Updates

Benny sprained his ankle last Thursday at daycare. Nobody is sure how exactly he did it, and he refused to walk until today (Tuesday). We took him to the doctor on Friday and had x-rays to make sure it wasn't a broken bone. The doctor did not see a broken bone, so she said we had to assume it was a sprain and to come back if he still wasn't walking a week later. He is walking gingerly today and limping a little. Odd to see such a little person limping. He's been pretty grumpy because of the pain and because of having to crawl or ask us to pick him up. We've been pretty grumpy about carrying a 27-lb toddler around.

Tim bought Ben a Thomas the Train toy and a little train track yesterday and when it was bath time last night we tried to convince him that Thomas had to go to bed too. I made a little bed for Thomas and got him a blanket. That didn't work too well and he wailed at the top of him lungs for a long, long time. Poor thing. :-( He played with Thomas for 3 hours nonstop this morning.

New words lately:
- "ma" for small and "me-e-a" for medium, though I don't think he knows what they mean
- "Bia" for his friend Olivia - so sweet to hear him say that
- "Bob-bee" for his fellow daycare attendee Bobby
- "nee" means snake or worm
- "eee" means "euww" or what Mommy says when something is yucky. If he has something yucky on his hands, he'll say "eee" and he'll point to dirt on the floor and say "eee"
- If we had to vote on his favorite word, it would be "no," which I think is typical of toddlers. It gives them so much control! He likes to yell it in response to every question you ask when he is in a certain mood. Do you want to go take your bath? NO! Do you want some milk? NO! Do you want to take a walk? NO!

We started night-weaning last Monday and it is going ok. He goes to bed ok without nursing, but he still wakes too much for my taste. We think his ankle pain kept him awake a lot on Thursday and Friday night, but still the last two nights he has been up too much and he shouldn't be in pain anymore.

Sometimes he does well on shopping trips and sometimes he doesn't. This weekend we went to the grocery store and he asked to sit in the bottom of the shopping cart. After we put several canned goods in there with him, he stacked them up like blocks and entertained himself. And then when we got to the register, he handed them to us one at a time. What a good little helper!

He has fallen in love with my 32-year-old, ratty teddy bear, Joseph, and one weekend morning we brought them to our bedroom to snuggle and he tried to pull a pillow under Joseph's head and then pulled the blanket up to Joseph's chin. How sweet!

Can't remember what else. I'll try to post again soon!