July 4th Weekend

Josh, Ben, and I had a great Fourth of July. It started with swim class which was followed by a walk in Old Town Eureka to people watch and pass by the booths. Then, we had burgers and fish and chips at Waterfront Cafe where Ben used a straw for the first time. He was too impatient (yes, he does have some of his mother in him) to suck from the straw while it was in the glass so we needed to get some water in the straw before he sucked it out. I like this picture because it emphasizes his chubby, chubby cheeks.


After lunch and a sunny walk home we went to a BBQ hosted by friends of Jenner and Kirk. It was a good time with great food--Ben really, really enjoyed the quinoa feta mint salad and had his first taste of watermelon. He fell asleep while I was reminiscing about Ben's birth to another mom who had two homebirths (I love that homebirth is common here) and was startled awake by some firecracker so we needed to make it an early night.

On Saturday I arrived home from an outing at the park with Erika and Leandre to find Ben crawling forward! Although he can crawl, he chooses to do it sparingly. We think that he is mostly focused on his desire to walk. However, after much coaxing, he entertained me by allowing his crawl to be videotaped. Here it is:

We visited a Montessori preschool last Wednesday (because apparently we live in Southern California where you need to apply for preschool while your child is still in the womb) and are in the process of filling out the application. So we are being confronted with questions about our child's personality and such things. This got us thinking about what Ben will be like at 3 years old and we figure he will still be a child who is able to sit and focus without much desire to move around unless it is necessary. That has been true so far--he moved in the womb, but never kicked so much that it was bothersome; he rolled over, but never did so just to explore his broader surroundings, just to get a toy he wanted; and now the same goes for crawling. Anyway, I have more posting to do to catch up on the week's news so that's it for this one.