Here's lookin' at you, Blog

flippers

Beware the cross-eyed Dino-ROAR!

I spent an hour or so last night re-designing the look of & making a new masthead for this blog. Clay helped me figure out "layers" in Photoshop, so I can now change out the top photo of the wee bairn pretty easily.

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Ben loves to rub his fingers through this purple throw while he eats

so much baby time

my first attempt at portrait drawing in about 5 years... definitely need more practice

Ben has enjoyed going to "baby time" at the Landa Branch library for the past three weeks. The first time we went, it was a bit weird and intimidating for me. All of the other kids were older and more mobile than Ben and all the other parents knew all the songs. I'm glad we've kept going, though, because he really seems to get a kick out of watching the other babies for the 45 minutes or so that we're there. Landa Branch Library was built in the 1920s and is an amazing building (it reminds me a lot of the NcNay Art Museum). They also have a great playground outside that I know Ben will enjoy when he's older.

At the suggestion of my friend, Leilani, I recently bought some handles for our baby bottles, When he's not super hungry or tired, Ben likes holding the handles. The only problem is, he gets distracted so easily, the bottle ends up under his chin and he's looking at me like I'm depriving him of food. I know eventually he'll get a hang of it though. It will be really nice when he's hungry and I'm in the middle of something and I can just hand him a bottle (& we can both be happy!).

"baby time" at Landa Branch Library

trying to hold his bottle by the new handles we bought

Oz is keeps trying to get some attention

"oh blue monkey, we need to have a talk"

strapped to daddy's back in last weekend's hike

our little snuffalufagus

January is more than half over, and I'm sure I don't know where it went. Sometimes it seems very hard to fill my days (with things that his royal baby-ness, Benjamin, approves of, anyway), but it also feels like the weekends appear out of nowhere. Things seem to drag by and go super fast with a baby around.

Benjamin can now sit unassisted for at least 45 seconds without toppling over (mostly, anyway), and sitting up  to be his preferred position these days.

In the last day or so he has either gotten his first cold or his first problems with allergies, because he is very congested and seems more tired than usual. He doesn't have a fever and is still mostly cheerful, but it's hard to hear him suffering and snuffling. The booger-syringe only does so much, and of course, he HATES it. Night before last Ben woke up every three hours because he was so clogged up, but last night he only woke up once (last night I put two towels under his sheet at his head to help prop him up a little). Hopefully he'll sleep well again tonight.

chatting in the high chair

playing with "Tobias Funke," a Christmas gift from Dad

contemplating the deliciousness of his own fingers

"GIVE me that ball, and I will keep the screaming to a minimum"

in the process of rolling onto his tummy

daddy time

sort-of-sad-face

trying not to fall over

a-hiking we will go

our little outdoors-man

We went for an (approximately) 2 mile climbing-hike at on the natural trails at Eisenhower Park today using our new Beco baby carrier. A week ago we had bought an Ergo carrier, but Ben really hated it, and it never quite fit right. I got a Beco baby carrier yesterday, and I think it's much preferable.

Ben slept a lot of the hike today from the comfy vantage point on his pappy's back. Even though the terrain was quite vertical in places he seemed quite snug (although his parents got alternately chilled and then too warm in today's 50 degree weather).

Clay and I hope to make these Sunday hikes a regular thing, and we'd love for any of our SA friends to join us! (Let me know if you're interested.)     :)

the happy climbers  (Ben is on Clay's back)

a view of SA from Eisenhower Park

so much forehead!!!

Practicing his big-boy sitting

happy morning/just ate-face

room switch-a-roo

story time

Benito has been enjoying his Christmas gifts and growing more cute every day. He is also becoming more of a pleasure to be around all the time. Although each day is different (and some are full of never-ending fussing), I feel like I'm finally able to predict most of what he wants and keep him pretty happy, which keeps me very happy, indeed. :)

enjoying his new water-proof photo album

Speaking of keeping me happy, a few days ago I decided to completely re-arrange the furniture in the living room and the study. Ever since he was a puppy, The Colonel has used the living room couch as a launching pad to try to get out the window and eat the mail man. He leapt about, half-on and half-off of the back of the couch making a lot of noise and stomping on everything. It was bad enough when I was pregnant, but now that Ben spends a lot of time with me on the couch, I was worried the dog would inadvertently stomp the baby. So I moved around most of the living room furniture, and now I feel a lot safer when mail-time rolls around every afternoon. (see video below)

I decided to rearrange the study when I realized as soon as Benito can crawl he was going to crawl right into the cat box (which was behind the door in the study). So I moved the cat box into the bathroom (crowding that up, sadly), and rearranged the book shelves and library table in the study. Now it is a lot more open and once I've rented a carpet steamer I won't feel grossed out when Ben starts crawling on it.

He's probably still a ways off of crawling, but he does enjoy doing a slow-break-dancing move where he rotates himself around and often ends up off of the tummy time mat.

the rearranged study

Ben's first taste of banana (sadly he didn't seem to like it any better than yogurt or banana at first taste)

 tummy time

one of his spunky new Christmas outfits

Happy New Year!

Happy New Years to everyone! After a lovely Christmas, we had a nice, mostly restful New Years holiday. We got to see some good friends' new-new-new baby, had a cozy & low-key New Years eve/game night, and then went to Austin yesterday to see some of Clay's high school friends.  Too bad this is the last extended weekend Clay will get until Memorial Day!

Ben turned 5 months yesterday, and is now sitting up for longer periods unassisted and his hair seems noticeably not-so-wispy now also.

Last night I also finally got out the Baby Bullet (it's a fancy little blender) my sister bought for Ben last spring. Ben had been eating a little hand-mashed avocado at lunch, but I think table foods will be a lot better and more interesting now that I can properly make my own baby food. Using only one avocado and one banana, I made several mini "tasting meals" for Benito for the next few days that I think he's really going to like.

Threadgills (in Austin) New Years Day