Santa Visit

Today Benjamin met Santa for the first time! We (Steve, Benjamin, my Mom, Steve's Mother, and I) set out to a place called Green View Nursery to see Santa and donate money for a good cause (the local animal shelter). Benjamin was very happy to sit on Santa's lap, but I must say that Santa did not seem to be the highlight of his visit. Rather, he absolutely loved looking around at all the Christmas trees. We are going to have pictures taken at Sears with Santa this Wednesday (isn't Benjamin lucky?? He gets two Santa visits!), but this was a fun visit too.

Benjamin has been such a good boy!

We are sitting in Santa's chair, while he took a little break.

Grandma Zusman and Benjamin taking in all the holiday lights.

Afterward, we returned to our place to have lunch, during which Benjamin entertained us with his attempts to flip from his back to his stomach. He is getting close! It will be exciting to see him be able to do it soon.

His legs were moving all over the place while on his side, but despite all of our encouraging words he was not quite able to flip all the way. Soon, I'm sure!

A really happy baby with Grandma Lucken.

The following set of pictures show Benjamin's interaction with Steve. As you can see, Benjamin was quite interested in Steve's beard.

A momentary pause to smile for the camera.

Okay, back to Daddy's face.

After his exciting day of visiting Santa and entertaining his Grandmas, Benjamin must have been exhausted. He was sleeping by 5:30 p.m. and is still sleeping now! Unfortunately, Benjamin is still in his 'let's wake up twice during the night' phase and going to bed at an odd time doesn't help, so he woke up at around 6:00 p.m. At this point, Steve took him into our bed and Steve pretended to sleep to help encourage Benjamin to sleep. After Benjamin saw Steve 'sleeping' next to him, he fell fast asleep. Before moving him back to his crib, we decided to take a few pictures. He has now been asleep for around four hours and I am hoping it will go well tonight. I miss the days where he slept 10-11 hours in a row!

What a sweet baby.

Steve had the great idea to take a picture of his hand.

I made sure to give him gentle kisses.

Daddy and baby holding hands.

This video was taken early this morning during his first of his tummy times for the day. He is getting so good at grabbing for things - I am still amazed when he does it. It is such an insight into what fascinates him in his world.