Benjamin is 10 months old

Benjamin turned 10 months old last week, on Feb. 17th.

It was on this very day that he started standing up by himself (without any support) and momentarily hold himself in a standing position! Now one wonders when he will take his first step forward. ^^

Since he can stand on his own only momentarily and so I need to keep vigilant beside him, I haven't been able to get any shot of him standing by himself yet. But I have a few photos in which he is about to stand up, and he is standing against the window (instead of a piece of furniture such as a table or a sofa).

I actually took these photos when we were at the BABS playgroup.
(I could take some photos when Benjamin was trying to stand up because there were other adults around.)

Benjamin playing with Ivan (12 months old)

Benjamin playing with Bennet (10.5 months - and he started walking just a week ago, his Mom said.)

Benjamin trying to stand up

Here he is standing on his own ↓

Other recent favorite photos...

He usually finds himself on his Mom's back toward the end of the day.

But Mom! I want to see what you are doing!!

Cheeky Benjamin's recent favorite play ... open the cupboards and pull out everything!

At the BABS (taken by a friend photographer, using my camera)

Playtime with Daddy is a very special time every evening

Eating (or smashing into his mouth) a piece of French Toast (or what it was supposed to be **)

His big smile as he always has during a meal time

Please take a note to his lower front teeth :-)

Playing in the Snow

Last week we had a huge amount of snow - I think it accumulated at least about 12-15 inches.

The day after the snow stopped, when the sun was out, I took Benjamin out to the yard to let him see and play in the snow.











Other photos of the landscape in the snow...

A boy in the neighbor and his dog came to our yard...

I wonder if Benjamin will be running joyfully in the snow like this boy and his dog,
in a few years...

Benjamin watches Obama's Inauguration Speech

Yesterday, January 20th, 2009, was the day of historical moment -
Obama's Inauguration.

As millions of people all over the world must have, we also watched
Obama's Inauguration speech intently yesterday. And Benjamin was no
exception!

Look at how intently Benjamin is watching Obama's speech (even though
it is only for 10 seconds or so ;-).

I actually wanted to capture the moment in which Benjamin was clapping
his hands as if he WERE clapping to the birth of this new historical
president, but as soon as I took out the video camcorder he stopped
clapping hands - usual story :-(

Anyways, please press the 'Play' button of the following video, it runs
only 40 seconds. Hope you find it funny too, as we (Amar and I) did.

Benjamin Watches Obama's Inauguration Speech

So proud of himself standing up on the couch, using Dad's legs as his support ^^

Benjamin started crawling (finally!)

He looks kind of small with a long corridor as his background ;-)

Benjamin is on the move at last!! --- His long-awaited crawling finally
started two weeks ago, on the 5th of January (at his 8.5 months). Both
Amar and I are so joyous now, because we had just started wondering if
Benjamin was one of those babies who "never crawl and just straight to
stand up and start walking one day", when he finally started to move
forward!

Now he can move from one room to another by himself, and can find Mom when she disappears!

His crawling so far is still a bit awkward (he cannot get over trying
to stand up somehow, so he often stops crawling to see if he can stand
up - well, so it seems, at least - by putting up one of his legs
instead of keeping kneeling to move forward ;-), but the important
thing is that he IS moving forward now! Well done, our boy! (<--- In
Japanese, we call this "Oya-baka", which means "parents' silliness
(=parents' blind love)" ;-)

Funny thing is, Benjamin finally started cutting his first set of teeth
just the day before he started crawling --- another big growth sign
just around the same time! It seems it is quite true that babies grow
"in spurts".

Anyways, here are two video clips of Benjamin's crawling - the first
one was taken on the very next day after he started crawling, and the
second one was taken today (about two weeks since he started crawling).
In these video clips, there is another thing I would like you to notice
--- Benjamin's clapping hands.

He started doing this about a month ago, but these days he seems to do
it more and more consciously (in other words, in appropriate timings).
I found it irresistibly cute!

Please enjoy.

p.s. To Christine - Happy Birthday, Christine! These videos are another
birthday present for you! Hope you will enjoy them.

Benjamin's recent cute habit (tilting his head)

One of Benjamin's recent habits is to tilt his head when he gets curious about something and tries to see that object from different perspective (well, that is at least what I guess).

When he does that, he looks so cute --- he looks as if he is wondering about something, and/or he is determined to find out what this most mysterious object in front of him can ever be! (That object is usually something like a moving ceiling fan or a flickering of sunlight coming through the window. ;-)

He also tilts his head when I initiate it - he copies me when I tilt my head as if wondering about something. In those times he looks as though he is wondering what his Mom is thinking or wondering about, which makes me laugh and smile.

Enjoy the film clip ;-)

video clip of "Nanny Feeds Benjamin"

One of the video clips I recorded while Christine - Benjamin's Nanny - was staying with us for about two weeks just before the Christmas.

I believe this makes a nice Chirstmas present for Christine --- enjoy!

Brunch at Birdhouse Restaurant (in the McCormicks Creek State Park)

Last Sunday (Dec. 7th) we drove up north to the McCormicks Creek State Park, the oldest state park in Indiana, and had a brunch at the "Birdhouse Restaurant" in Canyon Inn, one of the bed & breakfasts in the park.

The outlook of Canyon Inn

The Birdhouse Restaurant is so called because there are a lot of birdfeeders are hung around the restaurant and you can see many different kinds of birds coming to feed from the feeders through the windows.


Benjamin looks so small compared to the big table of the restaurant! And he also looks like a tiny bird perching on the table --- just like those birds around the restaurant! :-)








At the end of the brunch, Benjamin got a priveledge of being held by Daddy so that he could look out at the landscape through the window. He seemed to be enjoying it a lot.

It had snowed quite a bit the day before, so we (especially Christine and Benjamin) got to enjoy the wintery, snowy landscapes, as well as the birds and the state park itself. I must say, Christine has been quite lucky with the weather during her stay!

Benjamin is 7 months old

Benjamin turned 7 months old on the 17th of November.

Here are some (well, a lot of) photos of him during his 7th month of his life: please visit my other photo album site

(Please type in "guest" for User Name and "shootingstar" for Password.)

Hope you will enjoy them!

Dad's Roller Coaster (video)

Just a short video clip, in which Benjamin gets a ride on "Dad's Roller Coaster". Quite an exciting one, it seems...
enjoy! ^^

Dad feeds Benjamin (video)

I almost erased this video clip by accident, but thank goodness, I stopped recording something else on top of it just in time to save the funniest part.

In this video clip, Amar (Dad) is feeding Benjamin.
For some reason, Amar is acting funny in this video - he seems teasing Benjamin by not giving him the spoon straight away at the beginning, and then when I ask him to give him a training bottle, he starts examining it opening the cap, closing it, and opening and closing it again, and AGAIN@@

Enjoy ^^