We thought these were cute photos. Benjamin woke up this morning to this wild case of bed head...it won't comb down for anything! I couldn't help laughing as he lifted his head up to greet me when I went to get him in his crib this morning. His big gummy smile with his sticking up locks made my whole morning!
Recently, we rediscovered some of Andrew's old baby clothes, toys and books and among them was a striped Santa hat that Andrew wore for Christmas 1977 when he was three months old. As some (all) of you may have noticed, Ben really resembles his dad so we thought it would be fun to post some pictures of father and son sporting the exact same Santa hat, only 29 years apart! Benjamin is four months old, so about a month older than Andrew was at the time. We thought all of you would enjoy seeing some of these "retro" pictures, especially those of you who knew Andrew back then!
See if you can figure out which photos are of Andrew and which are of Benjamin (hint: the complete Santa suit is no longer in existence, merely the hat). We actually think Ben resembles Andrew even more in some of his younger photos so we will have to post some of those soon, too.
Checking out those hands...
Those big eyes...
One final cute one of just Ben - Wheeeeeee!!
I bought Ben the cutest Ralph Lauren Polo onesie the other day and decided to dress him up in a little preppy outfit yesterday since we had our Gymboree class and we always like to look our cutest for that :). He looks like the next Tiger Woods in this one, wouldn't you think? Note the mini sport socks...
Did I really think he'd sit still for more than one photo without turning over?
Ben does his "beached whale" again once he's had enough of tummy time!
Lately, Benjamin has really taken a liking to Barney and has started to observe him for longer periods of time. Barney, on the other hand, is just as we expected he would be with Ben - gentle and overprotective. He will sit next to Ben as he plays on the ground and guard him when he is in his swing or activity centers. It's really very cute!
Here are a few photos:
Playing and checking each other out...
Here, Ben is getting "the royal Barney treatment" (aka a big smooch on the face!)...
...here he's getting a "Wet Willie" in the ear...
...and here he is ducking out of the way to try to avoid another attack!
It's really nice that so many of our friends have babies and young children at the same time that we do. Ben will have so many little friends to grow up with and already we have started to acquaint the kids on a regular basis every Monday for a "Mommy and Me" group. There are six moms who meet - me, Aimee Saunders, Amy Kriebel, Julia Spencer, Julie Delp and Allison Sandberg - and since it was so hot on Monday, Julie's mom Darlene offered their pool and great backyard for our get-together every other week in the summer. They have a playhouse that is so much fun for some of the older kids and a big deck and pool that everyone enjoys. We were there this past Monday and all of the kids were so cute swimming around and playing together. Ben and a few of the younger ones even took their naps there so that they could revive their systems for some more fun in the sun!
Here are a few photos of all of the girls and kids:
Me with Ben. Isn't he the coolest little guy in his long Hawaiian swim trunks and his Old Navy hat?? :) He was such a big boy and seemed to enjoy the water so much that we even borrowed Allison's baby raft for Ben to try out.
Julie and Talya (aka Ben's future girlfriend). At 11-weeks-old Talya was a little too small for the water but she still dressed in her festive fruity outfit for the get-together. Ben and Talya were so cute once we went inside at the end of the day and were really checking each other out. It's love, we're convinced!
Amy with Tyler (and soon-to-be Baby Kriebel #2) and then Allison with Ashley. Tyler and Ashley are both about a year and a half old and were having a fun time in the kiddie pool together.
And here's Julia with Jordan and Jorianna. They are the two oldest kids in our group at 2 and 4 years so they really had a fun time on the big swingset and playhouse, which gave Julia a chance to have a relaxing afternoon in the sun since the two kids were busy occupying themselves!
Finally, here is Julie's mom Darlene with her other granddaughter, Savannah. Savannah is Julie's sister's baby and she will be one in a few weeks. It was funny because Savannah woke up from her nap to a house and yard full of people and gave us that "who are all of these kids for me to play with" look when she saw everyone.
The past few weeks I have been encouraging Ben to sit up with my support when we play with his toys on the ground. He has really taken to it and is now at the point where he can sit unsupported for a short time before he topples over. He still is a little young to have the coordination to sit up alone for a longer time, but he is working on this by leaning forward and bracing his legs to gain his balance. It's easiest for him if he has a toy to lean on.
Here he is sitting and playing with his toy on his own...
...toppling over...
...whew, he needs a rest on the ground after all that work!
Lately, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G has been going into Benjamin's mouth. Literally everything! He's worse than Barney ever was as a puppy :). We suspect that he may be in the beginning stages of teething for this reason and also because he has been drooling a lot (proof in some of the below pictures!), a bit cranky, and a little fussy when eating and sleeping. It has been a fun process, though, as he has really been discovering his toys lately and actually seems interested in the many different ones that have more or less been collecting dust in his room and our basement up until this point.
Here he is in his "big boy" stroller that we have been using lately with his all-time favorite toy - the colored links. Before having children I never really understood a child's fascination with these brightly colored chains but I now know why just about every mom has some fastened to anything that will hold them - you can make them long enough for a baby to pull up and put into his mouth without getting frustrated that he can't reach them. Ben has them attached to just about everything he touches these days. I received two packages of them at my shower and thought I'd never use them all but now I will most likely go to Babies 'R Us for a third set soon!
Here's Ben with his new Baby Einstein blocks that he got yesterday. They're soft and colorful so he really gets excited around them. One of his new favorite play areas is on the beautiful handmade quilt from Great Aunt Catherine. He loves to look at the pictures of the bears on it and it's big enough that he doesn't roll off of it as easily as he does some other smaller blankets!
