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

When Benjamin used to suck his thumb while eating, we initially got annoyed by it, because it generally ended up creating a huge mess of baby food everywhere…more on the baby than in the baby. It was pretty frustrating for us as parents.

Eventually, he stopped doing it, and we were relieved.

Zachary, on the other hand, is a regular thumbsucker…but only when he wants something. He doesn’t suck his thumb unless he is hungry or tired…or, well, both.

He sucks his thumb while he eats his cereal or whatever, too, but we think this falls under the “hungry” category. With each new spoonful of food, he follows it in with his thumb and sucks, and it appears to help him ingest the food. And yeah, it sometimes makes things a bit messy. But it also seems to help him get the food in and down, and he pulls his thumb out when he’s ready to take in more spoonfuls of food, so we just don’t worry about it.

The net result of basically letting the thumb sucking while eating thing go is that it’s less hassle than it was before when we were constantly trying to control it with Benjamin. It’s proven to be one of those choose-your-battles things that we’ve decided to just let go.

We’re not experts of any sort, so do whatever you want with your own children…but from our perspective, if your infant can’t stop sticking their thumb back in their mouth after every spoonful of food, well, just let him or her do it. Engage with your baby–talking, smiling, etc–and you’ll find that all that thumb-related hassle was mostly created by you and not your little eater.

For us, everyone–everyone–is soooo much happier in the end.

And of course, you still need to watch your baby and see if they’re engaging in extreme sucking of thumb or pacifier that might affect their development of new teeth or jaw, etc. Zachary isn’t strong or frequent with his sucking, so we’re not worried…and like Benjamin, we anticipate the thumb need will eventually just vanish on its own.

Both Benjamin and his Mom went out today and picked up a cake and decorated it for me for Father’s Day. Benjamin picked out all the different frosting colors, and did most of the decorating (with a little bit of Mom’s help, I’m told…). Sure, it’s all a day early, but I can’t say I minded one bit!

When they presented it to me, Benjamin even wished me “Happy Father’s Day!”, which was really, really great.

“(heart) U DAD” is simply… awesome.

Benjamin’s never been to a feature film. Until today. The four of us–Zachary included–went to see a matinee showing of “Horton Hears a Who” at a local movie theater, and we had a really great time.

First and most importantly, Benjamin really enjoyed himself. It’s not at all uncommon that he enjoys himself; he always manages to find something fun to do. But this was something new, and it got kind of dark, and it wasn’t anything he was familiar with as experiences go…but he adapted well and settled right in. There were moments where Vlad the Vulture spooked him into asking to go potty when he really didn’t need to. Benjamin sat in his own seat (with a theater-provided booster) and held the giant box of popcorn for the whole family, the entire movie.

There were also moments when he asked to go potty and needed to; he was still clean and dry when the movie was over, which was great considering the kid’s not yet even 2.5 years old. Yes, his parents are proud…

Unsurprisingly, Zachary enjoyed the movie a bit less. It wasn’t so much a matter of not enjoying the movie, because he wasn’t even really watching it; it was more a matter of having just been breastfed prior to the previews and then wanting to nap when the surroundings were unfamiliar and a bit, umm, animated… He did finally go to sleep, and everything worked out fine after that.

All in all, a great experience, and a great afternoon at a matinee show (and at a theatre worth supporting!). Mom and Dad enjoyed the movie as well. Mom in particular was laughing out loud at the song and dance bit at the end.

We’ll definitely be doing it again!

It seems like every few months we’re apologizing for the lack of updates. This is another one of those times.

We’ve been really busy. New job, new house soon (!), lots of packing, and just getting a lot of Big Stuff(tm) taken care of lately.

Sure, it sounds like a line, but it’s really true. And we’re really, really sorry.

Benjamin’s super-excited about the new house. He’s stoked to have a new room, and a new house, with a new yard, a giant wooden play set in the yard with a slide and swings, and lots and lots of room. He’s also pretty excited about our decision to get a kitten once we’re in the house, and to befriend some new neighbor kids to play with.

Zachary continues to grow and smile and laugh. He’s almost crawling, but not being able to crawl doesn’t stop him from moving across 25 feet of floor in just a couple seconds, rolling and twisting his way from Point A to Point B. He eats well and plays well. We’re very pleased with his growth and his demeanor. It’s so strange to see him in Benjamin’s not-really-all-that-old clothes…

So that’s a quickie update. More soon after we move and get unpacked and settled in. The next few weeks are going to be busy!

And this time it’s peas… Zachary’s first ‘real’ solid food not counting rice cereal.

It went really well; he really enjoyed the peas, happily smacking his lips with each spoonful. His reaction to the first taste was more like “hey, what IS that, I don’t know that!”, but he had already recovered by his very next bite.

We’ll do peas for a few more days (4 days per food starting out, according to the pediatrician, to stay on top of any possible allergic reactions), and then switch it up a bit with some sweet potatoes or something.

And in case you’ve forgotten or are trying to remember, Benjamin’s first real food was peas, too…

And yes, Zachary is six months old today, too. Where does the time go?

Proofs from Benjamin’s 2-year birthday pictures! Since they’re just proofs, they’re not large nor very high-resolution. You can click them to get slightly larger sizes.

Zachary (roughly 5 months old here) is naturally in some of them. We went to a Target photo studio near us; the woman there was rumored to be terrific…and she was. We were very impressed with her ability to capture great facial expressions and the natural look and feel of Benjamin.

We didn’t order all of these poses, of course. If you see one you really like, though, let us know!