Ben: 17 months

A long awaited Ben update!!!
Benny is 17 months old now. Already! He's saying a bunch of words like:
ball (bah)
toys (/t/)
car (gah)
bubbles (buhbuh)
light (ight)
bowl (bo)
deer (dee)
on
up
please (signs it)
eat/drink (signs it by pointing to his cheek)
ick (/ccckkk/)
done (signs it by waving his hand)
hi
hello
bye bye
dada
mama

He's constantly in the fridge looking for snacks. He takes after his brother in that aspect.

Ben is Colin's little buddy. They get along pretty well. Of course there's a squabble here and there, but for the most part they play very well together. Oh...except for when Ben doesn't get his way and bites Colin. Yep, Ben is a biter if he's having a bad day.

He has proven to be a water baby. He loves taking a bath and lying on his belly in the tub, getting bubbles all over himself and kicking and rolling around. I'm excited to take him swimming this summer to see how he likes the water this year. Last year he was pretty chill in his floating chair. I'm sure this summer will be much different!

Ben's sleeping through the night pretty well now that his 2 month long ear infection is over. It's such a nice change. He's a great (but flexible) sleeper. I can lay him down in his bed at nap time and after he fusses for about 15 seconds, he'll go right to sleep. He still nurses at night for about 10 minutes and then he gets a book and takes it to Kevin and they rock and read.

He gets a lot of compliments when we're out and about how cute he is. Must be his little man walk or his squishy cheeks and belly or his little smile. I'm not sure what it is, but we'll take it!

He got a haircut this month. No more mop top. I loved his curls but his hair was getting a little out of control so I cut it.

This month was also punctuated with the fact that he almost impaled his eyeball with a low-sitting branch on a bush. It's so scary to think it could have been much, much worse.

He still hasn't gained much weight. He's still 32 lbs and some change. He's gotten a bit taller and his belly doesn't hang over his pants anymore. He's toning up with all of the moving he does :) He does like to be chased, with his hands behind his back protecting his sides from being tickled.

Ben LOVES art. He loves to color and loves to play with Play-Doh.

I love (most) ages we've gone through, but Ben's age is so fun because he's so busy, he's learning words, and learning how to be more independent. We shall see what this month brings. It'll be fun, I'm sure!

Colin's birthday

I have a 4 year old. Can you believe it? This little man will be going to preschool in 4 months! How did that happen!?!

Colin had a great birthday. We got him a bigger bike (16") for his big day. Not that he could ride it because there was snow outside (ugh). Now that we've had a week without snow, he was able to put some miles on it though. It's a tad big, and since it doesn't have training wheels, either Kevin or I have to hold onto it while he hops on. Then he cruises off, and he's getting the hang of his dismount now. I love watching him ride his bike.

 The day after his birthday was a Friday and Kevin and I took the day off of work to spend the day with the boys. Colin wanted to go to Skyzone, an indoor trampoline park. We had a lot of fun. It was Kevin's first time, and Colin had fun showing him everything. His favorite is definitely the foam pit :) After getting some energy out, we had lunch at McDonald's.

On Saturday, we had the big birthday bash. Colin chose a Jake and the Neverland Pirates party.

My coworker made the cake. I made the sail, and the figurines were from the store.

He got a great variety of presents. Games, building toys, some artsy gifts, etc. The day after his party he spent a bit of time playing with each of his presents.

 Always entertained by a singing card...

 

Happy birthday Bud! We hope you had a great day. We look forward to what 4 is going to bring us. We're sure you'll continue to keep us on our toes and amaze us every day with your creativity and imagination!