23 Months (and 2 weeks...)

I meant to post this awhile ago, but I am too easily distracted.

Benjamin has been 23 months old for almost two weeks old. This is the last age I will count in months. On January 5th he turns 2 years old!!

Once again, the leap in his speech/ability to communicate has changed and developed so much its hard to even describe. One month ago on Nov 11th I was impressed with a several part exchange involving city buses. Now, such complex exchanges are par for the course and so common place I hardly think about them as new, even though he has only been doing it for about a month.

He has a whole imaginary world going on all the time, and he is constantly talking about it, or about the factual things going on around him. Today at daycare, some high school girls who come in to help out (and get credit for it), gave them all presents. He got a pillow pal dog. When I picked him up he heard me and the daycare worker discussing this and of course that rapidly became the topic of conversation. His monologue goes something like this. (with me interjecting things like proper grammar and suggestions of what he is trying to say when he stutters) -  "I open present. I got dog. Soft dog. Little dog pillow. (again in a cute voice) Little dog pillow. Dog got two eyes. Ben got two eyes.  both Two eyes. Two eyes. (I am meanwhile putting on his jacket etc). I wear shoes. No boots. Nice jacket. Dad got two eyes. I wear puppy gloves. Mom got two eyes. Grandpa got two eyes. Grandpa Y got two eyes. Grandma got two eyes. Grandma Y got two eyes. (By this time we are outside). That's momma's car (pointing). I ride momma's car. We go home. Ben go home, play. Me eat." .... and that's pretty much what its like when he is awake. LOL.

He also knows many songs now and likes to sing. His favorite seems to be Baa Baa black sheep. He also likes Farmer in the Dell. And of course, Wheels on the Bus. Lots and lots of things on the bus. We told him the radiator bench in our living room is a bus, and he ran with it. He puts everything on that bus, drives that bus, talks about buses.

It has taken some time for him to adjust to the idea of Christmas. I feel like Halloween was the first holiday he really fully understood and appreciated, so he thinks all good things are Halloween. He thought our Christmas tree was a Halloween tree. When we ask him what he wants from Santa, he replies Halloween, or Halloween Candy. He sometimes says just candy now, but that is after lots of practice. He does like Christmas music. His favorite is Jingle Bells I think, but he also likes Frosty the Snowmen, and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. At Bedtime he has taken to requesting Oh Christmas Tree and Up on the House Top as lullabies (yes, he requests lullabies).

His most requested none Christmas lullabies are "Castle on Cloud" (as he says it, from Les Mis), and "The fish song" which is a diddy I made up about his ceiling fish. Its melody changes, its words basically go - Sleep little fish, close your eyes, sleep little fish, all through the night. Sleep little fish, all night long, go to sleep little fish while I sing you thing song". 

He loves to read. He will sit and look at books on his own, or ask us to read them to him, or sometimes he will want to read "with" us - in which case he hands us a book to read, he picks up a book to read, and we each look at the books, occasionally pointing out what is in our book or asking what is in his.

Its sooo cute when he gets excited these days! He just shrieks and yells and tells us what is happening. For example, we have been letting him watch a little more video/tv. He LOVES to watch Thomas Videos, or Mickey Mouse videos, on Netflix. When he asks us if he can and we actually say yes (which is a minority of the time given the frequency of his asking), he just shrieks and runs over to his spot by the stairs and yells "me watch train video! hahaha" and laughs and giggles and shrieks.

He has opened the Christmas presents from my family, and loves them. We haven't even gotten around to setting them all up yet because there are a lot of them and they are awesome and we have been busy with other activities. But thanks to everyone!

What activities, you might ask. Last night we went to Bentleyville - the large light display here in Duluth. I love Bentleyville. It is the best of the Christmas spirit. It is free, the entire purpose is to make people happy and help those in need. And I don't mean "free, except if you want to see Santa" or "free, except your kids will want food". The food is free (cookies? hot chocolate? roast a marshmallow over an open fire?). Santa is not only free, but GIVES you a hat if you come see him. Mrs Claus is there too, also free. They collect donations for the food shelf and the toy drive, but everything is free. They want everyone to come and see it and enjoy themselves and be happy.  Benjamin loved it. He didn't want to leave. I think his favorite display was a reindeer driving a car. He also liked the mini Aerial lift bridge and its boat and elfs riding jet skis.

Lets see... I have talked a lot about what Benjamin likes to do and his speech/communication. What haven't I covered? We just moved him to size 6.5 shoes. It was quiet the ordeal. He didn't want to get new shoes, and its not until he calmed down and figured out the new ones light up that he even considered it. Once he put the new ones on, he totally forgot about the old and ran off in the new ones.

He still isn't really jumping, but he hangs on things a bit and climbs a bit more. He runs and crawls and plays ring around the rosie and pretends to be a dog or a bunny or a cat or a frog.

