I've been horrible with updating this blog about Benjamin's development, which really has been amazing. It seems like he learns something new everyday, he's just growing so fast! Here's a couple of Ben's new tricks:

- Tummy time is no longer a problem for him. When he was younger and we'd put him on his belly, he would grunt and complain, and sometimes just leave his face in the bed, making me scared he would suffocate and prompting me to end tummy time immediately. Now he's able to hold his head up high, using his arms to lift up his torso. He enjoys lifting up his head and looking around, and when he spots one of us he lets out a big grin.

- He's also trying to figure out how to crawl. When he's on his tummy he'll kick his legs out or lift his butt up in the air and try to scoot about. He hasn't quite gone too far yet, but I'm sure he'll figure it out soon. He's pretty effective in scooting about when he's on his back. He puts his heels on the ground and pushes off on them moving him up and on an angel depending on where he wants to go. He's been doing that for a while now so I never leave him alone on the changing table!

- He rolled over several weeks ago. The story is that he rolled over when my F-I-L was watching him. When I got home Dave and his father were proclaiming, "Benjamin rolled over! Benjamin rolled over!" He rolled over without me? So I said, "Awesome. Let me see him do it!" So they got him on his back and we waited for him to roll over. Nothing. Two days later, we were playing on the bed and he rolled over. In my head, that was his first time, because if Mommy doesn't see it, it doesn't happen!

- Benjamin's favorite toy is his hands. He's amazed with them and he can't keep them out of his mouth. He's finally learned how to grab on to things and is actully making use of those things that hang from his playmat.

- He's a drool machine! I think he'll probably get teeth in the next month or so because he's like a fountain of drool.

- Benjamin has learned how to grab his pacifier on his car seat. Actually, he's learned how to grab onto the hippo pacifier holder and follow the string down to the pacifier. He hasn't quite learned how to hold things yet so when he grabs his pacifier he sticks whatever part of it is closest into his mouth, then maneuvering it around with his hand and mouth until he gets to the nipple. He has a 40% success rate - the rest of the time he gets tired of chewing on the plastic part and flings it away.

- Just last week he figured out how to blow raspberries with his mouth (it's like a constant spitting that sounds like Pffffft). He loves to do it, and it's so adorable! I'll see if I can get it on tape. He's pretty shy when the video camera is in his face so I don't know if I'll get it.

- Ban has one trick he can do on command (yes, it's like having a puppy, but better!). If in tap my hand against his mouth he'll start making an "ahhhh!" sound, which makes an "Ahhwahhwahhhwahhhwahhhwahh" sound like little kids do when they're playing cowboys and indians. It's so adorable, and he really enjoys doing it! He likes it so much that when he's crying I can usually stop him by doing our trick. However, he gets bored of it after a couple of minutes so it's not effective in completely stopping the crying.

So yeah, I think that's where we're at right now. It is just amazing to watch him take in the world and learn all these new things!

Posted by Yano at August 28, 2006 10:20 AM

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