Since we'll be seeing you all soon, I thought I'd give a quick update on Benji's current habits and skills so you can all be prepared to get out of our speed demon's way.
Benjamin started walking about a month ago and has really picked up skill and speed in this. He now walks across the room with ease, although he still hasn't given up crawling as a skill. He can bend down to pick something up and then keep walking. When we're out somewhere and we've let him practice walking, he gets very angry when we pick him put to leave (are we beginning terrible two's already?). At home he's recently started walking over to a parent, grabbing a finger, and leading us around the house. He's not holding our hand for balance, but rather because he wants us to go somewhere with him. He also sometimes does the "walking dance" where he waves his arms wildly in the air and shakes his head while walking.
Not everything is about movement, though. In the past week Benjamin has taken a great interest in being read to. Matthew has been taking him to weekly story times for about a month and apparently it's having an impact. He likes to stand in front of you while you read from the sofa or sitting on the floor; he really doesn't like sitting in my lap and reading right now. This seems like a story time way of reading at the library, so that's one reason I think it's been having an impact. Matthew says he'll read the same book eight times in a row. If you puts the book down when it's done, Benji will pick it up and hand it to you to read again. If you try to read a different book, Benji will hand you the old one as a replacement. Eventually Benji will get bored and crawl over to a new book and bring it back to you. His favorites right now include the Cheerios Book, Baby Colors, and First Words (this one has flaps!), all of which are very simple books with no story lines. They drive Matthew crazy, but Benji loves them!
I'm also happy to report that Benjamin is getting even better at feeding himself. We can give him bigger pieces of string cheese and he'll bite off pieces. Or we can give him a Club cracker and he bites off pieces of that. He's also starting to hold his sippy cup better, but interestingly he seems to do better with the simple cheap ones than the fancy ones with handles. We've also discovered that anything is better as a sandwich. There are days when he refuses to eat his meat, but if you wrap some bun around it the chicken becomes infinitely more interesting.
So, if you all were impressed with Cheerios and crawling back in June, just wait until you see full meals and walking next week!
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
