Sideways

We think this is a prequel to the real stuff. Ben has been working really hard to crawl. He's getting places these days....by slithering sideways! It's kind of fun to watch and the technique improves day by day. We'll see..he may be able to figure it out soon.

8 months old!

Little Big Ben turned eight months with little birthday fuss. Who knows if he’s been exposed to any traditional birthday rituals by now? Perhaps, while accompanying his parents on shopping trips, he’s overheard conversations about things like birthday cakes, candles, and playful spankings. But, even if so, he’s uttered not a word about them. What he did do was treat himself to sleeping in more than he normally does. Normally he’s up sharp between 6:15-6:30am. But on his eight-month birthday, he luxuriously slept to 7:30am! By college, Ben, you’ll know that extra time can be much more valuable than cake and ice cream! Don’t worry, though, I’m sure MAD will be offering you birthday sweets long after you are a big fan of them.

While Ben displayed little birthday fuss on May 5^th, his recent developmental milestones have been attention grabbing. By who, you ask? By his parents, of course! They are (surprise, surprise) smitten. Call it overreaching. Call it ridiculous, but we can’t stop parents from projecting the world and extrapolating what they want. So we should not tease Dad about his belief that Ben may actually already be taking positions on classical questions of destiny versus fate. Yes, we might recall that even before he’d started listening to his parents read Dr. Seuss’s, Ben noted that other people’s laughter made him happy. For several months, he’s picked up on and emulated other people’s laughter and joy. But do good things make people happy or do happy people create good things? Perhaps because he recalled Mae’s OB doctor, Dr. Kim, announcing her belief that good things happen to happy people, he recently decided to test it out.

Mind you that this Voltairian questioning continues, in Dad’s view, as Ben continues to learn some basics. Ben has managed to move around by circling until he gets to where he wants to be. He does a 360 degrees movement in just a few seconds when motivated. He loves playing with anything that's not a toy such as pieces of paper, slippers, remote controls, etc. He eats solid food really well and has progressed to chicken, beef, turkey, egg yolk and a variety of veggies. He sits by himself quite well for several minutes. Ben still wakes up once at night to eat but, to Mae and Dad's joy, he generally sleeps longer now (6-7 hrs). And, on birthdays, an extra whopping 1.5 hours!

So on a visit to Grandma and Grandpa, with his aunt, his great-aunt and great-uncle and his second cousins all present, Ben decided to reverse the chain reaction. Out of the blue, he looked at Grandpa who had been minding his own business and began to laugh. It had the clear tone of “follow me,” “try it out,” you’ll like it.” And sure enough, none of us could resist. An experiment is valid only upon replication, so Ben decided to try repeating things later that evening. He looked at Aunt Amie and, again out of nowhere, burst out with a near flirtatious smile and laugh! There was again a clear tone of “follow me.” Once again, we could not resist.

Now, not only does Ben laugh when we laugh, now he laughs when he wants us to get things started. Wow, little Big Ben, perhaps Dad will remind you of this milestone when you get acquainted with “Candide”. Don’t get there too quick, though, Mae and Dad are not even ready for you to crawl!

Uncle Paulie!!!!

This one is for you. It was warm enough that I could actually wear it.
With love,
Big Ben Kanuut

So happy...

Typical Day

Being a busy guy these days, Ben came up with some routines which work for him pretty nicely. He wakes up around 7 a.m., rolls around or talks in his crib for awhile. The talking works like an alarm for Mae and Dad. He spends a good while playing with Dad, who wakes up first. Then Mom wakes up and gives him some breakfast, which is mostly oatmeal and milk. They play and hang out some more. Then off he goes to his daycare where he spends the next 6-7 hours playing, eating, napping and learning Chinese. He loves being there anyone can just tell and his Mae and Dad couldn't be happier to have found Rita. (Pictures with Rita and her staff to follow soon)






In the evening when Ben gets home, they all hang out or go for a walk and visit the playground. Then Ben has his dinner. His next favorite is bathtime followed by some reading. His current favorite is Eric Carle's "The Lonely Firefly". It's probably 7 p.m. by then when Ben starts being cranky, signaling to Mae and Dad that it's bedtime.



I

The Little Farm

Yesterday, Mae, Dad and I visited Grandma and Grandpa in the Berkeley Hills where they live. We had such beautiful warm weather so they took me out for a little visit to the Little Farm. The Little Farm is located in Tilden Park and features a variety of farm animals including cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens and pigs. Several heritage breeds are preserved here, including Milking Shorthorn Cattle.

I also learned that visitors can only feed lettuce and celery to the animals. Well, I was a little too nervous to feed them, having seen the biggest cow's tongue I have ever seen--it was probably as big as my face. Really!! So I thought I'd just watch this time. Mae was obviously nervous too and she kept steering Dad further away from the cow so he couldn't lick me or accidentally eat my arm. At some point the funny-looking goat came so close trying to get to Grandpa's celery that he spooked me. So I cried. Then I laughed when I saw the piggy bathing in a tub and soaking up the sun. Who wouldn't in this weather, I thought.

So we all had a fantastic time and I can't wait to go back there again. Dad said when I'm bigger, I'll get to ride the Steam Train, do the Pony Ride and the Carousel. Amazingly, all this cool stuff has been around since when Dad was little so he was especially pleased to be able to introduce to me his native Berkeley children's (and adults') classics. I LOVE it!!!

Seven months old!

Wow, time really flies. I just turned seven months old today. Mae and Dad took me on a nature walk this morning and for some reason I felt like chatting so much that I ended up just doing that--talking up a storm. Or so they said.

It's great to be a seven-month old. You ask what I've been up to these days? Let's see:

- rollover: from tummy and back--the latter just a week ago. Fun!
- sitting: well, still practicing doing so without Mae or Dad supporting
- nibbling on my feet
- no, no not sleeping through the night yet. Love this middle-of-the-night chatting and feeding time
- trying to crawl
- trying different food. So far rice cereal, oatmeal, carrot, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, apples
- last but not least..I've been cranky the past couple days. Those very first baby teeth of mine are coming in!