Snack Time

While Ben was watching his favorite DVD (still Praise Baby), I gave him a snack of Apple Cinnamon Puffs in a bowl. I'd never given him food in a bowl before when I wasn't holding the bowl. As you can imagine, a good many of them ended up on the floor, but he looked so cute sitting there watching TV eating from the bowl. He seemed to really like holding the bowl and picking the food up out of it. Of course, tomorrow morning he'll probably try to take the oatmeal bowl from me, and that will be a mess. A mess equal to the one I made at lunch when I spilled a bowl of potato soup in my lap. Luckily, it had cooled by this point.


In December, the question was how many times can I post a picture of Ben in the same green outfit. This month it's how many pictures can I post of Ben "reading." I can't help it. He loves books. The one he is holding is one of his favorites: The Farm Book. He really likes that I make animal sounds for every animal on every page. There is a rooster on nearly every page. Cock-a-doodle-doo! On the page Ben's looking at the rooster may have met his demise: Mother has fried chicken for supper.

Yes, Yes, No

The color is bad on this video because I took it last night in a our living room. The lighting isn't very good in that room. The sound is great though. I'm nodding at Ben and he thinks it's hilarious. Then he tries to nod, which requires full body movement. Then he just shakes his head.

Three Thousand Words

I haven't posted since Sunday, so I decided to play with my camera functions and take a few pictures of Ben. You can see his new tooth in the picture below. He has five now. The third one of the bottom came in this week.


You can't hardly see Ben's face in this picture, but I thought he was so cute under the bed reading The Cat in the Hat, even if the book is upside down. He loves to play under the bed.

Giddyup, Rocky

This is my favorite picture from this evening so I'm putting it in a seperate post so that it will be at the top of the page. I should have corrected the red eye, though.

Question: Should you wear horizontal stripes with cords? That's what Ben's wearing today and I couldn't decide if it was totally wrong or not. John thought he looked very 70s in this outfit.

Is that Daddy?

Ben checking out John's smooth shaved face. John marked the end of deer season by shaving off his beard that he's worn since their hunting trip in Illinois.

Capped

Ben loves taking John's cap off. He thought wearing (and taking off) a cap was pretty funny, too. Ben's Bass Pro cap was way too big a few months ago. Now it fits perfectly.


Ben loves to hang upside down.

Tuned In

Ben watching one of his Cedarmont Kids DVDs yesterday afternoon. John hates these videos because the kids are so obviously lip synching.

Peek-A-Boo obsessed

Ben loves peek-a-boo. Everytime I look at him, he wants to play. I've been trying to get it on video. Here is a short clip.

Big Boy

A few weeks after Ben was born, I went to a children's winter clothes consignment sale. I bought Ben several 12 month outfits. When I brought them home, John laughed at me and told me that there was no way Ben was going to wear those in the next year. Today Ben is wearing 12 month pants and shirt. It's amazing how fast he's grown.

Electifying

A Little Bragging

Look at the loaf of bread I made. I'm very proud of myself. I forgot to take a picture before I cut it.

Blue Eyes, Green Beans

I was trying to take a picture of the green beans in Ben's mouth. I'll put 3 or 4 small green beans on his plate. He'll put them in his mouth and chew and chew and chew. He'll smile and you can see green beans everywhere. You can tell he really doesn't want to swallow them. When he finally does, it's like taking medicine. He closes his eyes and grimaces.

A Round of Applause, Please

Ben learned to clap today. I wasn't trying to teach him. I was singing B-I-N-G-O and clapping my hands while fixing lunch. I noticed that he was trying to make his hands go together so I started clapping more. It was so funny at first because the movement was very, very slow.

Bib?

Ben is really getting into feeding himself. He's a little piggy, though. He wants to eat everything I put in front of him in one handful. Yesterday, my mind seemed to have left me and I kept forgetting to put his bib on. So after bananas as lunch and crackers in the afternoon, I finally had to just change his shirt.

Cell Phone Addendum

If AT&T is your cell phone carrier, feel free to call. I have free Mobile to Mobile. Yay, I can at least call Rachel!! I was feeling very sad until I remembered this.

Cell Phone Woes

Just looked at my cell phone bill for last month and it was terrible. I guess I had been using up our rollover minutes for months and they finally all played out. So until I figure out how to stay within our 550 minute plan, e-mail me or call me on the weekend unless you really need something. I get charged for incoming calls, too.

Who needs to crawl?

Ben can go, go, go in his walker. This morning he was making circles from the front door, behind the couch, loop around the kitchen and back again. He bounces off a lot of stuff along the way. John says we're going to have to repaint the baseboard by the time he learns to walk. Here's a short clip.

Redneck Retro

Doesn't this shirt look like something right out of the early 80s?

Bed Head

Playtime Pics

Here are some pics and a video of Ben playing this morning before lunch. The video is going to be sideways for a few seconds because I forgot that it posts better horizontal.

Adventures in Eating

Ben managed to get a few of the Puffs in his mouth by himself yesterday. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. He also ate Mandarin oranges, a green bean, and mashed potatoes. He loved the oranges. The green bean caused a face reminiscent of the early green bean pictures. After one, he refused to open his mouth for any more. I don't think he initially liked the texture of mashed potatoes. He had to close his eyes to swallow the first time, but seemed to like them after he got used to it. I'll try to take some pictures today.

This post really should be called "Adventures in Peeing," that's been the real issue this week. Ben's woken up in a wet bed every day this week. He's rolling over onto his stomach to sleep and his diaper is leaking out the top. A friend recommended that I buy Huggies Overnite diapers. I'm headed to Wal-Mart after his nap to buy them.

Nine Months

Ben is 9 months old today. In the past couple of weeks, I've been feeding him bites of "real" food. Oddly enough, he likes bites of banana while he clamps his mouth shut tight if I try to feed him banana baby food. Christmas Eve I got a little too adventurous. I was sitting on MawMaw and PawPaw's couch with my plate in my lap and Daddy was sitting next to me holding Ben. Ben reached over and stuck his hand in my broccoli cheese rice casserole. I thought, "what would it hurt to feed him a bite?" Well, he either gagged or choked and then threw up all over himself, daddy, the couch, and the floor.

He really likes the Gerber Puffs. He can pick them up, but he can't figure out how to get them in his mouth. I let him play with them for a while, then feed them to him. He looks like a fish after a worm as I'm putting them in his mouth.

Here are a couple of pictures of him eating "Yum Yum" rice crackers. He really likes these and can manage them all by himself.