The Cannon Hackett Chronicle: Crawling!... a little... (backwards!)

getting a little sunshine

Little Ben met an exciting milestone Saturday night at our friend Tina's party: he crawled about 6 inches... backwards! He was actually trying to go towards Clay, who was laying on the floor in front of him, but ended up backing up instead. He hasn't repeated the performance since, but hopefully he'll keep trying. He does really seem to want to be mobile now, and I'm ready for him to be able to get his own toys when they roll away. I know I may reminisce about these stationary days soon, of course.

Ben's new bookshelf

Ben's very favorite position to be in usually is sitting up right on the floor, surrounded by toys and at least one (but preferrably two) admiring adults. He has started trying very hard to reach for toys outside his arms-reach, though and ends up face-planting right onto the floor. I assume he'll learn to extend his arms soon.

For the last week he hasn't been feeling that great. At the beginning of last week he had his first ever fever (one degree above normal), and has been congested ever since. In the last few days he's gotten a cough that doesn't sound good either. I took him to the doctor today and the doctor thought it was just a "little virus" and said using the air humidifier and the nose-suction bulb should help. Having Ben feel poorly really reminds me of the first few days after he was born: feeling like I need an instruction manual and feeling unqualified for taking care of my own kid. Not fun.

Saturday night we dog-sat for our friends, Luis and Leilani. Their two dogs (a pug and a chihuahua) are very sweet, and it was nice for Ben to get to hang out with some different dogs. Oz (our black cat) has been perturbed that there are dogs in the house again, and has tried to throw his weight around and look like the big shot since the dogs have been visiting. (pictures below)

In other news, I bought Ben a little colorful display bookcase for the living room which is great for having books right down at his level. This is not only great because it reminds us to read to him more, but it also covers up the dvd player and other electronics with cords I'm sure he'd like to pull/chew on as soon as he masters crawling.

As far as foods go, he has now tried pureed banana, sweet potato, peas, pear, chicken, avocado, squash, zuchinni, and Sunday's new food: peaches. The next new food will be green beans. We've tried a little baby-led eating by putting chopped bits on his high chair tray, but he totally ignored the zuchinni bits (after smearing them on everything but his face). He was very intent on eating the prune bits we offered him, but they would stick to his fingers so well that when he took his hand out of his mouth, the prune bits would still be stuck to his fingers and never get eaten. We'll keep trying, though.

Ben has also started tilting his head toward the side in a very cute way, and then pretending to be shy. Lately he has been taking better naps-- a good, solid hour nap in the afternoon and the morning, usually. He will only stay really asleep if I sit next to him for that whole time, but in a way that's good because it forces me to take it easy for a bit each day too.

My phone photo calendar of Ben tells me that this is his 214th day of being alive. Pretty amazing how far he's already come! What a different baby he is now!!