Quality time with my baby boy

I have just had a lovely couple of days with Benjy and wanted to write about them to remind myself how happy it makes me, to spend time with him. Now that I am back at work my only Benjy day is Friday but very often we have family here so I don't have him to myself. But yesterday I had him to myself all day, and the weather was beautiful. We didn't do much - went for a walk and to Rhyme Time in the morning, and popped out in the afternoon to some shops - but I was at my absolute happiest. Today - Saturday - I took Benjy to a shop and the supermarket this morning and again, just spending that time with him, even though it was just doing chores, makes me happier than anything else can.

Benjy is nine and a half months now. What has he been doing lately? He has just started pulling himself up onto his feet - he was pulling up onto knees for a while but has just made it that extra step; he says 'mmmmmmm' and 'ma' when he wants me to pick him up, and today he said 'da' when he saw Eddie, we will see if it was a one-off or if it continues; he laughs a lot, sometimes for ten minutes at a time, especially if he has been in the buggy and we pick him up, and this need to laugh all the time has led him to develop a fake laugh which is the funniest little thing, a cross between a fake laugh and a fake cough. He does 'how big's Benjy'; he waves bye-bye; he still loves books - 'That's Not My Lion' is a favourite but may have just been replaced by a peekaboo book with very big flaps and exciting things to find underneath. When he gets very excited he shakes his whole body around, which often means that when he is on his tummy and gets excited, he headbutts the floor. These are just the few things that come to mind as I quickly type this between clearing up his dinner and making ours, but there is so much more - he makes us happier than we could ever have imagined.

These photos are Benjy being very proud of himself for sitting on the horse all by himself, and his nine month photo, when only my mobile phone could distract him from the fridge magnets.

First family holiday

This is already a few months ago - we went to Tenerife in January when Benjy was six month old - but I wanted to put some photos here. We had a brilliant time. I think Benjy could pick up on mine and Ed's 'holiday mode'. He was even more happy than usual, and that's saying something. He spent the week kicking his feet - which for the first time in his memory weren't under several layers to keep out the cold - and blowing raspberries, which was his latest trick. It was on holiday that he started being able to drag himself on his tummy, in his desperation to get to the baby wipe packet to play with, and also where he perfected the art of the suction kiss. He swam outdoors, played on the grass and saw the sea - which absolutely fascinated him - for the first time. Eddie and I had been a little unsure about how a holiday with a baby would be but we needn't have worried. It was one of, if not the, happiest of all our holidays.

Baby on the move

Benjy is nearly 9 months old now. He is a tall baby, towering above most of the other babies his age, and active too. About a month ago he started crawling. There were a couple of weeks of 'commando crawling' but now he is crawling properly on his hands and knees, and pretty fast he is too. He's fascinated by the DVD player, the radiator knob, the toilet roll holder, and a nail on the wall which holds one of the electrical wires in place. He also likes putting things underneath the sofa or the TV unit, and then tries to look for it, and it is so funny watching him try to peer underneath something that's already at floor level. My favourite thing about the crawling is that I feel that I can now see what his real personality is. Rather than waiting for me to give him things to play with, he can go and find things for himself, and it's fascinating watching what he likes to do.


Some of my other favourite things at the moment: when he plays with something, he holds it with both hands above his head, as if he's announcing to the world what he's playing with right now. It's often accompanied by a very pronounced 'dadadadada' and kicking feet. Another thing, and I think this is pretty clever, is that he has started initating games. He will lie on his tummy and move his head to one side so he can't see you, then back the other way so that he can, indicating that he wants to play 'I see'. I love that - it's nice to know what he remembers and recognises what we have been doing so long. And I love how he anticipates things - he knows what's coming next in the rhymes I sing him, especially the ones where there are actions and tickles; and he certainly knows what's coming next when he sees the fromage frais pot come out of the fridge - then the arms and legs go wiggle crazy! He loves being tickled; he loves it when I play 'I'm coming to geeeeeet you!'; he loves being held upside down and thrown in the air - in fact, there's not much that doesn't make him happy and giggle and squeal with delight.

Early memories

One of my earliest specific memories of Benjy was on his third night. We were still in hospital because he had jaundice and had to be treated with phototherapy. The midwifes had him under the phototherapy lights in the nursery and would bring him to me when he needed a feed. The first time they took him away from me to the nursery I cried my heart out. But I remember so distinctly when they woke me up for his feed a couple of hours later. It was probably about 1am, and when they woke me up and I saw his little face peeping out of the blanket they'd swaddled him in - I think that was the moment I really fell in love with him. He used to make an 'o' shape with his mouth, and I have such a distinct memory of that little round mouth and those big round eyes, as the midwife handed him to me. They left me alone with him, and I remember just holding him so close, breathing him in, loving him more each second.

Another thing I remember from those very early days was his smell. I didn't know it was possible to remember a smell, but I do, and so distinctly. We came home from hospital when he was 4 days old and bathed him, and that wonderful smell went away then. But as I write this, I can almost smell his brand new baby smell.

A few other things I want to remember from when he was really tiny - how excited he would get to lie kicking under his mobile; how Eddie used to play 'touch the sky' with him; and how he would pounce on my breast so suddenly and ferociously that Gabi used to say it was like watching shark attacks on the Discovery Channel!