In the News...

Bennett had his picture in the paper yesterday!  There was a photographer at Sturbridge while we were there on Saturday.  Here's the clipping.

But let me back up...
More Daddy Daycare on Wednesday.  They started off the morning watching part of the Curious George movie.  Bennett sat in Daddy's lap and hardly moved.

Then it was time to go on a field trip.  First they stopped at Brandeis to visit Daddy's co-workers (and help Alicia fix her lamp) and then they came to my work and we all had lunch together.

When they got to my office Bennett had his first experience walking through a revolving door.  It was just like on TV/ in movies with the person continuing to walk around.

On Thursday my work had our summer outing at Kimball's.  Bennett LOVED the bumper boats and we went on them three times.  Going again in the future may prove slightly more difficult since the boats aren't cheap and he's not going to understand why we can't ride them multiple times.  Plus we lucked out with hardly any lines.

Friday's Daddy Daycare started off with reading a pile of Dr. Seuss books in bed.

Then it was time for a field trip to Woodcraft where Bennett descided to accessorize with dust collection fittings.

Bennett also picked out his clothes and decided that the shirt made him look like a cowboy.

Other highlights of the day included Chris announcing that it was lunch time, Bennett going into the kitchen, opening the fridge, getting the jam out, and then grabbing a grape.  He then ran back into the living room to announce to Daddy that he had taken a grape.

He also announced that he's had hamcheese at Sturbridge yesterday.  Not sure where this came from since he hadn't been to Sturbridge since the weekend.

But speaking of Sturbridge, let's get into some more details from our visit.  Saturday was their annual "Fire and Ice" day.  (Well, technically they also have Fire and Ice in the winter when they celebrate the ice harvest.)  There were lots of fire trucks and other fire aparatus, a bucket brigade contest, and they would be making ice cream.

While we were at home getting ready to leave, Bennett was playing with some dress up clothes.  We mentioned that we were going to go to Sturbrudge and that there would be firetrucks there.  He grabbed one of his firehats (apparently he has 4 of them!) and asked if he could wear it.  We said sure, but swapped it for a different one with an elastic.  Much easier to stay on his head, and as it turned out, also easier to carry when he wasn't wearing it. 

When we got to the parking lot there were a couple of trucks for kids to explore.  One was a canteen (complete with a mobile bathroom) and then there was also a more typical (at least to me) truck.  Bennett climbed around the seats and up on the back.

Once we got inside there was thsi antique truck, a couple more modern ones, and some handtubs.  He wasn't a fan of the siren on this one, but he did like sitting in the seat and ringing the bell.

We checked out this exhibit with a cow that you can "milk".  He loves to visit this spot every time we come, and the cow has been out of order for a while.  I also gave it a try and sprayed some water on Bennett, and then of course he wanted to keep spraying himself.

A highlight of the day was the bucket brigade contest.  Bennett kept asking to do it, and luckily he had a chance when the contest was all over.  In the first round, there was a 3 way tie with a time of 1:01.  In the second round they narrowed it down to 50 seconds, and then in the final round, I think the winning time was 47 seconds.  Wow those people were quick!  And it was one of the teams of teenagers that won.

There also was a chili contest with various local restaurants supplying the chili.  The Publick House (which is where we had our wedding reception) won!

After the teams finished up the bucket brigade, Bennett and some other kids decided to give it a try.  Or at least they had fun dipping buckets (or hats) into the water, spilling some on themselves, and emptying tiny amounts into the barrel.  Good thing they weren't being timed. 

As this was going on I noticed the photographer taking pictures of the kids.  I think initially Bennett didn't have his Fire Chief hat on, but I put it on him and he kept playing.  After a little while the photographer came over and asked for names/ages.  He mentioned what paper he was with and that there would likely be a slideshow on the website later that day and that he wasn't sure if it would be in the Sunday paper or not.

Sure enough, that evening I found the online slideshow.  Bennett's in there and all of us are in the background of another photo as well.  And then on Sunday I found the article online.  I had meant to look for the paper when I was at the grocery store in the morning but I forgot.  In the afternoon we walked to a couple of local drugstores but they didn't have them.  I guess we were just out of their circulation area.

