Latest Updates: talking RSS

  • What He's Saying, and How He's Looking

    Stacey and Alex 0:15 am on September 11, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , talking,

    We started a separate "Benjamin’s Words" page many, many months ago to keep track of the words Benjamin’s learning, and, well, he started picking up words faster than we could record them. That page ended up being (more than) a bit neglected because he was picking up words and doing other things faster than we could record them.

    We’d like to try again. To that end, we’ve updated the page and we’re going to try and continue to update it with a bit more regularity.

    We’re also working on the pictures thing. Still. Alex has in no way been satisfiedBenjamin loves State-Fair cream puffs! with the various photo solutions, so there’s a mix of different things here and there that we’ve tried (won’t bore you with the technical details), and you’ll likely see a few more as we move forward. Bear with us, and just take the pictures any way you can get ‘em for now, OK? ;)

    ALSO, PLEASE HELP US: If you interact with Benjamin and have heard a word or phrase that’s not listed on his Words page, let us know! If you have any pictures of Benjamin (or any of his relatives!) that you think would be great to have posted here on the website, that would be great too! Benjamin loves it when we read posts here to him about things he’s done, places he’s been, people he’s visited, etc, and he loves the (so very few so far) pictures we’ve posted.

    We really do want to create as thorough a record of his life with words and pictures as we can, so we have memories for ourselves and for him…and for you, too. Any contribution(s) you make to this effort would be very much appreciated by all of us here! :)

     

  • Another Ballgame...

    Dad 16:54 pm on June 23, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , flirting, , talking,

    Benjamin’s second Brewers game was last night. Brewers beat the Royals, rather decisively; I forget all the details, but it was a loooong game.

    Benjamin’s first Brewers game was last year in July.

    Benjamin was really great at the game! A man sitting in front of us was telling Stacey how he’d never imagine being able to bring his 18-month-old to a game, and he was stunned when we told him this was Benjamin’s second.

    The boy is a huge flirt! He had all of the women around us eating out of his hand, putting on a big show of smiles and playing shy…eventually blowing them kisses and passing around high-fives when the crowd was cheering a play.

    He was trying to do the wave with everyone, was clapping along when people were clapping, and just seemed to have a really awesome time. He did get a little cranky toward the end, but it was 2.5 hours past his bedtime, and I think he was just a little tired.

    We’ve been going to some local adult- and little-league softball and baseball games around town with Benjamin, too, and he seems to really enjoy watching the players and the ball flying around back and forth. We might have to get him a toddler T-ball set soon… ;)

     

  • Tongue-Tied...Surgery!

    Dad 20:10 pm on April 13, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , talking, ,

    I think we’ve mentioned before that Benjamin was born a bit tongue-tied. The bit of tissue that connects his tongue to the bottom of his mouth (called the frenulum, and we all have this), is attached much too close to the tip of his tongue; it prevents him from sticking his tongue out all the way, and could be impacting his ability to speak properly.

    In some babies, it not only can cause speech issues, but may affect eating. Benjamin never has had any problems eating or nursing, so it’s not that bad for him, but his tongue is still rather tightly bound to the bottom of his mouth, and you can see his poor little forked tongue when he tries to stick it all the way out.

    In less than a week, on April 19th, his tongue will finally be free. After discussions with his pediatrician, we’ve scheduled Benjamin for a frenulectomy to correct the problem. As it turns out, he’s old enough now that they have to actually knock him out with a general anesthetic/laughing gas, and then snip the thing. The ENT (ears-nose-throat) doctor doing the procedure has told us Benjamin will also get a stitch or two to help prevent reattachment of the tissue and help maintain the freedom he’ll have.

    So that’s great news. As endearing and cute as his little forked tongue is, it will be nice to have this finally remedied.

    The only thing that’s, well, obscene about this is how much the doctors/etc are charging. By the time we’ve had our initial visit, the surgery itself and all the related trimmings (laughing gas, etc.), and the follow-up visit, the total charges (before insurance) will exceed approximately $1500. For what is basically a simple half-second snip with a pair of scissors of some tissue that Ben won’t even feel being cut due to a lack of nerve endings in the area…

    It seems a bit, umm… excessive, really.

    Sure, we get that he needs to be knocked out so they can actually do the work, but wow. The initial consult to get the ’surgery’ set up was billed at (pre-insurance, again) $275. The ENT did–literally–nothing! Some racket they’ve got goin’ on there, for sure…

    Anyway, wish our little guy well for his first-ever surgery!

     

  • Some updates again...

    Stacey and Alex 22:48 pm on November 27, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , talking, , , ,

    This morning Dad’s working at his desk when he hears a repetitive noise behind him; he’s not sure what it is, so of course he turns to look…

    It’s Benjamin, CLAPPING. We’ve been practicing clapping with him a little bit, but this was the first time he’s really done it on his own, deliberately, that we’ve noticed. He was watching his hands, as if studying the movements and the resulting sounds; it was very, very cute.

    He went in for his nine-month wellness check with the pediatrician today, too. Stats:

    • height: 28.5 inches tall
    • weight: 19 lbs 15 ounces
    • head: 18 inches around

    Everything went well; he’s average weight, and slightly above-average height.

