Life in Motion

Life is a riot of activity and sound right now, as our little 11 month old has become addicted to....MOTION!  He never seems to stop moving...crawling, pulling up, climbing over and on things, wiggling, reaching, exploring.  Yep, Mom is tired.  

Once Ben figured out how to organize his arms and legs and master the crawling thing, he has perfected his skill and is quite fast and purposeful in his movements.  He follows me around wherever I am-which sometimes causes him frustration, like when I am cooking in the kitchen and moving back and forth from cupboards to the sink to the stove.  As soon as he gets going in my direction, he has to start all over again because I have moved!  
With this new freedom, he has developed a little independence, and Mommy shouts Hallelujah!!!  I put him down to his delight now, instead of his dismay, and he explores and finds toys and will crawl from room to room sometimes independent of me to find new things to discover.  He still likes to be close and make sure I am nearby, and there is still PLENTY of snuggling, but I think we are both enjoying the new freedom. :)  Though with exploration comes a lot of "no" and "don't touch" as, alas, my son has a strong craving for cords, plugs and anything that reeks of electronics.  We have found some acceptable things to play with, his favorites being things that aren't designed to be toys....like the wall vent (makes great sounds when you run your hands up and down it)....measuring cups (makes great sounds when you bang them together)....a squirt bottle (makes great sounds when you squeeze it)....can you tell we enjoy things that make sounds?  But Ben still makes the best sounds: spitting, spluttering, whispers, his new gibberish language, and the best belly laugh you have ever heard.  One of my favorite times are when we play "chase" and he will crawl after me, chasing me around the island in our kitchen or the ottoman in our family room.  He squeals with delight when he realizes he is getting close to catching me and with pounding hands and knees he speeds up to gain on me.  

A couple days ago John and I stood there with our mouths hanging open as he climbed up our flight of stairs (with me close behind) all by himself!  We couldn't believe it!  He slowly but successfully scaled each step and had the biggest grin on his face once he reached the top. (Though the eruptions of praise and excitement from us probably had something to do with it too.)  I know it won't be long before he isn't on his hands and knees anymore on those stairs.  He loves to pull up on things, even difficult things like the glass door to our backyard, and will stand with often only one hand holding on.  Every once in awhile I see him take a few sideways steps while holding on, trying to "cruise" his way to a coveted object.  He will be an unstoppable force once he is walking and running!

I love watching the look of pleasure on his face when he realizes he can do something or learns something new.  He is definitely showing a bit of the engineer brain that his father has bestowed upon him.  Often I catch him holding an object and staring at it with intense concentration, his brow furrowed, his lips pursed or even tongue at the edge of his lips, turning the object over, examining it parts and trying to figure out how it works or what it does.  The other day I was using my immersion blender in one hand while holding him in the other (yes, I have learned how to do many tasks one-handed, and some even successfully!).  I saw him look at the plug in the socket, follow the cord to the tool, and then watch it whisk in the bowl.  You could almost see him thinking and puzzling over how the thing worked!  I wonder in the future how many of my things I will find "deconstructed" in the name of "trying to figure out how it works, Mom!"  Good thing I am married to a guy who knows how to fix stuff!

I think the only other thing that we do as much as move in our house, is sing.  Ben LOVES singing.  A grumpy whiny mood turns to smiles with a few lines of "This little light of mine...." or "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory....".  I have used this singing as a strategic tool as of late.  Ben has sported a little bit of picky-ness in his eating habits and sometimes doesn't want to finish his bowl of sweet potatoes or beans or whatever I have mushed up for him.  So I discovered that if I sing to him, something magical happens and he will eat whatever I put on a spoon.  Peas, lentils, spinach....doesn't matter how much he hated it before or how many times he screwed up his mouth and buried it in the side of his high chair, if I break into song, he happily opens his mouth with a smile.  You know, life may be uncertain, we don't know what will happen with our government, the Middle East or even tomorrow, but I know with 100% certainty, that singing will make my son eat anything!  Some may call this manipulation, but I say--whatever works, do it!  
Overall, Ben has decided that the mush in his little bowls or the bits on his tray are no longer worthy of his palate, and now he wants whatever is on our plates.  He can be happily mashing handfuls of things into his mouth and then as soon as we fill our plates with something, he begins the "eh-eh-eh-eh" routine with wiggling hands and feet (the "I want" sign, a la Ben) and is completely done with whatever is in front of him.  This happened the other night.  He had yogurt and watermelon, two of his most favorite foods, but we started eating a new Indian dish I had tried and he wanted no more of his food.  So, I let him have a bite.  Did I mention that it was Indian food?  Garlic, onions, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, curry--very intense flavors.  He LOVED it and that's all he wanted for the rest of his dinner.  We just shake our heads and laugh sometimes....a lot of times. :)

