Answers from our two-year-old. <3

What is your favorite animal? - Dogs and cats
Who is your favorite dog? - Gizmo
What is your favorite dinosaur? - T-Rex
Who is your best friend? - Calaen, Levi, and Alice in Wonderland
What is your favorite color? - Green and blue
What is your favorite number? - 2
What is your favorite movie? - Tinkerbell
What is your favorite TV show? - The Magic School Bus
What do you want to be when you grow up? - A Sunflower
What is your favorite toy? - Racecar and Trev the Train
What is your favorite food? - Carrots and potatoes
What is your favorite drink? - Nursie

In honor of Thanksgiving...

Today and always, I am thankful for my son's laughter, and for the joy that he so freely shares with others. I am thankful for the warmth in our home, and for the love our family shares... as well as the love we share with friends. I am thankful for days to express being thankful.

I'd also like to share some special moments of the last couple of months since my joy of a little boy turned two years old!

August 13 at 7:10pm
Our little eco-child just said, "YAY, RECYCLE!" Hahhha, starting him early! :)

August 15 at 9:37am
When Beni wants to play "chase" he says, "More gotchu?" ♥

August 19 at 8:48pm
I am now officially "Mommy," and no longer "Mama" according to Beni. His "baby-ish" words are few and far anymore... bittersweet, with a little more bitter than sweet, I think. He's growing up so much quicker than I could have ever imagined!

September 1 at 8:04pm
As I was boiling water, I walked away briefly to talk to Angelo... a minute passed and I said "Oh! I think my pot is boiling over!" to which Beni responds, "Bubbles! Hurray!" He's such a goofball and I love him so very much!

September 1 at 9:26pm
Angelo picked some mini pots and pans for Beni this afternoon, and just a moment ago Beni was intently stirring away, so I asked what he was preparing for us and he said, "I'm making food... pasta!" and grinned like a goon in delight. :)

September 2 at 8:58am
I wonder how I'm going to go about explaining to my little boy that he can't cook an egg all on his own just yet. He's been begging since he woke up, and at one point even dragged me to the fridge saying "Mommy, open door, PLEEEAAA...SSSEEE? I cook egg, PLEEEAAASSSEEE MOMMY?" I handed him cheese instead, and I'm pretty sure that he scoffed at me. Hahha!

9:00am
Okay... giving in... I'm weak, I admit it! Egg cooking lesson with my baby in T-Minus 2 seconds...

September 5 at 9:29pm
Dinner of the champions! Beni devoured MAMMOTH portions of cheese pasta, potatoes, broccoli, spinach, and carrots... as if that wasn't enough, he then managed to gobble down some apple cobbler bites for dessert! Where on earth does it all go?! :)

September 7 at 2:12pm
I am in constant awe of my little boy! A moment ago I asked if he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he replied "No, THANK YOU!" (This is usually just a "nope", and we've never corrected him to say otherwise. So funny!) I love him so much! Now he is happily reciting the alphabet with Super Why... hahhah.

September 15 at 8:36pm
Who needs a doctor when you have a 2-year-old who makes house calls? Beni climbed into my lap and asked me to open my mouth, and after several seconds of an "examination," he announced confidently, "Yep, I SEE sick!" ♥!

September 21 at 2:07pm
This just in: Beni wants to be a "lawn mower" for Halloween. :)

September 23 at 3:59pm
I love my boys more than anything in this world. ♥

September 28 at 9:30pm
Funnies of the evening... Angelo brought home a "slimcado," which is, apparently, an avocado with "30% less fat." What?! Then, Beni ran off with the package of strawberries, only to be discovered in the trunk of his bike... silly boys.

September 30 at 10:17pm
More funnies tonight... Cookie was barking and Beni said, "Cookie, relax!" Hah! Earlier, I was showing him a video of an Elasmosaurus on youtube while he was holding his Elasmosaurus figurine, and when the clip ended he said, "Oh no! Where his friend go? Gone?! Oh no!" I am SO in love with this stage of language acquisition!

