Caveboy Ben

family pic taken by the cavern guide halfway through the tour

Today Ben toured his first cavern and then went on his first "safari" at Natural Bridge Cavern just north of San Antonio. My brother Matt, his wife, Sandy, and her dad came to San Antonio for the day, and (as usual) they had exciting things planned for us.

cavern column

Although not this cavern isn't as amazing as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, (I think I'm spoiled for life on caves after that) it was really neat to hike through it. It is still a "living cave," so they keep the humidity very high and the walls and ceilings still drip and grow formations (at the rate of about an inch a century!). Visitors take a guided tour down narrow, slanting walkways, often having to duck your head to avoid brushing against rock formations. The tour guide was able to point out old fault lines, ancient piles of bat guano, and showed us how high the water rose in 2005 during a flood (filling most of the cavern).

Ben slept through most of the tour strapped to Clay's back (which was especially good given that the floor was slippery and I clung to the railing for dear life at many points). I had been a bit apprehensive that he would start crying and it would echo terribly around the cavern, but Ben left that job to several toddlers on the tour with us.

After the cavern tour, Matt and Sandy did a climbing ropes course, called the "Canopy Challenge" (see pics below). Regardless of how many harnesses they having keeping one safe, Matt and Sandy are much braver than I am!

Adjoining the cavern is the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch where visitors can drive through the beautiful Texas hill country surrounded by hilly vistas and wild animals (mostly of the antelope, deer & elk variety). Part of the entrance fee is a bag of food to feed the animals, which gets many of the animals to come right up to your car window. Visitors are told to drop the food on the ground near their car and not to feed the animals by hand, but it seemed like everyone ignored that instruction. I did all my animal feeding by dropping or tossing the food (being a big scaredy cat), and because I was also trying to feed Ben his lunch bottle at the time. Once again, poor Ben missed most of the action since he was secured in his carseat, which mostly aims his view out the back window.

waiting for the tour guide to lead us down

Along with the antlered animals, there were also some pretty aggressive ostriches (which pecked at Clay's car mirror), and some overly-friendly zebras (one of which got too cozy with Matt's car-- sticking its head in Matt's car window to get the food bag-- see photo below).  Talk about an out-of-the-ordinary wild day!

climbing tower at Natural Bridge Cavern

After this super exciting day, Ben was a bit fussy in the car, so I turned the portrait mode on my phone's camera, and let him watch himself (this almost always makes him stop crying). Today however, instead of just looking at himself, he repeatedly managed to press the camera trigger, so he has now taken several self portraits (I've included one of them below). I always wonder what he is thinking when he looks in the mirror and smiles or laughs.

Matt on the Natural Bridge Cavern climbing tower/ropes course

not sure what this was (except pretty awesome)

zebra trying to crawl into Matt and Sandy's car

Ben's first "self portrait"

"feeeeeeed me!!!"

Stretch McHouse-Menace

messes? we LOVE to make messes!

In the last week or so, Ben's development has just seemed to explode. He not only crawls with ease now, he's also pulling himself up on every available surface and then standing (unless whatever he's holding on to topples over on him) and then banging on whatever he can reach. We've had to move all of the objects back from the edge of Clay's desk and our shelves, and double check every area we let him loose in.

This stage is so exciting and SO exhausting! Yesterday I had to tie a floor lamp to a table and take his book display shelf out of the living room so he wouldn't pull it down on himself. We've also had to remove the baby exersaucers from the living room and study for the same reason. I guess they wouldn't have make him happy any more anyway.

Ben and I spent this morning at the zoo with my friend, Elicia, and her baby Daniel. Both babies especially enjoyed the petting zoo (pictures below). Ben even stayed awake for the whole visit this time, and the weather even cooperated and was cool and cloudy!)

 

first time in a swing! (a little unsure at first)

window ledge cruisin'

One of my more creative baby proofing ideas (elastic)... we'll see how it actually works. Right now he's pulling on it and making a nice loud snapping sound....

Look, Ma! Now I can reach all sorts of places you'd like to keep me away from!

Ben and Daniel enjoying the petting zoo

big, sleepy piggy at the petting zoo

even the monkeys at the SA Zoo get pinatas for Fiesta!

Ben (a little zonked-out), Noe, & Eli

doing his Peter Rabbit impression

Luke is surprisingly good natured when it comes to Ben

Chango UNLEASHED

crawling position and.... GO!

Benji's inner monkey has been unleashed on the Hackett household... after weeks and weeks of almost-almost-almost crawling, he is finally truly moving forward!

Yesterday (right before Clay got home from being out of town for two days) he crawled forward several feet. Then Clay was there to witness the wonderful (and somehow terrible) crawling expeditions later that day.

Since then I've only seen Ben crawl backwards a couple of times, and perhaps he meant to go backwards anyway.

