Ben: Nine Months

Another big month has come and gone! Mom and Dad cannot believe Ben is already 9 months old!

Ben continues to enjoy eating. He is eating Stage 3 dinners now that have small pieces he can practice chewing on. He also enjoys some table food like mashed bananas or green beans. We tried some crackers that dissolve in your mouth called Puffs earlier in the month and Ben did not care for them being on his tongue at all. He has a pretty strong gag reflex. We reintroduced them in the last couple of weeks and he loves gumming them and can pick them up with his fingers and sort of feed himself. He has also mastered a sippy cup and really enjoys a glass of water when Mom and Dad are drinking one. He does not want to be left out!

Ben is rolling like crazy and really working hard to crawl. He can sort of army crawl and can scoot himself backwards pretty well. He gets into a normal crawling position and can turn himself around on his belly in any direction. He just hasn't mastered moving forward with ease yet. So a lot of times he will get on his hands and knees, turn where he wants to go and then roll to that destination. He is a huge fan of standing. He can stand at a play table or lean on the couch without any help. He isn't cruising yet, but he tries to inch around and just hasn't quite mastered moving his feet in steps.

He is working on mastering many other "skills" like pinching, clicking his tongue, clapping, playing peekaboo and waving. Ben has two bottom teeth now and they are starting to come in enough to see when he smiles. He is also getting more hair and is starting to really look like a little boy rather than a baby. Ben is continuing to babble up a storm. He has officially said "mama" now and likes to say it when he sees me, when he is tired, hungry or frustrated--basically whenever he wants Mom or Dad to meet a need. We have also started some signing with Ben. We are just doing a few words that will be helpful in communication like eat, more, milk and a few others. We just started this and will see over the next few months if it is helpful for him to be less frustrated until he can verbalize those words. In the meantime it is entertaining for him to see Mom and Dad do these funny things with their hands.

Ben moves to the next classroom this week. He has been visiting for a couple of weeks now for partial days and seems to really like it. The new teachers enjoy him (of course!) and I think he will really like being with the older kids. It will be hard to leave the wonderful teachers in the baby room though. They have really gotten us through a lot of our "firsts". He will just be next door though, so I am sure we will still go by to say hello. I have also heard that when they move up like this that their development really benefits by seeing the older babies crawl, eat table food, etc.

Ben has gotten to travel more this month. We visited his great-grandparents in Kansas over Father's Day weekend. Ben enjoyed playing with all of the family and got to show off the card he made Dad at school and watch all the dads open their gifts. The following weekend Mom, Dad and Ben went to Table Rock Lake in Missouri to celebrate Mom and Dad's fifth anniversary. We all enjoyed a relaxing weekend in a cabin on the lake. We showed Ben lots of pretty scenery on some walks and drives, tried to show him some fish at the dock and enjoyed some lazy days just hanging out.

Under links we have Ben's 8th and 9th month pictures posted on Snapfish. There are lots of swimming, our trips, friends, playing, etc.

Love to you all!