Too Excited to Sleep

Mike went to get Benjamin up from his nap one day, and he found Benjamin wide awake (who knows how long he had been like that) and playing with his womb-sounds bear. We often find him playing in the crib at the end of his naps. When he does, he's a happy little guy. We still wrap him from the waist down anytime he sleeps. I recently made the mistake of trying to put him down for a nap as-is, no wrap around his legs. That was an ordeal. Guess he's just not ready for that yet.

Happily entertaining himself in the pack & play, which we set up in the living room sometimes. I can't keep it up all the time because we don't have the room. Plus Calvin loves to scratch the sides.

Since he is still not crawling, he gets around the living room by rolling, rolling, rolling. He sometimes makes his way to the entertainment center...

...and he has discovered how much fun it is to pull the drawer handle. Except that one time I found him pulling it over & over while bumping himself in the head with the drawer...he was crying the whole time. Seriously, when am I going to grow eyes in the back of my head? That's gotta be kicking in any day now.

Gotcha! How'd Horton get under the jumper?! Bumbo seats aren't for elephants. Silly elephant.

Mmmm, elephant.

One of many happy days with Daddy.

Drool comin' at Daddy.

At the beginning of the week, Benjamin had several good nights of sleep in a row, getting up only once, if at all. Then a few nights ago he started getting up at least twice a night. Ugh. He is truly hungry when he wakes up, too. And today he ate more at each feeding than he usually does...just how many growth spurts can one baby have?? Seems like this kid has one every few weeks.

Benjamin has been a busy little bee this week. He came with me & Mike when we went to the base legal office to have our updated wills notarized (fun stuff). He went to Mike's squadron's family "picnic" (it was inside the squadron, so not so much of a picnic). We took him to a friend's house for an after-dinner get-together. He went to an Italian restaurant for a going-away luncheon for one of Mike's co-workers. We had friends over for dinner on Friday, and they have a two-year-old daughter who loved Ben's toys, and even his Bumbo seat! And today Mike let me have a girls day with a friend while he had a baby-bonding afternoon. Boy, did Benjamin get to see a lot of people! Mike's commander even held him at the picnic while Mike & I ate.

Oh, I thought of something Benjamin is as scared of as the vacuum cleaner - when Mike brushes his (own) teeth with a spinning toothbrush. Something about that motor sound... We use a little plastic textured finger brush on Ben's gums and two teeth. He seems to love THAT kind of toothbrushing.

Eight Months Old!

Oops, we passed the eight-month mark a couple of days ago... As you can tell from this picture, changing diapers has been, well, interesting lately. Benjamin likes to roll like an alligator while on the changing table, and he stiffens his arms when we try to change his clothes. Oh, he also likes to turn and smack the wall. Because he can.

Do you see a pattern? Here he rolled himself over Mike's leg. So proud of himself.

It's a good thing Mike has those bendy glasses. Too bad I don't. Mike washes his lenses several times a day now.

Huh, this picture is sideways, oh well... Mike couldn't wait until he's older to introduce him to the ball. Benjamin grabbed it (and gummed it) as soon as he saw it.

Please, Mom? Just one sip. Dad always gets beer and I never get any!

Benjamin's cold is on its way out. He's sleeping much better (well, except for the morning nap he refused to take today). His breathing and hoarseness are getting much better. But that didn't keep him from crying or fussing for most of today. His eating is pretty much back to normal, too. I would love to take him outside more now that he's getting better, but the rain lately has been very erratic - just when the sun comes out and we can see blue sky, there's a huge downpour. I'm grateful for whatever rain we get, though. Poor Mike spent a good part of yesterday and today cleaning up yard debris, including some pretty hefty tree branches that broke off. He even got out the chainsaw today, which made me a little nervous but I had no reason to worry.

I can't remember if I've written about this yet or not... Benjamin is fascinated by our stereo. He loves the colorful flashing display, and he has figured out how to work the volume dial. Of course, he likes turning it up the best. But he has startled himself quite a few times, and once even made himself cry. Lately he is also startled by the vacuum cleaner. He never used to care, but the last couple of times that I put him in the jumper so I could sweep, he started screaming and crying. On the other hand, he now really likes his pack & play. A few times I've set it up in the living room for when I need to do chores & can't risk him rolling all over creation when I turn my back. I put a few toys in there, and he's happy as a clam. For a little while, anyway.

Ben's First Cold

Runny nose and drool. It had to happen eventually. He went almost eight months without catching any bugs. I'm pretty sure he caught something when we went to a child identification program on base last weekend - bazillions of kids in one small auditorium. On Monday afternoon, he seemed a bit out of sorts, just cranky no matter what we did. Then Tuesday he started to show the signs: stuffy nose (which he's never had before), refusing to eat, and a slight fever. Poor kid didn't know what was happening to him.

