22 Months.

Now that Ben is 22 months, I'm seeing more and more of the terrible two's in him. He's been showing some symptoms (ha ha) for several months now, but the tantrums are more frequent. Added to them are genuine sad tears when he doesn't get his way. The other day we took him to the park and he's decided he likes the big roller coaster chair swings (I think they must make him feel more secure) and he wanted to swing. Unfortunately, they were being used. We tried directing his attention some where else and he went into full meltdown complete with slapping (it's so charming to be slapped by your child in front of witnesses...), so I said "okay, let's go" and man oh man did the water works start when he realized we were really leaving.

Ben's gotten tall enough that he can't scoot under the overhang on our island (in the kitchen) anymore. He bashes his head. He forgets and so there are at least one set of tears related to that a day.

I figured out that 24 month clothes and 2T clothes are the same size, which answers my question of "why can't I find hardly anything in 24 month size??". It seems his legs are finally catching up to his torso and is wearing either 24 months or 2T on (most) everything now. He's zoomed up to a size 7 shoe (dang, we just bought 6's in September that were too big!).

Naps have been insane lately. For about the last month, Ben's been rocking a 3 1/2 to 4 hour nap every day. He must be growing. He goes through these periods of eating everything that isn't nailed down and then not eating hardly anything at all.

His vocabulary continues to explode. He's picking up new words non stop and can sing along with many songs now (not all the words, but several words here and there). He loves to play chase, hide & seek and ring around the rosie.

"Walk" is the almost always the word choice non-stop, all day. From the moment he wakes up, to as we're walking back in the door from a walk, he wants to take a walk. And walk. And walk. And I tell ya, you find out just how much patience you really do have when you go for a walk with a toddler. I've heard it over and over from others - he is a busy child. He stops to explore everything - examining rocks, leaves, bugs, dirt, pointing out poop (and then saying "icky"), watching other kids play, pointing at planes, admiring trucks, etc, etc, etc.

All colors are green. All letters are A. But he will say his name and we're working on getting him to respond with "Ben" when we ask him what his name is. He can count to 3 and sing along with the ABC's (he doesn't say all the letters but he has the tune), in fact he can sing along with lots of songs. He may only know a word or two but he gets them in the right spot. It never fails to make me smile when I hear him singing along.

I need advice, if any of you can spring it, about how to handle him when he's feeling mean. If he's not getting his way (or is overly tired), this little boy gets mad and violent. He hits, he pinches, he bites and he pulls hair. I'm doing time outs but it doesn't seem to be getting through to him. I know some of this is simply his age, but I need to encourage him to express his anger in other ways than hurting others. Any help? Any one? Any one? Bueller? Bueller?