I've always loved 18-month-olds and of course I love Benny most of all! A million times a day I say "You are so sweet!" "You are so smart!"
On Sunday I was doing something in the kitchen and he opened the dishwasher and unloaded every piece of silverware and put it in the silverware drawer! I guess he has seen us do that, but I didn't ask him to do it or instruct him. He also picks up any piece of clothing, etc. he sees around the house and takes it to the dirty laundry basket.
This morning Tim said he was going to go to the model train store to get something to make his childhood train set work. I said something like "Oh boy!" and Ben looked back and forth between us with such a delighted, excited expression on his face. It seemed like he understood what we were saying and was super excited about building a train set.
This weekend Ben looked out the living room window and saw that Flynn was on top of the fence, ready to jump. Ben yelled to him "Woo dah bah bwah na!" or something similar and he meant "Flynn! No jumping! Get back in the yard!"
Benny is still waking up one or two times a night most nights. He usually wakes up at 5:00 or 6:00 am and stays awake for an hour but but lounges in bed with me while I doze. If he goes back to sleep after that hour, he has actually started to sleep late. On Tuesday morning, we slept until 9:45!! Unfortunately, when I got home from work at 9:45 pm, he was still up.
He's learning other ways to tell us he wants us to play with him, read to him, and come with him. Besides patting the surface next to him, he pulls and pushes at us and moves his hand to say "come this way."
I almost wish he would stay at this age. He's soooooooooooooooooo sweet!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
More catching up
I'm so sorry to be neglecting Ben's blog! More little things to report:
- Ben wouldn't really let the audiologist finish her tests because he didn't want things stuck in his ears. But she said he seemed fine from what she did accomplish.
- If I ask Ben if he can say Mommy, he says Mum, and if I ask him if he can say Daddy he says Da. Of course he'll also say Ba and Ga (ball and car), and I asked him to say A and B and he did pretty well. He won't say C yet. I think if I spent more time with him and if we worked more with him, he'd know more words. He has to be in the right mood, of course.
- I taught him to nod to say yes one night and the next morning I asked him if he wanted cereal for breakfast and he nodded!
- He can pick up and carry two small balls in one hand. That seems like a difficult task to me.
- Ben was very excited to see a fruit bouquet in Kansas City. Joyce and Marybelle brought it and it was yummy. The bouquet stayed upstairs on a low table where Ben could almost reach, and he must have made 12 trips from the kitchen with a piece of fruit, down the stairs and into the living room to enjoy the fruit with the people sitting down there, and then back up to get another piece. It's so cute the way he turns around to go down the stairs several feet before the start of the stairs.
- When he saw Grammy Pat in Kansas City, he acted a little shy and then started showing off for her, walking funny and looking at her through his legs.
- I take Ben out of the car in the mornings at Rebecca's house and we walk hand-in-hand up the driveway while he carries his lunchbox. When I go pick him up, he carries his lunchbox to the car. Such a sweet, big boy sight!
- If I ask him to turn, he turns around, and if I ask him to squat, he squats and if I ask him if he can jump, he squats again (the first part of jumping). If he's in the mood and I ask for a hug or a kiss, he'll come over and give me some. If we ask him to go water the garden, he goes outside and picks up the hose. Unfortunately, he's come to enjoy watering the concrete much more than the plants.
- He learned to pat the chair or floor next to him to mean "come sit here next to me." He sits down with a book and pats the floor to indicate he wants me to sit and read it to him. I'm delighted to see him ask to be read to. We went to visit my coworker's new baby and Ben "said" he wanted the baby to come sit next to him. How sweet!
- His favorite thing at the playground is letting his cars drive down the slides. I think it is pretty fun too. This weekend at the playground we met a 2-yr-old boy named Karsten (a name I really considered for Ben), and tonight we met a 2-yr-old boy named Soren. A Scandinavian theme this week!
