I’m not sure if I’ll really keep up with the month-by-month updates now that Ben is one. He has been doing so many new and fun things lately that I wanted to try to document it, so here we are…
This beautiful baby of ours has turned into a true-to-form toddler over the last six weeks. Tantrums are happening, drama is ensuing, Ben suddenly has preferences {and demands!} and is communicating quite effectively with us. He’s started to point to what he wants and he’s using sign language for things like “all done” or “milk” – it’s pretty handy.
Over the last month or so, Ben has gotten four new teeth, for a grand total of six {four on the top and two on the bottom}. This has been very painful for all of us, but also really fun because it has helped him become a better eater and chewer. When he smiles it’s still hard to see his top teeth sometimes so I don’t really have a good photo to show all of his pearly whites. Speaking of pearly whites, holy cow is it hard impossible to brush this kid’s teeth!!
Ben has been eating really, really well lately. Since he was about 11 months old his ability and interest in eating has continued to grow. Until about a week ago he had zero interest in fruit and now he’s downing about 1/3 of a banana every morning and he shovels strawberries and raspberries into his mouth as fast as he can.
Yesterday his nanny gave him a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which he finished, and he has a new found love of graham crackers and Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies. Cheerios are still the way to his heart, along with sausage and cottage cheese. Another favorite is mini waffles {I’ve heard the blueberry ones are really good!}.
Ben’s personality continues to emerge. He is such a little entertainer. He flirts with everyone – he’s got this coy look in his eyes and then out of nowhere he will start waving his arm to say hello to someone. The wave quickly turns into a full on hand clap/cackle/giggle/hammy smile combo. He is going to be such a piece of work!
It’s hard to say what Ben’s favorite activity is, though I could come up with a few things. Probably the top choice is pulling all of the books off the bookshelf. That’s mama’s least favorite activity. He loves to read the books, too, but only after he’s pulled a handful off the shelf. He loves turning anything into a drum set – he bangs on anything possible. Ben is very happy when left to independently explore something – he loves to be set loose to crawl around, pull himself up on something and cruise from one thing to the next. He’s a really independent kid, but he’ll check to make sure you’re still hanging out with him, usually by coming back to you for a hug.
Lately Ben has been more willing/able to follow directions. He generally listens when we tell him “no” or “no touch” or to come here or to stay on his back when we’re changing his diaper.
One of our big to do’s with Ben as a 12 month-old was to reduce the amount of milk he was drinking. The goal was to go from 30+ ounces per day down to around 15 ounces. It ended up being significantly easier than I expected. The transition coincided very well with him starting to eat a lot more solid food and we were able to very easily phase out quite a bit of milk.
Right now he only gets 2-3 bottles per day – for sure one when he wakes up and one when he goes to bed, though the morning bottle seems unnecessary as of late. We’re trying to limit it to two bottles and then extra milk during the day in a sippy cup. He seems to really want the comfort that’s associated with the bottle and even when he drinks milk from a sippy cup sometimes it’s unsatisfying to him. That said, he’s doing very well at drinking water from a sippy cup, which is really important now that he’s only having about 12 ounces of milk per day.
Ben can say several words, including: dada, mama, dog {dog dog}, yum, hot, ball, up and he tries to say “all done” buttttt has some work to do on that one. He has been mimicking us a lot more with our actions and what we’re saying.
In the last week Ben stood up without using anything to support him – we were at the park when he did it for the first time. It seemed like a fluke – it was as though he didn’t realize what he did. The next few days he repeated it many, many times, though. On Thursday, completely out of the blue, he stood up on his own and took three steps to walk to me. Alex, our nanny and I were all there to see it, which was so fun!
This kiddo is turning into a little boy right before our very eyes. Every day he does something new and figures something else out. Parenthood has been a much different journey than I expected in the absolute best way possible.
