Food battles, the mind of a three-year-old, and adventures at OSV (including pig butchering)

Lately we've had some challenging meals with Bennett.  Unless it's a food that he LOVES (pancakes, mac & cheese) he often picks at things a bit.   Depending on what the food is, how much is on his plate, and how he's done with the food in the past we will either encourage him to eat X more bites or to finish everything.  We also give him the choice of eating his dinner or going straight to bed without bath or books.  Normally, when presented with this choice, he chooses to eat his dinner.

On Monday we were having leftover chicken pot pie, or more accurately, leftover filling- no soggy crust.  He had done well with it when he ate it the night before but on this night it was a struggle.  After a few bites and lots of struggling/encouraging him to eat, he spat out a bite.  I asked what was wrong with it.  Sometimes he'll spit things out if his bites are too big, but on this occasion he said, "I didn't like it."  Sorry kid, that's not a valid reason.  Since it had been quite the battle up until this point he had to go straight to bed.  He wasn't a happy camper about this, but he did quiet down pretty quickly.  I guess that was a sign that he was likely pretty tired to begin with.

Opening a surprise Christmas gift from Auntie Mel.

On Tuesday Bennett used his imagination quite a bit.  He started off by playing grocery store- scanning items and putting them into a bag.  Then he used a piece of ribbon as a jump rope.  And finally he piled all the animals in the pig pen.  Not sure exactly what that was about, but likely they were all sleeping.

Wednesday night Bennett woke up at 1:45 and climbed into bed with us.  It was quite the uncomfortable night for Mummy and Daddy.  At 5 Daddy put you put you back in your own bed.  No idea why he woke up or felt the need to come into bed with us.

If Chris and I call each other on the phone Bennett always asks to talk. We generally put the phone on speaker.  Bennett will say hi but then he usually asks if he can "make Daddy go away".  No idea why he loves pressing that red button so much!  Well one night this week he hung up on Chris before we said that he could.  So I told him that he made Daddy sad by making him go away and Bennett started crying.  Not exactly the reaction I was expecting.  But then he asked for a tissue because "my eyes are leaking".

He also is always asking to take his hat off in the car.  Based on some comments that he makes, I think he gets hot and cold mixed up.  Because apparently, "My hair is cold" and "can I take off my hat?  It makes my hat cold."
Another fun moment from this week was when he named two of his Duplo people Victoria and Dave (two of the OSV interpreters) and put them in his farm.  He also turned part of the barn into the farmhouse and put Victoria inside.

All smiles when we picked him up from school on Friday.

On Saturday at skating we tried Bennett at the next level but he just couldn't keep up.  As the kids were marching/skating across the ice, Bennett was the slowest and then about half way across he just stopped and started watching everyone else.  So they moved him back to pre-tot where he happily marched across the ice to pick up balls that his teacher threw for him to retrieve.

After skating he went to Nana's house where he got to wake up Auntie Hanna, did some baking, and had a playdate with the grandson of one of Nana's friends.Back at home, after nap he woke up pretty grouchy.  It also didn't help that he wanted to watch George and I insisted in watching Nemo.

This weekend was the annual pig slaughter at Sturbridge.  It starts on Saturday with the gutting, hair removal, sausage making, etc.  On Sunday they do the inside butchering where they make the various cuts of meat.  When we got there Bennett recognized right away that it was a pig hanging in the barn and also one on the table inside the house.  Later he asked where the pigs were.  Daddy told him that the female went to a new farm and he wanted to go visit her.  He did great with seeing the pig being butchered.  Lots of questions of what people were doing/ what's that.  He helped Dave fill the wood box. We also learned that various buildings have basements- including a trap door in the bank porch (although we couldn't find it) and a basement in cooper shop with a transformer.  We also got to feed hay to the cows and the sheep.

Carrying a flake or two of hay for the cows.

Putting the hay into the stanchion

Carrying hay to the sheep

The cows each get 3 flakes of hay and the sheep get 1 flake for every two sheep.  The sheep also get a different kind of hay called "second cut."

And now, this is your warning.  Please stop reading if you don't want to see pictures of a pig being slaughtered.

We found it very interesting to see how much fat/muscle/,meat is above the spine at the back of the neck.

Victoria invited Bennett over to her side of the table and then got down on his level to explain things to him.

Victoria and Ryan removing the bacon from the ribs

Starting on the second side

Wrapping up 2013

Not too much happened in the days between Christmas and New Year's so this post will be pretty light on photos.

