First, bribery. Benji has discovered baby crack. Puffs. The little rice-puffed cereal star-nuggets can clench his attention and shut him up until the puffs run out. He even recognizes the container and does his happy hump gyration to celebrate. Puffs come in lots of flavors and he has been fond of all the ones he's tried. I feel a little guilty because I've tried to keep him eating clean~ all homemade fruits and veggies~ but I wanted to spice up the texture he was consuming and let him test out his 2 chompers so I bought plain old gerber puffs (I have since discovered organic ones that claim half the sugar of the regular ones.... i may be a sucker for marketing but based on Benji's taste for the things, we will go with 1/2 the sugar). I can't blame Benji for being addicted to them. They aren't half bad and considering they dissolve into nothing on your tongue, you could pop them all day and feel like you weren't even snacking (not that I am speaking from experience)!
Benji has really mastered the motor skills it takes to get food to his mouth and his 1-at-a-time process has morphed into shovels of handfuls. He prefers to shovel himself which has become a bit of an issue with his healthier veggie purees I try to spoon feed him. I have had to resort to holding up a chunk of something to his mouth and when he opens up, I sneak in the spoon of puree. Hopefully he doesn't catch on too soon!
Here is Benji fist feeding himself watermelon.
It's no wonder the kid likes watermelon, I think I ate 39 last summer when I was preggo. I craved it all the time!
My second parenting fail is TV. Benji mostly watches Bravo, Food Network and Matt's latest Netflix addiction (currently Trailer Park Boys) so you can guess by the sounds of it, he's really being exposed to some culture. He normally tunes it out and plays productively but recently he was being a pill and I needed to get our house in shape for company so I popped him in his highchair, propped up the ipad right in front of his face and turned on Yo Gabba Gabba. He. Was. Mesmorized.
How could you not be with content like this...
The one Benji watched had eggs crying to go to the party in the tummy. The cartoon eggs crying on the plate were pathetic and hilarious and the song was very catchy. These characters are just whacky (I was pleased to learn the pink blob I thought was called "foopa" is actually "foofa"). You feel like you are on a trip watching this, or as wikipedia puts it, 'someone has slipped something into your fruity pebbles.' Whatever it is, I can't complain because a)its funny and Benji loves it b)they teach sweet dance moves (also seen on The Soup) and c)Leslie Hall is a guest star.
Thank god for Netflix.
Benji's #2 favorite thing to watch on the ipad is himself
He has mastered the art of clapping and likes to stop and clap for himself whenever possible (after crawling 12 inches (go, me!), while his diaper is being changed (i did a dookie!), first thing in the morning (i just woke up and its 5:30am!), when I pick him up (i win again, mommy is a sucker!) and 50 bazillion other times over the course of a day.
He's also pretty proud of his success in finding no-no's and I have had to turn a blind eye to safety hazards and gross things in my house in order to increase my productivity. As I've mentioned before, Benji has a knack for finding gross things and inappropriate baby things and I have had to relax my germ standards to keep my sanity. Since Walter the Terrible has decided he should shed his entire coat, I have been forced to vacuum close to every other day (which is way too much in my world). The alternative to vacuuming is letting Benji crawl and then lint rolling his entire body and plucking Wally hairs out of his mouth, nose, eyelashes, etc. Fine, I'll vacuum. Did I mention Gus HATES the vacuum? That's pleasant to listen too.
Anyway, vacuuming has become a game for Benji. I vacuum and he chases the vacuum. The problem is that he catches the vacuum and likes to finger the brush extension (nasty), climb up the thing (have you ever looked at the dirt on the vacuum?) and chew on the cord (multiple issues there). Also, vacuuming the house lets Benji explore additional hazardous areas that he was previously unaware existed. Needless to say, Benji now enjoys rounding the corner and zipping down the hallway to the preferred vacuum outlet and an A/C register that is bent (making it sharper) and full of dust, lint, dead flies and grime. He also knows where the stairs are (an issue in itself) where the carpet is loose (carpet staples exposed), and where the dog kennels are (kibbles everywhere). I need a cleaning lady and a handy man. Anyway, I think I have pushed the boundaries of acceptable 'toys' or distractions that I allow Benji.
Here is another amusing yet unacceptable game...
Gus may seem vicious but he likes the baby... enough. Also note the register that Benji loves to open and close then stand on, and the window trim that I have seen little bugs on that Matt ignores and I douse with cleaner. There are also outlets within 2 feet to the right and left which Benji is on his way to, as soon as he screws with Gus for a second. Gus is not his only victim. He likes to make a beeline for Walter and when he gets to him, he'll get up on his knees and do a victory happy hump, grab a few handfuls of fur, then put Walter in his mouth. Yes, you heard me. He tries to eat Walter. Get out the lint roller.
Who wants to leave their kid for a play date at our house?? Food bribes, TV, dirt and dog hair! We're the FUN parents!
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