Everything else from Winter and EarlySpring 2013

Ben finally started walking in January!  We bought him a play kitchen, the kind that you stand at, and two days later, he was walking.  I am convinced that’s what finally got him going.  He had been walking while holding our hands since the previous spring, but he had no interest in doing it on his own.  Maybe we were trying too hard, because there was a period over late summer and early fall, where he refused to walk at all.  Of course, kids do everything on their own time.

He is saying more words every day.  He speaks mostly in English while he is at home, as far as we can tell.  Of course there is a lot of babble that we’re not sure about.  He speaks and understands Italian at daycare.  I’m pretty sure he already understands more Italian than we do, and he might speaking better than us shortly.  We are still taking lessons, and trying to improve our own Italian.

Ben is a good little helper around the house.  He can bring us things when we ask (although he can’t open the refrigerator yet), put things into our sorted recycling, empty our small recycling bins into the bigger ones, help us unload groceries, and put away his toys.  It’s a nice age where he actually wants to do all these things.

Ben’s favorite activities are (in no particular order) going to the park, going to daycare, skyping with his grandparents and friends, reading books, taking baths, taking stroller rides, riding his cars around our apartment, and giving our cat a hug.  He is really into putting on his shoes lately, but unfortunately this sometimes leads to a temper tantrum if he then wants to go outside but we say no.  I think he must be tired of being in the apartment so much over winter, because he really just loves going anywhere.  Even when we took him to get a haircut one day, which he hated, he still wanted to go out the next day.  He is always excited to go to daycare in the morning, not even wanting to take the time to kiss us goodbye (but he is just as happy to see us at the end of the day).  Whenever we try to ask him about daycare, he just says the names of (I suppose) his two best friends.  Always the same names, for the past month or two.

 Giving Zeus a hug.  Zeus is sometimes tolerant, but always gentle with Ben.

Ben is learning to eat like a European, knife in right hand, fork in left.

 And he dabs his mouth with a napkin.

 And loves dessert.

Playing in the bidet. He climbed in all by himself while I was getting ready one day.

 Shaving cream in the bathtub.  He mostly just ate it, so this activity didn't last long.

 Do-oo  (as best as I can spell what he says).  Looking for Zeus under the bed.

 Ben got stuck, Austin Powers style.

 Ciao, chi e?  Talking on the baby monitor like a phone: hello, who is it?

 Playing in the tunnel, also a favorite for Zeus.

 Both cars at once.

 We have an extra deadbolt down low, and Ben loves playing with the keys with it.  I think it is another of his attempts to tell us he wants to go outside.

 Walking like a silly.

 Being silly.

 Reading.  Sometimes he goes through all of the books on that shelf.

 Merry-go-round.  Daddy was the one who had to get off first. 

Baby Girl is growing and growing.  And kicking, and hiccuping.  We have started playing the body part guessing game when we feel lumps moving across or poking out.  We don’t have a name picked out yet, but we have both been through our Italian Names book, and we have a short list. 

We keep telling Ben there is a baby girl in there, and sometimes he responds with “ciao baby” and a wave, or “cara baby” and a stroke of my belly.  (Hi baby or nice baby.)  We have no idea if he really understands, but he seems to a little bit.  He knows what a baby is, and points them out all the time, but his term “baby” applies up to about age 5, so he’s probably expecting a playmate his own age.