Monday June 18, 2007 (Almost two years old)
Benjamin has been saying a ton of new words lately. He can say 'slide' (meaning, the slide at the park) and it sounds like “shlide”. Sometimes when we are in the car, he'll beg me to go to the park, by saying "shlide! shlide!" :) We can understand a lot of his jabber now - It's fun to realize that everything he tells us has a meaning, and now we are able to understand what his meanings are. I bet they always had a meaning, but we just didn't know what. He is really into cars - most of his alone-time play around the house consists of lining up all his cars. He has about six or seven play cars and he is always making a row of them, and then moving the row to another place in the house. It's so funny! When he chooses a place that all six can't fit, he sometimes gets really frustrated and throws the car down on the ground with an agonized yell and then puts his face in the carpet and cries. It's actually hilarious. But we've been teaching him to come tell us that they don't fit and then we can help him. So he often comes to me with a frustrated "fit! fit!" :)
Last week Benny and I went on a two hour long walk. I pushed him in his stroller and we went to Truman State University campus and walked around the walkways. Then he got out and pushed his stroller around. We went into the Biology building after awhile and looked at all their animal exhibits. They have live snakes, turtles, frogs, and lizards in glass cases on display. He was especially fascinated by the snakes, and thought it was neat when they slowly moved their heads to come over and look at him. He mastered the word ‘snake’ while we were there.
We had a twelve hour long road trip yesterday, coming home from house-hunting in Michigan. Near the end of the trip we were on the highway and there was a lot of construction going on. Jed and I kept pointing out the tractors to Benjamin and he LOVED it. When he spotted the tractor, he would yell out ”Truh-truh!” and point at it excitedly. Then when it was out of sight again he would say, “All gone.” There were tons of tractors on this stretch of the journey, so this continued for a long time. It was so cute how he would get so excited and yell out every time he saw one.
We also played with his magnetic doodle-drawer on the trip home. I would draw a picture and then hand it to him. He would say what the picture was of, and then erase it and scribble on it and then hand it back to me. The first time I said, “What a great picture, Benjamin! Good boy! I like your picture!” He was surprised that I made a big deal of it and then he happily smiled at me as if he was really proud of himself. Jed said, “What is it a picture of, Benjamin?” He thought for a moment and said, “snake!” After that, every time we asked him what he drew he said it was a snake. :) Sometimes he was too excited to tell me it was a snake to wait for us to ask him. After awhile he started to say he drew an airplane, but then it went back to drawings of snakes. Jed and I thought it was pretty funny.
While we were in Michigan we stayed with some friends who have three boys. Benjamin was OBSESSED with their train set. They have a wooden train set where each train has a magnet on the front and back of it. He played with that train set constantly, lining up all the trains in rows. He loved them. He would actually wake up in the morning and from naps and the first thing he would say was “train!” because he wanted to go play with it immediately. (Guess what was the first thing to come out of his mouth this morning - "train!" We really need to get our own set!)
Benny has begun to show his imagination. At dinner last week he started to pretend that a black bean was a car. He ‘drove’ the bean across the table and said “car! car!” Tonight at dinner, he put a rotini noodle on the table and said “snake”, then he would wiggle it around the table and say “ssssss.” Jed and I said, “Oh, is that a snake? Wow.” Then he put another rotini noodle behind the first one and excitedly said “train!” It was so cute! I was happy that he was learning to pretend-play.
Benjamin has been saying a ton of new words lately. He can say 'slide' (meaning, the slide at the park) and it sounds like “shlide”. Sometimes when we are in the car, he'll beg me to go to the park, by saying "shlide! shlide!" :) We can understand a lot of his jabber now - It's fun to realize that everything he tells us has a meaning, and now we are able to understand what his meanings are. I bet they always had a meaning, but we just didn't know what. He is really into cars - most of his alone-time play around the house consists of lining up all his cars. He has about six or seven play cars and he is always making a row of them, and then moving the row to another place in the house. It's so funny! When he chooses a place that all six can't fit, he sometimes gets really frustrated and throws the car down on the ground with an agonized yell and then puts his face in the carpet and cries. It's actually hilarious. But we've been teaching him to come tell us that they don't fit and then we can help him. So he often comes to me with a frustrated "fit! fit!" :)
Last week Benny and I went on a two hour long walk. I pushed him in his stroller and we went to Truman State University campus and walked around the walkways. Then he got out and pushed his stroller around. We went into the Biology building after awhile and looked at all their animal exhibits. They have live snakes, turtles, frogs, and lizards in glass cases on display. He was especially fascinated by the snakes, and thought it was neat when they slowly moved their heads to come over and look at him. He mastered the word ‘snake’ while we were there.
We had a twelve hour long road trip yesterday, coming home from house-hunting in Michigan. Near the end of the trip we were on the highway and there was a lot of construction going on. Jed and I kept pointing out the tractors to Benjamin and he LOVED it. When he spotted the tractor, he would yell out ”Truh-truh!” and point at it excitedly. Then when it was out of sight again he would say, “All gone.” There were tons of tractors on this stretch of the journey, so this continued for a long time. It was so cute how he would get so excited and yell out every time he saw one.
We also played with his magnetic doodle-drawer on the trip home. I would draw a picture and then hand it to him. He would say what the picture was of, and then erase it and scribble on it and then hand it back to me. The first time I said, “What a great picture, Benjamin! Good boy! I like your picture!” He was surprised that I made a big deal of it and then he happily smiled at me as if he was really proud of himself. Jed said, “What is it a picture of, Benjamin?” He thought for a moment and said, “snake!” After that, every time we asked him what he drew he said it was a snake. :) Sometimes he was too excited to tell me it was a snake to wait for us to ask him. After awhile he started to say he drew an airplane, but then it went back to drawings of snakes. Jed and I thought it was pretty funny.
While we were in Michigan we stayed with some friends who have three boys. Benjamin was OBSESSED with their train set. They have a wooden train set where each train has a magnet on the front and back of it. He played with that train set constantly, lining up all the trains in rows. He loved them. He would actually wake up in the morning and from naps and the first thing he would say was “train!” because he wanted to go play with it immediately. (Guess what was the first thing to come out of his mouth this morning - "train!" We really need to get our own set!)
Benny has begun to show his imagination. At dinner last week he started to pretend that a black bean was a car. He ‘drove’ the bean across the table and said “car! car!” Tonight at dinner, he put a rotini noodle on the table and said “snake”, then he would wiggle it around the table and say “ssssss.” Jed and I said, “Oh, is that a snake? Wow.” Then he put another rotini noodle behind the first one and excitedly said “train!” It was so cute! I was happy that he was learning to pretend-play.
3 comments:
Erin-I love your little family. You really are great parents!
FUN!
I love reading about Benny's adventures and all the things you guys do together - it is so fun to share that! Eric and I were reading this one and it made us excited for when Gabe gets older and more interactive. Little boys sure are fun!
Post a Comment