October 2 at 2:01pm
Beni wants to "drive car into bright sunlight," and here I'm left wondering where these funny little requests come from!

October 10 at 9:44am
So funny! Beni was sitting in the office on Angelo's computer and I asked him to come out and be social with us... he replied, "No Mommy, I'm working right now." Hahahahha! Okay, baby... you win this one. ♥

October 10 at 4:44pm
Beni has a mohawk!!!

October 14 at 4:33pm
Just measured Beni's height: 34" tall! That's well over half my height. My little boy is turning into a giant! Now if only I knew how much he weighed... hmm...

October 27 at 7:50pm
I am so amazed at the conversations I have with my little boy. I can't get over how vocal he has become about... everything! I'm so VERY blessed. ♥

October 28 at 2:49pm
Beni's word of the day: "guys." "What are you doing, guys?" "I'm ready, guys!" "Let's go, guys!" Hahha!

October 30 at 9:03am
We're getting ready to go to a Halloween themed playdate for a few, then run some errands and hopefully pick up a pumpkin to carve at around noon-ish. So excited about Beni trick-or-treating with his friends tomorrow!

November 2 at 4:09pm
Beni's first imaginary friend... a friendly ghost. He has been having conversations with him/her on and off for the last few hours, "Hi, friendly ghost!" ... "How are you doing?" ... "Oh okay! I'm doing fine, thank you!" ... "Read me book friendly ghost, please?" He leaves just enough silence for a response, and then replies with his own. I asked if he would like for me to read him a book instead and he replied, "No, thank you! Friendly ghost reads me book." Hand in hand with the time of year, I suppose! I'm just thankful it is, in fact, a "friendly" ghost!

November 7 at 8:25am
Just as we finished dressing Beni (he picked out his own clothing this morning) he trotted out of the room saying, "I'm handsome now!" Hahha!

November 12 at 8:36am
I'm laughing at my Beni for the umpteenth time. I walked into his playroom to find him trying to lasso his rocking horse with my belt while saying,"I'm a cowboy! Where's my cowboy hat?" He's my little goonlove. ♥

November 16 at 10:44am
I am yet again laughing at my little nugget of a boy. ♥ We were drinking chocolate almond milk this morning, and his cup was near empty while mine was full to the brim... he looked into my cup and said that my chocolate milk was "SO big...... giant!" and looked into his and said "my milk is soooo little."

November 18 at 10:26am
Completely out of the blue while eating breakfast this morning, Beni started singing Queen's "We Will Rock You," so, in complete and utter support of his little outburst I played the music video on YouTube and my little lovebug went totally NUTS headbanging and shouting those trademark lyrics, "WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU" and then looked at me in total bliss and shouted "I LOVE THAT SONG!" I'm dying in laughter!

November 21 at 9:19am
Beni just farted and blamed it on Batman... bwahahha. Definitely Angelo's boy. ♥

November 23 at 9:13am
Despite being sick, my little munchkin is just as charming as ever. I grabbed a chocolate wafer and tried to gobble it as quickly and inconspicuously as possible, alas I was caught by a pair of longing eyes... Beni asked, "May I have some, Mommy?" As I looked over at his plate, filled with strawberries, apples, and french toast, I knew he probably should steer clear of my dirty little morning chocolate cravings, so I asked him to eat his yummy breakfast instead...he added, "Please Mommy, a little bit, please?" Hahhah. My sweetheart. ♥

Letter to my two year old...

Happy 2nd Birthday, my beautiful little boy! I can't believe it has been exactly one year since my last letter to you. Honestly, it feels like it's only been a matter of months! Alas, here I am, once again, wishing you your second heartfelt and slightly bittersweet HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you realize how much joy you bring to our lives and how thankful we feel each and every day for being blessed with the wonderful gift of YOU. My wish for you, now and always, is that you have a long, safe, happy and healthy life... and my promise to you is that, against all odds, your Dad and I will do every-single-thing in our power to provide that for you!

