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There's just no clever title for uploading videos of Benjamin doing things no baby has ever done before. Clearly.

Kidding.

We're just proud of him, that's all. It still puts me in a daily state of shock to realize I really do have a little boy who's growing and learning and interacting. I have the same mini epiphanies about losing Andrew every week or so as well. The blanket statement of wow... this is really my life comes to mind when I think of Benjamin growing and thriving and Andrew being forever static. Maybe it's because we lost Andrew that I'm stunned when Benjamin hits milestones like he's supposed to. Any and all milestones are very celebrated, because we know the alternative is not being able to celebrate.

So let's keep celebrating, shall we? You won't get this time in your life back, so feel free to skip. But I love this kid and will choose to spend my extra minutes in awe of his little brain.

Little Musician

Yes, he crawls on the fireplace now. Help.

A friend let us borrow this walking toy and B took off with it! I promptly bought one for us to keep.

Big shoes on a little person. First time in shoes... didn't love it. 

They're Keen shoes and beyond cute, no?

Sorry about the sideways. Sometimes I get excited about videos and forget...

Benjamin's Latest Moves

This boy will be one next month. Icannotbelieveit.

We're currently in the planning stage of a first birthday party (and baptism!) and my heart skips a beat just typing that. I'm so elated to be planning a celebratory party for one of my sons. My goodness gracious, hooray. I'll post all the little details of the B-man's party when I get around to it. I also owe you all a basement remodel post, but I can't take photos right now because we just started The Shred yesterday (um, ouch) and our basement has yoga mats strewn and a television and DVD played propped on the ping pong table and I don't feel like moving it all for fancy pictures. To come... sometime in 2013. Hah.

Videos of B? Okay, sure. 

1. This one is of B crawling over and then pulling up on a very wobbly piece of play equipment. We still have it out because B likes to crawl over and suck on play with the hanging toys. He sits down quickly after standing, but he's been known to stand for awhile. And sometimes... sometimes he just falls when he tries. This one was a success. I measure those by no tears. 

2. B is not a good transfer kid. I was talking with my friend Kristi about this the other day, describing that if B falls asleep on the way home before a nap, he'll be wide awake when we get home and impossible to get back to sleep. In order to avoid this, I often sit in the back seat and distract, feed him puffs, sing, giggle... whatever. The goal is to get him home awake. This translates to this video because B fell asleep on a walk recently and I tried so hard to keep him awake by handing him a stick full grown tree to hold to keep him distracted and entertained. Didn't work. He fell asleep holding a stick.

3. Requested video from my Instagram friends, but B wasn't clapping when I captured it. He did clap, though. He did eat about 30 noodles in a matter of 5 minutes. It was insane. We're reaching a new level of feeding issues. He will almost only allow for feeding himself and I have to use major trickery to get food into his mouth via spoon that he'll allow to stay in his mouth after the spoon is removed. He's had pasta many times before, but this was spinach fusilli and he just loved it. 

4. Stairs. As soon as he started crawling proficiently past the army stage, he was on the move straight up the stairs. He now crawls while Skyping with both sets of grandparents and anytime he breaks through the double doors to our family room. He's sneaky and knows it. He'll climb really fast away from you. This one is a slower crawl behind him, but still fun to see his mad skills.

Train for Sale + Insta-Friday + Video

Remember this post where I detailed the story of standing in line on Thanksgiving night at 9 months pregnant with Andrew? The one where we bought him his first Thomas the Train starter set?

Yeah, so we decided it makes us too sad to keep that around and someone's coming by this afternoon. We have nothing against trains themselves, and as a matter of fact, Benjamin's first Christmas ornament was purchased in Germany and it's a little locomotive. We're cool with him having train things and even a train... just not the one we bought for Andrew.

We've decided to encourage and invest in Lego instead.

Moving on to Insta-Friday after that little uplifting update.

Sweet Chili Pistachios. New favorite.

Broccoli stalk must have worked because this baby now has four teeth!

Dinner Thursday night: vegetarian & meat cabbage rolls. I added parmesan to the top as well.
Also read: leftovers = dinner tonight

As soon as B showed signs of a cold, I bought this bad boy along with 20 extra filters on Amazon. Took FO-EVA to get here, but now that it's here, we're one happy, snot-sucking family.

And finally... B getting on all-fours and totally angry about the whole ordeal. His motivation was the laptop cord. He sort of has a love affair with it. For Christmas, send laptop cords. Thanks.

New Trick {or Treat}

Almost Halloween and I'm seriously sucking at this mom business because I haven't even tried B's costume on him yet. I know, ridiculous, right? We're only going to be passing out candy for a few hours anyway, so whatever. I promise I'll be more enthusiastic next year. We are eating plenty of Halloween candy and cookies, so at least we've got that covered.

