Ben at 2 years old!

Our little boy is already 2 years old!  It’s hard to believe that he was born 2 years ago!  Time flies when you’re having fun, I suppose.  Ben is growing and developing by leaps and bounds right now.  His language skills are exploding and we don’t quite know what he’s saying all the time, but he’s definitely putting 4-5 words together sometimes and is getting much better and communicating what he wants.  He’s getting a little less screamy, which is great!!!

Ben’s favorite person in the whole wide world is his daddy.  He is definitely Mark’s little mini-me and he follows Mark around any chance he gets.  He ALWAYS wants Mark to carrying him or get him out of his car seat when we’re out and about and I think Mark loves it just about as much as Ben does when he gets to carry him around.  I love seeing them interact and I know that if Ben grows up to be half the man Mark is, he’ll be doing really well.  I am so thankful that our kids have such a good role model for a daddy.

Ben LOVES cars.  Cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, trains – he’s just like my dad.  It amazes me how he just gravitates towards the boy things naturally.  I would think since Abbie is much more in to dolls and art, that he would like to do that stuff too since he also watches her like a hawk, but nope.  There are about 30 cars strewn all over my house at any given moment in time and he plays with them all day long.  It’s either his cars, or he’s kicking a little ball all over the house.  He’s pretty coordinated for his age too, as far as kicking the ball goes.  We got him a balance bike for his birthday, and it might be a little bit big for him right now, but I’m sure pretty soon he’ll be flying around on that thing, considering he currently gets his tricycle going so fast that he takes corners on 2 wheels sometimes.  =S

Ben has a great appetite and usually eats more than Abbie.  He loves milk and drinks half of a half gallon of milk in a day or two easily.  And he loves his carbs.  Some mornings he’ll eat 3 bowls of Life cereal and if there is any sort of pasta around, he’s all about that too.  He loves grapes and bananas, and he asks for his vitamin about 14 times a day.

Ben still loves to watch Sesame Street, although he also loves to watch Thomas the Train, Olivia and Curious George too.  Luckily he and Abbie seem to enjoy the same shows, and I only really let them watch those ones, or a few others on PBS or Disney.  Ben is our little alarm when a show is over though.  (I record most of them so I can turn them on for them later in the day during their TV time.)  If the show gets over and comes to an end, Ben is the first one to notice every single time and starts pointing and yelling “show over”.

We discovered recently that Ben can count to 11 by himself and we were kind of surprised by that.  I’m not sure he understands the concept of counting things yet, but he can count.  We’ve been working on colors with him and he loves to scribble on things (walls included) when Abbie has all her crayons and markers out to color.  He still loves his paci and lovey, and only uses them in his crib and his new thing is to ask for a “different paci” 14 times before he’ll actually lays down to go to sleep.  After about the third time of trying to walk out the door and having him start yelling “different paci” and throwing his current one across the room, you’re about ready to pull your hair out.  He acts like they’re different flavors or something.  Not sure how to get him out of this habit easily.  Luckily he’s cute, which makes it easier to forgive him.

Ben is such a fun little guy to have around.  He’ll come up and give you a hug if you act like you’re sad, and he’ll say he’s sorry if he hurts Abbie in some way (like pulling her hair…).  He’s hard to believe how far he’s come in just two short years!  I wish he’d stay this age forever.  Happy Birthday, little man!  We sure do love you!