9 months

Whew! I just finally put Benjamin down for a nap. He started one this morning, but woke up too early due to his loud mama. I'm paying for my mistake, believe me! 

Hmmmm....what has Mr. B. learned this month? The past 2 weeks have been pretty big. When we visited home, Ben had started pulling himself up and cruising a little bit, but now there's no stopping him! He pulls himself up on everything and has had a few spills. One caused a little blood, and another left a smallish goose egg. (And yes, we watch him.) At this point, all we can do is try to remove dangerous items and all obstacles, and then get out of the way. We received some wonderful new toys for Christmas, but unfortunately Ben is not as interested in them as I would like. I think his thoughts go something like this:

 "These toys are nice. Blocks. Hmmm...baby doll....more bl...WHAT!!!!! Someone left a REMOTE CONTROL right here on this TABLE!!!!! Let me see if I can get to it....hmmmm.....WHAT THE!!!!! Did you know that if you MOVE this BOX and scoot under this BENCH, and then MOVE this OTHER box, and then MOVE some more stuff, there are CORDS!!!!! Just RIGHT HERE out in the OPEN!!!! My toys are AWESOME!!!!!"

So,  you get an idea of what our lives are like right now. No actual crawling yet, but Ben will crawl about 4-5 steps and then drop down to his tummy and army crawl. He's getting pretty fast at it, and will drag himself across a room in a flash. Today I saw him stick one of his arms inside his shirt sleeve for some reason, and then drag himself across the kitchen floor with the other arm like he was in a war movie. It was very dramatic. The other day I left him in our little den for about 5 minutes, TOPS, and I heard him making these frantic noises. He always says, "ee-ah, ee-ah" when he's pretty excited about something. He started to get louder so I ran across the house and had to laugh when I saw him. We have a television antenna we aren't using, but had left on top of the tv table. Benjamin had somehow dragged this huge object ( bigger than him) across the room with him, and then tried to pull himself up on the laundry basket. When I got there he was sprawled on the floor holding onto the antenna with a pile of clothes and the clothes basket on top of him. Another comical thing about Ben being able to pull himself up is that can't quite figure out how to put himself down. Most of the time he just falls, and that takes care of it. But sometime I'll glance over and he's holding onto something and looking at me with panic as his legs s-l-o-w-l-y start to spread apart into the splits. I guess he'll figure it out at some point. 

Below are a few pictures from this month. Blogger only lets me post 5 pictures at a time, but I have more I'll post tomorrow.

Ben and his best friend Owen. Don't they look mischievous?

Benjamin had such a great time playing our piano the other night. 

The oven is Mr. B.'s favorite object to pull himself up on. He gets the added bonus of seeing his reflection in the window!

I took this a few weeks ago. He had discovered the swiffer and was doing a little dance. Now it's one his obsessions.

This is his other favorite place in the house. I've since put his measuring cups and other "toys" in the bottom drawer. He usually goes straight for this spot whenever he's in the kitchen.

Ben and the Box

Benjamin was VERY excited about the arrival of this diaper box, and immediately pulled himself up.

He realizes it's the perfect size!

Play play play....

"Wait, how do I get down from here? I haven't learned that yet!"

"This isn't what I had in mind!"

"Maybe this baby will be my friend."

Boomer Sooner!

I just took Ben to Costco in his outfit and we saw a man wearing his Florida gear. Grrrr...they MIGHT win, but Mr. B. still wins the cute contest!

We're back...

...and ready to start the new year. We arrived here on Friday, and on Saturday Joel tilled up a spot in the back yard for the vegetable garden. Yesterday he started his seeds. Joel is really on fire with home projects. Last night he told me he's starting work on the porch this weekend. I said you mean like tiling the floor?! And painting?! Yep, he said. Okay then! Now that recycling station/gardening center/dog headquarters/shoe and coat depository/room with the 20 year old outdoor carpet is actually going to be a sun porch! Does this mean I have to find a spot for all that junk that's been accumulating over the past 2 years?

