Graduated from the 4th trimester!

Benjamin Maddox: 4 months, 1 day

February was a big month!  Benny got to visit the mountains (read: Avery County) on Valentine's Day weekend to get his Mimi and Poo to all himself.  He got a special visit from Mimi the following weekend, got to rest the next, and then got a visit from Auntie Lauren this past weekend.  He loved every minute of it, of course, and loved up on his visitors lots.

Benny has become very conversational in the last month.  He sits with Mom and chats about his days with Gram.  He starts talking kinda softly but by the end, he is screaming, yelling and laughing hysterically.  He is definitely a people person.  He has clocked a lot of hours in his exersaucer, or air traffic control station as we like to call it.  Benny has a pretty intense need to stand and would like to be on his feet more often than not.  Our arms got kinda tired of this, so we've really gotten our money's worth out of this thing.  He stands proudly and will concentrate on each little station and press buttons that sing songs.  He is beginning to entertain himself, which is convenient for Mom and Dad, and lots of fun to watch.

Grabbing items and pulling them toward his mouth is another new activity that he has refined in the last week or so.  It's amazing to watch these little skills come together and to watch his face light up when he does something new successfully!  

Last weekend, it snowed lots.  It snowed the week Benny was born, and a few times since then, but nothing that stuck around for long.  On Sunday night, we got at least 6 inches, and I'd swear it was even more, but we didn't stick a ruler in it . We did, however, stick Benny in it.

He didn't necessarily love it or hate it.  The wind was blowing hard when we ventured outside so he was mostly bothered by that and wanted to go inside.  Hopefully next year we will get a good snow so we can try him in it again.  I'm thinking it'll be more fun as he gets older!