Same look, different year

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2012

18/19 Months

I'll use the same format I did for the 15.5 month post to try to keep it somewhat consistent:

At his 18 month appointment in November he weighed in at 26 lbs and is 33.5 inches tall.  His head circumference was still at 19 inches so he is catching up to his big noggin :)   He was 50th percentile for weight, 75th for height and still around 75th for head size.

• Talking - See the post "Words with Bennett" for an update on all of his words - it looks like it is about 60-70 word which seems crazy in just 3 - 4 months time! 
• Understanding - He understands so much right now.  We can ask him to go do something and most of the time, he will get what we are saying and do it.  He "helps" a lot right now, so if we ask him to put something away he usually will put it back where he got it.  He loves the swiffer and does a great job of pushing it around - it helps to keep the floors nice and clean too! 
• Humor - He still loves to laugh a lot and loves to make other people laugh.  He loves to be tickled.  He has lots of tickle spots, but the most ticklish are definitely under his chin and his thighs! 
• Play - His favorite toys right now are cars and trucks, his new magnet board that Santa brought him.  He also likes drawing and coloring with markers and crayons.  He has also started to really play with other kids.  We went to a potluck recently and he was having a little tea party with one of the other kids and they were actually pouring each other tea.  Cute! 
• Health - He has had a few small colds in the last few months, but nothing too major yet this cold\flu season.  He does still have pretty rashy skin - he keeps getting these weird little red spots that pop up here and there.  We have a prescription lotion we put on it and it usually will clear them up, but they seem to come right back.  
• Teeth - He has 15 teeth right now - the four front on the top and bottom, all 4 molars and 3 of his canines  He is still working on the last bottom canine and then we are supposedly done for a while.  The canines have definitely been the worst for him.  He usually handles teething fairly well outside of not wanting to eat a ton and being a little crabby, but we haven't had to really give him any medicine. With the canines he had a few days of being miserable, so we gave him a little advil and it really seemed to help.  He loves sucking on teething rings too so that helps.  The last one seems just about ready to pop in - almost!   
• Food - He LOVES macaroni and cheese, especially from Zingermans (he is spoiled, I know!).  He also loves watermelon, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.  He like some vegetables, but not a lot of meats.  Dairy and Carbs are definitely his favorite groups.  If the kid could eat just macaroni and cheese with watermelon every day he would be the happiest kid.  We try to sneak a few veggies in with stuff and sometimes it goes over well, sometimes not.  
• School/Daycare - Bennett is loving the older infant room at his daycare.  They go outside almost every day as long as it isn't too cold or raining.  They do lots of fun little arts and crafts so we got lots of little crafts sent home.  I am going to start making a photo album with pictures of his stuff so I don't end up keeping crates and crates of this stuff.  It is cute, but I'm sure there are only so many fingerpaintings one can keep around.    
• Some other fun things he is doing...
• He still loves singing ring around the rosie and then falling DOWN.  
• He has started to say "one more" when we play something like ring around the rosie or read books.  He will even stick up his one little finger.  It is pretty hard to resist!  
• He has started saying "Cheeeese" when we take pictures and will smile for the camera

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Bennett was practicing singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on our way home the other day. He tends to focus on just one section of the song. It was too cute to not get recorded. Here it is:

Please ignore my wonderful singing voice and focus ears on Bennett's singing.

Words with Bennett

I was looking at the post I wrote at 15.5 months, but forgot to post until today about what was up with Bennett at 15.5 months old.  It had about 15 words on it that Bennett knows and now when I look at the list, I am just amazed at how much he is learning every day. We have been keeping up on his vocabulary with a Google doc and this is where we are right now:

7/11/2012

•   Dada, DA - Points to Dad and says Dadda
•   Mama - Points to Mom and says Mama
•   Ba (Ball)
•   Boo (book)
•   Bu Bus (bubbles)
•   Rara (dog) - And Barks (Ruh Ruh)
•   Hi or Hiii!
•   Duh and waves arms (done)
•   Mo and points to hand (more)
•   mmmmm - When eating or when seeing food in a book will go MMM. 

8/20/2012

•  Hot -touches something and pulls back hand
•  Up
•  Will stomp feet, clap hands, touch head, touch belly 

8/27/2012

•   Uh oh
•   Blinks Eyes, Will spin and fall down (ring around the rosie)

9/26/2012

•   Baby
•   No  
•   Shhh (shoes) -points to feet or picks up his shoes
•   Car  - usually referring to his Cozy Coupe
•   Can point to  head, ears, lifts shirt to show belly

10/1/2012

•   Door
•   Down

10/3/2012

•    Quacks like a duck
•    Nigh Nigh       (Night Night) at bedtime

11/29/2012

•   Bottle
•   Socks
•   Kitten
•   ish (Fish)
•   Cracker
•   Cheese
•   Watermelon Kind of...pronounced "Ungha dun gen"  but he knows what it refers too and always   says it the same way :) 
•   Blocks
•   Papa
•   Bye or Bah-Bye
•   Ipad - Said I -ya and looks around for it.  he is slightly obsessed
•    Lucy - "ucy" This is his friend from daycare
•    Strings Hi Mama, Hi Dada, Hi Papa  

12/7/2012

•   Elf - Thank you Elf on the Shelf
•   Water
•   Turkey
•   Out
•   Nose
•   Eyes
•   Ear
•   Hair
•   Can moo for cows, tweet for  birds, make monkey noises, roar for lion, meow for cats

12/27/2012

•    Lights
•    Yes (or Yeah)
•    ME
•    can make elephant noise
•    Nana
•    Will say HO HO HO like Santa
•    Poop
•    Boots
•    Truck
•    Tree
•    Leaves
•    "One more"

Crazy, right? I am sure there are more that I am not even remembering, but seeing it as a list is amazing to me.  He is trying so hard to learn and communicate with us and it is really awesome to watch. Go little man! 