Now, onto the life of you... at two years old, you are still a little co-sleeping junkie, so, every morning you wake with a sweet and very alert, "Good morning!," while pegging a few sloppy kisses on your unsuspecting, still sleeping Daddy and half-sleeping, grateful and giggling Mommy. Grateful for how sweet you are, and giggling because this is your morning routine to a "T" consistently and how I wouldn't trade a thing in this world for this time with you. We all manage to crawl out of bed sometime within the hour, usually pulled by tiny hands, into the living room where your day of full fledged toddlerdom begins! You play around on your own for the most part, seemingly creating your own imaginary worlds, talking, singing, dancing and undoubtedly thinking. You flit from room to room, toy to toy, task to task. Sometime around 1pm and 2pm, you have lunch, and you usually sleep for a couple hours soon after... although, this is not always the case; you've adapted a dirty habit of phasing out this very critical nap 4 days of the last 8 (coined "the nap strike"), which, needless to say, makes for an interesting day for us all! :)

I read recently that the term "toddler" is replaced by the word "pre-schooler" at the age of two. Personally, I think that's just silly. You are still very much our toddler, and coupled with that ranking comes all the bells and whistles, from round-the-clock energy and curiosity that knows no bounds, to your almost shockingly abundant vocabulary and communication skills! Your most common expressions include:

"What are you doing?"
"Oh no! (said event...)" ("Oh, no! Cup fell down!" or "Oh no, pasta all gone?"),
"Oh no! What are we gonna' do?!" (MY FAVORITE!! You are such a funny little character!)
"(Object/place/thing) fun" ("Beach fun!", "Birthday cake fun!", "Friends fun!")
"Thank you much!" (Occasionally "Thank you very much!")
"I sorry 'bout that."
"I okay!" (Thanks to us continually asking, "Are you okay?!" for life's little stumbles and falls.)

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing just how much you actually say that I can't come close to accounting for here... within the last few months, you've also become incredibly descriptive, using words like "big," "tall," "small," "fast," "slow," "high," "low," "happy," "sad," "awesome," "fun," and "very," etc... this list could go on ad nauseam, really. I've mentioned in many of my past journal entries, you've mastered virtually all one-and-two-syllable words, and have since moved on to the big threes, including... "ambulance," "octopus," "al-gator," "dinosaur," "firetruck," "Angelo!!!" (To name a few.) The last one, yes indeedy, is Daddy's name, and the way this came about is actually quite funny. When showering, I tend to almost always forget to grab a towel (terrible, I know), and at the end of the shower I call for your Dad, "Angelo, could you please get me a towel?" So... expectantly, now when I turn off the water, you announce, rather loudly at that, "ANGELOOO!! DAAADAAA!! Towel, please?!" This is incredibly hilarious to both your Daddy and I. We've come to learn you are quite the little comedian and relish in the light of any attention... a trait that very obviously comes from your Daddy! :)

How else could I describe your personality at this moment in your life? Well... you're incredibly affectionate, that almost goes without saying... never short of hugs and kisses to anyone willing to receive them. You ADORE babies, ridiculously so! So much that when you met Chrissy and Andy's new little boy, Avery, you spoke about him for nearly a week following, constantly saying "Baby fun!" and asking "Where baby?" You've already planted a few kisses on two of the three new babies in the playgroup we're apart of. I catch myself wondering how you came to be so remarkably warmhearted at such a young age, but I am FAR from complaining. ♥

Here are just a few snip-its I've written about you recently that I would like to include... I feel they are good mini-captures of your truly unique personality. :)

August 7 at 10:10pm
All day we've been telling Beni, "Tomorrow is the BIG day! Your birthday! You'll be two years old!" So, tonight, he lays down and "pretend" sleeps for about two minutes, peaking a few times while giggling, calms for about 20 seconds, then throws off the blanket and says, "Good morning! NEW DAY!!!", then jumps out of bed and parades around the house screaming "BIRTHDAY CAKE! BIRTHDAY CAKE!" How slick is our little love-bug?

August 7 at 12:24pm
As we were walking out of the house, Beni said, "I love you, Cookie." (Cookie is our Chihuahua.) Sweet angel boy he is.

