Little MAN turned another month old on Saturday. It is impossible to relate to you how amazing he is. We are so enjoying having this little guy as part of our family. He's so wonderfully different from Tabby both in his personality and his developmental progression.
We sometimes call his sister "Timid Tabby" but to be fair, maybe we should call him "Brash Ben." We walk near a river and he is completely fascinated and practically ready to dive in. At the water fountains and spray grounds (I don't dare take him to the pool on my own), he runs through the water with abandon and glee. He climbs anywhere and everywhere and is terribly pleased with himself to summit any object. He knows good and well how to back down stairs but whines until someone will take his hand and he can walk down. He will practice any small elevation transition repeatedly until he can do up and down all on his own, no crawling. He has had quite a few injuries from his escapades, including most recently (this weekend) a bloody lip, nose and tooth all from one fall.
Where Tabby could say quite a few words by this point, Ben is more reserved. Yet his vocabulary has grown measurably in the past month or so. Like Tabby, he repeatedly asks "What's that?" to demand the word for anything he comes across. Many of his words are variations on "ba ba." This can mean anything from ball (using a singular "ba") to "bye-bye" to "bottle" to "FOOD NOW!" Also closely related is one of his favorite objects, "booo!" (books). He says a few names now. "Dada" is reserved mostly for Matt, but he uses it on all of his loved ones occasionally. I am frequently "mamaaaa" but not always. He usually refers to Tabby as "saaasay" though we have heard him pronounce both "sissy" correctly as well as "Tabby", though neither consistently. He occasionally refers to my sister by the Tabby-given moniker of "Gaga" and now, pleasing my father to no end, knows how to say and uses "Papa!" correctly.
His disposition is very sweet, but when he gets tired, the claws (quite literally) come out and he is frequently admonished with "Pat Sister gently" and "That hurts Mommy!" He knows when we direct him not to do something and responds to the "1 ... 2 ... 3 ..." counting we do with Tabby fairly well. Of course just as often, you get a mischievous grin as he turns back to the forbidden activity. He loves to pull silverware out of the dishwasher, play in the toilet (if we don't remember to close it) and unroll the toilet paper. If he is left alone for even a second upstairs you can be sure he has either run to our bath tub and turned the faucet on (he can only reach cold) or to his bookshelves to unshelf every single book on them. Besides the forbidden, he is most in love with his trucks right now and makes all appropriate sounds, as well as his books. Anything he can bang is a big hit too.
He continues to be a great eater, except when he's sick. When he doesn't feel well, he reverts back to his best buddy, milk, and won't eat much else. Even well, he drinks about a gallon and a half a week all on his own, just during the time he spends at home. But when he's feeling good, he eats very well. Fruit is his perennial favorite and I am not sure what he'll do when summer's over. He can easily devour an entire clamshell of berries over the course of a day, even in a single sitting. He loves pasta with just about anything on it, meatballs, quesadillas, stir-fried veggies, and anything carb-heavy.
Possibly best of all, he loves to snuggle. In the morning, or after a long nap, he loves crawling into bed with us for a good snuggle. And in the shower, he could lie on our shoulders for a long time, snuggled up and happy in the warm water. It is about the only time aside from sleep when he is still. It's wonderful.
He is wonderful. We are blessed.
<< sweet little man
We do the counting 1,2,3 too. Except unfortunately it only works on my oldest.
I'm so screwed.