That means he’s one month away from his second birthday! It’s crazy that Alex and I have started responding to the question of his age with “he’s almost two!” Man time flies!!
Ben’s 23-month stats:
- Weight: 24 pounds, 6 ounces {10th percentile}
- Number of teeth: 12
- Clothing size: no change here – all over the board! Anything new I’m sizing up to 2T for tops. Bottoms are so funny – he’s still in 12-18m at the very largest, but still fits into some 9-12m bottoms. He’s very difficult to buy clothes for!
- Shoe size: just moved up to size 6 toddler!
- Favorite foods: cottage cheese, smoothies, crackers, any kind of pork, broccoli, chickpeas
Favorite activities:
- Pushing anything – dump trucks, shopping carts, his stroller, things that don’t have wheels
- Singing the ABCs in English and Spanish {!!!}
- Going down the slide
- Running
- Anything to do with a digger {watching digger videos, looking at diggers in person or in pictures}
- Climbing
- Singing songs {The Wheels on the Bus, “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!” and the ABCs are favorites right now}
- Cuddling his stuffed animals {“Lamby” and “puppy” are favorites right now}
- Practicing new skills
- Making people laugh
Our favorite phrases Ben says:
- “Have a good day!”
- “How was your day?”
- “Good morning mama!”
- “What is that?”
- This will always, always be the favorite: “Love you mama!” (or dada!)
- “I need some help!”
- “Ready to go!”
Big milestones:
- Learning how to count to 10! {In English and Spanish!}
- Actually understanding what counting is – he’s starting to count actual items, not just say “1, 2, 3…”
- Switching to a booster seat instead of a high chair
- Practicing putting boots and shoes on
- Using the potty
This last month has been one where we have noticed some of the more significant developmental changes in Ben. Aside from pretty much mastering the ABCs and counting to 12 in English and 10 in Spanish, the biggest thing we’ve noticed is how he has started truly stringing sentences together. He’s figuring out pronouns and how sentences are constructed. It is so remarkable watching him learn.
Ben started a new art class mid-month. He’s always shown a little interest in art and I figured it would be handy to have super messy art projects take place outside of our home where I am not responsible for 100% of the mess. So far so good – he seems pretty into it. If nothing else, it’s something to do and he’s exposed to new things.
Additionally, once a week, Ben goes to music class, and has since the beginning of January. He loves it and I can’t get enough of him coming home singing the songs from his class. He is very much into music – Ben loves dancing and singing.
We’re entering our last month of Ben’s co-op preschool – he has been going twice a week for the whole school year. It has been a really positive experience overall, aside from the initial overwhelmsion. Ben is exposed to other kids, different toys and activities, a bit of structure and some new snack ideas. Alex and I benefit tremendously from the parent educator who supports the class. Her tips are invaluable. We’ll be sad to be done with co-op at the end of May.
The weather has been SO NICE the last week or two – we hit {or almost hit} 80 degrees last week and we brought some toys out into the backyard for Ben to play. He’s been loving his slide, playing with Jackson, pushing the dump truck or lawn mower {off, obviously} and just running around. Alex and I can’t help but sit back and imagine our future when we have opportunities like that. It’s so fun to picture what our life will be like sitting out on the deck of our mountain house watching our kids run around with Jackson.
We ended the month with a big bump on Ben’s head. Poor kiddo. He was so excited to be running over to his friend Maya at the park, tripped and fell and banged his head on the sidewalk. He’s become very resilient and was quick to settle down. It’s always amazing to me that the regular, routine stuff he does is what ends up resulting in an accident – it’s almost never the wild adventurous stuff, like climbing up a ladder, using the rock wall or trying to run down the slide. This kid is going to give me a heart attack.
We’ve got potty training on the horizon! Our intention is to start in June. He seems pretty ready so now Alex and I need to get ready {he’s always ready for things before we are!}. We got a little potty and a couple of “potty” books and Ben successfully used the potty three times the first day! We’ve since done some more research and are removing the potties until we’re really ready to dive in. I guess this “casual” approach of sometimes using the potty, sometimes not, is very hard for them to understand when the time comes to actually potty train and can prolong the process. Sooooo we’ll pick it back up in June!
Ben has become so independent and communicates very clearly when he wants or prefers something. Another thing we have on the horizon is working on Ben putting himself to sleep. We’ve been coddling him a little too much at bedtime and he’s been telling us he’s ready to do it on his own. Like with the potty training and so much else, he’s ready long before we are! Alex and I adore the pre-bedtime cuddles and the calm time when our boy sits still. We can still have that as we work towards Ben being a little more independent as he falls asleep.
I can hardly believe we’re entering Ben’s last month as a one-year old. He has really been looking and acting like a little boy lately. I hope he stays this sweet forever and ever.
