February is flying by and is already nearly over! Both Alex and I have been really busy with work lately, not to mention busy trying to keep up with our growing boy. Here’s what’s been going on…
Pancakes! Eggs! Pasta! Oh my! Mr. Ben has been stepping up his game with feeding himself legitimate solid foods. He absolutely LOVED this pasta with ragu! He’d try to slurp off the sauce and loved the meat {can’t blame him – it was pretty darn good!}. It is so much fun watching him eat more “real” foods.
Most of his solid food intake still comes in the form of purees, though. He is starting to get the hang of feeding himself finger foods but doesn’t take in that much yet. It’s slowly starting to increase.
We had a snow day recently and Alex stayed home from work to play! We put on our boots and trudged up to Botltehouse for a glass of mulled wine with Ben that afternoon. It was such a treat!
Our old house is not very good at regulating heat. Since moving in we’ve re-done the heating ducts, blown in insulation in the attic and added radiant floor heat in the bathroom. We finally bit the bullet and got a smart thermostat for our house and couldn’t be happier. We have sensors in Ben’s room and downstairs in the guest room and office. The sensors help control the heat in the whole house to make it consistent and more comfortable.
Our nanny has been taking Ben to baby story time at the library once a week. I wish they had a story time while I was available to take him! She has given us really positive reports and says he loves it. They sing songs and read stories. In his hands are some little shakers, which apparently he loves! Ben is quite a talker and I heard he was enthusiastically singing along while shaking his shakers.
Back in January I joined Book of the Month Club as a way to read more novels. I absolutely love to read but was finding that I wasn’t making the time to do so. I’m halfway through January’s book {eye roll…. in all honesty, I didn’t receive it until the end of the month} “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk” and can’t wait to receive my next shipment. “Pachinko” is my February BOTM but I added the other two novels because they sounded intriguing. Now, if only I had more time to read some parenting books and books for work, too, that would be great.
Side note: I bought my first Audible book {“Conscious Business”} for work and have been listening to it in the car. I am finding I’m getting more out of it by listening to it.
We don’t let Ben fall asleep on us very often, but recently it happened a couple nights in a row when he wasn’t feeling well. Those moments are extra precious!
Ben is sitting up like a pro! He can move himself into a seated position {as of about 8 months + a couple days – I like to keep track of these milestones!} really fast. He’s getting more and more body control by the day. He has done a couple of very teeny tiny forward movements but his crawling is limited to moving backwards.
We are absolutely loving having a rug in our kitchen. It’s so nice to plop Ben down and let him hang out in the kitchen with us. It’s been life changing!
Shoe laces and Jackson are two of Ben’s favorite things! We’re so happy that Ben loves Jackson as much as he does. I swear Jackson gets more giggles out of Mr. Ben than anyone else.
We had a lovely Valentine’s Day week {we are calling it “Alentine’s Day” because we usually celebrate Valentine’s Day a day or two late}. Ben got dressed up in his adorable Peanuts Valentine’s Day outfit and read Valentine’s books all day long 😉 Alex and I enjoyed a fabulous bottle of wine from our favorite wine region in Spain and I picked up some cupcakes. I made Shakshuka for dinner, a new meal for us both, and it was really great. Later in the week we went out for dinner at Bar Cantinetta, one of our local favorites.
Ben’s grandpa Stan came for a long weekend visit. It’s so sweet seeing the two of them together!
We are hoping for more sunny days and smiles with our little Ben in the coming days. It’s hard to believe that he’ll be 9 months old at the end of February!