Father's Day with Daddy and Grandpa (Ben's shirt says "I dig my Dad", with a bulldozer on it)

Something about camo dino jammies hugging a squidgy little body....can't get enough of it!! :)

We put this little outfit on him, with high-top Converse tennies and he looked so big and grown-up!

Ben was introduced to dirt the other day.  It was love at first sight, a relationship that I am sure will continue long into the future.

He was trying to help me weed.....might need to work on distinguishing which ones actually need pulling.

In this video Ben had just snorted when he laughed, which of course made John and I crack up.  So then we would pinch his nose and he would snort again, giving us all a case of the giggles.

And here is our crawling boy, scaling the mountain of stairs....

Ben has a little friend named Jack who is the son of some friends of ours in our small group at church.  The other night they were playing together and the adults were having so much fun (probably too much at their expense!) watching them interact.  Ben is going to need to learn how to defend himself, especially if he hopes to survive siblings in the future!

This is a new thing Ben started that we call head banging.  Not sure what he is really doing but it is cute!

Sunny Days

We may not have many sunny days in Seattle, especially this last spring which has felt more like October, but most of our days are pretty sunny just because Ben is our little sunshine.  He just keeps getting more and more fun as he grows, with his giggles and laughs, the games he plays with us, and all the snuggles.  Pretty hard to be down and dreary when you have a sweet little blond head snuggling against you!

Ben is now 10 months old and seems to learn new things every day.  He is finally catching up in his gross motor skills and is officially a crawler!!  Hip Hip Hooray!  He isn't fast enough yet that I am diving to stop him from getting to things, but he is definitely mobile.  He started with rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, then did a little army crawling (which actually looks more like a grounded swimmer doing the butterfly stroke) and now does a cautious but purposeful honest to goodness crawl!  He continually amazes us with other movements he can do also.  He can now move from his back to sitting up, in one motion (I think he has better ab muscles than I do!), from sitting to crawling, and is trying to pull himself up on things (mommy's leg, ottomans, mommy's knee, furniture, mommy's arm.....or anyone else's lap he wants to be on).  Now that he crawls and moves around so much easier, he has more independent play time....though he still loves to be around people and playing with people the most.  

Along with his favorite "blowing raspberries", Ben now likes to clap!  He just figured this out yesterday and will clap with open hands, instead of just hitting his fists together!  He continues to love to "sing" and makes noises all the time, whether "talking" to himself or us, or just seeing what kind of noises he can come up with on the fly.  

Snuggling has always been something that Ben enjoys, but usually for brief moments, and on his time table.  Recently snuggling has become a regular activity, especially before or after naps, with long stretches of him lying against my chest, or snuggling into my neck or against my shoulder.  Sometimes he will just lie there, with eyes open, looking around but perfectly content, and then he will lift up his head to catch my eye, and give me a big grin as if he were saying "isn't this just the best?!" and then lay his head back down for another round.  Yes, Ben, this is the best. :)

We have dubbed this box "Ben's office" because he loves to sit in it while I am cooking and drop things over the side, then put them back in, play with the things in the box and talk to me.  It is the box that I get my organic produce in every couple of weeks, and this week I got something quite large and organic in it! :)

Ben still loves his baby carrots, but has challenged himself of late to hold it with no hands.  Kind of makes it look like he is smoking a cigar.

