Benny's vocabulary is taking off, as everyone told us it would. New words this week:
- apple (pronounced "hopple")
- down (he knows to say it when he wants to get out of the high chair, but he also orders us "down!" when he wants us to get down and play on the floor)
- choo choo (his name for Thomas, pronounced "doo doo")
- up
- hole
- in
- meow
- bye!
- kitty
- happy
- pony (not sure he knows what happy or pony mean, but he will repeat them)
- And his use of the word "no!" is being perfected every day! He has learned to yell "no!" at the cats whenever he sees them. I say "no" to them only when they scratch the carpet, so I'm not sure how he learned that. From Tim?
More later!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Highlights of the week
Ben's favorite activity this week: Sitting under a blanket with a flashlight with both Mom-mee and Dad-dee. If one of us is missing, he calls for us and pats the floor until we come sit next to him and get under the blanket with him. He likes it dark and likes to try to feel our faces, but he also likes to play with the flashlight in the dark of the blanket.
New words this week (these are all just repeated, I don't think he understands them):
- happy (sounds like abby)
- pee pee (he might know what this means because he pointed to his diaper when he said it once)
- poop
- gone
I don't know why things like this make me so proud: Ben and I were out running errands and stopped at Subway for lunch. He sat in the booth across from me and ate his turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwich all by himself and "chatted" with me. Such a big boy thing to do!
New words this week (these are all just repeated, I don't think he understands them):
- happy (sounds like abby)
- pee pee (he might know what this means because he pointed to his diaper when he said it once)
- poop
- gone
I don't know why things like this make me so proud: Ben and I were out running errands and stopped at Subway for lunch. He sat in the booth across from me and ate his turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwich all by himself and "chatted" with me. Such a big boy thing to do!
Today at the Vitamin Cottage (where they no longer have any plastic bags, and I forgot my bag), Ben helped me unload the grocery cart again and arrange the "separate my purchase from your purchase" sticks just so. Then after we paid I asked him to help me carry the stuff out. Standing in the shopping cart, he took a burrito in each hand and said, "Go!"
At the farm, there are seven newborn goats that are as cute as they can be. Ben and I got too close to the most possessive mama goat and she nipped Ben's ear!
Last night at bedtime, after he made sure Joseph (my 32-year-old teddy bear) was covered up with the blanket and warm and cozy, he read him a book! He opened the book, babbled, and then showed the pictures to Joseph. How sweet!
We still watch some of Finding Nemo at least once a day.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More updates
I'm not sure who taught him, but Benny picks dandelion puffs and blows on them.
We don't have TV in the basement, so we've been doing lots of movies. Ben is obsessed with Finding Nemo and we've watched it at least 20 times in the last two weeks. He says "Nee Mo! Nee Mo!"
Other new words this week:
- "peep bo" for peek-a-boo
- When he saw the rabbits at the farm, he said "money! money!"
- "Go," clear as day, meaning let's go!
- He says one word all the time and we have no idea what it means. It's similar to the Amy mystery. It varies: "mynow" or "mynum" or "mynat" and he says it in lots of different contexts. It doesn't seem to mean "this is mine" though, so we're perplexed.
We just went to the farm manager's 60th birthday party (how nice to be included in this new "family" here at the farm). His 7-year-old daughter and Ben played and played and played.
That's all for now!
We don't have TV in the basement, so we've been doing lots of movies. Ben is obsessed with Finding Nemo and we've watched it at least 20 times in the last two weeks. He says "Nee Mo! Nee Mo!"
Other new words this week:
- "peep bo" for peek-a-boo
- When he saw the rabbits at the farm, he said "money! money!"
- "Go," clear as day, meaning let's go!
- He says one word all the time and we have no idea what it means. It's similar to the Amy mystery. It varies: "mynow" or "mynum" or "mynat" and he says it in lots of different contexts. It doesn't seem to mean "this is mine" though, so we're perplexed.
We just went to the farm manager's 60th birthday party (how nice to be included in this new "family" here at the farm). His 7-year-old daughter and Ben played and played and played.
That's all for now!
More photos
Here is the nice lawn outside the kitchen door. Ben loves running around. Behind it are the grapevines, the greenhouse, and the vegetable garden. All the animals are on the other side of the house.
Tim took Ben to a farm and Ben had a blast playing with the animals. He fed the sheep hay.
And then laughed at something...
And then he loved the haybale maze!
Tim took Ben to a farm and Ben had a blast playing with the animals. He fed the sheep hay.And then laughed at something...And then he loved the haybale maze!
Photos finally!
Here is a photo of the kitchen of our luxury basement
And the living room.
And the kitchen door, which we can leave open for Ben to come and go safely.
Ben is a great helper, and here he is trying to unscrew the fridge door.
And here is our stuff stored in another room. This is less than a third of our stuff, and there is more there than appears in the photo. I wonder if we have a normal amount of stuff, or if we're abnormal. It sure seemed like an absurd amount of stuff when we moved it.
And the living room.And the kitchen door, which we can leave open for Ben to come and go safely.Ben is a great helper, and here he is trying to unscrew the fridge door.And here is our stuff stored in another room. This is less than a third of our stuff, and there is more there than appears in the photo. I wonder if we have a normal amount of stuff, or if we're abnormal. It sure seemed like an absurd amount of stuff when we moved it.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Life on the farm
Ben loves the farm! Tim's clients, Liz and David, are letting us live in their basement while we try to sell our condo. It's an old farm house with 200 acres and goats, cats, dogs, ostriches, sheep, horses and maybe llamas. The kitchen door opens to a big lawn and it has been SOOOOO nice to let him wander right out the door and not have to worry about him so much (and avoid the tantrums that came every night when he was dying to go for a "walk" and it was too late). I will upload photos tonight. Last night Liz and David took Ben and me to a community BBQ at a nearby organic farm. I didn't quite understand why these people were making food for hundreds of people, but it had something to do with thanking everyone for their business. I think they might be a CSA (you buy a weekly basket of farm products, or help work the farm). Anyway, the food was delicious and Ben had a blast running around. I'm glad he is so social. There was a big pen of chickens and ducks and almost all the kids were in there chasing the birds around. Ben loved being in there and it was hard to get him to leave. Then he wanted to sit on all the tractors and lawnmowers, and then he wanted to play soccer with the big kids.
Inside the house, he loves to run down the long hall and when he gets "lost" you can hear him yelling "Mom!" and "Dad-dee!"
For about a half a day, he seemed to think Tim's name was "Dad-dee-mom" and we kept telling him it was only Daddy and he finally got it.
New words this week: Yat means out (go outside), and Money means bunny (bunny crackers)
It's freezing in the basement and there is no heat, so I'm very glad Ben has taken a liking to the down blanket. He is so sweet curled up in his crib with the blanket.
More later!
Inside the house, he loves to run down the long hall and when he gets "lost" you can hear him yelling "Mom!" and "Dad-dee!"
For about a half a day, he seemed to think Tim's name was "Dad-dee-mom" and we kept telling him it was only Daddy and he finally got it.
New words this week: Yat means out (go outside), and Money means bunny (bunny crackers)
It's freezing in the basement and there is no heat, so I'm very glad Ben has taken a liking to the down blanket. He is so sweet curled up in his crib with the blanket.
More later!
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