The last several weeks Ben has picked up a habit of asking "who bought it" for anything from his clothes and toys to the food he's eating.  We have found it hilarious and most times when we ask him who he thinks bought it, he says "Mommy", which mildly annoys Daddy since often times it's Daddy who's picked out food or toys for him.

This past Wednesday night 11/2, when Lara was over with Ben to watch Cars 2 with him, Ben said he needed to go to the poddy.  I asked Lara to take him, assuming it would be another false alarm.  But this time, for the first time, he went poopy in his training poddy!  Now in the week of 11/7 he has gone pee pee in the poddy at school more than once!

Rebecca took her first real step on 11/8!  She has been getting to a standing position on her own without holding onto anything for a good while, but hadn't taken a step on her own until that night.  She seemed proud and excited, but was satisfied with one step.  Tonight (11/9) she took two steps.  I'm sure if I encouraged her more, she'd take a few more, but I'm sure it's just a matter of days before she takes several steps on her own with or without me pushing it.  Even without walking, Rebecca is into everything and anything that sparks her interest.  She wants to do anything but sit still, even as it gets close to her bedtime and she's tired, she is still on the move. Tonight she tried to help Ben with his alphabet puzzle, recognizing that the pieces needed to go on the board.  Ben would have liked her to find something else to play with of course!

Ben has been very interested in the alphabet puzzle from Aunt Nikki the last several days, saying he wants to fill in all the letters by ssaying he'll "do it by myself" and exclaiming "I did it!" when he's done.  I'm really amazed that he can do it without help and he remembers what word each letter is associated with, like that h is for hat.  This evening while getting buckled into his seat, we saw one of his classmates, Kaitlyn, leaving the school with her monther.  Like I always do, I asked him who it was and he referred to her by name and then said "we saw her at the pumpkin patch".  I was really surprised and impressed that he remembered we saw them there and that he could refer to the place correctly.  I asked him what we did at the pumpkin patch and he responded "took pictures"!  He may remember that because of how uncooperative he was when I was trying to get him to pose for a picture with the pumpkins.

Ben refers to the "family" often now.  He's always loved what we call "family hug" where Scott and I put him and Rebecca in between us for a 4 person hug.  But now he also likes asking for the family to be in bed with him for story time.  I suspect it's because Scott refers to us as a family alot.  It's cute to hear him refer to our family.  Another thing Ben has started doing lately is explicitly ask me "Can I" do this or that versus simply making a higher pitched grunt.  He'll ask "can I play with this" or "can I have that".  He even knows raises his pitch at the end to make it clear he's asking a question.  Sometimes, he calmly says "ok", if I say no to something, which is refreshing vs when he whines or does a fake cry upon hearing no.  His conversation is really progressing so much and he is sounding so grown up!  He's also been interested more in washing his hands at the sink, but still likes to play with the water and whatever may be in the kitchen sink at the time!