20 Months Old

Ben is 20 months old!

I don't have a lot to say about 20 months that is new or exciting, but I still cannot believe how quickly my crazy, silly, and adorably sweet little boy is growing up.  The main thing I have been noticing about him lately is just how much he loves to explore and how much he LOVES to be free.  He is at his happiest when he is allowed to be outside and running around with zero restrictions.  (I learned this....the hard way...this weekend at the zoo) :)  Ben is only interested in being in his stroller for short periods of time.  He does pretty great when we are strolling around our neighborhood, and he still does great at the grocery store, but if we are somewhere new or interesting, he does NOT want to be contained.

But speaking of the zoo, Becca organized a group of us - her, Amanda, Erica, Maureen and myself and our kids to meet up Saturday morning!  It was so fun to see everyone and spend approximately 7 minutes catching up....before Ben wanted out of his stroller, or out of the zoo, or onto a big rock, or out in the field, etc.  It was a bit of a...zoo.  :)

 

 

 

We recently purchased a water table for Ben, and he was entertained by it for a LONG time.  It's nice to have him just chill on the deck for 5 seconds before having to chase him down the stairs.  But he lovvvvves it.  It will be a great toy to play with this summer!

 

 

Ben loves music and loves to dance.  He is obsessed with this video and will walk in a trance towards the TV anytime we play it. 

On Sunday, we went to see Casper Baby Pants do a show at Teatro Zinzanni.  Our friends The Tarter's invited us to join them and their son Jasper, who turns 2 this month.  I had a feeling from the beginning that Ben may be overwhelmed - with the dark lights, loud noises, crowd of people, and the need to stay seated for 1 hour and 15 minutes.....BUT, I figured we would give it a try anyway.  Looking back, it was probably a mistake to agree to go.  While we had a great time before the show - getting to meet "Casper" himself and get a signed CD - Ben only was interested in the first 20 minutes of the show.  For a few minutes, he was even clapping and laughing!  But soon something changed his mind and he cried for at least 15 minutes while Greg followed him around the theater.  We finally gave up and left early.  Greg and I discussed it and figured that for the time being, there is no sense in forcing Ben to do stuff like this just because some other person's kid thinks it is fun - because every kid is different!  We should just focus on going to parks and to places where he can explore when and what he wants to :)

 

 

 

After we took Ben home, and after his 3+ hour nap, we took him to Juanita Bay Park and we had a GREAT time :)  While taking these two photos below, I didn't realize that Ben was taking off one of his 1 size too small crocs and throwing it in the water (that was well beyond our reach) below.  Ha!  The price I paid for this photo-op.

 

 



While Ben is still slowly adding new words to his vocabulary, (recently we have heard "diaper", "strawberry", "bath", "soap", "this is....this??" and what I think was "where's Ben??") I'm starting to understand how much more his non-verbal skills are developing right now.  For example, anytime we see a dandelion, we will grab it and he will hand it to me to blow (while he makes a sort of blowing motion with his lips).  The other day, I asked him (for the first time) if he saw a picture in his room of an elephant blowing on a flower like we did outside.  He immediately pointed at the picture on his wall and started to try to blow.  I honestly never even knew if he had noticed that picture before, but apparently he had :)  We can't wait for him to start to SAY more and more words, but it's still so much fun to see his wheels turning and to know how much of what we say really sinks in and is comprehended.

 

Ben is consistently wearing size 2T/24 months and size 7 in shoes!

Finally, his love affair with the iPad never ends.  Last night, after an exhausting day weekend, I had no problem parking him in front of the iPad while I watched Mad Men.