Discovering His Toys

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!