Ben playing with his friend Sam. :)

Got to got to got to

I've GOT to write down some of the cute things Ben is saying and doing lately. I was telling Michael yesterday that I should really keep the camcorder trained on him all the time. I just can't keep ahead of the cute!

• He's saying "yes, please!" and "thank you" pretty consistently now for most things he asks for and gets. Sometimes he says it on his own and doesn't have to be reminded! This morning I coughed and he said "bless you"! Manners on a toddler = dying of cuteness
• He's finally developed an ensemble of stuffed animals that he needs to sleep with, consisting of Froggie, Monkey, T'Bear (teddy bear) and Duckie. He will do a mental tally when he's put in bed at night and ask for anyone who's missing with a very sad, suspicious tone. One time Michael tried to tell him we didn't know where Monkey was, and he shook his head and made a low, disappointed sound. Sometimes when he is put in bed he will say, "All done rocking?" and if told yes, will say, "T'bear needs rocking."
• The other day after breakfast he asked for "cake AND pie?" When I told him we didn't have either one, he said, "Go buy some?"
• When I ask if he loves me, he'll say, "I love Mommy AND Daddy AND Grandma AND Grandpa." He calls both Grandmas the same thing, so we assume he means both. :)
• Though he didn't say much to them while they were here (and they were here for just an hour or so), he was really intrigued with Michael's friends Kevin and Josh. He loves to identify them in photos and speculate about what they're doing.
• As you can probably tell, he likes the word "AND" and tries to use it to his advantage. For example: "Would you like a banana, Ben?" "A banana AND juice? OK!"
• His grandparents are on his mind often now, and he constantly asks about them and when he'll see them again. Though he asks to talk to them on the phone and loves to listen to them, he doesn't say much once the phone is passed to him.
• He's known his numbers and counting order for a while now, but is just now seeming to enjoy just counting for its own sake, without looking at the numbers, too. For some reason, he starts to whisper when he gets to the teens.
• He helpfully reminds me that we need to go shopping soon, or clean up soon, and points out trash I should pick up.
• He still loves Sesame Street best of all, but he doesn't like the Elmo part. When it gets to Elmo's World, he usually asks if he can watch "Sabat" (I don't know why he calls it that) again ... he seems to think the Elmo part is a different show. Privately I kind of agree with him ... I like old school Sesame Street! I've tried to expose him to a few other good children's shows, including "Word World" (which I thought he'd love because it's all about letters). The only one he really wants to watch is Sesame Street, but he'll condescend to watch Curious George.
• He LOVES his They Might Be Giants children's DVDs (Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s). He might actually like them more than Sesame Street. He asks for them by asking for ABCs or 123s.
• His favorite restaurant is Chipotle. He loves beans and rice, guacamole, salsa, barbacoa and carnitas. He asks for "chips and guac" and doesn't want any type of chip unless he can have salsa too (which he calls "sauce.") Sometimes he will eat the salsa by itself! He also LOVES cherry tomatoes (which he calls mayos) and broccoli. He will regularly ask for more of these vegetables instead of his usual fruit dessert.
• Though still basically cautious, he's getting a lot more adventurous at the playground, and recently climbed the fake rock wall at our local park.
• He's had several successful potty chair incidents, but we are still in diapers and not really training hard-core. He likes to play with his Legos or his clock while sitting on the chair. He often tells me before he needs to poop.
• He asks for hugs sometimes when he doesn't like the way something is going. Often he kind of yells it: "Hug! Hug!" and then he wants to hug endlessly instead of getting into his highchair, or whatever he doesn't want to do. I like this much better than the screaming he was doing for a few weeks when he didn't want to do something. When we put him in his crib at night, he says, "Big hug?" in a very quiet, very sad voice.

This is the "rock wall" he climbed as we watched in terror:


Did somebody say my name?


Swinging


He seems to be the only one concerned that the animals' heads and bodies match.


The big slide!

ABCs: cuter than ever

Have you ever heard anyone recite their ABCs more adorably?

What happens when you skip a nap

This is several months old. Poor Benny! Such annoying parents. It was too cute and we couldn't help ourselves.

