What's Chewbacca?... Wookie!

I've tried to keep a list of all the words Ben can say, but they're coming fast and furious now so it's impossible to track. He says probably 60+ individual words and maybe half a dozen two word phrases. His current favorite is "go outside." As Heath said on Twitter, "When you're used to hearing only single words, two-word phrases sound profound."

Ben's also learning animal noises but some of them are pretty loose interpretations. I'll try to post a video soon, because they're just weird. As revenge for Heath's "Lessons in Annoying Your Parents" to Colin, our friends Pat and Beth taught Ben this god-awful dinosaur noise. It's a high pitched screech suitable for frightening animals or peeling paint off your walls. Of course, these are also the people who taught their son, when asked, "What does a Shatner say?" to respond with, "Khaaaaaaaaan!"

Cat scratch fever

A rare picture with both cats. Crooks is white. Minnie is dark.

We have two cats who pre-date Ben, Minerva (Minnie) and Crookshanks (Crooks). When we first got them almost three years ago, Crooks was the outgoing one. She would cuddle up to anyone and she was always around. She was more like a dog than a traditional cat. Minnie was the princess. You had to pick her up and pet her on her terms, lest you receive an arm full of scratches as she scampered away. So, as you can imagine, I was more worried about Minnie's reaction to the baby.

However, a very curious thing happened when we brought Ben home: Minnie and Crooks switched personalities. Now Minnie is the friendly, social one. She still wants things her way, but she's willing to let it slide a bit if you'll pet her. During the day, though, Crooks is nowhere to be found. She only emerges for mealtimes and after Ben's gone to bed. People make her skittish.

The most surprising thing is that Minnie actually interacts with Ben. I was not expecting that at all. The first time Pat and Beth brought Colin to our house, when he was no more than three or four months old, Minnie totally freaked out. She hissed at him and then spent the rest of the day hiding under our bed. Now she willingly rubs up against Ben and even tolerates it when he grabs her fur and ears. I guess any attention is better than none when you're desperate. But she's in for a surprise once he can walk.

Double Trouble

Wednesday night I watched Colin while Beth, Pat and Heath were at hurling practice. We've babysat Colin many times, but this was the first time I had two kids by myself. Since Colin's almost three and pretty independent, it was fairly easy. For example, when I asked him to take off his shoes before he got onto the couch he said, "Oh! Yes," as if he was remiss in not thinking of it himself. He was content wandering around Ben's room while I cleaned up Ben's poop explosion and even though he said he wasn't hungry for dinner and wanted to go outside, when I asked him to sit with me while I ate, he ended up eating most of his spaghetti.

There was one moment that had me worried, though. We'd already eaten dinner and then played outside. It was getting dark and cold, so we came back inside to "watch something," as Colin put it. I put disc one of The Weird Al Show into the PS3 because it's about the kid-friendliest thing we own, plus it's AWESOME. In order to do that, I had to take out the Rock Band 2 disc that was already in there. Then I made the mistake of telling Colin the truth when he asked what it was. We often play Rock Band when Colin's around and he loves it. So of course he wanted to play. But it was getting to be time to feed Ben and I didn't feel like moving all the toys to set up the drums, so I said no. This set off a bought of whining. And I don't know if it was because Ben spent all evening watching Colin in awe, or just because he was getting hungry, but Ben started whining at that point, too. I couldn't help but just sit back for a second, smile to myself and think, "This is my future."

Indeed he does

Our friends Pat and Beth have a 2.5 year old son named Colin. Recently he's been learning about the anatomical differences in boys and girls, which of course can only lead to hilarity.

A few weeks ago we were hanging out at their house and I went into the bathroom to change Ben's diaper. Colin wandered in and peeked over my shoulder. After a few seconds he exclaimed, "Ben has a penis, too!"