Look who's walking now!

Where Natalie approached milestones like a bull in a china shop, Ben comes at them in a more roundabout way.  Flirting with them for a week or more before taking the plunge.  Crawl a little?  Not so much.  Take some steps?  Sure, but look at how well I still crawl.  Walking can wait.  He is definitely a kid who likes to take his time.  No need to rush.  But two days ago he decided enough was enough, and a walking he went...

I kid you not, he went from taking 6-8 fairly unsteady steps to doing that!  And then, yesterday...look out.  He's all over the place.  Practicing his turning, stopping, going for changes from hardwood to carpet and back, and twice he was able to stand all the way up from the middle of the floor on his own!  Big time.

The second video is day 2 (last night).  It's a little bit long, but funny.  He had a little trouble getting started and kept going back to the same place to start over.  And the wave and the end.  That's Mr. Congeniality.

(P.S. How great is the shirtless look?!  In addition to discovering the world of walking, he also discovered gagging himself, and puked on his shirt shortly after dinner.  Way too close to bath time for a wardrobe change, so he got to show off his physique.)

Good job, Ben!  We're so proud of you!

Happy birthday, Dada!

Monday we celebrated Dada's birthday.  It was a low-key celebration, just the way the birthday boy wanted it!  We had a nice dinner, presents, and cake.  The kids were pretty excited, mostly about the cake.

With both of them having birthdays yet this year, they got some pretty good pointers on unwrapping goodies, blowing out candles, and EATING CAKE!!

Helping blow out candles

Look at Ben watching Natalie get to pull out candles and lick off frosting.

Ben: 11 Months

Yesterday marked Ben's 11 months birthday.  We are in full party-planning mode.  Invitations have been sent.  I say this every month, but I am having a hard time coming to grips with how quickly the past year has gone.  Even faster than Natalie's first year.

At 11 months old, Ben has 6 teeth.  He says "mama," "dada," "ma" in reference to his bottle (though I'm not totally sure why), and lots of other babbles but nothing else really consistent yet.  He continues to be a picky eater, vacillating between preferring baby food and solids.  He has taken quite a liking to blueberries, bananas, strawberry yogurt, and grilled cheese.  Atta boy!

Though he continues to try very hard, he's still not a full-fledged walker.  He seemed more motivated about a week ago, and now is fairly content to just crawl, though he will still attempt a few steps.  I think he has two bottom teeth coming in, and that is the cause for him being a little thrown off.  Did I mention he's back to waking up one to two times a night?

one week

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

nine months

ten months

eleven months!

(I know better than to attempt pictures when kids need naps, but I went ahead anyway, and was not met with full cooperation...)

but Dada got big smiles!

Ben's been doing this tongue thing for a couple of weeks.  I can't really figure it out.  I'm hoping it's related to the teeth he has coming in, and will stop soon.  In addition to looking like a goof, I'm actually more afraid that if he falls he's going to do a number on his tongue if he bites it.

serious cheesin'

The Beginning of the End

We are THIS CLOSE to having two walkers in our house.  For the past two weeks Ben has been trying his hardest to steady himself on those tree trunk legs, and is taking a few wobbly steps in between Eric and I sitting on the floor.  In the past two days though, his balance has improved so that he can now stand on his own for 20-30 seconds at a time, he can take a couple of steps then stop and stand still then take another step or two, and he is confident enough to take off on his own towards a toy (or that chair way across the room!).  Last night I counted 10 steps as his longest walk before he went crashing down.  Check it out:

I am thrilled that our little (big) guy is on the move.  He's going to be so much happier because he'll really be able to keep up with the big kids.  And, of course, how proud we are of him.  I can so clearly remember being miserable at this time last year, can recall him being born like it was yesterday (seriously that was 11 months ago?!).  Where has the time gone?  But, of course, with every new thing Ben can do that moves him towards big kid status and away from being a baby, I feel a little pang of sadness that I didn't feel with Natalie.  I feel fairly certain that the reason for that is that we knew we'd have more kids so when Nat was doing all this exciting stuff, in the back of my mind I knew we'd be going through it all again.  This time around, while the decision isn't 100%, it feels like this might be the end of baby stuff.  Does that little pang outweigh the prospect of another year+ of sleeplessness?  I suppose that's yet to be seen...