Sunday night Mr. B and I had a rough time. He woke up at 12:30 to nurse, but was very restless and didn't want to go back to sleep. After a couple of missteps I realized his teeth hurt, and gave him teething tablets. Nothing. Then I tried Oragel. Again....no change. Fast forward to 2:30 AM and me holding a screaming baby having a massive teething attack. He didn't want to nurse, which pretty much meant I was at a loss. Joel walked in a some point and told me to go to bed and he would take care of things. We quickly realized that wasn't going to work. Finally, around 3:30 I remembered I could give Ben some Tylenol (hey, your brain moves slow in the middle of the night!) and that seemed to calm him down enough to sleep. The teething continued all day Monday, and he still doesn't have any new teeth yet!

The following pictures are from our trip to Oklahoma. We had such a great visit with family and friends, and Benjamin LOVED all the attention. His aunts taught him how to kiss and now you can't even say the word or make a *smooch* sound without Mr. B. leaning in for a smackaroo! He also perfected pulling himself up, so now no object safe. Unfortunately, he really wants to practice his pulling up skill on Ladybird and we all know that's not a good idea.

Gotta go....Ben just pulled our phone off the table and is working his way towards the computer cords.....

Christmas

The packing is (almost) done and we're eagerly anticipating Home. I can't wait for REAL conversation, laughing with my sisters, and reunions with beloved friends. Before we leave I wanted to show everyone a glimpse of the first Christmas for our little family. 

TADA! The finished fireplace, with extra greenery trimmed from the bottom of our tree. I think it turned out pretty well. Joel chose the moment right after I had finished painting to say "eh, I've never like the look of painted brick." Too late now! 

The greenery looked a little lonely so I added my Moravian star, and some of my Jonathan Adler figurines. The bird makes sense, but the horse.....not so much. Maybe like "dashing through the snow."??? At the time of this picture I had only three Christmas cards and I was very sad about it. I've since upped that number to eight....not the best, but at least I don't feel like Charlie Brown every time I go to the mailbox.

Dogwood branches from our front yard

The tree! 5 ft. tall and only $20 from Lowes. So many of the ornaments are very meaningful to us. Many of them belonged to Joel's grandparents or were on his childhood tree. I couldn't decide which ornaments I wanted to display the most prominently because I love them all.

He makes THIS Christmas better than any other!

More photos please.

My little sister called and asked for more photos, so here they are Catherine! The adventures of happy Baby Benjamin.

Schedules

Benjamin has lately been been switching his (our) schedule around a bit. For nearly his entire existence, he has taken a morning nap somewhere between 8:30-9:00. Every morning we get up, eat breakfast, and play before Ben settles in for a nice, long rest. During this time I leisurely drink my coffee and get on the internet before doing some housework and taking my shower. It's my time to refuel after the busy morning, and before running errands and doing more chores. This week Benjamin has decided he wants to act sleepy at the same time he always does, but not actually attempt sleep until around 10:15. This, of course, throws off my entire morning. Instead of "getting things done" first thing, I'm in a fight with my baby to see who gets to determine nap time. Then I watch as the clock ticks, realizing I had planned on a certain activity at noon, but I have to push it back. Then realizing that we can't just run out the door as soon as Ben wakes up (usually around 12:30), because I have to feed him lunch. By the time I get him strapped in the car seat and we're running errands, I'm anxious about getting everything done, Ben has been rushed through lunch, and we've both had a rough start to our day. Not to mention that Mr. B. usually starts to get ready for his afternoon nap around 2:30!

I feel bad about this. I tend to get very anxious about things that don't deserve it. I have expectations about what my day should be like, and when they fall through I'm not a pleasant person to be around. It's taken me many years to realize that contrary to what I like to believe, I'm a pretty high maintenance individual. This is a struggle for me. Today I realized that I'm not staying home with my baby to have more "me" time, I'm staying home because the time I spend with my son is invaluable. I mean, this is obvious to most people, but sometimes it's easy for me to get caught up in "OMG! I have to buy stamps today, RIGHT. NOW." No. I don't want to think that way anymore. The most important thing I do today should be taking care of Benjamin and myself in a way that is healthy and happy for both of us. That means moving slowly, being patient, and going through my day in a joyful way. I'll try.