Our little talker

I want to do two things with this post
1) Give examples of what Ben says now
2) Give examples of what Ben has said between when I last made a significant post on this blog (March.. maybe???) and now

So here is what he says now:

Vocabulary:
Wow.. really, it is hard to say now what he knows, as he seems to most words for things. When he doesn't know a word though, he will use 'that/those' and 'this/these' as a pronoun. So for example, he might come across a picture of a train he wants but can't remember the name, he will say 'Ben want this'.

Short full sentences (well, more accurately, many of his utterances are questions rather than statements):
--"Ben go outside?"
--"Ben want juice?"

Short phrases, usually combined to create 6-8 word description of things:
--"Llama eat broccoli? Soon? Tomorrow morning? Sunny outside?" (Thanks to Steve's not so subtle suggestion during playtime, Ben's llama's favorite food is broccoli. So tonight, when Ben was in his bed with llama, he said this to me. It might have been an attempt to negotiate a visit out to the play kitchen to find the broccoli, but I'm on to his bedtime tricks!)
--"Mommy - come in room?" ('room' is almost always the living room, where most of his toys are)
--"Daddy - (where) are you?"
--"Bless you Mommy (or Daddy)" (when either of us sneezes, but he also says that when he sneezes too)

Sings lots of songs. Knows lots, most, or all of the words to the following songs:
-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
-Notre Dame Fight Song (Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame; wake up the echoes cheering her name; send a volley cheer on high; shake down the thunder from the sky; what though the odds be great or small; old Notre Dame will win over all; while her loyal songs go onward marching to victory)
-Skidamarink (Skidamarink a dinky dink,Skidamarink a doo,I - love - you!Skidamarink a dinky dink,Skidamarinky doo,I - love - you!I love you in the morningand in the afternoon,I love you in the evening and underneath the moon;Oh, skidamarink a dinky dink,Skidamarink a doo,I - LOVE - YOU!)
-Thomas and Friends theme song (They're 2, they're 4, they're 6, they're 8; shunting trucks and hauling freight; red, and green, and brown, and blue; they're the really useful crew; all with different roles to play; 'round Tidmouth shed and far away; down the hills and round the bends; Thomas and his friends; Thomas is the cheeky one; James is vain, but lots of fun; Percy delivers the mail on time; Gordon thunders down the line; Emily really knows her stuff; Henry toots and huffs and puffs; Edwards likes to help and share; and Toby, well let's just say he's square)



Over the last few months, I have also been jotting down other phrases or words Ben has been saying.
'o-knee cheese' for macaroni and cheese
'apple' for pineapple
'run' when he sees people running
'heep' for help
'ok?' when someone is coughing
'babies friends' to talk about his friends, now they are just 'friends'
'choo choo fun'
'bama' for Grandma, 'papa' for Grandpa
'See Daddy run' when Steve would go running this past summer
'got it'
'reach'
'Mama help' (one of his favorite phrases! Now I am Mommy most of the time)
alphabet (he used to skip E, but he says all the letters)
numbers (1 - 10, but he has been skipping from 4 to 8 for months, even though he can say all the numbers when pressed)
'elephant'
'luv you'
'push poop' (still loves to say this - when I say we should change his diaper he now says "have (to) wait, push poop, change poop soon?")
'move guy here' for when he wants to move one of his little guy toys (weeble wobbles, or little people)
'dada wash hair'
'tummy hurt' (sometimes this is just when he is hungry)

Monticello Railway Museum

Today Ben got to ride his first real train! There is a railway museum about 30 minutes southwest of us in Monticello and it has weekend rides on steam engines. When we told Ben that we had very special surprise for him today, he said 'go shopping? buy new train?'. However, when we explained that he would be riding a real train, he was super excited! When we first got there, he had a blast walking up and down the platform, looking at the trains parked there, pointing out the train tracks, climbing into the mail car, and of course playing on the Thomas train table in the ticket office. When the train arrived, Ben could not wait to get on. He kept saying 'go in! go inside!' and he actually got a little frantic when we wanted to see the front of the train before going inside to find our seats. Once inside, however, he situated himself next to the open window and declared that he was going to 'sit on knees...look out window'. He proceeded to stay on his knees, hanging his head out the window the whole trip to downtown Monticello and back. He was so excited to start moving - telling people outside 'all aboard!' and his eyes lit up when the conductor said 'all aboard' and the whistle blew. During the trip, we could even see the steam go past our window - he was thrilled! He would wave at people at the crossings or just at anything he wanted (trees, corn fields, etc). At the end he said, 'want more' and was a little sad to leave, but seemed satisfied with us saying that we will come back soon.

Wearing his souvenir t-shirt. He also got an adorable Thomas and Friends plate, bowl, and silverware set from Grandma Z (aka Bama Z) at the museum.

Okay, so this is the best picture we got with our portable digital camera. Our camera is close to dying and we need to buy a new one! We took lots of video with video camera and tried using the picture-taking feature with our video camera, too, but we will have to figure out how to upload that!

New Haircut!

Today it was time for Ben's third haircut! The first two did not go quite so well, so we have been putting this one off for awhile. However, his hair was getting just too long, so we thought we would try our local Super Cuts. We told him about the haircut and he said 'no hair cut', so we tried a little bribery with something he couldn't refuse - a new Thomas train! Steve ran into Meijer to buy Whiff (from the Misty Island Special and something Ben has been asking for) and we pulled it out right away as Ben was getting his haircut. Whiff and the quick and efficient skills of the hairstylist together seemed to really help - although Ben seemed uncomfortable during the whole haircut, there were absolutely no tears! He really seemed bothered when she cut around his ears especially.

Four days before haircut

Post hair-cut!

His reward for being a good sport about his haircut - Whiff

See the space between his front four teeth and his molars? There are four new teeth (one on each side and on top and bottom) coming in and starting to poke through. Ben enjoys feeling them and says 'new teeth coming'

Ready to measure his 'big pumkin'

33 Weeks Pregnant!

The arrow points to her hair! Maybe she will have more than Ben did when he was born (which was almost none)?

Sucking her thumb/hand

at 31 weeks

It is amazing how slow it seems at the beginning of pregnancy, and then at some point it becomes incredibly fast! The weeks are just flying by and pretty soon we will have a new Baby Zusman!!

Benjamin loves Thomas!

Benjamin is obsessed with Thomas the Train (and all of Thomas' friends). This started when Steve took him shopping during a special Daddy and Ben day in June and he got his first Thomas train ever - 'Talking Thomas'. Ever since, Ben has accumulated many more friends and at least once a day asks to go 'shopping.. Thomas (or fill in the blank with whatever train he currently wants).. soon... tomorrow morning?'. He has a catalog of all the trains and he loves to browse through it to get new ideas as to which trains he would like for his collection. He plays with his trains almost all day, watches almost exclusively Thomas and Friends on TV or on youtube.com (or as Ben says, 'on 'puter'), has a Thomas shirt, Thomas chair, sunglasses, and a Halloween costume he is very excited to wear (he calls it 'Halloween Thomas'). He has around 40 trains right now and knows the names to all of them. He also has the Thomas and Friends theme song memorized (well almost all of it - I will have to get a video of him doing this).

At a Thomas event at Toys-R-Us - note the Thomas shirt and sunglasses

With his Thomas playsets and some of his trains

Naming his trains. He loves this one youtube video of a little British boy naming all of his Thomas trains. At the end of the video, the boy says 'thanks for watching'. Benjamin loves to imitate the boy and after naming his trains, he says 'thanks for watching'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vOJdIr-t0E