Benjamin Is 8 Months Old!

I know this is way late, but here is a little synopsis of our 8th month with our precious Benj...

This month Ben got two teeth...one on the top, and the corresponding one on the bottom. It was just so darned cute to look at those little chompers...he kind of looked like a hillbilly. He also perfected sitting in one spot and reaching really far to get a toy without having to actually get down and move anywhere. When he does fall onto his stomach, instead of continuing to strain to reach whatever it was that he wanted, he just lays his head down in defeat and starts to cry. He really hasn't been very motivated to crawl, and I guess it may have something to do with his three slaves that anticipate his every desire.

Early in the month I took him to get some shots and had a talk with his pediatrician about him not bearing weight on his legs. He has always been a little bit awkward on his feet, standing on the sides of them rather than on the bottoms. So our pediatrician gave us some exercises to practice with him, and basically told me that he was just a little bit lazy....hehe...I like to tell Brian that comes from his side of the family, but I'm inclined to think it is from me....

Anyway, we started working with him and have been pretty successful. In fact the draw-back to teaching him to stand up is that he now wants to stand up all the time...and this can be a problem if, say, you want to lay him down to change his diaper or to sit in his high chair.

Ben is still the happiest little guy I know, and loves to pillage through his sister's play dishes and dance (bounce, really) to any music. It's funny to watch Madison with him. Whenever I put him in the jumper, she comes out and starts doing an original full-scale Broadway production for him; singing, dancing and acting out scenes she is working on. Hilarious. And he just sits there and enthusiatically claps (did I mention that he learned to clap?) and tries to sing along. I think he is biding him time until he's big enough to join in on the fun.

Another month gone!