New News 3

Here is my final update to get everything up to date.

Ben is growing bigger and taller all the time. I can barely hold him anymore. Not only is he big, but he's so active that its hard to keep up with him. He loves to run around outside, especially playing with the other kids toys. He loves riding the rocking horse and sometimes i feel like he's gonna fall over forward because he's such a good rocking horse rider!
Ben started walking right around his birthday. He was running the next day! No really, he's hardly struggled at all since he finally understood that he could get around fast on his feet rather than his knees. he loves to run up and down that hall and up and down the sidewalk, giggling and laughing so hard that he falls over.
He says lots of words now. His favorite word is NO. He loves to just yell it in his crib when he wakes up in the morning. He's such a good baby because in the morning he calls for "dadadadada" to get him up and going. Of course, momma picks out his clothes and outfits cuz daddy has no clue what matches for a little baby boy as cute as Ben. He know how to say yes, no, please, thank you, cracker, water, cheese, and a few others.
Since he turned 8 month old, we've been teaching him a few signs. He know "more" and "cheese". We just taught him the sign for Jesus, even though he does his own version of it. These are the only signs we can get him to do on a regular basis.
Although he doesn't say a lot of words or use a lot of signs, he understand almost everything I say. I can tell him to go put that in the trash, or go get this certain toy and he does it! Discipline is hard because I don't want spanking to be the majority discipline. Time outs work great and lately he listens to me when I tell him not to do something, because I use the 3-2-1 method. He has to the end of the countdown to do what I ask (mostly to come here) and he will do it.. around the number 1. lol at least he knows!
One of Ben's favorite things to do it knock. He will knock on any one's door that i let him. He has practiced on our door at home, and actually has a pretty strong knock. People think that the knock is from an adult, but not, its from my little 14 month old. I have to laugh out loud.
His other favorite thing to do is rearrange my can on my shelves. In our new place, its a bit smaller and has less cupboard space so we bought a shelving unit to so in our hallway. Ben loves to stack the cans and make a game of throwing the cans on the kitchen floor. But then he learns about consequences because I make him pick up all the cans that he threw on the floor. A few weeks ago, i found all my peanut butter in the trash, so he got a talking to about NOT throwing food in the trash.

The Best part of Being a Mom: The other day, we were up on campus eating lunch and Toby and I were saying a prayer over our food, when i looked up to see what Ben was doing, and he was staring at me.... WITH FOLDED ARMS!! He folded his arms all by himself! We have tried not to force him because I don't want him to think that He has to. We decided to show him by example and just to see the fruits of that is amazing!! And its not just a hoax , he's done it every prayer since then. I'm so proud of my boy!!
Next post will be his one year pictures!! Enjoy!