Skating, cooking, and everyday life

Once again showing how thankful I am that we live in the greater Boston area, here's an article about advances being developed in the Cardiac ICU at Boston Children's Hospital (where Bennett spent the first 2 weeks of his life before being downgraded to the regular cardiac wing).


To help give back to Children's for all that they've done for us, we are walking to help raise money. Initially we hadn't set up a fundraising page for Bennett, but now we have. Please consider supporting one of the three of us. (But if Bennett meets his $500 goal, he will be considered a "Miracle Maker".  Here are the links to sponsor us:

Bennett
Mummy
Daddy

And now for some pictures!

Bennett is pretty awesome.  Well, we knew that, but in this case I was meaning that he's pretty awesome about showing affection.  I know this won't last forever, so I'll take it while I can.  Pretty much any time we ask for a hug or a kiss, we get one. And this boy gives awesome hugs!

I think we may have figured out Bennett's favorite food.  Pancakes.  When he sees us getting eggs out of the fridge he thinks we also need a bowl, a whisk and the cookbook.  These days we have to make a double batch because a single batch isn't quite enough.  Leftovers get frozen and make a quick and easy breakfast.  Eating (and cooking) pancakes is serious business!

Trying to get the bag in the trash can.  This requires lots of shaking of the bag and then shoving it into the trash can.  Folding the edge over the can, however, is optional (to Bennett).

The train fairy came to visit!  We've had the train table put away since before Christmas.  I brought it up from the basement one night and Chris and I set up the track.  Bennett was so excited when he saw it the next morning.  He saw it when he was halfway down the stairs and started exclaiming about the choo choo.  A friend of mine passed along some trains from her son as well as some clips that hold the tracks together.  They worked awesome on the elevated sections- especially since we don't have enough risers to hold it all up otherwise.  Bennett is loving this, and playing with it multiple times a day.

We've given Bennett an old cell phone to play with.  The other night he was "talking" on the phone and trying to rest it on his shoulder.

I know this will come as a shock to you, but we went to Sturbridge on Sunday.  We mixed things up a bit and Bennett rode in the Boba on Daddy's back.  Here we are checking out the "ocken".

Every weekend in March OSV is having "Maple Days" where they boil the sap, cook with maple sugar, etc.  Towards the end of the visit we were at the fire where they were boiling the sap.  We were talking (and admiring the inside pockets on the woman's cloak) and Bennett had obviously had enough.  He kept asking for the oxen, the horses, etc.  Anything to try to get us to leave.  And then he asked for the "ock-neigh".  Hmm, I guess that's a combination of oxen and horse (Which he never says horse.  He always says "neigh".).  Then as we left that camp Bennett starts shouting, "BYE"  over and over again.  Luckily no other visitors were over there being disturbed by his shouts.  But the cute part was when the interpreters then shouted "bye" to him as well.
We also lucked out as we were leaving.  There's a patch of plants growing near the oxen in the center village.  And every time we walk past them I wonder what they are.  And every time I comment that I need to remember to ask someone.  As luck would have it, someone was walking by just then who overheard me and told us that the mystery plant is teasel.  Teasel is a biennial (takes 2 years to grow) and was used in the textile industry (and was still used fairly recently as a man-made version wasn't the same quality) to comb fibers in finished cloth- mostly for flannels, wools, etc.

Saturday was the start of a new skating session.  Daddy decided not to take lessons this session which means he gets to take pictures and videos.  Unfortunately he's a bit of a distraction to Bennett, although in this video he's distracted more by the other kids.  It's also nice though to be able to better see his progress than trying to watch from the other end of the rink.  He also lucks out and gets a teenage helper for pretty much one-on-one assistance during the class!

Bennett loves breakfast, in particular, pancakes.  And lately, he always wants a "nice" (knife).  He has a couple of play ones that he loves to use, and he likes to go into the silverware drawer and get us knives to use for dinner.  (Don't worry, they aren't sharp.  The sharp knives are all out of reach.) 

Cooking, and santa, and reindeer... oh my!

Monday night we stopped at Target.  I saw this antler headband and put it on Bennett over his hat.  Then he took it off, took his hat off, and wanted me to put the antlers back on.  Ok, twist my arm.  But you better believe I was going to take a picture.

Bennett ate salad again!  Ok, so most of his consumption happens while standing at the kitchen counter helping prepare dinner, but it's better than nothing. I guess we're just going to have to have him help more.

He also helped take the pancakes out of the frying pan.  Unfortunately he also reached out with his other hand on the first try and touched the frying pan.  Ouch!  But he had such a delayed reaction that at first we weren't sure if he was crying because he was yelled at for touching the hot pan, or if it was from a burn.  Turns out it was a burn.  Cold water and an ice pack seemed to make things better.

Sunday we went to church and he saw the Beep! (Sheep) in the office.  He even tried to climb on top of it, but that didn't work out so well.

And the other excitement for the week... we saw Santa! Earlier in the week I had been at the mall with Bennett picking up our family portraits.  We had another visit with Santa which went like the others- squirming like crazy trying to get out of my lap, ok giving high-fives, but then wanting to get away.  And as soon as we got up to leave, and all the way up the staircase near Santa, Bennett would walk a few steps, turn, yell "bye Santa" walk a few more steps, turn, "bye Santa".. repeat.

So yesterday we really weren't expecting a lot.  We were trying to decide if we would rather have the picture of Bennett screaming in Santa's lap, or if we wanted Mummy or Daddy to be in the picture with Bennett, and still maybe with less than stellar results.

We met up with Awesome Auntie Mel and her son Alexander.  They ran around for a couple of minutes and then we got in line.  I think the assistants were busy doing something so Santa walked around for a couple of minutes saying hi and giving high-fives.  At first Bennett was nervous but then he gave a high-five.  And he was doing pretty well.  When we got up to the front of the line he went and hid behind Daddy's legs.  Uh-oh.  This doesn't seem good.

Alexander had his pictures taken and then it was Bennett's turn.  Alexander hopped up into the chair so Mel could take a couple of pictures, and I think this worked perfectly to help get Bennett a bit more comfortable. 

In the end, he certainly didn't look happy, but he wasn't screaming.  So we're calling it a success!  Maybe next year he'll smile for us?

After visiting Santa we stopped in another store.  Bennett stuck his hands in his pockets (he's been doing this a bit lately) and started walking around.  Super cute!  Luckily he still hasn't figured out that things other than hands can go in pockets, but I think that pretty soon we're going to have to remember to check them before pants go in the wash.