It's never to late to start signing.

Baby signing is very popular these days and promotes early communication. It's suggested that parents can start teaching their infants signs as early as eight months, but I'm not on the ball so I only started recently with Ben. The advantage to starting late is they learn very very quickly.

With persistance Ben has learned a new sign in a few days. We only have a couple of signs down pat right now: "eat" and "more". So far he's only used the "more" sign when he's run out of raisins, grapes, strawberries, or syrupy-sweet medicine (of course we don't give him more medicine -- unless we want him to go to sleep -- of course I'm kidding.) He's never asked for more fish or vegetables though... big surprise!

Ben's current favourite activities.

1. Playing with mixing bowls and balls. This became a quick fave for Ben once he developed the motor skills to try spinning balls in the big shallow metal mixing bowl we have in the cupboard. Nic and I used to do this to entertain him and now he does it to entertain himself. When he gets bored with the balls he tries spinning various items in the bowl, like cooking utensils, sippy cups, and blocks. As you can imagine he doesn't quite get that spinning effect, but it still generates a lot (and I mean a LOT of noise).

And speaking of noise, no one ever told me that parents really build up a tolerance for loud and obnoxious noise. As long as it isn't crying I can tune it out and since it's the sound of Ben entertaining himself it means I can read for five minutes. That's another skill parents develop: reading novels in five minute intervals without losing the plot.

2. Being chased around the house while we (and he) shout "Grrrrr!" like a bunch of lunatics. I can't remember exactly how this one started. I think I was trying to teach Ben how to growl like a bear, and then I chased him (he loves to be chased). Now he starts off the game by growling and running off being sure to look back over his shoulder to see if someone's coming after him.

Goom-ba and Pik-caw

These are a couple of Ben-isms that we've yet to identify. I had to write them down before the years passed and I completely forgot them.

"Goom-ba" has been a favourite of Ben's for many months now, perhaps since he was about 8 months old. He says it with less frequency these days. His new favourite appears to be "pik-caw"... whatever that means. I keep asking him to "show Mommy pik-caw?" but he just looks at me blankly and reiterates "pik-caw!" I may never know.

Ben chatter

While driving, the backseat conversation sounds like this:

cah (car)
cah
cah, cah, cah
buh-BYE! [insert wave here]
cah, cah
uh-Oh..ahhh!
cah, cah

Cracks me up!

And almost every time we pass cars Ben will enthusiastically wave at the driver and say "buh-BYE!"

It's Mommy's birthday today!

And here's what Ben gave me:

• a short nap
• a bowl of dry cat food dumped into the cats' water bowl
• a broken window (seriously!)
• a handful of wet sand on my new laptop's kepboard

And so far it's one of the best birthdays I've ever had! :)

Daddy and Ben also gave me a card, and Daddy bought Ben a new t-shirt to wear for the occassion. It says: My mommy has SUPER POWERS!

Hunting and gathering and stacking

Hunting and gathering is one of Ben's favourite passtimes. He loves to collect the mixing bowls from the cupboard, deliver them one by one to me, then return them to the cupboard, again, one by one. It's adorable!

He also does this with a LeapFrog train he received from Granny and Granddad Bloomfield. He brings the train one car at a time to me, then we assemble it (he's learning how to do this as well; it's magnetic). He loves it!

Ben's also getting quite good at block-stacking. His current record is eight. Although Ben certainly is more gleeful when knocking them all over. :)

Ben is getting his MMR shot in June

If you remember Ben had a very slight reaction to an MMR skin test administered by his allergist. His allergist said we could either wait to see if Ben outgrows the allergy or have it injected in dilute amounts in a series of ten shots over a two hour period. We opted for the former, however, with a big outbreak of the mumps on the east coast, and some confirmed cases in Toronto we've decided to revisit the second option. Ben's appointment is booked for June 11th. His allergist will re-do the MMR skin test and if he reacts again we're in it for the long haul. Let's hope he doesn't react so he can have just one shot and be done with it.

As for the rest of Ben's vaccinations Ben's GP's office is waiting for comfirmation from Public Health as to which shots are safe for a child with egg white allergies. Ben's allergist says, besides MMR being a problem, it's just the flu shot and yellow fever vaccine that we need to stay away from.

Hopefully we'll get Ben's immunization schedule up-to-date soon.

A slew of photos!

Just catching up and posting some photos. We've been so busy around here selling our home and buying a new one. We sold our house a couple of weeks ago and bought a new one last night. We close on July 10th. I'm pretty excited to have a little yard for Ben to play in. He's going to love it, and so are we!

Bowls on the head (a new favourite pasttime):
Making messes (another favourite pasttime):

Shoes go in the stroller basket:

Taking his shoes for a spin in the stroller:

Trying out his new big boy plate and cutlery:

Want to share my bread, Mommy?

Standing on the front step:

About to get out of the car at the park:

Modeling his new summer romper (just typing the word "romper" makes me feel "old"):

Getting ready to go down the slide:

Wheee!

In a playhouse at the park:

Peekaboo!

Conductor Ben:

A rare shot of Ben and Mommy (it only took me three tries to get both our heads in the shot):

Hair a la There's Something About Mary (created with sunscreen!!!):

Spaghetti anyone?

Thanks for looking!

Loving this beautiful summer weather!

No spring season around here. It seems we leave winter and dive straight into summer. No complaints!

Ben is doing really well despite running his first fever ever last week. He was very lethargic, lacked appetite, but his fever wasn't high enough to warrant a visit to the doctor. Oddly and fortunately he didn't show any symptoms of a tummy bug, so we've no idea what the problem was, but he's back to his old self now.

Mommy and Daddy have been busy selling their house and are in the process of buying a new one. This means Ben will have a nice, little yard to play in this summer. I can't wait... this boy needs some outdoor space to play in, and while the park is a lot of fun, it's always a pain to pack up for an hour or so. Once we have a fenced-in yard Ben can be in and out of the house all day.

Ben's doing really well with self-feeding. He's getting the hang of dishes and cutlery. It's so cute watching him attempt to use his fork a few times, to finally resort to just picking up the food with his hands.

Ben says "bye/bye-bye" all the time now. He doesn't say it to people though, he says it to inanimate objects, like Mommy's grocery list (which he's in charge of when we go grocery shopping), or his sippy cup (when he puts it in the sink), or to a door (any time he closes it).

Ben also loves loading the dishwasher. As soon as I open it he heads for the bowl cupboard and starts loading them in... they're clean, of course, but the mimicking is so cute.

I had a 16 month photo taken of Ben and it's adorable. I'll have to scan it and post it another time. I also have a slew of photos that I've taken around the house and at the park... I'll post them soon.