Waaaassssuuuuuppppp!!!! Ben's First Scare

I have a couple of funny stories for you today that have taken place over the past few weeks. First up I'll start with something that happened last night. Allison and I were eating dinner with Ben sitting in his high chair next to us playing with some of his toys. (When I say playing I mean he was trying to put his toys in his mouth. ) Anyway, he was smiling, laughing and talking. (baby talk, only he knows what he was saying) I would look at him and smile. Say "Hi Ben" or "What's up buddy" and he would laugh, smile and talk. It was a lot of fun.

Not leaving good enough alone, I decided to spice things up and try other sayings. I didn't have any luck until I tried the Budweiser commercial "Wassssuuuuppp" Here's a clip for those of you who don't remember it

I got a laugh the first time I did it. I though I can do it better. 2nd time, another laugh. Nice ! Daddy's killing it tonight. Ok...deep breath, let's get a really good one. "WWWAAAASSSSSSSUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPP"

Ben did not like that one, that's what's up. He went from smiling and laughing to fear and crying in 0.53 seconds. I stopped immediately and tried to calm him down, but he was not having it. Mommy had to swoop him up out of his high chair and hug him until he stopped. We made up about 30 seconds later...but I won't be doing wwaaasssuuuuppp anymore.

Another epic fail (I never talk like that, but this can only be described as an epic fail) is when I tried the "want to hear the most annoying sound in the word" scene from Dumb and Dumber:

I thought it would kill, but Ben went from a smiling and happy baby to a grouch. He gave me the stinkiest stink eye and I swear I heard him say "Do that again and I'll poop on you."

Allison is going to start looking for work again once the new year comes. (she's a smart cookie and a hard worker if any of you are hiring) Ben needs to be weened off of breast milk and onto formula. We're trying to give him one 4oz bottle of formula a day.
The first day: it went pretty well. He fussed for a minute or two then took 2.5 oz.
The second day: he fussed a little more. He only took 2 oz, but finished the bottle about 20 minutes later. Pretty good right? That's promising right? Bring on the third day.
The third day: we made the mistake of Allison being in the room when I tried to give him the bottle. The nurses and doctors all told us that when we started to ween him that Allison should not be around. They said Ben would be able to smell her and want her milk, not the formula. We discussed it and said, you're far enough away, this will be fine. Well, it wasn't fine. Ben didn't take any of that bottle. He got mad.

Some of you have seen me cranky because I'm hungry, if not, here's the scoop, when I am hungry, I get very cranky and basically turn into an a-hole until I get food. No joke, there was a 2 month period where Allison would carry chocolates in her pocketbook and if I was starting to get cranky, she would give me a chocolate. Well, I think Ben may have picked that up from me. I have never seen a baby so mad. His little baby nostrils were flared, his hands clenched into fists and he was screaming louder than I'd ever heard him.

We both tried to feed him the bottle, then gave up and decided to let him nurse. He was took worked up to nurse, so I tried to calm him down. I walked him around the kitchen and dining room until he calmed down. Eventually he calmed down and ate.

The fourth day: Seeing what happened on the third day we were a little nervous about his bottle. Allison made it while I was playing with him in the family room. I took it from her, picked up Ben and took him to his room. He fussed for 2 or 3 minutes, but then started eating. While he was eating I noticed Molly (our dog) hopping around like a frog in front of Ben's door. I thought to myself, "what the hell is she doing" then I heard something. I said "what the hell is that noise?" Then I saw something. I saw Allison doing an army crawl across the floor trying to look in to see if he was eating. I said "what the hell is wrong with you"

It was pretty funny and totally something I would do. As far as the bottle goes, he took all 4 oz.
The fifth day: He fussed for 30-40 seconds then took the bottle. He drank 2 oz and I stopped to burp him. He never took the bottle again after that, but was happy. He decided it would be more fun to smile and talk to the monkeys on his wall instead of eating.
This somehow turned into a long post, so I'll wrap it up. Is it normal to laugh when your kids cry? I don't mean if they fall and get hurt or anything like that. When Ben cried yesterday when he was scared and when he had a full-scale meltdown on day 3 of his formula project, I couldn't stop laughing. His cry is so cute. I can't help it. I know what you are thinking. "Don't laugh at him! He knows your laughing at him" Don't worry, I covered it. I said to him "I'm not laughing at you Ben, I'm laughing at something that happened earlier." But seriously, is there something wrong with me? Why am I laughing at my crying baby?

He does some other stuff aside from cry that makes me laugh. After he gets his late night snack and goes down to sleep, he hums or coos or meows. I listen to him on the baby monitor for 20-30 minutes until he stops. It's very soothing and makes me smile.

Ok, here's the last thing I have for you. I learned some tricks when putting Benjamin down for a nap. I don't want to start a bad habit, so I only do this if it's taking him too long to fall asleep. If I let Ben hold my fingers or if I rub his hands, it puts him to sleep. The other night his hands were together on his chest, like he was praying or like he was a squirrel spinning around an acorn. His eyes went from fully open to half way to closed. His grip on my fingers loosened, then suddenly as if they were spring loaded, his arms flew to his sides. I had to bite my finger on that one to keep from laughing and waking him up. It was awesome. Stay tuned for more adventures.