More 6 month pictures

For those of you that didn't watch the video in my last post, here are some of his 6 month pictures. You know I can never pick just one or two or ten, so here are many!

We go to the dr. on Thursday, so I will have a stats update for you all then.

Blueberries were a messy hit! He loved them.

His biggest laugh/smile.

Too much fun.
Thanks for the gorgeous blanket Cara!

Examining (and eventually peeing on) my first ever baby gift, a blanket from Great Grandma.

Playing with my "wish they were better" picture editing skills. I will just keep playing around until I get good.

These were in the slide show from the last post.

I saw this pose on a google image search, the place where I find all my picture taking inspiration.

On this day, I had only planned to take pictures of Ben, not of myself and Ryan. My friend Salyna caught me on the World Impact property taking pictures of my baby and stopped to take pictures of the 3 of us. Maybe one day we will actually plan for a family picture and dress a little better, although it is funny that we kinda match.

He didn't try to eat them. Odd.

Happy Half Birthday

I get so excited about each new milestone Ben achieves, but I do not think I am quite ready for him to be half a year old. He is rolling around right next to me as I type, desperately trying to reach my laptop that keeps inching farther and farther from him. He is babbling and blowing raspberries and rocking on his hands and knees. Some friends here in Wichita just had their baby boy on the 6th. We got to meet baby Jackson when he was only 12 hours old. Ben came with us and looked like a giant compared to that precious newborn baby. They were in the room across the hall from where Ben had been born just 6 months earlier. It brought back a lot of memories.

A year and a half ago, my friend Darby's little girl turned half a year old. She made a half a cake to celebrate. I loved the idea and stored it away in my "I wanna do that one day" file in my brain. Well, today was the lucky day. Here is our little family with Ben's half a cake for his half year birthday.

This is Kate on her half year birthday. She will be 2 years old in a couple of weeks and she has a little brother now. Miss you Koogs!

Our life has certainly changed since Ben joined us, but we have loved every bit of it. Mommyhood has fit me better than I expected. I love staying home with him. I love watching him scoot around, laugh at my tickles and looking for me when I call his name. I know the life of being home all day with a baby isn't for every woman, but it is definitely for me!

Here is a video overview of the last 6 months. I will warn you, though...it is 14 minutes long. Of course, I think it is worth every second. Turn your sound on.

Here is a (long) glance at Ben at 6 months:

• He sleeps 7pm - 6am (we just recently gave up the dreamfeed).
  
• He takes a morning and afternoon nap (10-12pm and 2:30-4pm).
• He nurses at 6am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm.
• He gets solids at 12pm and 5:30pm at the table with us as we eat lunch and dinner.
• He has had rice cereal, green beans, peas, carrots (maybe allergic, so gave those up quickly), yellow squash, sweet potato, applesauce, banana, plums, mango and avacado. He eats them all happily except for the avocado. He immediately gagged and spit and tried to wipe his face :) I have loved making his baby food and love that my freezer is full of colorful cubes (thanks mom for the freezer!).
• He doesn't like any solids at breakfast. I have offered it quite a few different times and he gags every time, so we just do lunch and dinner.
  
• We are introducing water in the sippy cup at lunch and dinner, but he doesn't like the contents. He downed it all when it was full of breastmilk, but only takes a few sips of the water. He knows how to work it, but doesn't like to drink it.
  
• He has still never taken a pacifier (his preference...there were definitely times I wished he would take it) and has never taken the bottle (same reason as pacifier).
• He is full of personality and babbles constantly, but ONLY when no one is looking (with the exception of mom and dad). He will actually stop all noise making the second he sees someone else or the video camera. He makes very specific sounds, but I have no idea how to spell it!
  
• He generally reserves all laughing and giggling for mom and dad only too.
• He will let anyone hold him, but he stares with his furrowed brow look and doesn't interact much, but will never cry if taken out of sight of us.
  
• He rolls both ways and can roll and scoot to get his toys.
• He can go from his tummy to sitting up.
• He sits up pretty steady, but will fall when reaching for a toy that is just out of reach.
  
• He rocks back and forth on all fours, but lunges backwards much more than forwards which frustrates him because he usually has a toy in sight.
• He plays independently very well and for long stretches while I work around the house.
• He prefers to be free on a blanket with his toys rather than in his entertainer.
  
• He loves the tree swing and does his best talking there (unless someone else walks by, of course.)
• He does very well in the stroller when we are out (this works great at work functions so he is contained, but able to see what is going on).
• He is not a very good car traveler. We think that is maybe because he has slept on his tummy for so long and just doesn't like being reclined and restrained in his car seat. We are looking forward to graduating from the carrier to a bigger boy car seat.
  
• He loves his bath, watching the water coming from the faucet, trying to grab the foam alphabet letters and splashing.
  
• Everything that he can reach goes straight to his mouth. He shows no preference...hair, clothes, straps on car seat/stroller/swing, etc.
  
• He is very interested in everything that other people eat and drink. He loves to chew on the side of our cups and take some sips of water.
  
