A busy month!

January has been a busy month for us. A really fun month (especially once we got through the sleep training!), and a busy one. This month I stuck to my resolution to not work more than 1/2 time (which is my agreement at work), and Mark had some time off, so we got to spend lots of time working on projects around the house. And Ben hit a few milestones!

As you'll remember through earlier blog updates, the year started off with some intensive sleep training. That was not fun. But, the month got increasingly more fun as we continued on.

We'll start this entry with Ben in his "B'Jolly" Christmas outfit. We actually didn't open this gift until Christmas, so we only got to wear it a few times - and didn't get a picture until mid-January - but isn't he cute?!

Check out the line of drool on this kid in the picture below! You can see the shine of the drool line all the way down his front. He's teething. The first to make its appearance is a lower left front tooth. It's tough to see because it's barely broken through, and he won't generally let me pull his lip down to look at it. But, you can feel it when he bites your finger, and I tried to give him some water/juice from a glass this afternoon (all the sippy cups were in the dishwasher), and I could hear it clink against the cup.

The foot of this outfit apparently is fun to chew.

The first weekend of January, Aunt Sarah (Ben's aunt, that is - my sister) came to visit! We spent a long weekend with her before she left on a cruise out of Galveston, and then saw her again for a few hours before her flight out the next weekend.

Here are some of my favorite Aunt Sarah/Benjamino pics:

So, did we treat aunt Sarah to a leisurely visit?! No way!! We put her to work! Over the course of three days, we turned our former breakfast nook into "Benjamin's Corner." The space is small to begin with, and then it was just way too cramped with the addition of a high chair, so it was time to make the move. To make this move, we took apart one of the Xylophones (we have two), to make space for Mark's desk, which we moved out of the office (our formal dining room) and into the studio. With only one desk remaining in this space, we were able to move our kitchen table and high chair into it. Still cramped, but not quite as bad - and it was a better space to be cramped, since it wasn't a main traffic way in and out of the house, to the kitchen, and to the washer dryer. The transformation was pretty cool!

Here we are ready to start work! Even though it was a small space, it was a rather laborious process. We had to prep the wood paneling for paint - which included cleaning it, deglossing it, priming it, and two coats of paint!

The before picture:

And after:

The canvas is a Christmas gift from Aunt Sarah & Grandparents:

Ben seems to like his new space. It has a good view to watch all the activities in the kitchen.

Soon our dining room began to feel rather cramped again. So we moved the furniture around in our living room to make space for our computer desk. Then we bought an actual dining room set (table, sideboard and china cabinet) from Ikea. Ikea's generally cheap to begin with, and we bought it during their blue moon sale (saved some money, but it was a VERY crowded, slow experience). It's not our usual style - a little modern, and in general, I don't think Ikea quality is that great. BUT, we got a lot of furniture for the money, which will allow us to stash our growing kitchen supplies (to keep up with Mark's culinary pursuits, as well as Benjamin's stuff). Eventually, Mark wants to build a dining room set - so hopefully this will last the 10 or so years until he does?! The main reason we bought the set was the table is designed fantastically. It's got a couple of leaves so that it can expand to set 8 people comfortably - and the legs are positioned so no one is straddling a table leg.

Before:

After:

THE ADVENTURES OF BEN

So Ben's pace of learning new tricks has increased a lot during this stage of his development. It's crazy to think that he'll soon be crawling, and that before long our baby will no longer be a baby - but a toddler! He is really SO much fun now!

Ben's eating much more solid foods now - but over the last week or so has decided he doesn't like baby food - finger foods are much more fun! Unfortunately, there's a limited variety of what he can eat that is finger foodable - and it requires more work to prepare.

As a result of these solids, he's also faced his first bout of constipation. Poor Ben. Fortunately, with the help of generous portions of baby prunes, we were able to get things running smoothly again:

This month, Ben also got to enjoy his first jog! We've been using the jogging stroller for a few months for walks, but this was his first time to pick up the pace! Notice his frog hat - made by his Aunt Tita.

Notice two very happy boys in this picture! Mark's happy because Ben's sleeping better. Ben's happy because his Daddy is letting him play with the cell phone - the best toy in the world!

Little Ben is getting close to crawling. When propped on his hands and knees, he can hold the pose for a few moments:

Before falling to his belly:

And finally, the newest milestone is that Benjamin pulls himself up!! He's only done it so far in the bassinet we use for a play pen - it has low walls which makes it easier. I haven't got a picture of him pulled up on his feet - he doesn't do it too often - but he does often pull himself up on his knees:

Here he is peering over the edge. We were playing hide and seek, where he would have to pull himself up to find me. Looks pretty pleased with himself!

And lastly, a picture from today. Let the messes begin! Benjamin was refusing his mid-morning nap, so I got him up to play. I put him in front of a broken keyboard on the floor (it has been dedicated as one of his toys). He managed to migrate himself around to the basket of toys on the floor and help himself. They were all neatly put away before he began flinging them. Notice the red box in the background - that includes one of the toys that was flung! It's awesome that he can entertain himself for longer periods of time now, but once he's moving, we're going to have some major messes to clean up!

So that's our month of January. Let's see what next month has in store!