Ben - 9 Months

This boy is changing every day. New sounds. New teeth. New mischief. He is keeping me on my toes. Every second of every day. Let's see - where to begin on his changes...

His bottom two teeth have broken through. We had several unusually fussy afternoons so I started feeling around in his mouth and felt something rough. A day or two later I could see the faintest white spot. I looked back at the blog for when Carter got his first tooth. Surprisingly, Ben's tooth broke through almost to the calendar day of Carter's first tooth, although Ben's is two months earlier than Carter's according to age.



He is army crawling everywhere. If I leave him in the living room and go to the kitchen, he comes to find me. If he is bored in the living room, he will take off for the playroom. Lately our naptime routine has been to sit Ben down on the rug in Carter's room with lots of toys to occupy him while I read Carter's bedtime books to him. Today, I had to get out of the bed 3 times to retrieve Ben from getting into dangerous things. He is really into exploring every little thing. I am tempted to start spraying his tummy with pine sol so he can clean my floors as he scoots around. (only kidding).



If the above video will not play...try clicking here.

He is so snuggly (when he wants to be). He knows his naptime/bedtime routine and will lay his head down on my shoulder and just look up at me as sweet as can be just before I lay him in his crib.



He is starting to eat real food. He can gum puffs, cheerios, strawberries, cantaloupe. It is fun for him to have something to do while we eat. And he enjoys it too. I think he is ready to eat everything big brother eats.

He continues to be pretty good at just coming along for the ride. Whether it be DC, or the Gardens, or plenty of trips to Target, he is pretty chill. (most of the time.)



He is starting to enjoy his big brother. And big brother is starting to enjoy Ben a little more too. When Ben is laying on the floor, Carter will come over and lay on him and they hug each other until Carter starts laying a little too heavy. They will roll balls back and forth. Carter is getting more patient with Ben exploring some of his toys. They are bathing together now. It is just getting more and more fun!



He is standing a lot. Can support himself very well while holding onto toys or the ottoman. He is also starting to manipulate toys better. It is funny to see what interests him at 9 months compared to what I remember Carter playing with at this age. I don't think we had many cars or balls at 9 months with Carter. But Ben LOVES them. I guess it is just part of being the second child - he will probably enjoy most things a little bit earlier than Carter did.

We are in a good schedule. He wakes anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 and then goes down for a morning nap around 8:30. His morning nap is around 2 hours on a good day. Fantastic! When he wakes, he feeds, then we usually load up and go somewhere for the middle of the day because mama is always itching to get out of the house! We are back home by 1 or so, then with any luck, both boys go down for an afternoon nap around 1:30. By 3:00, both boys are usually up and we enjoy afternoon playtime at home until Dada gets home. We all eat around 6, both boys take a bath around 6:45 and then Ben is down by 7:30 at the latest. On good nights, he will sleep all night. But lately, he has been waking up wet around midnight. Poor thing. We just switched to the next size up in diapers and are hoping that might keep him dry through the night. Can't blame the boy for waking up when his clothes are wet! We struggled with this with Carter too, and I think it is just a boy thing.

I know this post was full of a lot of details that you might not be interested in, but my plan for this blog is to publish each year in a book as our family scrapbook, and I think we might just enjoy reading all of it years down the road. :) Can't wait to see what the next months have in store for my little baby boy!

a little math

= A GOOD AFTERNOON NAP!!! (a little over 2 hours!!!)

And...

THIS + THIS + THIS + THIS + THIS = 5 posts in 6 days. Can't believe it myself. :)

Rub a Dub Dub

TWO Boys in the Tub!







So nice to finally bathe two boys at once!

School's Out for Summer!

Carter's last day of preschool was yesterday. It didn't seem to phase Carter - although he did enjoy the end of the year party. Mama, on the other hand is a little nervous about the 3 months ahead. I have come to really enjoy my Tuesday and Thursday morning one on one time with Ben (as well as the just me time while Ben takes his morning nap).

It really has been a great year for Carter. I remember back in the fall being really nervous about Carter starting school just 2 weeks after Ben was born. I always heard/read to not change ANYTHING about the older sibling's schedule just after the new baby is born so they keep their routine and don't feel that the baby has changed their life too much. So what do we do? Send him to school! But he adjusted great. He loves his teachers and I think they love him too. And he made some special friends too.

Here are just a few pictures from the last day...



Can you find Carter in this picture?



He cleaned his plate as fast as possible and then took off to read some books on the carpet.



Little brother along for the ride as usual...he is usually pretty popular in the classroom. All the kids like to come up and say hello.



But his biggest fan is still Carter. As soon as he saw us come in he ran up and gave Ben a "reedy reedy big" hug (as Carter would say.)

My Little Fish

We started swim lessons on Monday and at the end of day 3 I could not be more proud of my little fish. Truthfully, I am more than proud, I am shocked at all he has learned in just 3 days!

On Monday, he basically caught up to where we left off at the end of our Mom n Me class last summer. There was one big difference though - this year I drop him off and only come back for the last 5 minutes of class. I was expecting some sort of tears or resistance. Nope, he put on his goggles and got right in. At the end of the first class he had gone under water about 15 times, was working on holding on to the side of the pool, and was practicing floating on his back.

He got a blue ribbon for going under water...



When I picked him up today, he had several new tricks to show me.

He was sitting on the side of the pool and the instructor helped him jump into the water (fully submerged) then Carter turned himself around came up for air and used his hand to grab onto the wall and hold himself up for 5 seconds.