August 6 at 9:24pm
I am literally laughing my butt off beyond my means of explaining. Beni said, "I have to fart!" which in itself shocked me, but then he actually, ahem, "let one out" and I nearly fell to the floor with laughter. This kid is too much. :) What a boy!

August 6 at 8:37am
Have I mentioned lately how much I adore drive-by morning smooches from a certain 34" gremlin running around these parts? Well, I do!

August 4 at 8:50am
I am so in love with our little boy. I had paper scattered out beside me as I was posting sales online and he came up to my side and pointed to the "jumble" of paperwork and said, "Mess! Mama, messy!" and then proceeded to straighten them up for me, and then thanked ME for letting him! Goofy boy!

See? You are quite the character, my dearest one!

What a year we've had since my last letter to you... in the last few months alone, you've learned all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they represent, you've learned to count to ten, your vocabulary has grown to several hundred words (go, Beni!!), you recognize basic shapes (star, circle, square, heart) and colors (red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple). You've learned to build towers and castles, imaginative play, organization, sharing... you've even learned to jump with both feet off the ground! Amazingly, you've also learned compassion, sympathy, and appreciation (I can't can't tell you how many times in a day we hear, "Thank you much!" with a grin to end a ten-year war). You've learned a world of wonderful things in just two years, and I think you are absolutely amazing! My baby boy... :)

Your memory astonishes us at times, or maybe we are still used to thinking of you as the little baby boy we brought home from the hospital 24 months ago. Just tonight, your Dad carried you into the kitchen while dinner was cooking (you were in there for no longer than 5 seconds). Minutes later, you were in the dining room, and Daddy was explaining that you were having "pasta and cheese" for dinner, and you were very quick to add, "and corn, YUM! Mmmm!" There was never any mention of corn, BUT, there was, in fact, a can of corn on the counter when you were in the kitchen earlier. Maybe it sounds silly, but we find these things truly remarkable. It's amazing to me how many little details you take notice to... sometimes you even have me doing double takes just to see what I've missed that you find so fascinating!

Anyway, my little boy... our love, our blessing, our joy... two years ago, I held you in my arms for the first time. Words could absolutely never come close to describing that moment. I can't even find words to express the amount of joy that you have brought to our lives in only two years. You are the rhyme and reason to our every day and we love you beyond what that rhyme or reason could ever convey. Thank you for being everything you are.

I stumbled upon this saying by Maureen Hawkins the other day, and felt it couldn't be more fitting. "Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here for an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life." Or in our case, this is the miracle of you, Beni. I love you!

Love Always,

Mommy

Couple quick updates

We have quite a busy week ahead of us, and boy does it feel good! I love keeping busy in the Summer, particularly when the "busy" includes Beni having fun, burning energy, and WATER in this stifling Florida heat. His swimming lessons start tomorrow (on Mondays and Wednesdays), Beleza's 1st Birthday party is on Tuesday, there's a playdate at Julie's (after swimming lessons) on Wednesday, Heather's on Thursday, and I'm doing a photoshoot on Friday with a very sweet and adorable little girl, Anna. :) This is going to be great for the both of us, I believe. Good riddance, rain induced cabin fever! And with hope, goodbye rain!

We've also had sudden signing explosion come to light today with our little one. New signs include: happy, train, football, caterpillar, colors, orange, how, and "how are you." Within the last week: cook, shirt, and pants. God, I love seeing him blossom like this.

22 months, 2 weeks, 2 days.

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Beni will be TWO YEARS OLD in less than two months! It seems like not long ago I was planning his first birthday, but, alas, I've actually started preparing for his second, which is just 46 days away. That, coupled with our upcoming move calls for quite a busy month or two ahead!

Beni was given full control of the theme this year; we handed him our annual catalog from Birthday Express, and while I thought it would be a toss up between Thomas the Train and Yo Gabba Gabba, Beni has yet again reminded us that very few things in this world top his beloved Yo Gabba Gabba. So, there you have it... DJ Lance, Brobee, Muno, Foofa, Toodee, and Plex, you've got one very avid fan in our little boy!

