Ben: 15 months

Holy moly. The biggest "new" thing that Ben does is communicate more. You've seen my lists. I love documenting first words/signs. It's fun to see what's most important in a little life. Like...

Words: Mama, Didi (daddy), mopmopmop (mop), ball,  there/this/that, uh oh, hello, hi, and "baa" = what a sheep says.
Signs: nodding head for yes, shaking head for no, waving goodbye, milk, daddy,
"please"

"water"

He gets into a bit of mischief, too. He's always opening the refrigerator and getting clementines, pears, hot dogs...whatever he can find. He knows how to get the step stool and set it next to the couch to climb up on it, he climbs on it and turns the light switches on and off, and tries to reach things he shouldn't be reaching. It's tough keeping up with him. :)

Benny is drinking out of one of the Tupperware cups with the sippy spout really well. He also has is own Camelbak for water just like big brother. He's working on his last 1 year molar. The others came through the last few weeks.

Ben LOVES to color.

 

and brush is hair 

 teeth.

He weighs 32.4 lbs, so he hasn't gained weight in a few months. He has a pediatrician appointment next Friday.

Ben is still nursing. Mostly in the morning when he wakes up, and before he goes to bed, sometimes when we get home from daycare, and sometimes once at night too. When he nurses he signs "milk please" over and over. :) I do refuse to nurse him at times now and distract him instead. He's usually okay with that. I love nursing, and I want to follow his lead to wean, but I would also like to be done by May or June.

Please forgive me for future posts that document more words. :)

Words, Signs, and Andectodal Accounts

Just thought I'd jot down a few words and signs Ben does/says for my own record. It's so fun to see him acquiring language :)
Words:
Uh-oh
Mama
Hi
Bye
"Duh"-This/that/there
Didi (Daddy)

Signs:
Milk
More
Please
Ball--just learning this one
All done--sometimes
No (shakes his head)
Yes (nods his head)
Daddy--as of today!
Waves his hand for hi and bye
 *We're currently working on help, book, and thank you

It's also quite fun to see his relationship with Colin growing. They're becoming buddies, which I love. This evening, Colin told Ben to sit in the laundry basket, so (with help) Ben got in. Colin took his claw grabber toy and closed it around the laundry basket handle and pulled Ben around the house. When Colin decided he was done playing, Ben climbed out, found the claw grabber, put it in the basket, climbed into the basket, handed the grabber to me, and signed "more please." So silly.

Ben: 1 year (including birthday party)

Ben is one year old now!

 

He is all over the place these days. He can walk pretty quickly and navigate backwards, turn, etc. He loves to play with a toy broom and mop set that Sandy gave him for his birthday. The day she gave it to him, he didn't let go of them. He passed out in the corner with the broom in his hand. At nap time, he lay down with the broom. Sandy tried to move it out of the way and he woke up screaming at her. So strange! :)

His favorite food is still meat. When he wants a snack, he opens the cupboard and I ask him what he wants. I show him a box/package and he either shakes his head "no" or grabs it from me if he wants it.

I feel like he has a great comprehension for being so little. At night time, we ask him if he wants to take a bath and he walks to the bathroom door. We open it and he tries to climb into the tub fully clothed. He loves taking a bath and splashes himself and has a grand ol' time in the water.

He likes to take his shirt off a lot too. He walks up to me, flapping his shirt up and down as if to say, "take this off for me!" and then when I do he's happy as can be. Look at that belly.

As far as numbers go, Ben has 4 teeth on the top and 2 teeth on the bottom. He weighs an estimated 33 lbs and wears 3T size shirts and 24m/2T size pants. His shoe size is a 7. He only takes 1 2 hr nap a day (he dropped the morning nap soon after starting daycare this fall).

Ben doesn't say many words yet. He says, "na na na..." for milk. He points and says, "na" and that means "take me over there" or "I want that." He was singing "more" but he doesn't really anymore, even though we sign it to him. He has said "mama" but not recently. Typical second child late talker. He makes a lot of noise though, and expresses his emotions through talking, screaming, etc.

Ben's birthday party

We had a birthday party for him on the 8th. Family came over and we had fun celebrating Ben's first year. I didn't pause to take a picture of my awesome birthday banner I made :( We kept it simple, like I usually do. We had pulled pork/beef sandwiches, chips, and a mixed fruit salad. I made cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting.

As eager as he looks to dive into his cupcake in this picture...

he didn't even have a bite of it. Instead, he shook his head "no."

He had help opening presents from big brother.

We asked for some Little People toys since they're so well-loved and we didn't have many.

After most of his guests had left or were on their way out the door, Ben started lying on the floor. It was perfect timing to end the party and take a nap.

Thanks for everyone who made Benny's birthday special. He felt very loved and likes playing with his new toys.

10 months old on 10/10!

Happy Golden Monthday, Ben!

(picture up soon)

Benny is a busy boy! He's learning things left and right, which is so fun to witness, even the second time around.

Ben can sign "more" while he's eating (and "more" and "more" and "more".....). He might also be signing milk. The sign for it is squeezing your hand like you're milking a cow. When I say milk and if he wants some, he waves his hand up and down. He eats pretty much everything except peanut butter. Sandy gave him strawberries this week, which I secretly raised an eyebrow to, but he didn't seem to have a reaction towards them. We're loving the Baby Lead Weaning Method, and so does he. He loves to feed himself, and goes to town on things like chicken, hamburger, broccoli, sweet potato fries, green beans, waffles/pancakes, scrambled eggs, etc. etc. etc. He even likes green peppers!

His repetitive babble is becoming more meaningful. I swear he said "ni ni da da" (night night Dadda) the other night. He also says "dadadada," "mamamama" and "non non non," which may mean either milk or night time because I feel like he only says it when we're sitting in the chair getting ready to rock and nurse.

