Out for a walk

This kid has such a Mohawk! Mohawk Mania!!!!

Tree House

Some of you have commented that in the background of our pictures it looks like we live in a tree house! We do generally see leaves and green out of our doors and windows, since we are upstairs. Here are some views from our back deck:


And our front deck (yes, we have two!):

Pajama Party

Thanks Grandma Moody for the new pajamas! There is one pair missing- we got four sets of 12 month clothes, but one will not fit him after being washed.

Observations

Here are a few things we have noticed as of late. Benjamin loves grabbing his toes. When he is wearing socks he goes for them too and attempts to slide them off.
He is a big flirt whenever we go out. He is always getting complaints about the mo-hawk. He can also sit up straight instead of leaning forward, his balance is better, and he stands up whenever we help him out.
We haven't seen much motivation from him in the rolling over department. We think developmentally he is very much different in that area because he sleeps on his back. We have seen him roll over but he is spending more of his energy trying to go places. He has a great time pulling his mom's hair. Even mine is now long enough and he can grab a hold of it.

Peek-a-Boo!

Benjamin loves to play Peek-a-Boo. He will both take the cloth off his face and put it back on. Unfortunately the camera distracted him enough so he wouldn't hide under the blanket on his own! But here it is:


Here is a picture of Benjamin on his potty:


For those of you who don't know, we have been practicing something called "elimination communication" with Ben. Basically, the premise is that babies are naturally aware of their own bodily functions. They are aware of when they are wet and when they are dry, especially if they are wearing cloth diapers rather than disposables which make them feel "dry" when they are not. We noticed this with Benjamin early as he definitely preferred to pee and poop without a diaper on. We started making a cue sound for him to associate with peeing, then began holding him over the toilet during his diaper change. This was as far as it went for a few months due to our busy summer travel schedule.

Once we were settled in here in Asheville, we started getting a little more serious. We bought a small size potty for him, and John or I take him to the potty after feedings and when he wakes up. This accounts for about half of the times he needs to pee or poop. In between, he sometimes lets me know when he needs to go by fussing. It happens often enough that when he fusses, my first response is usually to take him to the potty, where he often responds appropriately. If he doesn't, then we try something else. I also let him have some time with no diaper on when I have time to pay attention to him and recognize his cues. The misses I have had are almost always attributable to my lack of attention. So, if I need to work around the house, or will not be paying close attention for a while, he just wears a diaper in case I miss a cue.

My motivation in starting this idea was simply to use less diapers. We have succeeded in that, and so far we have really enjoyed this process. Benjamin seems happier, he certainly has better hygiene, and I pay more attention to the signals my son gives me.

The View From The Top

Benjamin's new accomplishment: sitting up! At least while supporting himself on his arms, with Mama or Daddy hanging around to catch him in case of problems...


And his interest in what's going on at the table turns out to be not food, but:

The Wild Blue Yonder...

To celebrate Labor Day, we decided to go work hard picking blueberries. We left home about 4:30 pm on Friday and hiked out about one mile. We camped on a side trail. Here are some shots around the campsite:


We mostly took turns taking care of Ben while the other picked berries, but he did fall asleep once so we could both work, and I did do some picking while he was in the sling (didn't last long because it was back-breaking).
So here we will give you a "zoom in"; this is the area we picked in:

Here are the bushes we picked from (if you look closely you can see berries):
And here are the berries:

This is about 2/3 of our total harvest of 2 gallons of blueberries...
Now for the eating!

Teeth!

Benjamin found our attempts to take pictures of his two new teeth rather humorous! No, they are not on top, that is just a trick of the light :) Here they are for real:

New Pictures

Here are some new pictures... We have been up to a lot of things here, settling in. I'll try to get some more pictures up soon. But knowing that most of you read this blog to see pictures of Benjamin, I'll just include some Ben news:

• He has two teeth! They are on the bottom.
  
• He has yet to roll all the way over, but can roll from his back to his side and from his side to his front (separately).
  
• He is really good at holding his head up and seems to enjoy tummy time as long as he can reach the toy. If he knocks it out of reach he gets upset because he seems to realize that he ought to be able to just stretch over there and get it.
  
• He weighed in at 17.5 lbs and Grandma and Grandpa Moody's last weekend.
  
• He has recently decided that he doesn't like sleeping... so much for my bragging about his 6 hour stretch between feedings when two weeks old! We celebrated last night after he went 3 hours without waking up. We hope the trend of increasing sleep will continue!
• In the midst of struggling with sleep, he is getting much better at communicating with us. We now know signals for "pick me up" (raising both arms), "sing to me" (musical, humming vocalization- hard to describe but very obvious), and "wet diaper/I need to go to the bathroom during the night" (kicking both legs hard against the bed while nursing).
  

4 months Old!!!

Folks, here are some long over due updates on the star of the show! He is learning to sit up on his on and weighs in at more than 17 lbs. we are guessing. He is teething as well and that has not been too bad yet! He has lost most of his hair along the side of his head and that has left him with a thick patch across the top of his head and a small patch on the base of his skull. We will have to get some pictures to show ya! Our walks at night put him to sleep in his sling.

Around the apt with Benjamin

The crib Grandpa and Grandma Moody bought us!
Thank you both, its wonderful.

Touch Down, Asheville NC

We have successfully arrived here in the mountains of North Carolina. The next stop is to register the car, get driver licenses, and register to vote before the deadline. Benjamin did really well considering we spent nights in Texas, Oklahoma, twice in Tennessee and then 3-1/2 hours into Asheville. We did have help from our local Branch and those guys unloaded our U-haul and pickup truck in 1 hour! ONE! I gained a stronger testimony of what it means to serve. We got started unloading at 2 pm and by 3 we were lingering on the porch swapping places to buy groceries! A branch, on a FRIDAY afternoon!

The high today was somewhere in the low 90's I would guess. The nights are dipping right below 70. We had a few sprinkles fall on us today. We decided to buy our washer and dryer from Lowes instead of Sears. Long story not in the mood to share! It will be delievered tomorrow or on Monday. My parents are in town this weekend.

They stopped by the Farmer's Market and bought 20lbs. of peaches for $12, a bunch of tomatoes, a couple of cantelope, and a watermelon. The section at the market said North Carolina Only!!! And as if it needs a topper they walked in with 2 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Friday night! =)

Vernon and his family, (Britney and Brandon) have been great help and good traveling copanions. They may part ways tomorrow, Sunday afternoon, so they can begin the journey back to Arizona. Sorry to Grandpa Bunker for ruining Mari and Vernon with short traveling days (7 or 8 hours as compared to his 10 - 14 hours)!

As we get more boxes unloaded and the apartment settled we will take some pictures of everyone and the surrounding area. But, as more me I begin new teacher training on Monday. It's all day, as well as Tuesday. Wednesday more training but in town and then a 4 day weekend. Mari will be around the apartment and may begin making short trips out to scour and scout out the area.

And Benjamin will continue to grasp at things, put them in his mouth, attempt to roll over, loose more hair, and make all kinds of wonderful sounds.