Ben's Blog

The Saturday before Ben’s 1st birthday, we had a bit of a BBQ party at Ben’s Grandpa’s house as it was lovely weather.  In fact, it was the first BBQ we had had there all year, which is terrible!  We had the usual food and Ben’s other Nan and Pops and Aunty Alex came as well.  Every one had good fun and Ben enjoyed the day.

Earlier, he had been given his presents from Gramps, Nanny Helen and Aunty Bec and he liked them all.  He got some new clothes, a Fire Engine toy, a Mobile Phone toy, some shaped blocks and a couple of other little things.  It took him a while to open them as he wanted to play with each as they were opened, but we got there in the end, with a little help.

Here are some photos –

The week before his 1st birthday Kelly took Ben for his first swim in a proper swimming pool.  They went to the one in Plympton as it is fairly small and not too expensive.  Apparently Ben loved it and was splashing around and got Kelly very wet! 😉

Well….I am back to work after my 2 week holiday now, so I thought I would take a few minutes of my lunch break to update everyone on Ben’s progress.

I saw a huge change in him whilst I was off….he seemed to grow and learn new things in front of my very eyes!

In my first week off, he suddenly started to try and pull himself up on chairs and in his cot, and after a bit of practice, he can now do it with ease.  He can pull himself up to his feet on nearly anything, which can be a little difficult, as he is doing it in his cot when he is meant to be fast asleep!  The number of times we would put him to bed to find, five minutes later, that he is stood up and banging the side of his cot was a lot.  It was probably because he had learnt something new, and his mind was keeping him active to keep on doing it.

Once he could do this, he then decided that he wanted to walk.  He couldn’t, and still can’t, do it on his own, but if he holds on to you, then he can walk a few paces.  He is very clever! ;0)

In my second week of holiday, he finally realised how to crawl properly instead of ‘cruising’ along the floor.  He still didn’t / doesn’t crawl properly all the time, but he is doing it more often now.  He can speed along as well, and seems to be obsessed with the video recorder and the Wii game boxes under the TV.

He has also learnt what ‘sit down’ and ‘stand up’ means.

I took Ben to Jump! in Plymouth with our friends Becky and Imogen.  Jump! is a large indoor soft play centre for children.  Ben loved the toddler area and was cruising around exploring everything.  He especially liked the sensory room with the big bubble tubes and the bright green rocker.  We had lunch there, and then played for another hour or so.  When we got home Ben was so tired he fell asleep before i carried him up the stairs to his cot!  He was flat out for 2 hours.  Unfortunately though he was up half the night, too much excitement kept him awake.