Benjamin
Michael
Singer -- December!
UPDATED 12/05/2004
Happy December, everyone. We had a very busy month of
November with lots of visits from relatives. First, Joel's
relatives (father
Gary, sister Rachel, and nephew Jacob) drove over from Chicago
to spend a weekend of fambly-time. Jake found several places
and items in our house that we need to start baby-proofing! Jake
was also quite happy to introduce us to the magic of "Dora
the Explorer," and after three episodes Joel still can't get the
theme
song out of his head. Jake enjoyed playing with Benjamin, and
was very obliging at demonstrating his ability to spell and draw
for us.
After that, Melissa's parents Lucia and Jack flew in for Thanksgiving
weekend. We spent Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Carole and Uncle
Bill's place in Royal Oak, and happily introduced Benjamin to Melissa's
dad's relatives (Ted,
Traute, Tom, Heather, Chris, Whitney, Paige, and
Christopher Jr.) Paige especially is ready to babysit.
After
that, we drove to St. Jacobs, Ontario to spend the weekend at a Gilbert
family reunion celebrating the 90th birthday of Aunt Harriet.
There we introduced Benjamin to more relatives, including
Betty Anne and Barrie (thanks for the stuffed moose!) and Cousin Dawn,
who started Benjamin's collection of big Legos. They're now his
favorite teething toy -- every day, Benjamin grabs the bucket of
Lego blocks and dumps them out on the floor all over himself, then
chews on various pieces. We've started to spend more time picking
up after him... :)
Benjamin's first tooth (shown in the last
photo below!) has finally broken through the
gumline, bottom
right-center. Looks like the left will soon follow, given the way
he's teething. He's had a couple more ear infections,
unfortunately, and has enjoyed progressively stronger
antibiotics. Looks like he may have ear-tubes like his daddy did
when he was little. He's gotten quite good at eating Cheerios and
crackers and such things. Lately he's been exhibiting preferences
in what he eats, such as preferring applesauce and blueberry puree to
most any vegetable, and turning up his nose some at yams and green
beans. He's so-so on chicken meat and tolerates cheese and
yogurt, but they aren't favorites yet. He's begun sleeping
somewhat better at night, even sleeping from 8pm - 7am a few times this
week, although this may be balanced out by napping less during the
day. Not interested in crawling yet, although he'll rock back and
forth a bit and push himself with his arms when he's on his
tummy. He'd much rather be upright -- he's no fool! He's
also become much more vocal the last couple of weeks, babbling and
screeching and blowing raspberries and smacking his lips. One
morning Joel came in to pick him up and dress him for the day, and he
was
lying in his crib, waving his teddy bear by one arm, and babbling
softly to it. Not sure what he was saying, though...
Looking forward to meeting a lot of Austin and California folks between
Christmas and New Year's!
Last modified: Sun Dec 05 20:53:21
EST 2004