Ben has mastered cruising around furniture. How he's walking either on his knees or feet pushing objects or toys around. He can even stand on his own for a few seconds. I'd love it if he'd hold off on the walking for another month :)

His first top tooth cut through today. He's been doing okay with teething, even though his gums are so swollen and sore looking. His teething necklace seems to do a pretty good job of keeping him in a good mood. Aside from being a little more clingy at times, he's tolerating it well.

We're working on getting Ben to sleep through the night. I haven't nursed him in the middle of the night for a week now. Oh, except for last night when he had already been awake for an hour and a half and his teeth were bothering him, he had already been re-medicated with ibuprofen and got a swipe of Orajel. What he really needed was good old fashioned Mama comfort. It was poor timing to do start the crying-it-out right now, but we didn't know his teeth were on the move when we started. Hopefully when they're through he'll start sleeping all night long.

I better start thinking about his 1st birthday! Holy smokes, I can't believe it's just around the corner.

Paci and Potty

We have officially gotten rid of the pacifier! ::insert happy dance here:: We followed the Bye-Bye-Binky method, and within 5 days, the pacifier was down to a 1/2 inch stub. Colin got very frustrated at it and kept signing "help" and kept trying to pull it out more. Then we got the scissors out and asked him if he wanted it cut off, and he said yes. Then there was nothing left except the plastic part. He got really mad then. And he didn't sleep well AT ALL for about 2 or 3 nights. He had grown accustomed to falling asleep without his nukie, but for those first few nights he kept waking up every hour or two wanting it. It's a lot easier to not give in when there's nothing to give :)

I'm telling you people, the change is awesome. When the pacifier was in-use during the wee hours, he'd want to read books and rock for awhile before bed (not that I hated that part! I loved that time we spent together). Now that it's gone, after he gets his pajamas on, he runs out into the hallway to yell, "DADA! Na-nye!" Then he tries to crawl into his crib while he waits for Kevin to comes into his room. Colin gives us each hugs and kisses, and lies down in his crib, gets covered up with his blanket, and says, "bye bye" to us. How freakin' easy is that? And now when he wakes up, it's because one of his teeth is busting through. After a little bit of orajel, he goes right back to sleep.

Colin has been spending an hour every night in underwear for the past few weeks. Over the weekend, Colin wore his training pants for a few hours in the morning and evening. He peed on his potty about 10 times, and pooped once or twice too! He doesn't quite have the foresight set to tell us if he needs to go yet, so he needs to be reminded, but usually he'll go every hour or so. He also knows when he doesn't have to go. I gave Sandy the go-ahead to try it at daycare, and it didn't work out so well. She wants him to wear pants there, otherwise all the other kids want to prance around sans pants, and that's just not going to work. He'll sit on her potty for 10-15 minutes but won't do anything. So we're waiting until he feels comfortable going potty there before we send underwear again. Colin knows how to say "pee," "poop," and "potty" now, and sometimes he tries to pull up his underwear/pants. If he's not trained by Christmas break, my plan is to hit it hard then as much as I can and hopefully start off 2011 with no diaper laundry!

These make me smile

This one because when I say, "Colin, say cheese!" he rubs his hands together because that's how you say cheese in sign language.
This one because he's trying to balance an acorn cap on his shoe. (This was taken at "Justin and Jen's" cabin in Spooner--really it's Jen's family's cabin. Those of you who remember Olivia from our wedding, that's her. She's 7. !!!)
This one because I like to think I have photog (and editing) skillz. The rest of these were taken at Kevin's cousin's wedding reception yesterday. Photog note: That grass in the lower left bothers me, but for proportion reasons set up by iPhoto that I'm not going to screw up, I am forced to leave it there.
This one because it's funny.
This one because he's making a typical face.
This one because it's his first taste of an orange float (Stewart's Orange Soda and ice cream. YUM.)
This one because when you share a float, you have to remember it for always by taking a picture.

This one because it's a post-float silly face

Happy 16 monthday!

You can now sign about 15 words. Your newest ones include:
truck, baby, fish, eat, play, cheese, apple, help, please, thank you, and we're working on sleep. You're putting words together into short phrases too.

Your new favorite words and phrases are:
There it/he is!, That way, ooooooh, mail, teeth, buckle, cheese, bye, and Rocket

(He was pointing to a semi trailer the neighbors had parked in their driveway. And excuse the random "hello!" which was directed at said neighbor)

You are sprouting some molars! You threw quite a tantrum on Monday morning, and mommy got a little peek inside your mouth and found out that two of your upper molars had already poked through. I guess you're skipping those lateral incisors and heading right for the big dogs.

You have decided you'd like to take a break from potty training. It's not as exciting anymore, and sometimes it can be hard to poop at the same time every day. We'll try again in another month or so.

Now you only take one nap from 12-2ish. We tried really hard to get you on this napping schedule so you'll have a smoother transition when you start going to Sandy's in a few weeks. Having this set schedule makes naptime so much easier for you to just close your eyes and fall asleep.

You're a little more brave with dirt now. You've found that sand and dirt can maybe even be fun to smush in your hands. You can always wash them off when you're done playing! But you do still like to clean and organize.

You love trucks. You love to see them on the highway, you love to see the construction equipment digging a big hole down the street, you love to push your toy trucks, you love to make truck sounds, and you know what a truck says (chhh!). You're happy to see trucks you can climb into at parks.


I'm so glad I got to spend a lot of time with you this summer, little man. We sure did learn a lot about each other, didn't we? I fall more in love with you each and every day.

Love, Mommy

Milk

Does a mommy and baby good!