My, my, my how our little man is growing up! Benjamin is changing right before our eyes in amazing, wonderful ways. He is starting to make babbling noises, he's responding to his name, he puts his arms out when I come to pick him up, he is grabbing his feet and rolling side to side (looks like he is on the verge of rolling from back to stomach), he is standing assisted more than ever, and even tries to make little step movements with his feet when he's standing. He is starting to show signs that he wants to crawl, and has his legs and his butt ready, but not his arms yet. He has been eating his rice cereal like a champ for a couple weeks now, and we are getting ready to introduce veggies and fruits too. He takes three naps during the day (8am-10am, 11:30am-12:30pm, and 2-4pm) and sleeps through the night (6:30pm-7am). This has become more consistent over the past month but especially got better once he started solids. The tooth that started to come out around 3.5 months disappeared back under his gumline, so we still get to see Ben's sweet, gummy smile for a while longer! His hair seems to be getting lighter with more flecks of blond hairs coming in. His eyes are still blue, but sometimes have kind of a steely gray-blue to them, with flecks of hazel near the middle. Kind of reminds me of my bro Colin's eyes, at least for now. Apparently his eye color can continue to change for the first year or even later, so we shall see :) He loves peekaboo, reading "I Love You Through and Through", his jumperoo, and is ticklish under his neck, on his belly, and his upper thighs. Benjamin just started moving objects from one hand to the other. He has also started to "anticipate" things, like he will start giggling before my tickle fingers actually touch him because he knows the game. OH and I am finally ready to say for the record that Ben may be left-handed!!! Jeff has thought so since almost Day 1, as Ben's left hand seemed to be dominant. I thought maybe it was just a fluke, but not anymore. He definitely uses his left hand way more than his right :) We'll see if it stays that way ...
Ben is really trying out new noises lately. In just the past few days, we have noticed a huge difference in the amount of ooooing, coooing and goooing he is doooooing ;) He loves this game Daddy plays with him and the video gives a good example of Ben's sweet little voice at 5 months old.
Ben and I joined Jeff on a work trip down to San Antonio last week. We had a great time together as a family, exploring the Riverwalk and the Alamo. It was HOT - in the 90's - but there was a nice breeze which kept it bearable. This was our first time in a hotel with Ben, and it went really well. He was such a great baby, going with the flow amidst all the travel, changes to schedule, sleeping in new places, etc. The hotel room was like the size of one in NYC - I didn't realize San Antonio real estate was that valuable that hotel rooms are like half the size of normal. We definitely learned some things like - when possible - it would be nice to be in a bigger hotel room, suite or some place that has a way to close off the noise and lights for the baby to sleep. We wanted Ben to have some semblance of normalcy, so we tried to keep it dark and quiet for naps during the day and bedtime around 7pm. We used headphones and laptops while he slept.
Ben got to be directly in his stroller for the first time (without being in his infant car seat for extra support) and he LOVED it - he looked like such a big boy. He was facing out looking around at things as we strolled the Riverwalk, and he kept saying hooooo hooooo hooooo. It was like we brought an owl along with us. I think he was trying to communicate his excitement at all the new stuff he was experiencing. So cute.
Here he is kicking back in his stroller. He knows how to relax.
Here we are at the Alamo and on the Riverwalk.
We also got to stop in and see Nana and Grandpa on the way down and the way back which was awesome! They watched Kodi for us while we were in San Antonio, and I don't think Kodi wanted to leave :) He had so much fun there. Chris and Shannon came over too, so we got to see Sophia, who is one month old already! She is so precious and sweet, we love her!! Here is Nana Pat with both grandkids - what a great sight :)
Lately, Ben has been watching us like a hawk in everything we do. His latest party trick is that whenever we bring a cup to our mouth to drink, he reaches for it with both hands, opens his mouth and leans his head toward the glass. When we offer him the cup, he wraps both hands around it and brings it to his mouth.
He is at an age now where he can start to have water or the Dr. suggested diluted apple juice to help with "regularity", so instead of putting it into a bottle, we are taking a cue from Ben and letting him start to learn to drink from a sippy cup. As you can see, he was pretty excited!!!
And although the cup was about half the size of him, he picked it right up and loves it! Not sure much of the drink is getting in him yet, but he has had a great start learning this new skill :)
The last few days, it seems like Ben has been turning a corner, acting and engaging with us more like another person. He makes noises intentionally ... making a noise, then looking to us for a reaction ... so he's figuring out how to get our attention with his communication. He is also advancing with regard to his visual perception of the world around him. If the wind is blowing outside, he will look past me to watch the trees blowing in the wind. If Kodi walks into/through the room, he watches him the whole way, even if it means pivoting his body around to see it all.
