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.

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?

…his first rice cereal!

It wasn’t much earlier tonight, but it was enough. About a tablespoon of dry rice cereal, mixed with breastmilk, fairly thinly. For his first time, it probably seemed like a lot to him! He wasn’t quite as adept as Benjamin was at taking it in his first time, but he did a pretty good job for his first time.

Benjamin started rice cereal right around five months, too. And yeah, our pediatrician told us at four months to start, with both kids, but we waited both times because we’ve read solids shouldn’t start until at least six months, or later. Both were (and Zachary continues to be) breastfed, so we feel fine with it all.

Anyway, we’re pretty excited to be moving into Zachary’s next big phase of existence.

Benjamin had his 18-month pediatrician wellness visit on 8/30/2007. He’s growing fine and healthy. :)

Stats:

• height: 33″ inches tall
• weight: 25 pounds, 9 ounces
• head: 19″

He went from “well above average” in height to “above average”, and from “below average” in weight to “just below average”.

No Hep-A shot like we should have gotten this visit; they were (and have been for some time) out of the shot… I guess we’ll get it this winter when he gets his flu shot, or at his 2-yr. appointment..?

We asked about a recent issue Benjamin’s having with hummus. He’s had it twice now, and it occasionally gets smeared on his cheeks and around his mouth. He tends to get really red and bumpy around his mouth within a half hour or less of contact. We think it might be an allergy, but we’re not sure. His doctor isn’t sure either, but suspects it could possibly be an allergic reaction. To what in the hummus, we have no idea. He eats everything, and has never had any sort of reaction with any other food, although there are some foods he still can’t have (nuts, shellfish, eggs) until he’s older.

So we’re keeping an eye out. I’d hate-hate-hate for it to be a legume thing, and spill over into peanuts or something. :(

The hair…has been cut!

It wasn’t really THAT long… but there were some ‘wings’ that were sticking out behind his ears that were apparently driving his mother crazy.

Twelve bucks and literally about twelve snips later, we were done. He sat in Stacey’s lap, and didn’t raise a stink, cry, moan, wiggle around, nothing. He sat there, very politely, and let the stylist cut his hair. She even went around his ears and his neck with an electric trimmer, too, and he was fine with all of it.

After dinner he had a brownie with some cocoa buttercream frosting…his “birthday cake”, basically. He didn’t really care for it… It’s really the first sweet thing other than fruit that he’s had. He seemed to be OK with the brownie itself, but the frosting…not so much; he was mostly making funny ‘what the..?’-style faces when he got some in his mouth.

Stacey and I noticed we didn’t have any candles, so we stuck a lit wooden matchstick in his brownie instead. Actually, we went through about three of them by the time we got all the pictures taken…

All in all, a very good day! We’re having a small party on Saturday for him yet, too. Should be fun!

Didn’t really get a chance to mention it before, but for Christmas, Lyle and Vicki popped for all of the grandkids and their parents to go with them to Disney World in Florida.

We just got back on Thursday. It was a great trip! Really good experience for Benjamin; lots of socialization, lots of animals and sights and sounds for him to experience. He seemed to really enjoy himself!

We were really concerned that we might have some trouble with him as far as naps and food were concerned, but he managed to nap when he needed it, falling asleep and staying asleep during some louder show finales, for example. He ate well, and he slept well during the overnights. He handled the later evenings just fine, and loved all the attention and company, playing with his cousins, etc.

The most impressive aspect of the entire trip was how well he handled flying! While everyone else drove from WI down to FL, we ended up flying down, because 20 hours in a car seemed like a bad idea with an 11-month old. He was perfect on the plane in every way. Didn’t cry or become upset during takeoffs or landings, and lasted the entire flight with no trouble, despite being a lap passenger and not having a seat or an opportunity to get down and crawl around at all, being held the entire time, etc. He ate, he drank, he made faces and flirted with the stewardesses and other passengers…he is such a great social being!

We ended up with a few souvenirs from the trip, and a few pictures, too. We’ll try to post some of the pictures soon.