Bergen In Action

So Bergen is really into having his own utensils, and now he really wants his own bowl. This particular day he thought it was really funny to feed me. However, as soon as I turned on the camera that laughing stopped. Yes, I know I'm weird! But Bergen and I spend a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time just the two of us at home, I got to keep it interesting somehow.

This is my little problem solver. I often find Bergen "working" on something. It's really fun to watch him try to figure something out.

Speaking of watching, did I mention I love watching him play. He's turning into such a big boy so quickly. I really want to capture that on video, but this is usually what happens when I turn on the camera.

Science Museum

Today Bergen and I got to go to the Science Museum with our friends. It's really cool for big kids and even has a large play area for little kids. We spent most of our time there. Bergen got to play with toys...

Push buttons that make bubbles inside glass tubes...

Push a shopping cart around...

Select apples from the fruit bins...

Fill the shopping cart with lots of yummy food (all plastic of course)...

Help Luke at the checkout counter...

Make little balls fly and flowers spin...

Crawl in, around, and thru things...

Drive an ambulance...

And splash in water just to name a few activities.

Bergen was an excellent trooper and I think he had lots of fun. So much fun in fact he was completely worn out and asleep in the car just minutes after pulling out of the parking lot.

So this evening I was working on something and Bergen crawled off playing. He was quiet for long enough I wondered what he was doing, but I didn't go check yet. Then I still didn't hear him for a while so I finally went looking. I found he had crawled thru a stool I sometimes put in front of the bathroom door (looks like he's figured that one out and I have to find something else...again), found the toilet brush, and was cleaning the toilet bowl. If he's going to get into mischief should I at least be proud he's cleaning? :) I was actually very surprised to see him doing this, and I'm sure he thought he was in heaven, because I don't ever let him near the toilet despite his efforts (toilets are gross!). He has watched me clean it before from the doorway, but he either got lucky (or is that I got lucky he didn't have something else in the toilet) or he's already trying to do what he sees me do. He will grab away the rag when I wipe up the floor under his dinner seat sometimes, and rub the floor with it himself. He also spits after I spit while brushing my teeth...who knows!

Haircut #3

Ten and a half months old and on his third haircut. This kid's hair is going to be high maintance :) He held still much better than I was expecting, course the comb and snacks helped.

Handsome boys! Bergen looks older again. Haircuts do that every time. I wasn't sad about this one though, I just think it's so fun to see him acting (and now looking) more like a little kid instead of a little baby.

Nine Months Pictures

While we were in Colorado, my friend snapped some photos of Bergen. Pretty adorable! Here's a sneak peak.

To see others, check out her photography blog:

http://ersphotos.blogspot.com/2010/03/bergen.html

Thanks Emily!

He's a Mover!

He's no different than most babies...he loves the kitchen cupboards! It always cracks me up when I find him actually IN the cupboards :)

Swinging at the park. Sorry it's sideways! Just turn your computer if you want a better look. Or I guess your head would work too.

Getting into trouble. We plugged this in and within about an hour Bergen had discovered it. We thought this would be safe, but it's not, so it's no longer there.

His old crawl and new crawl. He still uses both regularly.

So we have this game where I chase Bergen and he runs away from me. He crawls as fast as he can laughing. Then he stops to look back at me, I said I'm going to get you, and start after him again. He starts laughing again and takes off. When I do get him he does this funny squealing laugh and usually ends up with this hiccups. We do this over and over all over the house. Unfortunately every time I try to record it, he forgets our game and goes for the camera.

You know you feel sorry for me! :) This is everyday, every clothing change, and every diaper change. And this is just a glimpse, I'd already gotten the diaper on and still had to get his jammies on. I try and try to find different things to hold his attention but so far nothing has really worked more than once or twice. And even though things usually don't last long enough to complete the entire process. It used to really ware me out and be frustrating, but I've gotten over it and enjoy the hilarity of it, eventually he won't mind having to pause for 2 seconds to get changed...hopefully :)

Picnics

Last week we had such nice weather we just had to get outside for a bit. Travis was working in the garage, so I brought our lunch out to eat on the lawn. This really was the first time I had put Bergen down on the grass, not knowing how he would react to it.

To my surprise, he wasn't afraid of it at all. He was quite fine to be exploring on the grass.

Us eating our lunch.

"Another cracker please!"

The next day was also beautiful. So we packed up our lunch again and went to the park.

