What a week this has been!

Chris pointed out to me that I ended last week's post saying, "Maybe next weekend we'll have some excitement?"  Well, I was just meaning something other than sitting around the house not doing anything fun.  I certainly didn't mean everything that those of us in Massachusetts went through this week! 

I think last week I hit "publish" on the post and then saw the news of the explosions.  What a crazy week this has been!  I knew a number of people who were running the marathon.  Many of them had just finished minutes before or were just about to finish.  And then there was Friday.  We live far enough away that we were safe, but we both work in one of the communities that had a "shelter at home" order.  So we stayed home.  I was checking work email periodically, but we were pretty much glued to the TV.  Bennett went to daycare since I wouldn't be able to get work done with him around, so you don't need to worry about us exposing him to things he didn't need to see.  After he went to bed we were very happy to hear that they got the suspect.  Hopefully now things will start to return to normal.

On a lighter note, here's the fun Bennett stuff of the week.

A few fun expressions of his lately have been:

• "Oh, man" when things don't go quite the way he would like.
• "Where?" (pronounced, way-ya) complete with a shoulder shrug as he looks for something that he is missing.
• "Come here!"  This one is both cute and annoying as we have to follow him to look at what he wants to show us, even if we can see from where we are.

Lots more play with his doll.  Here he is tucking him in.

And now the doll is being fed eggs.



We also had that moment where everything is quiet and you wonder what trouble your child is up to.  In this case, it was Bennett on the potty having pulled all of the wipes out of the container and scrunched them up.  I think he'd had an accident and tried to clean up.  (Auntie Mel- as you would say, it was "argyle day" at school. :) I didn't even really think of putting him in something else.)

 What?  This isn't how you are supposed to get out of the car?

First treat from an ice cream truck.  Daddy tried to say it was too soon before dinner for icecream, but Mummy vetoed that.  (His hat really does fit better than this, but Bennett insists on smooshing it down on his head, so it ends up falling in his eyes.)

Watching Curious George while waiting for Mummy to finish her skating lesson.  It was the final lesson of the session and Bennett got another ribbon, this one just a "good job" participation ribbon.  I think the fact that he got the ribbon last time indicating that he had passed was a fluke.  Chris spoke with the teacher and they agreed that Bennett would do well repeating the class again.  He knows how to do most of the skills, but he chooses to rely on his teachers a bit too much for help.  Definitely would benefit from more practice.

He took really long naps both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I went in to wake him up because we needed to go somewhere and I found him like this.  I'm not sure if he would benefit from a bigger bed, or if I would just be more worried about him falling out.

On Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  Here's his photo in a cut-out.  I was thinking that I may need to get his picture in each of the 4 openings in this particular image and then photoshop them all together.

He walked almost the whole thing himself.  He was pretty sluggish going up the first hill, wanting to play with all the sticks, pinecones, etc, but eventually he got better.  With Bennett leading the way, we went into some buildings we normally don't go in.  As we were walking around at one point he mentioned "eat".  This is the first time he's indicated that he's hungry.  And since it was lunch time, we obliged.  Interesting that he said eat rather than hungry.  Maybe he just doesn't understand that word yet?

Here he is learning to be a cooper.

And for your weekly video, "Baby Bumblebee".  One day this week Chris was driving Bennett to school and Bennett said a word that sounded like "bumblebee".  This seemed a bit odd, but it was accompanied by a hand motion so Chris wondered if maybe Bennett had learned the song at school.  He asked, and yes, one of the teachers did teach it to him.  We've also sung it a few times at home now.  And here's Bennett singing.
"Bumblebee bee (baby?), me Mummy proud"

Given current events I feel bad asking, but we are still raising money for our walk to benefit Boston Children's Hospital.  The walk is in June, so I'll probably be making requests a few more times.  Here is a link to our Team Page. From there you can access links to all of the team members.  Bennett has met his goal and is now considered a Miracle Maker, but let's see if we can make the amount raised even more!  Or you could consider donating to one of the other walkers on our team.  Fiona is still a small amount away from being a Miracle Maker and both Alicia and Chris need to reach their goals/minimum required amounts of $150.  Let's help everyone reach their goal and then keep going!