9 Months Old

This is Benjamin's belated 9 month posting! Wow... three more months (well, two and a half now) until he is one! Crazy!

Here are his stats from his doctor's visit:
19.3 lbs (30%)
28.5 in (60%)

Everything is going great! We've got one happy little boy. The only time we see him cry is when we are leaving (okay, well mostly more when I leave), when he isn't allowed to play with something not meant for babies, and when he doesn't want to go down for nap or bedtime. However, these events don't last long, as he quickly settles down.

I have pictures below to represent some of his 9 month activities:


Benjamin now has two teeth. This picture was taken about two weeks ago, so they are now both a bit bigger!


Still not crawling yet, but still working on it.


A new trick is to go up on his hands and toes.


Saying 'ooooh'


Blowing raspberries


Once positioned there, he can stand for a little bit!


He quickly figured out how to get his hand in his puffs container.


He absolutely loves looking in the mirror at himself.


His hair is getting longer that it curls out from behind his ears. It is so adorable! I have been noticing, too, that it gets a little wavy now with the humidity in the air.


He is fun to take out to restaurants, especially now that he likes to eat puffs and his solid foods! Here he is entertaining himself with one of his toys.


Our sweet sleeping baby. I had to wake him up for us to go to the doctor, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures first. He is still sleeping through the night until 6:15 or even as late as 7:30 am!!

A visit with cousins

This past Saturday, while I was busy taking six of my Latin students to the Illinois Latin Tournament Finals 2 1/2 hours away (we'll find out how they did later!), Steve, Benjamin, and Grandma Zusman made a trip up to Naperville (Chicago suburb) to visit Amie and Benjamin's two little cousins Colin and Lexi. From what I heard, they all had a great time! First they walked to Qdoba for lunch, where Benjamin enjoyed watching Colin and Lexi. Then they walked to the park where Steve put Benjamin in a swing but it started to rain so he didn't actually get to push him. They had an enjoyable time visiting everyone.

It was sad to come home Saturday afternoon to an empty house, but I must say I spent some quality time doing some major cleaning.

Outdoor Fun

We are so happy to have Spring arrive! Although it has been rainy today and yesterday, we have overall enjoyed much better weather the last week or so!

Here are some pictures of Benjamin enjoying himself in the sun:









Pulling the head of a dandelion off the stem.


Benjamin watching the Uni High Girls Varsity soccer game.

Last Friday we had another get together with some other babies and their moms. This included Reese, Ella, and a little boy named Konrad.


Benjamin, surrounded by Reese on the left and Ella on the right. They were all sharing puffs and cheerios.


Ella and Benjamin enjoying some time together. They really enjoyed interacting with each other!




Here is the group again, now including Konrad in the back (he is six months old).

Where's the Bunny?

Last week, on one of our lovely weather days, Benjamin and I enjoyed some time outside in our front lawn. Much to our amusement, two little bunnies began to hop all around us. Actually, we consider these our bunnies, as we see them eating, sleeping and lounging a lot of the time in our backyard. It took Benjamin a minute to see the little guys, but once he did, Benjamin watched them go back and forth in front of us.

Try to find the bunny in each picture! There are even two of them in the first one.

Benjamin's visit to U of Illinois

Last Friday, Benjamin and I attended some classes at the University of Illinois. I had the day off work and we decided to see Steve at work! He leads discussion sections on Fridays for his World Religions course and this semester he used Benjamin in his powerpoint presentations to represent someone who is new to each religion and wanting to learn more. Therefore, as the semester is drawing to a close, Steve thought his students would want to see in person the little student they had seen in each week in the powerpoints. Benjamin wore the Illinois t-shirt he got from Grandma Zusman, so he fit right in with all the college kids.

Play Dates

Benjamin and I have been fortunate enough recently to be able to work out going to play dates with my schedule. First, two weeks ago today, we went to a play date celebration of baby Reese's first birthday. It was held at a local indoor playground that is quite frankly awesome. It is perfect for kids of all ages, especially since the floor is cushy enough for little crawlers to roam around (not that Benjamin does that yet!!). There were lots of other little babies there. I just marveled at one little boy there, whose name is Anderson and is three days younger than Benjamin, and who could just crawl everywhere! At one point he was even trying to scale the ladder up to the slide! Everyone tells me I should be thankful that I don't have to chase after Benjamin yet but of course it will be exciting when he can book it across the room! Currently, he is quite good at pulling himself across the floor on his belly, but it is still quite easy to catch up to him.

At the birthday celebration, there was one little girl there named Ella (about two weeks younger than Ben) who at one point took away Benjamin's bottle that he was holding. Benjamin started bawling, which led to poor Ella starting to cry. However, at the most recent get together (this past Monday at Reese's house), Ella and Benjamin got along quite well. It was quite adorable. Ella would say something and then Benjamin would repeat after her. This included 'lalala's as well as some high pitched yelling.


Ella going after Benjamin's shoe, to which Ben was completely oblivious. The birthday girl, Reese, is in the background.

Ella going after Benjamin's bottle, which caused Benjamin to become quite upset.

A Special Visit from G and G Lucken

Grandma and Grandpa Lucken came down for a visit on Easter weekend and we had a wonderful time with them. They were able to see Benjamin's first tooth (the other one as since started to come in since they have left!) and spend some quality time with us.

Here are some pictures from their visit:






Although the weather was a bit cool while they were here, we took advantage of the sunshine to go to a local park to try out the swing. However, Benjamin didn't look too comfortable in it, so we will have to try again another time!

New High Chair

Now that Benjamin is eating more and more baby food, I decided that he needed a proper high chair! Up until now, he had a portable-sized high chair that I never used to attach to our chairs as it didn't quite seem to fit well enough. Therefore, I went to the consignment sale with the sole goal of finding a suitable high chair and I found one that I love!


It has a toy to entertain him while I am getting his food ready.

And it converts to a regular tray for him to grab his puffs.

Easter

So, it is a week and a half late, but here is Benjamin's Easter entry!

We had a very nice Easter. My parents were here and Steve's Mom came over and we all had a lovely dinner. Benjamin even joined us at the kitchen table in his new high chair that we got at the huge biannual children consignment sale that we have gone to since I was pregnant!



Benjamin opening his Easter presents


Visiting the Easter Bunny. Benjamin really enjoyed himself with what I imagine he thought was a huge stuffed animal. He was petting his fur and babbling to him. I was surprised that Benjamin wasn't at all scared!


Benjamin with one of the carrot Easter eggs we got him (which were filled with puffs). He also got some bunny easter eggs too.


With Grandma and Grandpa Lucken


With Grandma Zusman


Our cute little bunny!