6 3/4 months stats, baby friend, & a bad dog

partners in crime

We returned from our three-week sojourn in El Paso this past weekend, and now things feel pretty much back to normal. It took me over an hour to unpack everything (Clay kindly took Ben with him to go buy the week's supply of coffee so I could unpack sans baby interruptions.) As with the plane ride out to EP, Ben did very well on the way home. Two nice ladies from Las Cruses, NM sat next to us and generously offered to let me put my drink on one of their drink-trays, and even opened my package or peanuts for me while (since I was feeding little Ben at the time). It's great that Benji travels so well, and also quite nice how he seems to bring out the best in a lot of strangers!

It really felt like things were back to normal after I got to hang out with my good friend Tina and her adorable boy, Auden yesterday. It's crazy how much a difference three weeks can make. I'm so glad Ben will grow up with little friends!

We had Ben's 6 month check up this past Monday morning (he's almost seven months now, but since we were in El Paso, we had to delay his appointment). Everything checked out beautifully; he weighs 18 lbs, 6 oz (80th percentile), his head circumference is in the 88th percentile (baby big-head), and he is now 29.25 inches long (+95th percentile)-- he grew about 3 inches in the last two and a half months! He's now wearing 9 and 12 month clothes.

Ben telling Auden juicy gossip; Auden responding with the baby version of "Oh, Snap!"

Yesterday I realized that not only are Ben's torso and legs extra long, he's got stretched-out arms too. I put him in his baby swing for the first time in about a month and turned on the mobile to spin above him. A few minutes later I heard a mechanical-distressed sound and realized that he had grabbed part of the mobile and was trying to pull it down! So no more using the mobile in the swing! In fact, I'm thinking he's going to have outgrown the swing pretty soon. Mostly when he's awake now he either wants to be standing in his exer-saucer or sitting/laying on the floor playing. He is not happy to just lay there and watch the world (or the mobile) go by any more.

sleepy angelic face

Lately Benjamin has also adopted two new adorable habits; scrunching up his nose and smiling/making piggy noises & making clicking noises with his tongue instead of babbling.

On the not so happy news front, lately we've been having some disturbing trouble with The Colonel. Even before we went to El Paso, he had been growling and snarling a little when we made him get off the couch.

Then in El Paso he bit my mom when she was getting him get off her chair... bit and bruised me pretty badly when I was trying to keep him from eating our dinner on the countertop... and then he bit Clay so hard he left puncture wounds on his hand. Not that a biting dog is ever okay, but it was one thing when it was just Clay and I. Now that we have a little one who will be mobile in a few months, we are very worried.

I took Colonel to the vet to discuss the issue and the vet has been wonderful-- looking into my options and finding another vet who specializes in behavior issues (apparently there are very very few of these around). This vet is at A&M and only does phone consults with other vets, so my vet is going to get back with me on what we can do about The Colonel. It breaks my heart to think that The Colonel may not be able to live out his days with us, but it is way more scary to think of the damage he could do to Ben if Colonel snapped at him.

*video showing Ben playing with a Christmas gift from Gramma and Grandpa. He has not yet figured out that there is an "inside" to any box that can be reached into.