We have decided on the Melissa & Doug Deluxe Easel set for this year's present. His love of drawing and crafts has grown so much in the last few months that I can't think of anything more appropriate. Since mid May, he has been asking to "draw, pease!" at least every other day. :)

Our big boy continues to grow and his latest skills include: A-Z letter recognition AND pronunciation (HUGE development from last month!!), feeding our dog, Cookie, vacuuming (efficiently now, hahha), and dressing himself... or shall I say, attempting to dress himself. ;-) Obviously the biggest development is the fact that he's taken one huge leap in the direction of reading, identifying letters. Last month we picked up LeapFrog's "Letter Factory" DVD and fortunately he's really taken to it. I'm actually amazed how fast he has learned, watching the DVD only a few times a week, in additional to lessons with Mommy and Daddy. :) Now, anytime he sees letters, he proudly announces, individually, the letter and it's sound (i.e. A! Ahhh... B! Buh, buh, buh...) When he sees a "C", he always announces it as "C! Cuh-cuh-cold!" and shudders like he is, in fact, cold. Little nut! The one letter he sometimes struggles to pronounce is "V", but he gives an honest attempt that usually comes out like "bvuh," which is almost equally as adorable as his enactment of cold.

He doesn't seem to have gotten any taller this month, as he's still a little over 33" tall, but he has put on an additional 2lbs. My guess? It's all in his gut and his butt, that little chunky monkey! He's also finally grown a full head of hair for the first time ever, and I think he's actually due for a second haircut, say it isn't so!

As far as his hobbies of the month... even with the 109 degree weather we've had lately, Beni always wants to "go ousiiiiiide!" Be it playing in his clubhouse, swinging, splashing around in his pool, going to the park or the beach, it's pretty much the topic of the day, every day, in fact, every hour. It has been quite an exhausting Summer so far, albeit one filled with some unforgettable moments. Next month Beni will start swimming lessons with his friend, Landis, which I imagine will be a huge hit for our little fish out of water. Can't wait!

Father's Day was this last Sunday and Beni made his wonderful Daddy a photobook filled with twenty-nine pages of beautiful moments from birth to present between the two of them. He may have had a little help from Mommy throughout this "process." ;-) Beni even managed to slip out a few "Happy Dada Day" blessings when we woke up. That, followed by Tijuana Flats for lunch, and Mommy-cooked avocado, cilantro brushetta and cilantro, lime, chicken for dinner, (yum!) I'd like to think to that Angelo had quite an enjoyable day, all in all. :)

We close on the new house in less than two weeks and move in shortly after... here's to a new chapter in our lives quickly approaching! At this point, we are just about filled to the brim with anticipation. (Did I mention we'll have a park less than a mile away, on our street no less!? Beni, my love, you are in for some incredibly fun times ahead!)

21 months already!

Two very exciting months have passed in the blink of an eye and I'm guilty of falling behind on my updates again, though I don't come short on words! My once pint-sized, babbling, Buddha-bellied little boy just over a year ago is now a highly active, rough and tumble, mostly well-mannered, affectionate, smart, talkative little toddle-man.

