bennett at two

I've been wanting to capture a snapshot of Bennett at two years old for a while now, but can't seem to find the time, so I'll just do an abbreviated version!

Learning - Bennett knows his alphabet (upper case and lower case) and can usually count to either 14 or 18 before he starts repeating numbers.  He recognizes his letters in ordinary objects, and often points out to me when he's made a "C" by biting into his toast, or something similar.  He knows a few shapes - square, circle, triangle, octagon (which he says for hexagon, etc.).  He knows his colors well.

Sleeping - Bennett is usually in bed sometime between 7 and 8 PM, after a few stories and a song (usually the "cowboy song," which is Sweet Baby James).  He still does a solid midday nap, usually 2-3 hours.  He's just started fighting naptime and bedtime on occasion, and has started night waking, usually asking for water, after sleeping through the night for well over a year now.

Playing - Bennett loves having dance parties (to Adele, mainly), building things with his Duplo (he has quite the attention span and imagination for this - he often builds things on his own and comes and tells me what they are - garbage trucks and ice cream trucks and airplanes and helicopters), and playing with his cars and trucks. He still loves Richard Scarry books, and has recently started listening to longer stories, like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Corduroy.

Talking - Bennett pretty much does not stop talking from the moment he wakes up in the morning. And he almost always speaks in full sentences.  For example, if I say, "Bennett, are you hungry?" he will say back, "No, Mommy, I am not hungry."  He does a lot of parroting back what I say, seemingly to better understand.  If I say, "Bennett, please do not chase the cat," Bennett will say, "No chase the cat, Mommy? No chase the cat?"  And then I'll say, "Right, don't chase the cat," and then he inevitably says, "Why?" We hear a lot of "why"!!  And he really does seem to listen and process the answer.

His manners are okay.  He says please when prompted, and usually says "No thank you" when being offered something he doesn't want. He says "thank you" on occasion, but usually requires prompting. 

I love coming to get Bennett in the morning and hearing what he'll greet me with.  It's almost always different every day.  I wrote down a few of his first morning utterances a few weeks ago:

"Hi Mommy.  I missed you."  (OMG... melting my heart)
"Hi Mommy.  Nice to meet you."
"Black doggie not scared of monsters." (Good to know!)
"Have a good day, Mommy?  Have a good day?" (I hope we will!)
"Mommy.  All done naptime. Lunchtime and dinnertime and lunchtime." (To which I said, "I think it's breakfast time!" And he said, "No.")

We have so many great exchanges every day.  Just yesterday, after a week at my parents' house, Bennett walked in their front door after being away for a few hours and said to my mom, "Hi. I'm Bennett."  Mom stifled a laugh and told him, "Nice to meet you. I'm Grandma."

The other day, Bennett was upset because I wouldn't let him play with the ipad, which he calls the email. 

Me: "You're sad because  you can't play email."
Bennett: "I sad."
Me: "You're sad."
Bennett: "I mad."
Me: "You're mad?"
Bennett: (really distressed) "I'm fat!"
Me: (hysterics)

Bennett also has a lot of fabulous conversations with himself, making two little figurines talk to each other, or even just one hand talk to another hand.  I overheard this gem a while back:

Bennett: "Hi Thomas. I'm a red train."
Bennett: "Hi red train. I'm Thomas. I got a red car, a blue car, and a red caboose."
Bennett: "Cool. That's amazing!"