Funny Sleep Positions

How do you sleep like this???

We have CRAWLING people!

You had been getting up on all fours for well over a month, and at the beginning every time we would get really excited and grab the camera. . .but then you would just collapse. :)  After about a hundred times of that, we stopped paying as much attention and just figured it would be a while.  Sure enough, a month later we were just sitting in the living room eating dinner, and all of a sudden you picked yourself and clumsily crawled the 5 steps over to Mommy!  We were so shocked, we weren't sure if it had really happened or if it counted.  But then we put you back across the room, and you did it again!  The third time we got it on camera:

On hands and knees, with a purpose!

Being congratulated by Mommy

So proud of yourself!

After only a couple days you were crawling around like crazy!  It only took you a few days and then you were crawling on the hardwood floor and grass too.  Then a few more days and you were crawling while carrying around things in your hands.  Then a couple more days and you were crawling over things (and people!)  And you quickly learned how to pull yourself up on things too!

Splash Pad!

Today we went to the Splash Pad by our house for the first time!  You got to wear the cute pool shirt I made for you.

You LOVED the water, although it wasn't obvious until we tried to take you away from it and you hollered to go back!

Aunt Isha came with us!  Here you are trying to tell her you want to go back to the water.

Happy as can be!

You only lasted about half an hour before you got totally exhausted and ready for your nap.  Your face was all red and swollen from the water jets and chlorine!

11 months

The time of being 0 years old is quickly drawing to a close.  I can't believe that in just a month we will be celebrating your first birthday!  You're such a bright, curious baby and are still developing so many new skills each month!
About you at 11 months:

• You are a champion at rolling over now, although you still can only roll back and forth over your right side.  It has made diaper changes suddenly difficult because you don't want to hold still and will try to turn over the whole time.  We have to give you an interesting toy to distract you and then just try to change your diaper as quickly as possible.
• We finally moved the crib down to the next level.  Now that you can roll over onto your tummy in your crib and push yourself up on your hands, we knew it was only a matter of time before you reached out and tried to pull up on the crib so we figured we better do it sooner rather than later.  You've always been an active sleeper but now that you can roll you must change positions in your sleep about 200 times a night, or so it seems.
• You are such a social laugher!  By that I mean that if other people in the room laugh, you'll laugh too even though you don't know what's we're laughing at.  It usually makes everyone else laugh harder.
• You like to bounce and "dance" to music when you're in a silly mood.
• You're losing your baby fat and starting to develop a lean little boy of summer body.  You've lost most of the chub on your tummy and thighs and have already tanned quite a bit thanks to all our pool time.
• Speaking of the pool - we have little pool parties with your friends at least once a week in the front yard.
• When you push your dump truck or other big things around you make truck sounds "vrooo vrooo"
• You are getting better at communicating what you want - when you see something or someone you want you reach your hand out toward it and try to babble to tell us what it is.
• You recognize your own treats and toys.  If you see your basket of toys (either at home or at Grandmas) and you want to play you'll reach your hands out and start fussing to be put down so you can play.  You're also very into treats right now and can recognize your yellow Gerber canisters of puffed snacks from across the room even!
• You will share your toys now.  Before if we held our hand out you would show us your toys, but wouldn't let go.  Now you will drop them in our hand, if only for a second before you take them back!
• You LOVE books.  Mommy and Daddy are so thrilled about this.  We got you some new books from the library last week for the first time and we will definitely keep doing that since we've read your own books about a hundred times.  We keep some books in your toy basket in the living room and as you play you often will pull a book toward you and "read" it to yourself, either quietly or out loud.  Of course you can't work the pages quite right but that doesn't bother you at all.
• You have learned how to work light switches.  Thank goodness the only one you can reach right now is the one in the bathroom when I take you in there to wash up after meals.
• You wave at people a lot, although you haven't figured out that it's a greeting.  You just think it's a way to get people to wave back at you.
• You have started to really pay attention to the tv when it's on.  We never have it on much when you're awake anyway, but we're going to have to be extra careful now.  Before you just ignored it but now you'll stare at the screen.
• You babble to yourself a lot when you're playing on your own.  It's fun to watch you keeping yourself busy and trying to imagine what you might be pretending!

Nicknames

• Most frequently this days, we call you Buddy (or for me, Little Buddy).  Daddy started it from Day 1 and I guess it kind of stuck.  We use it so much it has worked its way into our normal speech, like "will you take Buddy upstairs for a bath?"  I'm trying to be careful not to overuse it so that we don't stop calling you Bennett altogether.  We worked very hard on finding the perfect name for you so I want to make sure we are using it.  You can laugh at me if you're reading this in the future and we only ever call you Buddy now.
• When I was first pregnant we called you Poppy, since that's how big you were when we found out at 4 weeks. . .the size of a poppy seed.  That stopped as soon as we found out you were a boy and could start using other nicknames.
• When you were newborn a lot of people referred to you as Peanut since you were so tiny.
• When you were an infant Daddy and his family called you Little Man a lot.
• Strangers, upon seeing you, most often call you "wow! look at those blue eyes!"
• I've mentioned that I sometimes call you Raja.
• Daddy calls you Cheeseball McCrackin' when you are doing your silly grins.
• . . .and Great Grandma Edwin calls you Benton because she's kind of losing it and can't get your name right!

First Word!

You said your first word on Thursday, June 14th.  We were at Kmart and a salesclerk was walking toward us.  You all of a sudden noticed them and looked up at them and said, "hi" like it was no big deal.  I was shocked but sure that it must have just been a coincidence - the right combination of sounds at the right time (especially since an hour later at the library you looked up at the light fixture and did the hand sign and said "ite!"  I almost fell over in disbelief, thinking I was just going crazy).  But over the next few days, you said hi several more times so we are counting it as legit, although we do wish that maybe you said it to one of us or even someone we know instead of just a random salesperson :)  Most people have heard you say hi now and are very impressed!

Special Occasions

Mommy's birthday - best one yet because of Bennett!

First Mother's Day!