On Thursday Bennett went back to school and I went back to work.  Chris started the job of rebuilding the farm buildings out of wood rather than cardboard.  I got a call at some point during the day that Bennett was complaining that his ear hurt and that he was out of sorts.  He's commented off and on for a few months that his ear hurts .  Normally after one complaint he's fine for days/weeks until the next complaint.  But on Thursday he complained multiple times.  I was able to get an appointment for him.  The doctor removed some built up wax and saw that there was fluid in his ear but it wasn't infected yet.  He said we would know within the next 24 hours if it were to get infected.  Luckily after removing the wax and a dose of Tylenol at home he was fine.


Friday Bennett was back to his old self again!

Saturday we had skating and then had to hurry home for one more Christmas celebration.  Uncle Andrew, Aunt Gentry, Grandpa, and his friend Susan were coming over.  Grandpa brought a turkey which we served with various leftovers.  However, Bennett wasn't eating well and was likely tired from a busy morning so he made the choice to go upstairs for nap rather than finish eating.  This meant that we had to open presents without him.  Of course he woke up from his nap just as everyone was leaving and then he opened his presents- some puzzles, a hat, and for the family, a toboggan!  Can't wait to be able to use that.




Bennett continues to play with his farm (which is good since we put so much time into it and it takes up a lot of space) but some some reason he likes to pile all the animals together so that they can "sleep".

On Sunday we rounded out the year with a final trip to Sturbridge.  This brings our count for the year to 40 visits.  We'll have to see what we decide to do next year.  A winter activity for them is to dip candles, so Bennett go a chance to give it a try.  Other than that, it was a pretty quiet day at the Village.  We got to see Doc and Blue working (and misbehaving quite a bit) as they pulled a cart from one end of the village to another but otherwise not too much to report.

Monday was a pretty normal day back at school/work and on Tuesday Bennett was picked up early as it was New Year's Eve.  Nothing special going on for us.  Bennett went to bed as normal and Chris and I stayed up watching Harry Potter.

And that pretty much wraps up 2013!

The remainder of Advent and Christmas Festivities

On Monday when I picked Bennett up from school they proudly showed me that he had written his name.  For the lower one, the teacher wrote his name first and then had him trace it in multiple colors.  And then he wrote his name on top.  Yay!

When we got home I didn't have anything special for Advent because I goofed and let him watch the planned movie over the weekend.  (A Curious George Christmas movie.)  For dinner I made pancakes including one that looked like Frosty the No-man pancake, as Bennett calls them since he doesn't pronounce the S.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve.  Bennett went to school in the morning so that we could have time for wrapping presents, last minute shopping, and scrambling to finish his big gift.  More on that later.  I picked him up after lunch and we came home for nap.  Of course it took him a while to fall asleep.

After nap (which we had to wake him from) we put on spiffy clothes and then headed off to pick up Nana and Auntie Hanna before heading to church.  After church we went back to their house for dinner and presents. 

Bennett started to play with bowls, measuring cups, etc and Nana gave him an apron to wear while he "cooked".

Lighting a candle with Nana.

Opening presents.

When we got home Bennett put out milk and cookies for Santa and then got changed into his new Christmas PJs.  While visions of sugarplums danced in his head, the elves were hard at work scrambling to get Bennett's big present (a recreation OSV barnyard) finished presentable.  Last week Chris knew that everything wasn't going to get done in time so he decided to just focus on the walls and fences.  We lucked out and one of his co-workers offered to paint the walls for us.  Woo hoo!  So Tuesday morning/afternoon Chris worked to get the fences finished and painted.  Around lunch time he asked me, what do you think about having buildings temporarily made out of cardboard?  At last, a step in the process that I could work on!  So I spent Bennett's naptime working on barns and after he went to sleep we were up to about 1am working on gluing fences into place and crafting cardboard buildings.  It actually helped the process a bit because we could think through some of the construction process, decide which beams could be eliminated from the design, what needs to be changed for the final product, etc.

Monday night progress

And the end result?  Bennett loved it!  He'd received a few animals for his birthday so we had those set up at the farm-- pigs in their pen, the oxen in their pen, Summer (the calf) in her pen, and the horses out in the yard since they technically don't even go with the farm. 

The farm on Christmas morning

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Bennett woke around his normal time, 7:00.  He let us lounge in bed for a little while and then we went downstairs.  Here's what he saw when he came down the stairs:

His reaction as he saw Doc and Blue.

And even better, here's his reaction in video format!