This morning we did a pretty thorough baby-proofing of the study (bundling up electrical cords and getting them off the floor, etc.). We've also put baby gates at several important junctures throughout the house, which means Clay and I are going to get more high-stepping exercise from now on. Our poor cats are confused because I've had to move their food and water yet again, but as the video below shows, they were about to have a new bowl-mate otherwise.

Even though the vacuum cleaner terrifies Ben, I may just have to let him scream it out and vacuum the house more often. Because now no tracked-in-leaf, no bit of dust, nor tiny kitty litter piece is safe from his not-so-expert newly mobile pincer grasp. Just now I turned around from typing and he was closely examining a small ball of nameless floor fuzz. I'm sure it was destined for his mouth had I not denied him his new toy.

I know pretty soon I may be very tired of his new mobility, but right now he just seems so much less frustrated. It's great to see him see something he wants and have the capability to just go for it.

Normally I don't do a video dump, but here are several that show his new *mad* skills.

Enjoying the last of SA spring

Yesterday we went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden with some friends, and Clay got some great photos of our little family. It was probably the last pleasant day before spring completely melts in a too-hot-to-do-a-thing-outside puddle.

Benji is getting so close to really crawling. He still maneuvers backwards pretty well, and he rolls over like a champ, but last night he actually scooted his knees forward about an inch (a first for him!).

His two new favorite things to do are standing up (holding tight to someone's thumbs) and tilting over one of his toy boxes in the living room and pulling everything out.

The standing thing definitely gets tiring for me after a while (although he is now sometimes trying to hold himself up on things other than me), but the toy box tipping is great. I no longer have to go to the toy box and choose a couple toys that I think he might like; he can now do it himself (thank you very much)! I know this new skill applied to a bookshelf or other household container will not be so endearing, though.

In other news, we are also dog-sitting a small friendly dog named Pip. I think Ben has enjoyed watching a dog run around the living room again.

wants to be walking so badly!

twins!

just saw a duck

Discovery: "I can fetch the toys out of the box myself!"

Pip tries to ignore the delicious baby

"all by my-sseeeeelllfff"

Ben dizzily holding my hand with Pip in the background

Tina, Auden and Ben

afternoon walk at Brackenridge Park

Scoot rally a la Houston!

somehow Ben doesn't look very impressed at the gymkhana preparations Sunday morning

We had a blast this weekend in Houston at the first Hip to be Square 80's-themed scooter rally. While little Ben and I didn't make it to as many events as Clay did, we really enjoyed the scooter meet-ups that we go to. The rally organizers picked some great places (especially Mugsy's (which served queso mac and cheese pizza with bacon on top), and Clay even participated in the gymkhana obstacle course (see video below). Too bad Ben slept through that!

The rally fun was magnified ten-fold for me because my brother Matt, who lives in Houston, was there with us. He showed Ben and I a great time at the Rice Village, we all enjoyed the new Picasso exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and it made hanging out with scooter-folk even more fun. Aunt Sandy didn't get to join us until Sunday around noon, but she did arrive in time to see Clay compete in the gymkhana. She and Matt also showed their mad skills as masterful baby wranglers, giving Clay and I a chance to pack up the car on our way back to SA. Ben is so lucky to have so many wonderful uncles and aunts!

In other news, Ben's next tooth is definitely through the gum now (which is giving him a cute, lop-sided pumpkin look). It's also causing him to enjoy sticking out his lower jaw while he rubs his teeth together. Clay says it makes him look like Don Corleone from The Godfather.

chillin' on a fancy scoot

Uncle Matt helps Ben investigate his sunglasses case at a sidewalk cafe

doing his weird lower jaw thing

TOOOOOOTH (upper center)

alien baby wants out of his pack-n-play

doin' a spiderman dance at Matt's house

queso mac and cheese pizza? don't mind if I do!

sometimes baby clothes are just too awesome

first (and probably last) roses of the year

Close your eyes and it's past

Mama's big-little boy

Yesterday Ben turned eight months old... only four more months and he's a YEAR old. It's funny how right after he was born (well actually for the first two months), it seemed like he would always be a helpless, waking-up-every-two-hours, not-very-interesting little being. Then suddenly he's sitting and babbling and playing with toys and trying to stand up! I did not believe the multitude of people who kept telling us "they grow up so fast," but perhaps maybe (just maybe) those people were more right than wrong. While I love this cuddly, wobbly baby stage he's in now I'm still looking forward greatly to when he can understand when I read to him and play with toys that don't have to be put-everything-in-the-mouth safe.

He is just about to cut another tooth-- one of his top front teeth. The bottom teeth came in as a pair, so I'm wondering if he's going to look lop-sided with just one top tooth. I sure hope it comes in soon, because he was up for almost 2 hours last night unhappy and not able to sleep.

We had a good Easter weekend: Clay's mom and sister came and stayed with us, and we had many good meals and lots of fun shopping. It's such a shame our family is scattered all over the United States.

"hand over the camera and I'll stop wiggling my eye brows at you!"

Surprise! Delight! Who knows why!?

all chubby cheeks and big forehead!