Sharing a laugh with Opa

I love this picture.

Ugh

For the past month or so Ben has been a champion at the YMCA. I'd drop him off in the child care room and he'd be happy as a clam to have new toys to play with, instead of all the old, boring toys at our house. Plus, there were BIG KIDS to watch and nothing is more fun than that!

For some reason, though, this week has been tough and this morning was terrible. Immediately when we walked in the room he started clinging to me for dear life, because he knew I was going to leave. He started bawling when I put him down and then the worst thing - he started crawling after me. So here's this crying child crawling to me and I can just hear, "Mommy, don't leave me!" I tried to get him interested in some of his favorite toys, but he wasn't having any of it and eventually I had to leave him there, crying. By the time I came back he was playing happily, but I don't know if I'll ever forget that image of him crawling after me, bawling his eyes out.

Things... they are a-changin'

Ben is slowly becoming a toddler. For example:

-He's crawling around more. He still prefers walking with our help, but he's starting to realize that if he crawls he can get things. Things that, until now, have been tantalizingly out of reach. The other morning Heath put him down near the coffee table and when I came back in a few minutes later he was clear across the room, opening drawers on our TV stand and pulling out video games.

-He can now sometimes stand on his own, without holding onto anything, for up to 5 seconds. I know it doesn't seem like a long time, but in the almost-10-months world that's an eternity.

-Ben can also now sit and stand up in his crib. I've walked in several times today to find him standing and bouncing up and down. We lowered the mattress just in time!

-Saturday morning when Heath went in to get Ben he was babbling, "mamamamamama," but when he saw Heath he started saying, "dadadadadada." Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.

-For the past couple days I've been asking, "Ben, where's mama?" Sometimes he reaches for me and sometimes he just gives me this look, as if to say, "I am not your monkey."

-He's cruising around on furniture like crazy. This week he's perfecting going from one piece to another. It's not going to be long now and the boy will be walking. Crazy.

You are what you (don't) eat

Despite the subject line, Ben's getting a little, tiny bit better about eating solid foods. I've figured out that he doesn't like small pieces, such as Cheerio's or puffs or any of the other thousands of baby snacks I've purchased for him. He can't pick them up very well and even when he tries to get them into his mouth, they end up in the palm of his hand and he's left chewing on fingers.

So, I've started giving him teething biscuits and he seems to like those. He drools and chomps and makes a complete mess and in the process some of it gets down his throat. Snack time in this house is closely followed by changing clothes time. He also liked playing with/eating/obliterating long pieces of string cheese.

Today I actually got him to eat some of a spaghetti meal. He liked the sauce and then when I started including bigger pieces on the spoon he didn't immediately spit them out. Of course eventually he started spitting them out, but around here that's a victory.

And yesterday my mother fulfilled some of her grandmotherly duties by feeding Ben his first frozen yogurt from Ben & Jerry's. After each bite he made a weird face, like he wasn't so sure about it, but he was quick to open up his mouth again, lest we think he didn't want more.

So we're getting there, just very, very slowly. We've almost caught up to that tortoise.

Fun in the water!

R.I.P. Martha Ann Phillips Borders

Last week Heath's grandmother passed away. I didn't know her very well, but she was always very sweet when I saw her. On Mother's Day she met Ben for the first time. I'm glad he got to spend some time with her. She will be missed.

A four generation photo

*sigh*

Things Ben Will Put Into His Mouth:

Every single book and toy he owns
My keys
My cell phone
My iPod
Kleenex
Grass
His wading pool
The coffee table
Magnets
A folding chair
The diaper bag
Minnie's tail
The remote control
My finger
My nose
My chin
The chain on swings
The grocery cart
Towels
An ottoman
Kitchen utensils
My sunglasses
Grandma's reading glasses
The straps on his car seat/stroller/highchair


Things Ben Won't Put Into His Mouth:

Food

Father's Day 1.0

Happy Father's Day to the man who changed all of Ben's diapers in the hospital.

Happy Father's Day to the man who gets up in the morning so I can sleep a little longer.

Happy Father's Day to the man who tirelessly swings Ben around and throws him into the air.

Happy Father's Day to the man who tolerates the whining and crying infinitely better than I do.

Happy Father's Day to the man who sometimes comes home from work early just so he can take his son to the park.

Happy Father's Day to the man who can make Ben giggle better than anyone else.

Happy Father's Day to the man who spends hours and hours messing with Ben videos just so my grandmother can see them.

Happy Father's Day to the man who loves it when Ben falls asleep on him.


Happy Father's Day, Heath! Watching you become a father over the last 9.5 months has been one of the highlights of my life. We love you!

I love to whine... whine, whine, whine, whine

Most of the women in my moms group said that when their babies started crawling they took off and were everywhere all of a sudden. Ben - not so much. He started crawling, what? On Wednesday, and I don't think he's even crawled enough to traverse an entire room. All he'll do is move his hands and knees a couple times so he's close enough to just plop on his stomach and reach what he wants. He exerts the smallest amount of energy necessary. Which is "in," I suppose, with everyone on the Green kick, but it's not very impressive on video.

Along with crawling, he can also now go from laying on his stomach to a sitting position. However, if we're in the room he won't do it. Why exert the energy himself when he can just whine for 5 minutes straight and then someone will do it for him? Honestly, I think the boy's just lazy. Which makes sense, since his parents are lazy, but isn't the next generation supposed to be an improvement?

Pool Party

Yesterday afternoon Ben attended his first pool party. We hung out with our friends from the playgroup. The babies splashed in a wading pool while the moms lounged in the shade. Ben loved it. He even did a little "swimming." The water in the pool was low enough that he could lay on his stomach and he crawled around a bit. He even put his face in the water! Hopefully this means that someday he'll make a lot of money as an Olympic gold medalist and buy us a mansion. :)