Babysoroos

Ben loves tractors. LOVES them. We saw one at the beach on Sunday, looking mostly abandoned, so we let him climb in it. Then he turned on something that clicked, so we decided it was time to go. He was not happy about that.

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From the last few months. Not all of Ben. 😉

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Here are a few photos from yesterday, and a couple of older ones thrown in at the end. You might notice he’s had a haircut since then. 🙂

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He loves them all. And thank goodness, because we’ve seen a lot of them in the last 3 months!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Between travelling to Northern Ireland, moving half our stuff to Whidbey Island, working on and selling the house in Seattle, moving the rest of our stuff to Whidbey Island, travelling to Washington DC, well, it’s been busy.

We’ve been taking lots of pictures, though, so I will start digging through them and posting a few at a time over the next couple of weeks.

Been a busy few weeks. We had Ben’s 18 month appointment at the beginning of February. He weighs 37.8 lbs and is 36 inches tall. In case you were wondering, that’s BIG. Here’s his growth chart just so you can see how far off the charts he is. His weight curve is up into the height section. He’s in the 95th percentile for three year olds. At 18 months. And he’s not slowing down yet — still gaining an average 1lb a month since last July.

We went to the zoo one weekend day a few weeks ago. So of course we have more pictures from the African village. He loves that place.

And we went on a ferry trip to Whidbey Island, in the middle of a huge windstorm. It was a rough crossing, but we had fun anyway.

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Last weekend, Ben attended his first ever conference (a blogging conference, how appropriate) in Vancouver BC. His first trip to Canada! We had a great time, he attended some sessions, slept through others, got a t-shirt (picture to come soon). In the meantime, here are some pictures of him after he demanded to put on Daddy’s t-shirt the other night.

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Finally. It’s been 6 months, I think! And boy did he need it.

I used to cut his hair when he was sleeping. When he was little, I could lay him down on a pad on the floor once I got him to sleep, and just clip clip clip and he’d sleep through it, oblivious.

No more. On two or three separate occasions over the last two months, I’ve tried that same approach. He wakes up the second he touches the floor. After completely losing naps those days, I gave up. The last time I attempted it was last Monday. When I realized he wasn’t taking a nap, I set him up, naked, in his booster seat in front of a Baby Einstein DVD and went to it. It worked even better! And he got a bath out of the deal too! And the only way I could bribe him out of the bath was to remind him that he could finish watching his DVD!

Here’s the new haircut (cranky looking because it was near bedtime on a no-nap day):

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

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