Ben-isms

We had Ben's 2nd birthday party this last weekend, and I've been too busy to post pictures, so for now I'll post the quiz we had for guests at the party. It lists Ben's unique pronunciations of words, and you're supposed to guess what you think he might be saying. Feel free to take a crack at it; if you do as well as my mom did, I'll send you the same prize I gave her!

Already two things I forgot!

• Holding his foot out and saying, "Again?" when he wants me to do the "this little piggy" thing
• Taking my toes one by one and saying "piggy, piggy, piggy ..."

Fear of forgetting

I haven't really kept a Ben journal per se, but I think I've been pretty good about keeping track of most of the cute and unique things Ben has done. But these days he's just gotten so cute that I can't keep up! I've asked him to slow down, but he won't. I know this is not a complete list, but I've got to write some of these down before I forget, because he's already stopped doing some of them:

• Saying, "Hi, hi, hi!" in an increasingly agitated tone when he wants more attention, or he's just been forbidden to do something he wants to do. Answering "hi" and giving him a hug usually helps.
• Saying the name of the opposite parent in a questioning tone when one of us has told him to get down, stop touching that, or any number of things. Usually, the other parent has to confirm that he really has to do what has been asked.
• Saying, "Hug? Hug? Hug?" when he wants — you guessed it — a hug.
• Saying, "'KAY!" instead of "yes." Example: Would you like some juice, Ben? "'KAY!" (Also, nods usually accompany this.)
• Saying, "Hot?" when he doesn't like the taste of something. He said it recently when we gave him some chocolate milk, which he has never liked (even though we keep trying, since it's an important part of childhood). He also says "Hot?" when he approaches the kitchen when I'm cooking, or when he gets near the heating stove at my parents' house.
• Saying "Daddy go?" or "Daddy?" approximately 1 billion times if Daddy had to leave for work before Ben got up.
• Frantically making the sign for "eat" (which is putting your fingers to your lips) when he's hungry, to the extent that he's pretty much punching himself in the mouth. Also, making close-lipped whining sounds while he does this and occasionally stopping to reiterate: "Hungry! Eat!!!"
• Saying "Ben? Cake?" when he approaches the computer (he loves to watch a video of himself eating cake at his first birthday party).
• Playing enthusiastically with everyone's socks and shoes and saying the words "socks" and "shoes" over and over.
  
• Remembering specifics of stories. The other day I pointed out a seal in one of his books and he said "circus seal."
• Learning to combine descriptors, like identifying a number AND the color it's written in AND the shape it appears on.
  

I know there are many more, but that's all I can think of for now. A cute thing he was doing for awhile that he's long since stopped is approaching us with a book and nodding, as if to say, "Yes, I would like you to read me this book." Now that he can ask specifically for a book and pretend to read it to himself, he doesn't do that anymore. :(

Here's the video Ben loves:

Ben is my valentine

An Impression

Here's my impression of Ben whenever he has to get into his highchair or carseat and I have to take his book away for a minute:

"Book? Book? Uh oh, book? Uh oh! Uh oh! Book? Pees? Book? Book, pees? Uh oh, BOOK! BOOK! BOOK!"

Here's a picture of Ben caught reading during a diaper change around a year ago:

Dum-ba, and other fun facts

So, I've been really bad about updating. It's not because nothing new has been happening. In fact, something really exciting is happening! Ben is really starting to recognize letters and numbers! For some reason, fellow parents hadn't warned me about how exciting this milestone would be.

It started with the letters I and J, and then moved on to the number 6, and it's just exploded from there. And then ... and then ... we moved to the magical letter Dum-ba. What is Dum-ba, you ask? That's just what we asked ourselves as we failed to notice that Ben was usually pointing to a letter when he said it. Finally, after weeks of frustration for Ben (we guess), I realized once that he was pointing at a "W" on my shirt at the same time that he said it. W! Dum-ba! For some reason, I just can't recover from how cute his pronunciation is!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had it at my house this year, and my parents, grandmother, mother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, two nieces and nephew came. Who knew that Ben would laugh hysterically when his cousin taught him how to spike a football? Not me. I probably wouldn't even have known how to show him! He had a great time hanging out with everyone and feeling thankful, and so did we.

