Here he is in all his 18 month glory... drool and all. What a sweet little face huh?
This picture highlights the dimple in his right cheek and the dent in his forehead from a fall when he was about 6 months. Hope it pops back out sometime. I have my doubts.
Bennett really loves to read and is constantly trying to say new things. He has begun forming little sentences like, "Ben-Ben shut the door", "I want some" which sounds a lot like "awesome", and "Hold you, Mommy" (i.e. "Hold me, Mommy").
Don't his little lips look so sweet and juicy in the above picture? He really loves to learn from Lincoln. They also love chasing each other around the "circle" in our house. They spend most the time, however, taking each other's toys and yelling "mine" at each other. Bennett will put himself on time out and then look up at me with a grin. He thinks it's a game. He loves singing the ABC's and knows many of them by sight. He has surprised me lately because I haven't made a concerted effort to teach him numbers yet, but he knows 2, 4, 6, and 8. Not sure what it is about the even numbers but he likes them. He'll spot them on signs, on golf balls or wherever and proudly annonce what letter or number it is. His favorite letter is W, which he often gets confused with M. I made up a silly song, entitled "I Love W" to help it stick in Lincoln's brain. The lyrics consist of "I love W", repeated several times. Bennett latched on to the song and sings it, among other songs, the whole time we are driving anywhere. His other favorite songs are "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "I Love to See the Temple". We sang "The Temple Song", as we call it, with the music on the computer the other night for FHE, and Bennett burst into tears when we stopped singing it, and moaned "Temple, temple, temple" with tears in his eyes for quite some time thereafter.
Bennett has many moments of frustration throughout each day. Here he is pictured trying to open a page of his board book, but it is just one "page" and not two, although it seemed, to him, thick enough to be two pages. Life is tough, huh? He also hates it when Lincoln gets to go downstairs to play and he doesn't. Bennett can't be trusted cause he's always climbing up the stairs when my back is turned. He did, I must admit, slide down a full flight of (hardwood) stairs on his belly not too long ago. That was enough of a scare that I now have a very strict policy regarding Bennett and the stairs.
I recently cut his "poof" A.K.A. baby mullet for the first time. It was sad to see it go, but the time had come.
His little lock I saved for him.
Bennett, in the last several months, has developed quite the "tude", as in "attitude". He gets, what we have recently started calling, "spittin' mad". When he doesn't get his way, he quite literally spits to show his displeasure. I have a hard time not laughing when he does it. After he spits, he gives me a look like, "Did you see that, cause I meant it, and what are you gonna do about it?". Then, when his spitting wasn't taken seriously, he takes it to the next level by hitting whatever happens to be close by or slapping his hand down on the nearest surface. Often this behavior ends in more tears cause his hand will sting from the slap. Soon, I'm really going to have to crack down on this behavior, but it is just too funny to me right now. When Lincoln gets mad, a mere hug from mom will calm him down. Bennett will have none of that. He'll run away from me if I try to hug him when he's mad unless, of course, I happen to be holding the magic blanky. It solves all his troubles and heals all his physical and emotional wounds. He will go from spittin' mad to practically comatose as seen below:
"Yes? Can I help you? I'm having a moment with my blanky right now if you don't mind".
But with the blanky, always comes the thumb.
He's worked up quite the callous from sucking his thumb. The little mole on his hand is the only one he has on his whole body thus far. Maybe it's there to help him remember which thumb it is that he likes.
Anyway, long story short, he is a cutie, and learning so fast. I miss my little baby, but luckily if I hold his blanket hostage, he'll pay the ransom and come snuggle. Love you, Benny.