My boy loves his fruit.  Whether it is apples, watermelon, lemons (yes, lemons) or oranges, he loves to suck, gnaw, chew on them until they surrender to a mushy pulp.  He just gets so much joy from food....wonder where he got that from....

Last night we decided to have a picnic dinner on the family room floor.  Ben got the treat of getting to wear and eat his food.  Watermelon was one of the main courses, and he (and the mat and Mommy) were covered in it, but he sure had some fun!

little bites of watermelon lined up on his legs....who says you can't play with your food?

Ben and I have been a part of this program called Roots of Empathy this year.  Once a month Ben and I go to a kindergarten classroom and participate with a teacher and her kids to teach lessons about how babies grow and develop, emotions, how to take care of babies, family issues, etc.  The program brings up some great conversation with the kids and they just love seeing "their Baby Ben" every week and what new things he is doing.  These pictures and video are of our last and final visit when he crawled for the kids for the first time. 

Here are some crawling videos....the first is his very first time to do a full on real crawl. I was videoing, hoping to catch an army crawl and he busts out with the real thing!

Ben tends to get frustrated when things are difficult, so this video shows a little of the dramatic side in our son.....

This last video shows the progress he has made in just the last week of practicing his crawling.  He has so much more purpose and desire to try...of course Mommy's phone is good motivation!

 And finally, my favorite thing in the world: watching my wonderful husband play with our son and hearing Ben's precious giggles!

Life in Pictures

 The latest big adventure for the Norsworthys has been our move!  We feel very comfortable surrounded by a sea of brown cardboard boxes, as they have been our constant companions these last couple months.

Moving Day messes:

We were blessed with so much friendly help on Moving Day--thank you to all our friends!

....though some decided to sleep on the job...

I don't know what Ben was more excited about: lots of attention, tons of people in his house to play with, or a beautiful sunshiny day!

Sarah Bowman and Ben, enjoying the sun and our new front lawn...that's right--we have a yard now!!

Ben had to check out the new digs and make sure everything worked properly.  Yep, this sink passes inspection!

Ben is enamored with all electronic devices, but especially phones and computers.  Even though my phone is locked, he often manages to unlock it by hitting the right buttons and will call people.  So you may receive a surprise call from Ben!

I remember pictures of me standing on those same big Daddy feet...and now Ben gets to try them out.  They are great hands to be in and feet to follow.

The new living room....didn't we just leave all this mess?

lots of projects in the new house....this one was fixing a leaky sink....so many things to keep up busy, and keep us appreciative of things we normally take for granted!

We have had some beautiful sunny days lately...days that remind us of the glory of God's beauty in Washington.  These are the days that make all the rainy ones worth it!

 

 

Now that we are in the new house we have started unpacking, trying to find our things, playing the "now what box was that in?" game, meeting our great new neighbors, going on walks in our new neighborhood (and getting royally lost the first time we tried to go further than around the block!) and a few other things like....

Snuggling on the couch...

Visiting the tulips....

And walking a 5K through World Concern with some friends from church...

Kristina and Conlan and us at the Free Them 5K (to raise money to stop human trafficking)

the stroller lineup: Kristina and Conlan, Marie and Jack, and John (holding my place while I take pictures) and Ben

We had so much fun talking and walking together, though 3/4 of the way through the race Ben decided he no longer wanted to help Free Them, HE wanted to be free of the stroller!

And celebrating the end of a program Ben and I were a part of called Roots of Empathy.  Ben and I would go to a kindergarten classroom once a month and the kids would learn about how he was growing, how parents interact with babies, how babies learn things, and we would have great discussions about everything from safety to personality differences to development.  Ben loved the kindergarteners and they sure loved their Baby Ben.

