31 Months

31 months.  Closer to 3-years-old than 2.  Another month where I can safely say "THIS is my favorite age"!  Ben's personality, his vocabulary, and his fine & gross motor skills are exploding right now.  He can still be moody, insistent about wanting his way, and difficult in some settings, but I feel like the majority of the time he is joyful, silly, and content with the way things are at any given time.

If Ben could have his way, he would spend ALL DAY outside.  With the weather starting to improve, this has meant that we are taking daily trips to the park.  (It helps that we have about 5 park options within a 2 mile radius of our house)!  My ONLY exercise these days is walking our "loop" (a little over 3 miles) and stopping at the park to play for awhile.  Watching him able to do different things (climb up and across things unassisted) and then celebrate happily "I DID IT!!!  Myself! " and give me a high five make me so happy and proud.

  

Aside from frequent park visits, Ben loves being outside with Greg.  Greg recently got a new golf club (birthday present from me) so he and Ben "practiced" in the back yard.  

They will often go for walks (short ones where Ben walks), play in the sand table, and dig in the dirt of our flower beds.

This past weekend, we walked up to the track at the middle school with the intention of running.  I lasted exactly 1 lap, so I took Ben out of the stroller and we ran together to catch up with Greg.  I was impressed how much Ben was able to run without tiring out!

When it comes to food, I'm not sure how good of a job I am doing getting him to eat a larger variety.  He certainly doesn't eat most of what we eat, although I'm getting better about always offering him what we are having while also putting something I know he will like/eat on his plate.  The things he LOVES right now are strawberries, grapes, granola bars, Morning Star nuggets, breakfast burritos (the ONLY way he will eat eggs), cheese and crackers, almonds (we get the sour cream and onion almonds from Naturebox and he is obsessed with them), tomato soup & grilled cheese, and the organic baby purees that I have resorted back to since it seems to be the only way he will eat a vegetable.

Ben is wearing 100% 3T clothing and even then some brands seem to be not big enough to accommodate his considerable height!  I'm so curious what his "stats" are.  I almost wish that we had a doctor's appointment to check between 2 and 3 years old.

Another fun thing we are noticing more and more is Ben telling us stories about things that have happened.  One morning, I was driving over to Callie's house and he kept leaning his head way back in his seat and pointing up towards the roof of the car.  He still mumbles quite a bit when getting a complicated thought into words, but it sounded a lot like "kitty...car...up....nap...dada's car..." but made a lot less sense than that.  After repeating the same thing over and over and OVER it finally clicked: He was telling me about the time TWO WEEKS EARLIER when we saw Maxwell jump up on top of Greg's car and curl up and take a nap.  When I repeated it back to him, he was so relieved I understood and said "YEAH"!  LOL.

Speaking of the kitty, he loves to put him (and other things/people/himself) down for naps.  Here he is putting the "blankie that grandma make" on him.  Maxwell hates life.

He also has started repeating passages of books back to us and it's just about the cutest thing ever.  I put the book My Truck is Stuck in his Easter basket and we probably read it 5 days a day (at least).  He will go around the house saying "Help! Please, help! Truck Stuck" which happens several times throughout the book.  Adorable.

Also, Ben is reading.  Okay, no - he isn't...but he is constantly pointing out letters and numbers and I'm amazed how much he has learned!  He loves when we get out a piece of paper and he can dictate what letters I write.  I've noticed he often starts in this order: B R Y R P  It must be code for something ;)  I think he is learning a lot from SuperWHY!, which is good because I also kind of like watching this show.

On the subject of books, Ben FINALLY is interested in sitting down and reading with me.  I truly thought the day would never come, as it was something I had looked forward to for SO long and just didn't seem to ever happen, but it's one of our favorite activities these days.

Finally, he LOVES going over to Callie's to play with Mira (Mina) and Maylee (Maynee).  He loves it so much that he practically pushes me out the door when I'm dropping him off (but not until after a sweet hug and a kiss).

I stole these from Callie :)

Spending time with Ben is seriously such a joy.  He is at an age where I feel like we can go out and do fun things much easier than we previously could.  He is our little buddy and is just happy to be included (most of the time).  Ben, you make us fall in love with you over and over again every single day.  Keep being awesome.