The Sweetest Things: 2011

Today Benjamin is 16 months old! He is our little precious angel baby. He has been walking for 3 months now, and is getting very comfortable with it. He puts his hands behind his back, or holds them together in front of his body while he's walking around, since he doesn't need them out for balance anymore :) It is sooo cute. Now that he has gotten more comfortable with walking, he seems to be picking up the pace on his verbal development. He has more extended babbling sessions of bah bah bah bah BAH bah bah bah. And he does the first consonant sound of some words, like when he sees a duck sometimes he says "Duh". He is eating all the same foods we are ... some of his favorites are lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs, green grapes, pancakes, mommy's protein shakes (ha!), fajita chicken, chicken nuggets, yogurt, chicken noodle soup, and more.

He LOVES finding airplanes in the air, and points up to them, says "Ah!", and gets the biggest grin on his face! He also likes finding birds, and has a similar reaction, but at about half the excitement level. He also likes throwing balls, and has gotten more coordinated in actually getting some trajectory on it. He sometimes plays ball with himself, throwing and chasing after the ball. He also plays with balls in the hot tub a lot too ... hopefully this will mean he is excited about getting the the pool in a few weeks when it warms up enough!

His signing is going well. He does "more", "all done", "please", "eat", "hi", "bye. And the other day, he wanted a snack, so I said "please put your hand out" and he did it! He also loves blowing kisses, and that has become part of his standard goodbye to loved ones (and sometimes delighted strangers too!) He lights up whenever I say "do you want to sing a song?" and his very favorite right now is Itsy Bitsy Spider. He does some of the hand motions to it, and always laughs at "out came the sun".

There are so many things now that we say to him for the first time, and he totally understands it. His comprehension has really shot up in the last couple months. You can say a series of sentences to him, like "Benjamin, please go to your room so we can put your shoes on and then go for a walk." And he does it! It is lots of fun being able to talk with him and know he is understanding almost all of it :)

He still really enjoys reading, and some of his favorite books right now are Tikki Tikki Tembo, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Who Loves Benjamin, and Love You Forever.

Almost every evening after dinner now, we have "couch time" where we tickle him and he gets to flop around and bury his head in the comfy cushions and pillows.

But his favorite thing of all is basketball. It's funny because it took putting a basketball in his hands to get him to take his first steps, and now basketball is his favorite thing to do. He loves playing at the little hoop in the living room, and whenever we go outside, he immediately reaches for any basketball hoop in sight.