Weekend away

As I mentioned last week, Bennett has a new friend- Curious George.  One morning last week Bennett was giving George raisins and then George was sharing them with Bennett.

Bennett also helped with the laundry.  I probably won't encourage too much of this particular behaviour or I might need to replace the dryer door, but it was cute.

There's also a video of this.

And here's a conversation we had in the car on the way home from school one day.  Not really all that intersting, but I tried to get him to say of of the words that we think are fun.

Then Mummy and Daddy went away for the weekend (celebrating our 10th anniversary!) and Bennett stayed with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry.  Gentry works from home on Saturdays, so Andrew took Bennett to the Children's Museum to get him out of her hair.  While there they visited the "barber" and Andrew sent me this picture claiming that he had taken Bennett for his first hair cut.

Right next to the Children's Museum is the Boston Fire Museum.  How excited Bennett looks!

On Sunday they went to Sturbridge for Wool Days.  Bennett got to see a sheep be shorn, and Andrew and Gentry learned that with a small child in tow, it's really hard to spend time in the exhibits!  Then on Monday morning they went to a sheep farm.  As much as Bennett loves looking at animals, he wanted nothing to do with petting them!
Meanwhile on Martha's Vineyard, the weather was cold and rainy.  Saturday had the worst weather, but we still had a nice time walking around the various towns on the island and checking out the shops.  Sunday we went to one of the lighthouses where it was extremely windy.

We also checked out the Tabernacle and the cottages in Oak Bluffs.  We stopped at the Cottage Museum and enjoyed talking with the guides there.  Unfortunately it was right before closing, so we weren't able to talk for very long. 

Of course Monday had the best weather but we didn't stick around for very long as we wanted to try to beat some of the traffic on the way back.  And we did luck out!  Overall, it was a nice getaway, but probably a bit more low-key than we typically like.  Other than poking around shops there isn't much to do.  Maybe in nicer weather it would have been different because then we would have brought out bikes.

When we got home Bennett was a little more clingy than normal, but that was to be expected.  We gave him his souvenier- a Martha's Vineyard potholder- and he immediately brought us some "cookies" fresh out of the oven in his play kitchen.  We did some gardening and lawn mowing, and then we took a belated monthly photo.  (It might be just about time for a real hair cut!)

Bennett has a new best friend

Not anything that happened this week, but I finally posted photos from the last two years of the Pinewood Derby.  Those pictures can be found here.  And for anyone who is interested, this year the Derby will be on August 24th. 

This week was actually pretty light on photos.  I used to try to get at least one photo a day.  There certainly were some days that I missed, but I think on a "bad" week I would only miss 2 days.  This week was really bad!

Here's one that I got of Bennett looking at a book with hidden pictures.  It was cute how he would put his finger on the side of his face while searching for something.

On Saturday Grandpa came over for dinner.  Grandpa kept Bennett entertained while we got dinner ready.  And we were impressed that Bennett actually got *in* the sandbox.  Normally he just plays from the outside while awkwardly leaning in.

The most fun part of the week though was yesterday when we went to The Curious George Store in Harvard Square.  At first he was extremely overwhelmed by all of the people and traffic.  When we were driving around trying to find a place to park, I think he enjoyed looking at everything, but it was a different story when we got out of the car!

But he was VERY excited when we got to the store.  He said "mine" about almost everything that he saw with George on it.  Sorry buddy, as much as we wanted to get you everything we had to limit it.  We settled on a couple of new books and a stuffed George.    

Trying on The Man with the Yellow Hat's hat.

There were multiple stuffed Georges to choose from. We offered him two choices and he immediately grabbed one of them. We asked again just to be sure, and yes, that was the one he wanted.  When we checked out the cashier asked if we wanted her to cut the tags off.  Yes, please! 

When we went to lunch Bennett sat down in a chair and then put George in the chair next to him.  And he did an awesome job of holding tight to George as we walked around Harvard Square for a while after lunch.  He may have just gotten a new best friend!  

Here's Bennett with his new Curious George as they are greeted by the doorman at the entrance of the store.



And finally, no trip to Sturbridge this weekend, but I have put together a book of all of our visits over the past year.  (Mel, be forewarned that there are some pictures on pages 22 and 23 that you don't want to see.)



Click here to view this photo book larger

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Walks, wardrobes, and weekends...

