beeg boy wit muscles mama

Happy half birthday my sweet baby.

Not a baby anymore I'm told.  Often.  By the big boy himself.
I call my little guy "baby" all day long so I get corrections all day long.
But now?  He's 30 months old.  Two and a half.
"mama I no baby, I beeg boy wit muscles" 
How fast time speeds by making each and every second all the more precious.

Ben continues to be the light of my life and adds joy to the lives of everyone he meets.  Walking down the hall of my school at home time on Friday he greeted not one neighbourhood mama/grandmama but 6 with "Hi auntie, how you doin day?" And every single one of these aunties knew Ben by name and stopped him for a chat (auntie being the typical respectful greeting within the Indian portion of the community where I work).

Ben at 2.5 loves trains, has a new found love for Winnie the Pooh (and has now watched his first full length feature DVD-no less than 8 times), and will chat with 3 or 4 or 5 stuffies and help them chat with each other as he drifts off to sleep each night.  He loves juggles (snuggles), tried juicy this month (sushi), eats chicken as his only meat with growing frequency as long as I tell him it's from Uncle Matt's butcher shop, and has milk in a bottle only in the early morning and before bed.

He loves to dress up in anything and everything and has what seems to be an exceptional streak of creativity and imagination for 30 months...do't even ask the details of this get-up though.

Though I would love him to potty train he is clear in his opinion of this....no can't chew mama, peepee diper oh-nee.  Ah well, this too shall come some day.

Ben at 2.5 is bossy.  He explains clearly what he would like you (usually an adult...but children as well) to do and then expects you to do it immediately. He does not reserve this bossiness for mama.  Everyone he loves is fair game.  Some of us, like Uncle Matt and Aunti Sumi, seem a bit more likely to follow orders.  Mama?   Not so good at it apparently.  Earlier today he tried to give me a timeout for poor listening asking me to "sit stair now mama" when a candy from the roof of the gingerbread house was not offered on demand.

Here is a sample of the Bossy in BenSpeak:

Mama, come Ben kit-ten (kitchen) now,
stan right here,
use pot and tat-chu-pa (spatula)
make egg n'rice pees.
juice in baba
Can't chew (thank-you)

Ummm, yeah.  5 part instructions are my reality.

As you can see (or imagine anyway) speech and language seems to be coming along nicely and I'm not spending 130 bucks per hour on it anymore.

Dude is continuing to develop a deep love of all things musical.  Loves instruments of all types but especially loves the bitar (guitar) and the peenano.  All kitchen utensils in the "yes you can play with them but please don't torture the dog" drawer are potentially a guitar.

Here is dude rocking out some Christmas carols on his guitar as he assisted Uncle Matt in the creating of some gingerbread men earlier this week.

And the clarinet.

He bursts out into song all day long and almost every song is easily identified.   He has very strong opinions about his mu-cus (music people....).  Lately it has become obvious that the very non christian Auntie is blasting the Christmas joy during the day because he knows songs I've haven't exposed him to this season...today was "Joy to the World", yesterday was "Rudolf".   Christmas will be extra special with a 2 and a half year old in residence.

Cookie baking, gingerbread houses

tree decorating

the evil side of Santa and even shopping for gifts from Ben with Ben for his favourite people and holiday parities

...it has all been so much fun!

New traditions like an annual Dec 1'st tree decorating Asian take out party with friends, a lovely wooden advent calendar from Auntie Jo 2 years ago, 25 wrapped books to be opened in advent fashion with The night before christmas saved for the 24th, peppermint chocolate making events followed by licking the bowl and of course, cookie dough...

Christmas isn't all fun and games though, it is a given that he really is truly obsessively terrified of the big guy in red...but also wants Cranky the Crane from the Thomas train set desperately so accepts Santa as part of the holiday.  There will however be no lap sitting this year.  Ben has bad dreams about the lion dancer to this day and just yesterday asked if Santa was friends with the big noisy lion drum.  So yeah, from a big long distance only.  Like at parades.  2 of them and a birthday party this Saturday a matter of fact.  And a long nap I hope.

All this assumes that the "ow back tongue hurts mama" at dinner and the 38 degree fever right now correct themselves right quick in time for the weekend.

Please tell me that the 10 days of coughing were not simply a lead up to more of the strep nasties?  Please?

Happy 30 months baby...really really hope it's a healthy one!