Playdates and Progress

Playdates

I mentioned in the weekend update that we had a busy week of playdates ahead.  Riley and mom, Chrystal joined us for a couple hours Monday as she took a post-vacation day off.  Riley, who is a little over 3 months younger than Ben is nearly the same size.  He had a check-up yesterday and weighs the same at 9 months that Ben did at 10.  I won't be surprised if Riley walks before Ben does and quickly surpasses him in size as well!  Ryan and I talked about how it's so funny that we talk about them being so far apart in the first year and for the rest of their lives they will be the same age.  I guess they might end up a year apart in school depending on where we live and cut-off dates, but for all intents and purposes, after the next year, there will be little difference.  I am glad Ben has a little age on his side as Riley will surely always have size.

 

This face! The coy smile! Too much!

Neighbor Cheryl stopped by Tuesday to share some vacation pictures and and look at some from our recent trip.  Ben has met her several times but defintely showed his first real "stranger danger!" response.  He crawled into my lap and gripped me tight and cried and took quite a while to warm up to her.  We will work on saying hi to her a bit more and hope his reaction changes.

Today we played at pal Charlotte's house and it was quickly apparent that it had been too long since our last get-together.  Charlotte cried and cried when we first arrived and wanted little to do with either one of us.  She would look at Ben and then point at me, almost saying, "you! you brought him, now take him away!"  She warmed up quickly and was soon giving him her version of CPR pressing on his tummy while he laid on the floor.  She has a doll that giggles when you press it's tummy and her mom Carole and I wondered if maybe she expected the same from Ben?  Carole had fresh coffee and asiago bagels with smoked salmon and heirloom tomatoes to snack on! Um yes, she can host every week and I need to step my snacks up a notch.  We had a delightful morning and we all start Tot Itsy Bitsy Yoga next Thursday, so hopefully the babes will stay better acquainted.

Beautiful Charlotte

Progress

The start of the milk/sippy transition was great and Ben took every 2 pm milk in a sippy with very little difference from his bottle.  Today we attempted the same switch with his morning bottle and he threw his sippy repeatedly and cried and cried.  I poured the milk into a bottle on the floor in front of him and that was all it took!  I had no idea how attached to his bottle he obviously is.  He never gets to carry it around and because he only has 3 a day, I just didn't expect trouble.  We will try a sippy tonight before bed and see how it goes.  We have one jug of formula left so we will switch that to the morning but still try a sippy each time.  As he is already drinking below the standard recommended amount of milk +/or formula, I am hesitant to allow him to skip or stop drinking his milk.  I may also replace his water at one of his meals with milk to help him get more.

It was also made clear this week that Ben is not quite ready for the single nap transition.  We attempted yesterday and he was uber-drowsy by 10:30am.  My plan was to give him lunch at 11:15,  followed by milk at 12 and a long nap.  He fell asleep in the car while we searched for the perfect b-day BBQ and set the plan for the rest of the day awry.  He ended up only sleeping an hour from 3-4.  He also woke up an hour earlier than normal today, perhaps because of last night's lack of sleep induced early bed time.  So, I concur I will stop trying to fix what's not broken and if two shorter naps are what he needs for now, then so be it!

In much more fun news, Ben discovered the dryer on Tuesday.  I called him in to "help me with the laundry," and he was mesmerized.  Our dryer has a clear front so he can watch the clothes spin and spin.  He has honestly spent more than an hour total over the last 3 days just watching it go.  He balances on his bum with his legs elevated slightly and toes SPINNING! For a video, click here.  Sorry for the lack of light and focus-I had to sneak up on him.  Prior to today, his observation point had been the hallway, but today he grew courage and crawled into the laundry room for a better vantage point.  I never would have guessed the dryer would be my best baby-sitter yet, but I'll take it!

The safety of the hallway

Making his move

Front row is better!

I also caught Ben sunbathing yesterday