5 Years....

and still so in Love!

Ben's Birthday Party

I know I am about a month behind on this one. Life is my only real excuse on this one.

It was a firefighter theme. I didn't do much with it. I made these cute dalmatian hats for his little friends.

I also made little toppers for the cupcakes. I ran out of red food coloring so my little BOY got pink cupcakes for his birthday :0) The kids didn't seem to mind. Chase and KimberlyTalon and Denise We got him a set of Hot-wheel cars. His face says it all!

He found his hands

Sam has found his hands and loves sucking on them. He will even spit out his pacifier sometimes just so he can have a little nibble.

My Baby is 2!!!!!!!

How did we get here so fast?
Stats:
Height: 37 1/2 in - He is still off the charts
Weight: 32 lbs - 90%
He is the average size of a 3 year old.
Favorite Food: BBQ chicken
Favorite Drink: Strawberry milkshake from BK
Favorite color: Green (any time you ask him what color something is, this is what he will say)
He can count to 12 but just started skipping #5
He can sing most of the ABC's but only recognizes "S" (any time he sees an S he says "S, for Sammy.")
Favorite movies: Cars, Bolt, Pinocchio, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Mary Poppins, Finding Nemo, Baby Einstein. (It changes every day)Things Ben loves: run, jump, climb, chase people, look at dogs, steal people's bikes, eat chocolate, do the fireman dance, be thrown in the air, kiss Sammy, be tickled, pizza, wear his boots, get the mail with his dad, visit with his grandparents, put on people's shoes, pick flowers, go for walks, go to the park, go to Costco, play with cars, play with balls, taking a bath, playing in water (tub, pool, gutter, sensory table, sink), oranges, corn on the cob, sing, count, turn on lights, switch movies after 20 minutes, jump in the Lovesac,

Funny sayings: Hi mom, hows it going? What grandpa doing? That's right, that's what happened! I want more chocolate, pleeeeas. (followed by a hand gesture that is a mix of the sign for please and the sign for giraffe.) That's ok, the birds will eat it (anytime he drops food on the floor even if we aren't outside.) I don't think it is. Remember mom? Sammy sleeping (when he says this his voice goes way up at the end).

Ben you are a lot of fun! Our family wouldn't be the same without you.
We love you big guy!

The Next American Idol

Ben loves singing!!! Sometimes while he is playing I will hear him singing a song that I didn't even know he knew. He doesn't know all the words to the songs yet but what do you expect from a 22 month old (some kids his age are just now starting to put two words together.) Sometimes he will get stuck and just keep repeating the same line over and over again.

Enjoy the Show

Song: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Words: Head shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes. Head shoulders Knees and Toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose.

Song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam
Words: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. To shine for him each day. In every way try to please him. At home, at school, at play. A Sunbeam, a Sunbeam. Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. A Sunbeam, a Sunbeam. I'll be a Sunbeam for him.

Song: This Old Man
Words: This old man he played two, he played knick-knack on my shoe. With a knick-knack paddy-wack, give a dog a bone, this old man came rolling home.

Song: Jingle Bells
Words: Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. (He use to say oh what fun it is to cry, and then he would do the sign for cry, but right before I pulled the camera out Tom taught him the right way to sing it.)

Movie Monday - Counting

This is from 2 weeks ago.
He can now do it without being prompted.

Turning Into a Big Boy

Yep it's true, Ben is turning into a big boy whether I like it or not. In order to get ready for Sam and the new crib we decided to transfer Ben into a toddler bed. I have decided to do the boys room in a Heroes theme. (I'll post pictures of it later, it still isn't finished) So the bed we chose for Ben is a fire truck. We bought it off of Craig's List and saved a ton of money by doing so. These are pictures of Ben and Tom cleaning it up. Ben absolutely loves playing in his bed. He talks about it all the time!!!! Unfortunately he doesn't love sleeping in it as much as playing in it. It has now been 3 weeks and he still hasn't slept an entire night in the bed.
When I first transferred him we put a baby gate outside his door. He can open just about any door in our house (including the front door with the deadbolt) So he would just open his bedroom door and stand there crying. Without saying a word I would pick him up and put him back in his bed and walk out of the room. He would then run to the door and the process would start all over again. This would go on for about an hour and a half before he would fall asleep blocking the door. After all that work he would only sleep for about 30 min. for his nap. This lasted a few days before I couldn't take it any more.

We then put the baby gate inside his room about 3 feet from the door so it could still open. This way he couldn't get to the door and if he fell asleep on the floor we could still open it to check on him and transfer him to his bed. Each day he would cry for less time. Like I said, it has now been 3 weeks since we started this process and things are getting much better. He doesn't cry at all now. He just gets up silently and lays down on a blanket in front of the gate. He always starts out in his bed but by about 3 AM he ends up on his blanket on the floor.

I'm sure someday we wont need the gate up anymore. I'm so glad we started this before Sammy gets here.

