22 months (and 1 week)

Benjamin turned 22 weeks old on Nov 5th. I am late posting.

The incredible thing is the speed with which he changes, especially his language. A mere two weeks ago I posted how exciting it was that he was starting to say things more original (less mimicking). I thought it was so cool he heard "we don't fit" and said "its so big". Now, days later, he has entire spontaneous conversations.

This morning I was putting him in the car. He heard a loud engine at the nearby traffic light.
"Truck?" he asks
"No, I think its a bus, lets go see"  It was a school bus.
"This way?" pointing up our street.
"No, I think it will go straight through. Lets get in the car, its windy out here".
"I rode city bus" he says, as I strap him into his car seat.
"You did ride the city bus one time. Was it fun?"
"Yeah." a pause "Dada rode city bus"
"Dad rode a city bus? really?"
"yeah" a pause. "Mama rode city bus"
"Mom rode a city bus?"
"yeah. Two rode city bus".

Yeah. He is constructing word problems now.
Hahahah!

Yesterday I was playing a word game (bananagrams) with my sister and he walked in, got up on my lap. I said "eve". He heard "E".
"E ELEPHANT E ELEPHANT E ELEPHANT" he repeated vigorously until I confirmed I heard him and he was right. I asked him to point out an E and he grabbed the tile right up. Later I did it again to show my dad, and he grabbed an E right up. Then my dad said "what is NOT E". He thought for a minute, and then picked up an S and said "not E!" We have not been successful in getting him to identify any other letters yet. The slight difference in the word "e" and "c" and "b" confuses him.

He really likes to count to two. He can't really count to three yet, but we are working on it. He loves it when there are two of something. Last night he spontaneously said things like "Me have two eyes", and "me have two ears". It was pretty adorable.

He was playing with his aunt on the floor with a farmyard set. It has a momma and baby cow. I asked 'how many cows are there?" and he said (very happily) "TWO". His aunt picked one up and set it on the roof and said "one" and then the other and said "two". I asked "how many cows are on the roof?" and he said "TWO" very happily. Then one fell off. I asked "how many cows are there?". "ONE" he said, also very happily.

Sorry, you get to here all my "my kids so smart' bragging stories, because this is the place where no one gets to judge me for bragging.

Anyways, the point is, his speech is just incredible. His critical thinking blows my mind.

He still isn't jumping, he does this hoppy thing that is fun though when you ask him to jump, sorta a skip like run without any coordination. His friends, who are all a couple months older than him, literally run laps around him. He will catch up eventually.

He knows most his main colors. When we were walking into swimming last week he would say "Black truck" "red car" "white truck" etc. He doesn't always get them right, especially if its sorta a wonky color like tan or peach, but he does pretty well.

He really loved all the special stuff for Halloween, and when we eat Halloween candy with him now we always say we are celebrating Halloween. But I also keep telling him that Thanksgiving is next. Today a man ringing the Salvation army bell said Happy Thanksigiving to us and Benjamin immediately started to mimic and try to say it. I tolld him yes! Thanksgiving is next! I told him thanksgiving is about Turkey, being thankful, and Family. We will see what sticks. We also made some turkey hand print art already (you may have seen it on facebook), and he loved it.

His play has been changing too. More imaginary play. His lego cars/trucks tend to be much more "realistic" then they used to be. Rather than just sticking random pieces together he will make it actually kinda look like a truck/car. We had a Mega Bloks party this weekend and we got a really neat new toy called Billy Beats Piano. It plays a lot of music (and can be played like a Piano). He loves to press the "wheel on the bus" song and the "old mcdonald" song buttons. After we did it awhile he started to get creative. He would pick up a toy (like his stuffed owl, or a car") and say "CAR ON THE BUS" then would press the "wheel on the bus" button and I would make up lyrics (the car on the bus goes vroom vroom vroom), and he would dance. Then when the song ended he would say "Me DANCE with CAR" and laugh and laugh, and then pick a new toy to do it with.

Life is good. We are really enjoying seeing him grow and learn, its an incredible time.