22 Months Old

 

Ben turned 22 months old yesterday. He continues to talk up a storm and loves music and reading. He likes pointing out letters, numbers, and every random thing he sees. We went out to a restaurant a few weeks ago and the shop address was above the door. He pointed to it in the middle of dinner and yelled, "1-2-3! 1-2-3!" (his generic term for any numbers). Mr. Eric (a Mizzou fan) will be crushed to hear that Ben also loves pointing out the "birdy" (Kansas Jayhawk) when we are at the grocery store.

His new favorite word is "yeah" and it is the answer to most questions, including those requiring a choice. He will answer "yeah" when asked if we live in a house, but also when asked if we live in a space ship. He continues to like to go for walks after he gets home from daycare, probably because we were trapped inside for so much of the sweltering summer. 

His little table is a nice place for him to color or play with his mixing bowl.

I think we have several recent photos of him with this expression. I think he was either yelling or singing when we took the picture.

He was trying to drink out of the cup he puts his crayons in. I have a feeling he probably nibbled on a few random crayon shavings as well. Ick! Well, at least he looked cute in his The Cat In The Hat "Thing 1" shirt from Tony & Jen. 

Ben was in a cuddly mood yesterday evening and we played for quite a while with his airplane. We've also checked several airplane books out of the library to try to prepare him for riding on an airplane up to Michigan next month.  I am kind of frustrated that none of the children's books we've found really give you a good walk-through of the steps you now take to get on a flight. There are a few okay ones, but they're kind of old (e.g., "Then the stewardesses bring you your food!") and poorly organized.


He has a few new toys. Cousin Ruth brought him some little trucks which have already run many races across the dining room floor, and a set of flutes for the bathtub which will hopefully deter him from stealing my recorders out of my work bag! You can tune these flutes by putting in a certain amount of water and when he's older he can use the set to play songs with the color-coded music. Ben blew out a few notes, then quickly discovered he could just drink the water straight out of them...

and then looked like he was trying to use it as a blow dart gun like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

He saw them on the counter the next morning and was not happy when I told him he couldn't bring them to school.


Ben was also given 2 handmade rocking horses from the longtime neighbor of his grandparents. He'd made them several years ago but his grandkids are grown now and he is moving, so he sweetly gave them to Ben. Ben also has a cricket bank that Mr. D. made just for him.

After Ben rode the rocking horse repeatedly, he decided Harry the stuffed dog should try it. I guess Harry wasn't listening to directions because Ben kept telling him in a very stern voice, "Sit down!" Tonight he rode with his baby doll.

  

 I was cracking an ice tray the other day and Ben was curious, so I gave him an ice cube in his bowl. He carried it around for a few minutes just watching it melt.

Dave & I were at the breakfast table the other day and Ben was sitting so quietly by the stairs, just playing with his Megabloks.


Ben just has a pumpkin shirt for Halloween. We figured he is too little to care about trick-or-treating and he's in a phase of hating to have any shirt put on, so might not even tolerate a costume if we got one. Plus, he already has tons of energy and does not need extra sugar!! He has liked seeing all the pumpkins and Halloween decorations and has a mini pumpkin in his room.