He is rolling over almost obsessively at this point so the minute we place him down on the mat, he rolls over to his tummy. He's comfortable playing on his tummy and can even pick his hands off the ground to grab toys while on his stomach, but after a while he does his "beached whale" impression, as I like to call it, where he flails his arms and legs frantically while rocking on his tummy. This is his signal that tummy time is over!
Checking out his blocks...
Hasn't yet mastered his sizes since he really does think he can get the entire block into his mouth (and will keep trying until it does fit!)...
Finally, here's Ben with his new "DVD friend" puppy - a stuffed dog that links up with a coordinating DVD so that the stuffed animal "talks" to Ben as they watch the video together. It's really very funny to watch but I must say that at this point Ben sees absolutely nothing strange about a talking dog whereas Barney has never moved his head from side to side in a more puzzled manner before! Andrew and I got a big a kick out of this little thing, too, and Ben, well, he smiled at his "friend" a few times and then tried to put him into his mouth!
Last Friday, July 21, was Andrew and my 5th wedding anniversary - we're halfway to a full decade! We went out for dinner and to see The Lion King at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and Ben stayed home with his Grandpa G and CC. Here are just a few photos of us on our way off to our date - one alone and one with Ben.
Yesterday Benjamin had his four month pediatrician appointment - we can't believe that he is growing so quickly! He has his second round of immunizations and handled them pretty well...at least after the initial bout of hysteria as the doctor was administering them. My heart nearly broke when he gave me that sad "why are you doing this to me?" look while his lip quivered :(. He got over it soon enough, though, and was babbling and smiling a few minutes later. Since then, he hasn't had any reactions to them and is basically back to his usual happy self so we're taking that as a good sign.
As far as Ben's growth stats, he is actually not quite as big a boy as we had thought but he is following his growth chart steadily and is right on target. He is 25-3/4" long (90th percentile), 15 lbs. 8 oz. (55th percentile) and has a 16-1/2" head circumference (45th percentile). All of his routine tests were fine (hearing, vision, etc.) and the doctor said that his basic skills - sitting alone for a short time, leaning forward when sitting, rolling over, tracking of objects, hand/eye coordination, to name a few - are on par with a 5-6 month old so we were happy to hear that. He's well on his way to becoming a Lehigh grad like his mom and dad!!
Below are a few photos of Benjamin is his high chair, a routine we started just this week so that he can sit with us and play with his toys while we eat dinner. He looks so cute and little all strapped into his big boy chair!
On Friday, Benjamin and I traveled to New Jersey by ourselves to spend some time with Nana and Pop Caulfield and some other friends and family as well. Andrew had some other plans for the weekend so he and Barney stayed home alone while I took my first trek to NJ alone with the baby. I'm in my cousin Lauren's wedding in three weeks so she was having a bridal luncheon yesterday and I also needed to get my bridesmaid dress fitted so it worked out to do everything all at once over a long weekend.
We started out our NJ weekend by having lunch with Aunt Audrey Brown and Aunt Rose Egan since they had either not seen the baby in quite some time or had never met him. Benjamin had a good time seeing both of them and I had a nice time catching up with them as well. Ben was a big sleepyhead for a good part of our visit (making up for his grumpy two-hour car ride from our house in PA!). Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos of all of us but I was so glad that this visit worked out since it was sort of spontaneously planned.
Here's a photo of Pop with Ben on Friday night. It's nearly bedtime so Ben looks a little zoned out.
As all of you may have noticed, Benjamin has A LOT of hair and has had his big mop since birth. In fact, it had recently gotten so long that he was starting to sport quite a mullet! So, at nearly four months old, I decided that it was inevitably time for that momenous event - the first haircut.
Ben's wild, fuzzy hairdo is his signature characteristic so I knew I didn't want to go too short with it; I just wanted to keep him looking like a little boy! So, since I really just wanted to take some of the long hair off the back of his head and shorten the hair around his ears, my mom and I decided that we'd do his haircut ourselves instead of taking him to the barber. Here are some photos of Nana and me trimming the little guy's 'do:
Before ~
During~
After~
On Saurday, we decided to give Ben his first "big boy" bath in the kitchen sink without using his infant tubs. We filled the sink with a little water and lots of bubbles and the little guy immediately discovered what fun he could have playing and splashing in the water. Thanks to Nana's own shopping excursions and also many of her friends' gifts, Ben's "nursery away from home" is filled with toys and stuffed animals for him to play with. So, we even had a few bath toys to float around in the water as he splashed around. Here are some photos of him in the "tub"; in the last one we had to restrain him from trying to dunk his head under the water!
All finished and being toweled off ~
Here are Nana and Benjamin after his bath playing with the new Baby Einstein pop-up toy that we bought for him. It makes noise and has different critters pop up when certain buttons are pushed. Ben had such a good time smacking the buttons and watching the action. He was squealing with delight and lunging forward to try to grasp all of the brightly colored parts on the toy. And to think that we didn't know if he would even like it yet...
Finally, yesterday Ben came with my mom and me to Lauren's bridal luncheon. Aunt Lynn, Lauren, and the three other bridesmaids - April, Pattie, and Jessica - were also there with us so there were seven ladies to pass Ben around. When his cute disposition gave way to overtiredness after a little while, Lauren rocked him to sleep in her arms and then was inevitably given the usual "how dare you put me down" look when we tried to put him into his infant seat to continue his nap! Luckily he went right back to sleep since he was quite tired and overstimulated from so much interaction. Here are a few precious photos - Lauren with Ben and then Ben snoozing away:
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