Happy Half-Birthday, Ben!

First - I can't believe it's been almost a month since either of us posted anything here. That's just plain sad, even if we *are* tired. So I'm going to try to be better about that.

Second - today marks 6 months since Ben entered the world! Yay! I can't believe 6 months have already gone by. It truly has flown, and it seems like it's been a much faster half-year than after Rachel was born.

Ben, you are a joy. Your laugh is infectious, as is your precious smile, and I love the way your eyes just light up when you see someone you love or when you find something amusing. You have a curious mind and catch on to things quickly. You're an enthusiastic eater, an explorer of fluffy stuffed animals and a connoisseur of whatever you can put into your mouth.

Our lives are richer for you being part of them. We love you dearly, little boy.

(Note: In many pictures, he now has an orange nose. He's carrying on the tradition started by Rachel. Like her, he's a big fan of sweet potatoes and carrots, so I'm trying to balance them out with green beans, peas and other non-orange foods.)

Another Thing A Five-Month-Old Shouldn't Know

"If I pull the place mat, the plate comes to me and I can grab the french fries."

I just wish I had caught the photo of him where he was leaning out, using Lori's hair as a rope in order to lean further and reach farther. 

Toes & Spoons

Two of Ben's recent discoveries have been his toes, and spoons.

He seems to take great delight in taking hold of his toes and pulling them up towards his shoulders. Amazing how flexible babies are! He also likes trying to pull off his socks and pulling the feet of his sleepers loose from his actual feet. He's getting better about playing with things, too, and will spend some time in the playyard with the LeapFrog Musical Ball and his stuffed dog and lion, alternating between chewing on his stuffed animals and making the ball create music. He'll also play for a little bit with the parts of his activity gym.

It's nice to be making some progress in his ability to keep himself amused, especially since he's getting too big for his bouncer, which he never liked much, anyway. He's also not a big fan of his swing, although he'll sit in it for a while. He had been sleeping pretty much exclusively in his swing since around 5 or 6 weeks old, due to reflux/gas discomfort when we'd try to lay him down in his co-sleeper. A few weeks ago, he apparently decided he was done sleeping in the swing, although we didn't know that was the problem until yesterday, really.

I'd tried to put him in the swing for his nap, and he resisted sitting back, keeping his little arms in front of the molded sides so that it was difficult to make him sit back. I was able to buckle him in, but let him stay sitting forward, figuring he'd grow tired, sit back and go to sleep. I checked on him 10 or so minutes later and he was still sitting forward. I tried to get him to sit back and realized I was practically squashing him into the swing. I didn't know that it was getting to be a tight fit and felt so bad that he'd sat there propping himself up with his arms because he didn't want to go into it. I ended up putting him in the other swing (the one we bought in Anaheim because we couldn't get him to sleep without it), which has a wider back, not so curved in. He fell asleep in there for a few hours but didn't want to stay in it for the night.

Yesterday afternoon, I put him in the co-sleeper for his nap. After just a couple of minutes of fussing, he laid his little head down and went to sleep for 2 1/2 hours! Then after being up for a few hours, I put him back down after his evening routine, and he went nearly 6 hours before he woke up again. He slept most of the night in the co-sleeper, with breaks for eating, only joining me in bed around 7:15 this morning. Victory! I'm hoping he continues to do well sleeping in there. I'd about given up hope that he'd be sleeping flat any time soon and didn't know what to do, as I can't fully relax and deeply sleep when he's laying next to me, especially when he keeps wanting to eat.

The other thing Ben is enjoying is eating his rice cereal. James already talked about he steered a spoon right towards and into his mouth. That may have been beginner's luck, but I don't think it'll take him a long time to master getting food itno his mouth once he's getting the chance to do it more often. So far he's only eating rice cereal, but with great interest and gusto. I figure we'll add a second cereal feeding soon, then in 2 or 3 weeks, start with green beans. I'm pretty excited to start him on other foods and see what he thinks. He's had an intense interest in our meals, and I suspect we'll have an enthusiastic eater on our hands.

Little Ballerina

Rachel has started her first dance class. It's a 45-minute Little Ballerina class, and she'll be in it for 11 weeks. Then she'll have a recital for two evenings the following week, on Dec. 9 and 10.

She's thoroughly enjoying herself, but she's quite the chatty one and definitely not the most disciplined dancer ;) We're hoping she'll develop a little more concentration and discipline through the class and maybe decide to take more classes, whether they're ballet or another dance or movement/gymnastics or sports, or something else she may enjoy.

Here a few photos of her from the first day of class: