Letter to my one year old...

Dear Beni,

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!! Today is your very first birthday. One year ago today at 4:53pm I was holding you in my arms for the first time.

At one year, you weigh around 20lbs and are 29 inches tall. In the past month you have grown and changed so much! You started pointing at anything and everything in sight on July 28th, and smile in such delight when your Daddy and I "name" the object or person of your fascination. You also gave me a big surprise when you waved bye-bye to everyone as we were leaving the playdate at Julie's this week. You have waved a few times before, but this was the first time you initiated it all on your own! I am so proud of you! Oh, and probably my favorite thing that has happened this month is your newfound interest in playing games with us. You have always loved when we play peek-a-boo with you, but you now have a new angle on it as you are the one playing with us! One evening you were eating your dinner as you usually do, then you suddenly grabbed the lid to your bowl, hid behind it, and after a few seconds of your Dad and I asking where on earth you had gone, you lifted the lid and laughed hysterically as if to say "Silly parents, I was here the whole time!" You have mastered this routine and have played with us several times a day since, with blankets, towels, books and whatever else you discover you can "hide" behind... and now you wait to reveal yourself until I ask, "Where are you? Where's Beni?", then you come out of hiding, giggling wildly, and hide again when I say, "I can still see you!" You have even managed to say peek-a-boo a couple times yourself, although it sounds more like "tee-a-hoo" now that I think about it! A few weeks later, you started taking a straw in the same sudden way; your Dad and I picked up a couple smoothies at Tropical Smoothie, and I gave you a taste of mine by letting you put the top of the straw in your mouth (as I've done a million times before) and to my surprise you took a very enthusiastic sip of your own! Speaking of food, in addition to last month's diet, you are now eating pasta and drinking juice! You are also still nursing all the time. We have been nursing for a whole year!! Such a huge milestone for us both. As far as walking goes, you are still cruising on everything, and when distracted you have occasionally ventured out to take a couple steps on your own, but you seem to let your mind get the best of you when you realize that you're not holding onto anything and promptly plop your butt to the floor! You have stood on your own for at least a minute on many occasions, and we realize how fun this is for you because you always do so with a smile, I think you are almost as proud of yourself as we are! Almost! :)

And so, big boy, you are 1! You are learning so many things in the blink of an eye, and also exploring your personality and sense of humor. You find so much delight in the simple things and I must say, I am also learning from you! You have opened my eyes to things that really matter in life. You have taught me to slow down, to let it all go and just have fun with you! Getting to know you in this first year has been such a blessed and humbling experience, it has been the greatest year of my life and I wouldn't trade it or change it for the world. We have such a special bond, and your Daddy and I feel so blessed to wake up to your sweet face every morning.

From 6lbs to 20lbs, you have grown leaps and bounds. Mommy and Daddy have grown too; we are much better people because you are in our lives. You are the center of our world, my sweet boy and we will love you for all the years of your life. Nothing will ever replace this first year with you! Thank you for being wonderful YOU.

Love Always,

Mommy

11 months... the countdown is on!

Well, it's officially less than one month away from our sweet baby Beni turning the big O-N-E! Three weeks and five days! Wow. There's a lot to account for in the last month as we've both been little busy bees... me with the planning of his FIRST BIRTHDAY (Baby Einstein themed along with a few appearances of his beloved Moose and Zee from Noggin) and the ever so eventful mission of keeping track of the dates to all the new milestones he keeps achieving! Let's recap... one week ago today on Sunday, July 6th, Beni's third tooth finally sprouted (upper left incisor) and only three days following came his fourth (upper right incisor). Yayyy! He spent much of his days prior being a total crankpot, so we were actually really glad to see the motivation behind that crankiness was teething and not another ear infection! And since then he's retuned to our only 1/3 of time crankpot, 2/3 cuddle-craving, kissing, loving, high-energy little angel! There's a mouthful, right? :) He's even more vocal than he was last month, and in general has a full stream of consonants and vowels pretty much down pat. Unlike other months, I can't even begin to keeptrack as there's just so much that he says... as for specific words, not much change from last month... discriminately: Mama, Dada, up, "Iluhyu" (that we can understand) but he does say consistent things all the time we just can't place meaning to, "boo, blur, moo, bah, duh, woo, wa, kay, hey (might be discriminate, not sure yet), the list could go on forever... He understands a great deal of what we say and reacts accordingly to, "give me hands", "nursey", "boobie", (nursing terms, hahha), "cheerios", "no", "come here", "look at ____" (we use this a lot with the word association cards, like "look at cow" or "look at the star", etc), "where's Cookie?", "feeding Cookie", "dog", "sleep sleep", "sleepy boy", "I love you", "good morning", "hi/hey/hello" "up/down" "dance"... I'm sure I'm leaving several out... it seems he associates a correct meaning with a new word everyday!

We've realized that he also unquestionably thinks he is a comedian, and we honestly have to agree! Whenever we say "no" to him, he shakes his head and smiles (as if to say, I know you don't want me doing this, but with my cute smile and keen mimicking skills you'll just laugh and forget this whole other matter at hand, right *wink*), also he does this with more emphasis when we say "yes" and nod our heads, as if he gets a kick out of disagreeing! He is absolutely hilarious, and there's no doubt in my mind he knows this! Other mimicking "skills" include sticking his tongue out (after you've done so) and even adding a little blow to it and of course showering us in baby drool (gotta' love it!), "snapping his lips" along with you, blowing raspberries, kissing and other miscellaneous noises and grunts we make (he especially likes mimicking Daddy's strange noises, hahha)... he's such a goon!

He cruises alongside EVERYTHING with barely a hand holding on and is getting even better at it everyday. Yesterday and today he's managed to stand on by himself completely unaided for a good minute at a time. Walking is soon to follow, we're sure!

He has also become very technical in his maneuvers... a couple weeks ago he spotted a toy on the coffee table he was deadest on getting his hands on, but he couldn't quite reach... after a few seconds of examining the room around him, he pushed his infant bath tub to the side of the table (which was at the other side of the living room), climbed in and stood on the highest part of the tub, grabbed the toy and climbed back out as if nothing had happened. Angelo and I just sat there both shocked and amazed. How unbelievably calculated! He's that way with a lot of things it seems... at Trace's house when I put him in the automated swing, he sits and examines the gears without much care for what else is going on around him, it's as if he is trying to figure out "how" it works. He's a strange one, that Beni! And we couldn't love him more for it! He's just utterly amazing and now that he's almost ONE YEAR old I can't wait to see so much more from him. We are so unbelievably thankful for him, our little crankpotty but lovable (hahha!), mimicking, comedic wonder child!

Three weeks and five days away... oh boy! Are we ready?!

In the double digits now... 10 months!

Our little man is 10 months old (tear, tear)... make that 10 1/2 months, because it's taken me forever and a day to finally steal a moment to write an update! I've become such a broken record lately telling anyone any everyone who will listen how bittersweet it is watching your little one grow up so fast... I can hardly believe we will be celebrating his 1st birthday in less than 2 months! August 8th, 2008. Wow. It still amazes me how much can change in the blink of an eye. Beni says "Mama", "Dada" and "up" (for "wake up" in the morning), all discriminately. He can stand on his own for several seconds and cruises on anything he can grab hold of. He's eating finger foods, like Cheerios, carrots, apples, pears, bananas, apple wagon wheels, sweet potato puffs, organic cheese crackers, and on a few occasions we've shared what we're eating with him. He gives me sweet, slobbery kisses through the links on his baby gate. (Yes, he has a gate now! Couldn't live without one at this point, as he gets into everything... and he is SUCH a rampant little climber!) He is extraordinarily attached to us still, and goes beyond stressing his disapproval when I leave the room at any given moment (Mommy needs bathroom breaks, too, baby boy!) We play all kinds of games, snuggle games and peek-a-boo games and kissing games and clapping games and "mimic me" games... or my personal favorite; when I gallop and dance around the house with him in my arms and sing while he laughs hysterically in delight!

