15 Months.

Ben turned 15 months old on Friday. Can you believe it?!?

03/15/11

What a difference a year makes! 03/10/10

This month Ben is continuing to expand his vocabulary. He just this week started saying Sadie. He says cat (all time favorite word), meme (for milk), socks, shoes, what's that?, mama, dada and nana. When prompted he'll say GG and what can pass for grandpa.

His favorite song is the Itsy Bitsy Spider and will make the hand motions for the spider to encourage us to sing it to him. Recently he's been making sounds like "itsy bitsy" when we sing to him. He'll also say "e i e i o" kind of when prompted during Old McDonald.

He loooooooves to go outside and play. I take him to the park every opportunity I get and he's all about wandering from place to place or sliding head first down the slide. The swings hold zero appeal to him anymore and he cries if we try to make him swing. He's starting to run now and it's funny to watch him take off in a hurry.

He's recognizing sounds and knows the sound of the back door being opened when Nick gets home. Ben gets way excited and races off down the hall to wait for him. He also thinks it's fun to stand in the front window each morning and wave to Nick as he drives to work. :)

He's begun to come and fetch me to play. He's fairly independent and plays by himself most of the day, but recently he'll come and stand at my knees while I'm on the computer and grab my hands. Then he'll lead me off some where to do something with him. I love it.

We traded his high chair for a booster seat and meal times are a lot nicer. Food rarely ends up all over the floor any more (unless it misses his mouth) and he eats more consistently. I think he likes feeling part of the family at the table, rather than in his high chair.

Ben's expressing himself through tantrums a lot more now, and man does he throw some whoppers. He has this shriek... wow. And he's perfected the melt. You know what i mean. Where he makes all the bones in his body sort of melt so that he doesn't have to do what you want him to do. Like come inside from playing. ;)

He's completely mastered opening doors. We ended up putting a child lock on the one to the guest bath, since that's the door he's most interested in opening (and, although he thinks it's awesome - I don't want him playing in the toilet water. ewwwww). He's pretty good about leaving the rest of them alone, but I can see the door to the laundry room (it goes out to our garage) becoming an issue soon.

He still just has the 3 teeth but 3 more are working on coming in. His incisors are both nearly broken through and his bottom tooth is finally coming in. Problem is, it's coming in almost completely sideways. I still haven't called the dentist for his first appointment yet, but now that I see that one tooth coming in all wonky, it makes me wonder if that's why they've been so slow to come in.

I think that's it! I love watching him grow - he'll sit and roll his cars back and forth... I went in his room the other day because he was being quiet (a sure sign for trouble, right??) and he was sitting quietly, building a tower with his legos. He loves music and likes to dance. He points out birds and airplanes and waves at the garbage truck. He tests my patience regularly but he also continually makes my heart burst with love. :) We sure are lucky to have him!