Benjamin's Birthday Bash

Great afternoon for Benjamin's official birthday bash. We had around 40 family members and a ton of food in celebration. Prior to the birthday weekend bash, he had his two year check up. He's three feet tall, weighs 31.2 pounds and is in the 75-90 percentile on all categories. In other words, very active and very healthy. The following is a little progress report. I use this blog frequently to update family and friends about Benjamin's progress and I love the fact that friends and family all over the world can check in on Benjamin. This also serves as a nice archive for Benjamin to review when he gets older and he can see what was going on during his life.

Some advice for two year olds that was on Benjamin's report sheet.

Nutrition
Child should be handling a spoon and cup well.
Avoid high calorie snacks.
Change to low fat milk-2%, 1% or skim.
Encourage tooth brushing, use toothpaste with fluoride once child can spit.

Accident Prevention
Falls are a common cause of injury in curious two year olds.
Don't leave chairs placed where a child can use it to climb to a dangerously high place.
Apply sun screen when outdoors.
Never leave child unattended in home or in car.

Development
Becoming more adept to using language. Asking questions like "What is this?" of "What is that?" and "Why?"
Walks up and down the stairs alone or holding rail.
Kicks ball.
Using 2-3 word phrases with pronouns such as I, you and me. Minimum of 20 word vocabulary.
Interest in toilet training may begin.

Other
Limit TV viewing
Direct child in as positive a manner as possible.
Don't give child a choice when there is none. Safety rules are not open for discussion.
Bottles and pacifiers should be discouraged.
He should be playing with musical toys, reading picture books and playing with large balls.
Child will develop ability to interact with other children during play over the coming year. Provide opportunities for peer contacts and allow for imaginative play as well as structured. Encourage verbal and physical exploration.
Children often move to a bed at this age (use side rail).

Results
He's been using spoons and forks when eating. We need to encourage using his sippy cup more as we still use bottles and the pacifier at night as a security tool for him. Sometimes Benjamin will wake up in the middle of the night and to get him back to sleep we use the pacifier. We are working on phasing both of these out. We have been brushing his teeth on a daily basis as he does know how to spit. His vocabulary is growing more and more each day. He was reciting the days of the week the other day. Very clear and understandable. We have started toilet training and haven't had any luck yet. We try to keep his TV viewing to a minimum but he enjoys watching Sesame Street, his Elmo DVD's and he's been watching sports. Tonight he said six of the greatest words ever..."I want to watch baseball Daddy". We like to take him to the park and watch him run. I bring a soccer ball along so he can kick it. He does well tossing a mini football and can throw a tennis ball straight, conking me on the head once. He's learning to share more as this was an issue earlier this Summer. Since he is with the Beginner class, he's learned by watching others share toys and when we have kids over to our house we try to encourage toy sharing. He interacts well with other kids. We also spend a lot of time reading to him and watching him identify pictures of animals, shapes and colors. He also has quite a collection of music on my iPod. We like to put music on during his play time and he relaxes to it while he plays.

It's been an amazing two years. Personally I have learned quite a lot so far and I have a lot more to learn as he gets older. Weena is an amazing Mother, she is very patient and loving and I try to follow her example. I am very proud of our family.