Ben enjoys grapefruit on a Saturday morning. Don’t worry, he didn’t actually eat the whole thing by himself :)

Ben has various foam balls and larger bouncy balls…but the boy needed a real kickball! We picked one up at Target today and he happily held it through the store, saying “bah, bah, bah” the whole time. When we got home we bounced it, rolled it and kicked it. We were having all sorts of fun until he decided to dive after it and ended up biting his lip. After a little bit of blood and tears, he was back in the game.

Sidenotes:
I know nobody but me (and maybe a few others) notice, but I’m plagued by bad lighting in the playroom. It was also dinner time and the sun was setting…so you get a grainy Benjamin :-P

I’m reading ToddlerWise right now. I checked it out at the library with a few other books and as silly as I feel admitting I’m reading parenting books…I think this one is pretty valuable. It takes you through the thought process of not just how to parent, but why you’re making these decisions. Helping me understand the difference between reactive and proactive parenting. Ok, sounds cheesy…but it’s putting into words some of the things I want to be doing with Ben. An example, teaching him it’s not acceptable to grab at his lunch that’s sitting on the table until he’s strapped in and I’ve put his food on his tray. It’s not just curbing an annoying habit, it’s teaching him patience, we wait to be served. I was doing this before even reading the book, but I’m half way through and it’s been good confirmation. It’s not just going with the flow, it’s being intentional about parenting. *steps off soapbox*

The first year was so much easier by comparison! Harder in some regards (ie: I don’t know how to take care of a baby). But that’s all it really was, looking after the physical needs of baby (with lots of snuggling thrown in). Apparently, the toddler is a whole different species all together :)

Oh yeah, I found this really great resource online for things to do with your kids. Learning games and activities for babies, toddlers and children. Fun stuff!

I figured these are some of the things you’re supposed to write down so you remember them later :)

1) We were at our church small group tonight when I went downstairs to pick Ben up from babysitting. All the other dads had gone downstairs to get their kiddos (Andy was sick, so it was just me tonight). When I got down there, Ben was in the group of dads asking “Dada? Dada? Dada?” all excitedly. When he saw me he just said “Oh, mama” like it was a major letdown. Gee, thanks kid :)

2) When we were leaving group tonight I strapped Ben into his carseat and took something away that I didn’t want him to have. I replaced it with one of his toys but he flipped out. I closed his door, got into the driver’s seat and started the car. Mr. Ben took off both his shoes and threw them across the backseat. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Ok so it’s still a week before Ben turns 16 months, but I had all this jotted down so I figured I’d post it. He’s definitely soaking things up like a sponge. Loves learning new things and making associations between items that surprise me. The other day we were reading his book and one of the pictures was a truck. He said “tr” (truck) and pointed to the picture, then up on the mantle where Andy keeps his little remote control trucks (out of Ben’s reach). I said that yes those were both trucks and he kept pointing at both of them and grinning.

He did it again with a toy helicopter he got for Christmas and daddy’s fancy pants remote control helicopter. Pointed at his toy and then at Andy’s helicopter and said “ella, ella.”

New words are “Ga Cah Cah” (graham cracker), “Ella” (helicopter), “Cook” (Cookie Monster) and “Ello” (Elmo). He’s getting better at Kitty but it still comes out as “Tikeh.” He also calls everything round “Bah” (ball), whether it be a button, the letter O or a circle in a book. He also says “uh oh” anytime something drops or falls. Sometimes he throws things on purpose just to say “uh oh.”

When we sing the ABCs, Ben chimes in with “Ya, ya, ya, ya…” At the end of the song he claps for me :)

He knows what “over your head” means as we put on a shirt or hat. Also where his ear, nose and foot is. Farting and burping are hilarious, but that’s probably my fault because I’ve always said “Oh my, Mr. Stinky” any time he’s done it. He grins and starts to giggle whenever he does it now.

Don’t worry, we don’t usually watch TV like this :)

I had a gift card to use up and Ben didn’t really need anything, so I picked up this potty for future use. It’s fun to drop toys in the potty…

Slow motion dunking.

Bathtime is so much fun!

Curly Q!

Love him!

Post contains parenting & poop content. If it’s not your thing, do not move forward, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Hey, $200 is actually about what we spent on all our cloth diapers. Anyway, you’ve been warned :)

A couple people have asked how it’s going so I figured I’d write about it. We started using cloth diapers when Ben was 2 months and he’s almost 16 months now (so I suppose that’s a little longer than a year). The big question I get is “what about the poop?” especially after he started eating solids. Now he just eats what we eat and I’m not sure if the ick factor has changed any. Poo is still poo and diapers are gross whether cloth or disposable. Andy attached a kitchen sink sprayer to our toilet and I hold dirty diapers over the bowl and spray them out. Then I chuck them in the garbage can we’ve designated as a diaper pail. It has a pail liner that serves as a ‘garbage bag’ and I just dump the bag and diapers all in the washer together.

Pee diapers don’t need to be sprayed out like the poo ones. I still wash every 2 days (I just use Purex Free & Clear) and bleach things about once a month. The diapers paid for themselves at 6 months and now they’re “free” to use (just factoring in the cost of water, which is about $1/week). They passed the test as swim diapers too, which is really nice because we don’t have to buy the expensive disposable ones.

A nice little product demonstration from when Ben was learning to crawl. We use disposables for weekends away, but I’m still lovin’ the cloth. And yes, the truth is out…he does have pink ones :-P They were on sale, I couldn’t pass up a good sale!