Babysoroos

Ben’s vocabulary and speech in general has improved enormously over the last few months. He can form correct sentences, is learning to use “my” and “I” at the appropriate times, and likes to repeat any new word he hears us say until he knows it. But he still has quite a few cute mispronunciations that we love and will miss terribly when he gives them up:

• pay-liff — play with
• die-sa-saur — dinosaur
• gerbital — convertible (as in car — like daddy’s red car)
• lass right — that’s right
• lezberry — raspberry
• mank — milk
• heli-hoppiter — helicopter
• bulldodoze — bulldozer

And of course he has a very expressive face. These are just a few recent goofy/happy/sad faces.

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Ben started a toddler class at our local co-op preschool on Monday. He’ll be going two mornings a week, and I’ll go one morning a week. He seemed to enjoy himself. We’re also going to do a Parent/Toddler group at the Waldorf School one morning a week. Going to be busy!

Of course, we had to get the requisite “leaving for the first day of school” pictures…

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Just a few random pictures from the past week.

We picked, washed, (ate) and cooked LOTS of blackberries this weekend. It was fun, Ben particularly loved the picking and eating parts (as evidenced by the color of his face afterwards), and we found the making and canning of jam very satisfying. Ben was only mildly interested in that part, but he certainly seems to enjoy *eating* the jam.

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For his birthday, Ben got his own kitchen from us and all the grandparents. He had a long dramatic tantrum the night it arrived because he wanted to play with it, but couldn’t because it was in many many pieces in the box. After he went to bed, we spent a little over an hour assembling it, and he’s been cooking up yummy meals ever since (and making us taste them, over and over again). He even likes to clean up – he asked for his own sponge so he could do dishes. At first he was frustrated that the water didn’t work, but then he discovered he could just open my water bottle and pour it in the sink. Problem solved. 🙂

I think it’s a hit.

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We spent the last week of July in Iowa, visiting Ben’s great-grandma and other family members. It was really hot while we were there, up to 105° on the last day, so we spent a lot of time indoors. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

We visited the local county fair where Ben got to see and climb on lots of tractors, and where we saw the Phils (Eric’s uncle and cousin) in their car and truck races. Ben loved that – he sat happily to watch them for nearly 3 hours! Of course, crashes, car fires, fire trucks, tow trucks and cars that had bits falling off made it all very interesting for a little boy.

We also watched (and chased) the Balloon Classic Mass Ascension (more photos on Eric’s site), saw the parade, spent a lovely day at Phil and Judy’s lake house, and just generally enjoyed hanging out with family. Ben had fun with his two second cousins, Lance (3) and Anna (1). The boys had a very serious conversation about tractors at one point.

This album is a little longer than recent ones, sorry. (17 pictures, not too bad.)

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Rather belatedly, here are some pictures of Ben’s small birthday celebration. We just had one friend, Caroline, and her parents over for an afternoon of playing in the wading pool, eating cake in swimsuits (which made cleanup relatively easy), and grilling veggies for dinner. It was a fun day, but sad because those friends moved to Maine the following week.

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We left the next day for a week in Iowa with Eric’s family; some pictures from that trip will be next.

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Ben’s going to be a big brother! Baby #2 is due on January 25th.

We had an ultrasound yesterday, at exactly 16 weeks, and everything looked good. It was a very, very active little baby, with all the right parts and no signs of any problems. We didn’t find out if it’s a boy or girl, by choice, and don’t intend to until the birth.

And I have a baby belly. These were taken this morning at 16 weeks 1 day:

(More pictures of Ben coming soon, I promise.)

Today Ben turned two. TWO. I can’t believe he’s so old already.

He’s turning into quite the little boy. He talks a lot (mostly intelligbly), he runs, he dances, he can sort of jump, he counts to eleven (but he skips some numbers on the way ;-)), he knows colors and shapes and animals and can identify all sorts of vehicles, especially construction-related ones. His most often requested lunch is carrots, tofu and noodles. He loves fruit, especially berries of any sort, and most veggies and any sort of cheese. And Thai food, and Chinese, and Mexican (it’s the salsa). Could he be the only toddler ever who asks for “More eggplant?” He tells nearly everyone he meets about our “blue car” and about going to the coffeeshop with Daddy. He knows what we mean when we spell B-A-T-H, so we have to find more creative ways of describing it.

He’s quite a character, and we love him dearly. Happy Birthday, Ben!

It was really hot here today, so we took dinner to the beach this evening and got some birthday pictures. And then had ice cream when we got home. 🙂

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Just some random ones from the last couple of weeks. Hanging out outside our favorite coffeeshop in town on a hot Saturday afternoon, talking on the phone, getting a haircut….

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