Milestones in Bentley's first year

Here is a look back at milestones in the first 13 months of Bentley's life with us.

Bentley rolled over when he was just a couple of weeks old. Three people saw it - we swear it happened! After that exhausting effort he decided to take a brief hiatus and didn't resume rolling activity for a couple of months.

Bentley started crawling right after turning six months old. We pleaded and prodded with him (to no avail) to give it a shot before his Far Away Grandma headed back to the prairie. A few days after she left it finally all clicked, and he was up and away. Within a week he turned into the moving blur - our little speed demon!

Bentley started walking the week of his first birthday. We'd tried to entice him for months prior to that, always sure he was on the cusp, but he was not convinced.
Bentley's first two teeth popped through together a week or so after he turned seven months old. We are very blessed, teething is not something that seems to much perturb him. At thirteen months he now has 9 (or 7 and 2 halves, depending on how you count!) teeth. They're adorable!

Bentley started solids at 6 months. Because eating is not his passion, we didn't see the point in starting any earlier. With the notable exceptions of chocolate and turkey chili, his preferences seem to be rather fickle. There were stages during which rice cereal, eggs, and yogurt were enjoyed. For whatever reason he's moved on. Fruits have never been a favorite. Most vegetable mixes, particularly if they contain squash/corn/sweet potatoes, will be tried. Goldfish, chex mix, potato chips, and soy crisps are generally acceptable snack foods. The diet baby food, Gerber Puffs, are a real favorite.

Bentley started waving, pointing, and clapping at around eleven months. This past month we've been working on high five and thumbs up. We've got the high five mastered but he doesn't see much of a point in the thumbs up.

Bentley still isn't much of a talker. Or, perhaps I should say, I still don't understand him. He might actually be speaking what he thinks are complete and intelligable thoughts and the weak link in the communication chain is me. His favorite word is dada, and has been for quite some time. On occassion I can coax a mama out of him. In the morning he'll say "HEY!" when you come to get him out of his crib. When he sees the cats he says kitty. I think that's the extent of the language skills, aside from random freaky experiences where we've had two witnesses verify hearing sentences from him...

The first was "I like it" in response to a question from his grandparents. This was at eight months. The other was at eleven months, when he told his father "Hey, don't do that!" in response to being zapped with static electricity! I also believe he told me "good throw" while playing ball a couple weeks ago. :-)