He is a picky eater, like most toddlers you dont know on any given day what he might be willing to eat. Sometimes he eats enough for an adult, other days he hardly touches his food. No rhyme or reason.

Bedtime has gotten easier again, and he has not had any nightmares recently or shown signs of being afraid of the dark. DH and I each do bedtime a bit differently. When I do it, I read him a couple of books, then I turn him around and look him in the eye and tell him what we are going to do. ("Benjamin, its time for bed. We are going to turn off the light, then I will rock you and sing a couple songs, then I am putting you in your crib and turning on the fish and you can watch them and go to sleep"). He likes when I do this, when I explain it, even though its the same every time.

Basically, we probably spoil him rotten. Not in the "never set boundaries" sort of way, but in the "only child and we love him to all ends and give him all our attention sort of way". I think we probably give him a lot more decision making power then most toddlers get. We will frequently use him as a tie breaker when we don't agree on something (like where to eat or what to do next).

Both of us are amazed at how its been almost two years and he is getting so big. He's the best. :)

The Best Advice for New (and Not-So-New) Moms

Dear New Mom,

You are probably getting advice from all sides - maybe to much. You have seen the lists online of what you should know, you're friends are all chiming in, and of course there are the baby books. You probably don't want one more message, but I can't help myself, because I think it's an important one.

My advice for new moms:

Don't take it personally.

That's it. Simple, right? You are probably wondering what on earth I mean. I mean that your baby's (or toddler's) habits are not a reflection on your parenting. I am sure there is some age when this begins to change, but I think it is always true to some extent.

Your baby may be a poor sleeper, or have separation anxiety, or refuse to take a bottle, or be grumpy, or have a health problem. Your toddler might be a picky eater, or throw tantrums, or get ear infections, or bite his classmates, or need speech therapy, or be slow to walk.

 If they do, it's not your fault.  You did not do this to them (and no, they are not trying to punish you). There isn't a magic thing you should have done or a parenting technique you could have used. Don't beat yourself up if your kid isn't perfect. No adult is perfect, so why do we count it as personal parenting failures when a baby or toddler isn't?

Being a good parent doesn't mean having a perfect child, it means loving your child and helping them to get through whatever challenges they face (whatever challenges they drag you through). Don't add a degree of difficulty by believing those challenges are your fault.

SINCERELY,
Me

Christmas List for Benjamin

I figured the easiest way to do an Christmas List for Benjamin is to just put it on here, that way people have it if they want it but I am not sending it out and demanding gifts. Plus his birthday is 11 days after Christmas, so this list is good for that too.

Benjamin loves trucks and vehicles and blocks.

That said, we really are trying to diversify his toys. If you already got him a truck/car something, I am sure he will LOVE it. If you didn't, consider some of the ideas below.

Experience Gifts: A membership to the local aquarium or children's museum would be lovely

Imaginative Play gifts: He has a tea set, but besides that he has very few "play adult" type toys. I am sure he would love things like toy tools, a toy doctor kit, toy food, or we even a toy kitchen (I think it will fit in our kitchen so he can cook alongside us).

Building Blocks: He has both mega blocks and duplos. I think Duplos will be more his speed as we move on up from here. His current duplo is (surprise) the car set. He could use just "general" duplos", or more of a "building"/"dollhouse" style set. I tried to buy him the Snow White set for example on  black friday (that comes with table, chairs, a rabbit, etc), but I couldn't get the deal.

"Action Figures" - OK, not actual people, but dinosaurs or animals. We don't want a TON of this type of thing laying around but I am sure he would use a small collection of it quite a bit!

Puzzles:  Puzzles he can grow into. I.E. - not too easy. A giant floor puzzle maybe, or wood cut puzzles where the pieces are not all just the shape of the thing they are. Some ideas of what I mean (not saying people need to pick these puzzles, just trying to show you the difficulty):
Small Jigsaw, Giant Floor Puzzle, Wood Abstract Shape

Books: I keep being told people are afraid to buy books for us because we have so many, but really we don't have as many as people think. Off the top of my head, books/authors we don't have are: Berenstein Bears, Little Creature, How Dinosaur (does something) by Jane Yolan,  Where the Wild Things Are, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, Curious George... and many many others. If you are not sure just ask. (We love Sandra Boyten, but have a lot of her so definitely ask. We have all doctor seuss, winnie the pooh,and disney).

Stuff for next summer: Balance bike? A fence?

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for many many things... in general for my entire life and all the good that is in it.

But most of all for this:

The Scientific Mind

Benjamin's mind is so scientific lately! Theory, test, conclusion. He learns new things all the time.

At day care when I walked in he didn't notice me. This happens a lot now because he is so engaged in his play. Today he had two different toy sets. Set one was some generic shapes with wheels on the bottom that are designed to latch together into a train. Set two was a plastic car with a boat trailer. He was mixing and matching, trying to put together the two different sets of similar types of toys. He would try to get two cars together, focusing very hard, and then, when they wouldn't go together, almost under his breath he would say "nope" and try a different two.