It was a little windier than we were expecting. Hence the crazy hair :)

We are working on trying to get him to fold his arms. It's a hit or miss still, but caught him doing it this time.

"But Daddy, I thought 'earth' was one of the major food groups."

My sweet boy!

College Reunion #2

Almost last minute, 4 of my very best friends and I decided to get together again. This time in Colorado at Emily's place. Thanks to Emily for hosting such a good time! It always amazes me how instantly it seems like we just saw each other yesterday even though we havn't. We spent a lot of time talking (about kids, pregnancy, adoption, crazy dating situations, health, husbands, more kid stuff, and more even crazier dating situations!), catching up, swapping ideas and theories, and of course eating good food!

Eating lunch on Pearl Street in Boulder.

I had to bring Bergen along for the trip and he was a pretty good trooper (except for that one night. Urrg! Of course he didn't make a peep the night everyone else left!). Even if he is up with teeth pushing through, who could not be happy with this face :)

You forget how cold the cold really is when you're not living in it! Bergen bundled up. By the end of our outing, he also had another blanket covering him and a layer of snow on top of that. Yup, it was totally snowing by the time we went back to Emily's that day.

Emily has this cute little kitchen that Bergen just loved! It was just his size and he could empty the cupboards and baskets over and over again.

Emily takes BEEE-u-tiful pictures. I was excited to have her snap a few of my baby. He was kind of cooperating...kind of :) Can't wait to see them!

The day I was supposed to come home the flights were oversold and I wouldn't have made it. So thankfully Emily let me stay an extra long time. When Travis was done with work that week, he came to Colorado for the very last night and all three of us got to fly home together. That was so much easier!! This is the view from Emily's walking path. Ah, the mountains, beautiful!

Bergen almost made it home awake...but not quite.

Ok, so I was going to say a few words about our flight out there. First of all we checked in 2 minutes too late for our bag to make it on the plane (lesson learned), so we had to wait an extra hour and a half for the next flight. The flight was really full and Bergen and I ended up with a middle seat. Sweet! (Hope you're catching my sarcasm there) The guy to our right had an iPod he was listening to, and the guy to our left pulled out his laptop and was working on that the entire time. Needless to say those are both things Bergen just wants to get his hands on! So the whole time I spent trying to keep his little arms and hands within our own two foot square, but that's really hard! A couple of times he managed to knock the mouse off the tray, thankfully the passenger was very nice about it. I had snacks (his dinner actually), a few toys, and a couple of books I keep rotating through to try and keep him occupied. Normally I think those things would've done great, but nothing beats a laptop! When the flight attendant asked if I would like something to drink all I could think was, "yes, and where would you like me to put it?" Have I mentioned Bergen's speedy little hands? :) So I asked her for apple juice, filled up the sippy cup (yes it was FULL strength, what else was I going to do with it?) and chugged the rest in one breath. I can't complain too much though because Bergen didn't cry or even get too fussy. When we landed Mr. iPod said, "he did really good. He was a little wiggly though." I kind of chuckled and responded with a yeah, but that's pretty normal for him kind of comment. And Mr. Laptop told Bergen, "it was a pleasure flying next to you." I glad they were both so nice about it, but holy cow were my arms tired!

Nine Months Old

In February Bergen was nine months old. He had a few mile stones I thought we could share. First, he got his third tooth right at nine months and his forth the following week. They are on the top, but not the two middle ones, they are the ones next to what would be the middle ones...yes, kind of like a vampire :) It wasn't until after they had cut through that he woke up several times seeming to be bothered by them.

The last week in January he started pulling himself up on things like the dishwasher and windowsills, but took another 3 weeks to figure out he could also do this in his crib. When I walked into the room this day, I was quite shocked to see him standing there, and looking very proud :) He tolerated a few pictures and then really wanted me to get him out!

When he is supposed to be sleeping, I will often hear him blow a few raspberries before drifting off to sleep. He also does this a lot while playing, and will almost always mimic us if we try to get him to do it. I think it's quite funny, but I am not looking forward to the day he tries it with a mouth full of peas!

It's been a while since I snapped a picture of him sleeping in his bed. He's definitely looking older.

Over the course of last month we happened to find he had climbed up into the cupboards, up and over suitcases, into a laundry basket, and here the dishwasher. Looks like I'm going to have a climber on my hands.

