14 Months Old

I am finding it so hard to grasp that my little man is 14 months old today! I know this is weird, but this may be the hardest month yet. It just does not seem possible that it has been 2 months since he turned 1. When I was at the used baby clothes store I couldn't believe that only a year ago I was in there shopping for 6m outfits. Parenthood changes the perspective on times.

Enough about me though, this post is supposed to be about how Benjamin is doing.

Benjamin does not like to have his diaper changed. Its because he is bored. So, we started giving him a book while we change it, and its both adorable and practical. He sits there and read and we change him! He certainly entering the more opinionated age of Toddler. He is not as tolerant of activities he does not want to do. He is a very cautious child. He doesn't kike strangers and he is slow to warm up to new surroundings. He demonstrated these traits this weekend when we had our first swim lesson of a new session and then again on Sunday when we took him ice skating for the second time. Both days he started out upset and not liking the activity, but ended up smiling.

One thing he does love to do is to walk, run and climb! I am definitely of the philosophy to let him walk as much as possible! We have had him running around the mall, Target, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, and restaurants. Tonight we had him at a BBQ place and there was a ramp right next to our table that lead to some empty tables. He was just running up and down it the whole time we were waiting for dinner! He is starting to do some climbing. Gma Duluth taught him to climb a step stool so he can look out a window. He was trying to climb a stack of books in B&N, which we stopped of course! He also walks/runs/meanders out of daycare everyday. Its a long path from the door to the parking lot and sometimes it takes us 10 minutes because he is meandering off the path or running back to the door or stopping to watch other people go by.

Language wise, he is still chugging along! Always trying out new sounds, sometimes a new word. We are also doing some animal noises. Words he says or tries to say on a regular basis: Up, More, Out, Kitty, Dog, moo, vroom, baa/neigh. Words he has tried to say/said once or irregularly: Dad, off, eyes, down, cracker,... I know I am forgetting a bunch! As is usual his comprehension is much better than his ability to speak. He understands so much of what we say! Recently we were thrilled to discover he knows some body parts, and he knows a lot of random animals - like elephants and monkeys, etc. He will do some sounds for them too! We are still working on them. I really want to get him to say mama, but no luck yet. He has M but just won't put it together for me.

He is teething. At least two more bottom outside teeth, maybe four. Its hard to tell. He laughs when we try to look in his mouth. He certainly has been grumpy enough the past four days for it to be four teeth.... He also is getting all sorts of new bumps and bruises all of the time. He got his first goose egg at daycare today, right between his eyes! He likes to run and gets really goofy and falls and hits his head. He also loves rocking chairs - adult or kid sizes! He also loves the climbing area at daycare. All lead to pumps and bruises. He also loves to play with cars, and books of course! Always books. Sometimes he lets us read a whole book, sometimes he wants to look at every book, sometimes he wants to look at one page or the cover of a book for a very long time. Sometimes he goes and finds all the dogs in his book, or ducks. Sometimes he just sits and acts like he is reading them all on his own.

He recently started trying to take his shirt off. I think its more of an experimenting thing than a wanting the shirt off thing! He also likes to take his gloves off, even when he shouldn't! He likes to color - both to actually use the crayons, and to put them back in the box. He loves to play with the kitchen utensils - bowls, spoons, etc. He tries to match lids with containers. He likes to put his magnetic letters off the fridge into bowls, or into oven mitts. I took some boots to change into when I got to work the other day and found Go Fish cards in them, made my day. He also has started stuffing things under our buffet - like recyclables.

That is all that I can think of right now. He is the center of our world right now and we love to spend time with him, even when he is grumpy. We love to have family dinner every night. We love to watch him sleep. We love to see him laugh, climb, run, play and read. Its an amazing life!