A side effect of Ben being able to pull himself to stand is that he is often waiting for me like this when he wakes up from a nap, all excited to see me. Which is one of the happiest things ever.

I’m not sure when it started, but Ben totally cheeses for the camera now – not my phone (because he’s always trying to grab it and chew it), but the real camera. I think it started with my dad’s camera, since I still think he takes more photos of Ben than I do. But given how many blurry phone photos I have of him these days, the big smiles he gives me when I have the big camera are even better.

Always with the one sock, this kid. I swear I put socks on him every day, but the swiftness with which he rips them off or crawls them off is impressive.

In 2015, I’m taking a photo of Ben each week with my real camera.