Shortly after we came downstairs Grandpa came over to join us for breakfast and watching Bennett open presents.  We started with stockings. Bennett got a couple of cows (dubbed them Lance/Henry) and a sheep and immediately went and put them in the farm.

Next we connected with Grandma and Grandpa Tedford via Skype so that they could watch Bennett open all of his presents.  There were LOTS of presents!  When wrapping we realized that tags on Bennett's presents were pointless as almost all of them were for him.  Plus they were the ones in the Cars wrapping paper. 

One of Bennett's presents was a bin with more animals, all of which had to immediately be put on the farm.  He now has:

• A team of oxen (He got these for his birthday.  We intended them to be Lance and Henry but he named them Doc and Blue.
• A pair of horses, Jim and Pete (birthday gift)
• 2 pigs (birthday gift)
• Summer, the calf (birthday gift)
• 4 cows.  These were intended to be Bonnie, Button, Betsy, and Rainy.  He named two of them Lance and Henry (the oxen).  The other two he named Bonnie and Button.
• 2 chickens, a rooster, a group of chicks
• 1 ram, 2 sheep, 4 assorted lambs

Currently 3 of the cows at OSV are pregnant.  I'm not sure what happens when they give birth.  Do we need to get more calves?  Does Summer graduate to being a full-size cow?  Also, one of the pigs is going to be butchered in a few weeks and the other pig will be going to another farm.  Will Bennett want to remove his pigs until they get new ones?

One thing that was interesting to see was how he immediately put the cows into the milking stalls in the barn even though he's never seen the milking stalls in use (we always left for nap before milking time).  How did he know that's where they were supposed to go.

Cows in the milking stalls. 
Chickens sleeping in their coop. 
Horses in the storage area. 
Mater driving down the middle.

All of the animals in their appropriate pens

Other gifts included PJs, books, puzzles, baking items for his play kitchen, a hand knit sandwich (bread, lettuce, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, egg slices), toy cars (Lightning McQueen and Mater), pattern blocks, a Curious George ornament, Duplos....  They boy definitely had a good Christmas!

The animals are "sleeping" so he covered them with "blankets".

Modeling his new dinosaur hat.  (It's a red present.)

After presents it was almost time for lunch and nap.  Shortly after he woke up, Mimi, Uncle Andrew, and Aunt Gentry came over for more celebrating.

After not wanting to wear his crown, he finally put it on and then wore two more as bracelets.

And that pretty much wrapped up the day.  Shortly after everyone left it was time for Bennett to go to bed.  Chris and I did some dishes and then relaxed for a little while.  One more celebration to go on Saturday!

Happy Holidays!

In case we ran out of cards before getting to you (sorry, more than 75 cards was out of the budget) here's our card from this year.

Here's the note that we included with the cards:

You may be wondering why we chose to feature oxen on our holiday card this year. The reason is simple. Doc and Blue (Doc’s horns go down, Blue’s horns go up) are one of the two teams of oxen at Old Sturbridge Village, an 1830s recreation village. OSV was an important part of our lives in 2013 as, to date, we visited 39 times this year (there may be another visit post-Christmas). 25 of those times were consecutive weekly visits. On our many visits we’ve watched the animals grow (plus we’ve learned the names of all of the animals that have names), helped plow a field, swept out a bake oven, made tin biscuit (cookie) cutters, pet chickens, sheep, and the calf, been photographed for the local paper, harvested ice on the mill pond (Mr. Chris even has a cameo in one of OSV’s promotional videos), eaten lots of cookies, watched musical performances (and particularly enjoyed fifes), took many wagon, stagecoach, and river boat rides, learned the names of many of the interpreters, learned why the animals on this card are technically steers and not oxen (they aren’t called oxen until they are fully trained and these are still learning), helped cut and stack wood, picked and sorted potatoes, toured the root cellar, watched a Naturalization Ceremony, learned how to command a team of oxen to turn slightly left vs. a sharp left (“haw to me” vs. just saying “haw”), watched demonstrations at the sawmill, gristmill, and carding mill, watched a Revolutionary War reenactment, toured the costume storage building, cooked a period meal using period methods, watched blacksmith, shoemaker, tinsmith and print shop demonstrations, threshed grain, watched animals be harvested, dressed up as Doc for Halloween, and so much more. Needless to say, OSV was a big part of our year!

