He sits!

Benjamin has achieved the next big milestone - he sits on his own. He'll be 5 months old on Saturday and although he's still wobbly, he does quite well! I pulled out his play mat and adjusted it so he could play with it while sitting. He seemed intrigued by this new perspective on an old toy. I wouldn't trust him alone yet, but the days of not having to carry him in his carseat into stores is on the horizon! Finally!

Mmmmmmm...Plastic!

All the world has become a feast to Benjamin. From socks to toys to bath water, nothing is too mundane to leave untasted. Anything within his reach goes right into his mouth. This has made bathtime a challenge as he repeatedly grabs the washcloth and tries to eat it, or sticks his face in the water to taste it, or squirms and twists in an effort to grab a bite of his bath seat. Yesterday he squirmed and promptly slipped right under the water. I immediately pulled him out and he seemed unfazed, just anxious to try again.

Ernie is always a favorite treat.


As we watched Michigan lose to Ohio State, Benjamin enjoyed a light snack.


It's too bad Benjamin is still a little too young to enjoy the real feast we had this week. We went to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving with friends and stopped in Kirtland, Ohio on the way home. We had a wonderful trip and Benjamin seemed to enjoy it too. The highlight of the Kirtland trip was the stop at the temple. Part way through the tour Benjamin decided he was tired of listening to the guide and wanted to explore on his own. So he and I stepped out and walked around. I was actually grateful for the excuse to enjoy this wonderful building without 50 other strangers around me. As soon as I left the group, Benjamin was silent and we enjoyed the spirit that was there. Too bad I couldn't take any pictures inside, but here are a few from outside.




Benjamin happily enjoying riding around the visitor's center. He adored all the missionaries playing with him.


An extra picture just because it's cute how intently he's studying the toy.

When you're smilin', the whole world smiles with you

Benjamin and I were goofing around before church and I decided to make a short video since he was in such a good mood. I defy you to watch this and not smile. I don't think it can be done.



Also, today we tried day care at the gym for the first time. They've newly changed the rules and now allow employees to use the infant room, so I had to try it out. I wanted Benjamin to get used to other adults and other babies without me around. Plus, the biggest bonus was that I didn't have to get up at 5am to go work out before Kelly left for work. So Benjamin and I slept in until 8 and then we went together to the gym. He played with the babies and I worked out - the whole time thinking of him and expecting to get paged back in there any moment. Turns out day care was harder on me than it was on him! I worried he'd cry or poop his diaper or get sick from all the other babies. But I just had to stop thinking all those things and enjoy the moment. As one mom said to me, "It's like you're queen for a day! You can just drop off your kid, enjoy yourself and they take care of the rest." It's true. It was nice to work out when I wasn't half asleep. Plus, when I got him out they said he did great. I'd brought a bottle for him, but they said he didn't drink much. That's usual for Benjamin - when he's around a lot of people, he's too distracted to eat. He mostly spent his time staring at all the other kids. I think it's good for him to get out and do that. Church provides some of that, but no where else does he get so many babies his age all at once.

Also, one last note. I seem to have become the funniest person on earth. Anything I do from saying "Du" ("you" in German) in his face, to dropping socks on his chest, to hiding behind a blanket and quickly pulling it away, elicits a never ending string of squeels and laughter. It's so funny! I'm the ultimate 4 month old's comedian. He laughs and laughs at pretty much anything I come up with. It's so much fun to be so appreciated! Where else can you find such unconditional love? (besides from a smelly, hairy, slobbery dog). Benjamin is truly a joy.

He's absolutely the cutest baby in the world.

Camera Crazy

Benjamin now regularly rolls over both ways. We actually missed the first time he rolled from his stomach onto his back! We were doing tummy time and Kelly and I looked away, only to turn around and see him on his back! We quickly put him back on his stomach in the hopes that he'd do it again and he did, again and again and again! It was amazing. So, that night we went a little camera crazy and had a blast taking pictures of Benjamin playing on the floor. Here are a few of the cutest.





This last one was taken without a flash and subsequently turned out almost completley black. It's shown to you here courtesy of Photoshop's brightening feature, but unfortunately, I'm not as savvy as I'd like, so the color is still quite faded. However, that smile right to the camera was just too precious to keep to myself.



These pictures are much like ones I've taken before, only they highlight how much he has matured already in a very short time. In the first, no more blanket in the jumper holding him up, plus, his feet are firmly planted and he turned to face me when I said his name. How cool is that!?!


In the second, back at the computer with Daddy, like in the hospital on his first day, but this time, he sits on his own, and even puts his hand on his Daddy's arm, almost as if to say, "Turn and look, Daddy, she's taking a picture." :) (The towel around the two of them was to keep Benjamin from trying to eat the keyboard, as he now tries to put everything around him in his mouth.


