Category: Benjamin

Hard to believe, but Benji turned 8 months old on Christmas Eve! It’s been a big month for Ben. He seems to be pretty much over his texture issues with food and is now eating everything in sight (as we allow). He also wants only to feed himself and gives us a look like “You know what you can do with that lousy spoon!??!” every time we try to feed him. The four new teeth that have punched through in the last month are getting good use tearing off pieces of crackers and bread … though Ben wants desperately to move on to burgers and steak.

He is also mobile! It is not crawling exactly, but scooching along, usually backwards. He is, however, extremely frustrated that he cannot crawl. He constantly flips on his tummy and gets up on all fours, sometimes doing a downward dog sort of deal and scooches and cannot quite get it, so he grunts and moans and eventually protests until we sit him up again. But that doesn’t stop him from reaching everything in sight. And he is now pulling himself up on our hands and stationary objects. I really do want him to crawl/walk soon … at 23 lbs, he is heavy!!

The jumper is still his favorite occupation, slowly being eclipsed by sitting on the floor and playing with toys. He is finally more interested in books, though it is more of an oral interest. And speaking of oral, in addition to putting everything in his mouth, he is putting his mouth to excellent use chatting us up. He now says mama and dada with some association and patpatpat when he claps (darling!). We also think we’ve caught him saying Tabby once or twice. Big sister figures big into his world.

He (still) does not sleep through the night. I really think that at this point it’s a comfort issue rather than a hunger one, but we’ve been so exhausted with basement/Christmas that I haven’t had it in me to work with him at night. I hope that in the next few weeks I can work with him and get him sleeping through. I need it badly!!

2/3 of the way through his first year and we are loving him so much! This is prime adorable baby time and I do not want to miss a minute. Off to smush my baby boy!

Really, I am too tired to blog. But I am never too tired to tell you about Ben. My baby boy is 7 months old today!! He is closer to 1 than 0.

He is a big boy! He weighed in at over 20 lbs (20 lbs, 8 oz) at his last checkup, putting him in the 85th percentile for weight. He is 65th for height. He seems to keep going up for height and down in weight. That seems like a good thing, I think. Of course he is still waking up in the middle of the night to have a bottle (which he sucks down ravenously as though we have not fed him in days, rather than hours). He eats his solids and does it pretty well, I think, but he does seem to have more texture issues than Tabby had at the same age and a bit more of a heightened gag reflex. But it’s also possible that I’m remembering incorrectly.

Sitting up has opened up a new world for him and he will now play happily on the floor with the piano or the bead maze for quite a while. His jumper is also a constant favorite, where he exercises the heck out of his little legs, bouncing like mad and squealing with delight. The swing is still a fave, but he now only likes it when he’s a bit tired. If he’s ready to go, he’d much prefer his jumper. He keeps purposefully rolling onto his tummy and tries to push himself on all fours. He can get his upper body up a bit, but cannot so far negotiate his legs under himself. It’s kind of cute to watch, but he isn’t at all pleased when he can’t right himself.

Other than the waking up at night, he’s a good night sleeper. He likes a bottle right before bed and once he’s done, he’ll snuggle down in his crib with his doggy and sleep until hunger strikes again, usually about 5-6 hours. During the day, it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes he’ll nap for 2 hours and more frequently, around 45 minutes.

Nap or not, he has a very cheerful and friendly disposition and it takes a lot to make him cranky. But recently, we have noticed a little stranger anxiety. He clouded up in mere seconds when we were talking with another family who had a baby about his age. And he flipped out when I put him on the floor in front of a toy at a playdate. I was right behind him, but I guess not being able to see me scared him.

I feel so lucky to get to be this little guy’s mama!

In the Land of Chaos, all is going well. Framing done. Drywall going up. The adults of the house scrambling to finish the electrical stuff in time. Me hyper-ventilating over the $$ we’re spending. Matt talking me off the edge. Y’know business as usual.

I’ll tell you something else. Every morning at 4:30 AM my alarm goes off. I hit snooze once or twice (my alarm does snooze in 9 min increments, no idea how to change this) and almost always, drag myself out of bed. I could get about 1.25 hours more of half sleep if I really wanted, or I could go to the gym. Gym almost always wins. Wouldn’t you think that after I had that cute little lunker over there that all of the baby weight would just go away? Yea, not so much. So I have one very simple goal right now: fit into my freaking ski jacket so I can get up on the slopes. We have two more weeks until our first planned trip to the mountains and I haven’t tried my jacket on again recently, but I am hoping I can make it. Truthfully, it does fit. It just isn’t at all attractive or comfortable. I care little about attractive … but comfortable is a must.