He totally cracked us up last night with this theory testing. We were walking out of parents group at daycare last night, him between us, and he said "firetrucks coming" a couple of times. I said "I don't think there is a fire truck, stop and listen." All three of us froze in place and listened to the night for a minute. Cars, wind, people talking. Just as I was about to say something or ask him what he heard, he just goes "NOPE!" and starts walking again. DH and I just about died laughing. Of course the rest of the walk out to the car was "no fire truck coming. No police car coming". He is so adorable.

Also, tonight we went to the mall. I got a Thanksgiving book at B&N and then we were going to get a cookie... Benjamin was more excited about the book then the cookie. That's just awesome, must be doing SOMETHING right.

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.

Halloween 2013

FRIDAY
Halloween Carnival!! We went to the elementary school Halloween Carnival (now called the Fall Festival). This is the same Carnival that I grew up going to, and it was exactly as I remembered! Basically you buy tickets (5/$1) and use them to go around and play little games that are fun for kids. Benjamin liked Plinko, the Duck Pond (where you choose a duck out of the water and it has a number that determines that prize you get), and the Mailbox (where you put your tickets in a mailbox, wait a minute,  a bell rings, and you open the box and there is a prize). We won some books at the silent auction and generally enjoyed ourselves.

MONDAY
I had my annual Halloween party on Monday for my family. Its just a chance to get together, eat spooky food and wear costumes. Without it, myself and many family members would have no excuse to dress up.

I, as usual, procrastinated and needed help getting ready. My mom and little sis swooped in to decorate the house, and they did a fantastic job! They used moslty the decorations we used in my parents house growing up, along with these new creations by my sister:

For food, we wanted to do something fun and spooky, but I def wanted to avoid having TOO much food like we did last year (and have had at many family events). I think we succeeded! The menu included: a Veggie Tray, Chips&Dip, Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow, Deviled "Goblin" Eggs, and Stuffed Jack-O-Peppers. We had a variety of "normal" drinks with the option to put wormy icecubes (gummy worms) in them. For dessert there was a delicious Pumpkin dump cake with vanilla ice cream.

I have had a request to "save"the recipe of the peppers. It was mostly made up! I got the idea from this blog post. The recipe there however is Polenta based, which I wasn't interested in. So I made my own recipe up for the filling. Here it is.

Stuffed Jack-O-Peppers

Ingredients:                                                                            \

2 pounds ground beef                                                    

Spanish Rice-A-Roni                                                    

1 Can Diced Tomatoes                                                  

1 Can Blacked Beans                                                    

6 oz Salsa (half a bottle)                                                

1 Envelope Taco Seasoning                                            

1 Egg                                                                              

16 Bell Peppers                                                              

Taco Toppings as Desired                                                

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees                                                                 

2. Prepare the Rice-a-Roni per the directions, which will require the tomatoes

3.  With hands, mix together raw ground beef, taco seasoning, salsa, and egg   

4. Fold in, with hands, rice and beans                                                               

5. Cut the entire top off each pepper with a small knife,  remove seeds and     

white ribbing. Carefully carve face into each pepper. Doesn't need to be    

perfect! And they all can be different.  Arrange the peppers in baking       

dishes as available (I used three 9 inch cake pans)                                      

6. Spoon the mixture into each pepper, distributing equally. Its ok if some are 

 overloaded. Press the tops down on to of meat mixture.                            

7.  Bake for 55-65 minutes at 350 degrees.                                           

8. Serve with toppings such as cheese, sour cream, and the extra salsa               

Everyone showed up! (The whole family). Everyone dressed up! 

 

Benjamin was supposed to be a fireman, but he would hardly let us put his hat on!! I was the Dalmatian and DH was a burning house.

My sister as Rosie the Riveter (Or Lucille Ball, depending on what face you make)

Scarecrow Mom!!!

Benjamin had so  much fun playing with his aunt and uncles! I had so much fun hanging with the 'rents and siblings. I hope a good time was had by all.

THURSDAY

The ACTUAL Halloween. Since the Fire Fighter costume didn't go over great, we switched it up and borrowed a Panda Bear costume from my brother. I hear that Benjamin had a BALL doing trick or treating and a Halloween parade at day care. He sure came home with a big bag of goodies! In the evening, after a quick dinner, we went to the campus where DH works to Trick-OR-Treat in the dorms. DS thought it was great fun! He especially loved to take the candy from the person and put it in the bucket himself. Unfortunately, they ran out of candy after the first dorm. Fortunately, it was still early enough we could come home and go around our neighborhood a bit! Some of the neighbors we know loved to see him, and again he loved the whole process. 

It was a really fun Halloween. I didn't get to every little activity and craft I had originally planned, but we did the important thing - had fun with family (and ate good food).