Babyproofing Begins!

It seems the Martin household has embarked on the wonderful world of babyproofing as of this afternoon. Ben is still not quite crawling, merely "scooting" along, but he has been trying to pull up in his crib for a few days now and just today discovered that there is a coffee table in the family room that is just the right height for him to pull up on! He hasn't yet actually pulled up but is trying with persistance and managed to lift his tush off the ground for a few seconds. So, all of my coffee table books and other decorative things that look so nicely arranged have now been relegated to the top of the TV or someplace else out of reach.

Here's Ben looking cute as he watches a new Baby Einstein DVD and tries to eat his playmat.

Mommy tells him how cute he looks in his little lumberjack outfit so he decides to push his luck when I turn my back and see if he can get away with going after my coffee table decorations.

"Who me? Am I being naughty?"

Holding on to that table for dear life and making his little "froggie face" that he does whenever he is determined to do something (as a matter of fact, I used to be known for making a similar face when I was a baby!).

Trying so hard to pull up! It's not a walk in the park to lift an 18.5 pound body up!!

"Hi again, Mommy. I'm not doing anything I'm not supposed to be doing. Go back to what you were doing and don't worry about me. I'll just watch this tray for you..."

"Gah! If...only...my....arms...were....a....little....longer!"

So the outcome of today's happenings is that the coffee table is now clear of "stuff" and Ben is on his way to pulling himself up. At this rate, I think he'll enjoy some of the Christmas gifts we bought for him since they are things to pull up on (and yes, we (or should I say, 'I") am anal and have finished his Christmas shopping already!). We'll try this again tomorrow since today's practice ended in frustration when Ben wedged his legs under the table and couldn't move until I picked him up!

"Now how am I supposed to get out of this one??"

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)