Movie Monday (on Thursday) - Counting & Colors

Benjamin is 18 months

I just can't believe how fast time flies.

Here are his stats:
Height: 35 in Still off the charts
Weight: 27 lbs 4 oz still about 50%-75%
Teeth: top 8, bottom 6
Hair: Still sandy blond and always in the need for a haircut.He is talking up a storm. He loves to repeat the last word of every sentence you say to him. (That makes it hard to know which words he actually knows and which ones he is just repeating.) One of his new words is octopus, he says it opeesee, but I know what it means :0) You would be surprised how often the word octopus comes up in our conversations. He has figured out that not all birds say "caw, caw" He can distinguish between a bird, a chicken, a rooster, a turkey, and a duck. He will even say gobble gobble for a turkey, bock bock for a chicken, and cock-a doodle-do for a rooster.He is starting to put two words together, usually to show possession "Dada shoes," "Mama goo" (he still calls milk, goo, I have no idea why.)He loves running!!! It is hard to get him to stop. He got faster the same time I got slower. It makes park-day an interesting adventure. He would live outside if I let him. He loves kicking balls and throwing things. We are working hard on this one, it is usually food or something at someones face. Any suggestions of how to break him of this habit?

He is starting to want to do things for himself but gets very frustrated when he can't do it, like putting on his shoes and socks, or fitting something in a box.He is a lot of personality in a little body. We have so much fun with him!!!

1st Day in Nursery

Last Sunday was Benjamin's first day in nursery at our church. They have to be 18 months to be left alone. Technically Mother's Day was his first day but we were at my parent's ward so I'm not counting it :0)
He did really well. He got sad a few times but so did all of the other kids. It was just an off day for everyone. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He's not my little baby anymore. Good job Benjamin we are proud of you!!!! Thanks Pat for all you do for our little munchkins.

Movie Monday - Jumping

Once again I am starting a new thing with my blog as if it wasn't hard enough keeping up with it. I'm not expecting to do a movie Monday every week but I will try to as often as I can. Benjamin's grandparents always tell me how much they love seeing videos of him because they are so far away. It is a way for them to see him grow up and learn new things. So here you go grandmas.

Benjamin has just mastered a new skill: JUMPING!!! I was looking on a milestone chart and it said a few 24 month olds can do this skill but most don't master it until 27-28 months. Benjamin just turned 18 months last week. As you can see he has no problem with gross motor skills now we just need to get him to sit down long enough to practice fine motor skills :0) He is one active little man.

Bees!!!!!

Benjamin was stung by a bee for the first time last Wednesday. He was kicking a soccer ball in a field at park-day when his foot went on top of the ball and he fell down. His hand landed right on top of the bee.

It couldn't have happened on a worse day. That day I dropped off the car to get an oil change and some work done and then walked to the park. The car wasn't going to be ready until 12:30. At this point it was only 11:00. Our friends usually stay at the park until at least 12 but today everyone had to leave early. So Benjamin and I were left alone at the park, without a car, when he got stung.

I got the stinger out with a credit card and then walked a few blocks to a Taco Bell to get some ice and wait for Tom to come from work with some Benadryl and the camera. Lucky for us he didn't show any signs of being allergic. His finger swelled a little tiny bit but that was it. He cried until I got the stinger out and gave him some juice. What a trooper!!!

New Words

Benjamin is really taking off with his language. It seems like he adds a new word to his vocabulary every day. Sometimes its the spoken word and sometimes it is sign language. I never know which one he is going to pick up first. He always tries repeating what we say. (well the last word of the sentence) Sometimes it comes out right and sometimes it is just gibberish. It is a lot of fun to watch him learn and grow.

This is the longest word he can say. Apple Sauce.

15 Months

Benjamin had his 15 month check-up last week. Other than a really bad cough, a fever, and 2 ear infections he is doing really well.

Here are his stats:

Height: 34
Weight 24.7 (after not eating for a week because he was so sick)
Benjamin is learning and growing so fast. It seems like every day he is saying or signing a new word. Some of them are not actual words but sounds but they have meaning. He says it every time he sees the object he is referring to.

Here is a list of what he says and how he says it.

• Dada sometimes just Da
  
• Ma- doesn't say this one very often usually he just calls me Da
  
• No- he always says it right before he does something he isn't suppose to.
• Yes
• Yeah- usually followed by him clapping for something amazing he just did :0)
  
• Go
• Ball=baw
• Bye-bye - followed by a kiss as he runs to the door
  
• Juice = jis
• Book = boo
• eeewww = says it almost every-time I change his diaper :0)
• Shoes = shhhz

These are sounds he makes for different animals

• Bird- caw caw (we have a lot of crows by our house)
• car/truck/airplane - crrrrr
• cow - mmmmm
• elephant- eeee as he raises one arm in the air for the trunk
• monkey- ah ah
• sheep- ba ba
• dog - ha ha - its a mix between a bark and a pant
• bee - bbbb