Some new adventures that have taken place... we all went to Animal Kingdom for the first time together on Valentine's Day, SeaWorld on Mother's Day, and finally after constantly talking about it, we went to Sebastian Beach Inlet with my parents on Father's Day! My surprise to the first time Daddy that I adore! It was Beni's first time actually going into the water and he took to it like such a little fish! Proud Daddy floated him around in the water like a power boat and he just couldn't contain the laughter! It was so very sweet. I wouldn't trade the world for these moments. On Thursday Beni went swimming in a pool for the first time and splish-splashed for hours just loving and taking it all in. There's no doubt we have a water baby on our hands! Thank goodness, because we just splurged and purchased an above ground pool that will hopefully be swim-ready in less than a week. Great times ahead!

Have I mentioned recently how grateful I feel to have been blessed with so many of these wonderful moments? Lately I seem to get caught up in the some of the hardships we've come to face, but with that being said, I really do have such a beautiful life. These hard times will pass in due time and then we have a lifetime of memories to create... of love, of happiness, of beauty... support, warmth, fun... life is what you make of it, after all.

9 months old today, officially!

And, what did our little 9 month old do to celebrate his big morning? He made his first phone call!

So... story is, my father is currently in Russia, and has been away for nearly a month now... well, during a really chaotic diaper change this morning I finally gave in and gave Beni my cell phone to play with. (Cell phones, remotes and water bottles are this child's weakness!) Well, low and behold, he scrolls through my top five and calls none other than his Grandpa! I guess he realizes that it's been awhile since he's has "Grampy bonding" so he decided to call him up to see where the heck he's been! Silly baby, Grandpa cannot receive calls in Russia, but I will definitely shoot him over an e-mail and give him the message.

Beni misses his Gramp-gramp!

Nine months! What an exciting age!

It has been a whirlwind the last few months, he has been growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things much quicker than I can humanely keep track! Most importantly ladies and gentlemen, we have babbling (... again!) and it's back with a vengeance. :)

There is no sweeter sound to my ears. Within the last couple of days, Beni has picked up babbling again since he quit entirely in January. What's even better is how rhythmic he is. "Blahbaba mamam lalada iluhu ahhh..." on and on, loud and clear, like the tune of a song. It's so beautiful and it has brought me endless smiles lately. I could hear that sound for the rest of my life... pure bliss!

He's also a crawling fool now, too! And I mean full-fledged, traditional crawling, unlike the army crawl he mastered like a champ before. I can hardly keep up; I'm so thankful we put down the flooring in the house... not a day too soon! His newfound "ability" has kept me on my toes like never in my life before... this little 20lb tyke is focused and raring to go. When he sees something that he wants, not even a mountain could hold him back (as his mastered climbing, too!)

Something that has seemingly gone hand in hand with his crawling is his energy level, which has just exploded this month. Diaper changes have turned into wrestling matches, he's flipped his bouncer not once, but three times, he pulls himself up to standing position and cruises along whatever he can get a grip on, and then... he's off! Into one thing and then the next, making a mess of anything and everything he crosses paths with. We cannot seem to keep him in one place for more than a second anymore.

Essentially, he is our lovable and focused little tyrant of a boy.

This last month has also been a very trying month on all of us... Beni, with his two bottom teeth coming in, he also had another ear infection (third so far in his nine months) which completely disrupted his ever improving sleeping routine... Beni has accrued a lot of sleep debt and has not been sleeping through the night for at least a couple of weeks now. His ears were checked yesterday, and he's completely free of any fluid or infection... and yet, he's still not sleeping well. I feel absolutely horrible about that. I'm hoping that it's teething related and will pass soon.

Another new personality trait that appeared this month is stranger anxiety. Our once very welcoming and smiling little social butterfly is now very cautious around new people. It seems to take him an upward of 10 minutes to really feel comfortable in a new atmosphere or around a new person. I suppose it's the same for me too, really... :)

Last but not least, his stats... his official wellness visit is scheduled for the twelfth, but I know that he is 20lbs exactly and approximately 27" long. I'll update with the percentile information as soon as I find out.

