Benjamin has a very funny monkey hat. I think his smile in this photo is so mischevious that he must be up to something. In the picture of both of us, I am sure he is trying to escape, since he is much too busy and important to snuggle me anymore. Also note the cool Sounders warm up jacket. Since there is no other real story behind these photos, I will just note a couple of his latest funny sayings. He has been watching the Jungle Book recently (I know, bad mommy letting him watch tv), and has taken to singing "Barenee Cessity", which I find to be hilarious and charming. He also now asks what you are doing, but it comes out "dooney", so he will ask "Dooney Daddy?" with a very serious expression. I have been trying to teach him to say "I love you Mama" with
mixed results. He says "lovey" for "love you", but mostly wants to say "lovey kitty". Shows you where I rate on the totem pole. We went to a baby shower today for Loren's cousin Justin, that was in way the heck out Redmond. Anyway, a deer (a big deer with 4 point antlers) showed up in the back yard. Pop (Grandpa Lee) took Benjamin outside to see it, and he spent the next 3 hours asking "Deer, where?" and saying "Deer away". He was bound and determined to find it, and dragged several different people out on deer hunts. He then started saying "Deer nap. Bunny house." I have no idea what that meant. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, and when we pulled up to our house, he woke up and said "Deer, where?" again. I think he will be looking for it for days. Similarly, Grandma Anne and Grandpa Jon took him to the zoo on Wednesday (this is Sunday). He was still talking about the tigers they saw. "One raaar. One nap." It made a big impression. Not quite a "monk loud" impression, but almost. Some other of his funny sayings are his re-naming of things. His names are very logical. Ladder has become climber, shovel is digger and broom is sweeper. You can hardly argue with him on those. I'm not sure how he got "noke" for milk though. He called it milk for a while, and then switched it up.
Well, today marks the momentus second anniversary of Benjamin's birth, and if you think I am late in posting, I say hah hah! You are wrong! He wasn't born until 11:10, so I still have almost a full hour before I am late! Also, I was busy all day doing fun things with the young man, which was more important anyway. Today Loren and I played hookey from work to hang out with Jamtot on his birthday. We had pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream (cake! berry! whip!) for breakfast, which Benjamin helped make. He is becoming quite the chef these days. He then refused his fork, and opted to eat his pancakes, which were little mini baby sized pancakes, with a giant red spatula instead (spatul!). We opened presents (omp! omp!) after breakfast, which was a big hit. In particular the birthday boy was a fan of the little wooden knife which came with one of his presents, and wanted to use it to open the other packages, and then to do things like install batteries with it. After that big excitement we went to the aquarium. The big news at the aquarium was the diver, which Benjamin did not stop talking about all morning, followed by the fish that looked like Nemo. Sadly not one single good picture from the aquarium. Sigh. We will have to go back. We went to lunch at a very touristy fish and chipsy type place on the pier, and rode the carosel after lunch, which was a big hit with Jam (he had woken up in the morning saying "red horsie!" I'm not really sure what that is about.) We also ran into my big boss (big important, not big in size) on the way to the car, who was spending his rainy lunch time running, probably doing something disgusting like 5 miles in 30 minutes. So it was a good thing I didn't call in sick. We pushed the poor guy way past his nap limit and he zonked out in the car on the way home. After nap time we gave him his big deal present, a vintage (fancy way of saying bargain second hand) radio flyer red trike. He was a little unsure about it at first, but then kitty rode it, and he got more excited. The bike is just a squidge too big for him, and he can barely reach the peddles, if they are positioned exactly correctly, which made it all a little tricky. We will either need to modify the bike a bit, or wait for another inch or so in height before he really gets going. So after a little trial biking, it was time to go rake leaves and shovel dirt (digger!) in the back yard. Then Pop and Grandma stopped by with a birthday balloon, bib and cup for the boy. He was really excited to see them and was at the window shrieking "citey! citey!" when he saw Pop get out of the car. After that it was dinner, cupcakes and ice cream, followed by watching the Jungle Movie on the couch with mama, which is just a cheap ploy on my part to get him to snuggle with me. It was all in all a great day, and much fun was had by all. I have high hopes of a more thoughtful and reflective post on how great my two year old boy is, and how much he has learned and changed and grown since I have known him, but that will happen maybe later this week. Rig
ht now I must tuck myself into bed, as I am very tired and a little sniffly nosed. 