• He is long and skinny. He wears 6-9 month sleepers, but is still wearing a pair of Newborn size shorts. His summer outfits were mostly 0-3 months. Pants will probably be difficult this winter because they will fit in the tummy, but be too short or be long enough, but way too big around the tummy.
• His favorite toys are the tags on the toys. He can find a tag on anything. He even has a Taggies book, but he plays with the actual tag rather than all the colorful tags on the book. He was playing on the floor in his room while I was switching summer clothes for fall clothes and he found a tag on an outfit and was chewing away happily!

I am sure there are many more things, but I will stop there. He is so much fun and constantly doing fun things.

Some Ben Fun

Ben really does seem to learn something new every day, sometimes every hour of every day. I feel like I can barely keep up. I have had to get a bigger blanket for him to play on because he can scoot or roll off the other one in an instant. But, the bigger blanket isn't big enough either. I am constantly finding him far from where I last saw him. He can roll places, but also scoot.

I put him down where the X is.

After what seemed like 2 seconds, I came back to find him here. And, this was just while I was eating breakfast before he had even gotten dressed for the day.

Once upon a time, Ben did tummy time like this.

Now, his tummy time mat is a tunnel.

Thanks Koogs for a totally fun toy!

Here is a picture of a Ben scoot in progress. He does crazy things with his arms and legs to get where he wants to go.

This is 4 videos combined into 1 - 4 minutes total. Here is a brief explanation of each part of the video.
Pulling out toys: We sat and watched him for 7 minutes while he tried to get that book and another toy that was next to the book. Once he got it, he really wasn't as excited as I might have expected.
Ride that horsey: This is self-explanatory - fun times with dad.
Rock and hard place: He is definitely stuck and I hear this same holler all through the day. I think he is trying his best to say, "Mom, I need a little help here!" This holler is so different from a cry. I always know it just means he has frustrated himself somehow.
Creeping: So, in all of your professional opinions, how long do I have before he really starts going somewhere?

Finally, some fun family pictures we took tonight just playing around.

Grabbing Daddy

Grabbing Mommy

Acting silly

Giving Mommy some love.

Giving Mommy a lot of slobber.

Totally our favorite family photo!

Information Superhighway

Thanks to Yahoo News I learned today that I am no longer allowed to say World Wide Web or Information Superhighway. Those words are so last decade. Honestly, I don't know that I have ever used those terms, but this is just a segue into a semi-sappy blog.

I was at an appointment today with Ben and I was asked about my support system for being a new mommy. As pictures of my friends flashed through my mind, I was reminded that they all live so far away, multiple states away. I was in a Bible Study last week where we were talking about people that we go to for advice or accountability. Again, these far away friends flashed through my mind. On Monday, I was reading a blog of a friend of a friend that I have never met (remember the blog about the sweet mom that sent me the fun cloth diapers) and her adorable son was wearing the same outfit that Ben was wearing that very day and they have the same boppy cover that we have. So, I had to send her a picture of Ben. Here are our two sons on Monday.

So, why all these vignettes (I think that is a fun word) you may ask? In being away from all our family and all my friends, I have found great comfort in blog reading, email and facebook spying. I don't know how many times I emailed some of my girlfriends during my pregnancy to ask "is this normal?" And they always said, "yes!" I don't know how many times I have laughed out loud while reading a blog (what would I do without stories of Kenzi?) or even cried while reading a blog (especially as new babies have been born that I haven't been able to meet).

The Information Superhighway has become a great source of comfort for me while we are so far away. The group of people here at World Impact are fabulous and will probably be life-long friends. But there are only a few people that know what it was like to support a husband through Dallas Seminary and then there are the care group girls from our church in Dallas that still consider me a member (I am honored). And, there are so many other friendships scattered around that are great sources of comfort and encouragement for me.

4 of the 6 care group girls in Dallas were pregnant at the same time early last summer. Lisa, the one next to me, sent me this picture last February demanding I photoshop myself in when I was pregnant. So, while I wasn't actually able to enjoy pregnancy with them, I kinda feel like I did through all our emails, blogs and of course, this picture.
So, if you read my blog randomly or faithfully, be sure and leave a comment now and then. I love when the conversation goes both ways!

Photo Shoot

Ben and I took some pictures this evening. Like always, I can't narrow it down much, so here are many pictures of my adorable son. And, at the end there is a video of Ben getting up on his hands and knees and just looking really cute.

Drool gotee.

Sneaky Face

Huh?

Do you see anything in my nose, Mom?

I'm gonna get you, Daddy!

I got your glasses.

Mid-sentence.

Another sneaky face.

Too handsome for words.

I still love my toes. (which makes diaper changing very difficult these days)

Goodbye

Few Pictures

I just couldn't resist posting a few more random pictures.

Mr. Cool
Mama D sent him these shades today!

Watching and smelling the rain.

He refuses the bottle, maybe the sippy cup with work. He is totally into it when he can hold it and gnaw on it, but he isn't too sure when liquid hits his tongue.

Mommy's Little Helper

We tried green beans mixed in the rice cereal tonight. He didn't seem to notice the difference.