And Baby Makes Three

We celebrated Benjamin’s four month old “birthday” yesterday. He commemorated the occasion with lots of drool, lots of dirty diapers, and lots of smiles and laughs. We celebrated by having our friends Mandy and Will over for dinner, coffee and dessert, and some friendly Wii bowling and tennis competition.

Here are some details about who Benjamin is at four months old:

• He weighs 13 lbs. 7 oz., and is 25 3/8″ tall. These stats make him tall and skinny for his age.
• He is becoming more interested in everything, which makes it more of a challenge to feed him if the television is on, Brad (or anyone) is talking, or there is any kind of noise in the house.
• He loves to chew on his hand. In fact, he loves it so much that he lay awake in his crib for 40 minutes one night this week talking to himself and doing the hand chewing. I think that he must be teething.
• Speaking of teething, another sign of it is the waves of drool that pour out of his mouth all day. I sometimes keep a bib on him to catch some of it and to keep his clothes dry, and we always have a burp cloth nearby to wipe up the excess that ends up on his face, my arm, etc.

• He finds more to laugh at everyday – especially when his Daddy is involved. Brad has discovered that Benjamin’s neck is ticklish, and when he kisses it and nuzzles it, Benjamin lets out the sweetest, most contagious giggles. And when he’s really amused by something, we call him our pterodactyl boy, because his high-pitched laugh sounds like the caw of these flying dinosaurs (or at least what we know of them from Jurassic Park).
• Another new father/son activity is beatboxing (vocal percussion, for those not familiar). Brad will do this to entertain Benjamin, and now Benjamin has started trying to imitate Brad. Since he can’t make a “bah” noise, his beat boxing is more of a “hah hah…” but it’s very cute!

• Last night Brad helped Benjamin discover his toes. As Brad says, Benjamin has a “kung fu grip” on his left foot, but has trouble holding on to the right foot. Could this be a sign that he’s a lefty like his mom? This left-handed kung fu grip is also true of our giraffe tug of war game.

• He’s also highly entertained by the tummy time lights and music toy. We’re pretty sure he’s figured out how to turn the music back on by pushing the big lever on the front of the toy. He loves to watch the lights and shapes while kicking his feet to the music.

And finally, here’s a look at his favorite toys:

• the tummy time toy I just spoke of
• the giraffe that we play with together
• the mirror/smiley face toy (he loves to play with this one while in his swing)
• An elaborate rattle (it’s like a ferris wheel – the whole thing turns, and the individual parts do as well). He likes to feel the little ribbon fringe on one of the parts.
• His ring of rings. This toy has given him lots of practice with holding and manipulating objects.