Yesterday's Videos!

Hi everyone,

If you subscribe to new posts by email, you may have had trouble viewing the video of Ben walking. Be sure to click on the name of the post in the email to go to the actual blog website (http://arealbaby.blogspot.com) - you can't watch the videos from email. I should have mentioned that!!

Enjoy!
Julia

We've got a WALKER!!!

It's official ~ Ben can walk!!! It's as if a switch was flipped overnight, and he's suddenly doing much more than just a few tiny, unsteady steps here and there. Tons of times today, he walked REAL distances just as strong and proud as he could be! You could tell he was really excited about his new skill and loved our claps and praises everytime he walked. This is so fun and exciting for us, and at the same time yet another reminder that our baby is growing up too fast...

Check out Mr. Mobile!!

Baby's First Haircut

Sadly, last week it was finally time for Ben to get his first haircut. "Cut" really isn't the best word, since the Ziplock of "locks" the girl gave me when she was finished appeared EMPTY until I squinted a saw a few fine baby hairs! Trim better describes it, and he needed it because he kept pawing at his ears (making us think over and over he was getting an ear infection), and just looking scraggily in general. Especially in the wind. Case in point:So, in we went with a happy baby....

Sitting on Mama's lap, wondering Who Is This Chick?! (She does Mark's hair and is super sweet!)

Not bad...still distractable by Daddy with a bag full of toys! He's sitting on my lap, so I have a bird's eye view and unfortunately I can see that he's being SUCH a wiggleworn, VERY little hair is being trimmed at this point (in the interest of keeping his ears intact ~ ha!)Now this is starting to get a bit worrisome, apparently. The wad of lunchtime banana dried in his hair behind the ears isn't helping matters, either. I could sense a meltdown coming soon......so, out comes the paci. You know it's getting bad when the paci makes an appearance midday!Whew! All done! Whether you can really tell or not, his hair did look much more polished, especially in the back and neck area. Good job, Ben! (I hope it's a looooooong time before we need to do that again ;)

Back to the Grind....

Well, my 9.5 months of stay-at-home-mommy-bliss was up a few weeks ago. Since going back to work full time, things tend to be a little more crazy around here lately! We're starting to get in a groove, though, and Ben's doing great at Grandmama's during the day. Here's how his day goes:

up at 6:30 (or earlier some days...Ben, why such an early bird?!)

bottle 7:00 (6 oz)

breakfast 8:15

nap 9:30 for 1.5 hrs

bottle 11:00

lunch 12:00

nap 1:30 or 2:00 for 1 hr

bottle 3:00

dinner 5:00

bath

bottle 7:00

bed

So what else have we been up to? We celebrated Mama's birthday - not surprisingly, Ben managed to thwart and impress us with his lightning-speed hands and grabbed a handful of icing when no one was looking!

We've been to baseball games,

"Lake Day"...

Lots of playing with with big brother Mason...

and big brother Chandler!

Ben's learning a TON here lately, too....just in the past few weeks, he's started babbling "la la", "ga ga", and "da da"!! He's got the sweetest little voice that I love hearing, and although he doesn't talk ALL the time, when he does, you can tell he's enjoying himself!

He's also learned the meaning of lots of words: in, out, on - with these he can put things IN, like in a trash can, or help me put little pieces of laundry in the dryer (so cute!). At this point, he knows that "No" isn't something he wants to hear, but hasn't quite grasped yet that we mean business when we say it. He's pushing his little push toys everywhere, clapping occasionally, and can stand on his own for a second or two when he wants to (or in most cases, when it happens by accident). My baby will be walking in no time ~ I can't believe it!!

Ben's favorite thing to do at Lake Day: play in the dog bowls. Add leftover slobbery dog water = BONUS!