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.

Hilton Head Island

Josh and I took Bennett to Hilton Head Island for 4 days over Mother's day. We fell in love with Hilton Head and will definitely be back! 

Bennett really enjoyed watching the airplanes and trucks out the windows at the airport

 Traveling there was our biggest fear. Our normally very active, rambunctious toddler does not like to sit still for very long.......ever. A 3:30 AM wake-up prompted several catnaps throughout the day. He was such a trooper though, and I would call the airplane travel a huge success! He was loving it!

 Some shots of the condo we rented for the trip

Love this!!

Enjoying our first moments in Hilton Head at the beach and out to eat. Lot's of live music to enjoy everywhere we went. Bennett really enjoyed the music!

 Biking is THE mode of transportation in Hilton Head. We only rented bikes for 1 day while there, but we definitely got our use of them. We biked 9 miles to brunch and back, and later in the day we logged another 10 miles to Sea Pines and back. Bennett loved the bikes and continually asked about them the rest of the trip.

Some park fun before brunch!

Hilton Head had some awesome parks!

Mother's Day Brunch at Poseidon in Palmetto Dunes

We loved the rocking chairs located all over the island

1st beach day

The only bad thing about the beach......the jellyfish:( 

(Kind of hard to see in this picture, but they were scattered up and down the beach and you had to watch for them in the water)

 More Rocking chairs

We spent Mother's day evening listening to live music, admiring the boats, and eating ice cream at Harbor Town in the Sea Pines plantation.

Busy beach day! View from our condo

Beach day #2

We also logged many, many hours at the pools

Swimming with Daddy

Josh got lucky and even got to golf in Hilton Head

Our last night in Hilton Head we went to eat at the Salty Dog Cafe. They also had live music, where Bennett really enjoyed dancing with all of the other kids!

Our first family vacation was a huge success!! We fell in love with Hilton Head and are already discussing when we can come back!!

Bennett Update {17, 18, and 19 Months}

Yep, it is true. I suck at blogging. I say this every time, every post. Each week, I say to myself "I think I am going to do a blog post." And then I don't. I just spent the last 30 minutes reading through previous blog posts. So here is my new goal: not to make every post long, but to try to update it more regularly with pictures and captions. And let's be honest, what I read in Bennett's 15 month update is not much different from what he is doing now at 19 months.

In fact, at his 18 month appointment last month, I don't think he grew at all! He is still 23 lbs. and is still around 32 inches tall. He is still napping once or twice a day, although he is more likely only to do the 1 nap a day for 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Sleeping at night is pretty much the same-going to bed at 7:30-8 and waking up around 6:30 AM. He will eat just about anything with ketchup; chicken, strawberries, cereal, yup anything!

He talks a lot more nowadays. I can actually understand him, but he definitely understands more than he can say. He also learned how to sign "more" at daycare, which is so adorable! He is starting to put together words and small sentences. He repeats just about anything we say, so time to start being careful. He absolutely loves babies and puppies (and no, he is not getting either of them anytime soon).

He tends to get a little "hangry" just like his momma. And him and Josh have the most adorable relationship, although I won't always admit I like that. Josh will tease me about something, and then Bennett will repeat it, and then they will look at each other and laugh. Yep, I should have know that was coming, ganging up on me already.

Here are some pictures/updates from the last 4 months:

Visiting Santa for the first time this year went surprisingly well. No tears! Win in my book.

Bennett got a potty and a kitchen for Christmas. The potty is just for fun right now. We have not even attempted to start the potty training, nor do I want to!

He loves the kitchen!

 

Bennett got his first haircut this winter. He looks a lot more scared than he actually was. He did surprisingly well, just a little nervous. He also had his first dentist appointment in March, but I was not able to get any pictures of that.

 

Love these little overalls

I mean seriously, how adorable! He was just loving this arcade

First time in the snow

In Febuary, we visited the Science Center of Iowa. They have this adorable little kitchen, which Bennett never wanted to leave.

 They also have dinosaurs, which Bennett thought was kind of cool as well.

My new favorite play spot is Barnes and Noble. Seriously. If you don't know about this, you should. Barnes and Noble does story time, and crafts, and they have little play areas.

Again at Barnes and Noble. We attempted to beat cabin fever all winter by finding new spots to play.

 

He has been loving his hats lately, and I just thought this picture was cute.

 

 

We also visited Great Wolf Lodge in early March. Bennett was not feeling the best, so unfortunately, he was not enjoying the pool and slides as much as we would have liked. But he loves swimming, so I am sure we will be back!

Finally, these last few weeks have been warmer and we spend ALOT of time outside and at the park already. Seriously, does he not just look so big here?!

Bennett's favorite at the park is the slide. He is not a big swinger, but give this kid a slide and he will be amused for days.

Last week was 80 degrees! Yes, that is a hot dog dipping in applesauce.

I realized we haven't given Elin much love on the blog yet. In late October, Bennett met his new baby cousin, Elin. She is now 5 months old, and such a big girl sitting in the stroller all by herself. Last week we went to the park again, with all three kids, imagine that!

 

We are so fortunate to have found a great in home sitter for Bennett. Melissa sends up pictures throughout the day, and these are some of my favorites from the last few months.