Benji's Cousin Ezra Gets His First Haircut

We interrupt the Benjamin picture fest to share adorable pics of his cousin's first hair cut. We'll share more of Benji soon, we promise.

Ezra's First Haircut

Dan's First Father's Day!

All of us - but Dan in particular - had a fabulous Father's Day today!

We started with brunch at Art & Soul, a new restaurant on Capitol Hill opened by Art Soul (from Chicago and used to be Oprah's chef), then took a drive to, and walk through, Great Falls National Park in Virginia.

Our drive to the park was made even more pleasant by the fact that we bought a new car yesterday (Saturday)! Chrissie bid farewell to her beloved Jeep Cherokee, and Dan is now the proud co-owner of his first new car, a 2009 Honda CRV.

Click below to see some pictures from Father's Day weekend. Enjoy!

Father's Day 2009

A Third New Skill or Just a Fluke?

So this alleged new skill happened last night at some point between Chrissie putting Benji back to bed at 3:15, and Dan walking into Benji's room at 6 am. Thus, there are no pictures - you'll have to take our word for it.

Benjamin has been using a sleep positioner because from early on he was so squirmy that he would almost wind up on his side. So we used the positioner to allow him to sleep on his side and not roll over onto his belly. Benji has been known to move the positioner across the crib, and in the middle of the night, his foot was almost through the slats of the crib.

We have also been swaddling Benji so that his Moro Reflex doesn't wake him using these handy velcro-blanket swaddler things. He's been pretty adept at getting free from the swaddle, particular to get his arms out so that he can rest his head on them (very cute, though we don't have any pictures of that either), but it at least helps him fall asleep.

So back to last night - Dan goes into get him this morning and, while he is still swaddled and still in the sleep positioner, he had turned over almost entirely onto his belly. Yes, in a swaddle, with no use of his arms and legs, he had manipulated his body to pretty much roll over. His head was sideways - albeit the opposite side he usually sleeps on - so that was good (infants are no longer supposed to sleep belly/face down to fight SIDS), but needless to say we were a little shocked.

Two New Skills

So Benji is getting a lot better at just "being," when not sleeping or eating (on most days, at least). Here's a little video of him on his play mat. If you watch all the way to the end you'll see what other skill he's gotten really good at too.

Weekend at Benji's

Benji had a fun weekend. Courtney came to visit, he got to see Costco for the first time, and he even managed to find time for a few of his favorite activities -- eating, sleeping, and pooping. A few photos, and another video clip of our cute little boy.

Photos in the album below.

Benji's Weekend

One Month Down... a Lifetime to Go!

Somehow, it's been a month (actually 5 weeks, but who's counting) since Benji was born. He's changed a lot in that time... He now weighs in at 9 lbs. 4 oz (!), has grown an inch and 3/4 in length, and keeps his eyes open a lot more. His parents have learned a lot too - like balancing a sleeping baby on one's chest while putting up a blog post - and we're getting close to establishing a rhythm (albeit one that changes every other day or so!). Most excitingly (is that a word?), Benji is now fitting in to the vast majority of his 0-3 clothes so his mama is having fun dressing him every morning. His dad is more excited, however, about the ability to carry Benji in the bjorn (picture to follow).

Below are some pics to show you how much he's grown - and as you all requested, with his eyes wide open. Note that these were taken about 2 hours apart even though he's in different outfits... we do a lot of laundry :-)

Benji's One Month Birthday

It's hard to believe -- but Benji has now been with us for an entire month.  He still sleeps alot, seems to be crying a bit less (knock on wood...), and he's eating a whole lot more.  He has his 1-month doctor's appointment later this week.

In our first multi-media video post, you can see Benji trying out tummy time! He's still a little shaky, but he's slowly starting to hold his head up high!

Benji celebrated the big day with Uncle Alan, Aunt Renee, and Cousin Ez at the annual MOTH (Mom's on the Hill) picnic.  It was quite an event!  Benji wasn't all that aware of his birthday -- but we got some great pics anyway.   Click on the link below to see some pics of the big event. (Most are of Ez -- who is quite photogenic these days!)

MOTH Picnic

Nervous Nelly Parents and Benj Continues to Pack on the Pounds... Um, Ounces

So most of our loyal readers are aware of Benjamin's "screaming issues," and nervous nellies that we are, we decided to take him back to the doc to make sure all was a-ok.

Benji is, of course, fine, and the doc (who kept talking generally about "first time parents") suggested that we feed him more (now keep in mind we were already feeding him more than the nurse practitioner suggested last week) to see if that stops the screaming. Allegedly, babies can't eat too much - ah to be young again ;)

So we're trying the feeding on demand, and we'll see what happens! We have our one month appointment next week so that will be a good follow up. He was also weighed and is now up to 7 lbs 12.6 ozs (+5.6 from last week and +11.6 since birth). He's approaching the 8 pound minimum that will allow him to go into the Baby Bjorn (which very much excites his dad!).

Here's a pic of Benji sleeping outside Eastern Market this am. His mom was quite pleased as she got to sit outside and read the entire front section of the Washington Post for the first time in about 27 days (but who's counting!?)!