Whew, fall is fast and furious around here. The season is flying by as fast as Ben is growing. In the last month he's gotten two teeth, is crawling like a pro, can clap his hands, pulls himself up and is trying to cruise! I'm in trouble, I know... I know. His crawling used to be contained to the area we set him in, but now he's ready to explore. He wants to see everywhere he's never been. He wants to climb the stairs, get into the laundry room, go under Dan's desk.
We've also stepped it up on introducing new foods. I found myself in a pattern of giving him just a few different things. After reading an article about the need to get as many new flavors into the boy before he turns one, I've made it my goal to introduce two new foods a week. I've made and frozen green veggies and sqash, we have two little pumpkins to roast and this past week we added egg yolks to his diet. He also has a great love for pears, so he is seen around town these days with is "fresh fruit" ring, sucking on a pear.
As a family we now do things we never used to do. We went to the pumpkin patch with the Owenbys and had a great time taking pictures and buying pumpkins. The boys were curious about all the gourds and pumpkins. My Ben did his best to eat dirt and straw, while little Ben was more interested in figuring out what in the world he was suppose to do with the pumpkin in his lap.
And as a family we do things we always do, but now we get to introduce Ben to the fun. We took him on his first camping trip to First Landing State Park with our family for the annual Octoberfest celebration. Ben LOVED camping. I'll never forget his face in the morning after I took him out of the tent. He was grinning ear to ear and had a look of sheer joy. His face read "I can't believe my luck! I'm still camping!". I suppose it's not surprising that he loves it. He's always been happy outside. Camping was a great adventure. He discovered dirt, got to go swimming in October, woke up in the morning and found that mom and dad were sleeping right there too. And best of all he got to spend lots of time with his Grandma and Grandpa and his uncle Sean and Aunt Shauna.
This past weekend was football and Bodo's. Ben was a super baby on this road trip. We planned it perfectly so that he slept for the first hour or so of the ride up. After he woke up he played in the carseat the rest of the way perfectly content to be going some place. We got to Charlottesville and the rain was threatening, but we decided to try it. We met Amanda and Casey and Rae Lynn on the short walk to the stadium. RL is an old pro at football games, but Ben had a mini melt down when we got into the stadium. He was in the bjorn, and couldn't see either Dan or I and freaked out at the noise. Once we had him out of the Bjorn and assured him it was okay, he calmed right down and started to try to figure out what in the world we were doing in this loud place. We made it for about 15 or 20 minutes before the rain started coming down in sheets. We quickly decided that sitting in the rain wasn't going to happen (especially since we weren't playing very well) so we decided to head to Bodo's. Amanda, Casey and RL came too and we had a geat lunch. RL and Ben held hands, poked at each other, made friends with the other diners, and made a mess in general of the entire area around our booth. It was great to catch up with Amanda and Casey and all in all we were glad that we made the trip. And just as we planned we put our tired little guy in the car and he slept all the way home.
I really think the secret to happy baby is the flexible schedule idea that we adopted from the beginning... and not over doing it. Ben was so pleasant on this trip and I'm sure that it's because we were able to work it around his general schedule for eating and sleeping. We are going to try our next road trip at Thanksgiving. We'll see if my theory is correct, or if we really just got lucky on this one.
So Ben's seventh month flew by with our weekends packed with activities. I'm hoping that November is a little less busy, but I'm sure we will be on the go just as we are now, with holiday preparations, parties, travel, family and friends.
We've also stepped it up on introducing new foods. I found myself in a pattern of giving him just a few different things. After reading an article about the need to get as many new flavors into the boy before he turns one, I've made it my goal to introduce two new foods a week. I've made and frozen green veggies and sqash, we have two little pumpkins to roast and this past week we added egg yolks to his diet. He also has a great love for pears, so he is seen around town these days with is "fresh fruit" ring, sucking on a pear.
As a family we now do things we never used to do. We went to the pumpkin patch with the Owenbys and had a great time taking pictures and buying pumpkins. The boys were curious about all the gourds and pumpkins. My Ben did his best to eat dirt and straw, while little Ben was more interested in figuring out what in the world he was suppose to do with the pumpkin in his lap.
And as a family we do things we always do, but now we get to introduce Ben to the fun. We took him on his first camping trip to First Landing State Park with our family for the annual Octoberfest celebration. Ben LOVED camping. I'll never forget his face in the morning after I took him out of the tent. He was grinning ear to ear and had a look of sheer joy. His face read "I can't believe my luck! I'm still camping!". I suppose it's not surprising that he loves it. He's always been happy outside. Camping was a great adventure. He discovered dirt, got to go swimming in October, woke up in the morning and found that mom and dad were sleeping right there too. And best of all he got to spend lots of time with his Grandma and Grandpa and his uncle Sean and Aunt Shauna.
This past weekend was football and Bodo's. Ben was a super baby on this road trip. We planned it perfectly so that he slept for the first hour or so of the ride up. After he woke up he played in the carseat the rest of the way perfectly content to be going some place. We got to Charlottesville and the rain was threatening, but we decided to try it. We met Amanda and Casey and Rae Lynn on the short walk to the stadium. RL is an old pro at football games, but Ben had a mini melt down when we got into the stadium. He was in the bjorn, and couldn't see either Dan or I and freaked out at the noise. Once we had him out of the Bjorn and assured him it was okay, he calmed right down and started to try to figure out what in the world we were doing in this loud place. We made it for about 15 or 20 minutes before the rain started coming down in sheets. We quickly decided that sitting in the rain wasn't going to happen (especially since we weren't playing very well) so we decided to head to Bodo's. Amanda, Casey and RL came too and we had a geat lunch. RL and Ben held hands, poked at each other, made friends with the other diners, and made a mess in general of the entire area around our booth. It was great to catch up with Amanda and Casey and all in all we were glad that we made the trip. And just as we planned we put our tired little guy in the car and he slept all the way home.
I really think the secret to happy baby is the flexible schedule idea that we adopted from the beginning... and not over doing it. Ben was so pleasant on this trip and I'm sure that it's because we were able to work it around his general schedule for eating and sleeping. We are going to try our next road trip at Thanksgiving. We'll see if my theory is correct, or if we really just got lucky on this one.
So Ben's seventh month flew by with our weekends packed with activities. I'm hoping that November is a little less busy, but I'm sure we will be on the go just as we are now, with holiday preparations, parties, travel, family and friends.
