18 months!

I neglected to do a post celebrating Benjamin's latest milestone...and anyone who knows me should know how I am about milestones!  So here's a check-in on how my little one-and-a-half year old is doing.

18-month stats:
30 lbs 11.5 oz (he was up 3 oz when we took him in 4 days later...so it's safe to say he's basically 31 lbs)
33.5 inches tall
49 cm head circumference

Those are all pretty much "big".  Height is around 90th percentile, weight is closer to 95th, and head's up there too.  It's actually good that he's proportionate, and it totally makes sense.  From all reports, his daddy was a sizable, well-built toddler, and look at him now - he's tall and muscular, built like an athlete. 

What's our little Benji up to these days?

Talking.  Talking all the time.  About a quarter of it is recognizable words.  The rest is gibberish.  He's got quite a burgeoning vocabulary (and to think, we were worried about his hearing once upon a time!).  Our favorites of his words are "shooooes" and "ouSIDE?".  His favorite lately seems to be "Eh-mo!".  He loves watching Sesame Street, and gets especially excited about seeing Elmo on-screen.

Reading.  He looooves to be read to.  He'd happily spend hours bringing you a book, sitting in your lap, letting you read to him, taking that one back for a new book - lather, rinse, repeat.  Sometimes I'll find him sitting at his bookshelf, books spread out all around him, thumbing through one after the other.  It should be no surprise that this habit of his completely warms my heart.

He's still not a runner.  He can motor on down the hall pretty quickly, but true, fast running?  Hasn't come yet.  I'm okay with that.  He's active, but not hyperactive.  He's more of the inquisitive, people-watching type.  Sometimes I'll take him down to the park and he'll just stand there, staring at all the activity around him. 

He's a lover, and a biter.  He's great at giving hugs, especially the kind that require a running start and diving into your open arms.  He loves to laugh, especially at his Daddy.  We're also working on curbing his biting behavior - which, strangely, he only lets loose on me and his friends at daycare.  Go figure.

So that's the story with Benjamin right now.  He's a wonderful, awesome, amazing little kid, and I feel so lucky to be his mama.

I figured I should post

Since I haven't been keeping up very well lately.

What have I been doing? Obviously not blogging. I've been reading...and watching movies. Mostly those two things. I'm halfway through two different books right now. Normally I hate reading more than one at a time, but circumstances forced me to. I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a week early (according to the contest schedule - see "HP Revisited" in my sidebar for more info), so I thought I'd have time to sneak in another book before beginning the next Harry Potter. I was sadly mistaken. I was only halfway through Interview with the Vampire when it came time to begin Half-Blood Prince...so I put Interview on the back burner. And now, only a few days in, I'm already halfway through HBP! It's definitely a much faster read, and I'm just loving this re-reading journey I'm on!

What else have I been up to? Movies, of course! I'm just loving my Netflix subscription. It was absolutely the perfect gift from my wonderful husband. I've been taking advantage of the Watch Instantly feature to get into "The Office". Though the first season was kind of a slow start, I'm beyond hooked now, a few episodes in to the second season. I love that they're only 20ish minutes long, so I can fit an episode in here and there. And it's hilarious! I can't get over how obnoxious Dwight is, or how utterly full of himself - but in an oddly innocent way - Michael is. Can't wait to see how things develop!

Lessee...other news...Branden's recovery seems to be going well. He's still got a few months until he's back to full duty at work, but he's been going to physical therapy and doing his home exercises as well. The only setback has been him pulling his hamstring a couple of times - the first time while playing with the dogs, the second being last weekend, when he decided to be macho and race a couple of our friends in the pool. (He won, but definitely paid a price for it!)

I do have to brag on him a bit, though. Yesterday, I was having a bad day at work. To my great surprise, he met me at work to ride the bus home with me! It was such a sweet gesture, and it totally turned my day around! It's the little things that count the most sometimes, you know?

I think that's quite enough blabbering on from me today. I'll try to be a better blogger - but I've always been of the opinion that if I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say, it was better not to bother with blogging at all. However, I'm trying to balance that with the need to keep this here blog alive, so - I'll try to be better!

TGIF!

I don't have anything specific to talk about, so I just thought I'd give a general wrap-up of what's been going on lately and what's to come.

• Branden tried to keep me away from the Cinnamon Toast Crunch this morning by putting it on top of the kitchen cabinet. Not cool, man. Not cool. I got it down with the help of a chair...and then I decided to eat Honey Nut Cheerios instead anyway.
• Work's been weird quiet lately with most of upper management and lots of other people gone for Spring Break.
• Kidd Kraddick is also on Spring Break, and I skipped the "best of" the first few days, until I realized that hearing those voices in the morning as I'm getting ready helps me start my day. So yesterday and today I listened, and it made my days start off much better!
• Branden's been off from class this week...and two nights I've left him alone to fend for himself. Tuesday I went to the Dallas Wind Symphony concert (which was wonderful!), and Wednesday I had dinner with friends (which was also wonderful!).

Weekend Plans - I am so excited about tomorrow, it's not even funny. I'm thinking I might need to get less excited just so the day can live up to my expectations. Branden and I are going to Fort Worth to hang out at the dog show with his parents, who are in town showing their basset hound Annie. Branden's best friend Pete is coming along with us. Pete's always good for a laugh. Then we're all going to meet my parents at Loyd Park for a joint family cookout. I'm silly excited about it all. I love family time, and I love dog shows - so when you put them all together, I'm a happy camper!

Adding to the excitement, I found out this morning that there will be a celebrity dog at the "Meet the Breed" area tomorrow - Stump, this year's 10-year-old Westminster winner, who came out of retirement to take the big prize. Here's a picture of Stump, a Sussex Spaniel:












What a cutie! I'm gonna see if I can get a picture with him, even if I get laughed at.

I'm ready for the work day to be OVER so I can start my weekend. I've got a cheesy chicken bake cooking in the crock pot right now, and I'm looking forward to having that for dinner. I'll post a review, along with the recipe, later on. Hope everyone else has a good weekend too!