Dreamer.Thinker.Player.: Look who is 11 months old!!!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Look who is 11 months old!!!

I seriously can't believe it has been 11 months! In just 31 days I will no longer have "babies". I will have "big boys". Makes me sad and very happy at the same time. It has been so cool watching the boys start to play together over the past few months. I can't say enough good things about how great of a big brother Jonathan is. He is gentle and patient. He is constantly trying to show him how to do things. It warms my heart! Of course, there are the not so good moments, of the bumps and bruises and the "I had this first" and "he took this from me"...Okay Ben doesn't actually say those things too, but it is implied in his cry.
One thing is for sure, I love figuring this parenting thing out with Michael. He and I make a really good team, and with the 2 kids, I think we make a great family!

Ben has had a lot of firsts over the past few months, nothing can slow this kid down! One big piece of news, he has taken his first steps!!! He took them on March 19th! He had been cruising the couch for a month or so and this particular evening he was cruising and turned to grab my leg, which was still about 1.5 feet away. He realized after standing for a split second that he wasn't holding onto anything. He took one gigantic step forward, it was hilarious because he looked shocked the whole time. Then when he grabbed my leg he laughed and laughed. It kind of reminded me of when you laugh after you fall, you know instead of crying, you laugh? Either way, it was precious and I was so glad that both Michael and I were there to see it! He has taken a few more steps here and there...I am sure that by his first birthday he will be running!! For now he continues to speed crawl throuoghout the house. He loves to go up and down our long hallway and to do circles around Jonathan's train table!

Another BIG thing is that, I weaned him when he was 9 months. There were many big factors that went into this decision and was a difficult one to do, especially since my goal was to nursing him until he was a year. That being said, this was an extremely good decision for all of us. Ben switched over to the bottles extremely easily! I loved that I was able to nurse him for 9 months! It is a time that I will always treasure.

His favorite word is still "Dada"! In fact, we are all Dada. But I finally got a "Momma" the other day and few more since then! There is nothing like it! We have been really working with Jonathan and his alphabet flash cards lately and Ben has been right there under him, watching closely. So I expect that he will know his letters very soon! (I'm kidding of course! But I love how curious he is about what brother is learning...and Jonathan is doing an awesome job with his letters and numbers!)

We have a busy month ahead planning and preparing for 2 big boy birthday parties at our house! April will never be boring for us!!! It's exciting!!! Stay tuned for pictures!

This is by far one of my favorite pictures of him. He was being really sweet and I was feeding him lunch (Jonathan was at school). Then he did this with his arm and smiled at me. I was so happy I had my phone right there to grab and take a picture. As I might have mentioned before, there are times that Ben reminds me of my Dad. This is the first time I was able to capture it in a photo. Amy saw this and agreed, it's okay if you don't, you didn't know are Daddy like we did. The cool thing is Michael and I both have seen Theron, Michael's Dad, in Ben too. I think it is a blessing to have children who can carry on the legacy of our awesome parents.