As always, I am way overdue for this post. And I don't think I ever did one for the past couple of months, but I did want to remember a few things about Benjamin from this super fun and challenging age.
Height: 36 3/4 inches (95-100%) Can't believe he's over 3 feet tall and I think he's even bigger now
Weight: 33lbs (95-100%)
Likes: You are obsessed with all things Thomas the Train, airplanes, tractors, trucks, and school buses. You play with your Little People and their vehicles every day without fail. The same with your Thomas trains and track. You love to throw rocks in the water, and love to be outside. You really seem to have a preference for basketball and always talk about "throwing the ball in the hoop." You love to sing and some of your favorites are "Jesus Loves the Little Chidlren", "Joy is the Flag", "Dare to be a Daniel", "God Made the Mountaintops", and "I'm in the Lord's Army." You sing all day long and we love it. You still love, love, love books and read all. the. time. You love going to Sunday School, wrestling with Daddy, bathtime, going for walks, helping mommy sweep, and coloring. You also love watching Finding Nemo but your absolute favorite is Little Einsteins!!
Dislikes: You don't like getting your hands dirty. You don't like having the lids of the ketchup, mustard, etc open on the table (very quirky!!) Of course, you don't like not getting your way! You still don't love to hold our hand when we're in the parking lot, you really don't like to snuggle or be touched unless it's on your terms :-)
Eating: You still love your vegetables and fruits. You love macaroni, chicken nuggets, pasta, rice, vegetable soup, hot dogs, burritos, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate! You're not super picky though you can sometimes get distracted at the dinner table and it takes some work to get you to eat. You are also a very messy eater but you do well with your fork and spoon.
Sleeping: You go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30 every night and usually sleep until 7:00am. You very rarely wake up in the night. You are sleeping in your big boy bed and transitioned to that amazingly, never crying about missing your crib. Of course, you still get out of bed in the morning and we're working on you learning that this is not okay! You also still take 1 afternoon nap each day, going down about 1:00pm and waking around 3:00pm. You sleep with your Floppy! This month we got you a replacement Floppy since your other two were soooo worn and a rip was causing the "beans" to come out of him. You wanted nothing to do with him at first and would say "here you go Mommy, here you go....where's my other Floppy?" But I just took your other ones and hid them (I'm so cruel!) and it took 2 days for you to adopt the new one. It's so nice to not have the beans everywhere and he's much cleaner....we'll still save the other two though. You move like a crazy man in your bed too and you always kick the covers off.
Personality: Verbal!!! You talk ALL THE TIME. It's great. You are incredibly smart and pick up on things super quick. You know all your shapes and love to point out the stop signs (octagons!) everytime you see them. You would rather have mommy draw circles on your coloring books then color the pages. You can count easily to 15 and sometimes 20. You've known your alphabet for months but now can recognize about 20 of the 26 letters on paper. You also recognize numbers 1 through 10 on paper. You've known your colors for months too! You are goofy and funny and know when you are being funny and you love the attention. Your favorite joke is the "nacho cheese" joke! You're still a little bit shy at times but you are so much more comfortable with other people. You're a nice combination of cautious and daredevil. You are a great big brother and are very sweet with him, though you don't like him to invade your "personal bubble" ha :-)
Highlights: The biggest one is that you became a Big Brother!!! And you are amazing at it, we are so proud of you. You switched to a big boy bed, you are drinking nonfat milk, you went to Ohio for Christmas, you went to your first birthday party. There's been a big change now that you are not the only child in the house but you have transitioned so well as we always knew you would.
We still cannot believe you are two years old Benjamin! These past 2 years have been the best years of our lives and we love you so incredibly much. We look forward to your goofy, loveable infectious smile and laugh each morning and we absolutely adore watching you learn. We are so proud of you and think you are the most wonderful little guy. Always know how much we truly love you Benjamin, we are so blessed to be your parents. Love you to the moon and back!