What else did we do? Bennett and Mr. Chris went sledding for the first time, we continued with ice skating lessons, had our 10th Annual Pinewood Derby, went swimming, potty trained in 4 days, had a great cardiology visit (Bennett’s heart continues to do well), celebrated 10 years of marriage, Bennett had his first haircut, we raised money for Boston Children’s Hospital, and Bennett turned three and had a Curious George birthday party.

Advent activities

Dinners for the past couple of weeks have felt very rushed.  We try to think of what we can make quickly so that we have time for whatever our Advent activity is.

Monday wasn't too bad.  Bennett got to watch Rudolph.  I tried watching with him, but he was really fidgeting and asking too many questions so I had to get off the couch.

On Tuesday we made birdseed ornaments to give as gifts. Some of them turned out better than others.  Later in the week I made some more since we didn't have enough from the first batch.  I've read some negative reports about these, so hopefully they don't crumble too much or grow mold.

Wednesday's Advent item was some winter pencils.  Kind of lame, but Bennett liked them.  We asked him to draw a picture for Santa of what he wants for Christmas.  He drew "a red present with a bow".

On Thursday we made a cotton ball snowman.  I made the face but Bennett did the rest.

On Friday I had my work holiday party so we enlisted Grandpa to babysit.  At 3:30 I got a call from school that Bennett had a fever.  Grandpa still watched Bennett but since Bennett was under the weather I don't think they were able to have much fun- pretty much dinner and bed.  

On Saturday we had planned to go take the "official" photos with Santa but Bennett was still not feeling well so we ended up watching lots of movies/tv-- Cars, Toy Story, and multiple episodes of Curious George.

Saturday night it snowed.  On Sunday Bennett went to Nana's house.  He helped shovel the driveway and then they went for a walk in the snow.  Later on Auntie Hanna came over and they all went to pick out a Christmas Tree.  They came home in time for nap and then later we ran some errands.

That wraps up the 2nd week of Advent!

Guy Fawkes, hand turkeys, and sheep

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.

That's right, Guy Fawkes Day was this week.  As crazy Anglophiles we dressed Bennett in his Spurs shirt and Union Flag arm/leg warmers.  Bennett apparently liked the arm warmers so much that he wanted to wear them again on Friday.

Saturday was the first skating class of the session but we missed it for our weekly OSV trip.  Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but we really wanted to be there on Saturday right when they opened.

The reason?  They were butchering a sheep and it had been suggested to us that we should plan to get there right when they opened.  More on this later, after the warning.

Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry came along as well.  This worked out well to have a couple of extra people to help keep an eye on Bennett, especially when things were going kind of slowly.

Since things were going a little slowly we went back and forth from the farm a few times.  Plus it was cold so we needed mulled cider to warm up.

When we stopped in the tin shop we were talking with Phil about how almost daily Bennett shoots his "musket" and how the other day he was saying that he'd forgotten his powder and his earplugs.  When we asked him where they were, he said they were in the tinshop.  Phil also gave Bennett a  musket ball.

Another fun moment was when Dave started to fill the woodbin.  Bennett asked if he could help.  Sure! Dave then had to go and do something else, but when he got back Bennett made sure to tell him that he's filled the woodbin.

On Sunday we went to Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry's house for a brunch and hand turkey craft party.  Bennett had so much fun cutting paper that he wanted to do more after his nap.

His finished hand turkey.

In other news, here's a friendly reminder (and doing my wifely duty) to remind you of Chris' Etsy shop.
Now is the time of year where he sells lots and lots of his Nativity Advent Calendars.  I know, it's crazy early to be thinking about Christmas, but if Santa can be at the mall already I guess it's not too early.

In years past he hasn't been able to keep up with the demand for them.  This year he worked a bit harder to have more of an inventory.  Only time will tell if it's enough.  What I find exciting is that I've been able to find lots of these pinned on Pinterest!

If this particular puzzle isn't of interest to you, he has lots of other designs available in his shop, plus even more that aren't listed.  And if you are local, his work (including puzzles, ornaments, and pens) is available for purchase at Sign of the Dove Gallery in Newton at The Mall at Chestnut Hill.

In other shopping news, I’m having a thirty-one catalog party, open until the 22nd.  If interested, you can peruse and order online at https://www.mythirtyone.com/beckythackston.  Go to “My Parties” and then select my name. 

The special for November is a limited edition Medium Utility Tote for only $7 (with $35 purchase).  It’s also available at the regular price for $30.

There are lots of great items for organizing your home, car, etc or plenty of items that would be great hostess/teacher/whomever gifts.

