The Evening Crazies

There's nothing a like a little winding-down time before bed...

Eleven Months!

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Eleven Months

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Ben is 11 months old! Wow! We don't go to the doctor until 12 months, so we're not sure how big he is exactly, but he's in 12 and 18 month clothes right now. Big kid!

• This boy loves to dance! He wiggles around when we sing, and especially loves a Winnie The Pooh CD he has.

• He is starting to know what things are called! It seems simple, but it's exciting to us! We ask him to go get his yellow ball, sunglasses, book, etc and off he crawls with a big smile on his face on his way to find it!

• He doesn't eat any baby food anymore - just table foods for this kid! I also taught him how to dip his food into things, so now he'll do it with anything - chicken, peas, cheerios, beans... you name it, he dips it! He even feeds himself with his spoon sometimes, and gets really excited when he gets a cheerio or bean stuck on his spoon.

• He's also really good at spilling water all over himself. Sometimes he'll take a few big sips and just spits it right back out!

• He loves playing peek-a-boo and getting chased around the house. He likes when we play with his hands and his feet, and likes to splash in the tub!

• He loves taking the books and DVDs off their shelves. He'll flip through his books and take the DVDs out of their cases... and if you try to put them away, he'll stop whatever he's doing and come back over to take them down again! He especially likes taking down his peek-a-boo book and touch and feel books.

• He's becoming a champion squirmer during diaper changes! He doesn't have time to lay around, there's stuff to climb on, and things to chew!

• He's been chewing everything, and drooling like crazy because he has two more teeth coming in on the bottom! We can see them starting to cut through, but they don't seem to be hurting him.

• He waves bye-bye and (sometimes) hi, in a whole-arm kind of way.

• He suddenly started pointing at everything! His tiny little finger looks so cute doing it!

• He gives the best hugs. Ever. He buries himself in your shoulder or stomach and squeezes with his whole body, and his kisses are just as sweet.

Mango Chicken Surprise!

Ben has been babbling even more lately, and started shaking his head a lot - even though he doesn't actually know that it means "no", it's still fun!

I accidentally covered the mic for a few seconds in the middle when I asked him if he liked mango.

Mornings With Dad

Backin' Up

Whenever there's anything to do with having to "back up", the YouTube song "Backin' Up" always pops into our head! We can't help but sing it when Ben gets stuck with his walker, and it seems like he thinks the song is fun, too!

This is the song for anyone who doesn't know it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIoG4PlEPtY

Box Car

Sick

Ben got his first cold last week and is just about over it now. He had such a stuffy nose and was so tired - he even fell asleep on the couch once, which he never does!

Ten Months!

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Ten Months

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This month's picture brought to you by Cheerios.

To say that Ben is active is an understatement. He is everywhere this month - crawling, cruising, climbing, chewing on something, playing with his toys, laughing, and generally having a great time.

• He started babbling for real and more consistently this month! Lots of bababa dadada mamama, and a bunch of other sounds - it's so much fun to listen to!

• He also has started to refuse being spoon-fed which has gotten... messy (clearly). He's great at picking up finger food, but some things are a little more gooey. For that, he finally started to get the hang of putting his spoon in his own mouth these last few days, though! (pre-loaded with food)

• He's also gotten pretty ticklish! It's fun because he was never ticklish before, so "This Little Piggy" and lots of other games were lost on him. In general, he's been laughing more and more.

  

• We love it when he's in a lovey mood. He'll come over to us and give us a hug, and sometimes plant a big kiss on us!

• He plays peek-a-boo for real now!

• He loves to go swinging in the park - we can't wait until Spring so we can go every day!

Happy 10 months, little boy!

Christmas!

On Thursday morning at 4am we packed up the car and headed to Ohio to spend Christmas with Matt's family!

Ben was such a trooper the whole time. He slept for the first few hours and took a nap around 9am, but other than that he was awake and in a great mood the whole time!

The last time Ben and his cousin Zane were together was when Ben was 3 months old, and Zane was almost 6 months old. They didn't really notice each other much back then, but this time when they met, Ben went straight for a kiss! 

We did so much over the week - we celebrated Zane's first birthday!

We went to Nick's hockey game, and hung out with friends!

Ben was dedicated!

We celebrated Christmas!

And we all got violently ill!

Good thing we don't have pictures of that.

It was a such a great week, though - can't wait to see everyone again soon!

"Walking"

Ben has been using his new walker so much! He loves scooting around on it and making his way toward me and Matt.