- 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.
Did somebody say my name?
Swinging
He seems to be the only one concerned that the animals' heads and bodies match.
The big slide!
