Twenty-one months old!

Ben is just a parrot these days. He will repeat anything you ask him to...and sometimes you can even understand it! Some of the sweetest things I love to hear him say are "yuh oo" (i love you) and "maymay" (amen).

But he does more than mimic. Today as we pulled into a parking lot, he shouted "Mommy! Datch!" (catch) and threw his lovey at me. When he can't find one of us in the house, or sometimes even when we're in the same room, he'll call, "Daddy, are ooo?" (where are you?) If you sneeze or cough, he'll sometimes "beh ooo" (bless you). And he'll always let you know if he needs "ulp" (help).

In the past couple of weeks, he will bring me a pillow if we're in his room and lay it on the floor, pat it and tell me "nighnight". If I don't lie down on my own, he'll hold my cheek and make me! Then he'll bring me his lovey and not let me pick my head up without squealing "nighnight!". It's neat to see his little imagination develop and also his skills at playing with people rather than just beside them.

He is still what I'd consider to be a picky eater. Pasta is off limits, doesn't even get a second glance, as well as cheese in any form other than shredded. But bring on the "muh" (milk), "sahsa" (pizza), taacos, jeece (juice), "gogurt" and "sayad" (salad). He'd eat "tuties" (cookies) all day if we let him and has a very keen radar for when they are in close vicinity.

We're working with him on colors and letters and numbers, as we know they do at school and don't want to impede their progress by spending all our time wrestling and cuddling! So far, he'll repeat them all to you...but isn't really offering up his own thoughts! But he does try to sing the ABC's, and it sounds like "B,B, C, B", and the other night he gave a countdown before pouncing on me - with one finger in the air - that went "two...two...two!"

Last month was "transportation month" at his school and it only deepened his love for bikes (motorcycle, road, mountain, anything with two wheels). We found out that he rides the little tricyles on the playground and have given that message to Santa to keep in mind. But whenever he hears a motor of any kind, he stops and looks for the source, be it a "biiike", "buh" (bus), "tuck", "cawh" (car), "piepane" (airplane), or "bow" (boat). In fact when we turned the heat on for the first time this month, he wandered around the house pointing up and asking about the "piepane"!


He's going to bed between 7:30 - 8 at night and sleeps until, ugh, an average of six a.m. There was a glorious week recently where he slept until 7 each morning, but that was only a tease. At school he take 2.5 - 3 hour naps, and at home, about oh 1. 25!

Ben wears size 5 diapers (although we use size 4 during the day b/c I bought in bulk!) and is in mostly 18-mth clothes, some 24 mths. His eyes are green like mine, but we just don't know about that blond hair!

Aside from the biting incidents, which seem to come in waves, and his roller coaster of emotions for the bathtub, this has been another fun month of toddlerhood. We love watching him learn and discover and play and laugh and just so proud to call him our son!