The Pretender

It is no secret that Ben's second love (after dogs!) is toiletries. He empties our bathroom drawers and cupboards at least once a day and routinely carries around a bottle of lotion, toothpaste, floss, etc. . . . Carl took Ben to the park this weekend and a mom pulled up with a wagon full of toys. Of course, the kids were all drawn to her wagon and she graciously offered to let everyone pick out a toy to play with. Ben walked up to the wagon and took his time picking out the perfect item. Carl was not surprised when Ben reached down beneath all of the colorful toys and picked up the travel bottle of bug repellent!

Ben discovered a headband in the bottom drawer yesterday and handed it to me in question. I put it on his head to show him what it was and he refused to take it off for the rest of the morning. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures to embarrass him when he gets older!


Ben has also started to pretend a lot more these past couple of weeks. Here are a few examples of the latest things he's picked up on.


-he puts on deodorant

-he grabs a cotton ball and rubs it all over his face while I apply clarifying lotion to mine!

-he used to pretend that a bottle of eye drops was hair straightener and would pretend to squirt it in his hand and then run his hands through his hair in an attempt to tame his unruly curls. Apparently the drops were not working, as he has now begun to use my old Lasinoh (nursing) cream to do the job!

-we went to brunch with Auntie Marcia and Auntie Myrna last weekend and we let him play with our empty creamers. After watching the waiter refill our cups, he used his sippy cup to "refill" his little creamer cups.

-this morning he was chewing on his empty juice bottle as we read one of his dog books. The dog in his book must have looked thirsty because he started feeding his picture each time we turned the page. He then got the even better idea of getting his stuffed dog and feeding him juice.


Ben also loves to dance. We often have music playing while we are home and he has no discrimination when it comes to what kind of music he enjoys getting down to. He'll even dance to his musical toys and has no inhibitions about dancing to the music in the grocery aisle or restaurants. When the dishwasher or washing machines are going, he'll stop in front of them and move to the beat. I'm a little confused on that one - I'm not sure if he's dancing to the rhythm or pretending to be the machine!

Since Ben is so in to pretending, I'm sure that he actually considered this headband a very manly Indian Warrior headdress or something to that effect!

He also had his 15 mo check yesterday. His stats were - 25 lbs 14 oz (60th percentile) and 31 1/4 in tall (50th percentile) and his head circumference was still off the charts!!

Carl and I were recently looking back at old pictures of Ben. We think that last year at this time was right around his prime - 97th percentile is weight and 93rd in height!

This onesie actually has the number 88 on it, but Ben's big ol' belly made it appear more like OO!