I have been reading (listening to) Mary Kay Andrews’ books lately. They were recommended to me by Ani and they are delightful! They all take place in the south (where I spent four lovely years) and have excellent, complex characters and great stories. I am also reading It Happened in Denver, a book full of short history lessons on Denver. Extremely enjoyable.

Both kiddos have decided to talk a lot recently. Tabby usually talks a blue-streak anyhow, but suddenly she is much more with the give-and-take conversation. She seems to remember things better and volunteers more on her own. She is excellent on the phone and really has a conversation! Yesterday she was on the phone with her Grammy and my mom told her that GiGi (great grandma, my mom’s mom) wasn’t feeling well. Tabby got very concerned. “She’s not feeling well?! Give her a big hug for me!” And Ben has started babbling on at length. Many different consonants and syllable after syllable. He keeps saying “dadadadad” and “haaaiii” but not in context, of course.

In other news … I desperately need a nap.

The last couple of months have absolutely flown by and here we are in late October. Yesterday, we celebrated half a year with Ben as a part of our family. It is amazing how much has changed just in the path couple of months.

Ben is doing quite well at sitting on his own, and even better with just a little assistance from someone’s legs or a boppy. This is particularly advantageous since he is too heavy to carry around in his infant carseat and has been upgraded to the convertible. He seems to like it better, but it means we lose the carrier for the grocery store and restaurants. He really enjoys his tummy time and can roll back and forth just fine and likes to “swim” on the floor, kicking up his arms and legs. He also loves to lie on his back and grab his toes.

While he CAN hold his own bottle, he prefers to leave that task to one of his many staff members, including big sister (who has limited patience for extended bottle holding). He is eating quite a few solids and seems to really miss them if we try to skip giving them to him. He’s had most of the readily available members of the fruit and veggie group and rice cereal, of course. I’m looking forward to being able to give him a little more variety in the near future. Unfortunately, all this solid-eating doesn’t seem to have helped his sleep very much.

Verbally, he is hilarious. He baby-talks to us a lot and you can hear him imitate sound we make, especially “hi!” and kissing noises. He is big into music, just like Tabby was, but he seems to prefer our singing to CDs (why?!) and likes to go to sleep with someone singing to him. He definitely recognizes his name and turns when he hears voices he knows. He loves to hear big sister talking and is entertained by her whether she’s doing it on purpose (dancing and singing for him) or not (throwing a fit).

He is quite the big boy, wearing mostly size 12 months and size 3 diapers. I will be very interested to see what his percentiles are like this time and what he’s going to look like at a year old. We are loving him and his happy disposition. Even this past couple of weeks when he’s had a bit of a cold, he is still a smiley, happy guy. He’s so much fun! How’d we get so lucky?

Will you look at this, folks? I am posting a baby update on the proper day. Miraculous! Yes, Ben (“The Benj”,”Benji”) is 4 months old today. Obviously, the time has flown by. I cannot believe we were just meeting him four months ago.

In that amount of time he has gained over 10 lbs and who knows how many inches. He is above the 80th percentile from our calculations and will not be in the infant carrier much longer. He is getting darn hard to carry around and beyond that he won’t fit much longer. He is wearing 6-12 month sizes in clothes and size 3 diapers. He holds his head up just about perfectly and can sit easily in his bumbo or a reclining chair (stroller, swing). He makes swats at his bottle if he’s not hungry and grasps this and that, though with not a ton of purpose yet.

He has a very cheerful disposition. He is very smiley baby. Perhaps he’s even more smiley than his older sister was. He delights in attention … singing, smiles, patty-cake … and responds with big grins and funny happy growls. You rarely hear grumbling from him unless he’s hungry, though lately he’s sometimes lobbied for extra cuddles and attention with a form of vocalization we refer to as “baby bitching.” He eats … a lot. Recently, he has gone to more formula than breastmilk and I know this trend will continue when I go back to work in just two weeks (*gulp*). And we will be starting him on solids soon.

We are so very in love with our little guy and really enjoying seeing him turn into such a little personality. It is such an incredible privilege to have him in our family. Now I am off to get a few more baby cuddles in before I blink and he’s all grown up.