11 Months Old

Wow, can you believe that Ben is almost 11-1/2 months old already? I can hardly imagine that our baby will be turning one in a few short weeks!

Benjamin has been as active as ever this month, trying all sorts of new things out. He is crawling and cruising around our entire house (sometimes faster than we can run!) and is exploring just about everything. He's such a curious little guy and is literally getting into everything that we don't steer him away from. Just this past weekend I reorganized our kitchen so that he has his own cabinet of Tupperware and unbreakables to get into. The best part about all of his accomplishments lately, though, is that he looks so pleased with himself when he figures something out or when we clap for him after doing something new (he always joins in!).

Playing Peek-a-boo with Mommy in his room.

Hanging out with Barney in his undies. Good thing Barney's such an easygoing fellow since Ben hangs all over him and steals his toys (right out of his mouth sometimes!) all day long.

Giving Barney his doggie toys. Ben hands them to Barney when we ask him to now, but always tries to take them right back! Barney loves this little game of Tug-o-war, though, and hides his toys all over the house so Ben can go and find them.

Ben has been copying just about every sound we make lately and I think they are starting to really resonate with him. He now says "Mmmm" with a big smile whenever he is eating something he likes, "Ewww" when he is trying to eat one of Barney's toys or go near his bowls(and knows what I am thinking!) and even "Moooo" when he sees a cow and "Whooo Whoo" when he sees an owl. So funny! Here, he is saying "Ewww" as he tries to eat Barney's latex sneaker and I reprimand him.

...and here he is laughing at me (don't you see the smirk?) as he is just about to continue eating it anyways!
Another thing that Ben has been having fun with lately is anything involving a ball. He loves to play catch, to throw Barney's toys for him and have the dog fetch them, and also to play with the "baby basketball" set that he got for Christmas from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Kurt. Below he is watching me as I sqeak one of the "basketballs" and then in the next photo he is offering me a ball to put in the basket after he already put two in.

Finally, just two funny photos that I had to include on this post. I have wrapped Ben's birthday presents and have them waiting for him in a pile in the guest room. I mean, how often is he really in the guest room anyways, right?

Well....this morning he was crawling around the house in a frenzy when he bolted into the guest room and all of a sudden spotted this pile of gifts!! Some of the more awkwardly shaped ones we are not going to wrap so those were just sitting on top of the heap. And what does Ben do when he sees this unexpected surprise? Why he goes over to them and starts pulling the unwrapped trucks off of the pile and playing with them, of course! Guess I'll have to find a better hiding place next year :).

On a closing note, just some exciting news lately - Ben will have his first cousin in early July. Our sister and brother-in-law Michelle and Kurt will be having a baby girl and we are all so excited for them!

Another different and exciting thing is that I have started a part-time job working for my friend's Internet marketing company in a product fulfillment role. It's a perfect opportunity for me since it is about 20 hours per week and the work can be done entirely out of my house, whenever I can get to it throughout the day. I had been feeling a bit wistful about not working since I was getting sort of bored during the day at times, but I knew I did not want to go back to work anyplace since I love being a stay-at-home mom. So, when this position fell into my lap I jumped on it right away and now I feel like I have the best of both worlds - being at home with my son and having an intellectual outlet to keep me occupied and my brain in-tune with the working world.