Ben's Blog

Ben had his first proper taste of snowy conditions in the first week of January. Previous snow falls that we have had have not been as severe as this, as temperatures didn’t go above freezing for over a week which meant the snow stayed for about a week as well.  It was great and Ben seemed to enjoy it loads!  He learnt how to say ‘snow’ and was always looking out of the window at the white wonderland.  We had about 2-3 inches so ws fairly deep for him, but he managed to walk in it with no problems and was helping to make snowballs and a snowman.

Here are some photos –

Well Ben has just cut his 6th tooth.  I was beginning to think that he was only going to get 5 as it has been a couple of months since he cut the last 1.  Don’t think it is bothering him too much at the moment but it may explain the restless nights.   Hoping to see the rest fairly soon.

Yesterday my friend Becky and her little girl Imogen came over to play and brought some paints.  Ben did his first painting and he seemed to really enjoy it.  He only really wanted to use the blue paint, though he did have a little bit of yellow as well, but definitely didn’t want red!   I think i am going to buy him some paints of his own now so we can do it more often!

Last but not least, Ben said ‘Witney’.  I was looking at some pictures of her and Ben was sat next to me, out of the blue he just pointed at the picture and said her name!  He loves his little cousin, and must have recognised her from the previous weekend when we went to visit.

Unbelievable, this Christmas and New Year just gone, marked Ben’s second Christmas and New Year.  Where has the time gone? It seems only a few weeks ago he was a little baby, unable to move around on his own, unable to eat solid food and unable to talk/babble. Crazy!

Unfortunately, Ben was ill throughout the festive season this year with a bad cold, then sickness and then a bad cough. The initial cold started before Christmas and we thought it had passed until a couple of days before Christmas when he started to cough and have a sickness bug.  It was a real shame as on Christmas Day he was particularly bad. He didn’t eat hardly at all, although he did have a few mouthfuls of Roast Turkey!

When he first got up in the morning he was quite excited with opening his presents that were in his stocking, so he opened a few of those on his own and played with what he had got.  We then dressed him up and opened the rest up downstairs, which is when he started to get tired again. We managed to open a few main presents before he went for a nap, but when he came down he was promptly sick all over me, so we both had to be cleaned off before we could carry on.  He was still a little excited about his presents, but you could tell he wasn’t feeling very well. He did play with every present he opened though, and seemed happy enough with them! So thank you to everyone that gave him a present this year!

Here are a few pics from Christmas Day…..

For New Year we didn’t do anything as Ben was still ill with a very bad cough and still not eating properly.  By this time we had rung the doctors (on Christmas Day in fact) and he had lost about 6lbs which wasn’t very good. Kelly was also ill by now, so everything turned into a bit of an anti-climax in the end.  Saying that though, we did enjoy ourselves most of the time and we are now hoping for an illness free Christmas and New Year next year.  Fingers crossed!!

For a few weeks Ben had been able to stand alone more and more and for longer periods of time.  He gradually started to be able to stand up from sitting without any aid and then on Friday 13th November 2009, he took his first steps alone.   The next day he was able to take about 3 steps with our encouragement.  We were all very excited!

Now he will happily get up and walk across the room all on his own, we can’t wait for him to walk everywhere on his own now and then we can take him for a proper walk up to the park!

Ben cut his second tooth at the bottom on 20/10/2009.  Then the third tooth (1st one at the top) came through on 6/11/09.

He is very good at letting me clean his teeth with his little toothbrush, though he does prefer to suck the toothpaste off of the brush.

He looks very cute with his toothy smile!