b e n j a m i n f a l k e n b e r g

Well, he felt better for a day or so; his shot issue seems to have cleared up, which was a relief.

He’s still teething, though, and you can tell he’s just not enjoying it at all. Poor little guy. :(

Our boy’s not been feeling very well. He had his 6-month wellness check (with shots) on the 23rd. He’s developed either an internal bruise or a reaction to one of the shots, and coupled with the teething and the evolving diet, he’s kind of a mess…

Officially, as of 23 August 2006, Benjamin is:

• 27 inches long
• 18 lbs 3 oz
• 17 1/4-inch head circumference

He’s in the top 25th percentile for height, and just slightly above average for weight. His hair is growing back really well now after he basically went bald. It was pretty light at first, but we’ve noticed it darkening a little bit the last week or so, too.

Additionally, it looks like his blue eyes are here to stay. His doctor says the color of eyes a baby has at six months is pretty much what they’re going to be. They’re a lovely blue!

Wish him well–and us, too; it’s kind of taxing… but definitely worth it, of course! :)

One more thing: he left a little bite mark on his mother’s finger last night! Two bottom teeth are very rapidly emerging (and his left bottom center one in particular at the moment)!

It came and went this past Sunday, August 20th. Hard to believe he’s that old already. Time has really, really flown by so far. Too fast!

By the way: it looks like a tooth is poking out; he’s still in pretty good spirits for all the teething he’s doing. Not sticking out enough for pictures yet, though. He’s also not really interested in us poking around in there right now, quite understandably.

My mouth is hurting… on the bottom of my mouth. Ow!

Mommy and Daddy keep talking about ‘teeth’… I don’t know what those are, but I hope I like them! Apparently, I’ve got two of them on the way!

My mouth has been feeling a little bit funny for a while now, but the last few days, it’s really been hurting. I can’t stop drooling! I’m also constantly sucking on my bottom lip, and smacking my gums and lips uncontrollably.

Mommy and Daddy have been really great about helping me feel better, but it still hurts!

It would be really nice if my mouth stopped hurting after these teeth-things got here. I don’t know what’s taking them so long, either! Sheesh!

So we’re sitting with Benjamin this evening playing, and he’s on his stomach, then on his back, flipping around, etc, having a great time.

As we’ve mentioned recently, he’s been trying soooo hard to sit up from a hands-and-knees position… He’ll push back, shift to his side, and push himself most of the way up, but can’t quite get totally vertical and sitting upright altogether.  He knows he’s on to something, because you can see in his eyes that he knows this is what he’s suppose to do, and he’s trying with all his might to make it happen.

Well, earlier tonight, he did it. Physical-therapist Mommy calls these types of moves ‘transition’ moves; prior to doing that, however, he did the opposite transition move, from sitting to crawling position. Not even five minutes later, he transitioned the other way, from the crawling position to sitting upright–totally–on his own both times.

Who knows when he’ll do it again, but at this point, he’s done each move once, and we know he’ll be doing them again soon!

Yes, we’re proud again. ;) Mom was particularly excited, probably because it’s one of those “transition” things she knows all about.

The crawling thing is getting more interesting. He will actually raise himself up so he’s just on his hands and his feet, not on his knees at all, like he’s trying to stand up…testing his body to see what it can do. Growing and growing! It’s fascinating to watch him figure this stuff out.

Looks like Benjamin has started to understand hiding-then-reappearing faces. Just this past weekend, he was laughing his head off… It was the first time we’ve noticed it, and we’ve been testing him off and on pretty regularly to see when he’d start doing it and playing along.

Related to that, he’s also understanding that things continue to exist even though he can’t see them anymore. Very cool! He can uncover things on his own when we hide them.

He’s still not quite crawling yet… Well, he’s crawling, but it’s very uncoordinated, so we’re not calling it “real crawling” yet. He’s trying really, really hard to figure out how to get from his side up into a sitting position on his own, now, too. He almost got it yesterday; you can really see the determination in his eyes, just before you see the frustration. ;)

He has also figured out how to move great distances on his back by arching his back and pushing off with his feet.

We’ve also moved on from carrots to green beans now. The palate continues to expand…