Ben at eight months- photo essay

(Seriously? You're interrupting my duck time to take pictures and you won't even let me chew on the paper?)

Playing catch-up once again...here are some of our favorite pictures from the last few months.

Em's parents came to visit in August. Ben got to play hooky from daycare one day and stay home for Grandparent Camp. Here is Ben greeting Grandma B. shortly after her arrival:


Playing piano with Grandpa:


We met Dave's parents for breakfast at ingredient, a delicious restaurant in the new Park Place shopping area in Leawood. They have a nice green space outside the restaurant with a bunch of Adirondack chairs in adult & child sizes.


Relaxing in it:

At some point, I guess he decided we were taking way too many pictures. This will go into the "Angry Faces of Ben" collection!


He is finally about big enough to try the fabulous Rockin' Panda from Uncle Kenny & Aunt Lynn. He needed help to stay on it, but really seemed to like it.


Em's friend Neilam came to visit us over Labor Day weekend (more pics coming). Ben was especially fascinated by his guitar playing.


We had kind of a rough weekend because Ben is cutting both top teeth at the same time. They broke through yesterday at daycare, but the poor guy was pretty miserable for the past 3 days. Here you can see his two bottom teeth and his puffy top gums where the two top ones are threatening to pop through.


Ben & I went to the Greek Festival on Sunday while Dave was en route home from New Jersey. Ben got a "Greek for a Day" sticker on his hat, tried to steal some of my food, and enjoyed watching the dancers do the big traditional circle dances.



Ben is now sitting up very well and appears to be on the verge of army crawling. He loves having people help him stand up and can stand while leaning against the outside of his exersaucer. He likes chattering, books, bouncing, dancing, and putting things in his mouth. He does not like us being out of his sight for long, which makes it challenging to get ready in the mornings.

Yesterday he tried his first finger food - little baby cereal puffs that melt in your mouth. He was uncertain at first but seems to be getting the hang of it. In hopes of helping with the teething pain, we also got these mesh feeders and filled them with some frozen peach slices for him to suck on. They chill his gums and let him have fresh fruit but prevent choking on the solid foods.

He is really getting into playing with some of his toys - current favorites include his zebra cart w/jingling fabric cubes from Aunt Stacey, the new cause & effect piano I bought at a consignment sale, and some Fisher-Price plastic cubes that have little animals in them, also found for a bargain at the sale. He enjoyed spending time last Friday with his Opa and taking a walk in the stroller to say hi to the neighborhood dogs and people. He will be headed over there again this Friday and will probably go grocery shopping with Daddy & Grandma on Saturday as I will be away all weekend at bereavement camp for work.