Major Milestones

Our baby boy is now officially mobile. He began army crawling at the end of July and has been improving everyday. He definitely uses his legs more than his arms and sometime pushes so hard that his body gets ahead of his arms and he does a cute face plant into the floor.
Benett pulled himself up today for the first time in his crib. You should have seen the look of complete excitement and joy when he discovered this new freedom. I sat him in his crib near the bumper and went to feed Brinks. As I was walking away, I thought that this might be the day he independently pulls himself up. When I turned to start walking back down the hall to his room, I looked up and saw Benett with the biggest grin on his face. He was so pleased with himself! I started rejoicing his accomplishment with him and quickly grabbed the camera and video camera to document the moment. We spent the next several minutes celebrating and texting our family the news.
Later on in the day, Benett and I made a makeshift walking toy out of a diaper box. Benett's walking has been improving considerably in the past week. He hasn't taken his first steps on his own, but he is a lot more sure-footed as I hold his hands and walk around the house. He is actually starting to communicate to me when he wants to walk as opposed to be carried around the house. I always have him sit up and then stand before I pick him up and now if I go to pick him up he will grab my thumbs and push them down indicating "Mama I want to walk." We spend much of our day walking around the house and I can tell you that my back is not loving it as much as Benett. Nana bought Benett a little soccer ball and he will follow the ball around the house and kick it when he gets to it while we walk. Dribbling a soccer ball at 9 months...we might have another natural soccer player on our hands. Look out Patton, your cousin might give you a run for your money!
Our last big accomplishment this week has been working on picking up food and eating it. We had our first successful baby puff eating session a couple of days ago. As Benett goes to pick up a puff in his left hand, he has to fight the instinctive "insert thumb."