Benjamin 18 Months

I know we have a lot to catch up on... but let's begin with our boy.

Benjamin is an examiner. He takes things very seriously, especially new people, mechanical objects, ants and dogs. Many people comment on how "serious" he looks. But, that is only if he's not yet 100% comfortable with the situation. As soon as he warms up, Ben is SILLY. It is really, really difficult to get good pictures of him because he makes so many crazy faces once the

camera comes out. He laughs and giggles often in between making shooting, zooming and racing noises. He loves to run around in circles and then fall down, promptly laughing at himself and looking around for admiration!

Benjamin talks a lot. Unfortunately, we often don't have a clue about what he's saying. Slowly his pronunciation is getting better, but many, many words sound the same to us. He is often found looking some object over very, very carefully, speaking gibberish with a half-frown on his face. I believe that once we understand him we're in for some interesting conversations!

Some of the words we do understand are:

Hi

Bye-bye

No

Go away

where'd ee go? where'd daddy go? (said with his head cocked to the side and his shoulders up)

Daddy

Momma

oo-wheat-side (outside)

Go!

apple

bah bah (bottle - talking about sippy cups)

meez (please)

nee-oo (thank you)

bee bee (binky)

mine

more

wa-ter

mee (milk)

peek-a-bah (peek a boo)

tickle tickle tickle

ee (ear)

aiee (eye)

red

Benjamin says the animal sounds for:

dogs

lions

bears

zebras

ducks

He calls all flying things "gee" (for geese).

He is obsessed with anything with wheels, climbing, trying to jump and running the opposite direction of where you'd like him to go. He is pure boy. He throws EVERYTHING! He makes a mess whenever possible. He will play in the backyard for hours (seriously) just pushing a fake lawn mower around, or a giant dump truck. He loves rocks and pine cones and taking walks. He cries when I put away his shoes.

Benjamin also adores his big sister. He wants to do everything she does. Everything. He loves to torture her by stealing her dolls (seriously grabbing and running the other direction). He loves to color beside her while she does her school work (although this often turns into him taking as many caps off the markers as possible and then carefully studying the tips before jamming the caps back on while whining because he can't get them snapped all the way). He likes wearing necklaces (think mardi gras) and hats. He talks to himself in the mirror. The two of them get along most of the time...

At his 18-month Well Check Benjamin weighed 25 pounds, was 33 inches tall and had a head circumference of 48 cm.