19 Months

Wow, I am later than ever for Ben's monthly recap. On the 19th, Ben turned 19 months old! He is getting to be more and more of a little person every day. I feel like Ben has such a little personality now. Please forgive me for writing a lot as I don't want to forget what he was doing or how he was acting at this age! Here's what's been going on:

- This month we spent a week in CT with Nick's parents, spent a few days at home with Aunt Jenny and a few days at home with my parents. Ben enjoyed his first parade for July 4th, went to the zoo a few times and spent many mornings/afternoons at the pool.

- The most exciting thing from this month is that Ben has started to talk! I'd say he has roughly 12 words, but they come and go and change daily. He can do a few animal noises too (moo, baa, meow, hisss)...do those count as words? Most often, he says: hi, up, daddy, pool, shoe, more and uh oh. Uh oh is by far my favorite and he says it all the time. He can understand EVERYTHING and will even follow directions (when he wants to of course).

- His favorite toys are still cell phones (he has about 7 play phones). He also loves his poppers and his new play kitchen. He loves cooking, washing his hands in the sink, opening and shutting the doors and putting everything in the microwave (including Daddy's umbrella and the TV remote). He loves being outside checking things out and seeing the neighbor kids play.

- I took Ben to the eye doctor on Wednesday and I'm happy to report he is not showing signs of amblyopia (what Nick and I both have, among other things). They said his eyes looked perfect! Let's hope they stay that way....he's a lucky boy with parents who have such poor eyesight.

- It seems like we are past the pain of the molars for now although when I last checked, he only had 3 of them (making 11 teeth total). However, he remained at 7 teeth for a few months so why not stop again at an odd number again?

- With Ben's walking being a breeze now, he's all over the place. We've increased our baby proofing at home after he climbed on to the conveyer belt at Target checkout from the cart and tried to get inside the dish washer on more than one occasion (all in one day). His legs and forehead are constantly bruised but it doesn't stop him for a minute. He is curious and full of energy. He is a boy, after all. :) I'm waiting for the day he crawls out of his crib.

Ben's a good eater and a good sleeper and generally a happy boy! We couldn't be luckier. :)