In summary, Benjamin is such an amazing boy. He loves to laugh and play and is incredibly responsive. It is so much fun!

The spirit of giving....chocolate!

We took Benjamin trick-or-treating on Halloween and had a wonderful time. It wasn't terribly cold (unlike today) and so we were able to put enough clothes on under his costume that we didn't have to hide his cuteness with a coat. We went with some friends and their daughters around the neighborhood nearby. Boy did we load up on candy! Those families were very generous. I've never gotten so many full size candy bars in one night in my life. Can you tell I had fun too? I think I enjoyed it much more than Benjamin, obviously. In fact, as the little girls were asking to go home, I wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?! We've just started! There's a ton more houses!" Then I had to remember that I was the adult here and really shouldn't be as into this as I was! I never realized how much I missed trick-or-treating until I was back at it again. I am going to have so much fun t-or-t with Benjamin in the coming years, until he decides that it's not cool to go t-or-t with your mom, that is. Kelly asked me what it is about t-or-t that I love so much and after thinking about it, I believe it's the carefree running around with friends and getting to walk up to any house you want and meet the people inside, see what their home looks like inside, and getting to know them a bit. And they're not annoyed that your rung their doorbell, but rather, they've gone out and spent their money to buy candy in the hopes that you would come by and they want to share with you and hope that you enjoy it. It engenders such a feeling of closeness and joy that you don't get at any other time of the year, even including Christmas, because there you only visit those you know. No other holiday brings as many strangers together in a spirit of giving as does Halloween. It's a wonderful feeling. I could have gone on all night.

Here are a couple photos of the excitement:





We bought a new car recently and the woman who sold it to us was so taken by Benjamin that she bought him a toy. It has lights and music - what more could a kid want?

Happy Halloween!

It was our ward Halloween party tonight and Benjamin went as Tigger or a Tiger, whichever you prefer. Either way he was adorable. I can't wait to take him trick-or-treating on Tuesday.


Not much else to report. He keeps getting bigger and stronger all the time! He doesn't need any blankets propping him up in the johnny jumper anymore and he has become more consistant at rolling over. We love our little boy.

That red-eye feature creates some mighty dazed and confused looks. But even then, he's adorable.

Becoming Mobile

The biggest news to hit our home this week was that Benjamin rolled over for the first time. We were playing on the blanket when he kicked his legs up, and then over to the side and once there, rather than flop back onto his back, he continued to pull himself over onto this stomach. I was so excited...and so frustrated that I had dozens of movies of the previous days' attempts and not one of the actual event! However, I couldn't get him to do it again. A couple days later he did it once more, but so far that's been it. I guess we'll see when it becomes a regular occurrance and post a video. However, I do have a cute video Kelly made of him talking. Yes, talking! :) It's the funniest thing, 1. because it truly sounds like he's saying, "What's the matter?" and 2. because he tries so hard to sit up by himself, only to flop over in a most adorable way. Check it out.



Here's another video taken right after that of another attempt to sit. However, sometimes sneezes come at the worst possible times, don't they? :)



In other news, I returned to work last week and had a wonderful time. I only work Thursdays 4-10pm and that's just perfect for me. It felt a bit like a family reunion - got to see everyone and catch up on what's been happening. Got to show some pictures of Benjamin and listen to everyone ooh and aahh over him. Always a good thing. Plus, Kelly gets one-on-one time with Benjamin while I'm gone. Otherwise, the big thing currently is the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Noisy neighbor guy is having his usual building-shaking sports parties each night and we've actually taken to watching a little too! It's hard to live in such a sports crazy state and not get swept up in it, I guess. But as usual, what we mostly did was adore our little boy. Here are some more cute recent pictures. Enjoy.

Our camera has a red eye feature that can sometimes actually be more detrimental to photos in that it scares Benjamin out of whatever cute pose he was just in. This was a cute picture of him cuddling with rabbit. (Rabbit looks a little freaked out by the red light too, doesn't he?)



We still managed a few cute ones, though, when he wasn't looking.




Spunky, the barking blue dog, is also a favored playmate. Benjamin smiles every time it barks.



The playmat fish are also favorites, but he's always pulling them out. Luckily he doesn't seem to mind a bit when they fall on him. He laid there for 10 minutes with a fish mustache, seemingly undisturbed by it.



Trying to roll over.


It's getting really cold here, so for our most recent walk, I decided to pull out the snowsuit, despite it being too big still. He may be swimming in it, but at least he stayed nice and warm! It was the best walk we had all week.



A couple left over pictures from our trip to Grandma's. Modified tummy time and visit with cousin Katelyn. Katelyn, sadly, was less than enthused.