Other things in the news....after much hard work, long nights....long, long nights, lots of drool soaked shirts and fussy evenings...we have another tooth!  Ben is now sporting the tip of a fresh new front tooth!  Hopefully it's partner next door is on its way soon and he will have what everyone wants, their 2 front teeth, in time for his birthday this summer!  We would like to thank those who helped in the acquiring of the tooth: rubber spatula, multiple baby carrots who took hard beatings by gums and bottom teeth, and of course, Infant Tylenol!!!
Ben is also on his way to joining the mobile world.  He is not officially crawling, though he manages a scooch/wiggle/twist and roll sort of action that does get him moving around a bit.  He will sit up on hands a knees for a bit and even rock  back and forth, and if we hold him up under his belly he will do the crawling motion for a short distance.  This is one of those things that you long for him to do and at the same time pray that he doesn't for awhile, because life will never be the same!  

Ben may not be quite as advanced in his crawling, but his fine motor and verbal is doing quite well.  Any speck or bit of something on the floor is fair game to his little fingers and mouth now.  He is very precise and methodical in the way he approaches an object.  He will slowly and carefully reach out his hands or fingers, inspect the item with focus and furrowed brow and then with very controlled thumb and forefinger, or for larger objects just one hand (he can palm just about anything, even if quite larger than his hand!) and then off to the mouth it goes for a thorough cleansing with saliva.  He also jabbers on all the time, his favorite sound is "da-da", but he also does a growl/whisper sound, a "he-he-he-he" sound that is much like lamaze breathing :), loves to blow raspberries and splutter with his mouth, and "sing" (holds one sound and then changes pitch up and down--sometimes he joins in singing with me if I am singing to him).  Of course he loves doing any of these even more if someone will do it with him.  Last night he made a sound that startled John and John started laughing, so then Ben kept repeating the sound to see if he could get his daddy to keep laughing.  He definitely got John's sense of humor and playfulness!

Other tidbits: Ben loves holding onto long and narrow objects, such as my lipstick, highlighter, etc.  He especially loves baby carrots, because they also offer the option for gnawing.  He will often carry a baby carrot around all day, occasionally chewing on it, but mostly just holding onto it, so we have now dubbed them "security carrots" because he REALLY doesn't like it when we take them away!
His other new thing is to wipe/slap his hands together - we joke that he is "washing his hands of us".

John is teaching our son all the important things in life.....like fish faces and spitting. :)

 All in all, he is a delight, for anyone around.  Sure he has his fussy moments, and there is no denying how he feels when he is in them (much like his mother!) but when he is happy, which is most of the time, he is all sparkles and giggles and personality.  Yesterday I was at Trader Joes and Ben was giggling and smiling and playing peek-a-boo with the other customers around us.  As we were leaving this older lady thanked us for entertaining the store! 

Living Life Large

It is definitely past due for us to check in, so here is an update on how the littlest Norsworthy is doing.....

Ben is a pro at being 8 months and will soon graduate to 9 months in a week!  As he has grown, we have suspected that our son is no meek and calm child.....no, Ben Logan Norsworthy lives life large.  Some personalities are considered introverted or extroverted, sanguine or melancholy.....well, our son's personality is VERY.  He is either VERY happy, or VERY excited, or VERY frustrated....you get the point.  I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise, considering who his mother is, but even I am worn out by this little guy!  The struggle has been that when he is fussy or frustrated, he tends to shriek/scream - somewhat akin to a fighter jet taking off.  We have tried several ways to discipline this wonderful new behavior, but are coming up short to find something that works.  Oh the challenge of a strong personality!  But when he is happy, wow, what a delight he can be.  His laugh goes all the way down to his toes and back, his smile cracks his whole face open, and the faces he makes when he is playing with you or anticipating something you are about to do......absolutely irresistible.

Another thing we are discovering about Ben - he is an adrenaline junkie!  He may grow up to be one of those people who can't get enough of roller coasters and sky diving (oh this momma is going to have a hard time).  As a little infant he would get startled so easily and cry--we had to walk on eggshells around him to not be too noisy.  Now he LOVES to be startled, surprised and will giggle and laugh and wait with anticipation for more!  Yesterday I had a small paper bag that I was shaking open and he startled and then laughed so loud I of course had to do it again.  What makes anything fun is to have a build up of anticipation for him.  So we will count: 1....2....3!  I did that with the bag and on "3" I shook it really hard and it made a huge crackle sound.  He had this look of shock and almost fear but laughed this deep belly laugh like: "that totally scared me and I LOVED IT!!!!!  DO IT AGAIN!!"  What a character!