We learned a new game at our house!  Hide and seek.  Last night Natalie decided we should play.  And so we did.  She "hid."  Which is to say that she went into the hallway, faced the wall and stood there very still, but giggling uncontrollably, while Ben and I pretended not to see her and made a big production out of looking in all the actual places she could have hid.  It was a riot.  Ben played the part marvelously, and shrieked with delight when we "found" her in the hallway.  After three rounds of that, with her hiding in the same spot every time, it was time for me and Ben to hide.  At first I thought I should pick an actual hiding spot, behind a chair or something not too challenging.  Then I decided that we should play Natalie's game, so Ben and I picked a corner and stood facing the wall there.  Natalie walked by us, pretending not to see, walked around the house once, then (amazingly) found us!  She was so pleased with herself, and again Ben shrieked at being found!  It was pretty cute, and a good reminder that even though my babies seem to be growing at warp speed, they still want and need me.

I Want Candy

This afternoon we had a few errands to run.  My entire adult life I've spent silently hating those shopping carts at the grocery with the little cars attached to the front.  I'm not entirely sure why.  Clearly I didn't understand their necessity or effectiveness before I had kids of my own.  My obsessive compulsive/germ phobic self hates them for being hotbeds of sickness.  It's not necessarily important the reason for my loathing.  The point that I was driving at was that I never pointed them out or suggested them to my own kids.  But, of course, Natalie discovered their existence on her own.  Through observation of all the other kids getting to ride in them during grocery shopping trips.  And, recently, she boldly asked me if she, too, could ride in one next time we went to the grocery.

I obliged.  Hands can be washed.  And, if it occupies her, then one less thing I have to tend to while in the store.  She is adorable in it.  She buckles herself in.  She waves at other patrons.  She honks the horn and steers the wheel as hard as she can.  So, this afternoon, when we stopped in the grocery store, she selected a nice red model, climbed in, and away we went.  The trouble started at check out.  Ben had enough.  He was melting down.  Eric disappeared back into the store in search of an item we had forgotten.  I was alone with the kids, one of whom was screaming.  I plucked him from the cart and was putting our haul on the conveyer as fast as I could.  Natalie was strapped into the car, so I figured I could use a little less of my attention on her in order to get out of there as quickly as possible.  Fast forward 6 minutes.  Reunited and loading groceries into the car, I glanced at Natalie, still in her red ride.  I said, "What is she eating?"  She had asked me for her fruit snacks a few times in the store, but she had left them in the car, and since she hadn't gotten out since our arrival in the parking lot I knew she didn't have her fruit snacks.  Eric investigated and held up...

a pack of Rolos!  She snatched them while she was parked in the checkout lane.  And she was shoving them in her mouth just as fast as she could get them out of the package.  There was gold tin foil all over the seat of her car, and part of the packaging was actually crushed by her trying to get more out.  A talk about stealing things followed, as much as you can explain that to a 2.5 year old.  And Eric returned into the store with the half-eaten pack of candy to pay for it.  I was less horrified than I thought I would be when I had played out this inevitable scenario in my mind.  She was upset, but the offering of a proper lunch quickly righted her, and we were on our way.  

In Ben news....he's been just a shade under the weather all weekend.  He's been running a low grade fever off and on since Friday.  I'm not sure if he's caught some sort of virus, or if he's working on new teeth, but he's definitely not been feeling tip top, and he has been more than willing to let us know it.  

This morning he woke up, but was still really sleepy, so caught a few extra zzz's in bed with dada while I went for a run.

Oh, and did I mention our boy is starting to take some steps?  He is walking back and forth between us sitting on the floor.  Last night he strung together 5 steps before he fell forward.  And by today, his balance had greatly improved, along with his confidence.  He was taking off from the safety of a chair or a table and trying to make it a few steps on his own to another piece of furniture.  Won't be long now!