Ben at 13 months

Ben is a cruising machine now!  He cruises all over the place, but he’s not brave enough yet to let go of anything.  He also much prefers to have both hands hanging on to something for support.  He’s getting a little more graceful in this sitting from standing and can now lower himself down slowly to crawl to wherever he wants to go next.

Ben currently has his first bout of pink eye and his first ear infection, which led to his first dose of antibiotics.  Because I had him at the doctor today to diagnose his infections, they weighed him again and he weighed 23.1lbs (so he lost .7lbs in a month) and he’s 32.1” long, so he’s another 10th of an inch longer.  I was a little concerned about the weight loss, but the doctor said that he’s not too unusual when they’re sick for them to lose some weight.  Since it’s not a ton of weight loss, I’m going to keep an eye on him and see what he weighs when he’s feeling better.

Ben blows kisses regularly now.  We’re still trying to remedy his screaming at the top of his lungs when he wants something (usually something we’re eating) and he’s doing the signs for more and drink and eat and milk much more frequently.  He says mama, dada, and bubba (my nickname for him) a lot and he’s starting to say mama when he wants me.  He’s starting to hold toys up to his ears now to pretend they’re phones and he babbles a lot.  He has a “lovey” that he sleeps with every night and he loves that thing.  We have a spare one, and we had a laundry basket full of clean laundry in the living room.  He dug through it and found his lovey and was happy as a little clam when he found it.

I can’t remember if I wrote this last month or not, but Ben is in size 4 diapers now and all 12-18 month clothes, and he has been for a month or more.  He’s completely off of formula and drinks about 12-18 ounces of organic milk per day.  We’ve cut him down to 1 nap, and he naps for about 2-3 hours in the afternoon and then 12 or so hours at night.  He LOVES to play with remotes and he’s so tall he can easily get them off of the tv trays we usually have them on.

It’s amazing to me the difference in our kid’s personalities.  Abbie was very intense at this age, and she was a screamer and always had to be involved and moving and doing something new.  Ben is MUCH more laid back and does a lot better entertaining himself.  He likes to be held, but he’s fine if you’re not moving, although he does love to go for rides in the stroller or in the Ergo.  Ben is much more whiney than Abbie is though, and I think that has to do with the fact that by this age Abbie said 8-10 words and knew 15+ signs, so she could communicate with us better than Ben does right now.  I think he gets frustrated by that, so he whines when he doesn’t know what else to do.  He’s sleeping much better than she did at this age, but he’s always been a good sleeper after the newborn phase.  She wasn’t cruising at this age, just walking on her knees, which he doesn’t do at all really.  I think later on in life they’ll balance each other out very well.

Abbie at 13 months and Ben at 13 months.

Oh, and Ben LOVES popcorn!!