Babysoroos

Saturday was Ben’s 18 month birthday. It’s hard to believe he’s already a year and a half old, and at the same time, it’s sometimes hard to believe he’s *only* a year and a half.

He’s still learning lots of new words every day. I counted them recently, in anticipation of being asked by the doctor at his 18 month appointment, and he has over 60 words that he uses consistently enough that we know he knows the meaning. Most of them might not make sense to anyone but us, but he is communicating! 😉

This is who Ben is at 18 months:

• He has a funny little run, and he loves to race down the hall and flop onto his bed.
• He tries to put socks on, but hasn’t quite figured out how that works (except that, somehow, they go on his feet).
• He eats anything we eat. He particularly loves kalamata olives, spicy brown mustard and raw mushrooms.
• He LOVES books and will demand several of his favorites by name. His name for it might not be the official name, but he knows which one he wants.
• He loves taking showers with daddy and washing his hands at the sink.
• He’s getting his first set of molars – one is well through, one is halfway through, one is only just poking through, and the final one is going to appear any day now.
• He likes to drink from an open cup at the table. And then he likes to pour it all over himself. Water is just *fun* right now.
• He can use a fork fairly well, and sort of use a spoon.
• He gives lots of hugs to us, and occasionally to one of his playmates.
• He’s learning to use a potty.

Sorry there haven’t been many new photos lately, it seems that we’ve been slacking. Or taking more pictures of scenery than Ben <gasp>. So, naturally, we decided to remedy that, and we celebrated his 18 month birthday by taking lots and lots of pictures of him: a few at home, and then a bunch at the Locks.

Here are some of the best, without captions because I wasn’t feeling imaginative.

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• shalchscha (salsa)
• bike
• inku (thank you, unprompted, at appropriate times)
• yight
• gamra (camera )
• all gone
• bum
• potty
• dapper (jasper)
• cat (as opposed to dougal/google)
• tea (was dee)
• ban (van)
• ands (which means “hands” and is usually uttered while pointing at the sink because he wants to wash his hands)
• home

And Ben. He finally sort of says his name!

These newest ones seem big to me — they’re words that he doesn’t need to communicate verbally because he knows the signs.

Yesterday he started saying milk. Or, more precisely, “maink.” But he means milk, because he signs it at the same time or points to the source.

Today we were reading books and when we finished one, he said gain. I always ask him “again?” but he has always just signed “more”. And now he says gain.

More pictures coming soon….

December was a busy month! Ben is learning so many things so quickly these days. He’s fascinated by cameras, so we’ve given him my first old digital camera. He even almost knows what to do with it. 😉

Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Cindy visited for Christmas and Ben had lots of fun with yet more new playmates. He learned to say “gramma” and made a pretty good attempt at “dindy.” He learned that grandparents and aunts just can’t resist the word “UP!!?”

He did have fun opening presents on Christmas Day, although it took three sessions to get through all of his. It was hard to have to keep distracting him from new toys so he could open the next one – he wanted to just be able to play with some of them. He got lots of great stuff – books, wooden puzzles and blocks, duplo trains, cars, a music cube, a bead maze… the list goes on. Thanks to everyone!

And of course, he has new words:

• Gramma (seems to mean *any* grandparent at times)
• ball
• uggk (means hug. SO sweet! He also gives kisses!)
• guck (truck)
• tactor (tractor)
• book
• cacker (cracker)
• wawk (means fork)
• moon
• cup

View the album.

The second half of November was lots of fun because Granny and Granda came to visit, all the way from Northern Ireland. They were here for (almost) two weeks, and Ben really had a great time with these new playmates. 🙂

He suddenly learned a bunch of new words, and also started demonstrating a much better understanding of things we say to him. We can now completely change the subject of his focus just by suggesting something. Sometimes, at least. If our suggestion sounds fun. Like, for example, when he was playing with his Legos (thanks, Uncle Steven!) and someone would innocently suggest he take off Granda’s socks. He *liked* that game. Well, Ben did. Not sure about Granda.

New words include:

• booty (for veggie booty, puffed cereal snack)
• naaak (for snacks, crackers)
• cookie (umm, guess 🙂 )
• out
• coat
• goat
• chair
• cheese
• nigh-nigh
• OK
• alright
• eye (while trying to poke mine out)
• nose

And he can moo like a cow, woof like a dog, roar like a lion, quack like a duck and neigh like a horse. Sometimes. Sometimes he gets them mixed up. And sometimes he MOOOOOOs at the moon. But it’s OK, he’s still learning.

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Ben has become quite the climber lately. He scales chairs and then gets on the table. Or he starts with the coffee table and heads for the stereo… this could get very, very bad. We’re keeping him away from the bookcase!

He’s also starting to really be able to communicate! He signs milk, more, and water. Politely and consistently and demandingly. And the list of words that he says is suddenly growing. His repertoire now includes:

• shoe
• tat (cat)
• googal (Dougal the cat. Or Google? Hmm.)
• car
• up
• down (kinda sorta)
• happy (but I don’t think he knows what it means)
• yeah, yah, da (all mean yes)
• no
• buh-bye
• mummy
• dada
• bapf (bath)
• hot
• hat

That’s all I can think of right now. He doesn’t pronounce them all perfectly, but they’ve all been said repeatedly and with enough consistency that we are sure he knows what they mean. Except happy. We’re not sure he knows what happy means, but he goes around chanting it sometimes. 🙂

Here are some more pictures from around the house, the park, the beach. And signing.

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And here is our little knight in shining armor.

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Yet more zoo pictures (think we’re getting our money’s worth from our membership?), photos of Ben’s new armchair, and lots of pictures that are a direct result of mom taking a photography class last month. Ben was a very popular subject on field trips! 🙂

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the Halloween costume – the Knight of the Order of the Carrot. He wore it on three different occasions!

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Weekend before last, we bought a new backpack to carry Ben in, and immediately went for a hike down to the beach at Discovery Park. It was one of the last warm beautiful days of summer. Ben had a great time looking for sticks and stones and trying to eat the sand.

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Then last weekend, we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends from Everett, and Ben got to run (well, stumble) around in a pumpkin field while we picked out some lovely pumpkins to carve, cook, and just leave on the porch for decoration. We bought him new boots for the occasion (they’re dinosaurs). There were lots of interesting things for the kids, besides the pumpkins. A goat bridge, a hay house, a tire (tyre) horsey barn… I think Ben enjoyed himself.

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Some more catching up. Pictures from several trips to the zoo, visiting friends, more eating, goofy walking and dancing.

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