This morning, they went through the aquarium in reverse order. They saw all of the big tanks, the turtle stuff and then the touch tank, leaving the big room with lots of fish for last. Ben splashed in the touch tank, he held a couple of crabs and pet the horseshoe crabs, but mostly he splashed around. Then they went to the last room. He usually loves the reef exhibit, the lionfish exhibit, and the sharks. He likes the lobsters, and the moray eel, as well as the sturgeon and gar.

Well, today he wiggled and squirmed, and tossed from one tank to the other, and when he just couldn't stand it anymore, started screaming, "AGUAA, AGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, AGUAAAAA!!!!!"

It took Mommy a minute, but finally she realized he wanted to go back to the touch tank! They went back, and the smile on his face was worth all of the funny looks she got and the wet clothes they both had. We're looking forward to returning next week, although we're not sure what the touch tank staff will think... ;-)

You'll see that in one of the pictures his nose was barely red (this 10 hours after his fall), then later it was much more noticeable. Now the ugly scrape is the first thing you can see. We decided against showing this in the photo linked above, but you can imagine it.

Coincidentally, the very next afternoon he had his nine month checkup, so we asked the doctor to thoroughly examine our baby to make sure he was Ok. Doctor said that everything was fine and that Benjamin was very healthy. Thank God. He weighed 22 Lb and 12.5 Oz at 29 3/4 inches tall.

The doctor also mentioned something we had heard from many other experienced parents: all kids fall from the bed. Well, this really doesn't make it any easier, nor does it help in any way to prepare you for this event, because even "knowing" that it would happen it's still sad and traumatic, and the feelings of guilt, impotence and pain are too intense for our little parental hearts. Boo hoo, sob...

Benjamin takes it all like a real champ, he only makes a little facial gesture indicating that something on his nose is bothering him. But then we went to the beach and he had the best time there.

We're deeply in love with our son.

He only uses them when they're directed at the correct object (ie. Mom, or some form of water, be it on a glass, bathtub, etc.). He also says "aba" but we haven't figured out what that means yet.

Of course, Ben recognizes many other words that he doesn't speak yet. But he will turn in (or grab or go to) the right direction/thing when he hears them.

And to continue our bragging, he also plays soccer (dribbles while walking holding to our hands). He cruises all over the place now, holding on to furniture or his "walking car". He reads several books lifting the flaps to discover whatever is hiding underneath, and now crawls the right way (no more GI Joe). He even brushes his teeth.

BTW, he's no longer sick. He's back to being his goofy self. Today we stayed inside because of Tropical Storm Gustav, but he had to go outside to play in the rain, then he started licking the water from a wall.

So today we took him to the doctor. He has this so called Hand, foot and mouth disease. He doesn't eat because it hurts to put food in his mouth. It breaks the heart to see him suffer.

The ear infection of a week ago is all gone. So that's not a problem anymore.