So after Bennett went to bed I went out to a grocery store in a nearby town and found a copy of the paper.  Sure enough, there was Bennett!  Here's a link to the article which is posted above, but now you'll actually be able to read it.  If you scroll down a bit you'll see the photo of Bennett, and you can click to see it larger, as well as another link to see the slideshow with a few other photos.

The other fun from Saturday was hearing the ice cream truck.  Bennett and I went out and I got him a popsicle.  This thing proved to be very messy!  He had red stained hands, face, legs, and even a dribble down his chest.

Before

After

On Sunday we had friends over for food and games.  We started off with brunch- pancakes, donuts, cinnamon rolls, fruit.  Yum!  Then we headed outside for a water fight.  The goal was to get Jason soaked, and I'd say we accomplished that. (For some reason we always pick on Jason, seen here with the hose.)

Bennett had fun, but he didn't quite understand why people kept taking water out of his pool.

After the water fight we went in to dry off/ change clothes and play some more games.  The kids played with Bennett's toys and the adults played Dicecapades.

At the end of the day we asked Bennett what he liked best.  He said "playing choo choos with 'BJ' (DJ) and Davis"  He also had lots of books read to him by Caitlyn.  Thanks for being such a good sport Caitlyn.  The boy certainly loves his books!

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.

Week in review

The report from skating is that Bennett *can* stand up on his own, but that he doesn't like to.  He has much more fun just sliding around on the ice, and then using his teacher to stand up.  He also can march, and if pushed, he can glide.  Woo hoo!  Way to go, Bennett!  And this was the first week that I was able to hand him off to a teacher without him clinging to me.  Looks like we're making progress and that he's having fun.  He also has been saying "ice" (pronounced I-sh, with a long I) but we're not sure if that is due to his enjoyment skating or his love of the ice dispenser on our fridge.

It seems that every year or so I decide to try to make latkes.  And every time, they are a failure.  I think more often than not, they are overcooked on the outside and raw on the inside.  I believe I've narrowed down the problems to not getting enough moisture out of the potatoes, not using a binder, and not having enough oil.  This year I remedied all of those problems and we had success!  And the bigger success was that Bennett ate them.  (Ok, he maybe ate half of one.)  They had them the next day at school as well and Bennett ate another half latke there as well.  So now he eats latkes and french fries.  Won't touch mashed potatoes and not really a fan of roasted either.

Last night we had tortellini for dinner.  He ate a couple of pieces and spit others out, so we're not really sure if he liked them or not.  But for the ones he didn't spit out, we're counting it as a win.

With the Christmas tree set up, we had to clear Bennett's train table out of the room.  One night this week I set up a bit of track going around the tree.  It's not the easiest to use being so close to the bookcase and the tree skirt makes the track a bit bumpy, but I think Bennett liked it.  But then after having been set up for about 5 days, last night Bennett decided to take it all apart and put the track away in the bin with all the other track pieces.  I guess he didn't think it belonged on the floor?

Friday night we made cinnamon ornaments.  I realized I am a major control freak.  In theory I'm ok with Bennett getting messy and doing things his way, but in practicality I hardly ever let him play with play-dough or paint or things like that.  And with this project I guess I kept thinking that he was doing it "wrong".  Maybe people would prefer to get ornaments of misshapen blobs rather than hearts, stars, or elephants?  Hey, I did let him exercise his creativity with the elephant and bunny cookie cutters, although I did veto the turkey.

Saturday after skating we went to Brunch with Santa at Mimi's.  She just called me to tell me that everyone is telling her how handsome Bennett is and that he's so smile-y and happy.  Which for the most part is true- until you have him take a picture with Santa.  I tried to put him on Santa's knee and he was not having that at all!

It was a cold but fun night when we went to Christmas by Candlelight.  We had originally planned to go on Sunday night but after looking at the weather forecast (mix of rain, snow, sleet, etc) we decided to change our tickets for Saturday night.  All of the buildings in the center of the village were open with a variety of entertainments: music, mulled cider, traditional fruitcake, dioramas, etc.  There also were carolers outside the bank, musical groups at the Center Meetinghouse, and various recitations, a magic show, and a Punch & Judy show.  So much to see and do that we couldn't see it all.  Plus the crowds in some of the buildings where music was taking place made it impossible to get inside.  And we didn't want to get stuck inside a building and then have Bennett wanting to get away, so we skipped a few things that might have been interesting.  Santa Claus was there (the line was way too long so didn't visit with him) as well as Father Christmas, who is pictured below.

