Ben's 11 Months Old!

Almost to the year milestone and so much has already happened.  This past week Ben moved up to a new room in daycare again and his now in the 'walking' room although the most he's ventured on his own is about 7 steps.  He still prefers to crawl to get around most days, but will regularly try to walk on his own and his balance is pretty good.  I'm thinking it won't be too long before he is upright solely.

His favorite foods are fruits and pasta.  He loves whole wheat pasta in tomato sauce which is super easy and quick to make, plus it freezes well.  He's a good eater and snacks constantly.  Good thing there are lots of healthy cereals that he likes to munch on.

Just today he has learned to tackle the stairs - at least how to get up them, not down.  We've tried to keep him off of stairs to this point, but since he's everywhere it's hard to contain him.  Now we just need to work on the going down part of the stairs so I feel better about the situation.  Good thing we got a baby gate not too long ago.

He's also gotten much better about sorting shapes in one of his toys and loves to hide things places to watch them disappear.  He still loves his walker and tries to push everything around just like the walker even if it's bolted down or weighs 100 lbs.  He's much stronger than I would give him credit for with his size.  Balls are probably his favorite thing to play with besides his walker.  He is fascinated with a basketball hoop thing we have and loves to put the ball in the hoop.  At least he won't understand it now when I tell him he doesn't have a shot at really playing that sport (let's face it, Bri and I are not tall enough), but if I keep telling when he's young maybe he won't grow up with false hopes.

Click here for a slideshow.

10 Months Old!

Ben has finally hit double digits - 10 months! The past month has been pretty good.

For a quick recap on some things he's doing - he loves to use his walker (he does laps everyday in our house with it) and is becoming very good with balance. No steps yet, but he has taken steps while only holding on with one hand so getting much better and steady. He loves most all food especially turkey. He has started pointing and occasionally will wave bye bye, but he still needs more work on that piece.

Apparently he's also becoming a bit of a troublemaker at school. They have to baraccade him in a small space because one day he was back moving cribs (yes, he is much stronger than you would think for his size). He has also been known to bang toys on everything because he likes to hear the noises they make even if that object is another kid. Guess we need to keep an eye on that. Otherwise he's just a handful and ball of energy. He never, and I mean NEVER, stops moving....

Click here for a slideshow from the past month.

9 Months Old!

Time really does seem to be flying again now that he's not sick every day.  Knock on wood, it's been a few weeks since he has had anything, but the month of January was enough for the entire year in my opinion!

Things Ben has accomplished this past month include saying mama, crawling, pulling himself up on things (and getting back down), walking while holding onto tables and his walker, clapping hands and pointing at lights.  Yes, he only points at lights and you can all thank Brian for that as I'm not sure what the whole thought process is of teaching him lights before working more on Mama and Dada or food or anything else a little more practical.  I think it's going to turn him into an electrical engineer since he already looks up whenever he walks in a room and I'm not sure if I like this trend being in the engineering world myself.  Otherwise it seems like it was a learning month and everyday I can see him understanding more which is a lot of fun.

He's always full of giggles and is starting to be a troublemaker.  We're working on 'No' and 'Hot' since he keeps trying to play with things that he probably shouldn't be - fireplace, space heater, etc.  With all the toys we have from hand me downs he would rather play with our TV remote or anything else that we use.  I knew this would happen, but come on!  We have tons of great toys and they don't keep him interested for more than a few minutes at a time.  Oh well, I'm not going to fight that battle too much as long as he's happy and it's not anything that could hurt him.

Click here for a slideshow.  Enjoy!

