Lately Ben has been getting up earlier in the morning. This isn’t so great for mom or dad, but you’d never know it from talking to him. He loves waking up in the morning! He’ll usually play by himself in his crib, and work on a bottle for a half hour or so, but after that someone needs to come get him now.
This morning I let him roll around the bathroom in his walker while I showered and shaved. He was very interested in the shaving part, and stared at me with this WTF? face until all the shaving cream was off my face.
He’s not making much progress on talking — although he’ll often make noises in response to noises we make, and sometimes he babbles and squeals to himself while he plays. He’s very interested in his surroundings, and when we go for walks, he pulls himself to the edge of his stroller seat so he doesn’t miss anything. This weekend we went to the park for a picnic lunch, and he was brave enough to crawl off the blanket and onto the grass so he could check things out.
There is still no sign of a single tooth, despite the fact that most of his younger friends have two or more already. There has been copious amounts of drool lately, and whenever that happens we speculate that a tooth can’t be far behind… The lack of teeth doesn’t really slow him down though. 
He’ll eat anything you give him (or that he finds on the ground) and really likes chewing on apples — once you take a bite out of it for him. On the other hand, he’s getting a little more frustrating when it comes to actual meals — he’s got an attention span like his dad, and although he loves food, doesn’t have much patience for meal time, and getting him to finish a bottle when he’s not in bed is a daily battle.
His greatest achievement so far, though, happened on my way to work this morning. I got a call from an excited Nicole who let me know that Benjamin had taken his first step. We knew this couldn’t be long in coming, because he can walk, and even run, quite confidently when holding on to something. He frequently runs laps around the coffee table, squealing with glee. And he’s definitely ready to graduate from crawling — you should see him go! When he sees something he wants, he tucks his head down and charges for it. You have to run to catch him!
It’s absolutely terrifying how fast he’s growing up. Someone came over the other day and commented that he doesn’t look like a baby any more — he looks like a little boy. And its true! Despite his limited ability to communicate, and get around, he’s very much a little person now, and very much a wonderful little person too.
I came across a very interesting paper that discusses why “mama” and “dada” are most likely to be baby’s first words. Apparently “mama” isn’t actually refering to the person of mother, it means “gratify me” (ie. feed me, give me something I want) for the first few months. Similarly, “dada” isn’t refering to the person of father; it is a generally referential word used by babies to mean both objects and people (ie. table! mother! father! interesting toy!) for the first few months of speech.
lol, that’s interesting. The explanation I read was much simpler than that: “dada” is the easiest sound for a baby to reproduce (after various farting and animal noises) and “mama” usually comes soon after.
His Uncle David had two little teeth just breaking the surface at his first birthday. There is a theory that the later the teeth come in, the stronger and healthier they will be. You don’t have to worry about “baby bottle cavities” if you have no teeth. Of course, all of this is null and void if you fall head first on a cement pillar or go flying over the handbars of you bike.
Don’t worry about the talking thing. One of my sons didn’t talk till he was 2…of course he’s now 27 and hasn’t stopped talking since….
Further to my last comment, JW is also right….mama and dada are the easiest sounds for a baby to say. I’ve heard that mama usually comes first though…but it’s probably different for each baby. I said “dada” first. Cross-culturally, the word for “mama” always seems to be quite similar and with an “m” or “n”, and this is due to constraints in infant tongue/teeth mobility
First steps are very exciting! I am remember when Chad and I travelled to Florida and I missed the girls’ first rolling over experience (they basically all did it at the same time). I was disappointed I wasn’t there, because each new step is so thrilling!