Then he floated on his back unasisted for over 5 seconds.

Next he swam for 4 floaty toys and gave them back to the instructor.

And finally, he swam for a toy at the bottom of the pool. It was the shallowist part, but still, I was shocked and impressed.

If that didn't make mama as proud as I know how to be, the instructor told me that he loves teaching Carter because he is just so happy and fun to teach. He even said that Carter never closes his mouth when he goes under water because he just seems to be having so much fun.

I am going to try to catch some pictures/video before the class is over next week.

Our First Fruit

I know, I know, it's been awhile. Sorry grandparents. Lots of stories to share - hope to find time to get to them all soon.

First up - our first fruit!

We picked some blueberries off of our bush this morning and they were tasty. We planted our only blueberry bush in 2008, so this is its third year, and so far it is the most fruitful year. Typically, you need at least 2 blueberry bushes near each other to cross pollinate each other. But, we only had room for one bush, so we purchased a self-pollinating variety and so far so good! I am sure we would have more fruit if we had more bushes, but we are pleased with our one bush so far.





Carter counted our pickings this morning.



Then he shared them will all of us.



Well, almost all of us. Ben isn't quite ready for blueberries (but he is enjoying strawberries and cantaloupe now!)

And here is a sneak peek of the rest of our garden.



It has really taken off. It needs some work this weekend, but I am hopeful to have more to share soon.

School Bus and Water Play

We had some special guests this weekend - my aunt and uncle were in town from south Georgia. On Saturday we headed down to a state park where they were staying with their RV - aka the "school bus" according to Carter. It was our first time to see their new mode of transportation and it was really cool. It has just about everything - a ceiling fan in the bedroom, refrigerator, all sorts of nooks and cranny for storing things. And a really big steering wheel that Carter loved.



They grilled out for us for dinner. Check out this spread she had in the RV. I was impressed.



And here we are eating by the school bus with cute tablecloth and cute candle buckets on the table.



Mama JuJu had a special treat for Carter that Granddaddy asked her to bring - a BIG bag full of my dad's lincoln logs from when he was a boy.



I forsee lots of building creations in the years to come.



And Ben is already enjoying them too.



The state park also had a fun playground.



Still getting used to that new haircut!



Carter and Uncle Steve hit it off right away!



On Mother's Day I got to sleep in and enjoyed waking up to kisses from my boys, coffee in bed, and fun cards. After church, lunch, and naptime, we all went to the Botanical Gardens for some sandbox and waterplay fun.

This was Ben's first sand experience.



It was fun to see how Carter's play has evolved since last summer. He was much more creative with the toys in the sand box. He made all of us blueberry muffins.



And then served them to us.



Enjoying the sand with my boys.



Next up...water play. For the first 15 minutes or so, Carter kept running around with his hands on his ears.



Seriously, he would. not. take. them. off.
I finally got him to stop running, asked him why he was holding his ears and he said - "so water won't get in my ears mama." Well of course. That makes sense. I tried to explain that it would be ok. Thankfully he listened and I got some normal pictures.

He looks like a chipmunk in this one to me.





I have a feeling we will be back for water play soon.

That night we cranked up the grill for the first time this summer.

When we grill, we grill for the week, so I had Adam grill chicken, sausage, shrimp, and lots of veggies. It was a yummy Mother's Day dinner.



It was a fun-filled weekend...thanks for visiting Mama JuJu and Uncle Steve.

Buzzed.

As the days have gotten warmer, our boys sweat glands have started working overtime. Whenever I pick Carter up from school his cheeks are rosy red and his hair is matted down to his forehead. It is more than a southern glistening...it is pure sweat. We decided to give Carter a summer buzz cut to hopefully make him a little more comfortable during the warmer months. And by 'we decided to give Carter a summer buzz cut' I mean 'we decided to give Carter a summer buzz cut' very literally.

We have a set of clippers passed down from Adam's Granddaddy and have only used them once. Back in law school, Adam was sporting the short buzz cut and he asked me to try to give him a cut to save some money. I did the first level, started the second level, then put a cap on his head and told him to go to the barber shop before I messed it up anymore.

Well, we have been getting Adam and Carter's hair cut pretty regularly for the past 6 months or so and I have been watching and decided it was time to take another shot at our home barber shop. So we got out the clippers, set Carter up in a chair with a towel around his neck and a sucker in his mouth, and got to buzzing...

Before:



"What are you guys about to do to me?"



"You can do whatever you want as long as I have this sucker!"



Mommy begins to panic a little bit after seeing all of this hair.



Both boys post cut...



Nothing like a fresh buzz cut hair rub...



Carter definitely looks older and I am still getting used to the new look. But I know he will be so much more comfortable this summer. And I know it will grow back come fall. And I know I am glad we will be saving $30 every few weeks now that we can cut hair at home!

Any tips out there from other at home barber shops?

Daddy's Playground

We are fortunate to live within walking distance to an elementary school with a great playground. We walk to what we call "Carter's Playground" at least once a week to let him get some energy out. Well, Daddy has found a "playground" for himself too.

It is more of an exercise park than a playground, but Carter calls it "Dada's Playground" and he enjoys visiting it with Dada. A couple of weeks ago, we walked to a new favorite ice cream shop and on the way home we stopped by Dada's Playground so Carter could show me all of the fun "toys"...





After all of the fun playing...we enjoyed blowing some dandelions.





You'll never guess where Carter wanted to go next..."Carter's Playground!"