10 Months Old

So it is almost the end of January and I have not blogged all month. I must apologize for this as, among other things, we have been sick here at the Martin household all week with the nasty stomach virus that is going around. Needless to say, not much has been accomplished in our household lately and the post I meant to do last weekend is just getting done today. For those of you who know me well, I'll just say this - I didn't clean my house this week and my laundry sat in the dryer for 3 days before I folded it, I was that sick. Ben was also pretty ill and Andrew had a mild case as well, so everyone was affected. We are all feeling 100% better now, though, so I am back in business with my blogging!

January has been quite a month for Benjamin - so many milestones! He is now pulling himself up almost obsessively on everything he comes into contact with, is getting into EVERYTHING, can stand by himself for a few seconds, is cruising on occasion, waves, claps, does a handful of Baby Signs and now says two words - "mom" (actually "mum"; he must know that I love England) and "baby." He is developing likes and dislikes and is acting more and more like a toddler and less like a baby every day. How wonderful and sad this is for Andrew and me to watch our baby grow up so quickly!!

I'll take these accomplishments one at a time, starting with the mobility-related ones, which can only be linked together: standing up, getting into everything and cruising.

Making a mess! His daddy loves that he can blame Ben when the newspapers are left all over the house on the weekend...


Here he is on one of his devilish missions, you can tell just by his face!


"La la la laaaa!" Benjamin loves to sing for us, whether over the monitor when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap, or when he is having a good time playing hard.

He's such a big help around the house, too. Here, he helps me with the filing.


Here, he is getting my planner for me so that I can see what's on the agenda today.

Here, he is helping me restock the office supplies.

"And you thought I was just a cute face," says Mommy's Little Helper.

One of Ben's new favorite pastimes is cruising through the obstacles I set up for him in the basement. I position the furniture and all of his bigger (aka sturdy) toys in a chain so that he can "walk" from one to the next. Sometimes he gets preoccupied with one of the toys and forgets about cruising, but much of the time he is eager to try out his new trick.

From the couch to the Exersaucer...

...to the music cube...

...to his car...

...to the......

Peek-a-Boo! Tired of all of that walking, why not crawl under the Jumperoo?

Ben has lots and lots of toys but lately he has shown a certain penchant for all of his "boy" toys - cars, trucks, trains. He loves all of the little cars and things he got for Christmas and can spend up to 45 minutes just wheeling them around and chasing after them! I think we know the theme for his first birthday party....

Loves the little blue car and red train, especially that train!

Annnnd....it's off!

Up...

...Under...

Out!...He also loves his little wooden train that we bought him for Christmas, even though he doesn't understand how to stack the different pieces yet. He loves to take it apart, though, and likes it even better when we wheel it around him and make choo-choo noises!

Next up are some photos with Ben's best buddy, Barney. We've been teaching him to "share" Barney's toys with Barney, since Ben seems to think that all of Barney's toys are fair game. Lucky for us that Barney is such a mellow, gentle guy so he just sits there and watches Ben steal his toys from under his nose without trying to reclaim them.

Ohhh...a latex sneaker. What fun! (/sigh/ "Not again," thinks Barney)

Here, Barney, Mommy says this is yours. You cannot see it too clearly here, but Ben has learned the Baby Sign for "dog," which is a few pants, and is "saying" this to Barney. For anyone not familiar with Baby Signs, it's an adaptation of American Sign Language that has become trendy with babies since it enables them to express themselves long before they can speak and is supposed to promote language skills. I have been teaching a handful of them to Ben since he was 6 months old and he just started to use them himself about 2 weeks ago. "Dog" was his very first one and now whenever he sees Barney (or another dog) he smiles at him and then looks at me and pants!

One funny story behind this is that Ben now thinks that all of the tigers and lions in his DVDs are "dogs" since he hasn't learned any other mammals yet in his Baby Sign world. Whenever one comes on screen he looks at me and pants!! Of course, we laugh since we always joke that Barney acts fickle like a cat and looks more like a lioness than a dog due to his coloring and his big, boxy English Labrador head!

Speaking of Baby Signs, Ben's repertoire includes "dog," "frog," "bye," "more," and "no more/all done." The "more" and "no more/all done" have really helped us at mealtime since Ben can now "tell" us when he is still hungry or when he's done instead of whining or crying. For anyone who has ever seen our ravenous son eat, you'll appreciate how helpful this is to us when he can tell us he's had enough. Of course with an appetite like his, the "more" sign is used much more frequently than the "all done" one!