22 Months

We only 2 more months until Ben is TWO!! It's crazy that he's such a little boy now. He has sure gotten a mind of his own lately and amazes me with his opinions and demands....even though they are communicated one word at a time and with a lot of pointing. Just this afternoon before his nap, Ben wanted me to read him a specific book, wanted HIS pillow propped behind my head and wanted my feet up on the ottoman. The other night, he demanded a certain pair of pajamas and made me take them out of our packed luggage for our vacation so he could wear them. I don't mind his "requests" as long as they aren't accompanied by crying! We've come a long way.

Some other things that Ben's up to lately:

- He is absolutely in love with trains, buses (which until yesterday had only been a whispered word), cars, trucks and airplanes. We just took a 4+ hour car ride together to and from CT where he was an angel in the back seat and enjoyed pointing to everything. He even spotted and named a boat being pulled by a truck and a tractor on the side of the road. I was nervous about this trip, but he couldn't have been better behaved.

- This past weekend, Ben spent his first 48 hours away from us. He stayed with Nick's parents while Nick and I went to a wedding in Vermont. He did great. The bigger accomplishment was that his Mommy survived as well.

- Ben's swimming lessons are coming to an end. Ben loved being in the pool, but we were slightly disappointed in the class. We'll have to figure out another way to get Ben in the pool this winter. On the other hand, we got back into Gymboree (as mentioned last month) and it's a huge success. Every Tuesday, we enjoy a fun filled class with a lot of Ben's friends and then go out to lunch. We are quite a scene out to lunch. Today it was 8 Moms and 9 children. Luckily they had a separate room for us to contain our noise and mess!

- Ben's finally getting some more teeth. He's a slobbery mess but seems to be dealing with them fine. He's sleeping great most of the time and eating as expected for an almost 2 year old (usually great with the occasional disaster of a meal :)).

That's about it for now. 22 months. Wow.