I'll leave you with a photo of my sister-in-law futilely trying to teach Ben how to blow bubbles (she said he usually just ended up putting the wand in his mouth):

Nicknames

I realized when I started calling Ben "Ponzu Sauce" this morning that yet another nickname for him had been created. There's really no way to trace the mysterious evolution of Ben's nicknames, but I have tried to keep a somewhat accurate record of them. Here are some he's had over the months:

Benyard (kind of pronounced like "Leonard")
Professor Chaos
Wombat
Smenjamin
Been Jammin'
Sweet Pea (what my parents called me)
Boo Bear Bear/Boo Boo Face/Boo Boo/Boo Boo Buddy (Michael would sometimes say, "I think I hear the call of the North American Boo Boo Bear" when he heard Ben fussing)
Cuckoo/Cuckoo Clock/Cuckoo Buddy/Cuckoo Head
PuPu Platter (like the Chinese appetizer)
Pistachio Pudding Cup
Susan Sauce (no idea on this one)
Cinnamon Applesauce
Pekinese/Pekinese from the Pokonos (he's only referred to this way when he wakes up crying in the middle of the night, which is rare)
Petunia Patch
Pumpkin Pie

I know there must be tons more, but I stopped keeping track at a year. Only a very special baby could inspire this many crazy nicknames!

P.S. Despite all the food-inspired nicknames, I've never actually considered nibbling on Ben (though he IS a very delicious baby).

What I found on my camera ...

I found some old photos on a camera we don't use as often this morning. Here are the highlights:


Ben bumped his head (note huge red area) around naptime and required prolonged holding afterward, then fell asleep and didn't wake up when I put him down in our bedroom (highly unusual behavior for him). Can you guess which pillow is mine and which is Michael's?


A great picture of my dad and Ben at Dad's pinning ceremony in August. He was graduating from nursing school (note crisp white scrubs) and we were all very proud!

Before I forget ...

I keep forgetting to mention some new words that Ben has been using lately. He's always loved our big analog clock in the living room, and just these past few days he's been walking around pointing at it and kind of chanting, "Clock, clock. Clock, clock." He always says it twice in a row! He says the L sound really emphatically. He's also been saying shoe, sock, snack and a few other S words.

For a long time when we would try to get him to say Ben, he would just emphatically thunk himself on the chest over and over as if to say I'M HEEEERE!! But lately when we ask where he is he pats himself on the chest and says "Bean." Impossibly cute.

Also, I thought he had a fever the other day and asked him if he felt warm. He felt his own forehead for me and then shook his head no. :)

I like swinging moderately well

Ben likes swinging, but he's too cool to be all "Yay!! Wheee!" about it.

Hope he will wear his hat!

Ben tried on his Halloween costume today, and I really wanted to get a photo, but I'm assuming we'll have plenty of chances tomorrow. We're going to Boo at the Zoo at the Dallas Zoo with our friends and their sons. The kids are supposed to wear their costumes at least part of the time; not sure how that will go with Ben.

I really, really played up how great Ben looked in his costume and clapped and clapped and put the hat on all of us (including the dog) so Ben would be really excited about it. Once the dog had worn it he could not get enough of it and kept wanting to look in the mirror. He really looks adorable wearing all of the parts so I hope he can hang onto his enthusiasm!

We also went to the Huffhines Art Trails today at the recreation center where I used to teach dog obedience. They had lots of cute trinkets and stuff for sale and I was wishing we had invited our moms to go, too. Mom, they had tons of Christmas stuff! We stopped off at the playground for Ben. He loves to lounge at the bottom of slides and s-l-o-w-l-y explore at the tops of the structures, and the bigger kids just whiz right past him. Luckily, no one has actually shoved him aside yet! It's a scary age: he can almost play safely on the playground equipment, and he's definitely interested in it, but we still have to be right there in case he slips!