Two and a half!

Well we're smack dab in the middle of the twos, and I have to say that Ben seems to stay in the mid-range of that "t" word that usually precedes "two". He certainly has his moment/hours/days of whining and tantrums, but he still has just as many belly laughs and cuddles.

Some snapshots of his silliness and current happenings:

(after first ice cream cone)

weighs 30 pounds and wears 2T clothes

takes a 2 - 2 1/2 hour nap, and sleeps about 11 to 12 hours at night

wears size 5 or 6 diapers...yep, they don't make them any bigger! The pediatrician gave me a pass on potty training though for a few more months to make sure he's fully adjusted to all these changes.

is a sensitive soul and gets his feelings hurt easily with a sharp tone of voice or sometimes just being told no. He's gotten a few pops to the thigh, but so far, cooling off while standing by the door has been most effective. When asked if he's ready to come out, he will sometimes exclaim, "I say yes ma'am!" as there was a streak of timeouts due to replying to my requests with "no way!" and getting instructions of what he should be saying.

calls all grown-ups "mommies" and "daddies"

talks in long paragraphs, but I've been assured it's totally normal that we only catch 50% of his stories

(riding his Doberman pal, Hector...who is very patient after living with his own toddler, Austin)

loves singing, dancing, and playing instruments...usually all at the same time

is pretty polite and will say "feese", "dank oo", "you're velfum" and "quez me" (excuse me) with little or no prompting, most of the time.

favorite question is "what's dat?" and will sometimes ask me the names of random strangers, "what's his name?"

recites a few of his books: Goodnight Moon, My Daddy and I, Sam's Speedy Firetruck and Corduroy Goes to the Doctor

counts to 13 and then repeats "dirteen" until he gets to 20

moves at a snail's pace when getting in and out of the car most times. This makes me batty. His stalling techniques are also demonstrated when trying to leave somewhere fun, like the park:

"not ye-et!"

"in a yittuhl bit."

"one more minute!"

"one more time." (when I told him to stop dipping his fingers into his OJ)

scares me with his climbing up and jumping off any- and everything

says "cake, chips and french fries" when asked what he wants to eat

uses "my" instead of "I" or "me"

"my do it!"

"my otay!" (always assures me when he coughs)

enjoys a good argument - primary tactic is reversing whatever you've just said:

"no, Austin doesn't have to leave"

"no, it's not time to go"

"no, it's not a cow, it's a horse"

likes to use his imagination:

"there's the mommy frog and baby frog." where's the daddy frog? "at verk"

turned his hot wheels upside down and told me he needed to change their bapers (diapers).

laid his plastic bugs on their backs, covered them with his lovey, and turned on the sound machine. "My bugs go night-night." and then leaned over to give them a kiss goodnight.

has long conversations with Nana and Aunt Jess on his play phone

(apparently growing tired of building houses and towers with Mommy, he constructed a couple of dinosaurs one day while I was on the computer!)

knows our names - by then end of his cousins' visit, he was calling us "Uncah Tyer" and "Aunt Dacy"

(I leaned in to get a picture with him, so he leaned too)

is handling change like a champ! We've been trying out different churches since we've moved and always try to pump him up about a new church. So when visiting my parents a few weeks ago, we pulled up to my their church and he yelled, "new church!" They were impressed with his enthusiasm.

obsessive compulsive about putting his toys in lines, and is also really good at matching. Improving on colors, but he is still super confident in his answers...fake it til ya make it, Ben!

confident in his masculinity :)

gets excited about dinosaurs, pirates, cars, "firepucks", "feese cars" (police), "tool bus" (school), sports, motorcycles, bumblebees, and the moon

l.o.v.e.s. his "babee sisser, Kay Beff" I keep waiting for his infatuation to fade, but so far he loves to show her off, dote on her, kiss her forehead and help get things for her. And he's only sat on her once!

We can't believe our baby will be three in six months. We are having a blast with this kid and just think the world of him...can you tell?