Ben Turns Two

working hard to blow out his two candles

We celebrated Ben's second birthday Monday at home with family (and a fabulous dinner!).  Opening presents was fun for him this year, although he began by tearing off a few pieces of paper and then taking the paper to the trash.  He still exhibits some very "type A" behaviors...taking trash to the trash can, shoes to the mudroom, and dirty clothes to the laundry room, along with properly placing the clothes in the laundry basket...at times all done without being asked.  Yesterday I even caught him lining up toys cars very carefully, side by side, in a straight line.  I'm not sure if I'm amused by all this or scared!

Ben is still a lovey boy with kisses and hugs for everyone...in the family.  Strangers scare him.  But, he loves older men...grandpa-like older men.  He likes to be held, and hugged, and rocked.  We're still waiting for his 2 year molars.  He's gotten to be a pretty adventurous munchkin and tries, or at least thinks about trying, everything that Sam does.  And he's one tough little cookie!...Sam is making him that way.  He loves airplanes, and fire trucks too.  He loves going to music class and will try to sing some songs now.  He dances too.  He also loves Play Wisely class and sings his own version of the ABC sounds when he thinks we're headed to class.  And he loves "Ms. Ash", his science teacher.

And the most exciting recent thing going on is that he's talking, really talking now.  He started to say a lot of new words about 6 months ago and then stopped.  And, until just a few weeks ago he's been grunting and pointing and signing...very caveman!  But that has changed.  I've heard people talk about children who don't talk until two (because the have older sibling(s) and don't have to), and then they start talking in full sentences.  Ben almost fits that description.  Over the last few weeks, he went from just a handful of words to saying several new words a day to, last week, putting three words together..."On peas mommy, " bringing me a toy to turn on for him.   He's just started calling me "mommy" and John "daddy", instead of "mama" and "dada".  He calls Sam "ah" although Sam doesn't like it and tries very hard to get him to call him "Bubba", which he does sometimes.

Captain Ben, ready for take off!...
He flies around the house on his plane saying "Bye!" and giving high fives.