We are so close to meeting our goals for the upcoming walk to support Boston Children's Hospital.  In fact, Bennett has met and surpassed his goal.   I met my original goal and decided to aim to be a "Miracle Maker".  I'm just $45 away from that goal.  And Chris is a measly $15 away from reaching the minimum amount that he needs to raise.  Would you consider donating to help us reach our goals?  Pretty please?  You'll receive a lovely photo thank you card after the walk....

In the category of cute things that kids say, we have the following two entries.

• "Trash can truck- dump dump"  Each week he likes helping us bring the trash can to the curb.  And when we can, we like watching the trash truck come and pick up the trash can and dump the contents into the truck.  But Chris and I like how he blended the terms together to get trash can truck.  And the "dump dump" is just describing the action of the truck.
• Happy Birthday Mummy Mumma's Day

For the past couple of nights Bennett has been lining up all of his toys in the tub.  Another one of his OCD tendendcies?

We've been trying to get Bennett to dress himself.  For the most part he can do it, but if we are near him he always says that he needs help.  The only thing we weren't sure if he could do was his shirt.  So one morning this past week Chris picked out Bennett's clothes and left them in his room and asked him to put them on.  Then he left.  A few minutes later Bennett comes into our room completely dressed.  Undies and socks were on correctly, but the pants and shirt were backwards.  Oh well.  We decided to leave him as is and sent him to school that way.  And he was even still dressed that way when we picked him up.

On Saturday night we had a game night with friends.  It's been about 5 months since we've seen everyone.  Schedules are just way too busy!  Proof that it's been too long- one friend commented that Bennett is now speaking intelligent words.  We feel like he's been doing this for a while now!

Sunday was Mother's Day andd we went to Sturbridge.  Moms got in free (not that it mattered to us since we're members) so it was pretty busy.  Bennett continues to get comments from everyone about how cute his is in his hat.  If only he wouldn't smoosh it down onto his head.  It makes visibility a bit tricky.

We also got a picture of him in the final opening of this mult-person cutout.  I'll have to photoshop all of the images together at some point.

And of course we visited Doc and Blue (the oxen) and also looked at the cows.

After nap Bennett gave me his Mother's Day present that he bought with some help from Daddy.  It's a little hard to see here, but it's a "bouquet" made out of a few skeins of yarn with knitting needles as stems.  I had seen the idea and passed along a link to Chris.  I had a feeling this is what I would be getting but I hadn't known which option it would be.  There had been multiple choices in various colors and prices.

And then to finish the day we went outside and did some gardening.  Bennett helped me mix some compost into my garden beds.  I still have a bit more work to do, but need to get some more supplies before I can finish.  Hopefully that will happen later this week or next weekend. 



Spring has sprung!

It's finally starting to feel like spring!  Bennett is wearing short sleeved shirts most days, and when getting dressed he keeps trying to pull his sleeves down.  But being from New England I know that the weather could quickly turn, so the long sleeve shirts are still easily accessible.

One day this past week we picked Bennett up from school and he had a ponytail, or as he called it, a "popo tail".  Apparently all of the kids who had any amount of hair got ponytails.  What I love most about this though is that Bennett finally has enough hair to be put into a ponytail!  And yes, it is often that curly.

May the 4th be with you!  The Lego store was celebrating by giving out Yoda hats.

On Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  Hey, it had been two weeks, so it was time, right?

Bennett brough his phone with him (an old cell phone of mine) and started taking pictures of the sheep.

We had noticed that Doc and Blue, the two oxen who reside in the center village weren't in their normal enclosure.  When we got towards the farm we saw them working to plow a field.  As we were getting closer, they finished up and came up the path towards us.

When they reached the end of the path, the farmer stopped them and talked to the small gathering of people about the oxen.  Technically they won't be "oxen" for another year or so.  This is the term that they get when they are fully trained.  Doc and Blue (Doc's horns point down) are 3 years old.  They are doing well, but still have some learning to do.

As they were being led away, Bennett very loudly yelled after them, "BYE OXEN!!!"

Then we went into the barn and saw the twin "mambs" that had just been born.

Back at home at dinner time, Bennett had his first corn on the cob of the season.  He ate it like a pro, eating an ear and a half.  He probably would have eated the whole second ear but I wanted more so I split it with him.  We may need to find some plastic corn dishes because I don't think I want to risk these glass ones getting broken.