A Berry Bennett Blog

If you are the kind of person who feels like gagging whenever reading about other people's kids, and how cute they are, and how smart they are, and how funny they are, then this is not the blog for you.

Get excited.

This blog entry should actually go after the one where everybody came to visit, but I got messed up and put it first. Anyway...it has been an incredibly busy time in our lives here, as is evident from my numerous blog updates. However, I feel the need to post some random things that this boy of ours has done lately. Granted, I am his mom, so I am a little biased on his cuteness.

First order of business...we got Bennett a new pool!

Obviously this is not it. This was actually me trying to sweep the kitchen floor without him underfoot, so I put him in the sink just long enough to sweep my pile into the dustpan. Turns out that's all the time he needed to figure out how that shiny handle worked. On a related side note, we also did a fair amount of mopping on this day.

This is Bennett's new pool. If you will recall, we had a four foot deep pool last year that didn't make it through the summer due to extreme overuse. Hey, not one day under 100* for two months straight? You would spend a lot of time in the water, too. So this summer we wanted to get another water thing, but we didn't want to be constantly on the lookout for little guys who can't quite swim yet. So we settled on this inflatable splash park. It provides Bennett and me a good 30 minutes of entertainment a day, which is pretty good for a guy who's attention span is equivalent to that of a goldfish. A very cute goldfish.

Bennett has also started doing other new and exciting things as of late. Some of his newest adventures include...

Brushing his teeth. Bennett loves this activity, which is something I am encouraging. Whenever he sees one of us brushing he gets so excited he can barely control himself. We got him his own little toothbrush when he first started getting teeth, but for some reason his is never as good as mine or Matt's...

Point made.

We have also started playing games. Some of my personal favorites are "Hide and Seek", "Where Did it Go?" (usually played with the TV remotes), and "Laser Tag".

This is a game we started with our cat, and continue with our son. It is so fun to watch him try to figure out how something can be on him that he cannot feel or touch. A side of me feels like this game is a little bit mean...

We have started baking more, too. There just always seems to be a church function, military bake sale, neighbor in need, etc. where chocolate is required. And I am always more than willing to supply chocolate.

Bennett is an excellent helper in the kitchen. Like me, his favorite part of baking is cleaning up.

And speaking of being clean, this is the scrubby-brush we use to wash dishes, and Bennett can't get enough of that good soapy flavor. No, really. I can't keep this kid away from the thing. I am afraid that if I ever have to wash his mouth out with soap when he gets older he will ask me for more. Gross.

And now, the most exciting news...BENNETT IS WALKING!! kind of :) He has been trying to stand on his own a little bit lately, but never for more than a few seconds, and then it was right back to crawling. But this Monday he started trying to stand a lot, and for longer and longer periods of time. That night we went over to an older couples' home for dinner (Bennett's adopted Oma and Opa Von Reugish, from Germany) and all of a sudden he just stood up and toddled across the room to me. It was enormously exciting, to say the least.

The best part is that Matt was there to see his first steps, which was something we weren't sure was going to happen with all the training for Iraq he has coming up. I also feel ready for this new phase of Bennett's life, which is saying something, because if he had done this a month ago I probably would have pushed him down. But now I am genuinely happy and excited that our baby boy is becoming an honest-to-goodness toddler! Yikes!

Of course, Bennett has rarely tried to walk since these initial steps. He is quite content (and quite speedy) with his awkward hand-and-foot bear crawl. But the point is, he can do it. And he will do it, for the rest of his life. Walking is funny like that.

Nearly every person in the entire World walks, but when you see your baby doing it, it is suddenly the most miraculous thing ever. I will definitely have the camera ready next time.

Oh yeah. Get excited.