child labor

Snow day, a week or two ago, meant Miss Angel's kids got to stay home from school. It also, apparently, meant putting our 18-month-old boy to work. Looks like he loved it.

This photo gives a pretty good impression of how tall Benjamin is getting.

- papa

PS Benja's 2nd snow day happened almost exactly a year since his 1st snow day:

Benja

By the way, our Benben now calls himself "Benja."

And "Benja" wants to do everything. For example, if we don't have the book he wants for bedtime, he slides off the bed and announces "Benja"—as in, "Benja will go get it"—and scampers off.

It's amazing how in the last week or so he has suddenly started referring to himself all the time. It's as if some sort of switch had been turned on.

-maman

Sentences heard around the house

Yesterday during morning snack:

"Benja mange pretzels." (Benja eats pretzels.)
"Plus pretzels... p(l)aît maman." (More pretzels... please [his shortened version of s'il te plaît] maman."

Then, when I asked for his bowl to get him more pretzels, he said:

"Benja tient bol." (Benja hold bowl.)

I did not know that he knew the verb "tenir" (to hold). But, then again, every day I hear him say words I didn't know he knew.

For example, when he drops something he now says, "Zut alors!" (Darn it!) Wonder where he learned that... Good thing I started to be more careful about swear words when he was born.

-maman

fun milestone

If we didn't have friends with older toddlers, I wouldn't have even known to look for this milestone:

As of this weekend, Benjamin can climb, unassisted, into his high chair. It's really amazing to watch, and the kid looks good with a beaming smile of pride once he's done.

- papa

verbs

Benjamin's first definite sentence, complete with verb:

"Benja mange Cheerios."

First he did his S.O.V. thing — "Benja Cheerios mange" — but his mother modeled the correct order and he repeated her and stuck with that.

For completely correct French, he still needs an article: "Benja mange des Cheerios." But we're not worrying about articles or prepositions yet. I'm must happy to see verbs emerging.

- papa

PS Actually, he is starting to develop prepositions: he's gone from mo' (more) to plus (French for "more," pronounced "plooce") to plus de, as in "Plus de travail, Maman!" (Which means "More work, mom!" It's what I just overheard him telling his mother outside. Apparently he was pointing to a snow shovel.)

bear pile

Sometimes during naps, sometimes in the middle of the night, we'll sneak into Benjamin's room and find him sleeping on a pile of his teddy bears. His mother called me into his room this afternoon to see him flopped out on a bear pile, but this isn't a picture from today. It's one I took a couple weeks ago but forgot to post to the blog.

- papa

almost 3 feet

I was very confused for a very long moment this afternoon when my wife, reviewing Benjamin's measurements from his various doctor's checkups, announced …

"Benjamin has grown a foot since he was born!"

- papa

SOV

Commenting on his trip to the doctor, Benjamin just told us

Monsieur ... oreille ... regarder ...

Which means, literally, "Sir ... ear ... to look." In other words, the doctor had examined his ear. We were impressed with this protosentence, but also noticed that it fit the pattern of a previous protosentence:

Quelqu'un ... bouteilles ... casser ...

Someone ... bottles ... to break — someone had broken some bottles at the playground.

Notice: subject, object, verb — which, as Nathalie points out, is the S.O.V. pattern of Latin.

I guess his classical education is beginning pre-preschool.

- papa

18mo checkup

Benjamin was having a grand old time at the doctor's this morning, playing with everything, exploring everything. Then the doctor came in and Benjamin started to worry. Worry turned to tears, and he cried throughout the exam. We don't understand this, since it's never the doctor who gives the shots, and Benjamin had been perfectly happy and friendly with the nurse, who does, in fact, stick in the needles.

He's been a real mama's boy recently — only in the sense of clearly preferring his maman to his papa — but in the exam room, you would have thought Papa was his favorite thing in the world: security blanket, protector, everything. He's never hung on so tight. The doctor even asked if he was going through a father-preference phase, because we couldn't get him to walk from father to mother, only from mother to father. But no, he's not in a papa phase — not unless a phase can be only 30 minutes long.

Anyway, the boy is still 90th percentile for height and dead-on average for weight and skull.

Height: 33½"

Weight: 25 lb 10 oz

Skull: 19¼"

- papa

BenNotes

I never seem able to find the time to blog, so I'm going to try something new: BenNotes. Just jotting down things I want to remember before they dissolve in my memory.

Last week we went to the playground. There was a broken bottle on the ground and I told Benjamin to stay away from it. I also explained that "Quelqu'un a cassé une bouteille" (Someone broke a bottle). Since then Benjamin has been telling us daily... "Quelqu'un... bouteille... casser... uh-oh." We drove by the park a couple days ago and he reminded me of the broken bottle.

Well, no more blogging time. Benjamin just woke-up and he's calling out "Maman... sucette par terre" (meaning one of his pacifiers is on the floor). He is also making what I call his "auctioneer" call: a whole line of quick babble punctuated by a "Maman!" And now it has changed to "Benja bobo" (a new one! meaning he has a booboo—or thinks that if I think he has one I'll come more quickly to get him out of his crib!). Off I go.

-maman