Nickname(s): Benny
Weight/Height: 27lbs (20%) / 34.75” (27.4%)
Wearing: Finally moving into 2T for shirts and still in 18-24 or 24 month pants and shorts.
Saying: Oh gosh, he’s saying everything. Some of my favorite phrases of his include “uh huh, yep.” instead of just yes or yeah or yep. “right, mom?” “naughty, naughty, naughty, naughty.” He also likes to tell you that police officers will come get you if he thinks you’re being naughty.
So a typical, daily conversation we have in the car goes like this: “Naughty, naughty, naughty, naughty! Police officers come and take him. Right, mom? Uh huh, yep.” Usually it’s because he spots someone riding a motorcycle with no helmet, or because Blaire is being naughty to him, or he’s remembering something one of his uncles said to him. Lol!
He tells people to drive safe when we are leaving them. He tells Jason “I love you, have a good day at work.” when we are talking to him during a work day. He also says he wants to go to work with daddy most days.
Favorite Things: His sister. She is his favorite thing. Even when she’s picking on him or being mean to him he loves her so much. He also loves to play with anything she is playing with. If he is playing alone, he usually picks his Toy Story characters, trains, cars, his tools or he is throwing a ball, asking you to catch (or sometimes, to fetch) it.
Favorite Foods: He has been on a corn dog kick for the past month. There were days he was eating three of them. He loves strawberries, yogurt, fruit snacks, chips, carrots, crackers, peanut butter sandwiches and just plain bread. He doesn’t care if it’s a hot dog bun, a hamburger bun, or just a slice of bread. He loves it all the same.
Biggest Milestone: Starting preschool! Benny is going one morning per week for 3 hours. He remembered his teacher’s name after meeting her the first time for Unpack Your Backpack. He is a little shy at drop-off but has had no tears and runs right to me when it’s time for pick-up. It is the sweetest thing to see how excited he is! He tells me all about his day and is so proud of everything he does while he is there. Blaire didn’t do preschool until she was 4 and doing pre-k, which is free in Iowa. But she also was in daycare full time from when she was a newborn up until she was 3.5. Ben was only in daycare until he was 9 months old, so we wanted him to get used to having a “teacher,” getting dropped off and knowing mom or dad will always come back for him. And seeing how happy it makes him to go to school like sis is a bonus. He also had all four of his second set of molars come in this summer.
My Favorite Part of This Stage: Seeing his personality shine through as he learns how to communicate to us. He is so sweet and outgoing, but gets shy once he gets someone’s attention. He loves to say “hi” to everyone. He wants to do everything his sister does, or that Jason or I are doing. He wants to cuddle and help me with anything I’m doing. I love that he wants me to watch tv with him and he will grab my hand and lace his fingers through mine. And he is definitely going to miss having this big baby bump as a pillow.
We try to talk a lot about “baby sis” to try to help him somewhat understand what is coming. He loves babies when we see them out and about, but who knows how he will feel about one living in his house!? We are so excited to see him with baby sister.