I thought I'd update our blog about current construction activity. This picture shows our front bedroom after Phil took down the inner walls, and, by the way, I made Phil pose that way! Our outside walls had no insulation, and were just made of two layers of bricks with plaster attached to the inner brick wall. Phil took down ALL the walls, including ceilings, and then took out the inner brick wall. So, for about a month, the walls we had in our bedrooms were red brick, the same that made up the outside of the house. Needless to say, we needed to get insulation and walls in by the time it got cold.
Here is our little Pea Pod a week early. He didn't really love getting into the costume, but we snapped a couple of shots with out any crying. Getting out of it was another story.
If you notice the walls in the background, you will see what walls look like underneath wood panelling when exposed. We tore down the wood panelling, and since then, Phil took down all of the dry wall in order to insulate and wire. Fun, fun!
Gotta love great cameras! Thanks, Grandpa Jankovich, for letting us use your camera! (Benson doesn't have any unidentified growths on his face- these pictures were in the middle of a graham cracker fest!)
Today we visited Grandma and Grandpa Jankovich and Benson decided to eat a graham cracker all by himself. He's gotten so good at sitting that we didn't need to stuff a blanket in the sides of the booster that Grandma J has, and he just had a grand old time creating a film of graham-juice all over himself and everything he touched.
He needed to wash the graham cracker down with some water, but this picture also shows his reaction to the flash of Grandpa's awesome Canon SLR camera. He didn't like it.
He's concentrating really hard on what to do next in his cracker adventure. The tongue must help him think. . . just like his mama.
Look at that graham cracker film on everything. He's cute with it, though!
As of last week, which is an almost 8 month measure, Benson is 18 lbs, and 27 1/2 inches long. That means he has grown 5 pounds in 2 months, 4 of which he gained in the first month of good old formula supplementing. He gained the other pound in the past month, which puts him at the 25% curve, up from the 2% mark. Good job, buddy! He's holding his own head up in this picture, which for him is tremendous!
I thought maybe it had been a week since I'd posted, but now suddenly its October. Whoops! Benson is now a professional solid food eater, and his favorite food, as shown by the pictures, are prunes. He loves prunes! He stopped spitting the food out once I started using a graham cracker as his spoon. Because he loves graham crackers, he now loves food!
We brought Benson to an Opthamologist in the middle of September to check out his eyes, which tend to work better if he's looking out their sides, and the Doctor said nothing is wrong with the shape of the lens, so he won't need glasses, but he also didn't know what was wrong, so he ordered an MRI that we had up at Primary Children's last week. I am still waiting for the results.
He is super motivated to action whenever he sees a glass full of water- he pretty much goes crazy trying to get it. When we give him the glass, two things happen: He actually does swallow some, as well as drowning the front of his outfit. He also fills the glass so full of floaties that you really can't share with him. Maybe he does that on purpose so he can have it all to himself. One way or the other, he is growing and changing so much that everyday is an adventure! It's awesome!
Thought I'd post these pictures that Joslyn took at her house this week. She is so talented at catching the best expressions that my camera and ability can't come close to, and I just love these! Thanks Jos!
A little Benson update: He is what I'd call "officially" sitting up, although pretty wobbly, and he ate pears today. . . and he didn't throw up! Yea!
I'm possibly becoming one of those annoying, bragging mommies who always says how brilliant her child is, but really, I'm just so proud of our little boy! He's making such good progress in so short a time. Yesterday he finally did a variation on the "tripod sit" on top of Daddy, and he didn't flop all the way over like he did on Monday.
More tummy time practice on the Boppy! He cried at first, but then Phil and I started making crazy faces and noises to entertain him, and he forgot that he was unhappy, and held his head and chest up great!
Although Benson hangs out in the bouncy seat a little bit everyday, he has never, except once, actually played with or even really noticed those hanging toys. Today he was staring at them, and his hands cooperated! He first grabbed the toy with one hand, then he brought the other one up to help,
DISCLAIMER: First of all, I couldn't catch the smiles today with our slow camera, so I always caught the half shut eyes blinking from the flash. 
These two pictures show what he usually does when you put him on his tummy, basically acts like a two month old or so. . . But now he can lift up his head! How darn exciting! The Boppy helps a lot because he is already off the ground a bit.
Even though he obviously doesn't love being right on his stomach and doing his little exercises, if we prop his arms underneath him like this picture shows, he will lift up his head, and turn and look all around!
So, in 5 days his muscles must have strengthened at least some to be able to do what he could not even get close to for the past 6 1/2 months! Way to grow, buddy!
I started teaching piano again when Benson was almost 2 months. Holding him in my arms while teaching was a little bit tricky, but he wasn't happy any other way. And then, we discovered The Bouncy Seat. He would hang out there for an hour while I taught two piano lessons and be perfectly happy and playful.
Lately, however, we are thinking it is more like a drug, because Benson will stay happy in it longer than anything else. Is this normal? During the last half hour of a three lesson stretch last week he even fell asleep. With a six year old playing a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells. Only a drug could do that. So, we are trying to lower the Bouncy Seat time, and try to get the "happy times" to last longer doing other things.
Practicing sitting up at 6 months
He's pretty much always smiling. . .
. . .unless he's busy playing.
Phil and I ripping out the wall between our kitchen and dining room last Spring 
Yes, that is a brick wall separating our kitchen from our dining room. It is now at the dump. Along with a lot more of our house.
New skylight where the swamp cooler used to be
This is the most current job- Phil ripped out the walls in two bedrooms because there was no insulation there at all. We could feel a cold breeze there during the winter. He took out the cinder-block wall, and is reframing and insulating. Yea for lower energy bills!