Here's a fun video of B's new trick. It's not crawling or walking, but it's something! Warning: bare baby bum.

Also, I introduced some yogurt into his diet and it appears that was a bad idea. Waiting until a year old. Lesson learned. Ick. In other news, B is rather uninterested in crawling, but can roll like a boss and turn 360 like a spinning top. I know it will happen before long, but it's rather entertaining watching him pitch a fit when he can't get to what he wants. Before long, the joke will be on me. You don't have to warn me. :)

I may or may not be back tomorrow to share B's costume if it fits. Happy Halloween!

Because Family Lives TOO Far Away...

The B-man is changing everyday, folks. It's crazy all of the new mischievous looks and expressions coming out of this little body that is our son. I have a feeling when he's mobile, we are going to be two very tired parents.

Bring it.

The cute factor is off the charts on this one.

This one's only really good the first 26 seconds, but I laugh every time.

And this one is solely for my parents. The creepster bear plays peek-a-boo and B is just starting to become entertained by it.

The Happenings

I talked with my sister-in-law the other day and she requested videos. And videos she'll get! B also had his first babysitter this past weekend that was there when he awoke from his nap, fed him dinner, bathed him, and put him down for the night! Seven hours we were away from our little munchkin. The two days prior to our leaving him, he attended two fancy business dinners. This particular night was out on a dinner boat cruise off Navy Pier in Chicago and B just wasn't invited. And it wasn't optional for us not to attend. And honestly, we did have a great time. It helped that every single person I talked with asked about Benjamin and how I was doing leaving him for the first time. It did help pass the time... and before we knew it, we were back home peering into his crib with just the light from my iPhone illuminating his bedroom.

To say I lost sleep over leaving him is an understatement. I may or may not have typed up sub plans and reduced the margins to .4 inch so I wouldn't seem like a crazy mother with multiple pages of notes. As a teacher, I was totally the one to type up 4-page detailed notes for all my subs. As a mother, I'm clearly no different. And perhaps being a baby loss mother makes it all that much harder. When everyone I talked with told me things like we all survived, and eventually you'll have to leave him anyway, I obviously felt a bit one-sided in my arguments, so therefore I just didn't speak about it. Losing Andrew just plain changed everything.

This is the photo my friend sent me of B looking at her like, You are soooo not my mama. 

I received a few text messages throughout the night, but mostly good. The main text was telling me he seemed hungry and wondered if he should be fed early. Translation: he is inconsolable and crying. When all else fails, feed the kid. And feed she did. The tank ate... get this... a whole banana, a packet of HappyBaby Organic pears and 1/3 cup oatmeal. Seriously. The tank. But not a drop of breastmilk. Why? Because the kid refuses any bottle or sippy cup. So two cups of hard earned pumped milk went down the drain yesterday. Sacrifice.

Now for the videos. For my sister-in-law... and anyone else.

This was just yesterday. Eating spaghetti with chunky tomatoes and onions (that's right grandparents!).

This was today. B is getting better and better about sitting up. We think he'll be a pro by the end of the month. That toy has a story... I'll explain that in about a week.

This was back in August, but I appreciate how B just manhandles his jumperoo toys like it's no big thing. Easy button.

Today as well. I had just fed him lunch and he was hanging in the highchair being adorable.

I would be remiss not to honor those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 in this post... 11 years to the day of the horror that rocked our Nation. To those families 11 years apart from their loved ones, I honor you too. Because losing someone you love and living on might be just as courageous as losing one's own life. Peace to all.

Video Explosion

For those of you who care about watching videos of B {ehhhm, Family & Joel Marriott}, here are a few taken recently. They're roughly a minute each. Any more than that, and I think it's too much. ;)

Here's Ray attempting to entertain B while sitting (quite the challenge). And hey, if he retains any of it, icing on the cake.

This is the least exciting of the videos, but he does show his mastery of hand sucking.

I love how YouTube allows you to select the thumbnail picture behind each photo. Logically, I chose the screaming still shot. Makes me laugh, anyway. In this video, B is showing how he moves from belly to back during tummy time (aka: baby torture time). He'd done it 3 times in a minute and this is his fourth time. He's obviously quite peeved at me for allowing such activity to take place.

Seems to be a trend here with the naked baby videos. Could mean one of a few things: it's really hot, he just had a blowout, he just peed through an outfit, we're trying to prevent him from peeing through an outfit (always the case during tummy time), or it's bath time. I'll be taking video of bath time soon. It could possibly be his favorite thing ever.