Forget what I said

I take back all the nice things I said about Michigan. I woke up to snow this week and it's been so bitter cold I've hardly gone outside for days. However, the howling winds and frequent snow falls have had one good result - we've done more tummy time and it has yielded wonderful results. He's using his arms now to hold himself up and he's almost figured out how to roll over. Sometimes he gets so close that I run for the camera, but no complete rolls just yet.

I tried setting out toys for him to look at so that he'd enjoy tummy time more, but none of his usual toys had any effect...


...Until Daddy brought out the "Tummy Time Bunny." Something about this furry friend calms all tears. Hey, whatever works.

The Color Tour

We've lived in Michigan for over a year now and have never seen much beyond our little area around Detroit. So, we decided to take this opportunity before the snow came to see more of this state that people claim is "much better up north." So, two days after I got home from grandma's house, off we went again. We drove to the upper peninsula and then down along the western coast of the state, along Lake Michigan. Truly, people have not been exaggerating, this state is wonderous. It has gorgeous beaches, beautiful forests, and really charming little towns. This time of year also happens to be "The Color Tour." This is what Michiganers do for fun - drive around and see all the leaves change color. (Besides throwing loud football parties every Sunday and Monday while smoking inumerable packs of cigarettes - or is it just our neighbor that does that?) So, we got to experience gorgeous displays of nature's finest colors...and some colorful people as well. Appartently the favorite way to see this color tour is on a Harley Davidson. And, let us not forget, that it's also hunting season. Lots and lots of men in camoflauge gear in every hotel. We almost didn't get a room one night because so many bikers and hunters were in town. However, we found a cute little 10 unit place that gave us their last room. As we carried our bags inside, I saw the owner pull off the paper that covered the "no" in the "no vacancy" sign and saw two bikers pull into the parking lot exclaiming, "There was a vacancy a minute ago! What do we do now?" Benjamin did quite well on his first long road trip. It wasn't until the last day that he really started getting sick of sitting in his car seat for hours on end, but by then we were sick of sitting in the car that much too. After this trip, though, I really have to admit, Michigan has some really beautiful areas and I look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

A small glimpse of the changing colors.



After a while we got sick of driving and let Benjamin take over.




Kelly was getting Benjamin to smile so we'd finally have proof that he really does. The funny thing was that every time he'd see me with the camera, he'd scowel. Thank goodness he has a short attention span and a short memory.



Benjamin enjoying a windy day by the beach.



Look, Daddy's wearing a funny hat too!




Benjamin explores the water.



Can you believe this is Michigan?!

Home Sweet Home

We returned from grandma's house a few nights ago. The trip was a good one, but I'm glad to be back home. Benjamin was great on the flight and noticeably happy to see Daddy again. However, he had a hard time adjusting to his own crib again the first night and cried for over an hour before finally falling asleep, but the second night (last night) he settled right in and slept through the night again (8pm-7am). It was wonderful. We currently have no second car so Benjamin and I have spent our last few days visiting neighbors in our apartment complex and playing with some new toys that he's getting the hang of now that he's starting to reach and grasp. I laid a few toys around him on a blanket and he managed to pick one of them up and bring it to his mouth. Well...he jammed it in his eye first, but it eventually made it to his mouth. :) Didn't manage to get a picture of it, though, and he wasn't too consistant with that game. There's still a lot of arm waving going on, but he's definitely improving.



Also, he's expanded on the superman arm pose during changing time. He's now turned it into the dead bug pose. He kept his arms and legs up almost the entire time and every time his legs fell, they'd startle him and his eyes would get really wide. Then he'd lift his legs right up again. It made diaper changing a little difficult to say the least, but still highly entertaining.


Still working on getting a cute smiley photo of the two of us. I guess he's just such a studious guy.

A visit to Grandma's

We're here at Grandma's house for a few weeks and Benjamin has been great at adapting to the new surroundings. He did wonderful on the flight over. He never cried (except when the toilet flushed - which incredible stand-back-or-you'll-get-sucked-in noise even scares me.) Everyone in the airport and on the plane commented on how curious and alert he seemed. Once we arrived, he loved checking out the backyard with all its trees and flowers since our "backyard" is mostly parking lot. Also grandma's house has a lot more rooms and exciting things to look at, so all in all, it has been an adventure for my little curious baby.

Bathtime is always fun, well, as long as the water is already in the tub. Benjamin is very scared of the sound of rushing water for some reason.


Of course, no visit to Grandma's is complete without trying on some of mom's old baby clothes! Gotta love the 70s!


We've started doing tummy time like this sometimes because he seems to enjoy it so much more. We still do it on the floor, but he's such a perfectionist that when he doesn't lift up immediately, he starts to cry and tummy time is usually over in less than five minutes.