating whether or not Ben and I should go to church during a storm that blew down many trees in our area including one that fell on a neighbor's garage. We decided to stay home and William went off to work on his first Father's Day.

The day ended with a beautiful drive north on Lake Shore Drive and a visit to our old neighborhood and favorite burger joint - Jury's. It was Ben's first visit into Chicago and bringing him to Jury's felt pretty significant to both of us. Jury's has been a big part of our lives. We found it shortly after we moved to Lincoln Square. At Jury's, we have shared many burger meals, had many big conversations, and been there during all the milestones in our lives - before marriage, after marriage, living in Lincoln Square, living in Berwyn, pregnant, and now with Ben. Pete and Dan, the owners, know us by name. Oddly, we had the worst service we've ever had, but we'll go back. We haven't found a better burger anywhere. We're sure you'll rush right down to Lincoln Ave. to have one now that you've seen a picture!