Seven Months Old and ON THE MOVE!

Another month has flown by for us! "Little" Ben is growing like a weed and having so much fun doing it! The best way to describe him lately would be BUSY. Busy, busy, busy...he's starting to crawl and just cannot wait to explore every single little thing he can possibly find. No sitting still for this boy...EVER! For the past few weeks, his crawling style has been more like "the worm" - bring the knees up, then belly flop forward and do it all again (grunting allllllll the way because he wants so badly go faster, faster, faster!!) But just today, I was on the phone with Mark at lunch and right before my eyes, he crawled perfectly with his hands and knees about the length of the coffee table ~ how exciting!!!

So what else is new? TEETH! Two of them, actually, and sweet little Ben hardly uttered a peep when he got them. They came through at the end of his sixth month, and I did notice in his fifth month, he was quite fussy for a few weeks. I've read that teething pain can bother babies even six weeks before the teeth cut, so maybe that was why he was fussy. But when they came through, I didn't even know until they'd already popped out! Here's a pic where you can see them...
As I mentioned in my last post, Ben's doing great sitting up. He's gotten good enough to where I don't need to stay by him every second to make sure he doesn't fall over. This new development meant that it was time to lower his crib mattress to the lowest position. He really looked like he could just pop over the edge anytime if he happened to pull up, so Mark took care of that right away :) Over the weekend, he also figured out how to get himself into the sitting position from crawling, so he's much more content now that he's not stuck on his belly all the time. Here he is ~ sitting handsome!

At his 6 month check up, he weighed 17 lbs 2.8 oz , which is in the 50% where he was last visit. I was excited to hear that he was also still in the 90% for height, at 27.5" long. He also got another round of vaccinations as well as seasonal and H1N1 flu shots. Thank goodness, he did very well and didn't even run a fever!

We've moved to eating on a 4 hr schedule finally, and Ben still takes 3 naps a day, going to bed at 7:30. He does sleep though the night, but for some reason wakes up around 5 a.m. every morning. So, I go up and give him the paci and he'll usually sleep until 6:30 or 7:00. My only guess is that even though he INSISTS on sleeping on his belly (no matter how many times we roll him over!), when he wakes up in the morning, he doesn't like it. Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out how to roll from belly to back yet, so he calls for Mama!! That's OK, though....how could I resist a face like this??

*** Love is in the Air!! ***

Last week, April and I had a BALL taking our babes to have their Valentines Day portraits made. Afterall, they ARE Sweethearts!! It was a task requiring monumental effort to get these two rested, fed, dressed and clean and to the mall at the same time of day. Whew! But it was so worth it...the pictures are adorable!

Ben and Sophia's First Valentine's Day

Ben only napped for one hour that morning (of course, on photo shoot day!), so he wasn't big into smiling. And, poor Sophia was sleepy and kept yawning...hee, hee!! They were troopers, though, and we got a few good shots, and had LOTS of good laughs :) Immediately after the shot above, Ben started bucking around on his hands and knees (since he's trying so hard to crawl lately), and there went little Sophia and her cute hat, flopping onto the floor while Ben tried to take off!

So, those are the "keepers". Here are the outtakes:

"Hey, Little Mama...come here, I gotta tell you something!"

"I love you, Sophia!" says Ben. "Hmph. I don't kiss on the first Valentine's Day!!" says Sophia.


And last, but not least....my cutie-pie giving us that precious grin!!!