11 months!

Our precious baby Benjamin is almost a toddler! He is 11 months old and is growing like a weed. Last time we checked, he was almost 23 pounds. I haven’t yet measured to see how long he is, but I imagine he is close to 30 inches now. We will find out in December at his 12-month checkup. I wanted to get a really good picture for this blog post, but Benjamin has been so sick all week, it proved difficult. Today, he finally felt a little better, and here he is showing off his dance moves. You will notice the music is coming from a card my parents got him months ago that continues to be one of his favorite amusements.

 

Benjamin has been up to a lot this month.

He loves to laugh and jump and play peek-a-boo while hiding in the curtains. He thinks it is hilarious if you crawl after him a sneak peeks around corners. If we ever leave a gate open, he will either crawl to the other side and swing it open and close, or he will make a beeline for the stairs. He has this turbo mode to his crawl that actually is difficult to keep up with if you aren’t paying attention.

Opening and closing doors, cupboards, drawers, books, etc. is a major fascination as are playing with shoe laces, strings, ribbons and anything else that catches his eye…like earrings, necklaces, lace, sequins, Jeremy’s arm hair (ouch!)

Benjamin has a major independent streak, but he also likes for Mommy and Daddy to do some things for him. I was concerned when he wasn’t really holding his bottle, so I asked his babysitter if he holds it at her house. Apparently, he does all the time.At home, he likes to do other things while we hold the bottle…like twirl Mommy’s hair, rub Daddy’s scruffy chin, watch television or just go limp with relaxation. It is pretty precious, since he rarely likes to sit still long enough to cuddle.

Benjamin doesn’t say any words besides the occasional “mum mum mah” and “da da da",” but he chatters all the time and has the funniest noises and expressions. He carries on conversations, even if we have no idea what he is saying. Perhaps he is calling things his own words, and I just haven’t learned them yet. We are trying to teach him a few signs, but so far he makes it clear what he wants without them. Hands raised high means “up please.” Climbing up your leg means “up NOW!” Batting away the spoon and making faces definitely means “I am ALL DONE!” as does throwing food on the floor. (grrr)

Exploring is by far his favorite activity. What is he in search for? Cords, electrical outlets, electric space heaters, dangling objects, paper to eat, lamp poles to tip… basically all dangerous things that keep us on our toes. He also is constantly on the look out for the remote controllers, the mouse and keyboard. He LOVES to play with them more than anything else. For Christmas, his Aunt MB and Uncle David got him a laptop computer that makes music. He likes to groove to this as well as his musical cards.

Here he is Friday when I had to bring him home early from his baby sitter’s house, because he was so sick and miserable. We sat outside in the leaves until his doctor’s appointment. It was 70 degrees and probably the last warm day of Fall…unless we get lucky again. The doctor said he didn’t have an ear infection, but he was wheezing. So, we have been giving him breathing treatments and doing our best to distract him for 10 minutes, so we can put a mask near his mouth and nose. Typically, we can do this for a few minutes by playing videos of Benjamin laughing on Jeremy’s iTouch. Benjamin thinks there is nothing funnier than seeing himself laughing. Who is that hilarious and adorable baby?

You will notice a walker to his left. It is a gift from his Aunt and Uncle…we spent some time with them last weekend. He didn’t show a lot of interest in walking with it – just spinning the toys on the front. So, much to my surprise, when we got home on Sunday I looked up from the e-mail I was typing and he was motoring across the room with it. Of course, It has been nearly impossible to get him to do it again when I have the camera handy.

Here is a video of the closest I could come to getting him to walk. He wasn’t feeling great, so you can tell he is a little bit in a daze.

Benjamin loves to shred paper, empty clothes baskets and knock over blocks…he is a little bulldozer!

Next month will be Benjamin’s second Christmas, and we decided to put up the tree we purchased when I was in labor and walking laps around Target last year. Benjamin thinks the box is the best part and likely will play with it all weekend.

Here he is exploring the branches with Daddy. We are trying to decide if he will leave it alone, or if we will need to gate it. We are starting with the approach of letting him play with it to get it out of his system, and then see if he ignores it.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving when we can put a bunch of yummy food in front of Benjamin to see if he will eat any of it. He still refuses to eat any food with chunks, though we are working on it. He will now eat  Puffs that are crushed into smaller bites, but he still swallows them whole. We are trying to teach him to chew, since he has 10 teeth! His top and bottom left molars have finally popped through. We are waiting on the other side, and then we hope to be finished with teething for a while. He hasn’t caught a break! So, we will keep putting food in front of him and hope he figures it out before he turns 1 and switches off formula!

It is so much fun to see him grow and change. I will try to take more photos this weekend. I have part of the day off tomorrow, and plan to stay home with Benjamin. It has been wonderful this week to spend time with him. Jeremy took Monday off and I took most of Wednesday off. So, Benjamin has had a lot of TLC. Tomorrow night, I have to go to a VERY LONG and likely dull black tie dinner for work, so I am leaving my two favorite guys home to play and get better. Jeremy still has no voice after three days and Benjamin gurgles when he breathes. I am praying my voice holds on, because I have to work Saturday too. I already spent two weeks of this year without a voice, and it is NOT easy to do my job without it.

Until next time…