Ben at 17 Months

Oh Ben! This little guy is every inch a BOY. His favorite activities are running, climbing and throwing … but also, happily, snuggling. The past couple of months have been so much fun with him. He can be frustrating. He loves to throw food and has little regard for the word “no” but all of that fades quickly into the background when he unleashes his darling grin on you and hugs you.

He is doing great with his gross motor skills and he still remains pretty fearless. He finally seems to have some respect for water (yay), but only after tumbling into the baby pool a couple of times. But it seems that any number of bumps on his head will not deter him from climbing anything and everything and running with absolute abandon. He’s so much fun to watch … and even when he crashes, the tears are non-existent or pretty short lived. He also loves to dance and clap and seems to appreciate music every bit as much as his sister.

He is talking some more and starting to sing (“Row Row Row!!!”). He keeps adding a word or two to his vocabulary every day. My favorite is “Cheeeee!” for cheese. It is always said as a battle cry for one of his favorite foods. I also love the way he says baby. It is very clear and done with an odd (for Ben) tenderness and he is correspondingly quite gentle with babies.

His gentleness is not so apparent with the rest of us. He throws things pretty indiscriminately. I know it’s not to be mean, but it hurts when he hits you say on the cheekbone with a dense bouncy ball. And his sister is currently sporting a 3″ (no joke) scratch across her chest from his claws. Time outs have been pretty ineffective with him, since he would just get up and be on his merry way (over and over) the second you sat him down. So now we employ a penalty box (a laundry basket) for his time outs. He can stand up, but he so far won’t get out of it and it’s doing the trick. We’ll see how long it lasts.

He still drinks his milk with great gusto, going through over a gallon a week just at home. He loves string cheese and any kind of fruit you can think of and he’s always happy to scarf down a meatball or four and the pasta to go with them. He’s trying desperately to feed himself with a fork but has issues getting the payload from bowl to mouth. The system works better when we can spear something for him to deliver, but falls apart with soup and rice. He will not allow us to spoon-feed him anything except applesauce. I suppose applesauce alone is worth the indignity.

I am constantly grateful that we get to have this amazing little person in our family. I love everything about him from his snuggles to his crazy boy-ways. He is one of a kind, my little guy.