Other new things:

He is working on more teeth - I see bulging on his top gums, so hopefully those don't take as long as the last ones to show their faces....I mean enamel. :)

He is trying new foods, and for the most part liking them all.....broccoli is still getting poor reviews, even when hidden in things.

He is a master sitter, but not so interested in crawling.  When cheered on like he is running a touchdown, he can manage a bit of a scooch, but that is all the effort he is willing to put out.

His hands are ALWAYS going!  He has finally started using some of the signs back to me that I have been modeling for months!  He will sign "milk" and "all done", though they are very similar in that he uses both hands and they open and close and twist back and forth (which is a combination of the two signs), but there are slight variances that help me distinguish the two.  It is such a thrill to have him respond to me like that, expressing his desires in something other than a fussing cry!  We are working on many other signs and hopefully he will learn them quickly, which I think will help with his frustration level.  

He is getting bigger and bigger, and so is my backache!  I am pretty sure he is at least 23 pounds (we will find out for sure next week), which is quite a load to carry.  He spends more time in the high chair, on the floor, or on the couch now, since my worn out body can't handle holding him as much (especially when he drops his toy for the 5th time and I have to bend down and pick it up while holding him....again).  John unfortunately hurt his back and has had to only play with him while sitting or lying down, which makes things a little challenging, so we are praying for a quick recovery for Daddy so he can get back in the game soon!

He has gotten even more snuggly, if that is possible!  When he is in play mode, he just wants to play, but when he starts slowing down, he loves to be held, hold onto our necks or have full hugs and just snuggle.  Yesterday he woke from a nap with what I think was tooth pain, crying huge crocodile tears.  I picked him up and held him while sitting on the couch and he pressed his little body into mine, rested his head on my shoulder and held on tight, sniffling and sighing.  Oh my mommy heart was melting!  That moment when Mommy is the answer, and that is all he wants--my love bucket overfloweth! 

He LOVES his Daddy and his grandparents.  When we are walking around the house and I have to go into our bedroom for something (which is where John works) he starts flapping his arms and kicking his legs, because he knows who is on the other side of that door!  He leans in as we come through the door and breaks into a huge grin when he sees John.  The same thing happens when we walk up to Grandpa and Grandma's door.  He also is fascinated by computers and gadgets--anything with buttons, cords and lights.  Every morning he gets such a thrill out of watching John turn on his computer, or me making coffee with my Keurig machine.  This morning I helped him push the button and he watched as it started brewing, then he looked up at me with this wide eyed grin, like: "Did you SEE that?!  Isn't that AMAZING?!"  I love the way he responds to the world around him!

You may think by all these glowing reports that we have a perfectly wonderful child that never has a bad day.  Don't worry, we have those.....the days where Ben gets yogurt in his eye and screams bloody murder....the days when mommy is so tired she spills and drops everything and manages to splash salad dressing all over the dining room wall and floor (doesn't clean up well, in case you were wondering).....and the days when you think you have made it to the end of a fairly decent day and Ben poops in his bathtub.  Yes, we have those days and what do you do with them?  Laugh, sigh with relief that they are over, and maybe eat a little chocolate.  We are so grateful for our little boy, for he teaches us the full meaning of patience tested, and joy overflowing!

"Norsworthy Men are in the HOUSE!!!"

Ben can now eat pieces of food all by himself.  This video is of his first attempt going solo without any help from Mom.

This video shows Ben doing his most frequently used sign - the "I want/More/I like this" sign (he is working on getting it approved to the ASL committee).

And the last is just an normal bathtime--nothing over the top, but we thought Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles might enjoy seeing normal life around our house....plus who doesn't love little squidgy baby bodies?!