21 Months

Ben turned 21 months yesterday while wrapping up his vacation in St. Michaels, MD. As I write this, it is 9:30 AM and he's still sleeping to recover from the excitement of the long weekend! Here's what else has been going on with him:

- Ben is making progress every day with his talking. He says all kinds of words and tries very hard to use them properly to communicate. He still has a long way to go, but we are making huge strides daily. I lost count at about 65 words or so!

- Ben is still imitating us all the time. You can almost watch his mind working as he tries to figure things out about the world around him. Just yesterday, we were having lunch outside and for whatever reason there were quite a few flies around and we were all absentmindedly swatting them away from our food. Ben, without really knowing what we were doing, started swatting the air between bites. It was very cute.

- Ben proved his climbing skills when he climbed out of the pack 'n play on our vacation...repeatedly. I need to come up with a solution for travel VERY soon!

- His favorite toys are probably still the same as last month. Books, his kitchen, his vacuum and suitcase, any container with water in it, phones, etc. He has started to color and draw a little bit and surprised me with his ability to stack about 8 blocks without knocking them over.

- We are excited about the fall: cooler (but beautiful) weather, apple picking, Pumpkinland, starting swim lessons, getting back into Gymboree, the beginning of all of Ben's friends' 2 year birthday parties, and visiting both sets of grandparents for overnights without Mom and Dad (it's the first time and we are doing it twice in October for weddings)!

Happy 21 months Ben! I love you.

You sound like you're finally waking up! :)