Ben at 11 Months

So, what is Ben like at 11 months?

Does this give you an idea?

Or maybe this is better?

Ben is a full-time handful! He is into everything. We had to do some emergency baby-proofing this weekend since he would not stay away from the gas knobs on the stove or keep his fingers out of the electrical outlets.

No fair! No fun!

He's even figured out how to open the knob-less cabinets, so now we need knobs with baby-proofing on top of that.

His favorite game is ball. He'll play with somebody or by himself.

Note the nice shove he's giving Sam.

Sam is starting to understand that he can actually play with Benny now.

Though Ben doesn't always do exactly what he wants.

It's a good thing his pretty little face just makes us melt.

Ben weighs 20 lbs 4 oz. We know because we had to take him to the doctor last week for an ear infection. Just his right ear, but he's teething too, so he's extra irritable.

Ben is surprising us with all of the words he's picking up. He says Mama, Dada, ball, uh-oh, up, down, and dog all the time. He's said apple, book, light, water, and Cleo once or twice. He says these words at day care too, but if you're not around him every day you probably wouldn't understand what he's saying. He is pointing so there is usually a point that goes along with ball, dog, up and down. Everyone can understand uh-oh. Of course, he says uh-oh even when he drops something on purpose.

He's not interested in the walker at all. He'd rather hold onto our pants while we are walking. He's still sleeping through the night, even letting us sleep in until 8:30 on the weekends. He's starting to try more table foods, but he'd really rather not be stuck in the highchair. He prefers to crawl around the table and have you poke in a few bites here and there. Sound familiar? We also have to make sure Cleo's food is out of reach when he's on the move. That's way too tempting for any baby to stay away from!

Big temper? You wouldn't guess it from this picture, but his temper rivals Sam's for sure. Try to change his diaper. Go on, I dare you. You've never seen so much kicking, hitting, and screaming.

Did I mention that I think he's the cutest thing ever? Even though he's keeping us on our toes, he also makes us laugh a lot. It's fun to see him growing up. I just can't believe he's almost one year old.

Here's a video of Ben dancing, crawling, and playing ball.