Funny things Benjamin does that make me smile :-)

So I've decided I don't write out enough of the cute things Benjamin does that make me smile throughout the days. So these are some Benjamin anecdotes, feel free to skip past this post if you want, as it might not be as cute to you as it is to me. ;-) (I realize that is often the case!) I just think these are the every day Benjamin toddler experiences that I am going to forget someday. And I want to have them somewhere to remember them if I can! Which I think makes this a first post ever that doesn't have pictures. Wow.

Ok, laundry. One of Benjamin's new "chores" I guess you could say. He helps me find a laundry basket, and collect dirty clothes, and pushes it into the laundry room (with help depending on how full it is), and hands me the clothes to put into the washer. After they're washed I put them on the door of the dryer and his job is to push them inside the dryer and then close the door (I think that is his favorite part!). Dry clothes go back in a basket and he pushes it into mommy and daddy's room. It's very cute to me that if I start doing laundry while he's preoccupied with something else, he'll stop and come help. The other day I pulled some lights out of a pile of clothes just outside his room and started a load, to walk out of the laundry room and see that he had somehow, completely on his own, found a laundry basket, taken it to the pile of clothes that were left, put them all in the basket, and was bringing them all to the laundry room by himself. SO cute!! Oh my gosh it made me laugh. I told him thank you for being such a good helper. ;-)

"Bye bye" has always been one of the words Benjamin has said the most, for quite a while it was one of the only words he said at all, and then after spending some time with Jack, a little light bulb turned on inside his head as he realized someone his size could talk! His "please" (sounds kinda like "peas") is straight from Jack. ;-) Super cute. (And a great word for him to pick up on!) We were taking some group family pictures and about five seconds after Jack yells out "cheese!" Benjamin does too. I really laughed at that one, because I don't think he had ever said that before! It's now a favorite of his when he sees a camera or phone pointed his way.

He is also finally starting to verbally communicate things he wants now, which is so fabulous for me. Instead of crying (which I still sometimes get) I at least some of the time get "shoes" and pointing. (Shoes are a whole other paragraph that I'll have to get to!) Benjamin still LOVES to say "bye bye" though. "Bye bye car" every time we leave the car, "bye bye toys, trains, cars, piano, remotes (a-mote)" every night before bed, "bye bye" to anyone leaving the house, usually not "bye bye monkey" as he brings monkey with him almost everywhere (but monkey does wait in the car when he's swimming).

Benjamin loves his daddy, and get really excited when he comes home every night. After Benjamin hears the garage door opening, he'll go over to the kitchen to wait for daddy to come in. He'll also want to wear his daddy's badge, ties, and watch (sounds a little like "ah-ch" in one syllable).

Whenever Benjamin hands me something, I say "thank you." Well, he has started saying "thank you" (sounds kinda like "tay two"?) everytime he gives something to someone, he he. Also makes me laugh. Another common phrase is "all done" (sounds like "na na"), when we're done eating, getting dressed, etc. It also makes me laugh, because I would sometimes say "all gone" in the same intonation, and hold my hands out (palms up) showing him whatever snack, etc he wants more of is all gone. He's just meshed the two, and when he says "all done" he turns his palms up too.

Benjamin LOVES his shoes. There are two times when it's okay to not have them on, when he is sleeping, and if he has footsie pajamas on. He happily takes them off for naps, but wants them right back on when he wakes up or he won't leave his room. (He'll get very distressed and remind you if you forget.) On Christmas he was wearing a shirt/pants pj combo, and so he wanted his shoes on with the pants after he woke up. He got slippers in his stocking, and we tried to get him to trade, and that was a no go. Since then we've gotten him to wear the slippers with his footsie pajamas though. ;-)

Okay, I am going to include a swimming update, because we have so much fun swimming! And it amazes me how much he has learned in less than a year of lessons. (Private lessons with lots of parent practice is the way to go in my opinion!) For a few months while I was in the height of morning sickness we pretty much stopped going swimming aside from his lessons, but we're back to regular trips a few times a week now. Benjamin LOVES to dive for dive rings. He has little baby swim flippers (his "swimming shoes") which enable him to propel himself through the water about five feet. (Harder for him to do without the flippers.) I can send him off towards the side of the pool from three to five feet away and he can swim to the side and hold on to the wall by himself. I never though of this as a skill... but he actually had to learn it. He is great at floating. He wears a baby wet suit so he doesn't get so cold in the water, and that does give him some buoyancy in the water, but when I forgot it the other day I was glad to confirm he can float just as easily without it. From floating on his back can "flip over" and turn onto his tummy and "swim" (kick) to me, or the wall to grab onto. He's not as good scooping his arms. We try to get him to do little scoops in the water, but he tends to just kick and reach out for whatever he's swimming to, so we're working on that still. While floating on his back we help him "mister one, mister two" (backstroke with each arm) and "chicken, airplane, soldier." He will also "dive" from sitting on the edge of the pool if he has help holding his hands up above his head, he thinks this one is fun too and always comes up laughing, which is amazing to me because I was terrified to go head first in the water as a child. (Still won't, for that matter!) The newer skill he's learned is that from swimming on his tummy he can roll onto his back all by himself! This is the skill that I really like, as I think it's a water safety skill to be able to roll and float on his back if he were to fall into any kind of water. His swim teachers want him to scoop and kick for a few seconds before rolling onto his back... but he tends to anticipate and try to roll straight over on his back, which I'm not necessarily opposed to, I'm okay with that being his first reaction when he gets in the water! I think it may be easier to roll from a horizontal swimming position than a lateral "just jumped in" position though. Last time we went swimming, instead of pushing of the wall onto his tummy to come get a ring I was holding, he tried to push off straight into a back float instead. I laughed and told him that's not how we do it! You have to practice turning in the water silly!

Well, that turned out to be really long, and probably no one has gotten this far! Since I don't put these things down as they happen there was a lot that came to mind! This little kiddo just keeps making me smile, we can't seem to get enough of him. He really is a sweet boy, and Jonathan and I both think we are super lucky to be his parents. I'll try to keep up with this type of update better, both for my sake as well as keeping the posts a little shorter. ;-)