Trying So Hard!

Ben has developed such a cute personality lately. It is so much fun to watch his emotions shine via all of the different faces he makes. A common one these days seems to be frustration as Ben tries so many new things, such as crawling, and often grows frustrated when he isn't able to master his new technique to his liking. He also is prone to (loud!) babbling and is hilarious when he blabs to himself and then makes silly faces to go along with his ramblings. Just thought I'd share of few of these candid shots for your viewing pleasure.

Trying to crawl. So frustrating!

It sure is difficult to push up on those little arms and legs. Maybe this will work better if Ben starts out sitting up and tries to crawl from there.

No luck (just one frustrated baby)! Maybe Ben can be enticed to crawl to some of his favorite toys. Like...his butterfly teether:

"I...just...can't...seem...to...get...this...leg...out...from...under...me! UGH!"

Yah! He got it, but without having to crawl, just by s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g really far to the side. I let Ben have it anyway to try to ease his temper for the time being since he was getting pretty frustrated. Below he cheers for his hard work, then vents his frustration on the poor innocent teether and then amuses himself with his toy.

Back to work. Maybe Barney can entice Ben to start crawling since Ben can't seem to keep his hands off of his pet lately (much to Barney's dismay):

Sees him...

Reaches out...

Gah! No luck again (and yet another bout of hysterics as Barney stares in amazement). Well, hopefully soon Ben will get the hang of crawling or else he is going to drive himself crazy with frustration!

Below are a few silly faces Ben made that I happened to catch on camera. Lately, he always seems to be imitating us or making his own funny faces and noises. Two things he has been imitating lately are when I say an exaggerated "Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmmm!" when I am trying to entice him to eat his veggies. Now he says it too, whenever it's mealtime! Another silly thing he now does is smack his lips together because I do this to him often since he thought it was funny the first time I did it. Now he copies me and then giggles when I realize what he's doing and copy him!

What a cute guy!:

Gymboree Level II

Ben and I have been continuing on our Gymboree adventure this season with the Level II class, which is designed for babies aged 6-10 months. We enrolled with a few of our friends from our first Gymboree class since Ben has a fun time with the other babies and I get along really well with the moms, so we all wanted to be in the same class again. Usually there is a mix of baby boys and girls in the class, but when we showed up this morning luck was on Ben's side since he was the only boy in a roomful of girls! He and his little girlfriends were quite the interactive bunch during our 45-minute class so I had to take a few photos.

Here is Benjamin with his little girlfriend, Julia. She's 9-1/2 months and is robbing the cradle with my little 6-1/2 month old. They were checking each other out and babbling away for about 5 minutes straight and really appeared to be having an animated conversation. Ben even tried a few classic pickup techniques like blowing raspberries in Julia's face, trying to put her hair in his mouth, and even trying to take her sock off and suck on her toes!!

Moving in for the kill. Here's Ben about to attack Julia's feet. Maybe he recognizes that she's wearing Old Navy socks and knows that as cute as they are, they are very easy to get off (since we have the blue and white versions of her pink socks at home)!

Daddy will have to have a talk with Ben about how to treat a lady on a date since my son tried to rip Julia's shirt off (hence her off-the-shoulder look) and then giggled and didn't look the least bit remorseful when I pulled him away and told him that that's not the way to make a good impression with the opposite sex!

Once class actually started, we practiced some activities to encourage crawling, pulling up, and standing. Ben isn't the least bit interested in standing when he could rather be on the floor mouthing his toys. He does, however give a valiant effort at crawling so we are expecting him to take off pretty soon!

Our closing activity is always a chance to play with bubbles on top of a parachute and seriously this ten-minute segment is like a drug for the babies - they all are absolutely mesmerized by the bubbles and stare at them glassy-eyed as they drift around. It's really cute! We were laughing today because all four babies who were there have thick heads of hair so seeing bubbles stuck to their locks made a good photo op! Here's Benjamin covered in bubbles and then there's Ben the Man with the three little girls - Emily, Caroline and Julia.

Trip to Lancaster

Today Ben and I drove out to the Rockvale Outlets in Lancaster, PA and met up with Aunt Maggie, who goes to school out there at Franklin and Marshall College. We had a fun afternoon walking around and looking in the shops and to Andrew's delight, I discovered that trying to outlet shop with a baby doesn't empty my wallet as quickly as it does when I'm only with other adults :). For most of the afternoon, Ben was the big cheese for the camera (like usual) and enjoyed being carried around by and fussed over by the two of us!

