Dan Quoted in Story about Teddy Kennedy

Dan was quoted in this news story - and was on camera as well (still looking for the video) - when he and Benji were at the Newseum today. He SWEARS he said more interesting things than this, but at least he's the first person quoted! If we find the video, we'll share that too.

D.C.'s Newseum Pays Tribute to Sen. Kennedy|ABC 7 News

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We're Home!

After 20 days on the road, 8 states (and 1 "District") visited and/or passed through, 5 different houses slept in, 2060 miles driven, and 352 pictures and/or videos of Benjamin, WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't get us wrong. We had a fabulous whirlwind trip over the past 2 1/2 weeks. Benjamin and his grandparents (but especially his grandparents) had a great time getting to know each other better, and Benji's parents had a good time too (they had TWO dates without the Benj-man!). But we are glad to be in our own house and are greatly looking forward to sleeping in our own bed. And Benjamin was so excited to be home, he went to sleep in his crib no problem - we're hoping that he'll continue his most recent trend of sleeping through the night as well.

Anyways, below are a few final pictures from our last days of the trip. Thanks for reading and hope to see all you local folks soon!

Final Pics of the Roadtrip

Cape Cod!

After leaving NY, we continued north -- and landed on the shores of Cape Cod, spending time with Noni and Papi in Falmouth for a few days of even more rest and relaxation on the beach. While Benji is a little small to be eating lobster, his mom and dad had a few in his honor! As the week came to a close, we spent a day with Benji's great Aunt Ellen and Uncle Allan in New Seabury, and then a day in Scituate with Adam, Merri, Halsey, and little in-utero baby Laban/Wade.

We've landed in Cambridge, MA for a few days, and will be heading back to DC later this week. More photos will certainly follow....

Cape Cod

Pool Party!

Sorry for the delay.... we've been meaning to post about leg two (Chrissie's Dad's) of our journey, but we've been very busy at leg three (the Cape with Dan's parents).

Anyways, after leaving the north fork, we journeyed to Dix Hills to hang out with Chrissie's Dad, Stepmom, and sisters. Benji had lots of fun getting used to the pool and meeting lots of friends and family at a bbq/pool party. Pictures are below.

Benji Visits Dix Hills

Coming soon: pics/blog post from our time on the Cape.

A Quick Study

On only his second day at the beach, Benjamin learned a most important lesson about both the beach and vacation: Napping is essential! (Remember, this is a baby whose preferred - and often only - napping place is his stroller while it is outside and moving.)

We also put his feet in the water, which he was none too happy about. It was a bit chilly, and we think he just wasn't a fan of LI Sound. We're hoping he'll enjoy the pool at Grandpa Jim's a bit more and then maybe be so accustomed to water that he'll try out the ocean at the Cape. But we'll just have to see. Click below for more pictures of Benji's trip to the beach.

Benji at the Beach -- Day 2

ROAD TRIP!!

So Saturday marked the start of Benji's first road trip -- with visits to all his many grandparents planned along the way. He's been excited for his vacation for quite some time now, because, as he's told us repeatedly, it's very tiring being such a cute little boy. The trip began with Benji's first traffic jam on the Jersey Turnpike. It was bound to happen sooner or later. But 9 hours after leaving DC, we made it to Jamesport, NY -- on the western side of Long Island's North Fork. Benji was a superstar for the whole ride up.

But on Monday, Benji got to go to the beach for the very first time -- he had a whole lot of fun. See pictures below. More to follow as we continue our trip over the next few weeks.

Benji's First Beach Day

Benji's Big Adventure: His First Baseball Game

Several of the last Sundays, when the Nationals have been in town, we have toyed with taking Benjamin to his first baseball game. This morning, we decided today was the day!

The nats were clinging to a 2-1 lead when their closer blew it and gave up a solo home run in the top of the 9th. BUT, as we were walking home from the bus (we left in the bottom of the 9th because we were all hot and tired), we heard the fireworks implying they'd won. So while he didn't see it, we're pretty sure the Nats pulled it out in Benji's honor.

Pictures and a short video are below.

Benji's First Baseball Game!

Smile for the Camera!

So Benj has been smiling for a couple weeks now, but we have not been able to capture it with the camera - despite lots of attempts (see below).

Trying to Capture a Smile

HOWEVER - I managed to video one this morning after Benji's morning nap. Enjoy!

The heartland of America

So, as many of you know, I (Dan) have been spending a whole lot of time away from home of late - which undoubtedly makes little Benjinator very sad. But, there's a silver lining to every cloud, and this one involves the Delaware County (Indiana) fair. There's not a whole lot to see in terms of tourism in Muncie, Indiana -- but the county fair offered a slice of good ol' fashioned America -- teenage boys and girls on dates, fried onions, fried dough, fried mushrooms, fried fried, rides, carnival booths, fried hot dogs, and more fried dough.

More pictures may come later in the week. Stay tuned for updates.

Muncie

Two Months and Counting - Mediocrity at Its Best!

Benjamin had his 2 month check up (at 10 weeks) today. He has grown to 23 1/4 inches (+1.5 inches since last month) and 12 lbs. 4 oz. (+3 lbs). He is solidly in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference (hence, the mediocrity headline). This is a marked improvement on his weight since last month when he was still in the 25th percentile. He also got lots of immunizations and despite the infant tylenol is a little out-of-sorts this evening (we'll be redosing him in about 90 minutes).

UPDATED - 7:30 pm - there are new pics in the album below since the original post

Pictures from Tuesday's bath (his first minus the sling in the baby tub) and playing yesterday with his Gram are below!

Misc

Some Pics of Benji in the Bumbo

Here are some pics from Monday morning - we're getting Benji introduced to his Bumbo seat. He's still a bit too small for it, but he's getting there!

Benji in the Bumbo

For some reason, I have not been able to upload videos this week - rest assured, I'll keep trying.

The First of Many Posts This Week

So Gram (Chrissie's mom) is here in D.C., which means lots of pics, and Dan is in Muncie, Indiana for work and has demanded pics and videos on a daily basis. The confluence of these two events means lots of posts this week so stay tuned!

These pics are of Benji chilling and also of his bath - which he is finally starting to enjoy. There will also be a video of tummy time appearing soon too, but the internet isn't cooperating, and Chrissie wants to go to bed.

Gram's Visit Day 1

Photos and Video from the Past Week

Below is Benji's July 4th photo shoot! We put him in the only outfit we had that resembled red, white, and blue, but he subsequently peed on it (as he is known to do). (Click on the image to go to the album.)

Benji's July 4th Photo Shoot

We also took some video this week of Benji just chillin' out.

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