Ben at 15 months

Our little Benj is in to everything now.  He's on the go 100% of the time and he's getting much more steady on his feet now.  He's even getting brave enough to try to go up and down little steps by himself.  He just recently started being able to stand up by himself without holding on to something and pulling himself up.  He bends over to pick things up now and takes off again.

His sleep schedule is all messed up thanks to our move, but he's finally getting in to a routine again.  He goes to bed around 8:30pm and then is up usually by 7:30am, but he'll play in his crib for about a half hour before he gets fussy.  And he usually naps from around 1pm-4:30/5pm.  He's not as interested in his bottle anymore, although he still drinks from it a few times a day, and he loves drinking out of a straw, so now any time he sees us drinking from a straw, he wants some.

Ben is VERY interested in planes.  He notices them in the sky all the time and has to point them out and "tell" you about them.  He jabbers like the best of them, and although I have no clue what he's saying, he sure does.  And he looks right at you and tells you all about it with such conviction.  It's pretty cute and I don't ever want him to stop.  He likes to talk to strangers too if we're holding him.  As far as saying more words, he really doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet.  He's nothing like Abbie was at this age, but then again, most kids aren't.  He'll get there though.

Ben loves to study things.  If you give him something to play with, he'll sit there and try to figure it out. He's much more focused at this age, compared to Abbie.  It's funny how he's afraid of some things that she wasn't at all afraid of, but she was afraid of some things that he's not at all afraid of.  He is apparently terrified of cats, which we found out when we went to say goodbye to friends.  Their cat calmly walked out of the room and Ben reacted like you'd just cut off his leg.  He wanted NOTHING to do with that cat.  But he loves to swing and Abbie was terrified to swing.  He's much more fearless with the physical stuff (climbing, slides, swinging), but he's hilarious when he sees something he's not too sure about.  He'll stand there and stare at whatever it is for a minute, unless it gets closer and then he runs back to Mark or me as fast as possible.

The other day Mark ran in to the grocery store and I drove around the parking lot a few times with the kids while we waited for him.  All of a sudden Ben started SCREAMING out of nowhere.  I had no clue why he was screaming and finally it dawned on me that it was the music.  "Hey ho" by The Lumineers was playing and apparently Ben doesn't like that song at all.  He's cried every time he's heard it since.  ????  Generally he loves music.  He's much happier when there is music playing and he loves to dance, but if that song comes on, he cries.  Very odd.

Ben's newest thing is trying to use a fork and spoon.  He LOVES to practice it and gets very upset when you try to take them away from him (because he's whipping adult silverware all over the place and I'm worried about him smacking himself in the face with them).  He can actually manage to get food on them and get it into his mouth.  

His favorite thing is still playing with his daddy.  He gets giddy when Mark chases him around and it's so fun to see them interact.  He loves "running" across the room and throwing himself on the couch, or having fabric on his face (running through towels or rolling around in sheets or whatever).  He's generally a really happy little guy unless Abbie is taking toys away from him, which is 90% of the time.  =S

He's quickly turning in to a toddler, which makes me sad.  I will miss his jibberish when he learns how to talk and seeing the way he waddles around with his belly sticking out and his hips going one direction and the rest of him going another.