Here are two cute photos of Ben with Maggie and then two with me. In the last two, he was starting to get a bit irked with me when I insisted on taking some last minute photos while he was in the throes of an "I'm tired and hungry" tantrum. Hence the few unsmiley photos next to the car! (lol)

Buffalo Weekend

This past weekend we took Benjamin on our first official roadtrip. We went to Buffalo, NY to spend some time with Andrew's extended family and specifically to go to our Aunt Diane's wedding. The drive took us about seven hours since we stopped a few times to tend to the baby and to eat lunch. Ben was - surprisingly, since we didn't know how he'd take to a long drive - very content on the drive up and babbled most of the trip away in the backseat. In fact, he babbled and squealed so much that he didn't sleep as much as he usually does for his two naps so he paid for this later at night when he was a tad grouchy and had to go to sleep halfway through the rehearsal dinner in which he was (behind the bride and groom of course!) intended to be the guest of honor! Here are a few photos of Ben meeting the Gaczewski side of the family on Friday night at Aunt Diane's house:

Ben with Great Grandma Alice. He's the first great grandchild in a family of eight children and seventeen grandchildren! Ben definitely has the big "Gaczewski eyes" that just about all of the grandkids (including Andrew) also have. We've been told his eyes are as big as saucers so many times already, sometimes by strangers!


Ben with bride-to-be Aunt Diane. We're so glad we were able to visit to celebrate the big day with Ian and her.


Here's a photo of all of the women who were able to make it on Friday night. (front (l-r): me, Aunt Linda, Aunt Sharon, Aunt Cinty; middle (l-r): Aunt Darlene, cousin Kim, Aunt Polly; back (l-r): Aunt Diane, Aunt Judy, Grandma).

We had a great time seeing both sides of Andrew's family throughout our visit. Some members of every family on his mom's side were in town for the wedding so we saw them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We also visited with his dad's side of the family for lunch on Saturday because they were nice enough to watch Ben for us while we went to Aunt Diane's wedding.

Here's a picture of Auntie Marian and Uncle Dave with Ben. They both helped to babysit for him while we were at the wedding and Auntie had a good time meeting her first great great nephew.

The wedding on Saturday was a wonderful time and Aunt Diane looked beautiful! Ian and his best man - son-in-law Jason - wore traditional Scottish kilts and they even had a bagpiper play during the ceremony and reception. Aunt Judy stood up as the Matron of Honor and also looked great! Andrew and I were touched to hear the word of remembrance for his mom that Aunt Diane had the priest recite during the ceremony since we know how happy she would have been to see her sister get married.

Mr. and Mrs. Ian Currie:

So many sisters!!

But, wait! There are more...this one also has Uncle Ron, Uncle Paul, Grandpa and Grandma:

...And more. Here's everyone with spouses included:

...And even more!! This one includes the spouses and immediate cousins (although less than half of them were in attendance!):

Aunt Cinty's husband David congratulating the groom:

And here he is congratulating the bride:

And here he is "gettin' jiggy wit it" at the reception. We have an inside joke that David's "shy" (said with sarcasm) personality lands him in pictures with just about everyone at every family function. I think he's photographed with at least half the guests at my and Andrew's wedding so we tried to make the tradition continue this weekend!!

Some reception photos:

Here are two of me and Andrew:

Kim and boyfriend Taylor:

Janine and Aunt Cinty:

Grandma gettin' down with Jake:

We drove home yesterday after spending a few more hours with the family at the Lipuma's house for one of Uncle Jim's famous brunches. After not really being the life of the party on Friday evening, Ben had an opportunity to redeem himself and was (lucky for our ride home!) back to his usual content self after a full day to recooperate.

Here he is being enticed by Aunt Sharon's tasty necklace. Jewelry is a favorite these days and when he finds one he likes, it immediately goes into his mouth, no matter if it's on someone's neck or not!

I guess Ben can tell that Aunt Sharon is used to baby boys (she has four boys!) because he was very comfortable with her and was cooing and babbling away as she held him and he mouthed her necklace (it's at moments like this when I wish the blog had sound).

Finally, Ben says goodbye to Great Grandpa Hank and Great Grandma Alice before we headed out on our 7 hour tour back to PA!

"Little Mommy"

Our good friends Chad and Aimee Saunders were over a few weeks ago with their 21 month old daughter, Elaina, whose maternal side shined through as she helped me feed Ben his dinner. She did so well feeding the baby and Ben ate without any drama (or making too much of a mess!). The funniest part was when Elaina would get temporarily distracted by someone while holding a full spoon just out of reach of Ben and our ravenous son would cry out in protest as he sat there with his mouth wide open waiting for the next spoonful!

Aimee and I were laughing the next day when I was over their house alone and Elaina pointed at me and said "baby." Being my "mommy's helper" really seemed to make her entire weekend!