Crawling

Yesterday Ben finally took his first actual crawling steps. I wasn't home, but Sean watched him do it a couple of times. He got up on his knees and rocked back and forth and then moved a step or two. Today he did it again; got up on his knees, rocked back and forth, and then moved forward a couple moves. So, just a week away from being one year old and he finally decides to do a little moving. I don't think it will be

long before he is moving all over the place. Another new trick is that he can sit himself up. I've gone into his room after his nap or in the morning and for the past two days, every time I go in there he is sitting up in his bed. This morning was the first time I watched him pull himself up. He is getting independent - he he he.

Rolling

Well, still no crawling, but he sure is figuring out how to move around anyway. He is quite the rolly-polly boy these days. He gets on his belly and rolls from place to place. When he is sitting he can scoot around and around in circles, and sometimes even get places. Plus, he has a big sister who also enjoys transporting him different places. The other day they were both playing in the living room. I was in the dining room on the computer. Within a few minutes, I noticed how quiet it had become. It sounded like both kids were back in the bedroom. Sure enough, as I got up to check, I found Caelan and Ben playing in the toy room. I asked Caelan how Ben got back there and she promptly told me that she dragged him by the feet down the hall. I didn't hear any crying, so apparently he didn't seem to mind. He is very fond of his bottle most of the time. All you have to do is bring it within his eyesight and his hands and feet stat moving and little noises come out of his mouth. A couple days ago we gave him his bottle and then watched as he stuck his legs in the air and then rocked back and forth, back and forth. He even rocked so far to the side that he got his legs turned under him and was on his knees (while he was still trying to drink his bottle). I think he is going to discover a whole new world once he can really start moving around. He was sick last night. He showed no sign of feeling yucky before bed, but I woke up twice to him crying. He had thrown up in his bed both times. All I had to do was clean the mess and give him back his blankie and binkie again and he was right back to sleep., This morning he hasn't been completely himself, but he really isn't acting very sick either. Maybe it was just something he ate. He can repeat a couple of things; "mama," "da da" and sometimes he makes a cute noise like he is trying to repeat me when I show him a picture of Jesus. He is going to be one year old in about a week and a half. I can't believe where this year has gone - it feels like he was born just a couple of months ago.

Comic

We are starting to wonder if our boy is going to be a little clown as he gets older. Sometimes he does funny things and then once he realizes that people like it he keeps doing it over and over again. I mean more than just little baby things (repeating what get a rise of of people). For example, yesterday he was really excited as he sat in his high chair for dinner. He had been playing with Caelan for a while before we sat down to eat (she loves to wheel him around all over the house in his chair). Anyway, he started doing this little laughter burst (kind of like a yell and a laugh mixed together). It was a crack up, so we all started laughing. Caelan was really having a time of it. When we laughed he got laughing even more, but then when the laughter simmered down, he did the same laughter burst again. After a few times of doing this (with genuine laughter coming out of his mouth), he started forcing the laugh to come out just so that he could see us laugh at him. What a little goose. He does this crazy thing with his hands. When he gets excited his hands rotate and rotate again and again at the writs.I mean, they re

ally get going. It is awesome!

Moving

It's been a while since I've written anything...that is because we have been in limbo for a few weeks. We moved to Nevada, but our rental house wasn't going to be ready in time, so we stayed with the Armantrouts for two and a half weeks, and then finally last week we got into our house. We are actually living in Boulder City right now. We like it a lot. Well, Ben is coming in on a year old. Still no crawling. I can tell that he wants to be mobile and follow his big sister around, but he just hasn't quite figured out all the motions he has to do. He is getting closer that is for sure. He can just about get himself on his knees and if I help him he can get onto his knees, then he rocks back and forth. He is pretty quick at going backwards - I don't think it will be long before he gets himself going. He has four teeth in (two bottom and two on top). WOW! When he gets teeth he get grumpy. I can always tell when one is trying to push trough because for four or five days prior he is super whiny and sad. Then it pops through and he is back to normal. He can copy us when we say "ma ma ma" or "da da da." That's the extent os the talking, but I don't think that will be too far in the coming either. I can tell that he is figuring more things out and understanding more of what is going on around him. We took a bike ride the other day (the weather is beautiful here in March). He sat in his little trailer (without his car seat) and loved every minute of the ride. He is a real outdoors boy - loves walks and rides and swinging on swings. I know he is going to be in heaven this summer when we spend 50% of our lives in our swimming pool, especially since as of late he is completely entertained by the bathtub. He gets in the tub with his sister and splashes and splashes. They have all the fun together. He has gotten into a new habit. Whenever he is tired of the food on his highchair, he starts to drop each thing one by one onto the floor. It's a pretty fun game. A couple days ago we all sat down to have dinner prayer and Dudey was sitting in his highchair like usual. When we all folded our arms so did he. He put his two little fists together. Ahhh - just melted my heart. He's done it a few times since then. It's amazing to think of what they catch on to at such a young age. Well, I think that is the news with Ben. Oh, I better write about his first hospital experience (minus birth of course). In February Dad had to come up to Vegas for a couple of weeks early to start work. We stayed in Clearfield because we didn't have to be out of our apartment yet. Anyway, both kids got fevers and were coughing a lot - sounding pretty bad. My doctor is open 24 hours so the earliest they could get us in was 8:10 PM. We went in and the doctor looked at both kids and decided to check Ben (since he was there). We got chest x-rays for Caelan and did the usual check for her. Then he sent us over to the hospital (right next door) to test them both for RSV. We went over and did the check, which took about an hour. It was totally traumatic. They had to wrap up the kids' arms and then stick a long tube up Caelan's nose and suck out mucus. For Ben, they just used a suction machine

to suck the mucus up. Both kids were hysterical in tears - I really couldn't blame them. Then we went back over to the doctors office. He did an official check on Ben. Both kids had ear infections and RSV. There is really no cure or treatment for RSV - it just means the kids have a really bad cold that you have to watch pretty carefully. Since Ben is so young, they tried a breathing treatment on him to see if that helped him improve at all. It helped a lot, so they sent a nebulizer home with us. We got home that night at 11:30 PM. I was exhausted - not to mention the kids (who both fell asleep in the Doctors office - Caelan on the floor and Ben in my arms while I was giving him his breathing treatment. Within a week, there were doing 100% better. What an ordeal. I'm glad to be here in warmer weather so we don't have to deal with the coughing and gunk in the throat as much.....well, hopefully. So that's it. Ben is growing and becoming cuter and cuter every day. His little smile is to die for.

Hiking

We took a day trip up to Red Rock Canyon. We hiked around. Dad and I took turns with Ben in the backpack and Caelan was a trooper walking on her own. Ben loves to be outside and he really enjoys being carried in the backpack. Caelan made up a little song for our entire hike, which was some serious entertainment for all our fellow hikers that day. It was beautiful. I didn't realize there was a great state park so close to us. We'll have to go back and check out some of the other trails.