Bergen is still nursing 4 times a day, but they are getting to be pretty short sessions. I almost feel like I'm trying to force him to nurse sometimes. He'd rather be off playing so he tries very hard to climb off. Regular food though, that's another story. Without having much to compare to, I'd say Bergen is a pretty good eater. He likes real bananas, Cheerios, applesauce and pears from a jar, Ritz and graham crackers, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and green beans from a jar. He also likes gold fish, chicken and rice, pork and beef roast and mashed potatoes (I think he could eat mashed potatoes all day every day if I let him), grilled cheese sandwiches, peas, strawberries, meatloaf, banana bread, yogurt and pancakes to name some off the top of my head. Seems like maybe he's going to be a meat and potatoes kind of guy. He was never a very big fan of the baby food puffs, and has yet to eat a chunk of cheese by itself or tomatoes...much to his displeasure, but we have seems some pretty funny faces over trying them.

"What??? I like blueberries."

Snowstorm

Record breaking snow for Texas! About 12 inches in 24 hours. How fun for us. Two days ago I was buying Bergen swimming trunks, and yesterday I wished I had gloves for him :)

We took Travis to the airport in the morning so he missed out on playing in the snow with us, but at least he got to see it. Bergen and I headed out to take advantage of this winter wonderland.

This is what Bergen was wearing:

undershirt and socks

flannel pajamas with feet

hoodie and warm up pants and gloves

jacket and flannel pants with feet

Apparently that still wasn't enough for him to want to make a snow angel...or just sit in the snow!

Ahhh, would anyone else call that a look of death? Glad I wasn't the one taking the picture.

Starting to be a little happier.

He's had enough now, let's go!

I pushed him up and down the street in the stroller. It was like we were 3-wheelin'! It was so bright I think Bergen was squinting the whole time. Maybe now would've been a good time to try out the sunglasses on him.

A Little Journaling for 9 Months

Today Bergen is 9 months old! What an amazing 9 months it's been.

This was while I was putting things away, but today he started actually opening the cupboards himself.

This toy was a big splurge, but worth every penny! This has provided hours of entertainment. It lights up, plays music, lots of buttons to push, and makes animal sounds among other things.

These blocks are also very entertaining, especially if he has a bucket to go along with it. I fill up the bucket, he shakes the bucket until all the blocks fly out. Over and over again. This is one activity he will actually stay sitting for.

Bergen helping daddy with the laundry. He was having fun in there!

New Things and A Few Thoughts

Turns out Bergen is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. A couple of weeks ago I made a pork roast, mashed potatoes and carrots. I knew he would like the potatoes and carrots, but I was surprised how much he loved, loved, loved the meat. Since then I've discovered he also really likes chicken and rice, and even a little chuck roast. When Travis is home on Sundays I try to get something in the crockpot before church. Well even if Travis isn't home, I think I should be doing this every week so Bergen can enjoy it then, and the leftovers all week long!

Just like that. Yes just like that Bergen is eating finger foods like he's been doing it all along. I think it's so cute to watch him eat graham crackers and Ritz crackers. He moves the cracker from one hand to another, taking little bites until the very end. The last bite is always a big mouthful, I don't know why he does that but it's pretty funny. What impresses me the most is that he doesn't loose any to the floor or even into him lap. All of the cracker makes it into his tummy.

The last couple of days Bergen has wanted to spoon his own food into his mouth. For a while I was going through 3 spoons, one for each of his hands and one for me. Well I finally decided to forgo staying clean and let him try all on his own. It's messy, but he loves sticking the spoon into the bowl (with a little help to get some food on it) and then putting it into his mouth (that he does by himself). Like a said, it's really messy but he acts so happy with himself. It's fun to see him starting to show his independence.

He's getting quick! :) He occasionally crawls a few lengths on his hands and knees, but mostly he's speeding across the floor in an army crawl. Bergen also uses things to pull himself up onto his feet. The other night I looked over and he was standing at the little rocking chair. It took me by surprise because he had just barley crawled past my feet. I was amazed he had gotten up to the chair in such a short amount of time!

O how I love this little boy! He is amazing! Being his mommy is amazing! We definitely have our moments and I'm still learning how to better play with him and teach him what he needs to know, but he makes me so happy. I love it when he goes to bed at night, but by the time I myself am going to bed at night, I always want to snuggle him up (probably a good thing I don't fit it his crib, I'd want to sleep next to him every night). It's so fun to see his excitement when we chase after him and he squeals with joy as he tries to crawl away as fast as he can. It's also fun to see him get so excited to hear daddy's voice over the phone and the even greater amount of excitement when he sees daddy. They really love each other and I love each of them!