Benjie-boy is 18 months old now! He has turned from a baby to a toddler these past few months and seems to be so much more grown up!

He's an easy-going boy.  He has his moments and lets his opinions be known, but he is very easy.  He'll fuss about something, and then give up if I tell him he's not getting/doing such-and-such.

He's extremely into everything.  He's busy and moving constantly! He requires constant supervision, because everything he wants to do is dangerous.  If he's outside (his favorite place to be), he wants to be climbing up the playset.  If he's in the hallways, he goes straight for the toilets or climbs up on the sink and turns on the faucet to splash and eat toothbrushes and toothpaste. If he's in the kitchen, he's pulling everything out of drawers and dropping things on the ground or eating things out of the trashcan.  I'm pretty worn out at the end of each day right now!

He more than makes up for this in his sweetness and cuteness, though.  He is such a love!!  He absolutely melts my and everyone around him's hearts.  He's very affectionate and give lots of hugs and kisses!  He blows kisses when people are leaving and says, "Nana (or whoever) go."

He is funny.  He likes to be cute and works it!  He likes to make people smile, too.  He'll do something that we usually react favorably to, and then he'll look at us with a big grin to see our reaction.

He talks major jibberish, and it sounds just like a foreign language!  For instance, he always wants a sip of my mom's diet coke (which he's never had).  Last night, he said, "Nana, jebedudiba....." while looking at her diet coke. :)

He's got the sweetest voice!!  The way he says, "Mom-eh", "Dad-deh", "Nana", will just melt your heart.

New words and phrases:
-ont sas on (want socks on)
-shooos on
-ont dooowwwn
-chickys
-ba-oo (bar)
-ca-oo (car)
-ka (jack)
-ta-ta (matthew and thomas)
-sha (james)
-ma-ba (mary beth)
-Deedah
-show (tv show:))
-bye-bye (he likes to play the bye-bye game, where he leaves a room, says bye-bye, and closes the door:))
-ba-oo (ball)
-touchdown (with his hands up)
-out-sigh (outside)
-NO :)
-pee-boo (peekaboo)
-poo-poo (after he goes, he tells us "poo-poo")
-ba-poo (diaper)
-chee (when I put the camera up)
-no, eye, mou (nose, eye, mouth)
-ah side (I slide)
-ah sing (I swing)
-ah gone (all gone)
-kee-yuk, kee-yuk, kee-yuk (yucky, yucky, yucky)
-i-see-you
-a go? (where'd it go?)
-kun-key (monkey)
-baaay-bee (while cradling and rocking his body)
-Mama, chee (Mama, cheese!- take a picture of me, mama)

I have no idea why this picture is edited to give me smooth skin, but I'm not complaining!

He's an absolute joy!  He couldn't be sweeter or happier.  Just usually smiley and ready for fun! He is very social and loves other babies.  He likes to give them kisses, hugs, get on top of them, whatever he can to get affection from them. :)  He has a girl in his class who he loves, Leighton, and he follows her around every time he's with her.  She's a beauty, too!  Their teachers describe them as the cheerleader and football player. :)

BIG

BIGGER

BIGGEST!

My sweet Jack is four AND A HALF!  That's how he tells everybody how old he is.  This has been such a wonderful, sweet age with him, and I had to get this blog in before he gets too close to five!

Jack has matured so much since he turned four.  I'd say 2.5 to 4 years were quite challenging with him, but he is really growing up and such a neat little person.  If anyone out there still reads this, I hope none of this comes out as braggy, because each of my children has strong and weak points!  I just want to blog it all, because I know my tired brain will forget this!!

Jack just started soccer and is loving it so far!  He just smiles out there and loves running around trying to get the ball.  He has scored two goals, and you'd have thought his team had just won the world cup by his celebration!

Jack is super confident and has many friends.  He knows everyone's name from about the first time he meets them and greets them (very loudly) in such a happy way every time he sees them.  His best buddy Kolt told his mama during his 5-yr-old interview that Jack was his hero and favorite person. :)

Jack adores my friends and will talk their ears off.  During vacation, my friend Denise said she was going to be hearing "Mrs. Denise" in her sleep, because Jack said that about 1000 times throughout the week.  He also does this to our next door neighbor and several other of my friends around town.  He will spot out the people who are comfortable around kids and who are quick to lend an ear, and he will give them an earful. Josh's best friend, Joey, came over for the day, and he talked to him for about 45 minutes!  He asked him questions like, "Joey, why aren't you married?", "Joey, do you smoke?  Have you ever smoked?"

The things that come out of this kid's mouth!!!  He CRACKS me up!!!  His little brain...you just never know what's going to come out of his mouth!  He has the funniest way of expressing himself, too.  I'm going to have to just write things down this week as they happen and add them here, because, like I said, tired brain.

Okay, here's one.  He told me that if you are "brown" (black skin), it's because you smoke.  I very quickly corrected him, saying that God created white skin, black skin, etc, and it's all beautiful.  I asked him what made him think that, and he said that it was because smoking turned their skin black.  I finally figured out that he got that from me telling him that it turns your lungs black!

He also took play-dough, pushed it through a hole made with his pointer finger and thumb, and told his teacher is was a baby coming out!  Nice!

Jack is a girl-crazy Romeo.  When he was little, he kissed most of the girls in the nursery.  He has always loved when girls wear red lip-stick.  Now, he's talking marriage with a girl in his Pre-K class.  This girl (Kendall)'s mom told me that she and Jack said they were getting married.  She asked her daughter why she likes him, and Kendall said that Jack was funny and made funny faces. :) I asked Jack who he was going to marry, and he said, "Kendall. Mrs. Renee says 'No more talking about marriage and no more holding hands'" On Sunday, Josh and I taught Children's Church, and while this adorable little girl (Falon) was playing the part of Rebecca, Jack said loudly, "Who am I going to kiss....I'm going to kiss Falon!" and then he started calling Falon "Kendall"! Mrs. Renee told us that when Kendall was gone one day, he started flirting with one of the other girls!! I think we are in for some trouble with him!!

Jack has a very active imagination. He will get on the floor for hours and act out scenes with his trains and cars, or with action figures, characters, etc.  That's probably his very favorite thing to do.  He'll lay down and get right on their level, and just go to town.  This imagination carries out into all of the funny things he says. :)

Jack has a smile that will light up a room.  He loves to be tickled, chased, rough-housed with, etc.  He's outgoing, loud, extremely passionate, lively, and spirited.  He also has a hilarious mad face.  Like I said, he's passionate!

He's a helper!  He is super independent and will get things on his own 9 times out of 10 before asking for help.  He is also pretty good at doing things himself.  He also is good about helping me with chores and clean up.

One of my favorite times to watch him is when he looks at books.  He gets lost in the pages, even though he can't read yet.  It's so cute the way he goes from page to page, engrossed, like he's reading an interesting article in a newspaper. :)


Jack is very sweet and affectionate.  He's also pretty moody and has a temper.  It's hard for him to let his first response be a calm one when he's upset about something, but he's working on it.


He's hilarious with his baby brother.  He adores him and is really good with him....unless he's really bad with him..  JK, sort of. He's come a long way, but he likes to get things for Ben to make him happy, will stay with Ben in the car if I run in first to do sometime, and just enjoys being with him.

He loves and looks up to his big brother.  He's always waiting and ready for James' attention, and beams when he gets it!  They seem to be getting better about playing nicely, although they have plenty of moments!