Cruising...a little

Benjamin is pulling himself up all the time now. He is starting to walk, just a little bit, while holding onto furniture, toys, and us. He's really tentative with this walker...he holds onto the handle, leans forward, and then right before he falls, he takes a couple tiny steps forward.

He loves standing at his jumper. The jumper is not always loaded down with playmats and blankets, by the way.

I can't even guess what he was eating here...but I think it was table food, and he really liked it. The spoon he is holding was supposed to be his play spoon. I think. Or maybe he grabbed the regular spoon from Mike.

As soon as Benjamin saw that Mike was eating something, he raced over and stood up to get his share. Apparently he likes bagels (without the cream cheese).

Ugh. He is forever turning the volume all the way up on the DVD player. Here he is watching Baby Einstein (he especially likes the babies on these videos). He often tries to watch his videos this way, smack up against the entertainment center. Yesterday I found him with his hand in the VCR.

Our friends Jessica & Eric moved to D.C. this week for new jobs. We had them over for dinner right before they left. Eric is a wonder with babies. But Benjamin is a tough nut to crack at first...hence the staring contest.

He gave in pretty quick.

He had his first meatball that night, which he gobbled up. And Jessica & Eric got quite the show: Benjamin eating spaghetti while sucking his pacifier. We are trying to slowly decrease the amount of time he has his pacifier during the day. He does not usually have it during dinner.

This whole standing phase has led to some changes around the house. For one, we have two glass-topped side tables in the living room. He tried to pull himself up by putting his weight on one of the glass tops. That table got moved out of the room immediately. He hasn't gone near the other table yet, but it's just a matter of time, so we bit the bullet and bought a solid wood one today. Not sure what I'm going to do with the old ones yet...I hate to get rid of them because my grandfather made them & they've been in the family for so long. But with the recession, I'm sure someone could put them to good use. We just put up our Christmas tree yesterday (still undecorated) so I'll be bringing our old artificial one to Goodwill. Over the last few months I've been trying to declutter & donate what I don't need. The staff at Goodwill is starting to recognize Benjamin!