Help me, Jebus!

So our little guy can now sit up unattended, and from the look in his eye you start to feel that he’ll be rolling, crawling and scooting all over the room before you even have a chance to leave him unattended. It’s a lot of fun watching the wheels turning in his developing brain as he battles with the want to grab at his toys/feet/cat and his need to remain upright. For the first couple of days after figuring out that sitting up is more interesting than laying down [funny how that perspective changes as we age] he probably spent more time learning about the texture of the carpet as sensed by the nerve endings in his face than he did actually sitting and playing. Like a raccoon with a shiny object in its paws, babies his age apparently don’t have the motor ability to release their toy of conquest and break their fall with anything other than the first thing to hit the floor: in Ben’s case, his bald head. I suppose that’s the only way to learn, it’s just a shame human’s haven’t evolved further than that by now. Then again, Ben’s mother can be seen regressing to this state after two beers, or more accurately, two berry-flavored light malt girly-girl drinks.

The Ben got dressed as a baby bear this All Hallows Eve, an animal which in my opinion is definitely one of God’s creatures [a viewpoint which is reinforced by looking at the standings in the NFC-North midway through the NFL season – the Chicago Bears at top]. And in further demonstration of The Ben’s supernatural ability to bring joy to the state of Illinois, his south-side brethren, the CHICAGO WHITE SOX [in case you haven’t heard] are WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS for the first time since they threw the series in 1919, a year in which the automobile and electricity were considered revolutionary technology. This bizarre event in Chicago sports history comes on the heels of a record-setting season by our beloved 2005 Fighting Illini basketball team, a 2005 playoff-bound Chicago Bulls team, and a 2005 first-place Bears team [who cares about the Cubs on the north side anyway]. All of this has lead Anna and I to believe that our little man is in some way, some how, a spark of good fortune for the teams that we love. Now lets just hope that luck continues in 2006 [without having to make another Bonick to join the family].

big boooie

Well now, this weekend is a big one. Six months. 26 weeks. 182 days. Baby Ben is growing and growing and growing and I’m finding each day, week and month more enjoyable and fulfilling than the last. It’s just so hard to believe. If I remember right, it was just last week when Anna got off the phone with her doctor and said “I think this is it” before we drove to the hospital, our indeterminate Bean making his/her way down into position. Then there was 7 lbs 11 oz of crying, nursing, family visits and wakefulness, 10 lbs of smiling, wakefulness, baseball games and diapers, 13 pounds of wakefulness, standing, gurgling, and rolling, 17 pounds of sleeping, eating, baby-talking and laughing, and now, a whole week later, 20 pounds of The Ben personified: a hysterical, messy and happy little-giant baby sitting next to me on the couch, cutting a tooth and sticking his tongue out like his lip is going to get up and run away if he doesn’t pay it enough attention. Amazing how time just slides on by, huh? It’s this whole blinking thing that’s the problem – if I could only stop from blinking my eyes, maybe Ben wouldn’t grow so fast. . .

Wow. Six months. That’s almost two percent of my life that I’ve now spent with him! That number is statistically significant!

Since our last conversation, one-sided as usual, that Ben has done quite the job of sitting up on his own (mostly) and has added somewhere around 6 or 7 new fruits and vegetables to his well-balanced diet. Laughing hysterically is now a standard feature (my favorite part of the day) and at times occurs more frequently than breathing. He has developed an affinity for our cat Callie’s tail, and thank the Lord the two of them get along to this point. I swear, if there ever was a problem with Ben and Callie, I just might have to get rid of the baby (you think I’m kidding).