Updated on 12/29 - Of course just after posting this I remember a bunch of other words he knows so figured I would throw them on here.

•    Amy 
•    Sticky
•    Stuck
•    Dude (my parents cats name)
•    Snow
•    Walk
•    Water
•    Milk
•   "Thank you"  He only hums this one
•   "Love you"  also hummed
•    Please
•    In addition to saying Lights he will say "Christmas Lights"

Bennett - 15.5 months old

Note:  This post has been sitting in Drafts for 3 months now since I forgot to post it back when Bennett was just 15 months old.  I will try to get to an 18 month post sometime this week :)   

I just wanted to put together a quick post on all things Bennett.  This is more for my memory then for anything else, but he is doing so many cute little fun things that I wanted to get it all down before we forget!

At his 15 month appointment he weighed in at 25lbs, 3oz and is 32 inches tall.  I think his head circumference was 19 inches.  Pretty much above 50 percentile for everything so still a big boy :)   I realized something kind of crazy...when he was 6 months old he weighed close to 20lbs so that means he gained 14 lbs in just 6 months.  Since then he has only gained 5 lbs in 9 months.  He sure did put on the weight early and fast!

So let's see....

• Talking - he is starting to say more and more words.  The current words in his repertoire are: Dada, DA (usually yelled), Mama, Ba (Ball), Boo (book), Bu Bus (bubbles), Rara (dog), Hi or Hiii, Duh and waves arms (done), Mo and points to hand (more), mmmmmm (when eating), Hot, Up, Uh Oh.  
• Understanding - while he only says about 10 -15 words, it is amazing how much he is understanding now.  He can pat his nose, tummy, head and blink eyes, kick feet when you ask him wear these things are.  If you ask him to take something to someone he will usually do it right away.  He definitely understands No which will sometimes result in crying depending on his mood.  
• Humor - he is a really funny kid.  He knows when he starts to get a laugh out of someone that he will keep doing it over and over.  He also thinks a lot of things are funny - especially when we make goofy sounds or jump around acting silly. 
• Play - He is starting to actually play more which has been fun to watch.  He loves to put things in containers and then dump them out.  Stack blocks up and then knock them down.  Over and over and over....  We also have had a few dates with friends that have little ones and they actually seem to acknowledge each other now and actually play.  
• Personality - He is definitely starting to act pretty strong willed lately.  If we say no or don't let him do something he has his sights set on (like open the snack cupboard or grab something out of the trash) it becomes quite a big deal.  At this point he can be pretty easily distracted though and will stop being mad as soon as we move him onto another distraction.  He likes to do things by himself a lot too so if we try to do something for him or hold his hand = no thanks.   I didn't know this stuff started so early!
• Health - We have had a fairly healthy summer.  He had one ear infection back in June which cleared up pretty quickly and then just had a bout of hand foot and mouth disease.  That one was not fun, but luckily it was over in about a week. 
• Teeth - He has 11ish teeth now (I say ish, because he doesn't really let me look or feel in his mouth so I think I have seen them all in there).  He has the 4 up top in the front and on the bottom and then 3 molars now.  Getting them all at the same time was not fun, but he got through it fine.  We have noticed that when teeth come in, he definitely gets a bit grumpy and won't eat as much, but it only lasts for a few days. 
• Food - His eating is on and off due to teeth coming in, a bout of Hand Foot and Mouth disease, not liking what we give him, but for the most part he does get better with it.  We mostly try to feed him what we are eating. He can be quite random because one day he loves bananas and then won't touch them for weeks...same with most foods. For months he has been sticking his nose up about strawberries and then yesterday he probably ate 6 of them with dinner. 
• School/Daycare - he has moved up to the "Older Infant" room as of 9/4.  It is definitely bittersweet - we loved the main leader in the Infant room, Tammy, but his new room is really fun.  They have a little playground attached to the room and they all do naptime at the same time.  They are on more of a schedule which I think will be good for him so that he always eats\naps at the same time each day.  
• General cuteness - Some other fun things he is doing...
• When he wants to sit on your lap he will walk over, turn around and then back right up to your lap.  He does this a lot with books.  
• He will spin around in circles and then "fall down".  I sing Ring around the rosie and he will spin until I say "we all fall down" and he will plop down and fall backwards and kick his little legs in the air.  

I am sure there are many more things to share since I haven't really posted much of an update since 9 months -oops!  

Hands on Museum

Had a great time at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum with our friends, the Hillards.   Here is a fun little video of our day.

First Haircut

Bennett got his first haircut today (7/14/2012), he did such a great job. Kim and I were not sure how he was going to react being in the barber chair, but he actually seemed to enjoy it! Dan, the barber even gave Bennett a certificate after successfully completing his first haircut.