We had yet another visit with Santa.  I've lost count of how many times Bennett has seen Santa.  But this weekend we taught Bennett that Santa says, "ho ho ho".  So now Bennett goes around saying , "Tanta- oh oh oh."  Anyway, the outfit that Bennett wore for our holiday cards was just screaming out to be worn in a photo with Santa.  We were going to do it last week when we were at the mall having the pictures taken for our cards, but Santa wasn't going to show up for another hour so we decided to skip it.  So I brought Bennett on Sunday.  We got in line about 15 minutes before Santa arrived.  We were maybe 3rd or 4th in line, which shouldn't have been too bad.  Except there were only 2 out of 5 other employees working there.  2 people had called in sick and 1 had been fired the day before.  Needless to say, the two remaining employees were a bit frazzled.  I commented that someone would have to mess up pretty bad to get fired this close to Christmas and was told that she had given away $100+ of photos for free since she couldn't figure out the (idiot proof) computer system.  For being so close to the start of the line it took me about 20 minutes to get through once they got started.  Definitely shouldn't have taken that long.  I feel bad for all of the people who were further back in line.

I hope to be able to share the photos once most people receive their cards.  Those were mailed out today, so hopefully I can share something later in the week.

The past couple of weeks

Here are a few things from our adventures over the past couple of weeks.
Bennett has always been a pretty picky eater.  He will consistently eat yogurt and pretty much any fruit, but that's about it.  Over the past couple of weeks he's surprised us with how well he's eaten some new (to him) foods.  Granted most of these aren't the healthiest, but at least he's eating.  And a couple of them he had previously rejected, so this is progress.  We can now say that he eats:

• Pizza
• Tacos,
• Salad
• Sour cream
• Cheeseburgers

What would have been Bennett's second skaing lesson was a bust.  The boy has a bit of OCD and he didn't like the fact that his helmet was in the skating bag and not on the shelf where it has lived for the entire summer/fall.  Unbeknownst to us, he took it out of the bag and put it on the shelf.  We only realized this after we got to the rink and had skates on.  We checked at the rental desk and in the lost and found box to see if there was a spare we could use, but no such luck.  And for kids, no helmet means no skating. So Mummy stayed off the ice with Bennett while Daddy skated.  Which was probably a good thing because Daddy needs more practice.  :) The following week we made sure we had the helmet and we think Bennett had a good class.  I asked one of the teachers how he did, and she said, "he can't get up, and he can't move on his own, but he was smiling."  Well, I guess if he's smiling he must have been having fun, right?  And we certainly aren't expecting him to be able to stand or skate on his own after only a couple of lessons.  It's just tough to see how he's doing since Chris and I have our lessons down at the other end of the rink.  Since none of the other parents of the Tot class are skating, they get to stand and watch and have a better idea of how the lesson went.

We came up with an idea for our holiday cards this year!  I really like the idea, but now I just need to find the time to execute it.  Making the necessary costume shouldn't be too difficult (I hope) but I need to get another big craft project finished up before I can begin.  However, we did pick up a necessary clothing item.  Hopefully Bennett won't be traumatized when he gets older and he realizes that I put him in girl's clothing.  :)

Mummy had a haircut on Saturday.  Bennett and Daddy tagged along because we were headed out afterwards and it was easier than me running home first to get them.  So Bennett did what everyone else in the waiting area was doing- reading magazines.  I didn't get a picture, but he selected Wine Officianado as his reading selection.  

When we got home later in the day, Bennett helped with some chores.  I think he needs a little more practice wrapping the cord on the vacuum cleaner.

We went and had our annual family pictures taken.  I'll share those pictures in a month or so after people get them for Christmas gifts.  While we were getting ready that morning Bennett lay down on our bed and had Daddy read him a book.  He'd never sat like this for a book before it came in handy when we wanted him to do a similar pose when we went in for our pictures.

