Food!

Benjamin had his six month birthday on February 22, and on February 24, it was Andy's birthday. On the 24th, Andy fed Ben his first meal, a small portion of baby oatmeal. Ben's reaction was, essentially, "took you guys long enough!" He thought it was a little curious, but happily ate all the oatmeal with no protest, and less mess than we had expected. In a couple of days, after a few more oatmeal meals, we'll see what he thinks of sweet potatoes. Hopefully by the time he gets to the messiest foods the high chair we ordered for him, which came recommended as possible to hose off if necessary, will come.

Going out to eat

When Ben was little, he went out to lunch lots of times with Jessica and the other mommies and babies. Once he got bigger and wanted to do stuff all the time (and Jessica went back to work) we mostly stopped eating out. But last week he went out to eat with our friends Sibel and Jack, who are living in Cambridge for the year. Ben thinks Sibel and Jack are lots of fun. Sibel comes over often to visit with Ben before she and Jessica do their writing group meetings. At the restaurant (Mi Tierra, a great Guatemalan/Salvadoran place in Waltham) Ben sat in a high chair for the first time and had a great time banging on the table, trying to eat the menu, putting his fingers into red sauce, and dropping toys on the floor for Jack and Jessica to pick up. Thanks to Jack for his great pictures of Ben in his high chair.

Getting ready to eat

On the advice of Ben's doctor, we decided to wait until Benjamin was six months old before he ate food other than mother's milk for the first time. As we got closer to that time, Ben got more and more interested in food, and had a good time playing with spoons, especially his set of airplane spoons.

Sitting up!

When we were in Florida, Sebastian was sitting up really well, and Ben was sitting or standing only while he was being held. But Ben was very impressed with Sebastian, and on Christmas day, when the two of them were hanging out on the table, Andy took his supporting hands away and Ben sat up by himself! Since then he has gotten better and better at it, and now it's how he spends most of his awake time, sitting up with toys all around him, picking one up, chewing on it, waving it around, and putting it down somewhere else, and then picking up another one (if he doesn't already have one in each hand).

Sightseeing in Florida

After Christmas, we did some very interesting sightseeing in Florida. We went to two forts, one a nineteenth-century one on Amelia Island, and the other a seventeenth or eighteenth century one in St. Augustine. Afterwards, Julien designed fabulous forts, and he and Andy built some in the sand, with Julien directing. They had a wonderful time. (Thank you Adrienne for the fabulous picture of Julien with Andy and Ben.) Ben and his parents also took a long walk in St. Augustine and saw lots of old buildings and the old fabric of the city. Another day, all of us went to Kingsley Plantation, an old sea island cotton plantation, which was very interesting. Many of the old slave cabins, made of a sort of concrete based on shells, are still handing. They are, rather oddly, organized in a big half circle facing the plantation house. On the last day, we went on a great boat tour of a nearby island in Georgia that is now a national park, except for small bits still lived on by the super rich. The whole trip was great fun, and had a nice balance between sightseeing, walking on the beach, and just hanging out.

Christmas!

Christmas day was lots of fun. There were fully stuffed stockings (stuffed by Jessica and Adrienne in the true Sewell family tradition) and lots and lots of presents for Julien, Sebastian, and Benjamin. Ben and his parents got matching stripey outfits too. We held up our tree in a bucket of damp sand, and decorated it with shells, a few colored Christmas balls and (after opening the presents) beautiful jeweled ornaments made by Julien. We took a nice long walk on the beach, and Rick and Adrienne made a delicious pork loin for dinner.