A Day with Ben

I've learned that part of being the second kid is that you get a lot less one-on-one time with mama than your older sibling.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty about that.  Natalie got so much undivided attention, and Ben gets almost none.  Since he doesn't know any differently, I know he doesn't mind, and all the love and affection his sister showers on him more than makes up for it.  Yesterday, however, we had the chance for some quality Ben and Mama time.

We had some errands to run, and Natalie was being a real turd about getting ready and going.  On a whim, I asked her Mimi if she had a couple of hours to spare to play with Natalie.  She did!  That more than thrilled Nat, and Ben and I were on our own for the afternoon.  He accompanied me to the store, hammed it up with the sales tech at Verizon, and waited quasi-patiently while I selected fabric for a sewing project.  We picked up Nat on our way home.  She was exhausted from playing and went immediately to her room for a nap.  More Ben time!

We played, read books, took turns chasing each other in circles around the coffee table (my knees were thanking me for that later!), and then Ben played quietly by himself for a few minutes--Natalie NEVER did this, and it always amazes me that Ben so willingly does it.  His current favorite toy is a small solid yellow wooden ball.  He looks at it, turns it over in his hands, passes it back and forth from hand to hand, tosses it on the floor then crawls after it.

After Nat's nap, she was already scheduled to have a sleepover at Mimi's house, so off she went...leaving more time for Ben and Mama (and now dada was home, too).  Ben got a long bath, a long bedtime story, and he was out....from 9:45 until 5:50 this morning!  He ate around 6:00 and fell back asleep until 8:30.  I felt guilty about being in bed past 7:00, but decided this opportunity might not present itself again for another 2 years, and stayed in bed until Ben woke up.  Today I feel like I could leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Ben has gotten to be an expert crawler.  And not he "speed crawls."  He seriously goes into hyper mode and can get across the room fast.  It cracks me up, and it always cracks Natalie up.  

bath time

It was funny to see Ben in the big tub by himself.  He's always been in with Nat since he's been big enough to sit up safely in there.  Last night he was a little puzzled about the whole thing, but was digging all the freedom and the access to ALL the toys.

Ben is my serious baby...

...but his smile seriously lights up the room.

and don't even get me started on his belly laugh!

He is all over the place now, and very good at pulling up on everything.  He's even started to cruise along some of the furniture.  One of my very favorite baby phases.

and speaking of favorites...

this is one of my favorite pictures of Ben!

I just told him his sister was on her way home.

Kidding!  I'm not actually sure why he was crying here...probably because I wouldn't let him pull my hair, which he is very good at.  He now has 4 full teeth: the bottom two, the top right and the one next to it (odd that he didn't get the two front top, but whatever, the next top front is almost through followed by the one to the left of it).  Fingers crossed that when they are in his biting comes to a halt.