Also, if you would be so inclined to click on the ads on this site it would earn me a few pennies.  Not a lot, but every little bit helps, right?  And I'm not kidding about it only being a little.  Last month there were 6 clicks which earned a whopping $2.05.  Only you have to earn $100 before they will send you a check.  Hmm, this could take a while.  :)

And now for pictures of the sheep.

Here's my warning for Mel and other people who are squeamish that you may want to stop reading.  These are a bit more gruesome than last week's turkey photos.
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THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!
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Sturbridge opens at 9:30.  Just before they opened they shot the sheep.  We were there right when they opened and headed straight back to the farm.  When we got there the sheep was lying on the table.  They then sliced the skin on one of the legs and hung the sheep up to better be able to work on it.  

We were the only ones there (other than the interpreters) for at least a half hour, but it was nice because Bennett was able to run around a bit to check on the other animals, see what was going on inside the farmhouse (not much), etc.  Lots of back and forth running.  Also most of the people working know us as regulars so they knew that Bennett would be ok.  Plus if he went into the farmhouse we were usually right behind him.

As you can see below, Dave is taking some notes about the process.  Since this type of event doesn't happen very often it becomes an educational experience for all of the staff as well.

It was taking a while to remove the skin so we went to get warm drinks and visit some of the other buildings.  When we came back it had been skinned and the organs had been removed.  Victoria asked Bennett if he wanted to see the organs, mentioning that they were similar to the turkey he'd seen the week before.  Dave is working here on the heart and lights (lungs).  The other useful organs are in the pan.

Here it is about to be brought inside. 

Inside Victoria starts by removing the "hams".  Apparently this is the name of this cut of meat- the legs.  She had to ask one of the guys to come in with an axe to help break it apart.

And that's all the butchering pictures I've got.  We went away for lunch and when we came back it was pretty much all cut apart.  They cooked up the loins right then, but the rest was going to be saved for other cooking presentations.

Ultimately a sheep is pretty small.  The amount of meat would only be enough for 3-4 meals.

It was interesting being there for so long and hearing different parts of the process and also learning about Victoria's transformation from a vegan PETA member to the head of the butchering program.

Skating, and sledding, and Christmas... Oh my!

Since my last post encompassed activity through Tuesday, this was a bit of a short week.

I think the most exciting part of the weekend for me was on Saturday during skating.  I looked across the ice and Bennett was standing up, not holding on to anyone, and marching!  Yay, Bennett!  He does seem to like marching these days, which is one of the first steps of learning to skate.  We often see him marching and saying, "march, march, march."

After nap on Saturday we went sledding again.  This wasn't as much of a success as last time.  We went to Jericho Hill, an old ski slope in Marlborough.  I had driven by it earlier in the day and it hadn't seemed too busy, but by the afternoon there were quite a few people there. 

Bennett went down a little hill with Daddy and seemed to have fun.  Then we decided to give the big hill a try.  Most people, ourselves included, were only going about half-way up the hill.

Bennett started off happy, but by the time they reached the bottom he was NOT happy.  I'm not sure if it was the steeper hill, the bumpier ride (it was bumpy in general but also a gulley at the end that made for a bit of a jump), or snow being kicked up into his face, but Bennett was whining and crying a bit. We did do a couple of other runs, even trying the smaller slope again, but he was not having fun.  He had much more fun going to the playground that was there and going down the slide while Daddy did some more sledding.  And then Daddy broke our sled, so it was time to go home.

On Sunday we had what I believe is our final Christmas celebration of the season.  (One year I think we celebrated in March, so January 6th is pretty good.)   Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry arrived first.  Bennett quickly made them his servants, having Uncle Andrew get him milk and having them read him a number of books.  At one point Bennett started getting fidgety and lay upside-down, so Aunt Gentry did the same to read the book.  And then Uncle Andrew joined in.

A short time later Aunt Cathrine and Uncle Bob arrived, bringing their dog with them.  Interestingly Bennett never referred to her as "puppy" like he did in Georgia.  She was just "Annie".  He didn't ever really want to touch Annie, but was always interested in knowing where she was and looking at her.


After we ate we opened a few presents.  These included peculiar European condiments for the adults as well as helpful jar scrapers.  And following the kitchen theme Bennett got a toy microwave!  He had lots of fun pushing the buttons and cooking the various included foods- hot dogs, chicken, hamburger...

Then, since it was long past Bennett's bedtime, he said goodnight to everyone, Chris brought him upstairs, and everyone else said their farewells as well.  This morning Bennett didn't want to go to school.  He wanted to microwave things.