These are the signs he does - a lot of them he has come up with his own version of (sometimes he will do the right sign for a few days and then he will change it to something he likes a little better)

• dog
  
• diaper
  
• please
• thank you
• night night/ sleep
• milk
• bird
• twinkle twinkle
• more
• all done
• ball
• airplane
• cat
• hi
• bye
• eat
• wash hands
• pray- he can keep his arms folded for almost the entire prayer
• bonk bonk
• light
• shakes his finger when he says "no no"
• shoes
• socks
  

This week we are working on baby and oh-no. He is starting to get oh-no but I think there are too many meanings for "baby" in his life right now. There is one in my belly that he can't see, there are some at church, and we still call him baby. I'm working on calling him "big guy" more but it is a tough habit to break, he will always be my baby :0)

Boy Genius

I know all parents think their child is the smartest and I think I just figured out why. As a parent you see your child start out as a helpless little blob of flesh, and then all of the sudden one day they have a new trick to show you.

I know Benjamin is not a genius, he is right where he needs to be for 13 months, but it is a lot of fun to see his new tricks. I love watching him learn and grow.

Here is his latest trick. I found out he knew what I was talking about when I was in the kitchen one day. He came up to me making a really odd sound. When I went over to him to see what the heck he was doing he was holding up his cow. That is when I realized the sound he was making was a "mooing" sound.

Snow Much Fun

The day after Thanksgiving Tom and I went up to my parents' cabin with them. We had a great time. That night there was a huge storm with thunder, lightning, rain, and hail all night long. We woke up the next morning to a very unexpected surprise, SNOW. There was about 3 inches of it covering the ground. It was Benjamin's first time in the snow. I'm not sure what he thought of it. We had a hard time getting him to look up, he refused to take his eyes off the ground. He had a hard time walking at first but he quickly mastered the skill of walking with boots that are 2 sizes too big on an uneven squishy surface. I'm actually impressed at how well he did. He had never even walked in hard-soled shoes before that day.
We just love our little man.

Wordless Wednesday a day late

The Big One

I thought it would be fun to add all of his stats to this post so you can see just how my little baby grew to be such a big boy.

• Birth~~ Weight 7 lbs 14 oz ~~ Height 21.5 in
• 2 Week ~~ Weight8 lbs 1 oz ~~ Height 22 in
  
• 1 Month~~ Weight 11 lbs 2 oz ~~ Height 24.5 in
  
• 2 Months ~~ Weight 13 lbs 9 oz ~~ Height 25 in
• 4 Months ~~ Weight 17lbs 0 oz ~~ Height 26.75 in
• 6 Months ~~ Weight 19 lbs 6 oz ~~ Height 28 in
• 9 Months ~~ Weight 21 lbs 14oz ~~ Height 30.5 in
• 12 Months ~~ Weight 23 lbs 0 oz ~~ Height 32.5 in
  

Life got a little crazy this week (but that is another story for another post) Today I want to talk about my big guy turning one last week. His birthday was on Monday. We started the day by making special pancakes shaped like the #1.

Then he got the best present ever. A trip to the doctor to get 3 shots. Yep, that's right I am the meanest mom ever. He did really well with his visit and the shots. Later that night we invited his favorite people from church (Emily and Jared) over for dinner and cupcakes. This was my trial run of the cupcakes that I will be making for his family birthday party. I think they turned out really cute. I got the idea from my friends blog. Click here if you want to get a description of how they are made. I let everyone decorate their own which I think was a little added fun. This is a picture of my friends monkeys ours were not quite as beautiful :0)

Benjamin was so dainty about eating his cupcake. Why is it that this is the one time we want him to get truly messy and and he refuses to do it.

Thanks for joining the fun Scott Family!!!

He loved his presents especially his little car that makes noise.

All in all it was a great day for my little man!

Baby Sign

I have been working on baby sing language for the past few months with Benjamin. He is just now starting to understand and repeat the signs. Today he even did the sign for "more" before I asked him. He is really coming along. I hope it helps us both communicate in the coming months. Some of the signs are real sign language and some of them I made up. Here is a great site to learn more signs.

These are the signs he can do-that doesn't mean he knows what they mean yet. I'm just saying he can repeat them.

• washy washy~for washing hands
• All done ~ when he is finished eating (he usually just starts throwing his food on the floor instead. This one is going to take some time to master.)
• Bonk bonk ~for when he falls down and gets hurt (he usually taps his head repeatedly I don't know why he didn't for the video)
• more~ when he wants more food or drink
• eat~ when he is hungry

And here are some we are working on.

• milk
• water
• cookie
• dog
• airplane ~ right now he just points in the sky when he hears one instead of doing the sign.

He is a Toddler

Benjamin is officially walking now. This video is about 2 weeks old so he is actually much better than this but I thought it was just too funny not to post.

I'm not sure who is more proud, Mommy or Baby.