Fall Fun

Wow it has been windy and the seasons are changing. Benj is changing too! He just got some nice shoes (not cheap ones from bbsRus) from pappy and gigi, he eats a LOT, and *sniff* is about to turn 1!! We are trying to plan his birthday party....
The past few weeks have been rough because I've been working a lot, into the evenings and such and Benj has been waking twice a night screaming. We don't want to start a bad habit of giving him milk, so he usually has to cry back to sleep. After much debate, we figured he is hungry and instead of making him try to eat what we eat for dinner (which he was only picking at), today I stocked up on some favorite foods...even though they arent 100% healthy perfect mom entrees. We went to Trader Joes this afternoon (I actually got out of work at a decent time) and he pushed around one of those baby carts like it was his job!!! He is so short though one lady stopped me and said she wondered why I got a tiny cart until she peeked over and saw the small boy pushing it. We grabbed some of his favorite foods (some inspired by cousin Trinity) mushroom tarts, dumplings, montery jack string cheese and avocados. He loooves guacamole.
After that, we picked out a pumpkin from a local vendor (like one of those fireworks stands) and I wheeled him and the pumpkin in a wagon for a bit. Gosh I really should have gotten pictures of all this. He also lost his first balloon that the cashier gave him from Trader Joes, but he wasnt sad at all. I'm not sure he was that attached to it ;)

This saturday, I'm taking him to his first gym/baby class thing at Little Gym in Fairfax Corner. We'll see if he likes it! He loves climbing on things and other kids, so I think it will be fun. Free trial can't hurt, right? As long as he doesn't pick up a bug there, I'm ok with it.

We also received my mom's piano and got it tuned. Benjamin loves listening to music and today while listening to some songs on a dvd, he didn't just bounce up and down, he swayed his hip and swiveled (according to pappy). Apparently he also enjoys the super loud music that blasts out of Abercrombie (that makes one person in the world) and "be bopped" in his stroller today. I hope he doesn't ask me to buy him anything there haha.

I have no idea what he should be for halloween. I can't swallow paying 20 bucks for a polyester outfit when he's just gonna pull off the hoodie and wear it for an hour. Hmm. Creative suggestions welcome :)

Major Advancements

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

Proud to say Benj says Ma-Ma! He can say Da-Da too but its hard to say if he knows why he's saying anything yet.. Its very cute.

Also- today Benjamin not only stayed in the nursery the whole church service, he let a stranger put him to sleep!! She's not a stranger to us, but he's only met her once or twice. (Nice job Tif!) This would have been unheard of a few weeks ago. He has really come a long way in the sleep arena.

Benjamin has also done away with all crawling. He only walks!

Update

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

It's been a couple of weeks since we last blogged, just a small update on Benjamin's progress. He's been sleeping great, until a few days ago, he was doing 10-11 hours straight. Recently he's been waking up once in the middle of the night and very difficult to put back to bed, we think he might be teething, as Leah can feel a molar trying to burst through.

Benjamin has ceased crawling all-together now, he walks everywhere! He stand from sitting really quick and zips around. We took this funny picture while goofing around in the living room, Benjamin has expressive eye brows!

=Dillon

Hey You

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

Benjamin is pretty playful with other kids now. This is his friend, Safari :) They were chasing each other around today and seemed to have fun mimicking each other. Benjamin actually napped at someone else's house today- he is making a lot of progress in the sleep area.

Some new things he does:
- Points at objects
- Splashes with his feet in the tub
- Walks carrying big items
- Picks up his sippy cup and drinks without prompting

We trimmed his hair a little because it was quite raggedy. Nothing too drastic.

Today's Tip from Benj B.

I'm not good with posting videos - I know I need to get one up of him walking! But in the meantime, here's Benj's Daily Advice tip. I think it involves "Eat your veggies, Watch your back, and Don't Forget to Brush Your Teeth". I'm open to other captions :)

Ready for Football!

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

We have been preparing Benj for Hokie Domination. We've been reading him "Little Hokie's First Football Game" at night and he watched daddy play flag football the other day. It should be interesting to see if he likes watching football on tv or not. He definitely enjoys his signing time videos, but those are for children :)

Hokies kick off the season this saturday at 8pm! Our little hokie better be asleep...

ZZZzzzz...

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Originally uploaded by dbussert

It seems like with the 10th month, tons of things have happened with Benjamin. Walking, refusing to be spoon fed, chewing bites of adult food, sleeping through the night, establishing a great bedtime routine and learning to fall asleep on his own. We are very proud!

You're probably tired of reading about how Benjamin doesn't sleep, but to close out the record (and so I remember in case one of the next ones has the same problem) here's what we did:

0-5 months: Mom got up at all wakings and fed or rocked Benj back to sleep
5-9 months: Benjamin would require rocking to sleep with relatively loud, rhythmic music, then the same at each of his 3-4 night wakings. He usually woke at 10pm, 1am, 3am and 5am, then got up at 7 for the day.
9 months: Daddy would take Benj to basement couches and lay with him until he cried to sleep. At nightwakings, Dad would lay and arm on Benj and he'd go back to sleep with minimal fussing. Sometimes Mommy would nurse him back to sleep. Sometimes we all slept in his nursery or in the living room. Sleeping on the floor is surprizingly good for your back.
Interspersed from 6-9 months: We'd try a few nights of letting him cry but worry that he was hungry or teething would set in and we'd give in.
10 months: The incessant wakeups had to stop because he wasn't allowing us to put him down and would just take too long to put back to sleep. Got frustrated and put him in crib crying and called cousin (supermom!) Judy for advice. We decided to call a sleep consultant/center and also let him cry and visit him at 3, 5, 7, 10, 12,and then 15 minute intervals.

Night 1: Put him to bed with assistance, but at the first wakeup, let him cry with visits. 2hours of crying. Woke 4 times and we visited him each time. Cried about 45 mins at each wakeup. Super tired the next day.
Night 2: Did a bedtime routine and put him in crib awake, but sleepy. Mom stayed and laid in the room and told him it was bedtime and had earplugs in. 1.5 hrs of crying. Still woke up 3 or 4 times.... less visits needed.
Night 3: Bath, Stories, PJs...I think 20 mins of crying. No visits needed because there was only stage 2 crying (whimpering and whining, not screaming).
Night 4: Asleep after put in crib in less than 5 minutes. Two stirrings at night but he got himself back to sleep. Two nights in bed without getting up for mommy and daddy.
Night 5: Asleep in less than 3 mins.
Night 6: Asleep in 30 seconds. Sweet!

Naps are another story, but we are working on it. The sleep plan suggests waiting until he is peacefully sleeping through the night. The only thing is that I miss being able to rock him to sleep sometimes (we cant even for naps yet because it will break the training). But, we work in other quality time and snuggles.

Although I wish I'd tried this earlier, I just wasn't mentally or emotionally ready for it until now. With him starting to walk, it kinda made sense that he needed to learn how to fall asleep on his own. He'd never fallen asleep without being held in his whole 10 months (except few occasions and in the car/stroller). He is smart and he learned so fast.

It's resulted in a better daytime appetite (no more sneaky night feedings) - he downed half a pear, two mini corn muffins and some other finger foods the other night for dinner.

Future news--- he'll probably be going to a home daycare one day a week to give grandpa a break and he's pretty much fully weaned. He doesn't have a lovey yet and is very adept at drinking from a straw and sippy!