Babysoroos

It’s been a busy couple of months! I have a lot of photos to catch up on.

Here’s a start:

We went to the wading pools a lot this summer. Ben really got accustomed to the water and started having a lot of fun. Some pictures from one day towards the end of July.

Ben’s grandparents (Eric’s parents) were here at the end of July. Ben had lots of fun going for walks and reading books with them. Pictures of their visit.

And of course there was lots of photo-taking just around the house and Seattle, as there always is. We had a brief visit from Aunt Cindy, although we didn’t get any good pictures. We went to see the Blue Angels while she was here, Ben loved that. Some pictures from the end of July/beginning of August.

In the middle of August, we went to Chicago for a weekend to meet some of my friends from the online messageboard, who all have babies around Ben’s age. We spent a day at the zoo, and on the Saturday night had a “party” in one of the hotel suites. Ten adults, seven one-year-olds. Chaos! But lots of fun. Pictures of Ben and the other babies (warning – this is a long album! 42 pictures).

After that, we rented a car and drove to Iowa to visit some family for a week. Eric’s mom met us there for a couple of days, and we went to the Iowa State Fair. We got to spend a lot of time with Great Grandma Peg, and Eric’s Uncle Phil and Aunt Judy. We went swimming nearly every day – there’s a wonderful toddler pool there and Ben really had fun in the water (sorry, no pictures of that). Pictures of Iowa.

That’s it for now. More catching up later. And I promise to put some pictures on the home page next time.

We had Ben’s one year doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. He weighed in at 30lbs 12oz, and measured 32.25″ long. (Or tall. When do we start talking height instead of length?) Anyway, still big. Still way off the charts, but at least he’s maintaining his own curve quite nicely. And the doctor was happy with all his developmental milestones.

Speaking of which, here’s a little summary of what he can do as a just-turned-one-year-old:

• He walks very steadily. He even sometimes walks places we need to go, as long as we’re not in a hurry.
• He can finally get up to standing from the middle of the floor. No more crawling.
• He knows where his bellybutton is and can point to it if I ask him.
• He waves bye-bye. Sometimes even if noone is leaving.
• He claps and grins when you say “good job!” or “Yay!”
• He points to trees and says “dee?”
• He brings you books and expects you to read them to him.
• He brings you the diaper bag and expects you to feed him the snacks that we keep in it.
• He dances to music. Some music, at least.
• He babbles a lot. Few words, but lots of intonation and expression.
• He still tries to put everything his mouth. Except some types of food which belong on the floor.
• He loves drinking water and gets very excited when I offer it to him at the end of a meal. And then he takes a few sips and throws it on the floor too.
• He’s starting to feed himself with a spoon, occasionally.
• He can sort of throw a ball. Well, sometimes it goes forward and sometimes backward, but he’s getting the idea.

He’s a really cheerful little guy most of the time. He has a wonderful variety of laughs and giggles and cackles, and he makes us very happy. This has been such a fantastic year!

Here are some more pictures from July – from before and after his birthday. This one’s a fairly long album. Some from around the house, playing with our bedroom curtains (he’s been fascinated with those since he was tiny – he used to just stare at them when he was only weeks old!), the joint birthday party for all the playgroup kids, and some more from the zoo – we took Grandma and Grandpa while they were visiting.

View the album.

Thursday was Ben’s first birthday! Ben celebrated by refusing to take a nap all afternoon, but he was surprisingly happy despite the lack of sleep.

Grandma and Grandpa Soroos arrived in the afternoon and we had some cake, which Ben seemed to enjoy immensely. He even managed to actually eat some of it! After he got cleaned up (and boy, did he need cleaned up!), we opened presents. He got lots of cool new toys to keep him entertained.

The album below is all birthday photos. I have some other recent ones to post in the next few days. Sorry for the lack of recent updates – we’ve been having computer problems. Hopefully we’re back to regular new photo-sharing now, though.

View the album.

Last week, Ben turned 11 months old. The first few pictures of this set were taken the next day (we missed taking pictures on the 21st this month, oops). It’s so hard to believe he’s almost 1 year old! Although, looking at some of these pictures, he is clearly turning into a little boy and not a baby anymore.

One evening we took him down to the Ballard Locks to look at the boats. He was able to wander around for quite a while – a nice change of scenery from our living room, and flatter ground than the park, and also more contained with fences on either side so we didn’t have to chase him so much. He seemed to have a blast walking around smiling and waving at people and laughing at us.

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Saturday was the Fremont Solstice Parade. Ben was dressed to fit in amongst the wild and crazy citizens of Fremont. Pictures of the parade (and the naked bicyclists who preceded it) are available on Dad’s site.

And we’ve got messy eating and evidence of new teeth…

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And then there was Father’s Day. Eric had been a keen advocate for Ben owning Hawaiian shirts, so Ben got Daddy a Hawaiian shirt too. It doesn’t quite match, but the sentiment is there. Don’t they look great together?

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Last weekend, we ventured out on our first ever family camping trip. We had a new (cheap) tent, and far too much other stuff. It was pouring all day Saturday, but we got on the ferry anyway, stubbornly sticking to our belief that the campsite was in the rainshadow and would be dry. It wasn’t. It was pouring. And our reserved site was beside – and open onto – a fast moving river. We sat in the car, with Ben sound asleep, and thought about coming home.

But we didn’t. We changed our site, we pitched our tent in the drizzle, and we cooked and ate in the rain. It was fun! (Said in a mock moral-boosting voice.) But honestly, it *was* kinda fun. And we all slept well and woke up to glorious sunshine, so we were able to have breakfast outside, let the little guy take some walks, and have our stuff mostly dried out before we packed up.

In fact, it was a fun enough experience that we plan to do it again, and some day we’ll even invest in a better tent that doesn’t drip from the canopy directly in the door. 🙂

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A random collection of photos from the last week or so, including another trip to the zoo on Thursday. This time, I got him out of his stroller more often and let him walk around holding my hand. Until he decided to let go and wander off his own direction. Then I stuck him in a cage of his own. 🙂

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Walking is the new skill. And the new entertainment. And the new exercise. Walking is everything right now. Oh, apart from the eating. Eating is exciting too.

We went to the park last weekend. And there was lots of walking. And eating. Oh, and swinging! It was an exciting day!

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Ben is really walking now, so we got him his first pair of “real” shoes. He seems happy enough to wear them, although like almost everything these days, he’d rather eat them. We had a couple of really hot days over Memorial Day weekend, so we bought a big paddling pool and filled it with a few inches of water. Ben loved it. So did I! And, Ben attended his first festival on Sunday – we went to Folklife. We were there nearly all day, and Ben was wonderful – he charmed everybody sitting around us during the Samba show. A bit hyper when we got home, though.

new shoes, new pool and folklife>
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Photos from last weekend, when Ben turned 10 months old.

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