Fifteen Months Already?!

Wow! Fifteen months old...Ben's looking more like a little boy than a baby every day. I think he looks about TWO in this picture:

At his 15-month check-up, he weighed 23 pounds (25th %-ile) and was 31inches tall (75%-ile). He also had to get MORE shots, including his flu shot....let's hope this winter is as healthy as last year! Ben's tried a few new foods and was actually a great eater....for about 2 weeks. Now he's back to semi-picky: ham, cheese, yogurt, pasta and fruit are still the mainstays of his diet. Oh, and how could I forget Cheerios?!

Sleeping is going still going pretty well. He started waking at 5:30, 5:15 a.m. for a few days and had me worried (soooooo early!), but I think it was just due to some (MORE) teeth coming in. He has 12 now with more on the way. Check 'em out!My "baby" got his first big boo-boo this month when he lost his balance and hit his lip on the open dishwasher :( There was blood everywhere, and we weren't sure at first if his teeth hadn't come through the bottom lip, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. A cold popsicle and crushed ice dried those tears up pretty fast, but it took about 2 weeks for the four gashes on his lip to heal.

Lately, Ben loves trying on our shoes. He will play forever just putting his feet in them or carrying them around. He's also saying a few more words. Uh-oh is a favorite lately (everything's an Uh-Oh!!), and yellow and flower ("Fla-la"). His most-used word is "Up", which means Up, Out, Down, and In right now, ha ha ha! He's also getting good at pointing at body parts. He can point to four or five, with Bellybutton being a favorite that he's trying to say the word for ("Bay bay")....he's got a cute one, for sure!

It's a SIGN!

For months on end now, we have been teaching Ben sign language. It's supposed to help babies communicate sooner and therefore eliminate frustration on everyone's part. Just here in the past month, he has started to use the signs when prompted. He can "say" More, All Done, Milk, Bath, and Eat. Typically, he will use the signs when he grunts or whines and we remind him to sign.

A few days ago, we had a breakthrough, though!!! We were all eating dinner, except Ben because he had eaten earlier since it was going to be a late one. He was running around playing and going in and out of our room (connected to the master bath where he takes a bath every night). He kept peeping out, so we assumed he was playing Peek-A-Boo, and started playing along with him. He then walked right over to Mark (the main bath-giver) and rubbed his tummy (very close to the sign for BATH), right out of the blue! We were so excited and could NOT believe he was using his signs, unprompted, to ask for a bath!! This was also proof to me that he knows "the routine" at night, and likes sticking to it.

Here he is, all cozy in his Halloween jammies after a bath :)

Special Saturday

A week or so ago, Mark went to a UT game with some friends, so Ben and I spent the whole Saturday just hanging out together ~ Mommy and Me Time! It was a rainy day (sorry Mark - not so good for football!), so we stayed in our pajamas 'til after lunch and cuddled a lot....Mama was in heaven!!

What else did we do? Hmmmmm....Ben managed to pour himself some Cheerios while I was looking away for two seconds!

Lately, Ben's been pretty attached to Mama. Here's what I see all the time, as Ben wants me to pick him up constantly!!!

Favorite toy of the day: a leftover cat toy from when I had my cat China. Ben found it in a basket and carried it around all day!! Hey, who needs "real" toys when you've got cat toys and diapers?!

14 Month Roundup!

You may have noticed I'm not posting as frequently as I used to. Being back at work, school starting, and buying a new house have been totally zapping my time and energy!! So, I thought I'd wrap the past two months into one big round-up!

In Ben's 12th month, he got his first two molars and said his first word other than Mama and Dada..."Light!" He says it all the time, and would be content for hours for you to hold him near a light switch and let him just flip away!

Ben got his second haircut, which cut a whole lot more off than the first. He did pretty well once we gave him his all-time favorite toy: Mama's keys. You can see him here "starting up" one of his toys. I love how he'll go around and say, "Brrrrmmmmmmm!!!" to anything and everything - a box, random toys, the fridge - while turning the keys on it!

