Sixteen Months

I tried and tried to get a decent picture of him this morning, but he was fidgety and kept trying to grab the camera. This was the best one of the bunch.

But this one is my favorite.

I found this fan among the clutter I was sorting last week and thought Ben might like it.

He did like it...but he kept trying to take it apart.

I have been really tired from all the house projects that need to be done before we list the house next week. One night I got out of making dinner & we splurged on burgers & slushes from Sonic. My drink came with two lime slices. Ben found them and tried to eat one of the slices. This is not the first time he has eaten (or at least sucked on) lemons or limes.

Finally! This is the reaction most people would have when biting into a lime. It took him awhile.

Another trip to the park with Mike.

Check out the dog coming at Ben in the background. Mike said Ben had quite a good time with that dog, but the picture looks scary to me!

Always with at least one stick in his hand. I really need to figure out how to give this kid a haircut.

At the park, there's a hill the Ben likes to run down. He always falls and scrapes his knees and legs. Here's the first set of scrapes.

And here's the second set, from another outing. Mike said, "This is going to be Ben for the next ten years, isn't it?" It sure is.

There's a bunch of stuff I meant to write about, and Mike even reminded me, but I can't remember. Mike is in San Antonio for his job, and he'll get back at the end of the weekend. Ben got me up twice last night, which is pretty unusual these days. I storm came through last night & I think the thunder and lightning bothered him. He gave me a hard time going to bed tonight, too. I'm crossing my fingers & hoping for a better night...maybe I'll remember whatever it was I forgot & post it later.

At the Park

We have had great weather lately for playing outside. We found a local park that has a couple of toddler swings. This was Ben's first experience with swings at a playground. He wasn't so sure about it at first (I'll post a video later), but it only took a minute for him to figure out he liked it.



I think Mike had just as much fun on the playground as Ben did.

I thought Ben might like the big, colorful playground equipment. Not so much. He did find lots of cool sticks that are apparently more interesting than the sticks in our yard. He also liked watching the bigger kids playing, and he got to see a very friendly dog.

Ben is really digging books this week. He is even bringing books to us to read to him. Although sometimes he walks away after the second page.

"Goodnight Moon" is one of his favorites. And we've read it so many times that it doesn't matter when he flips the pages all over the place because we have it memorized.

He is fascinated by my teeth, especially when I'm talking.

This trip to the park was just the boys. Mike said Ben found even more sticks.

All that playground equipment, and where does Ben go? Down to the chain link fence by the road. There are more sticks down there.

We did have several days last week where there were threats of thunderstorms. One morning I took Ben to a small playground on base, hoping to beat the rain. It was overcast so I didn't have to worry about too much sun, and it was windy...Ben loves the wind now. A year ago, he couldn't stand it and acted like he couldn't breathe when a breeze came by. This park was near an empty pavilion & he ended up spending most of his time running around on the concrete. He did explore the playground a bit. It is surrounded by a very low plastic fence that he couldn't step over. But he could step up onto the plastic ramp at the entrance and thought it was an awesome toy: he kicked it, rolled around on it, and beat it with sticks. Yes, he found more sticks.

Ben caught his first stomach bug yesterday. He had strange eating habits; he ate a ton of acorn squash but wouldn't eat much else for dinner. He went to bed as usual, but this morning he slept in until 9:30. We checked on him a lot to make sure he was okay. He seemed fine when he finally got up, but when I tried to feed him some pumpkin bread for breakfast, he took one bite and threw it up. He was very upset. This was the first time I've seen him throw up since he's been off formula. He ate some plain saltines & took a few sips of water. He never did throw up again, and later in the day he started eating regular food and drank a bunch of milk. I'm relieved that he seems to be feeling better already.

Wedding

Last weekend we went to Alabama for the wedding of our friends Matt & Audra.

I promised Nana that I would take pictures of the outfit she bought for him.

This was the first ceremony that Ben has attended. Well, if screaming in the parking lot counts as attendance. It took three hours to get there & Ben took a short nap in the car. We got there a bit early because Mike had to rehearse with the brass quintet, and they started playing half an hour before the ceremony. Ben made it partway through the pre-music, then had a meltdown. I thought I'd take him outside and he'd calm down. Nope. Nothing I did appeased him. Luckily my friend Sarah (who came without her own toddler, smart woman) came out to help me. After a loooong time, we got him to calm down a bit. Mike spent much of the reception pushing Ben in the stroller on the sidewalk right outside. I thought that, after such a long day, Ben would sleep like a rock in the hotel. Once again, I was very wrong. He woke up twice. The second time he got up we decided to just get up and hit the road. He slept for a bit in the car and didn't fuss until the very end of the trip. It's really helped since we turned his car seat to face forward.

Pre-meltdown moments before the wedding, in our hotel room.

He got the biggest kick out of the air vent. And yes, he had the pacifier for this trip. I don't want to think what would have happened without it.

Back at home and happy in the bathtub.

He found his reflection in this tub fixture...there was lots of talking & smiling at himself. And peekaboo.

This was right after Mike was practicing trumpet and was showing Ben how he forms his lips to play. We were shocked when Ben copied him, then marched out to the living room and continued practicing.

We continued practicing through dinner. Our little Louis Armstrong.

Ben absolutely loves the show Yo Gabba Gabba (for preschoolers) and Mike found a book from the show while the two of them were in the grocery store. Of course, Ben had to have it.

Daddy + Yo Gabba Gabba book = BIG smiles!

World Traveler

This week we went on base to get photos for passports. We weren't so sure how Ben was going to do with having his picture taken; we have never tried taking him to get professional photos done. But he never knew what hit him. Mike & I each held an arm, and this is what the photographer got. It even has Ben's signature raised eyebrows.

Opening his early Easter present from Nana & Grandpap. At first he threw most of the stuff on the floor and just grabbed these socks. He eventually figured out that the books are more fun than socks.

Books (not socks).

Reading one of his new books with Daddy. He has just recently started to let us read to him again. For awhile there he wanted to "read" by himself, which means holding the book upside down and flipping the pages back and forth.

I don't remember the circumstances here, but they involved sweet potatoes.

Enjoying a sunny day outside with Daddy. Mike said he kept going up and down the front step.

Nature boy.

Digging in the dirt.

Earlier this week we took Ben to a speech therapist for an evaluation. It went really well. The therapist assured us that Ben is doing fine overall and that there is no need to bring him to the office for therapy sessions. She gave us some suggestions and exercises to do at home and told us to check in with her in 2-3 months. If he hasn't said any words by then, she'll start seeing him in the office. She said that lots of boys are "late" in their speech development but they try to catch problems early. She said that there are several different parts of communication, and he's within the normal limits for all of them - he understands what is said to him, and he tries to communicate to others. She seemed confident that Ben will be speaking soon. He is continuing to make lots of different consonant sounds, and this week he has been copying our inflection a lot. The speech therapist even said that one of his babbling sounds, "loodle," might be a word to him and we just don't know what he's referring to. I thought the evaluation might be stressful for Ben, but he had a great time playing with new toys and exploring the office.