His vocabulary has grown to the extent that I don't think I could even begin to account here... he is now voicing so many of his wants and needs, from what he wants to eat, what he wants to play with, where he wants to go, who he wants to see, what just occurred, etc... he recognizes at least 12 letters of the alphabet, and can vocalize every letter when prompted. He gets the concept of counting, but as with a few letters, he relies heavily on being prompted, say, if I'm counting in sequence, I'll say "one", he'll follow with "two", I'll say "three", he'll say "four" and so on. Every now and again he'll surprise us, though, like last month for instance: typical day, we're driving around and I hear indistinct chatter in the backseat. I turned down the music and looked in the rear-view mirror to find my little boy happily counting away at his little piggy fingers and toes, as if it were just second nature to him. I was floored, because it was the first time that I'd seen him initiate it entirely on his own. He continues to amaze me in ways like this every day, from the way he randomly shows affection, to new food fixations, new words, new sentences or phrases he picks up from Daddy and I that we say and we've never really taken much notice to until it low and behold it comes from his mouth, my favorite! Some new phrases include "ohh, WOW!" when he sees something he deems exciting, "oh, no..." for little slip-ups and boo-boos along the way, "oh, man" (just like Swiper the Fox from Dora), he does this one pretty randomly, I'd guess he does it just to round up a few laughs on our end, which of course never fails! Then, we have those moments where nodding and sound effects do enough justice on their own, like in the last two posts... :) As far as his signing goes, he still uses his 'old trusties' pretty regularly, like "nursie", "eat", "drink", "more", and "all done"... many of the others he used months back have since been replaced with the word for it, but I think think the first five were instilled there pretty deep, so he still prefers signing for them, but he almost always couples the word with the sign... I don't quite know why he doesn't do the same with the others... que cera! All I do know is that I could not be any more proud of him than I am already... I can't imagine a greater grace in my life than seeing him love and learn everyday. Color me one terribly grateful little Mommy.

Now onto the official stats: At 21 months, Beni is 33" tall and weighs 28lbs. Seems like he is growing like a weed lately... he is certainly packing on the pounds!

A few random tidbits...
He is out-and-out fanatical about trains these days, more specifically, Thomas the Tank Engine... toys, books, bed sheets, you name it! This boy simply cannot resist! He's also a sucker for firetrucks, cars in general, balls, drums, and BOOKS, happily. :) Such a boy...

Some of his many pastime playtime favorites include: romping around the backyard, hiding and seeking under blankets, playing peek-a-boo (mind you, hiding behind your hands alone is still quite effective! :)), climbing in boxes, chasing each other around the house, shimmying and shaking his little hips around in circles when he's ecstatic, or sometimes even when he's proud of himself, though usually coupled with clapping in that case. ;-)

Manners, manners, everywhere... Beni is certainly not bashful about minding his P's and Q's. In fact, I'd vouch that there are times he probably reminds us! Whenever we hand something to Beni, he never fails to slip out a cute and genuine "tank you, Mama/Dada!" Funny enough, he also occasionally says it when he hands something to us, but more recently he has upgraded to an equally adroable "your weltome!" What a gentleman...

Although he is my favorite little charmer, there is also a side to our dearest one that is quite the bossy little tyrant... this is materializing rapidly as we draw closer to the dreaded Terrible Twos! I am thankful that when we let him know he's acting out of sorts now, he'll usually respond with a look of guilt and quickly run to give us a hug and a kiss... his idea of an apology, I take it. :)

We've had quite an eventful past month in particular because we've been on the hunt for a new home! We've realized for quite sometime that we have outgrown our "home" here, at 904sqft, 2br/1b, that's not too hard to do... we have been TTC for a few months now, and with Angelo working from home requiring an office, Beni's bedroom, and our bedroom... as you can see we're already a bedroom short with just one little rugrat running around, though I admit it's never been a huge issue since Beni is still co-sleeping, and Angelo has made-do working in the living room for the time being. Nevertheless, it's been a long time coming, and I'm so happy to announce that we found a home we thoroughly love, and we are set to close on July 6th!! It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, just shy of 2100sqft and in northwest Palm Bay.


It couldn't be more perfect of a fit for us, and an added bonus is that we'll be a little more centralized to our favorite frequents, Paradise and Target. :) Now if only we could muster the energy to fill out the 38 pages of mortgage contract then we'd truly be in business. Any takers? ;-)

Til' next month...

Our sweet, well-mannered little gentleman!

Me: "Would you like some pancakes for breakfast?"
Beni: "Mmhmmm!" *big cheesey grin* "Pease!"
(Minutes pass and I return with a plate of pancakes...)
Me: "Here you go, peanut... eat up!"
Beni: "Tank you!" *return of the big cheesey grin*
Beni: *gobbles first bite* "Mmmm! Pancake!! Mmm-mmm!"

Hahhahhahha. He is truly the light of my life. Me = one happy Mama.