Bennett Update {20, 21, and 22 Months}

Bennett is getting fiercely independent these days. He has his mom's stubborn-ness and his dad's "my way or the highway" attitude. Can we blame him? We both like to be in charge, so of course we are going to have a child with similar traits:)

Bennett wears size 5 diaper, 18-24 month or 2T shirts and pjs, and 18-24 month or 2T pants and shorts(you can even throw some 12 month stuff in there depending on the brand). He also wears a size 5 shoe, little feet-little guy:) But I think he is pretty darn close to upping that to a size 6, which I would love to have happen at the END of summer so we don't have to buy all brand new summer shoes, but oh well. He currently has white-blonde and a curly head of hair (which he gets from his Daddy). Speaking of hair, his white-blonde and curls gets him SO much attention. Not even joking here. Everywhere we go we get stopped to admire his hair! Bennett's eyes are a gorgeous shade of light blue. He is rocking a pretty awesome farmer tan right now, but the parts that are tan, compliment his hair and eyes so well. Our little Toe-Head.

Bennett goes to bed every night between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm (sometimes later on weekends). And he wakes up right around 6:30-7 am every morning. He is still in his crib, but has recently learned how to climb out. We are debating whether to transition the crib to a toddler bed or not yet. He has only climbed out 1-2 times, and at bedtime has never tried, so until it becomes a problem......maybe we won't ruin a good thing. Bennett likes to watch cartoons while Daddy gets ready in the morning, and on weekdays, Daddy drops Bennett off at daycare. At daycare, he still naps sometimes twice a day, but at home we have him down to one time a day, usually between 11-2 and he will go down for 2-3 hours. He rarely protests his naps, and usually will tell us when he wants to go down, which is something I am oh, so grateful for. He goes right down, and rolls around, kicks the crib playfully, and has conversations with himself in his bed until he falls asleep. The rest of the day he is go, go, go - he has more energy than anyone I have ever known and keeps us busy, busy, busy.

Bennett likes hotdogs, ketchup, chicken (with ketchup of course), French fries, chips, strawberries, bananas, poptarts, waffles, fruit snacks, applesauce, chicken nuggets, sausage, bacon, pancakes, goldfish, popsicles. We feed him exactly the same thing we eat every night and usually he will pick at pieces of the meal, but rarely touches the veggies. Most any meat he will eat .......with ketchup though.

Bennett is quite the chatter box, surprise to anyone who knows his mom? probably not. The general public might not know what he is saying, but we know, for the most part. And even more exciting is the fact that he has started stringing words together to make short phrases.

He loves babies, and will kiss and hug any and all babies, if given the opportunity. He is very affectionate, surprisingly.

He points to airplanes in the sky and says "mar-mane". He also can hear a motorcycle from a mile away and will say "mo-mo-cyyyllee (honestly, I can't even spell how he is able to pronounce this word, it is beyond me that he can say a 4 syllable word). Other than this, any and all trucks, boats, planes, cars, or vehicle is of interest to Bennett, especially the boat. He loves time on the boat, and can usually be heard repeating "boat?" "boat." "Nate's boat" "trailer" "trailer boat," over and over and over, trust me, it gets old:)

Speaking of interest in vehicles, he also has a passion (seriously, a passion) for lawnmowers. Much like the motorcycles, he can hear a lawnmower from inside the house, and know exactly what is going on. He wants to mow our yard, follow daddy around when he mows, and if we would allow him, use the lawnmower as a jungle gym.

He has such a cute way of enunciating the end of words like such as "tru-CK" and "bu-ssss"

Bennett is starting to understand names of people, and so far he knows two people by name, Nate and Grace. Other than that, he is still working on remember the face and the name that goes with it.

He says"Buh-Bye" to everyone, whenever he leaves a place.

He has an interest in the potty, and has gone a couple of times in the big boy potty, but not quite ready to jump completely into this yet. Or, wait, is it that mom and dad are not quite ready yet? HAHA, either way, we know we need to devote some time to this and I am sure it is a near-future development.

Bennett sleeps with a stuffed Elmo. He loves Elmo! He loves to watch Elmo, but other cartoons he likes are Bob the Builder, Chuggington, Paw Patrol, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and recently more interested in Team Umizoomi and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

He loves picking his bedtime stories every night (which is usually the same books night after night-depending on the week). For a few weeks in a row he really loved "Baby Rock,"  another week was a recordable book my mom recorded for him, and right now he is fixated on these two little books with wheels on them, one is a firetruck and one is a school bus. He gets into grooves of doing the same thing night after night, until one night, he decides its time to switch it up!

He doesn't get hurt very often, but when he does, he wants a kiss on his owie. In fact, there are many times where his little feet don't move fast enough and soon enough he is flying face first into the pavement. Usually, we just wait to see how he reacts and 9 times out of 10 he bounces right back up and keeps going. We are no stranger to scraped toes, knees, legs, and elbows. Everyone jokes about how he is going to end up with a broken bone in a matter of months.

Bennett loves swimming and is not scared one bit of the water. He does not necessarily like cold water though, but he has no fear of jumping right into the water. This means we need to be extra cautious on the lake and he has done a great job of learning he needs his life-jacket in the boat and on the dock.