Lemon Lover

Benjamin has been such a joy this week. Not that he is acting or behaving any differently than usual; I think the change is due to a combination of me feeling better (finally) and also just a renewed appreciation for him as I realize that soon it won't be just "me and Ben" every day together - there will be a new little one to add to the mix! And I am thrilled for Benjamin to be a big brother, but I do enjoy our times together, "just us".

He is such a funny little boy. He makes me laugh all throughout the day. Take this picture, for example...I had made a side dish with cucumbers, yogurt and lemons for dinner (sounds strange but it's soooo good). He grabbed the lemon that I'd squeezed over the cucumbers, and ate it! He ate it right down to the rind. (Is that what you call the yellow skin?) He LOVES lemons! He is definitely my child.

But he will eat all kinds of foods that I wouldn't have imagined a toddler eating! He loves raw tomatoes, salted (sharing in my pregnancy snacks)...he loves Mexican food and will share our dinners of enchiladas, or chimichangas or whatever we're having...he loves the cucumber dish I made the other night (and kept the lemony yogurt "sauce" leftover to dip his strawberries in!)...he loves to share my McDonald's McSkillet burritos...his new favorite is ranch dressing with french fries...ah yes, and he prefers Mommy's pop-tarts to his own cereal.

Sometimes Bryan and I wonder what Ben would do if left alone for an hour...what would he get into? So I found out yesterday. I had to finish my BSF lesson, and he was happily playing in the kitchen. I thought to myself, "better move the kitty food and water..." and then heard him "stirring" the food. He was very preoccupied with it, and I really needed to get the lesson done, and I decided to just let him go for it. If he decided to eat it, it couldn't hurt him. So after about 45 minutes of listening to water splashing, food being "stirred" and clinking of metal on ceramic tile, I went to see what the damage was. The two bowls were completely empty, and Ben was surrounded by soggy cat food, which he was happily pushing around on the floor with a spatula. I figure that if this is the extent of his "destruction", we are in good shape!

His other new thing is "talking" on the phone. He'll walk around with any rectangle-ish object that has buttons (calculator, remote control, or even a real phone) and say "uh-huh!" and act like he's talking on the phone - I was shocked when I first saw him do it. It scared me to realize that he's watching us and mimicing our actions and words. I tried uploading a video of one of his phone conversations and it didn't work...I'll try again later.