18 Months!

Ben turned 18 months old on Tuesday (which was also his cousin Gabriel's 5th birthday!). I can't believe Ben is a year and a half old already! We've been very lucky to be mostly healthy this Winter, but Ben and I got hit the past 2 weeks by a stomach flu, cold and then ear infections. I *think* Ben is feeling better (hopefully I didn't just jinx us). It's been a long couple weeks, especially since Ben dropped his morning nap right when all the sickness started.

He had his 18 month check-up on Tuesday and he is 34 inches tall and 26lbs8oz (still 60% for weight and 90% for height). We knew he was getting taller because he can now reach the top of our kitchen counters and actually pulled an empty coffee cup off the counter and broke it last week.

Here's his 18 month update:

Sleeping - Other than the past couple weeks, Ben is a great sleeper! He's been waking between 6 and 7, goes down for his nap around 11 and sleeps until 1 or 1:30. Bedtime is 8 and he usually falls asleep immediately.

Eating - Ben is still a good eater, but he's getting a little picky. He current favorites are cheesy rice, corn, turkey dogs, sweet potato fries, ham and eggs, oranges, peaches and of course cantaloupe. He LOVES his milk and would gladly drink it all day but we limit it to first thing in the morning, before his nap, and before his bath. Otherwise he drinks water. He's getting better at feeding himself with a spoon (if I load it up with food).

Behavior/Playtime - Ben is generally a good-natured boy, but he definitely has his toddler moments and went through a phase of tantrum -throwing at 16 months. That has gotten better but we've been dealing with some food-throwing (this started when he was recovering from his stomach virus). Ben thinks it's HILARIOUS when we "yell" at him so that makes it a challenge to get him to stop. Ben loves playing with toys, especially his singing duck, singing Donald (yes, he has 2 different singing ducks!), blocks, farm, and books. He loves to chase us and be chased and we play hide and seek often. He loves to play outside and tries to open the sliding door by himself. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can play outside more. Ben makes us laugh all the time with the funny things he does. Tonight at dinner I asked him if he liked the song that was on the radio. He was putting food in his mouth with one hand so he did a half-clap. I could not stop laughing!

SteveSongs

Ben went to his first concert today! We went to see SteveSongs with Mr. Steve. I bought tickets back in October and we had front row seats. We were a little nervous how it would go since the concert fell right in the middle of Ben's normal afternoon nap time so it was going to be a one-nap day. We got there shortly before the concert started and Ben had fun running down the long hallways at the auditorium. We got to our seats a couple minutes before the concert started and Ben was a little antsy, but as soon as Mr. Steve came out he sat perfectly still on my lap and was totally mesmerized by the show! The kids in the audience were invited to dance in front of the stage (so right in front of us) and it was very amusing for all of us.

Other than the occasional clapping, Ben hardly moved at all during the show. He definitely recognized the songs from the CDs we have and would smile at random moments. At the very end he got down off my lap and tried to make his way through the "kid mosh pit" (as Josh called it). All in all it was a very fun day and we're hoping we'll be able to see Mr. Steve again when he returns to the area.

Snow Day!

We had an interesting week...lost power due to the snow so we had to temporarily relocate to a hotel. Ben did great though and was very flexible so that made the experience much easier. We were VERY happy to come home to a warm house on Friday.

Daddy and Popi took Ben sledding for the first time today and Ben loved it. It wasn't too cold out so they stayed outside for awhile and played.

Bounce House

We stopped taking Ben to Gymboree a couple months ago (got a little boring for him) and instead we've been going to MyGym classes. They have "open gym" time several times a week where you can go and let the kids run around. We took Ben for the first time yesterday and he loved it! They had a bounce house set up and Ben wanted to go in it so badly! We let him play until some big kids got a little rowdy in it.

16 month milestones

Last night I was reading a chart of milestones for toddlers and I told Josh the behavior milestones for 16 months are tantrums and suddenly picky eaters. Good to know that Ben is right on track with both of those! Ben has definitely been letting us know what he wants to do (watch tv, eat more ice cream for Daddy's birthday) and what he doesn't want to do (get dressed, eat his dinner, behave in stores, sit in his carseat). He is teething ( just 2 more molars to go before we get a little break!) and we're hoping that has something to do with the tantrums. I'm not holding my breath though.

The good news is that his sleep has been wonderful! We're going on 17 straight days of him getting up later than 6:30! Considering his wake-up time for most of December was closer to 5, we have really enjoyed this nice stretch of sleeping in.

PS - I wrote this post during Ben's second nap today. I'm happy to say, he was SO good at dinner tonight! He ate a ton of vegetables and my homemade chicken nuggets without crying at all! He also helped me clean up his toys in the kitchen and played nicely until bathtime. Yay for a good evening!

I Did It!

As promised, below is the video of Ben saying "I did it" the other morning. (He says it quietly, so you'll probably have to turn the volume way up to hear him).

Bye Bye Bottles

Ben has primarily been drinking out of a sippy cup for months now but I was still giving him a bottle with milk before each nap. I wasn't in a big hurry to get rid of them since I knew they helped soothe him. I had 18 months as a deadline in the back of my mind and I wanted to get through our holiday trips first. Ben's been doing so well with his naps lately I figured I might as well try to take the bottle away. So the past 2 days I've given him a sippy cup with milk at naptime. Honestly, he doesn't seem to notice the difference so I think we are officially done with bottles. It makes me a little sad that I gave him his last bottle on Sunday afternoon and didn't even realize that was the last one. I do remember it though because he was so cute while he was drinking it. He held the bottle in one hand and was gently playing with my hair with his other hand.

Ben still only has 1 official word (Dada/Daddy), but in the past week or so he's been babbling a lot more and he's saying something that sounds a lot like "I did it". I caught it on video with my phone this morning so I'll post it later. I'm not sure he realizes what he's saying, but he does seem to say it at appropriate times so maybe he does.