Ben

I keep being tempted to say and think that Ben is doing so much more or growing so much more than Lincoln. But, as evidenced from my last post, that's not hte case. It's just that the things Ben's learning are somehow more visible.
Ben now talks all the time, mostly intelligibly (to us, anyway), and often in 2 or 3 word combinations and sentences. It's super cute, fun, and great for family communication. He likes to say "got it", "follow me", "mess" (which he says often because he's always making messes). He will try to say almost anything we ask him to say. It's sweet and super cute.
Ben seems to prefer Doug all the time (off-and-on, but mostly on). However, he always wants only mommy to lay next to him in his bed when he needs to go sleep. He snuggles a little and rolls around a lot. But mostly, he asks mommy to sing songs. At least half the time he tells me what he wants to hear. He's been through favorites of Row, Row, Row, Your Boat and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but those were mostly with Doug or Grandma. His favorites with me have been a funky half version of the old Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Forever let us hold our banner high (high, high, high), Come along and sing our song and join our jubilee, M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E - repeat ad nauseum. I was singing it with the C - see you real soon, Y - because we like you but then Ben didn't like it winding down. So now I just segue right into the spelling at the beginning.
Since that started (a couple weeks ago) we have also gotten stuck on "Ten pretty girls" which I learned from my grandma, and "Hail Mary". Some days he just wants lots of different songs. He's a fickle audience and won't let me finish a line of a song that isn't what he wants. Cute and frustrating.
He/they are still taking an hour or more to put to bed. Ben definitely thinks the attention he gets when he gets out of bed repeatedly is funny. The problem is, we have the level-type door handles so there's no "locking him in" like we were able to do with Lincoln when Lincoln was learning about staying in his big-boy bed. So far we haven't come up with any great ideas about how to get them to sleep without having to stay in there for a long time. We are actively trying different ideas now before our sanity breaks, but we're not having much luck.
For two weeks that Ben was unbearably fussy and funky he had Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. Once the rash came out we had a better explanation than just hte molars (which hadn't done much moving). That's psat now, but he's working on 2 back molars. One is about half way through and the other just has one peak poking through. So, life is much better and feels more sane at home. But, we still need to find ways to encourage Ben to learn and do things on his own, while making sure he knows the rules and who's boss. *sigh* definitely challenging parent days.
Great thing he's so super cuddly and snuggly and so sweet. He still likes to get carried around hanging on to me like a monkey - snuggled right up between my waist and my chin. My back hates it but it does wonders for my emotions. :)
Ben really likes to color, glue, and seemingly everything art. His teachers tell me that he also really likes to sing in Spanish class. He also likes music and will dance and wiggle and be cute like that. He still likes to pull all the storage containers out of the cabinets and find a bottom and a lid and then find something to put in them. This leads to countless messes but is really cool because he's good at it. He's also really good at puzzles. He can do so many of Lincoln's puzzles, some of them are noted for ages 3 and up!!! (For the record, Lincoln is also really good at puzzles. Some is their actual ability and some is the fact that Doug and I like puzzles and have a bunch around at all sorts of skill levels.)
Ben also still likes to have books read to him and to take baths. If we are considering nothaving one of those two activities before bed he quickly lets us know that this is not acceptable. :)