Ben is also starting to show signs of independence, like grabbing the spoon I was feeding him with so he can do it himself. Or taking his pacifier and putting it back in his mouth on his own. It's funny, because it seems like these progressions are clustered ... we'll go for a while seemingly on cruise control, and then all of a sudden, Ben has an accelerated burst of development - I love it!!!
I kid you not, last night I was reading a book to Ben and he started turning the pages all by himself! I had just finished reading the book when he reached his hand out towards it. Thinking maybe he wanted to turn a page, I separated one page from the previous one about an inch, and sure enough, he put his hand on the edge of the page and pushed it forward until it rested on the other side! We celebrated this feat with much fanfare, excitement and encouragement. But I thought it must be a fluke because it wasn't even on my radar that he might have already learned how to do this, so I tilted another page open, and sure enough, he reached his hand over to the backside of the page and pushed it all the way to the other side of the book. He repeated this over and over til we got through the entire book ... about 15 pages! I didn't have a camera or any witnesses, but tonight I would like for Jeff to film us to see if we can recreate this amazing sight!
1. Sure it's nice to be celebrated, but I've only been at this 4.5 months - shouldn't there be some sort of extra celebration for my mom, my mother-in-law, and all the other moms out there who have been at this a lot longer?!? I know how much of myself I have already given to this precious child of mine, and I look forward to adding to that over time. It's just a new level of appreciation I have for my mom, grandmothers and all the moms out there that have put their children's needs ahead of their own for years on end. There are a lot of "Happy First Mother's Day" cards out there, but maybe the greeting card manufacturers should make other milestone Mother's Day cards ... Happy 10th/25th/50th Mother's Day ... because IMHO those should be even bigger celebrations!
2. Overwhelming gratitude to my son Benjamin for the privilege of being his Mom. Without him, I wouldn't have a reason to celebrate this day (OK, I know it's a chicken or the egg thing, but work with me...) Jeff did extra special things and gave me some very thoughtful things, but we both agree that the greatest Mother's Day gift of all was already here with us, and he was Heaven sent.
At our four-month well visit with the Pediatrician, he mentioned that we should look for signs that Benjamin is ready to start solid foods. The signs would be waking early from naps, having trouble sleeping as much as he had been during the night, and seeming hungry after finishing nursing. In the last few days, all those things started happening. That, coupled with the fact that he is able to sit up and hold his head up, and is showing lots of interest in Mommy and Daddy's food led us to the decision to introduce solids into his diet. I plan to continue nursing Ben through his first year of life, but we'll start to add solid foods slowly over the next few months. I also plan to make most of his food myself. We'll start with rice cereal, and after a few weeks will move to green and yellow veggies, followed by some fruits. That should get us through and beyond six months. I haven't though past that yet, although I do believe by the end of the year, he will be eating small portions of our table food - wow! That is going to get here fast! I am going to enjoy the pure and simple goodness of this pureed food stage and not let the mess get me stressed! (I think that may just become my mantra because it looks like it will be getting messy folks!)
Here is a video of Ben trying out solids for the first time. Both mom and baby need to get used to the spoon and the overall process, but I would definitely give Ben an A+ for effort on this first go-round :)
As a side note, after we thought we were done and took him out of his seat, he was staring the bowl down and reaching for it, so we put some more on the spoon, and Ben opened his mouth wide and did a head-lunge straight for it! He was learning already :) And THEN on our second day of solids, I had the spoon resting in the bowl on Ben's tray while I cleaned up some cereal from around us, and Ben reached out, grabbed hold of the spoon and brought it to his mouth! I just about fainted I was so shocked and of course completed excited and proud. I could not believe he was already trying to do it on his own after only one feeding session. (Keeping my motherly pride in check and lest you think I brag too much, I will admit that the coordination was off and he didn't get the front of the spoon into his mouth ... he doesn't have those fine motor skills down at this point.) Maybe this is totally normal, but I certainly didn't expect him to pick up on it this soon.
Yesterday, Ben rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time! He has done it a few times since, and here's one we caught on video :)
It is so neat to see him becoming more mobile ... this is the first time he has been able to exert his will to literally move his body from one place to another (if you don't count his spinning tactics in the crib). It's a little thing, but yet it's huge when I think about how the rest of his life will be filled with times where he decides he wants to do something or go somewhere, and so he does. What a special moment to see his first attempts at this sort of independence.
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