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!

Good clean fun

Hoses aren't just for watering plants.
Or for drinking out of.
They're also for seeing how high you can make the water spray up into the sky...
Getting your shirt all soaking wet...
Turning on ("Water turned on, Mommy")...
And turning off ("Water turned off, Mommy")...
Washing trikes...
Watching Daddy take a drink...
Washing off the steps...
And spraying toys down the walk way...
*Colin's new studly hair cut is courtesy of Mandy. She's the only one he trusts with his hair.

What C's been up to

Today was the big birthday bash, but I'll write more about that tomorrow. First, I'd like to share a few more happenings in the haus.

We bought Colin a potty chair. Last weekend, he squatted and grunted and I knew he was pooping. When he was finished, I asked him if he needed a new diaper. He walked over to me and pointed towards the hallway to go to his bedroom to change his diaper. So...without any pressure on him whatsoever, we're going to try...on the weekends only...to catch him in the act and see if we can get him to do his 8 a.m. poop on his potty chair. So far, no luck. He's being sneaky about it.
Here he is testing it out (uhhh....backwards. We'll work on that one):
And here he is in his diaper chillin' while mommy's watching his every move like a villain, waiting for that magical moment. The toy he's holding is a remote control. So he's a little man in his skivvies, baseball hat, and remote in hand:

And Colin got out all of the mops and brooms and decided to clean the floors for me.

Little man had a strange hairdo going on. It was all fuzzy in the back, with some long mullet-ish hairs growing down his nape. Constant bedhead. I didn't mind the long front hairs so much, but if you cut the back, the front has to go too. So we got out the clippers. He actually did a great job getting his hair cut!
During:

After:
I'd like to find a clipper attachment that is longer. I feel like he just got his head shaved to join the Army or something. And no, he didn't magically get a few birthmarks. On Thursday night, Colin fell on the sidewalk and scraped up his forehead. He only cried for a minute while I rushed him into the house, covering his head with kisses the whole way. I popped his nuk in his mouth and he was fine after that. But you know I freaked out and immediately thought he for SURE had a concussion.

Tonight before bed, I rocked my baby for the last time. Tomorrow, he'll wake up and be a toddler. A toddler who still likes to be rocked before bed.

365 days ago this very moment, I was going to bed not knowing how my life was about to change within a span of 8 hours.