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

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!

With Mom and Dad watching, Benjamin climbed the stairs from our first floor to our second, just moments ago.

The entire flight of stairs. Effortlessly.

Mom was right there with him, baiting him with a stack of papers placed several steps above him, and making sure he didn’t fall.

Isn’t he too young for this? :)

Mom was quite impressed by Benjamin tonight.

They were both on the living room floor. She said something to him, and he crawled over to her, climbed up so he could reach her face with his own, kneeling, and gave her a big sloppy kiss.

I didn’t see it, but it was apparently very, very cute and heart-warming. Typical Benjamin, really. ;) He’s given both of us kisses before, of course… but they’re getting more and more deliberate and communicative. Very cool stuff.

Benjamin is crawling! :)

OK, it’s still not totally coordinated, but the last several days, he’s been very consciously and correctly applying left-right leg motions to his crawling. No more wonky bunny-hopping and falling over…or, well, not as much…

He’s still got a bit to go before he’s got it down perfectly, but his Dr. of PT mother says he’s crawling, and she’s the expert, so…

   yes! :)

Other milestones include pulling himself into a kneeling position and pulling into a standing position. He’s also doing both of these! From what we’ve read, he’s basically months ahead of “normal” development as far as these milestones are concerned. He’s 6.5 months old, and pulling-to-stand (if memory serves) is an approximately 10-months-old thing.

Of course, there’s very much a Your Mileage May Vary(tm) thing at play here; not every kid develops at the same pace. Benjamin is ahead in some ways, right on schedule in others, and probably behind in some ways as well… Each child is different, and there’s certainly no reason to panic OR celebrate, necessarily, based on anything at all.

That said, we’re still pretty fired up! :)

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…