Step....One

Yay!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday Ben took his first steps on his own. For ages he's happily held on to fingers or trousers or used various toys to walk along, however he's never been keen to go it alone. We've tried a few techniques to tempt him: Jaffa Cakes, toys, biscuits, chocolate, the TV remote control (that was the most likely to succeed...)

So, what worked? Well, I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Afterall, he is totally obsessed with this fella......Mickey Mouse!!! I left him standing while I put on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD and he starts clapping along as usual, then start a jigging as usual, then takes a couple of ginger steps towards the TV. Whoah! I need my camcorder (run run run, run fatty run!!!)
Okay, tape is rolling (metaphorically speaking, seeing as it's a HD camcorder) and Mickey is still appealing but Luke is now prancing around and has totally put Ben off. A minute later; eldest child politely told to stand back (he's a limelight hog) and we've ran Mickey back to the opening credits.... and the little jig starts again.
Oh yeah baby, this is dynamite. I remember to tell the camcorder that this is two days before Ben's first birthday and back up as much as I can to get him completely in shot. But that becomes a bit harder as he's on the move. One step, two steps, three steps, four, five, six, sevennnnnnnn, eight. Plonk. On his bum pointing up at Mickey (a mere two feet away) saying "tehtehhteh! isssss tehetehteh!!!!" FYI That's Ben talk for "It's Mickey Mouse!"

Can't believe the little blighter is gonna be 1 tomorrow. Man, that year has gone quick.


Source:Disney-Clipart.com

Shocking Stuff

Even by my standards, the time between blogs has been pretty poor. And the excuse? Well I was on a course for 2 weeks away from home and although I had web access I didn't really have time for blogging. And the past weeks, well, just laziness tbh!

A lot has gone on in that time. The Olympics have come and gone. Congrats to Team GB, and boo hiss to the dodgy Chinese officiating. The Ruskies have been up to their usual tricks and invaded Georgia. Ever since Putin came to power they've been heading back to their cold-war ways. More worrying than that is the start to the Premier Football season by my beloved Baggies. 2 league games, one cup match, 3 losses. And, biggest news of all.....Ben has started crawling!!!!

Yep, the litle blighter has been trying for ages and has been getting around quite well despite not quite getting the need to keep both knees on the ground. And over the last few days he's been getting nearer then finally today, inspired by the desire to fetch Mummy's smelly trainers he crawled properly. Suddenly I'm filled with the need to hide absolutely everything because in addtion to this new skill, he already has the ability to haul himself off the ground and stand up holding on to whatever he can find.

And once he's got his balance sorted he'l be waddling around too as he's alreadt fathomed out that he needs to put one foot in front of the other (by holding his hands he'll merrily walk along with us....for a few seconds before falling on his bum!