Ben Update (Chrissy)

It's really cool all the things that babies can do once they hit 3 months. My job as a developmental therapist includes testing kids 0-5 to see where they are developmentally. A few weeks ago I brought one of our test booklets home (I had to write a report for a child a little older than Ben) to see where he was. What, I was curious! :)

There are 5 areas that we test children in. They are: gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, speech, and self-help social/adaptive. Ben is exactly where he needs to be with gross motor and fine motor skills, and a month ahead in cognitive, speech, and self-help social. I'm so proud of my little guy! All kids develop at their own pace, though, so even if Ben was behind in any area, I really wouldn't be worried. It just depends on when things click for them. I've seen kids at our center increase 4 months in skills in 1 month's time before. Pretty impressive.

I LOVE how much Ben smiles now. I can get him to smile whenever I talk to him (depending on his mood of course. And also, if you're specifically trying to show someone how he smiles, he probably won't do it. It's his goal to prove mama a liar.) Ben slept all the way through the night again last night. He's such a good sleeper. You'd think I'd feel less tired today with him having slept all night, but the thing you don't think about is that it's a habit to wake up and check on Ben when he hasn't woken you up. It's hard for me to get out of the worry mode...is he still breathing? What if his blanket is suffocating him? Ben also has a little aquarium toy that hangs off the side of his cradle. It plays music and lights up with bubbles when you turn it on. And Ben has figured out how to turn it on. And off. And back on again. And back off again. At first I thought he was doing it on accident, but then I watched him for a while, and I could see his little hand clumsily reaching up and slapping the power button on the front. He usually chooses 5am for aquarium fun time, which stinks because it's 30 minutes before my alarm goes off and I can't go back to sleep because Ben starts talking to Jumbalaya (the fake fish in his tank), plus the music and bubble sounds from the aquarium. As annoying as it seems, I still think it's cute, even while it's happening. I'll sacrafice 30 minutes of sleep for listening to a happy baby.

Ben and I were playing earlier and he was laughing and grabbing a squeaky toy out of my hand. When he brings things up to his face his eyes cross when he tries to focus on it. It's so cute! I also like his little laugh. It's like a cough-squeal. I can't wait for him to start giggling. Baby laughs are one of the best things in the world!