Explore

{12/21/2011: This was originally posted on a blog I started just for Ben. I no longer keep up with that blog, so I'm moving them all over to this one}

yes. he is eating a tube of butt cream. yes, the cap is firmly on.

That's what our little monkey does during all of his waking hours. He explores. He explores his toys by selecting, discarding and moving on to the next. Within minutes of being set in front of his little toy basket in his room, it looks like a tiny toy war zone. He explores his books, and he absolutely has favorites. He really loves the Look Book that his awesome Aunt T sent and the two touch & feel books he has. Everything is still automatically put in his mouth for a taste. Even things we would rather he not have a sample of. Like the small carpet fibers that our lovely and well mannered cat pulls up.

Ben is a PRO at pulling up to stand. I find him standing in his crib at the end of almost all his naps. He can use just about anything to get up and is pretty good at plopping back on his bottom when he wants back down. He's still working on cruising but is getting better and better at that as well. Today he used one of the dining room chairs to pull himself up, then used the craft cutting mat I have stashed behind the chair to make it over to the dining room window sill, where he had a grand time playing peekaboo with the curtains.

He's learning plenty of hard lessons. Like drawers can really hurt when they're shut on tiny fingers (he did that all by himself and I felt TERRIBLE - we don't have locks on all the cupboards, just the ones under the sink and with things like all of our glass casserole dishes or our small appliances). He's learning that just because he can see a space, doesn't mean his body (generally his giant head) will fit there.

Two of our most challenging things to try to get over are #1: his constant gagging of himself. He does it ALL the time, shoving his fingers down the back of his throat til he gags. It's awful and some times he does it after dinner and then throws up everything he ate. I have no idea how to discourage this behavior. #2 is rolling over while being changed. This includes diapers and getting dressed. It's frustrating because he gets really upset when I won't let him roll over and I get really annoyed because I can't change him upside down. Sigh. We'll get through it.

He's starting to recognize words. I must have said "duck" to him 500 times this evening and I swear he said it back once. We were playing with one of his bath towels that has a duck on it and I just kept saying "duck, duck, duck" over and over (til the word lost all meaning haha) and I'd say "Ben, where is the duck?" and he'd reach for the duck. It amazes me to no end when he learns something new. He can also show you his toes. :-)

Lots of jabber (ga ga ga is his new favorite) from him still but no actual words - that we've noticed anyway. Still no teeth.

Next Saturday we're getting more pictures taken. The same lady that did his 6 month photos is having another mini-session sale and we're taking advantage. These aren't for any special "month" - I just wanted some cute pictures of him in a pumpkin patch. I think we'll actually just do it at a park, with some pumpkins I'll bring and a few bales of hay. I'm gonna be on the hunt for a wagon this week as I want one in the pictures and he'll wear his Halloween costume (a pumpkin, har). Nick's work is doing a special day where trick or treaters can come through in their costumes, so I think we might get a little extra mileage out of my $5.95 costume deal (I heart children's resale stores) and take him to that. Our local zoo also does a deal on the 30th that we may go to.

So that's really it on Ben news. No more "sickness" necessarily, but he has been rocking a snotty nose pretty consistently for a week or so. I'm hoping that's a teething queue but again, no teeth yet and no real signs of them. They'll show up eventually!