Ben Talk | First Edition

There was such a contrast between Ben's verbal skills when Jake was born compared to Abby's verbal skills when Ben had been born. Abby had just turned 18-months and yet could talk quite well; Ben was 22-months when Jacob was born and yet he was practically mute. He could only say single words and he rarely said them at all. When he turned 2 a couple months later, he had added more words to his vocabulary, but still wasn't talking much and could only say a few phrases.

In late June, Kevin was gone for two weeks down in Newport working on the new boat and getting it ready to bring to Westport. When he returned home, he was shocked: Ben could talk! In those two short weeks, Ben went from barely saying a few words here and there to a talking machine and he hasn't stopped since! Around that time, I started keeping track of some of the things he was saying. Some of it is not necessarily funny (like Abby's is right now), but I wrote it down just so we can remember the cute little ways he says certain words before he becomes an eloquent speaker like his older sister. :o) As I said, I've been keeping track of this since about July so he's already "graduated" beyond some of these babyish ways of talking. So, without further ado, here you have the first edition of "Ben Talk."

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One of the strings of his toy got stuck on another and I couldn't get it undone. Ben said, "Daddy fix a shoe-driver!" which means, "Daddy can fix it with a screwdriver!" He thinks his Daddy can fix everything...with a shoe-driver.

I heard Ben calling from the living room, "Mama, cheese!" over and over. I peeked in and saw the kiddos sitting on the rocking chair holding hands. I said, "You want me to take a picture of you two?" Ben replied in his typical, "Yeah."

Ben usually wakes up very grumpy. He's been that way since he was a newborn. He grumps, whines, throws fits, cries, etc for about 5-10 minutes. But the afternoon of his cousin Solomon's birthday party, I woke Ben up from his nap and said, "Are you ready to go to Solomon's party?" Instantly he went from tired grumpy-face to jumping out of bed, saying "I ready!!"

Mr. Grumpy-Face

We were having a picnic lunch next to a lake, when I spotted a man fishing in a kayak. When I pointed him out to the kids, Ben said, "Daddy's boat!" Um, yeah, not quite the size of Daddy's boat and not quite the kind of fishing Daddy does. :)

As I changed his diaper, Ben told me, "Good job, Mommy, good job!"

Abby is slower at getting out of bed than Ben and often she needs some alone time. Ben doesn't understand this and wants her up right away. He often says, "Get up, Abby, get up!!" only it sounds more slurred together like, "Gi-up, Abby, Gi-up!"

Ben often puts an short a sound in front of verbs, such as, "Kitty a-sitting!" and, "Mommy a-cooking!" Not sure why, but it sure is cute!

He also pronounces many words that have short i sounds with a long e sound instead. For instance, when he sees a large truck driving next to us he hollers out, "Beeg Peek-up!"


Ben's most complete first sentence was said when he was sad and upset: "I want my Daddy!" I think he is having the hardest time getting used to Kevin being gone all the time.

For a long time, he said he said, "my's" instead of "mine."

He likes to play peek-a-boo with Jacob, but says it, "Pee-koo, Jakey!"

Occasionally, he'll start saying a word incorrectly after saying correctly for months. It'll last a month of two and then he'll go back to saying it correctly. Not sure why. The most memorable one was when he switched from calling Kevin "Daddy" to "Danny." It was really quite clear and it was unmistakably "Danny." One time I felt a bit embarrassed when we were out in public and he kept saying "Danny!" so loudly I thought that people might think I was two-timing my husband! :o)
Cakes!, Down, "brocks" for eyebrows. Danny for Daddy

Ben dropped his spoon on the floor and hollered, "Spoon, spoon!" My mom suggested to him, "Ben, say please to Mommy and she'll pick it up for you." Ben replied, "Machines!" My mom responded, "What does machines have to do with your spoon?" Ben answered, "I don't know!" My mom and I laughed. Ben said, "I cute!" We laughed even more. :)

During the middle of the night, Ben was crying in his room for water. I quickly got a sippy cup and took it took him. He drank some and then said, "Snuggle, Mama." I obliged him and laid down beside him. Only about 5 seconds later, he said, "Goodbye, Mama." That's my cue that he's ready to go back to sleep! :)

Ben asked Kevin to draw a kitty on a blank piece of paper so that he could color it. His coloring is simply scribbling at this point, so soon the kitty was all covered up and you couldn't tell the difference between the kitty or his scribbles. Ben looked up at us, laughed and said, "Kitty hiding!" 

After having some chocolate milk for the first time, Ben said, "Mmmm, I drinking cookies!" He then finished his cup and headed back toward the fridge to grab the jug, saying, "I get more cookies!"