It has been a little while since our last posting but you will understand why once you read about all we have been up to! Dear little Benjamin has discovered that he can reach and touch EVERYTHING - and that is exactly what he does! It started while we were in Atlanta - this increasing curiousity and need to touch anything within reach. He grabs it, manipulates it in his hands if he can, and then usually brings it to his mouth to chew on for further confirmation that the object is real. Not a big deal. Fine - chew all you want. Then it became grabbing for items that are NOT within reach, and complaining if you don't assist with getting him to the object of his choice. And now - well, you can just forget about it. He has his grubby little hands on everything big and small. Our plane ride home was ridiculously challenging because he was non-stop - crumbling the pages of the flight magazines, reaching for the cart as it went down the aisle, and putting his hands into the fruit bowl of the passenger next to us. She was a very good sport about the whole thing. We try not to say "no" - we want to reserve that for when it really matters. All I could say was "That's nice fruit Ben, isn't it? We already had our lunch but thank you for reaching..." I'm sure the woman thought "Parents today....no wonder kids are so unruly!" When he wasn't grabbing for things he was refusing to bend his legs so I could get him to sit on my lap or he was drooling on my shoulder, or, my personal favorite - squealing like a piglet for some unknown reason. The flight from Atlanta is only an hour and 15 minutes....he slept for half of the flight and I still felt like we were on that plane for an eternity. Let's just say I am really looking forward to our 7 hour journey to Holland at the end of the month. The video clip this time demonstrates just how aggressively he attacks an object of interest.
Ben continues to surprise me every day and those moments of "down time" are few and far between because his awake hours are quite labor intensive. He doesn't want to hang out in the swing, or just lay down on the playmat. It probably frustrates him that he can't get around more. Just today while I was feeding him, he yanked the placement from under his bowls of food as soon as I turned away. Yes - it was too late. Food and water was distributed all over the kitchen floor. I was more than a little annoyed but when I smiled - he smiled right back and I reminded myself that knowing Benjamin warms my heart. I'd love to have a clean floor but a warm heart is a great consolation prize, don't you think?
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