Actually, he’s been 2 for a while now. He turned 2 on the 6th. And believe me, we had lofty plans for his big day! Unfortunately, all the fun places we had planned to go were closed on Labor Day when we had planned on going. Then, on his actual birthday, Samantha threw up on the bus ride to school and we ended up staying home. We did have some good friends over for a small celebration though. In spite of our foiled attempts to get out and have fun he got to eat lots of good food and play with some toys. All in all, a good day in Ben’s book.
Here are some of my favorite things about Ben.
He is hilarious. About 6 months ago, he looked and me and said “I funny Mommy”. And he really is. He loves making people laugh. He loves to tease, tickle, and make faces. Whatever it takes. Lately, it’s the faces. As you can see he has quite the arsenal of them. Lately, he’s started saying “just kidding”.
He is a tank. This kid is 30 lbs. and 35 inches of chunk. He eats constantly. He knows how to open the fridge and does so on at least an hourly basis. He loves milk, string cheese, yogurt, fruit leather, goldfish, and really anything else he can swallow. At this rate, I’m going to have to find a couple of jobs to feed this one as a teenager. 
He loves his babies. This one in particular. We are really clever about naming our dolls in this house and refer to this one as naked baby. We also have pink baby and orange baby, named after the color of clothes they are wearing. Really unique, I know. Anyways, he has really latched on to naked baby and sleeps with him/her, changes it’s diaper and gives it baths. It’s really quite cute. 
He is very particular about his sleeping situation. He is my pickiest in that area by far. He likes to sit on the closed toilet to have his teeth brushed. He likes to read How does a dinosaur love his cat after brushing his teeth. He has to be the one to shut the door, turn off the light, and turn on his sound machine (in that order). Then he needs his blanket (luckily, it just has to be one of the 5 or 6 flannel ones I made when he was born) and a few minutes in the rocking chair with some songs. Then he needs two blankets on him and you must say good night as you are leaving. He then shouts “Good night Mommy/Daddy!” after you close the door at which point you have to open the door and say good night once again. Um, high maintenance much? I hold Mike responsible. I spent the first 18 months of his life putting him in bed with one blanket and singing twinkle twinkle little star as I walked out of the room. 
He is incredibly energetic. I guess he needs to burn off all that food he eats. This kid doesn’t walk anywhere. He runs, hops, jumps, shuffles or stomps everywhere he goes. Most likely he is just a normal little boy, but Carter and Samantha are pretty lazy, so he wears me right out. 
He loves to sing. I was listening to a song the other day in the car and by the end of the song, he was singing along with it. I have to watch what I’m listening to! My all-time favorite is when he belts out “MOTHER KNOWS BEST!” or “I’ve got a dream!” (both from the Tangled soundtrack). He sings along to You are my Sunshine at bedtime and I’ll frequently catch him singing “Baby, oh! Baby, no!”. That’s right, he’s got a bit of the Beiber fever. 
He hates messes. I love this about him. Although this doesn’t mean that he never makes them, he is all about helping clean them up. He asks for napkins at meals and says “that’s gross” at least 3 times a day. Here he’s showing me his sticky hands. He’s discovered how to get up on the toilet and wash his own hands now. I’m hoping that his dislike for being messy will help us out in the potty training department (a girl can dream, right?).
He is obsessed with busses, trains, cars, airplanes, and trucks. Every time he sees a bus – city or school, he shouts “a point for me!” and he’s always the first one to spot them. It’s a random game that the kids play in the car. Ben is always the one that Carter and Samantha want on their team. I attempted to decorate his cake with a school bus. I decorated it the night before though, and the frosting started to run by the time we served it. Rookie mistake. And yes, there is a bite taken out of the 2. I’ll let you guess who did it. 
Ok, it was him. 
I am absolutely loving spending all day with this little boy. He is so much fun to be around. He is an awesome little buddy to hang out with! We’re so glad that he came to our family!
And for your viewing enjoyment, here are a few more from his collection of funny faces. 
