8 Months Old

Beniah is now 8 months old. He got weighed at the doctor's today and he is now 23 lbs 11 oz. That puts him in the 90-95 percentile. Beniah has grown a lot this month. He has perfected the crawl and has actually taken 5 steps by himself. Not for the camera of course, but there were witnesses! He loves to hold someones hand and walk everywhere.

He loves to see what we are doing...


...unfortunately, he fell off of the couch and got his 1st goose egg.


On Tusedays, we watch his cousin Donny. They have the greatest time playing together.


Beniah has been eating solids for awhile now, so we thought that he would like to have his 1st taste of lemon.


Beniah has been enjoying his mobility and has discovered Mama's full length mirror.


With crawling comes rug burns, so I have devised a way to save Beniah's knees. We'll see how it works out.


I thought that I would add this picture, as this is typical photo during a shoot. Beniah really wants the camera and lunges for it resulting in this...


Beniah at 8 months.

Family Visits

Last week, my family came up to visit us. We met up with my sister and her family on Sunday at Multnomah falls. It was a fun, but slightly damp hike.

Cousins.


Evie and Tim


Typical Multnomah Falls picture.


We hiked a little bit beyond the bridge. When we got to the bridge, Tim looked over the side and said, "I had that made just for you." Ahh! How sappy sweetheart!


Evie and Ravi left on Monday morning and my parents arrived that afternoon. We spent the next 3 days visiting, touristing, and spoiling Beniah. I wasn't apart of the last item, but I let his grandparents have fun.

Mom thoroughly enjoyed giving her grandson a bath.


On Tuesday, we were going to hike up to Beacon Rock, but realized that the path that was touted to be good for young children was to rocky and steep for a stroller. We ended up walking on a nature trail that was back up the road a bit.

Grandpa and Beniah


Grandma and Beniah.


Beniah loved Grandpa's shoulder rides.


On Wednesday, we went to Fort Vancouver and looked around.

Not a very good photo of me, but it's a fun one. We are all laughing because Beniah just got done trying to eat my hair.

Grandpa and Grandma with Beniah


My parents.


Beniah was so tired by the end of the day that he fell asleep. He didn't even wake up when I moved him from the stroller to the car seat.


After the fort, my parents took us to Burgerville, where Beniah happily sat in a restaurant highchair for the 1st time.


After Beniah woke up in the morning, my parents would bring him into their bed and play with him. I had to take a picture because I remember doing this with my grandparents. I love the smell of Foldgers coffee (not the taste though) because they would be drinking a cup of it while I was curled up next to them.

Swing Time!

The wind up.


The unravel.


The stop.


The reaction.


Pure Joy!

4th of July

This was Beniah's first 4th of July and he loved it! It was a lot of fun to watch him see his 1st fireworks show.

Pool Time!



Sitting tall.


"Who put the P in my name?"


"Aargh! Weed roots!"


Sitting by the fire with Grandpa.


Beniah watching his 1st fireworks...


...and his reaction.

He actually clapped for them when they were over. He was more imitating me than cheering for the fireworks.

Cuddling with Mama.


Fighting off sleep while cuddling with Daddy.


Aaron and Danny with a sparkler.

Look What I Got For Free!

My parents and I toured around Fort Vancouver yesterday and saw a blacksmith make a wall hook. He then proceeded to hand me a smaller hook that he had made earlier and told me that I could keep it. Apparently, this hook is imperfect because of how short it is. I think it is perfect for a hand towel hook.

Baby Got Back!

I have taken a break from cloth diapering this past week because the diapers just weren't holding the liquid as well as they were in the past. Needless to say, I became tired of having to change the bedding and Beniah in the middle of the night. I was going to double up our liners until my wonderful sister suggested using the cheap-o Gerber cloth diapers as the doublers. This solution is still in the testing process. Whether or not this works, I got some cute big butt pictures of Beniah.



If you click on the picture, you can see his 2 bottom teeth.

Happy Birthday Donny!

This evening we went over to the Shire residence to celebrate Donny's 2nd birthday.



The cousins had fun playing with Donny's new ball popper. Beniah was mostly excited about putting the toy and balls in his mouth.

Beniah in Donny's new ball pit/ swimming pool.

All Aboard!

Today, we set off on a great adventure to see the Disney Christmas Carol movie train. This train is making its way across the country and stopped for one day at the Union Station in Portland. There were 7 of us piled into the grandparents' van as we drove to Portland, so Grandma Whittaker had to sit in the middle of the van on a padded stool.

Aaron enjoyed wearing Grandma's sunglasses.


We had a 45 minute wait in line and were entertained by some carolers.

Mama and Beniah.


Since we weren't allowed to take strollers on board, we had to take turns holding Beniah.


Beniah's favorite part of the day was playing with the greenery...


... and patting the picture Scrooge's (Jim Carrey) face.


Although walking down one of the cars was fun too!


Beniah looking at a figurine of the ghost of Marley.