Ben at 1.12

I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I’m doing rather poorly with these monthly or quarterly updates on my kids. See the problem is, I blink and months go by in a whirl of play, work and laundry. Little MAN is well over 13 months old by now, but I haven’t updated in a while, so I will share with you all that is Ben.

Monday I took him to the doctor’s office to have his cold + ear gunk checked out. He had an ear infection and so we got a prescription for amoxycillin and then got to wait around the clinic for like 40 minutes while it was filled. So we were there a long time and Ben drew much attention. Everyone wanted to know how old he was and the answer inevitably drew two comments “boy he’s sure big!” and/or “He’s sure getting around well!” Both are quite true. Mobile is hardly adequate to describe him. He is lightning fast and pretty sure on his feet. He still has the funny toddle/swagger when he walks, but not especially clumsy (for 1.12).

He is quite sizable as well. He is only 25.4 lbs and has hardly gained anything since January, but he has gotten much taller. He’s just a head shorter than Tabby and I always get comments to the effect of “Soon he’ll be carrying you!” when I walk around holding him because compared to my towering height of 5′ nuthin, he’s very tall. I am always amazed how much of his crib he takes up when he stretches out. Size and mobility aside, he is my little charmer. He is fearless with strangers and remarkably easy-going. He lets us clip his toenails and was as easy as could be for his doctor and nurse when they examined him. He is super cuddly too, enough to melt any mama’s heart. His interactions are getting more sophisticated. He still hardly talks, but there’s lots of pointing and grunting and motioning for again or more. He makes himself quite clear.

We love seeing the funny things he does. Whenever he hears music, he stomps his feet back and forth and turns in a circle, dancing along. Whenever he sees a soft blanket or a pile of fresh laundry, he has to go over and lay down and snuggle up. He is much attached to his small blanky/stuffed animal dog (his lovie) and whenever we lift him out of his crib, he makes a mad grab for it and won’t leave until it’s in his arms. Books have also become very central to Ben’s existance. He loves to pull them off the shelf, but he also loves to pick out his favorites (ones with tactile components and/or pictures hidden behind flaps) and bring them to us to read. Sometimes he sits quite patiently and sometimes not so much. His absolutely favorite book is one that lives at Grammy’s house called Hands, Fingers, Toes and is about drumming monkeys. Whenever someone reads it to them, we drum the beat of the rhyming rhythm on the pages as we read and he gets a huge kick out of that.

He still loves his bottle and we are working on transitioning him to a sippy cup, but it hasn’t been easy. He drinks a ton of milk which amazes us because Tabby will hardly touch the stuff (unless improved with chocolate syrup). He loves most everything food wise, most especially fruit – he can eat a full cup at one sitting. He recently discovered hotdogs at our friends’ BBQ and tucked away four (!!).

We love seeing him grow and change before our very eyes. We love to see the interesting differences between him and his sister. We love to watch him sleep. We love being his family.