My futures so bright... I gotta wear shades

The sun finally came out yesterday!! Yay! And we were uber prepared, with Jammy's new sunglasses. He can now join the bad ass shades club. Although we won't tell him thats what its called. I really thought they would bother him and he would try to take them off. (Thats what happens when we try to put glasses on the dog, my closest frame of reference.) But he wore them like a pro, helping me out with the yard, and then almost all the way around Greenlake with Grandma. They are very cool though - they don't have plastic pieces on the sides, but instead they stay on with a neoprene strap that wraps all the way around and velcros at the back of his head. $6 well spent - Thank you Target!

Big weekend for the little guy

Well this turned out to be quite the big weekend for the Benbino. Not only did we learn about pears (yum!), but he went to his first wedding. Loren's friend Shannon from Gonzaga got married yesterday afternoon, and after much debate, all 3 of us went. It was a lot of fun. The big triumph was no spit up on my dress, which was one of my big concerns. Benjamin was really pretty good, and there were lots of kids there, so that wasa great. He got kinda tired and cranky near the end of the reception, which was fine, because it meant he was a great slow dance partner for me, and then he totally sacked out. Another thing that we tried this weekend was mashed banana. The first time, the boy was getting a little fussy, and I thought he must be hungry, so I tried to feed him. Not so much (see photo). After he nearly fell asleep in the high chair, I decided this might not be the most opportune time to introduce something new, so instead he took a nap. We tried again later, and the bananas were pretty well received. Not as good as the pears mind you, but ok. Next on the agenda is avacados and sweet potatoes.

And the winner is... pears!

After tolerating carrots and rice cereal, and more or less shunning green beans and peas, we found a food that Benjamin likes this weekend. Pears! No big surprise that he would prefer the super sweet fruit to the vegetables. I pureed a pear and froze it into ice cube trays. He ate 6 ice cubes worth of pears at one sitting. Now this may not sound like a lot, but I don't know if he has eaten one ice cube worth of carrots in his lifetime, which is his third favorite food (rice cereal would be second). He was doing so well I thought I would just try a couple spoonfuls of carrots, to see if maybe he had just gotten the whole food thing figured out. Not so much. See if you can tell where in the photo progression we switch from pears to carrots.

Benito, tiny benevolent dictator

How perfect is this? We went to PEPS on Wednesday, and Christina and Agnish gave Benjamin this little hat. (Thanks guys!) It makes the perfect fashion statement for him. Apparently it is too small for Luca, who they say has a giant head. Its actually a smidge on the small side for Benjamin too, so its lucky we have it now. I love this shot - its like he is giving an impassioned dictatorish speech, and hitting the podium to emphasize a point.

Peps was really funny this week. The babies are all getting so much bigger, they are very funny and interesting. A couple of kids aren't actually crawling, but they are moving around a ton what with the rolling and the scooting. And they are all so interested in each other. Benjamin and Cora had a total staring contest. They were just enthralled with each other. Big, wide eyed stares. And Anya grabbed a hold of Benjamin's ear pretty vigorously, so later he retaliated by pulling on her cheek. The whole thing is very amusing.

For those of you (Cookie!) who found the rolling/scooching mobility problematic, take a look at this picture. Very disturbing. He can stand up by himself if he has something (coffee table or ottoman) to hold on to. He is getting all grown up!

Grrr!

Nothing of note to report today. But I did just find this photo, and I think it is pretty funny. It looks like a total rock star snarl to me. He should be on stage in his leather pants, holding a microphone making this face. What a tough guy.

Green Beans with Grandma

Yesterday we introduced the Jamster to greenbeans. It was received about like the other veggies. Not noticably liked, but not flat out rejected either. He made some pretty funny disgusted and confused faces, but never really turned it down. I mixed it with rice cereal after a few bites, and he liked that a little better. That worked with carrots too - I think the familiar texture makes it easier. So the green beans were ok, and he thinks Grandma is pretty funny, so we all had a good time. I think the next new food will be something sweet, like pears or sweet potatoes, and we'll see if he is enthusiastic about those. I think this picture is the classic disgusted face:













And this one makes me imagine him at about 10 years old playing the "do you like see-food?" trick.

Here he just looks a little concerned.

And in this last one, its almost like he has decided green beans are a-ok.

How'd he do that??

So we had an alarming little breakthrough today... I set Benjamin down on his little play mat in our bedroom, and went to the bathroom. So I was gone, I don't know, 60 seconds or less? Here is how I put him down:

And here is where he was when I came back:

Can you say uh-oh? I am so not ready for him to be mobile. Honestly, I have no idea how he did it anyway. I have never seen him do anything resembling crawling. He can scooch around in a circle, and he can roll over. Did he just roll over a bunch of times? Who knows. After that, I put him back on the mat and tried to hide and spy on him, to see what else he does when I'm not watching. Would he dance the hula? Make long distance phone calls? Steal my Ben & Jerry's from the freezer? No, as it turns out, he did not do any of those things. This is what he actually did:

After he rearranged himself again, what with the scooching and the rolling, he spent quite a long time inspecting the construction of the ottoman. Its put together with little wood fastners, not really biscuits, but I'm not sure what you call it. Tongue in groove? Something like that. Anyway, perhaps we have a little carpenter on our hands. More likely he was just trying to figure out how to fit the whole thing in his mouth, but you never know.