Benny at 9 Months

Mr. Benny turned 9 months old last week. We took him for his well visit and here are the stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 1 oz (12%)

Length: 27.5 in (24%)

Head Cir: 17.5 in (25%)

He's pretty much tracking on the 25% growth curves. I think Sam was about the same until around two years old. Now Sam is tracking on the 50% curve.

Ben also had the Hep B vaccine. It didn't seem to make any difference that he only got one shot this time. We got just as many tears.

Ben is quite a handful now. He's pulling up on everything, crawling every where, getting into everything, and putting everything in his mouth. It's a lot of work trying to keep up with him and keep him out of trouble. We got the stair gates installed this weekend, so I rest a little easier. He was already figuring out that whole stair climbing thing.

I just love those eyes, that smile, and those dimples. Ben has never been very snuggly in the past, but he's been wonderfully snuggly lately.

This is our little man watching a movie. He usually doesn't sit still for the movies that Sam likes to watch, but we put on one of Sam's old baby movies and he loved it.

Ben is still not crazy about finger food in the form of fruits, veggies, meat, etc, but he does ok with bready things. He had waffles for the first time. His favorite snack are those little puffs that dissolve in his mouth, but he'll also eat cookies, crackers, cereal, and cereal bars.

Ben has started wanting to sit in Daddy's lap when he's reading books. He's usually pretty tired by the time we make it to story time, so he usually doesn't make it through more than one book.

If Sam has something, Ben wants it.

Ben insisted that this strawberry milk was his, not Sam's.

He was quite excited to win that fight and even tried a little of the milk. His doctor said it would be ok to start introducing him to milk instead of having formula all the time, but making that transition from warm formula to cold milk takes some getting used to. He mostly gets the milk in his mouth and let's it dribble out every where.

Bath Times Two

Ben is officially 0ut of his baby tub and taking a regular bath. Daddy held onto him the first few nights but he's pretty stable now. It's hard to wash him though because he starts kicking his legs to splash as soon as you stand him up to wash him.

Sam loves having Ben in the tub with him. He especially loves to splash him in the face and pour water on his head.

It's pretty obvious that the bath floor gets pretty wet with two boys splashing.

Of course Ben is not content to actually stay seated in the tub. After a few good rounds of splashing his practicing he's other new skill of pulling up.

Here's some bath time footage. My favorite part is where Sam is whining about getting his hair washed and says "no" ... then Benny starts saying "no" too.

4th of July with Lulu

Lulu came to visit for 4th of July.

Chris made a wonderful brisket, probably the best I've ever had. I'm gonna keep taking these holiday pictures around the table, and I'm gonna keep posting them (goofy faces and all)!

I was very proud of my red, white, and blue berry-lemon tart.

We're not quite ready for sparklers yet, so we got glow bracelets for the boys to play with. I also got a couple of boxes of pop-snaps for Sam (though Mimi, Lulu, and I got just as much fun out of them).

We walked down to the end of our street to see one of the local fireworks displays.

This is the view.

A little toad watched with us.

Sam decorating 4th of July cookies.

We got to go downtown later that week, see where Melanie works, and have a yummy lunch at La Duni.

Ice Time

Sam started taking ice skating lessons again in February. It's been a lot of fun seeing how quickly he's learning.

I must admit that it has also been a lot of fun to go skating with him.

Of course skating wouldn't be any fun if Hagen wasn't there, too.

I put together a little video of Sam learning how to skate over the last six months ...

Here are some pictures of Daddy, Ben, Lulu, and Pops coming to the rink with us. Some of these pictures are from back in February, so you can see how much Ben has grown too.

This winter was all about the ice. We got to see lots of hockey games. Of course we saw a few Allen American games. We got to see some of Shawn's games, too (Hagen's dad).

Sam and Ben had tons of fun at the games. It reminds me of going to football games and basketball games when I was growing up ... I had a lot of fun then, but it was really more about playing with my friends and running up and down the bleachers!

First Fight

Sam and Ben had their first fight yesterday. Sam was trying to play a game and Ben kept stealing the pieces. Sam pushed Ben away yelling, "No, Benny!" Ben squealed and reached out and scratched Sam's arm. Sam started crying. Ben started crying.

I'm sorry, but I had to laugh before I pulled them apart. It was yet another milestone that came sooner than I expected.

Cousins

Yes, I am seriously just now getting around to posting the last of the pictures from our visit to Indianola. I'll spare you all of the excuses since they really don't matter.

We tried to get all of the cousins together for a cute picture outside, but the boys were in no way interested in participating.

Ben with Maddie

Ben with Stephanie

Max and Landry

Boys playing tag in the house

Looking at old family pictures and pictures of the boys

We had a great visit to Mississippi, and I really can't wait to go back.

More Pics from Indianola

We're back in Texas now, but I still have two days worth of pictures from our trip to Mississippi to post.

We got to see Andrea again in Indianola. Sam just adores her. We hope she gets to move to Texas soon so we can see her more often.



Nanner got to meet Ben for the first time on this trip. She wanted to hold him and rock him, but he's way too active for that.



Cousins Max and Landry came to visit. We had not seen Landry since he was four, and this was the first time we got to meet Max.



And then the boys dumped out the puzzle pieces for this huge 3D puzzle.



They made a valiant effort, but that was a little bit more than they had the attention span for.



We had to get the boys outside to burn off a little energy.



I wish we had a big enough to play soccer. I miss the big yards in Mississippi.







It's the generation of boys.



Ben and Tom.



The Shake 'n Go Flyer was also a big hit. I think it is one of the coolest toys ever, but I'm having a heck of a time finding them for a reasonable price.



Stella and Nanner.



Ben and Sheila.



Here's a few pictures from Nanner's backyard ...



Mmmmm, honeysuckle. This is one of those smells that makes me feel like a kid again. It takes me right back to Percy Street and all of that honeysuckle on our hurricane fence.



I love figs. The season for fresh figs is too short. You have to get them before the birds do.



I took this picture before Sam tore all of the petals off. Little boys and flowers are not the best combination.



Another type of lily. My favorite lilies in Nanner's yard when I was growing up were the red spider lilies.



Living near the bayou, there are lots of dragonflies around.