Benjamin Michael Singer -- Nineteen Months!

At the beginning of September, Benjamin moved from the Bunnies room to the Fuzzy Chicks room at day-care. He (and we) have had to get used to different caregivers, different routines, and such. It took him a few days, but he's adjusted well, and enjoys playing with different toys and seeing more toddlers around. Since mid-September he's been tending to take one nap a day, from one to two hours between noon and two o'clock.

Speaking of toddling, Benjamin is walking, with confidence and panache! We think the key for him was realizing that when he walked places, he could carry items in his hands, and that didn't work well when crawling. He's working on his throwing arms (both left and right), and loves balls of all shapes, sizes, and colors. It's greatly reassuring to us to see him happily walking around.

Of course, this has led to new challenges, such as getting shoes on him every day! Not to mention finding shoes of the proper size, keeping him from taking his socks off at the first opportunity, and teaching him not to walk on the nice clean carpet with wet and muddy shoes! Fall has arrived with a vengeance in the past week or so, and Benjamin has taken after his mother and loathes the transition to layers.

As you can tell from the pictures below, Benjamin likes books. We mean, he REALLY likes books. As in, he won't come downstairs in the morning to eat breakfast because he likes reading so much. That definitely shows the Singer genetic influence! It is always nice to be able to calm him down by reading a book, and to see that he has so much love of them already.

In September we visited Rachel in Chicago, and Benjamin and Jake got along together quite well. Jake was much better about sharing his toys, and Benjamin was much more coordinated about moving around and being able to play safely in Jake's environment. Much fun was had by all. We also visited Diane and Max in their new condo in downtown Chicago, and met Kiri and Jimmy visiting from Phoenix. Benjamin loved splashing in the fountain in Millennium Park.

Lucia and Jack visited in late September, and generously played with Benjamin while we walked to raise money for depression awareness and suicide prevention (thanks to all who donated -- we were able to raise approximately $900!). They marvelled at Benjamin's new skills, and spent lots of time in the traditional Gilbert position of worshipping their laptop computers. Gary visited in mid- October, as he saw both of his Midwestern grandchildren, and Benjamin was quite happy to see his zeyde. We had a nice trip to the cider mill for fresh-pressed apple cider and hot doughnuts, and Benjamin got to see a few animals out there and practice his words and animal sounds.

His growth rate has slowed to "normal," though he still eats like a horse ("Horses say 'neigh'"). He will be a honey-bee for Halloween in honor of his GranJack the beekeeper. Teething still sucks.