Feeding him has not been pleasant. It took him a couple days to get used to breathing through his partially obstructed nose. He's not a fan. There was much screaming and thrashing. It was obvious he was hungry & wanted to eat, but every time he got a mouthful of food, he had problems breathing again. Plus I'm pretty sure he has a sore throat...at one point I gave him cold strained carrots right out of the fridge, and we had a little more luck with that. It was a challenge to get him to eat anything yesterday, but he managed some formula & juice late in the day.

When he first showed signs, he was inconsolable. Out of desperation, I started taking pictures of him...that always distracts him, and often gets him to smile if he's miserable. Not sure how well you can see it, but in the picture above he had been crying and still has some tears on his cheeks.

More crying, but trying to smile for the camera.

He finally forgot, for a moment, how bad he felt.

Here are those carrots I was talking about. He insisted on putting his fingers in his mouth while he ate, and normally that would be a no-no, but I was desperate to get him to eat something so I let him do whatever he wanted. Seemed to make him happy for a few minutes.
What a goofball. Trying to chew on his hand AND examine his fingers at the same time.

The first couple of nights that he had a cold were not good for sleeping, for anyone. He screamed anytime he was put in the crib, and there were good two-hour stretches where even holding & rocking him didn't calm him down. In the middle of one night I was so exasperated & out of ideas that he ended up crying himself to sleep...I can't remember that ever happening before. I'm using a warm-mist humidifier in his nursery (as far from the crib as possible) and that works wonders for his daytime naps. We've tried a little baby Vicks on his chest, but I don't know if it's making a difference. His voice started to get a little hoarse last night, but he hasn't been coughing an awful lot. Mike has today off and said he would try to tend to Benjamin last night, so I don't know yet how often he was up, but I slept for seven straight hours. I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened in the last eight months. Right now, they are both sleeping. Aaahhh...

One odd thing this week...I had to run an unexpected errand yesterday morning, and Benjamin had been fussy. But the whole car ride I didn't hear a peep out of him. In the afternoon he was fussy again, so I ran another errand. Again, calmed him right down. Used to be torture to take him anywhere, but he FINALLY likes riding in the car! With super-high gas prices, though, it's a very expensive way to soothe him.

Cuteness & Drool

Sorry about the delay between postings...here are a bunch of pics to make up for it.

Just hangin' out and lookin' cute. He has become fascinated with the knit blankets we have in the living room, and sometimes he tries to put them in his mouth (especially the really fuzzy one).

Nana & Grandpap sent Benjamin a little photo album last week with pictures of our visit with them this summer. Fortunately it's the kind that can be chewed and drooled on.
He spent a long time flipping the pages & looking at the pictures. It probably helped that he was in all the pictures.

This was not the first time he figured out how to flip his playmat. He is really proud of himself over that new skill.

Remember the bathtub turtle, the one Benjamin thinks is a pacifier? Well, the rubber ducky met the same fate. He actually shoved the entire duck head into his mouth, & it's bigger than the turtle head. So big, in fact, that he couldn't get it out by himself.
Well after the bath is over, he is still chewing on the duck's head.

This ring fits much better into his mouth. He flips it up and down, making it hit his chin over and over again.

The only thing he likes better than looking at himself in this mirror is chewing on it.

So it seems I fibbed when I said that I would continue to post pictures of Benjamin trying new foods. This week we gave him barley cereal, and I forgot to get the camera! Trust me, he liked it, and it looks just like oatmeal.

Benjamin's big activity this week has been whacking us on the arms, face, ears, teeth, whatever he can get to when he flails his arms when he's excited. Oh, and he kicks us while we're holding him. We know, of course, that he is not hitting us on purpose. But that is one strong little kid!

Pears & Bedhead

Guess what? He likes pears. Alert the presses. I don't think there's a fruit this kid won't eat. We're noticing that as he eats more foods, he's not chowing down as much on his oatmeal. That's the only cereal we give him since the pediatrician told us to lay off the rice cereal. I think he's suffering from oatmeal overload. Maybe he'll like it with some fruit added in.

It's hard to catch on camera, but Benjamin has been having some pretty bad cases of bedhead when he wakes up - usually first thing in the morning, but sometimes even after a nap. Gee, I wonder how he gets his hair so messed up...
...oh, that's right. It's from the gymnastics that happen in his crib. The days of him pressing himself against the front of the crib are over. Now he goes for the head and the foot, plus he likes to turn himself 180 degrees. This crosswise move is a rarer one, especially since he got his feet up against the aquarium. It's not unusual to hear him holler from his crib because he got himself jammed in a corner & can't get out...and he loses his pacifier in the process. One interesting thing about his naps, though...a lot of times I'll go to check on him when it seems like he should be up, and he's just lying there looking around, or playing with things in the crib. It's nice to know he can play by himself quietly.