- Since Flynn can't get any attention from us, he's settled for attention from Ben. Every morning when Flynn is extra desperate, he and Ben have a wrestling match on the bed, Ben trying to give him full-body hugs and Flynn simultaneously enjoying it and trying to get away from him.
- We went to a BBQ with some moms from one of my old moms groups, and there were about 7 kids Benny's age. They don't necessarily play together, but they do seem to enjoy each other's company and it is so neat to see them all together.
I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it now and need to head to bed. I can't wait to see sweet, sweet Benny in the morning!
- Ben wouldn't really let the audiologist finish her tests because he didn't want things stuck in his ears. But she said he seemed fine from what she did accomplish.
- If I ask Ben if he can say Mommy, he says Mum, and if I ask him if he can say Daddy he says Da. Of course he'll also say Ba and Ga (ball and car), and I asked him to say A and B and he did pretty well. He won't say C yet. I think if I spent more time with him and if we worked more with him, he'd know more words. He has to be in the right mood, of course.
- I taught him to nod to say yes one night and the next morning I asked him if he wanted cereal for breakfast and he nodded!
- He can pick up and carry two small balls in one hand. That seems like a difficult task to me.
- Ben was very excited to see a fruit bouquet in Kansas City. Joyce and Marybelle brought it and it was yummy. The bouquet stayed upstairs on a low table where Ben could almost reach, and he must have made 12 trips from the kitchen with a piece of fruit, down the stairs and into the living room to enjoy the fruit with the people sitting down there, and then back up to get another piece. It's so cute the way he turns around to go down the stairs several feet before the start of the stairs.
- When he saw Grammy Pat in Kansas City, he acted a little shy and then started showing off for her, walking funny and looking at her through his legs.
- I take Ben out of the car in the mornings at Rebecca's house and we walk hand-in-hand up the driveway while he carries his lunchbox. When I go pick him up, he carries his lunchbox to the car. Such a sweet, big boy sight!
- If I ask him to turn, he turns around, and if I ask him to squat, he squats and if I ask him if he can jump, he squats again (the first part of jumping). If he's in the mood and I ask for a hug or a kiss, he'll come over and give me some. If we ask him to go water the garden, he goes outside and picks up the hose. Unfortunately, he's come to enjoy watering the concrete much more than the plants.
- He learned to pat the chair or floor next to him to mean "come sit here next to me." He sits down with a book and pats the floor to indicate he wants me to sit and read it to him. I'm delighted to see him ask to be read to. We went to visit my coworker's new baby and Ben "said" he wanted the baby to come sit next to him. How sweet!
- His favorite thing at the playground is letting his cars drive down the slides. I think it is pretty fun too. This weekend at the playground we met a 2-yr-old boy named Karsten (a name I really considered for Ben), and tonight we met a 2-yr-old boy named Soren. A Scandinavian theme this week!
- Since Flynn can't get any attention from us, he's settled for attention from Ben. Every morning when Flynn is extra desperate, he and Ben have a wrestling match on the bed, Ben trying to give him full-body hugs and Flynn simultaneously enjoying it and trying to get away from him.
- We went to a BBQ with some moms from one of my old moms groups, and there were about 7 kids Benny's age. They don't necessarily play together, but they do seem to enjoy each other's company and it is so neat to see them all together.
I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it now and need to head to bed. I can't wait to see sweet, sweet Benny in the morning!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Old news - catching up
Life has been a little too busy lately! Our Montana vacation was wonderful, but life gets so hectic before and after a vacation. Old things, little things I've been meaning to report (and I'm sorry if I repeat myself):
- Ben loves corn on the cob and eats a whole cob by himself!
- Ben loves ketchup and after giving him some dinner with fries and ketchup, we noticed he was dipping his matchbox car in the ketchup and licking it. We had to laugh!
- He understands more each day, and it's amazing to watch. We tell him to go sit in Daddy's chair and he heads right over. We tell him to lay down and go to sleep and he gets down and puts his head down.
