Ben: Eight Months

Things are changing quickly at our house! Ben is rolling to places he wants to go and creeping as well. He doesn't have the coordination of crawling yet, but I am sure it will be here before we know it. When he rolled to get to the entertainment cabinet and proceeded to open the door and reach for DVDs, I knew we were in a new phase! Ben also goes to his crawling position from sitting up. He will then switch to rolling from there and end up in all sorts of places.

Ben started eating meats this month. I know a lot of you are relieved that his mom isn't keeping him from such wonders as "chicken and apples" and "ham in ham gravy". Yummy! He is really enjoying these new taste sensations and is always eager when lunch and dinner time roll around. We will be working towards foods with more textures and finger foods next. He still enjoys blowing raspberries during eating time and covering mom in whatever tasty treat is in that meal. It is hard not to laugh at his excitement.

We finished our swim classes this month. Ben has been under water many times now and really enjoys playing in the pool. In his last class he got to go down the slide into Dad's arms. What fun! We are ready to hit the neighborhood pool this summer and practice the things we learned.

School is going well. We will be moving to the next classroom sometime next month. This classroom will have babies that crawl and are learning to walk. I am sure Ben will be learning lots of new things. Currently he enjoys playing with a couple of his friends in class and taking buggy rides outside. This month Ben got to make his first Mothers' Day gift. He helped decorate a special onesie that he wore on that day. Mom was pretty proud and enjoyed her first Mothers' Day with nice gifts, cards and most important an afternoon playing with Ben.

In addition to all of the physical developments, Ben has been "talking" up a storm. He is really good at his la's, ba's and ma's right now. He will throw in the occasional ga and da. He says "mama" all the time and is starting to associate it with his mama. We aren't quite sure he "gets" it, but he definitely can repeat it after you say it and says it quite a bit when we are playing or he is getting tired or hungry. He also "sings" his la's when others are signing at church and sometimes he just sings to himself. He is also "dancing" to music sometimes. It is too cute!

And finally this month we have enjoyed a visit from MaryBeth Petr, a trip to Lawrence to see Grandma and Grandpa McCullough and some fun times with Mom's family in Tulsa. We are looking forward to more travels this summer. We hope to have Ben's first lake visit, a trip to "the Farm" and maybe even a beach trip.

We hope these updates give you some insight into Ben's latest adventures especially for those of you who can't see him in person as often. Please update us about your families when you have time. Love to all!