Ben - Jan & Feb 2011

Ben continues to be such a joy.  There are so many things he does that delight Mommy and Daddy.  I'll attempt to document many of them.

Daddy bought Ben toy animal figures at the zoo last June, which he still plays with now.  In the set are an elephant, lion, giraffe, cheetah, zebra, hippo, and warthog.  Ben had one of the animals out which I referred to as his "warthog" to which Ben replied "no", one of his favorite words by the way.  Then I noticed he had said "no" because it was actually the hippo that he had.  That was the first time Ben corrected Mommy, but I'm sure not nearly the last!

Ben is pretty good about wearing his hat when he's outside, usually wearing the red felt Old Navy hat of Pierce and Davis' that Robin gave him .  It's been a cold winter, so I have also been wearing a stocking cap when I go to pick Ben up in the afternoons.  Ben insists on wearing my hat as we leave school, by saying "Mommy's", indicating that he wants to wear my hat and wants me to wear his.  So most days, we walk out of school in eachother's hats.  He looks especially cute with an oversized hat on where I just look ridiculous with a hat on that is too small.  The teachers think it is very cute though.  Ben also likes to wear Daddy's stocking cap when he gets the chance.

Ben wearing Daddy's hat on the way to school.  Notice Ben's usual red hat in Daddy's hands.

Ben is also repeating several words that Daddy or I say, including "ready", "nuts", and "pizza" to name a few.  His language skills are improving so rapidly.

Ben loves to have his snacks in a bowl and when he sees a snack that he would like he says "bowl" to indicate that he'd like to have a bowl to put some in, whether it be crackers, fruit, or candy.  He also now knows which cabinet to go open and retrieve one of his small plastic snack bowls.

Ben enjoys pulling the tissues out of the tissue box, never stopping at just one.  He also asks for a tissue by name when his nose is running and can wipe his nose himself.

When Ben has a snack, he will often "share" it with his toys, feeding his trucks, especially those that have a smiling face on their grill.  Just lately he has started enjoying having his zoo and farm animals on his highchair tray with him, sharing his food with a few of his favorites.

Ben grabs at the computer screen, tv, or pictures of trucks, seemingly thinking that he can pull them off of the screen or page and play with them, sometimes saying "want some".

Ben consistently refers to the small "Incredible Hulk" toy he got out of a happy meal as "Daddy".

Ben has started showing a preference for the clothes he wears.  When I opened the middle drawer of his dresser, which was low enough for him to have a great view of the contents, he pulled out which shirt he wanted to wear.  First he pulled out his Caillou shirt and then changed his mind when he saw his moose shirt, indicating that he wanted to wear it instead.

Ben has started saying the word "heavy" once he picks things up, even  for things that really shouldn't be that heavy for him.