- He started to enjoy inventorying his "boo boos" about once a day and one day, he included my boo boos in the inventory. Stress had given me two huge pimples on my face and he pointed to both of them proudly!
- At his 18-month Dr appointment, he barely cried when he got two shots. It bothered Daddy/Tim more than Ben. The developmental test we took also indicated he could be behind verbally, so we have an appointment to see an audiologist to make sure he can hear accurately. We know he can hear and we aren't really worried. If we had taken the developmental test a couple of months earlier, he would have failed almost all of it. He's made huge leaps in the last two months - learning to walk, starting to understand what we're saying, gaining lots of hand control, demonstrating logic, etc.
More later!!
- Ben loves corn on the cob and eats a whole cob by himself!
- Ben loves ketchup and after giving him some dinner with fries and ketchup, we noticed he was dipping his matchbox car in the ketchup and licking it. We had to laugh!
- He understands more each day, and it's amazing to watch. We tell him to go sit in Daddy's chair and he heads right over. We tell him to lay down and go to sleep and he gets down and puts his head down.
- He started to enjoy inventorying his "boo boos" about once a day and one day, he included my boo boos in the inventory. Stress had given me two huge pimples on my face and he pointed to both of them proudly!
- At his 18-month Dr appointment, he barely cried when he got two shots. It bothered Daddy/Tim more than Ben. The developmental test we took also indicated he could be behind verbally, so we have an appointment to see an audiologist to make sure he can hear accurately. We know he can hear and we aren't really worried. If we had taken the developmental test a couple of months earlier, he would have failed almost all of it. He's made huge leaps in the last two months - learning to walk, starting to understand what we're saying, gaining lots of hand control, demonstrating logic, etc.
More later!!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Culture, right?
Tim and I are obsessed with the summer reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance, and unfortunately, it starts before Ben's bedtime. During the winter, most TV shows start after his bedtime, so he isn't exposed to that much adult TV. But during the summer, he sees his parents glued to the TV every Wednesday and Thursday night. He watches with interest sometimes, and we justify it by telling ourselves that there is no violence, and that it is exposing him to culture and peforming arts, right??
Bleck!
Ben says, "Um, zrrbrrts don't work very well on kitties. They don't make any sound and you get a mouthful of fur. :-("
More sign language, etc.
It's so cute when Ben puts down whatever is in his hands to do his "more" sign. Tim also started doing an "I love you" sign (see picture), and Ben would put his hand up like he was saying "stop" but I guess he doesn't have the coordination to get his middle two fingers to bend down. A few times later, he seemed to make up his own sign in reply to Tim's sign. One time he crossed his index and middle finger and the next time he crossed his pinky and ring finger! That seems pretty coordinated. He seems so pleased with himself when he does them. He knows the sign for "milk" and "all done" now.
He skinned his knee again and this time he got a bandaid. His first bandaid!
Last week he threw something really hard and hit me on the forehead. It really hurt and we've been trying to figure out how to explain the difference between throwing balls and throwing other things, as well as throwing things at people. So I made a sad face and tried to explain that he gave me a boo-boo. He was smiling and laughing at first, but then seemed to get that he hurt me and stood up to come hug me. I thought I read that toddlers cannot feel empathy yet, but is sure seemed like he understood that he hurt me and he was sorry.
He babbles nonstop and of course some things will come out sounding like words. Tim said he said "I eat cats" this week. Ha!
He's been so happy and so easy-going, so a tantrum seems strange these days. When we got home yesterday, I guess I inadvertently teased him about going to the playground and he melted down. He pointed to the stroller so I put him in it and strolled up and down the sidewalks, but I didn't realize that being in the stroller meant going to the playground because that's what he and Tim did the day before. He cried woefully for a good 20 minutes, but since I didn't realize what he wanted until he'd been crying for a while, I didn't want to reward the crying by going to the playground at that point (plus it was dinnertime). Poor thing. :-(
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