Using a Fork

Though I am still nervous about Benjamin using forks, he seemed really interested in our forks at dinner last night. So I gave him a Benjamin-sized fork so he could give it a try. He absolutely loved it! He didn't consistently succeed at getting food to his mouth, but he sure had fun trying.

20 Months Old

I can't believe Benjamin has hit the big 2-0! We are so fortunate to have such a healthy, beautiful, sweet little boy. He is so easy going and happy. He is a good kid - well, most of the time - we are starting to get a little sneak peek at the 'terrible twos'. In fact it was this past week where I felt like I needed to give him a time out for the first time, but instead I just held him and gave him a face-to-face warning. We were outside and he was being so impatient with everything and his frustration manifested as many whines and cries if he didn't get his way (i.e. not wanting to hold our hand when crossing the street). However, Benjamin is a wonderful little boy and we love him so much!

Here are some of the neat things that he is doing these days:

-Words he says - bowl, house, mouse, owl, goat, cat, uh oh, bye-bye, bird, nose, head, eyes, nigh-nigh, dog, woof, hoo (for owl), hi there
-He seems to be able to point to anything we ask him to - such as objects in our house, or pictures in his books. It is amazing!
-Likes to help put-on and take-off his clothes
-Loves his Daddy's music. When Steve is listening to his favorite stations on Pandora, Benjamin will come in and start swaying or dancing.
-Seems to know that it is him in the pictures we take. As soon as we take any pictures of him, he comes over to us to look at the pictures on the camera screen. He will give himself a big smile. Sometimes he will look over at the toy that is with him in the picture, and he will point to himself in the picture when we ask 'who is Benjamin?'.
-Has great fine motor skills - easily does puzzles, can pull stickers off their page, puts on both of Steve's gloves
-Seems to know most of his alphabet

He absolutely loves cats - and has four of them (as long as you count his lion, which he definitely does - he knows what we are talking about when we ask him to get his lion, but he will always call it his 'cat' but with a more 'at' sound to it). I had lined up his 'ats' on his ball pit and Benjamin had a great time counting them, pointing to their body parts, or tackling them with him into the ball pit.

Here is a video of Benjamin 'counting' his cats.

Spring is Here!

Thank goodness Spring is arriving, because Benjamin is just itching to go out all the time! He asked to go out a lot during the winter, but now that it has been nice out, he has increased his 'out! out! out!' request to two to three times a day. We of course have been going out every day - we enjoy the weather and we enjoy walking around our neighborhood!

Examining the last traces of snow (well, hopefully the last bit of snow we'll have!)

Yesterday, I had went into our bedroom to say something to Steve and when I came out, Benjamin was walking towards me with one of Steve's gloves on his hand. He had put it on and walked towards us saying 'out!'. Then he walked back to the entryway, grabbed one of Steve's shoes and brought it to him in our bedroom. Next, he went back and got the other shoe. Although Steve was busy with the enormous amount of work he had to do this weekend, he couldn't resist Benjamin's not-so-subtle hint to go outside! By the time Steve and I got ourselves to the entryway, Benjamin had put on both gloves and was trying to put his feet into my shoes.

Bringing shoe #1 to Daddy, while still wearing the one glove

Wearing both gloves, and climbing into Mommy's shoes. This smile was a result of us saying 'say eeeee' (our prompt for him to smile).

Grandma's Birthday

February 26th was Grandma Z's birthday, and Shell, Amie, and Amie's kids came down for the weekend. It was so much fun to watch the kids interact with each other! Benjamin loves Lexi, especially. I was happy to see that Benjamin was okay with me holding Tessa - he seems to like little kids!

19 Months Recap in Pictures

Looking like a little man

Loves to eat fruit whole - nectarines and bananas

Go Illini!

Cute close-up

His 'picture' smile - he does a fake smile upon request now

With his buddy, the raccoon

New slide from Shell! Benjamin has a love/hate relationship with this thing. He loves climbing up, seems to like sliding down part of it, but then hates the bottom part!

Good for sliding down his trains!

Steve was running Benjamin back and forth, and you can tell Ben loved it!

Bodyslamming the raccoon:

Saying 'uh oh' and 'bye-bye':