Ben: 14 months

Happy monthday Benny!

Ben is getting to be more like a little boy now. His personality shines through more and more every day. Here's what he's up to these days:

Words:
Ben can sign: "more" and "milk," and we've caught glimpses of "all done." Actually, the "milk" and "more" signs he uses universally when he wants something. We're working on "help" now.

Ben can say: "Mama," "Hiiiii," often says "baba" (brother?) when talking about Colin, "da" (there/this/that), and "uh oh." He mimics a few other sounds like for "woof"...he says "f" and for "buzz" he says "sss."

Other smart tricks:
Sometimes when I ask him where his belly is, he lifts his shirt up. When I ask him where his nose is, he puts his hand to his nose and blows (sometimes when he does this, he blows snot all over his hand and then wipes it all over his face, which is disgusting). When I ask him where his hands are, he claps them.

Favorite things:
His blankie that Auntie Stephie made him
Opening the refrigerator and taking something out of the door (usually salad dressing).
Playing/lying on Colin's bed
Reading books (Ten Little Ladybugs is a favorite)
Playing outside, even though he falls down quite frequently in his winter gear.
Playing with cleaning objects--brooms, vacuums, mops, shovels. Adult-sized, please. No small versions allowed.
Food! Anything, really. He ate 2 clementines yesterday. He still likes meat a lot, but he also likes veggies and fruit. He wants to eat fresh pears, apples, and carrots so badly but they're usually too hard for him so he gets upset when I tell him he can't have them.
Being chased around the basement with the corn popper toy
Climbing on top of things
Tackling other people
Coloring
Dumping multiple puzzles all over the floor at a time (ugh)
Throwing balls

Things I love:
When we're cleaning up toys, Ben helps too! He'll even put his clothes down the laundry chute.

When it's his bedtime, I tell him to give Daddy and big brother hugs, and he gives them the sweetest, most genuine hugs.

When I pick him up from daycare, he runs to me, arms open, says "Hiiiii" with the biggest smile, wraps his arms around my legs and squeezes them with his hands a couple of times.

Other hapbenings:
Ben still nurses, but it's usually only before/after nap/bedtime. He goes down for a nap without me or a bottle just fine, though. In fact, he hasn't had a bottle since before Christmas. I packed them away. I'm done pumping at work, too. So now I'm just taking his cues on when he wants to be done with nursing. I have a feeling he'll drop the "wake up" morning nursing session soon, because he's okay not nursing when he wakes up from his nap.

He has 8 teeth and he's working on his molars. His gums are so swollen, and you can see a white bump under his gums in at least 2 places where future molars will be. Poor guy. Hopefully they'll poke through soon.

He's usually tired at about 7:15, so he nurses and goes to sleep. Right now he's waking up once a night for a quick application of orajel. Sometimes he wakes up a little later and I nurse him for a few minutes (because I feel bad about his poor teeth) and he goes back to sleep. We wake him up for the day at 6:30. On weekends he sleeps until 7:00.

Ben can climb up and down stairs too!

Kevin asked me today when Colin started talking. I told him that 18 months is usually the month that words start coming from every direction. It's unbelievable that we're only 4 months away from that!

Oh Benny, how I love watching you become a little boy every day.