carrie's first pregnancy

Update: we're doing better on the eating/throwing food front. I realized that by offering him cheerios/teddy grahams before his real meal (to buy me some time to make it), he was filling up on those, and then didn't want to eat anything else. I also had to hide the boxes that used to be stored on the table (in plain sight), because he's smart enough now to know that those are the "cookies", and would refuse all food until I caved and gave him some, fearing he would starve at bedtime. My mom also tried the "one at a time" trick, and it has significantly cut down on the throwing! We also give him 3 tries... and if by the 3rd one he is still throwing instead of eating, we end the meal. It's caused a LOT less tears since I'm not yelling anymore, and we're back to actually enjoying dinner time instead of dreading it (at least I am anyway!) :) I also introduced some all-white-meat chicken nuggets, and WHOA are we a fan of those! He ate a ton, and I'll probably offer those a few times a week, to make sure he's getting enough protein. He even ate it without the breading, which makes me happy :)

I took a few photos of him this past weekend with my mom... and he got so worn out on Saturday that he passed out on Joe. Such cuteness!!!

































1 year 3 months 2 weeks 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

We have a walker! I captured this lovely clip yesterday... he walks on his own towards the very end (and I apologize in advance for the whining. welcome to my life during the week, after a LONG day):



And today he was a walking maniac! I tried to offer my hands, but he was adamant on doing it alone. And even when I put him down for bed, after I read him a story he proceeded to practice walking some more, in his crib! He kept backing up into a corner and walking the length of the crib... so cute! He's so proud of himself, I love it.

Grandma D shows up tomorrow for a few days, and I know he'll love showing off for her all weekend. We'll try to get some more videos to post... he's such a riot!

1 year 3 months 1 week 4 days

Posted by carrie at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

We're making GREAT progress on the walking front. Ben will now take about 20 steps on his own, unassisted! But he gets so excited he falls down, or gets stressed/scared when he thinks things are too far away, and falls down. So we are still working on building up his confidence, and giving him lots of cheers and praise when he does it. We're also making an attempt to make him walk EVERYWHERE... even if it's just to the highchair for breakfast/dinner. I think it's helping!

I also recently asked for advice about the issue of food throwing and hitting. Basically, I indulged him on throwing food to the floor for far too long, and now it's a problem. It started off as fun feeding the dog (who sits politely next to the highchair, stalking his every move), and for a while I wasn't sure he could really control himself. Now I know better, and it dawned on me that he does NOT get away with that behavior at daycare. So we have RULES in our house for the first time. No dropping food, no throwing food, food stays in the bowl, or in the mouth. If food IS thrown, mommy says "Ben! No! Food in the bowl!", and is then met with hysterical tears and lip pouting. Followed almost immediately by fistfuls of food then thrown, and food promptly removed until we settle down. *sigh* BUT... yesterday he actually threw less... and this morning he threw almost NONE, and my scolds of "No!" were not met with tears, but with actual EATING :) So we're making progress. It's SO HARD to stifle my smiles and laughs when I see him take a piece of food, and then s-l-o-w-l-y move his hand to the side, and watch my face as he does so. He's WAITING for me to tell him no, and the look on his face is hilarious. I know laughing is COMPLETELY wrong and would make it an awful game, but seriously, how can you NOT laugh at that??

Same goes for hitting... he gets excited and hits Joe and I in the face when we are holding him. We have now implemented a "no hitting, we use nice hands on the face" mentality, and if he does it after we say no, he gets put down. I don't think he *quite* gets this yet since he is so easily distracted, but at least we are not tolerating it anymore.

And just to update with another milestone... Ben has officially dropped his second nap during the day. He was off and on for a while after he started his new daycare (where they only give them one midday nap), but for the past few weeks, he's been consistent with going down sometime between 10-12, and sleeping for about 2 hours on average. It's way easier to plan things now, we just circle around that time frame instead of trying to fit things around TWO naps.

