18 months old, continued

Benjamin does not like to be left out of any conversation or hand gesture.  If we give Jasper a high five, Benjamin puts up his hand for us to “five” him too.  If we fist bump with Jasper, Benjamin holds up his fist too.  it’s adorable!  He waves hi or bye and claps when we sing, play music, dance or are clapping in appreciation for good deeds or fun stuff.

For some time Benjamin’s favorite book was Farmer Jed, a Fisher Price board book about life on the farm.  He got it in his stocking.  He seems to have a little more fondness for animals than Jasper did or does.  He is wild for cats, and can make some animals noises – not perfectly, but consistent to the animal in question – meowing, mooing, quacking, woofing, etc. 

Much to our pediatrician’s dismay, I’m sure, Benjamin has seen a record number of Clifford episodes, Cars movie clips and movies about John Deere tractors, cars, motorcycles, street sweepers, fire trucks, garbage trucks and big mining trucks.  When it’s time for Jasper to do his breathing treatment, we let him watch something – usually only for about 15 minutes (unless we’re really busy and lose track of time).  When this time comes, Benjamin knows what’s happening and comes running, squealing with delight, for the couch.  He climbs up and settles in to be entranced by the magic machine.  Not sure what detriment this will be to his cognitive ability or his attention span.  Time will tell! 

While Benjamin naps in the morning, I usually get some alone time with Jasper.  But I rarely get alone time with Benjamin.  However, recently he was waking up from his afternoon nap almost an hour before Jasper, so we got some one on one time.  He has shown a fondness for stuffed animals and loves to cuddle them.  He also likes trying to get them to fit into the dump truck.  Here are some shots:

This is Bunky bear, one of my favorites growing up.

oh, what a cute blue monster!

This might not come as any shock, but there is nothing Jasper does that Benjamin does not want to do.  He runs after him, wrestles with or is tackled by him (lately he’s starting to defend himself by biting), he squeals and laughs with him – endlessly, and generally speaking he tries to do what Jasper does.  This becomes a problem when Jasper does something that would be dangerous for Benjamin, and I can just see ulcers having to be fended off of my life in the future as I give up the safety and security of both boys to our loving heavenly Father.  So far there have been no casts.  We’ll see how long that holds out.