Poor Mr Happy got overlooked this week.  I had his 18 month apt, and almost forgot to record it.

PREGNANCY BRAIN!

Well, we tried a new pediatrician (I was having difficulty communicating well with my old one), and we loved her.  Dr. Halbur was very nice.  She was great with Benjamin, as well as momma.  She answered any question more than adequately and it helped that she kept telling me how great Benjamin was.  She must know how to swoon new parents. :)  She was confident but caring.  yay!

Benjamin was 80% in head size and height, and 79% in weight - 28lbs.  Perfectly proportional.  

She made me laugh a little because she told me how great his speech was.  I keep looking at my sisters little boy, and my friends with little girls, and think he's behind in his communication skills.  But she said that she couldn't believe how much she understood of what he was telling me during the apt, and that he's very articulate.  Who knew!?!

He does have at least a dozen new words, or more, since the last time I blogged about it.  Notable words:

• "No no" -  especially as he walks by the printer and  while looking longingly at the buttons, he just mutters it to himself..or if there is anything I offer that he doesn't want.
• "Up Peas" - the first time he verbally (as opposed to signing) said Please, was when he wanted up on the bed.  I told him to say "up please" and now every appropriate usage of the word please is proceeded but "up".  (Much to his dads efforts to help clarify..."
• "Oops" - Sandra Boynton has a book called "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and on every page it ends with "Ooops!".  Benjamin LOVES it.
• "CCcar" - We've worked hard to prevent the repetition of consonants, but he loves the "K" sound.  And right now, every vehicle with wheels is a car...trucks, vans, buses, skid loaders...he loves all his "cars" 

Benjamin also has an obsession with the alphabet.  Any letters (and sometimes numbers) get pointed at and Benjamin starts saying/singing "o-uah-ea-ah-oh..."

He also just picked up an interest in page numbers.  We often go through books, and rather than pointing at pictures and asking "wsat?", he points at the corner page numbers and looks at me wanting me to read off the numbers.  It makes story time very long!

Once again, we've had more fun with Benjamin the last couple weeks than ever before.  Our most notable negative is Bed time.  He's been sick, off and on, and with the combination of a bad cough, runny nose, and time change (whos in charge of changing that?) I go back to his room usually, and proceed with t.v. snuggle time, and then he goes to bed.  Bed time was talking 45 min or so, and last night Joel and I decided that needed to stop.  After 5 or 10 minutes of crying I went in to check on him, but this time just rocked him in his room for a couple minutes.  I laid him down, and 10 minutes or so later, joel went in, and did that same thing - rocking him in his room.  This time he cried for just a minute or two, and then fell fast asleep.  I'm guessing this will take a night or two, but hopefully quick bedtimes will return before little miss comes.

Well, thats about it.  Thank heavens for a way of journaling/baby book, that I actually keep up with!