He also learned how (or got tall enough) to climb up on the couch, coffee table, chairs...you name it, he's a little monkey! This is a bit worrisome for safety reasons, but he is very good at "going backwards", meaning obviously that he will turn around and inch off backwards so he's not plunging off head first. We taught him this at the beach this summer, and made a big deal about how great he was doing, so he does it VERY frequently. It's hilarious to see him turn around, drop to the floor and scoot backwards over a drop of a few inches....so cute!!!

We've been super busy at the new house getting it ready to move in. Ben loves running around all the open space, but hasn't proven to be a very good helper when it comes to painting (HA!) In fact, we were over once when Mark was painting, and even with four of us in the room, he managed to bolt over to the paint tray and dunk both hands before someone got to him!!

At 13 months, Ben got two more 1st molars, and says Up, Out, and All Done. We went on an all day road trip to the "Carpet Capitol of the World!!!!!", Dalton, GA - 9 hours in the car that day, and he did GREAT! He's starting to not want his second nap of the day somtimes, and weighed 21 lb 3.8 oz at our follow-up from his 1 year visit (25%-ile). Daddy taught him to blow bubbles in the bathtub :)

We're down to two bottles a day (morning and night) and drinking from sippy and straw cups. Ben's a pretty picky eater - fruit, pasta, cubed ham, cheese and yogurt are our staples. Sometimes it can get messy around here!!!

Ben is now 14 months old and says "Off" when he turns off the light and says "Bye Bye" and waves really well now. He got his first sickness, a very short (thank GOODNESS!) tummy bug at 1 a.m. one night. He's outgrown most 12 month-sized clothes, wearing 18 months and size 5.5 shoe. He's also started really testing us on whether or not we mean "No." .....

This look can only say one thing: "Am I in trouble??"

Picsee Pics of Ben & Co. ~ 1 Yr Old

Last month, we went in for our last session of our "Sweet Pea" package from Picsee Studio. They've done a great job documenting Ben's first year!! For this last one, we all got in on the fun and got some wonderful family photos...check them out!! If you have time, drop a comment on their blog and we might get a free print!! :)

http://www.thepicseeblog.com/?p=5400

Be sure to check Ben out in picture #2 - what a hoot!

Like Father, Like Son

...and I'm so glad!! (Seriously :)

Monkeying Around

For Ben's first birthday, we had a monkey-themed party. Very fitting since he loves bananas and climbing :)

Here's the birthday boy ~ looking sharp for his party!! The Invitation:

The Party Scene:

I had to show those because seriously, between the banner and the invitations, Mama had a CALLOUS on her finger from the scissors! Ahhhh....the things we do for our babies :)

Other party goods included a monkey cake, TONS of bananas, and 2 TONS of pictures of Ben throughout his first year...some would call it a shrine (ha ha!!). Mark made everyone take a banana home as a party favor because we'd never get around to eating them all.

Also out among the photos was Ben's "Official Baby Book"...the one where you record all the firsts, doctor visits, each month's happenings, etc. I worked on it NONSTOP every night for a week and I think one person actually looked at it ~ Tee Hee!! Oh so worth it, though....having a deadline to finish something is a really good motivator and it may still be hanging over my head otherwise!!

So, we visited with family, ate BBQ, and opened presents. Ben had never opened a present before and he got the hang of it very quickly! This is the first or second one we opened, so he's looking a little perplexed...Then it was onto the good stuff....Let's Eat Cake!!! Right around this time, Ben was getting his 8th and 9th teeth - one of which was a first molar. So, "picky eater" was indeed the case for a few weeks. I made him a banana-flavored cake 1. because it fit the monkey theme, of course! and 2. in hopes he'd enjoy the cake since he'd eaten regular white cake a few times before and not been too interested.

In the end, I do think he enjoyed the cake despite the fact that he didn't actually eat that much of it. After all, what boy doesn't enjoy making a mess??!!

