Our Little Magician

Tonight towards the end of dinner I was trying to get Ben to eat some tortellini. He's had it before and liked it but the last couple times I made it he's refused to eat it. Tonight he refused it again. I told him he had to eat one piece and if he ate it I would give him a cookie. He picked up the tortellini and looked me right in the eye. He put his hand to his mouth and then in one movement took the tortellini around the side of his face and put it on his shoulder under his ear. I couldn't help but laugh at him. Where does he learn this stuff?! And he never did eat that tortellini!

Ben at 2 1/2

It amazes me how much Ben has changed in the past 6 months. When I look at pictures from his birthday he looks so much younger to me!

There's no 30 month well-visit so I don't know how tall Ben is or how much he weighs but it feels to me like he's gained several pounds since his last appointment. He had ear tubes put in in November and he currently has his second cold since then so we'll see how well they work.

Ben finally got the last of his 2 year molars in late February (almost 2 years to the day from his first tooth). Hooray! Those last molars disrupted his sleep for 2 full months. He is back to sleeping much better. He's napping pretty much every day in his crib and sleeping well at night.

We haven't really started potty-training because I'm not sure Ben has enough control, but we do put Ben on his potty before his bath and most nights he uses it. He enjoys the special potty song we sing and likes to put a sticker on a chart after he uses the potty.

Ben loves to go to the playground near our house. He likes to play on the equipment and also likes to run down to the football field and the farm. He especially loves it when other kids are at the playground and he gives hugs to anyone who plays with him. He's a little overzealous with his hugs sometimes but the other kids never seem to mind. He's also becoming more adventurous on the equipment and wants to try everything even if he's still a little too young for it. He recently started jumping. He only gets one foot off the ground but it's so cute!

He is obsessed with all things Winnie the Pooh these days. He calls him "ooh". His favorite toys at the moment are his Winnie the Pooh figurines and a set of Winnie books.

Ben knows all his numbers, letters, shapes and colors. We're going to start him in preschool in the Fall and I think he's going to love it. He currently attends a "social group" at an elementary school once a week. He has done really well in his school group and follows directions and participates in all the activities.

Ben has been such a happy little guy lately - a couple of his therapists have mentioned to me how happy and smiley he is lately. The cashiers at our grocery store have nicknamed him "Giggle Boy" because he laughs when the groceries go down the conveyor belt. He also has a very funny sense of humor and he likes to tease me. He does the sign for cookie when he's eating breakfast and then laughs and laughs.

Basement project

About 2 weeks after we moved into our new house part of the basement ceiling collapsed and the basement has been unusable ever since. We just had the basement finished and we're very happy with how it turned out. Here are the before and after pictures. (Hannah's food isn't staying in the powder room, we just haven't set up her area yet).

Big Boy Haircut and Snow

Amazing

Every once in a while Ben does something that just amazes me and today was one of those days. This morning he was looking through his Winnie the Pooh coloring book. He got to one page and stopped. He went over to his box of Winnie board books and took out one of the books, turned to a specific page and put it down next to the coloring book. Then he turned and looked at me and smiled. Yep, it's the same picture. I can't believe he remembered exactly where this picture was in his set of 10 books and turned right to it even though the coloring book is black and white. It actually took me a minute to realize it was the same picture!

Eee!

Ben has made so much progress with communication in the past 2 months it's hard to believe. He learned sign language, learned how to request what he wants with a picture exchange system, started mimicking gestures with certain songs (Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.) and now he has finally started mimicking vowel sounds! In the past week he went from not mimicking sounds at all to doing ee, ah, oh, he and ha. His speech therapist said she got chills today during our session when she heard his new sounds. In this video the first sign he makes is for milk and then he does his sign for cookie right before he says "ee".

Happy New Year!