    We were asked a number of questions about his development, and the only question we couldn’t answer yes to was “does he wave goodbye to people?”. He really doesn’t, but he also doesn’t really ever see Mom or Dad leave separately. Well, occasionally, but not that often…not often enough that he would have a lot of practice with the goodbye-waving, in any case. We do practice with him when we’re out and he’s socializing with other parents and kids at a store or something, and around his relatives.

    The funny thing? Tonight, just a few hours after his doctor visit, Mom was taking him to bed, and he waved goodnight to his Dad! Very deliberate, and he even repeated it a few moments later. VERY COOL! We also blow kisses at him, so we figure he’ll pick that up on his own at some point soon, too. Very exciting!

    He got his second flu shot today. Must have been a clean stick, as he barely cried. He takes shots pretty well.

    He started calling his Mom “mama” a couple days ago! Dad’s with him most of the time during the day, so Dad’s kinda bummed it wasn’t “Dada”, but Dad will survive. ;) In the meantime, since he’s figured it out, Mom’s feeling both excited and a little frustrated, because he wants her ALL the time now, and there’s no denying it when he’s asking for her BY NAME. Hah!

    He’s also able to take a few steps walking now! He walked about 5 steps tonight for Mom during the football game, before he plopped onto his butt, but it’s progress!

    Stuff that makes parents so proud…

    He’s moved on to stage-three baby foods and table foods now, too. There are of course a handful of foods he still can’t eat, to avoid potential allergies, but not a big deal… We’re eager to get away from the baby foods and let him start eating “real” foods.

    He’s also been teething like CRAZY, and overnights haven’t been very fun… He’s got about 6 teeth now, and he’s gnawing on everything, and drooling like a maniac…

     

  • Rockin' and rollin'...a general update

    Stacey and Alex 20:13 pm on July 27, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , talking, ,

    Benjamin’s getting to be more and more active. He’s also wanting to be more mobile than he’s currently capable of being, and it seems to be frustrating him a little bit. He’s rolling over back and forth like there’s no tomorrow, and he’s even kind of figured out how to mini-steamroll around the room, but only for a couple of flips before he stops… He can spin himself around pretty easily, either while on his back or his belly, and if you’re not paying close attention, he can move about ten feet across the floor and be in a totally different orientation, leaving you wondering how he even did it…

    He’s still not quite crawling, but he is up on all fours now pretty often (and more and more every day). He rocks back and forth now, and he’s been occasionally bunny-hopping his way across the floor in very short spurts. He’s got the idea of crawling down, we think, but he’s not quite coordinated enough to make it work; he gets on his stomach, realizes he can’t do what he wants to do, and eventually gets frustrated and needs some help.

    He sits up for an hour or longer at a time now, so we think he’s got that pretty well under control, unless he’s hungry or tired or bored, in which case he very readily falls back/over and cries for assistance or additional entertainment. Smart kid, heh. He’s getting so much better at entertaining himself for longer stretches of time, too, playing with different toys…and he’s quite the little talker when we’re playing with him, too! He is increasingly ticklish and loves to laugh–great sense of humor so far!

    Benjamin’s still on cereal twice a day (in addition to regular breast/bottled-breastmilk feedings), and that’s going really, really well. We’ll be introducing some vegetable baby food in a couple weeks or less, we think. He’s been sleeping really well all night long, too, which is fantastic… it’s so nice to have some quiet, alone time for Mom and Dad in the evenings. He’s up earlier in the morning now as a result, which has obliterated Dad’s morning 1.5 hours or so’s free work time…but Dad will get used to it.

    We started babyproofing the house recently, too. Fun! (ok, not really…) Outlet covers, some cabinet locks, etc. Crawling around on the floor trying to see things from his vantage point… We have some openings between rooms that aren’t the right size for standard baby gates, so we’re not sure what we’re going to do about that just yet, but we’re shopping around still hoping we’ll find some that will work. We finally got around to buying a new vacuum cleaner, too, so that’s taken care of now.

    We were also talking a couple days ago how he’s starting to look more like a little boy and less like a baby (cue Dad’s excuses about the lack-of-pictures situation here). We were also talking about how everyone has told us how quickly this time would fly by, and how we were prepared for it to go by quickly, but we’ve still been stunned at just how much more quickly it’s gone by than we ever could have imagined! We’ve probably said it a billion times in the last nearly-six months: amazing!

     

  • Flippin'

    Dad 9:39 am on June 30, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , talking

    At 8:52am this morning, Ben rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time ever unassisted!

    [[ EDIT: Second time. See the post above this one! :) ]]

    :) :) :)

    He was in his crib; I had just entered his room, and he was still kind of half-asleep. I called his name, and he propped himself up on his hands to look around (as he’s been doing for weeks now). He cranked his head back and up to look at me, and we started our “morning chat”, talking to each other…

    All of a sudden, he rolled over onto his back and kept right on talking back to me as if nothing had happened. It was done so effortlessly, yet intentionally.

    I about flipped myself!

    He’s actually flipped himself over several times before, but it was always on the bed or the couch with one of us sitting next to him, so the mattress or cushion was always angled, and he was basically rolling downhill more than actually turning over. ;)

    One more milestone! We honestly figured he’d flip from back to front first, based on how he’s been doing when we’ve been playing with him. And of course we realize that this first success doesn’t mean instant mastery, either.

    He’s such a strong little guy. He’s up to about 2 minutes or so sitting up unassisted now, too, and loves standing up (with our help).

    He’s only 4 1/2 months!

     

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