Here's the Before, During and After....Squish! A new "trick" he's been doing lately...Whew! I don't know HOW we got that little booger cleaned up for the rest of the party! Fun times with Daddy...

"I'm ONE!!"

Ben's First Birthday

It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by since my perfect little baby boy entered this world! What a wonderful year it has been (the best year of Mama's whole life!!)...every single day has been so, so special :)

On the morning of his birthday, Mama, Daddy, Mason and Chandler all woke up at the crack of dawn when Ben did and went into his room singing "Happy Birthday To You". He was a little confused at first, but......

"Hey, what's going on here??"

Mason was excited!!Happy Mama!!Ummmm....sleepy Daddy, LOL! Mark stumbled right back to bed as soon as the serinade was over! Oh, and where was Chandler? Behind the camera, of course! He's the MASTER of getting smiles out of Ben!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Mama took off work for the occasion, and we played-played-played all day! Here's Ben modeling his "jeans" diapers and playing Peek-a-Boo with the blinds.
Later that day we went out to Jason's Deli for dinner and to Rita's Italian Ice for dessert. We've all been looking forward to giving Ben a "Rita's" for his birthday. He tried everyone's flavors and his favorite was Wild Black Cherry ~ YUM!

So, we had a really fun day with our sweet baby Ben. Mama got a lump in her throat a few times during the day (and maybe shed a tear or two as I rocked him to sleep that night)....but that's just what mamas do, I guess. And to think: it's only just begun!!

Well, speaking of beginnings, the next day when we woke up, it was time to get the party started!! Stay tuned for pictures of Ben's Monkey Birthday!!!

Ben's a Beach Bum!

A few weeks ago, Ben took his first trip to the beach. We had a really good time at the Isle of Palms with his BFF Sophia (and family) and "Aunt" Michelle...


Here's Ben the day we got there, the very first time he saw the ocean...No Fear!!

Little Man's cheeks kept getting pink as soon as we got to the beach, and I'd put more and more sunscreen on until I realized it was just because he was hot!!

Everyday, Daddy dug him a little pool, and he played for hours in it with his favorite beach toy, an orange-handled net (not pictured - I really can't believe he forgot about it for a minute!). Mason and Chandler were such good playmates!!

On our one and only family bike ride (after dragging 4 bikes, a baby seat and 5 helmets across 3 states!), Chandler's bike broke. I mean BROKE. As in: we left it on the side of the road for the IOP garbage men to pick up because it was "unridable". Poor Mason had to pedal Chandler all the way home!

As you can imagine, this did not go over well or smoothly. But, the worst that happened was that Chandler blew out a flip flop when the bike spokes "ate" it. I'm just glad there wasn't any blood or broken bones.

To confirm our bike ride was indeed a flop, Ben fell asleep on his first bike outing ever. Now don't get too excited, Ben!! Ha ha!! That's saying a lot, too, because he doesn't typically fall asleep in places like strollers, couches, in your arms, etc. Needless to say, that plus the fact that we were drenched in sweat at 8:00 in the morning convinced us not to take anymore bike rides!

Here are two of my favorite pictures of Ben's first beach experience...

Ben was just starting to toddle and it was so fun and special to see him excited about walking out into the ocean!

Friday Funny :)

Ben's favorite thing to do with things he's "done" with....mainly we end up with a lot of food in his collar at mealtimes (he must think it's the equivalent of feeding it to the dog!)...

Two older brothers and a silly daddy's favorite thing to do with two tennis balls and my sweet baby!!!

"Ummmm....I'm not so sure about this, guys!"

Fun Times in the Sunshine

In the past few weeks, Ben has had both his first dip in the kiddie pool and some fun playtime on the Slip-n-Slide....ahhhhh, doesn't that bring back memories?! (Even if they are of bumpy rocks and big tree roots - OUCH! - under that cheap plastic it was made of ~ ha ha!!)

Slip-Slidin' Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!