Over the past couple of weeks we've had a number of chances for Bennett to visit Santa.  Given what a disaster meeting Sir Topham Hatt was, we were hoping that multiple exposures to Santa would be good.  We've lucked out that there haven't been any lines for Santa and he's now had 3 visits.  Unfortunately our plan isn't working.  He does NOT want to sit with Santa.  He'll tolerate sitting in one of our laps and giving Santa high-fives, but he's eager to get away.  When we do leave, he energetically yells "bye Santa" and waves.  This weekend we go for the "official" Santa pictures.  I'm not expecting them to be good at all.

Mummy's birthday was on the 18th.  Bennett helped open her cards and presents. Daddy helped Bennett make a card for me and Bennett traced his own hand for card.  I guess they do that a lot at school?  Not the most perfect looking, but nice to know what he was trying to do rather than the normal scribbles that don't look like much.


And that brings us to Thanksgiving!  He did really well in the car.  I'm sure he was getting antsy, but we brought a bunch of things with us to keep him busy.  And he took a nap for a little while, so that was nice.  He was pretty shy when we first arrived, but that was understandable given there were 22 adults and 3 kids and he only really knew 4 of the adults (Mummy, Daddy, Mimi, and Uncle "An-dew").  Shortly after arriving it was time to eat.  He was back to his normal eating habbits.  He ate cranberry sauce and a crescent roll, but that might have been it.  Maybe a little corn?

After eating we went outside for a little while to run around and burn off some energy- perfect after all that sitting!   Bennett loved being thrown around by Uncle Andrew and doing some chasing around. 

Then it was time to go inside for dessert.  At this point Bennett was a bit sweaty, hence the spiked hair. 

As I mentioned earlier, there were 3 children this year.  Bennett was the oldest at 2 years, R was 13 months, and T was 6 months.  Of the 3, Bennett had the least amount of hair and T had the most.  Not fair!  Not the best picture, but here are Bennett and R.  It was later in the afternoon at this point and they had both woken up from naps not long before, which I think is why they weren't much interested in having their pictures taken.

Speaking of picture taking, here are a couple of family shots.





Uncle Andrew, Bennett, Mummy, Daddy





The Smeals





Everyone who was there, minus 3 of the Smeals who left to go to another family gathering.



On the 24th I realized I had forgotten to take Bennett's monthly photo.  Understandable since he turned 26 months on Thanksgiving.  Although if I had remembered I probably would have brought along Paddington and the sign and taken the photo while we were in NJ.

On Sunday we went to Sturbridge with Uncle Andrew.  Daddy stayed home to work on some items for the store he sells at (wooden puzzles, ornaments, etc.)  It was COLD!  There also weren't many people there, probably due to traveling home and the temperature.  We saw them stuffing the root cellar with hay to insulate against the cold and we went into many more buildings than normal.  I guess that's understandable since we needed to warm up (any building with plaster, original wallpaper, or historic artifacts has artificial heat).  Plus with it being so cold we didn't really want to stand around and stare at animals too much.  But Bennett did get to see his beloved beep (sheep) and ocken (oxen) as well as neighs (horses) and cows.  I also learned that he knows one of our traditions- stopping at the general store to buy cookies.  As we walked along the common in that direction he said "cookie".  Hmm, too bad we were actually headed for the oxen.  But then we did go get cookies, which meant mittens had to come off to eat them, which meant freezy cold hands.

Over the past couple of weeks we've also noticed a bit of a language explosion for Bennett.  We can't wait until he becomes even more verval, but we've recently hear his variations of Andrew, mall, Santa, Patty, cookie, and numerous others.  Plus, he started saying "Mommy" rather than pronouncing it "mimi" which created a little confusion when around Mimi (grandma Breecher's name).  I'd rather that he pronounce it the British way with a U, but I guess for now I'll take it.  It did sound very weird to me at first though, having heard him pronounce it with Is for so long.

And in other family news unrelated to Bennett, one of the puzzles that Chris makes was featured on Apartment Therapy!  Unfortunately Chris was sold out of this particular puzzle at the time.  It's been relisted as a custom order, but so far we haven't seen any sales as a result.  Lots of increased traffic though, so that's good.

Until next time... stay warm!