2 years old

Benjamin Andrew is 2 years old and quickly becoming less of a baby. 

These days his eyes are hazel, but they aren't green-gold hazel like mine.  Ben's hazel is a deep dark navy blue with shades of grey, and a couple of brown spots (particularly in the upper right corner of his right eye):

Ben never had much baby fat and lost his round belly months ago.  At 33 and 1/2 inches and 25 pounds, he is fairly muscular (note the outline of a 6 pack here):



Being so thin means he still fits in clothes as small as 12-18 months.  He is tall enough to fit in some 2T clothing.  Even though he is tiny, he is strong and can climb better than Liam can.  He still likes to be carried around a couple hours a day, so I am glad he is as small as he is.  My arms get tired enough; I cannot imagine how hard it would be if he were as big as Liam at this age.

He still rides rear-facing even though he is above 20 pounds and 2 years old.  It is safest to ride rear-facing until the limits of the seat.  Liam was just turned around at 34 months when he finally reached 35 pounds.  Ben is only 24 months and still has 10 pounds until he hits the limits of his seat.  I don't plan on turning him forward facing anytime soon.  He is quite comfortable facing the rear.  He sees me through a soft mirror attached to the seat back.  He can see the DVD player Liam watches by turning his head to the side.  He rests his legs up the back of the seat or crosses them as Liam did when he sat in the same seat.  Here is alseep after a car trip to Costco this week:

As far as eating, Ben still doesn't swallow much food.  My neighbor watched him today and said he ate half of a quarter piece of peanut butter and jelly sandwich (so 1/8 of a sandwich), 8 goldfish (I laughed, but she was so worried about how little he was eating that she counted them), and 1 yogurt covered raisin.  I told her that might be the last time he swallows food all day.  He already spit up once today (about a tablespoon of his breakfast). 

Ben does still nurse; it has been twice a day for maybe 5 months now, but just within the last week or so, it has started skipping sessions and only nursing once a day.  I don't think he'll be nursing for much longer.
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Ben can count to 10, but usually counts "3, 6, 8, 9, 10, all done, YAY!"  He knows all 26 letters in upper case form and knows close to all of them in lower case form.  It is amazing to watch as he points out letters in words.  It has helped eliminate some of his meltdowns during errands as he gets so hyper-focused on letters that he blocks out everything else.

Ben loves Murray and hunts him down for pets and cuddles:

Ben loves playing with Liam, but hates when Liam talks loudly, sings, gets in Ben's zone of personal space, or touches him too much.  Ben loves Wonder Pets, Super Why, and The Cat in the Hat.  He loves dancing to Laurie Berkner and likes to jump.

Ben was talking alot at a year old, but hasn't made much progress lately.  He says "tay" for yes, which I assume means "Okay" but he gets really excited when you ask him a question he says "tay" to and gets a huge smile.  He says "Bye Mama" (or Dada or Mimi for Liam) but that and "all done" are the only regular multi-word phrases unless you count scripts as he has several of those "more milk on the other side" to switch breasts during nursing "giraffe, pets, _____" (pig, baby, etc) to request a Wonder Pets episode.  He likes to hide things and ask "where's the _____" and then pick up and say "there's the _______!"  His giraffe is still his lovey--and has been since he was about 4 months old.  Thankfully we have 5 or 6 of them and I rotate them regularly.

Liam was easier during age 2, than he was at age 1 or now at age 3.  I am crossing my fingers that Ben is as well.