P.S. Oh, oh, oh... I did forget to mention that when he wants to be picked up, he extends both arms out high and wide... and once I pick him up he gives the greatest and most loving hug a mom could ask for! We are so, so, so blessed!

8 months old on the 8th!

Beni is extremely mobile now. He's taken a few "crawling" steps, but otherwise generally gets around by dragging his lower body around with his upper body, rolls over, sits up to adjust his angle, lays down and rolls in the new direction. (It reminds me of an action movie where the character has to avoid the alarm lasers and stays low to the ground.) He has already started to explore uncharted territories... this is one little boy who is no longer safe by himself!

Baby proofing will be in the works throughout the next month as we've recently started phase 2 as far as major renovations in our home go. (Painting in the living and dining area, new hardwood floors, crown moulding, baseboards, water heater, AC ducts, constructing our garage into an office... the list goes on for what's to come!) I simply cannot wait until everything is complete!

It occurred to me the other day that when I wrote Beni's 7 month update I forget to mention one really cute and absolutely amazing thing that Beni does that I absolutely love! He responds to simple commands! When I ask him for his hands ("gimme' hands"), he quickly places them in mine, and from there when I asked him to stand up, he eagerly wobbles his way up to a standing position and smiles so bright as if to say "Look Ma, I did it!!" Ahhh, it's instant happiness in my heart. Occasionally he understands when I tell him to give me a hug, but he has to already be in my arms for him t make the connection. Still no sign of words, really, aside from saying Mama on Christmas eve, and maybe once since then... but he's very vocal in other ways. He is constantly squealing in delight, of course babbling, and we play grunting games all the time. He grunts, I grunt, and we mimic each other for several minutes thereafter. It may not quite be wordplay but we still think it's a lot of fun.

He's also started to show a little more of his personality this past month. Whenever hes around a new person, he clings pretty tightly to me and gets very shy and serious. He takes a few minutes to decide what he really thinks of the person. Then, if I make a funny face or poke at his tummy, he bursts out laughing.

As far as his stats go... right now our pudgy little shortybutt is about 26 3/4" tall and between 20-21lbs. God, I love our little Buddha baby!

Tooty McTooterson's first tooth!!

Our little boy is all grown up. Well, kind of. Yesterday morning I discovered that Beni's bottom left tooth (central incisor) finally burst through the gum and the days of the gummy smiles are slowly slipping away. It's... bittersweet, really.

We've expected it for quite awhile now, so in a way we've had time to get used to the idea, but it's still sad in so many ways to see him growing up so quickly. We could see and feel the teeth under his gums forever and a day, but it took months for this one to actually 'sprout'. I thought the top right would surely come first (because it literally looks as if it will burst at any moment) but Daddy called this one, he must have a knack for these things.

Le sigh... our baby boy. He handled it surprisingly well considering he's usually so sensitive when things aren't going quite his way. Take nursing for example, which we're still doing,"YAY US!". But... he gets pretty fussy if things aren't "just right", distracted by things going on in the room, and whiny if I take too long to whip the boob out or just generally mess things up, according to him, hahha. Or heaven forbid he drops a toy... he has a pretty strong temper for a 7-month old!

In other milestone news, he is this close to crawling! He can support his weight by both his arms and his legs, it's just a matter of coordinating them at the same time. But don't think for a second that holds him back! He gets around by rolling all over the floor and he's starting to sit up from lying down all on his own. He's really had no hitches in standing since the get go, and for a couple months now he's been able to pull himself up to standing position... but more recently he's discovered that he can cruise on by holding onto furniture or anything else he can get a grip on. It's so fantastic! Although, we really should start childproofing soon!

Oh, and one more thing... bananas are a no go! We attempted to give him a taste of the sweet life of fruit last week, and thinking bananas would be a good start... we were definitely mistaken! I've never seen so many sour faces!! Oh well, we'll stick with the rice and veggies solely for a little while longer and see how things go down the road... we'll let him call the shots while he can!

Update: Tooth number two came in on April 2nd! (Lower right central incisor.) I read recently that they come in pairs, so there's no surprise there! My big boy now has two beautiful pearly whites coming up!