8 Months Old!

I'm a little late with this post, but we've not had a great week so I apologize in advance. It all started about a week and a half ago when I decided to take Ben to St. Louis with me and leave Brian here. For those of you that don't know - this is a big feat for me since Ben is not a fan of long carrides and proceeds to scream when he's awake after being in his carseat for a while. So in prep for my trip I got him a big boy carseat in the hopes that if he could see out the window then it wouldn't be so bad. Well, it was. He generally will take a nap, but it's 2 hours max in the carseat so the rest of the time was spent crying basically. I put on Yo Gabba Gabba after a while and that seemed to limit his crying a bit, but still not pleasant. We left on a Wednesday and were staying through the weekend, but on the second night we were there it all began. He didn't sleep well and just wanted to be held. At first I thought it was because he wasn't in his crib, but after a while I realized there was probably more. I also thought that maybe he was just getting spoiled by being held with my parents, but was wrong again. The rest of the weekend was long to say the least, but once he spiked a fever I knew there was more. We got back on sunday and took him to an urgent care place and they said that it was just a viral bug and sent us home. Then on monday night we went to Children's Mercy once his fever reached 104 and it was the 4th day of it. Turns out he had a double ear infection and bronchiolitis. After a few days on drugs he's doing much better. Let's just say it's not easy to give an 8 month old an inhaler through a mask or give an already energetic baby steroids (wish I would've got some video of it - it was ridiculous how much movement he had). Oh - and I guess this energy is possibly hereditary per the doc so at this point I blame Brian since he still can't sit still.

Besides the latest bought of disease that seems to be plaguing Ben through this winter season, he's generally a happy kid and getting close to crawling still. He can make his way around the room pretty well by rolling and crawling backwards, but still no forward motion beyond the lunging.

He's still gaining weight which is good considering the different illnesses he's had the past few weeks, but I'd guess when we get our 9 month check up that he's at most in the 50th percentile - Prove me wrong Ben!

I look forward to the next round of sickness he brings home in a week or two - Yippee!

Click on the pic for a slideshow

7 Month Mark!

Yep - Ben hit 7 months just before Christmas. He's having a blast lately rolling around and playing on the floor although after a bit it leads to frustration that he can't crawl. Still thinking we're pretty close to that milestone since he will get up on all fours and lung forward. Ben is definitely a mover and has a ton of energy. I have a feeling once he's mobile we won't be able to keep up with him, but at least for now all the movement is stuck to rolling or pushing himself backwards. You can only get so far that way (luckily for me).

Click on the pic for a slideshow of the last month.



Merry (early) Christmas to everyone ! We get to spend it with my family so I know Ben will be excited to see all his cousins!

6 Months Old!!

Ben is 6 months old!!! Yippee! Click on the pic for a slideshow of the past month.



And just think he started out like this 5 months ago...


He's growing so fast I can't believe it. He can sit on his own and is even hinting at the beginning of crawling by getting on all fours and rocking a little, but I think we're still a little ways off from the actual movement. Guess I should think about baby proofing in the next few months.

He loves eating solids and most are really easy to make, but apparently my applesauce is like poison and he refuses to eat it. Instead he would rather have processed applesauce made by the one and only gerber. Who knew?!

5 Months Old - Yeah!!!

I apologize it's been a little while, but things have been super busy around here lately. This past weekend Ben was sick with a fever and ear infection possibly, although that went away the next day so we weren't too concerned. He still has a stuffy nose and he has since past this nice bug onto his dad so now I have two sick boys. Wonder when I'll get it....

The weekend before my dad came to visit and stayed with Ben and I when Brian was out of town. Ben loved his Papa time!!! In fact, the night my dad was gone Ben was much more fussy - I think he was a little spoiled :)

Anyway, Ben is officially 5 months old and doing well. He has sort of mastered the art of sleeping on his stomach. He loves to sleep that way and normally he is out when he does, but sometimes when he wakes up with his butt in the air he doesn't like it. Luckily he's getting over that and sleeping better again. Plus he's so cute when he's sleeping like that with his knees tucked under him. (I know - I'm biased)

We've also started giving him rice cereal and he has mastered the art of eating it. In fact, he enjoys it and laughs the whole time. It's very entertaining!! He's also now reflux free!!! No more drugs - yeah! Although the last month he was on zantac he didn't mind the taste of it, it appears that us pinching his cheeks was the real culprit for his screaming. Oops. We'll learn this parenting thing eventually.

Here are some pics of the past month - click on the pic below for the slideshow.

4 Months

Ben's hit the 4 month milestone quicker than I'd thought. Sorry I'm a day late and my posting has slowed down so much, but it's been busy around here with work, studying, baptism prep and MRIs. Yep, Ben is still a pain in my behind, literally.

So to play catch up he's....(deep breath)...grabbing toys, making lots of interesting sounds, sucking his hand and thumb at times, watches football, making monkey faces, rolling over both ways, and laughing (especially when Brian does the theme from Monday Night Football).

He had his checkup today and basically he's average. He weighs in at a whopping 15 lbs 1.5 ozs (55%), 25" long (50%), and head circumference is 16-3/8" (40%). So he has a small head like Brian and I.

Here are some pics from the last month - click the pic for a slide show and there's a video below of just him lounging around.

3 Months Already!

It's hard to believe that my little man is growing up so fast. Click on the pic for a slideshow.

Ben is 2 Months Old!!

Ben has finally hit the 2 month mark!! It really has been going by so fast. He is definitely smiling at us and can recognize our voices. He is so close to laughing, but hasn't quite let out a good giggle yet so we're still working on that. He can focus on objects farther away and loves to look at himself in the mirror along with starting to be fascinated with the tv. Looks like we may have to limit his tv watching time (although the baby einstein vidoes are really a lifesaver for my shower time - even though they creep me out a bit)! Ben is still rolling over from his stomach to his back and can roll to his side from his back, but he hasn't quite made the leap to roll all the way to his stomach yet. I'll be sad when that day comes as I won't be able to place him in the many unsafe places I currently do if he was rolling off his back! He's getting with nighttime and is generally only waking up once to eat although he still has his rough nights where he'll want to be up for a bit instead of sleep.


We went to the doc today and he got his shots :( It's too bad you can't warn the poor kid what he's in for or he can't eat a lollipop when it's over, but he made do without too much fuss. He was asleep when they came in with the needles which made for instant cry when he was awoken to three shots! He stopped though once I picked him up. He is currently 12 pounds and 60th percentile along with 23-1/2" long which is 75th percentile.



I didn't take quite as many pics this month as I did last month and since there are more posts with pictures of his adventures on the blog there aren't as many pics in the slide show, but click on the pic for a few from this past month.

St. Louis Visit

Ben took his first trip and of course it was to the stl. He did great on the car ride both there and back with only one stop for some food. We had a fun filled weekend with his cousins and the grandparents. A huge thanks is deserved for my dad for taking the night shift for three nights in a row!! Brian and I enjoyed sleeping a whole night through (although we were each up out of habit just to check that he wasn't a demon for my dad).

On Sunday we went to my grandma's (Momo) house for her annual BBQ and extreme croquet tournament. The ribs were great, the game was entertaining and the company was the best. Ben was a good boy and enjoyed all the attention. How couldn't a kid enjoy being passed around and getting constant attention for 6 hours?! He also got to meet my cousin's new little one, Lily, that is only 4 days younger than him. She's adorable and has some of the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen! It's amazing how quickly all the cousins are growing up each time I go back for a visit - they're getting so big! I can't wait for Ben to be walking to be able to play with them.

Click on the pic for a slide show from the BBQ.

Ben's 1 Month Old!!

Well although I thought that time was moving slowing, I was way off! I can't believe he is already one month old! Click on the pic for some additional photos - enjoy!

More pics

Just wanted to add some more pics to share. Click on the pic below for the slideshow. Enjoy!

Welcome Benjamin Daniel!

Benjamin Daniel was born May 21, 2009, at 5:02pm. He weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz and was 19-3/4 inches long. He has big, bright eyes when he's awake, but he's started to hit a sleep como lately. Here are some pics and I'll post more later as I'm sure I'll have plenty more!