Ben at 14.5ish months

Okay, so I forgot this was in our drafts folder and Ben is now almost 15 months...but, hey! More pictures of the cute baby! So at 14.5ish months, Ben:

• Has been watching March Madness with us. He chose teams on his bracket based on which name he laughed at more when we read them. Then he started getting tired, so we took any reaction as a vote, then picked the rest based on which mascot he liked better, or which team was not Xavier. He's currently doing better than a few of our other brackets.

• Has a new car seat, as he was getting too tall for his old one. This one will stay rear-facing for now (they now recommend keeping them rear-facing beyond 1 yr.) and then will flip to forward-facing when he gets older.

• Is still working on walking. He'll cruise along just fine on the furniture, walls, holding our hands, pushing a toy, etc., but hasn't gotten up the confidence to try walking on his own yet. The daycare teachers assure us that he's doing just fine and that taller & bigger babies are sometimes slower on their gross motor skills.

• Loves music. He'll yell "baa" and "yah" (yes) when I sing "Baa Baa, Black Sheep." I guess I must've been doing the sign for "music" more than I thought because he picked it up and started signing it while saying "Baa!" He also likes clapping, playing his drums, yelling into his drums, playing his assorted collection of bells & shakers, and drumming on anything, including restaurant stools, the washing machine, and the TV stand.

• Has started using other objects as phones. He'll hold anything (my slippers, his shoe, hippo bath toy, basketball) up to his ear and appear to be listening intently. He does have a few actual toy phones and has fun with those too. I called Dave from the grocery store last week & Ben started yelling because he wanted to hold/drool on the cell phone and listen to his daddy for an indefinite amount of time.
  

• Loves splashing in the water. We'll have to move him from his beloved inflatable ducky tub soon because his legs now fill the whole tub. He also adores splashing his hands in the sink like his Grammie B. showed him on her last trip out here. It's a little messy, but at least I can get his hands clean after meals without a fuss! He also still loves making faces in the mirror.
  

• Continues to show his independence. He reaches for the spoon when we feed him non-finger food, although to him all food is finger food, even applesauce. He has been trying to brush his hair and teeth and has been fairly good about not mixing up those brushes.

• Is going through a wicked teething phase. He's popped out at least 4 more teeth since the above picture was taken Feb. 11! Sometimes he is fine and other times he just jams his hand in his mouth and cries. It is so sad. Thankfully, Orajel, Tylenol, and his vibrating teether help some times. He isn't really interested in his chilled teethers anymore.

• Loves to chatter & knows a few signs. He'll sign more, all done, hungry (his favorite!), and music. He tries to imitate sounds we make and the sounds of the letters in his Leapfrog fridge magnet toy.
  

• Doesn't seem to notice TV all that much, but loves sitting on our laps in the computer room & watching short videos. Current favorites are any starring him, his buddy Elli, Ernie & his rubber ducky, Oscar the Grouch, the amazing "It's a lateral! And another lateral!" play from Daddy's alma mater, or the Top Secret Drum Corps from Switzerland.

• Will bring us books to read to him. He hasn't quite mastered crawling into our laps yet, but crawls over with his book and tries hard to hurdle into our laps. He's been in a cuddling & reading mood the last few weeks, so we've been enjoying that. His favorites are Good Night, Gorilla, Is Your Mama A Llama?, Dr. Seuss' ABCs, and some of the Helen Oxenbury baby books. Uncle Tony also recently sent Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb to encourage our potential 4th generation drummer and we've already read it many, many, many times. We'll be getting out his Easter books soon.

In other family news, my trusty Civic recently hit 190,000 miles and is still going strong *knocking on wood.* Dave & I are looking forward to visiting Colorado in a few weeks while my parents come out to take care of Ben. I'm attending & presenting at a music therapy conference in Ft. Collins and Dave is coming with me for the weekend. I've never been to Colorado before so I'm really excited!