Friday, January 18, 2008

What Ben's Been Doing In The New Year

Ben has been very busy this new year. There's so much to show you that I made the pictures a little smaller than usual. He'll be 15 weeks old on Tuesday next week, which is getting so close to 4 months. It won't be long before we'll have to get a high chair and start taking lots of pictures of a messy cereal-faced little boy.
He's also started laughing lots. (Sometimes I can't tell the laughing from the crying, though.) He cracked Daddy up the other night. He was sitting in his bebe pod watching Daddy play a video game. The movement on the screen made him cackle and scream loudly, which made Daddy look over. When Ben was finished, he snapped his head around to look at me to see what kind of reaction I'd give him. That's the kind of thing I wish I had on video. (I am trying to get some of him laughing on video to post for you.) Daddy laughed for days just thinking about that.


Ben has been having some floor playtime. Here he's just kickin' around in his jingle shoes.

He enjoys sitting in his bebe pod most of the time. He gets to do this in the evenings while we eat dinner (if he's not already asleep or nursing.)

This is one of his favorite toys. It's his Baby Einstein play gym. Here he's playing with his purple octopus, and probably looking in the mirror at the baby who's also playing with a purple octopus.

He likes to swing, but not as much as he used to. I caught him by surprise when he was playing with his duck and book.

He loves to play with Daddy and chew on things. Daddy's pants leg looks yummy.

Although you can't tell it, he's staring at his mobile here. As long as he doesn't think I'm gonna leave him there to sleep, he loves to look up at Pooh and the gang and coo.

He's sittin in the pod again. I added this picture mainly to emphasize that he "doeth hith own tuntth." (You may need to click the pic for a better look at that joke)

Playin with the octo again. He likes this toy.

His most favorite new toys are his hands. He holds 'em, put's 'em together, waves 'em around, eats 'em.

And sometimes he blows bubbles, too.

He likes to "hang around" with Johnny Jump-up, and he can kill two birds with one stone by gnawing on his hands while he's hangin'.

In the morning, while I check my email (or like now while I'm updating the blog) he sits in his bouncy seat and watches his animals and chews his hands and laughs at me. Just a minute ago he actually grasped that teething ring he's got there and waved it around.

He also occasionally goes shopping with the girls. I don't think it's his favorite pastime, but he doesn't seem to mind it too much, either, as long as he's fed and can sleep some.

This morning he decided he'd play in his crib for a few minutes after his nap. He's getting so strong.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Ben's First Christmas

This was Ben's first Christmas. He was exactly 11 weeks old on Christmas Day. I'm nearly 3 weeks late getting this post up, but that's just Mommy. He got a variety of toys and gifts and is very thankful for all of them. He's played with or used most everything so far. Here are some pictures from Christmas.


This is Ben's Bebe Pod, which Mommy and Daddy got him for Christmas. It helps him learn to sit up.

On Christmas Eve, we tried another photo shoot in front of the curtains. (Notice Daddy's arms.)

Ben is very photogenic, and so cute in hats. Speaking of, Uncle Bob got him his very first Vols hat for Christmas. It doesn't fit yet, but we can't wait. I'll post a picture of it later.

Here's his typical "people's eyebrow" look.

Then he got all Grinchy because he'd had enough of posing for the camera.

The next day, at Aunt Diane's, he was back to his happy self.

Now that I've gotten the "official" Christmas post taken care of, maybe I can get some of the post Christmas stuff up soon. The blog just seems to fall to the back burner pretty often, but hopefully as time goes on, I'll be able to keep up with it better.