Now I remember...

...what the last thing was:
Ben skinned his knee at a garage sale in Almena, don't ask me how, and so he had his first real "boo boo." I taught him that it was called a boo boo and now if you ask him how his boo boo is, he leans down and checks his knee. He was real interested in the scab for a few days. Now it is healed and he understands that other scrapes are boo boos too!
I guess most posts from now on will be "Now Ben understands this" and "Now Ben understands that" and in several months it will be a daily record of the cute things he says.
I can't believe how sweet and fun he is!!

updates

We've never tried hard enough to teach Ben sign language, but now that he is increasingly frustrated with not being able to communicate, I think we're more motivated to teach him. We managed to teach him the sign for "more" in a very short time, so we'll work on teaching him more. It's so neat to see how he learned it. We used it first with food, so I thought it was possible that he thought it just meant "give me more food" but then we taught him to use it when he wanted us to throw the ball with him more, and he used it then, so it seems he understands what it means. How cool!

We spent a wonderful weekend last weekend in Almena at a family gathering welcoming Michael home from Afghanistan. Ben had a wonderful time playing with everyone in the family. Grammy Pat made two huge dishes of fruit and Ben of course ate most of it. Due to his consumption of unbelievable amounts of watermelon, he overflowed his diapers several times. After about 4 hours of our 5-hour drive home, I discovered that he was very wet and wondered how he'd spilled water on himself and realized that his diaper had leaked. He was wet from his chest to his knees and the car seat was soaked! Watermelon boy! Hydrated boy!

Ben loves to help me water the garden with the hose - have I reported that already? He drowns a couple of potted plants, but does a great job with the rest of the garden. He concentrates and listens to what I ask him to do and is the best little helper.

I think there was another bit of news I wanted to tell, but I can't remember it right now. I'll post again when I remember it.

Zrrrbrrts!

Ben has learned how to give zrrbrrts (the Cosby Show word for making a sound with your mouth on someone else's skin) and he relishes his new skill. I think we got one on video, so we'll post it soon. If I pull up my shirt and show him my belly button, he'll come over and do the loudest, longest zrrtbrrt and then laugh. He'll also do it to the back of my legs when we're standing up.

Hmmm, what else is new in Benny's life? He's very social, and happy when other people are around. Chuckie V came back into town, so we had a little dinner party and Ben just walked around yelling at everyone and sat on everyone's lap. A Comcast salesman came to our door and Ben pushed open the door and walked out to greet him, and then wanted to follow him home. He likes to make faces at strangers.

Now that he is more confident with walking, he's a little less clingy with me. It's great to see him become a little more independent (though a bit sad, too).

He's still the sweetest little boy I've ever known!

More later!

Videos of the new walker, with some "talking" included! Funny how he goes in circles in the first one.

More camping!

One of my old moms groups had a camping trip planned forever and I had been looking forward to it. I was disappointed when we were all sick the week before the trip. Tim thinks he got salmonella from the tainted tomatoes and was really sick for a week and decided not to go. Ben and I just had colds and were getting over them, so we headed out on our own to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. There were three other babies there: a girl 3 months younger than Ben, a girl one month older, and a boy 3 days older than Ben. They are all walking, of course, and talking some. It was so neat to watch all these little people. The weekend was very nice. Ben seemed supremely happy and nobody could believe that he whines so much at home. He did great on the drive and we had a fun time together.

I like walking holding his hand. Like moving from breast milk to baby food and then being so excited that Ben can eat whatever we eat for dinner, it seems like such a big step for Ben to hold my hand and walk places instead being carried (and there is a big difference between holding both of his hands like we've done for months, and walking alongside him holding only one hand.)

More later!

New words

Benny has a new word: Car, pronounced "Ga." He points to real cars and toy cars and says "Ga" and it took me a while to figure out he was saying "car." He might also be saying "please" but we'll have to listen a little more to make sure of that. Cars are his new favorite toy. How boyish - balls and cars!

Headline: Benny sleeps through the night!

Let it go on the history books:
On June 13, 2008, at the age of 17 months and 6 days, Benjamin Luc Waggoner slept through the night. He slept from 9:00 pm until 7:00 without waking (or at least we didn't hear him).

Is this the start of something good, or just a fluke??