Despite my encouragement, he is still nowhere near crawling. It's just so much easier to roll everywhere, I guess. But he will go on his tummy to play with certain toys, like this keyboard. It has two parts: the keys, and the little animals that move up & down & all around when the keys are pressed. The animals are the big draw for him. When they start moving, he grabs them and stops them from moving. I think he's really going to like whack-a-mole in a few years.

Just another cute shot of Benjamin chewing something while being held by Daddy. I think it's funny that he likes to chew on the hard plastic part, since that seems to be the only part NOT intended for teething.

Mike had the brilliant idea of taking this one...this was our first video call with Nana & Grandpap the other day. I like how, in the bottom left corner, Mike can be seen taking the picture while being imaged on the webcam. Benjamin didn't seem to know just what was happening, but Nana sure had a good time talking to him. Hopefully this will be a regular activity so Benjamin will get to see his grandparents & they will feel more involved with him.

More Food, and Other Things to Chew

We weren't sure how Benjamin would react to green beans since peas were met with mixed success: he liked them a bunch at first, less as the days went by. But he took to green beans pretty well. Of course, he likes spraying them all over everything just as much as any other food.

Next up were prunes, his first fruit not counting juice. Or the fruit pop he had a few weeks ago to relieve teething. Or the watermelon Nana let him suck on. Okay, so it was the first strained fruit he's eaten. Apparently he has quite the sweet tooth because he loooved those prunes. I chose prunes because he has such frequent constipation (sorry, future Ben, I won't discuss these things publicly when you're older) but I'm not sure it's made much difference. Oh, for those who are wondering...we follow the four-day rule for foods to make sure he doesn't have any reactions before we try a new food. Also, as long as we have a blog to keep up with, I will continue posting pictures of each and every new food he tries, no matter how boring.

But feet aren't food! He finally figured out how to get his foot in his mouth last week, but it took awhile for me to snap a picture of it. There's just not a flattering way to take a picture of a baby with his leg in the air while biting his own toes.

No, Mr. Sun is not food either. I wish I could take this off the jumper so he could use it as a teether because he chews on it more than any of his teething rings.

Seriously...not food.
Mike decided to introduce Benjamin to the trumpet today. Mike played a few notes very quietly (for a trumpet, anyway). He looked mostly shocked & scared at first...
...then thought it was pretty cool. He did not try to eat the trumpet. Yet.

I have to be honest, I would write more but I am beat. The little guy is going through some weird phase where he wakes up many times during the night; last night it was five times, which he hasn't done for many months. I tried letting him cry for awhile. Yeah, that didn't work, for anyone. Tonight he has already had one major screaming fit and one little one, both in his sleep. It's so frustrating to not know what to do to make him comfortable. He had a very screwed-up nap schedule today, but at least he had some decent stretches of sleep. Here's hoping tonight's a little better than the rest of the week.

Carrots (& Raspberries)

Yep, he's blowing raspberries while eating strained carrots. At least he likes the carrots, the newest food on the menu.
Can't you tell? He really likes carrots.
Peeking through a ring.
I left the laminated paper tag on this jumper, first out of laziness & then because it seems to be Benjamin's favorite toy on the whole thing. I've heard people say that kids will like the box a toy came in better than the toy itself...well, he likes the tags. Tags on stuffed animals, tags on blankets, pretty much anything attached to a toy that is not actually supposed to be part of the toy.
This photo has been a long time coming. Finally, a glimpse of those TEETH! He sure does like using them, especially on Mommy & Daddy's fingers. I'm trying to figure out if he's teething again, because yesterday he refused anything from a bottle several times & was screaming something terrible. I couldn't tell that those bottom teeth were about to come through until right before they popped out.
His shirts have been absolutely soaked with drool this week because he has been intentionally blowing bubbles, and that takes a lot of drool. He doesn't always look this intense about it, though. He vocalizes the whole time he's blowing the bubbles...you'll have to use your imagination.
What a sweetheart. Lovin' on his puppy dog from Aunt Janie. He especially likes it when I make dog noises for the puppy...again, use your imagination. Not gonna happen on this blog.

He's going through some changes with his eating and sleeping routines, meaning I have little idea what to do with him lately. Yesterday he slept in 45 minutes longer than usual, but this morning he woke up early. He took a full two-hour nap this morning, then seemed tired right after lunch but only slept for an hour. And he refuses to eat the amount of formula that I'm pushing on him. If he's not hungry, he will NOT eat. He forcefully pushes the bottle away. In addition to formula, we had been giving him cereal in the morning and strained veggies at lunch. We're going to try adding some more cereal in the evening to see if he'll stop waking in the middle of the night to eat.

Something really cute he's been doing lately has been saying things like "da-da-da-da." What's really sweet is when he whispers it under his breath, to nothing and nobody in particular...just kind of muttering to himself. Oh, and to anyone familar with Mike's clicking habit: Benjamin loves hearing him make clicking noises. Mike is way more amused about that than I am!