Benjamin, 18 months

Our Benjamin is 18 months old! Benjamin has 15 teeth and eats so much food!  He can really put it away. He still has moments of being picky if the consistency is odd, but he’s getting better by the day. He’s down to one nap a day and sleeps about 10-11 hours at night.  We’ve also officially turned his carseat around which makes him a much happier traveler.  He gets really hot and sweaty and we found that the a/c wasn’t getting to him as well turned backwards, so with it being summer, we had to turn him.

He’s not quite the magpie that his sister was at this age, but he is saying a lot of words and will show you what he wants or needs.  His favorite words are mama, daddy, papa, Ya Ya (Madeline), car, cold, light, bus, Deacon, dog, cow, ball, cat, more.  He loves to make out sounds, too.  He moos, oinks, roars, barks and makes a siren sound.  He’s also a little love bug and will give you a hug, kiss or high five and blow you a kiss at your request.

Benjamin is loving music. He loves to dance and “sing” – especially to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse hot dog dance.  He also loves to be dipped upside down and enjoys leaping off of his little arm chair into our arms.  He smiles and says “tay, tay, tay” and then jumps (we think this is his version of “1, 2, 3”).  He also loves books.  He enjoys being read to and likes to flip through books on his own, as well.  In fact, the first thing he does when we take him to Benna's in the morning is head to the bookcase to select a book, sits down and flips through it!

He is a true 18 month old, which means he throws a true tantrum.  He squeals and stomps his little feet, squirms around and occasionally throws himself on the floor.  Oh, the joys.  This too shall pass, as it did with his sister.  Tantrum or not, he sure is cute and funny!

At his 18 month doctor’s visit, all looked great!  He did throw one of those mighty tantrums when he got shots, but recovered well.  It was kind of funny that two grown women (the nurse and me) had to wrestle this child to hold him down while he was throwing himself around to avoid the needle.  And I’m convinced if he knew curse words, we wouldn’t gotten an earful.  He is 27 lbs., 4.5 oz. (70%), 33 1/2” in length (84%), and head measures 20" (99%).  My little bruiser is growing like a weed.