We're also practicing a lot with forks and spoons, and Ben does a great job using them :) Well, until he throws them, of course... another thing we have to work on ;)

1 year 3 months 1 week 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments

SO... there are rumors from Ben's daycare that he is WALKING on his own!! Yesterday I found out that he was leaning against the teachers, and then just decided to WALK off on his own! I tried to duplicate it at home, but he's being stubborn for us... you can bet we'll be trying extra hard this weekend to see it ourselves! And if we do, you can bet that video camera will be plastered to my eye ;)

Wish us luck!

1 year 3 months 4 days old

Posted by carrie at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We're big fans of the Irish holiday, since Irish is the only heritage that both Joe and I share (my family are Kelley's, and Joe's family are Brady's). So while Ben is also German, French, Italian, and Swedish, we'll celebrate the Irish with pride today :)

Ben just turned 15 months, and in another two weeks we'll have his well-visit to get an updated weight/height (he was 27 lbs at our last sick visit 10 days ago), and to get his updated vaccines. He's STILL not walking yet, but VERY close. He'll walk for a few steps toward me before falls down, so it's just a matter of getting better practice with balance, and he'll be off and running in no time! I'm placing bets it will happen in the next week or so. We catch him saying "po! po!" for "hippo" when he sees the photos in his book, and when we play with his blue hippo in the tub. But no other words yet! We're practicing with using spoons and forks during dinner, and he's doing a great job!

Enjoy our photos from the weekend... Ben liked to chew the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" necklace more than anything else, but he did get a kick out of those flags! :)


















what a ham!!



























1 year 3 months 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

Joe's parents are in town this weekend, and we caught some great video of Ben and Grandpa Bob playing in the living room. Ben is obsessed with balls, and obviously loves to throw them :)



And some more:



We'll try and take some more photos, since it will be raining all weekend... but he's having a great time!

1 year 3 weeks 4 days

Posted by carrie at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

Here are the photos from last Saturday's meetup with my Mamistad friends, and babies Henry, Jillian, and Lily :) I love the personalities that are coming through, and we are definitely going to have to pick new places to meet, that give these kids some more running room! And yes, Ben is need of another haircut... we hope to go sometime soon!








































(photo from Kristin)


(photo from Suzy)


(photo from Suzy)


(photo from Suzy)


(photo from Suzy)


(photo from Kristin)


(photo from Suzy)


(photo from Suzy)

1 year 2 months 2 weeks 4 days old

Posted by carrie at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

I have more photos of Ben to post, once I download them off the camera! We had a great visit with his playdate buddies in my mom's group last weekend, and fun photos to share. Since the last doctor visit, we have been sickness-free, and doing great, other than some light teething pain. Nothing a little Motrin before bedtime can't handle.

We're still not seeing signs of walking yet, although his balance is getting better. He barely holds on to our hands when we walk with him, but when we let go it's instant face plant. I'm placing bets that he will be walking by 16 months, so we've got a few more weeks until that happens. He's definitely more mobile, and crashes around the living room in destruct-o mode often. I don't have any weight/height measurement updates until we go for his 15 month wellness visit on the 7th of April (I know, it's a little late this time). We did get a weight check at one of the visits, and he's bordering on 27lbs at 14 months. Not bad! Joe flipped around his carseat in his car to be forward-facing, but I'm holding out until to see if I can wait until he reaches the 30lb limit for rear facing. I just feel that it's safer that way, especially in my small little compact car. Ben likes being able to kick and swing his feet in Joe's car though!

In other news, Ben has also started spouting out new words! He says "coat" when we get dressed up to go outside, "cow" when we talk about farm animals, "ba-ba" (or "ma-ma-ma-ma" if he's too anxious) for his bottle, and still spouts off "cat" and "car" for the cat and anything with wheels that sort of resembles a car. We haven't heard him say "dog" or "truck" or "sock" in a while, but I know those words are in there somewhere ;)

So we're having a great time, expecting more visitors soon (yay for grandparent visits!) and still snapping photos and videos! I'll definitely post more by the weekend!

1 year 2 months 2 weeks 3 days old

Posted by carrie at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments