Fortnightly review

Once again this post will cover multiple weeks.  One of these days I'll get back into regular weekly posting.  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

We start off our recap with Presidents' Day.  Chris and I had off from work but Bennett's daycare was open.  We took advantage of that and took a trip to Ikea.  Then in the afternoon I finished sewing a bonnet for my costume.

Bennett and Daddy later had lots of fun racing some cars down a ramp made of Ikea boxes.

One day while in the car Bennett drew a picture of our cat Tony.  We didn't see what he was doing as he was drawing, but he mentioned legs, a tail, the head, a collar, and a heart shaped tag.  Considering most of his drawings are still indiscernible scribbles, we were rather impressed when we saw this.

On the 22nd Bennett had his last skating class.  They gave him a ribbon indicating that he had passed Tot 1, but we're pretty skeptical about that.  We had decided to hold off on signing him up again though because he spends a lot of time on the ice just people watching and doesn't seem all that interested.  So maybe next year he'll be back?

The other exciting part of our weekend was that Chris and I along with Andrew, Gentry, and 9 strangers participated in a Dinner in a Country Village at OSV.  Sturbridge explains it best:

Enjoy a unique opportunity to prepare and eat a meal as early New Englanders did. Participants gather in the Parsonage, where costumed interpreters oversee the preparations, but the guests do the roasting, baking, and mulling. Roast meat using a tin reflector oven, fire a brick bake oven, and mull spiced cider over the hearth before sitting down to enjoy the results, all by candlelight.

Chris and I had gone to one of these events last March and knew we wanted to do it again.  Andrew and Gentry agreed to join us, and Andrew also suggested that I dress up, so for the past two months I've been busy sewing.  I'll get more into my costume at a later time, but for now here are a few pictures from the dinner.

While we were out Bennett spent the night with Nana.  He had lots of fun baking, playing in the snow, etc.

On Sunday we picked Bennett up from Nana's house and went back to OSV.  Yes, it's official.  We're crazy.  I showed a picture of my costume to one of the interpreters and her first thought was that I was Victoria.  (Woo hoo!  My costume was a success.)  She then asked me why I didn't work/volunteer at OSV.

It was a good visit with a couple of baby animals.  Button had her calf, a girl, earlier in the week  Button and the calf were in a mostly private barn but one of the interpreters snuck us in to take a look.  Button apparently wasn't too thrilled because she pushed the door closed on us.  The message was clear- stay away from my baby.

There also was a baby lamb.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the afternoon though was the running of the sheep.  Typically the sheep are kept in a pasture at one side of the common during the day, and in the afternoon they run down the common to go to their barn for the night.  At first that's what we thought was happening, but then we realized that none of the interpreters were around.  Turns out the sheep had broken through their gate.  Unfortunately the gate by the barn was closed so there were a number of confused sheep milling around.  We thought about opening the gate for them, but soon a couple of interpreters arrived.

Bennett quickly turned a toy cow/ox/calf that he had received in January into Button's calf for use on his farm.  "Shhh, my Button's calf is sleeping."

Continuing with the weekly pie, we once again had a Pork and Apple Pie.

Moving on to this past week...

Here I am rocking my baby while he rocks his baby

On Saturday morning I wanted to make my pie and Chris was busy with other things.  I let Bennett watch Cars, but since I also wanted him to eat some breakfast (he chose cheese and crackers) I set him up on the couch with a tray.  This worked rather well for containing crumbs.  Otherwise he would have been up and down from the couch or would have forgotten about eating.

And speaking of pie, I found a new one in one of my cookbooks called Fruit Salad Pie.  It had banana, pineapple, and strawberries with tapioca as a thickener/binder.  It was ok, but I'm not sure that I would make it again.

After the pie came out of the oven we headed out to Sturbridge.  Knowing that Button was going to have a calf soon we stopped at the gift shop and picked up a toy calf for Bennett so that he would have it when the time came. A few minutes later we learned that Bonnie had had her calf the night before.  And it was a boy!  The hope is now that Betsy will also have a boy so that they can be raised as a pair of oxen.  If Betsy has a girl then this boy would be raised for about a year and then it would be sold.

We suggested to Rhys (the interpreter in charge of all the animals) that this new calf should be named Bennett since we come so often.  We'll have to see if that happens.  As it is, Button's calf still doesn't have a name.  Rhys gave Bennett and I a sneak peek at the calf and later he brought others into the pen as well, but we lucked out with a much longer look.  Since Chris had been in the cooper shop when Bennett and I saw the calf, he joined the line of people to get the quick peek.  I had Bennett go with him and I gave Bennett the new calf.  He proudly showed the calf his Bonnie's calf and Rhys asked if that was the calf for his Freeman Farm.


Bennett had also brought his Doc and Blue with him and of course had to show them to the real Doc and Blue.  Here we have Blue giving Doc a bath.

After Sturbridge we headed out to Agawam.  Luckily Bennett fell asleep quickly in the car, but it was still a shorter nap than we would have liked.  Oh well.  He had a blast playing with the other kids (he excitedly told us about their dance party).  I'm sure he frustrated them a bit given that there's a bit of an age difference, but they were pretty good about it.

On Sunday we had a relatively quiet day.  We visited Mimi and then ran some other errands.

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

Happy New Year!

We kicked off the New Year with a brunch at Leslie's (Daddy's co-worker) house.  Bennett loved playing a game with a couple of the other guests where they would look all over for Spencer, Leslie's cat.  Was he in the closet?  Nope.  In the shower?  Nope.  What about in the toilet?  Nope.  In the office?  Nope.  Under the bed?  Yay!  We found Spencer.  And repeat...


Down at the play farm, much like at the real OSV farm, the rooster was put in time out "for biting the chicks".  The back story to this?  We noticed at OSV that the rooster was in a cage.  We asked why and Farmer Dave told us that the rooster was in time out.  Apparently the rooster has been acting up, biting the farmers, etc.  So it's time for him to find a new home.  I guess that conversation/punishment resonated with Bennett.

This photo must have been from after his nap because his hair is super curly.

On Thursday it started snowing.  Just a dusting in the morning, but when Bennett looked out the window he announced that there was enough snow to go sledding.  After school we opened up Bennett's new fire station Duplos that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Tedford. He's had a blast playing with these, and was using the people to open the doors, spray the hoses, etc.  I've never seen him play with dolls/action figures in this way before, so that was neat to see.

By Friday the snow was much worse.  Mummy and Daddy still had to work so Bennett went to school but was one of two kids there.  The benefit of not many kids in?  He got to do whatever he wanted!  After dinner we baked cookies.  I had hoped to make this variety before Christmas but we ran out of time.  They were ok, but not my favorite.  One of those kinds that sounds better than they actually are.

Saturday was the first week of a new session of skating.  We definitely should have put Bennett in the next level!  He had passed pre-tot but since he still seemed pretty timid we had thought it might be best to have him stay at that level for another session.  Nope, he did awesome all on his own!  They tried to move him up to the next class right then, but he resisted.  Next week he doesn't get the choice.

Here you can see him in action.

After nape we went sledding at Jericho Hill and got to use the new toboggan.  We weren't sure how Bennett would do because he hadn't been a fan of this hill last year-- too much snow in his face, I think.  Since it used to be a ski hill, it's fairly steep.  No problems at all this time!  Bennett loved it and kept asking to go again.  And the snow in his eyes issue?  Well he solved that problem by covering his face with his hands.

Blurry video, but you get the gist.

When I asked Bennett about why his animals were all lined up I was told that they were in a parade.

Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  We're not sure if we will once again try to have weekly visits.  We kind of want to but also think that it's a little crazy.  But since we want to have the option of weekly visits, we needed to go.  Bennett really does love it there and gets excited when we mention that we are going, so I guess that means it's worth it to go, right?  It only becomes an issue when it's pouring rain or we're sick or something like that and I insist on us going so that we don't break our streak.  So far we haven't run into a situation like that (really cold and/or light rain doesn't keep us away) but I imagine we could have to make those decisions this year.

On this particular visit all Bennett wanted to do was go sledding behind the cooper shop.  I don't even remember us mentioning that we could do that, but he knew it was something we could do.  But first, it was time to help the farmers with seasonal work.  We were the only ones there so they decided that feeding corn husks to the cows would be a good task. 

It was awesome!  We started off just tossing the husks over the fence but quickly moved on to them eating out of our hands.  Really neat to feel them pulling the husks out of your hand.  This is another one of those occasions where we wonder if "normal" visitors would be given this opportunity or were we given this chance because they knew we were familiar with the cows and that we should look out for Lance and Henry's horns.  (Which admittedly I did kind of forget about in an effort to get husks to one of the girls being pushed out of the way.)

Finally we got to go sledding.  Bennett started off going down the hill with Daddy.

After that first run we decided that we should have him try on his own.  He loved it and did great.

But the best part?  He even pulled his own sled back up the hill!

Here's one of Bennett and Chris going down the hill together.

Back at home, Bennett decided that his oxen needed to pull sleds.  (He had seen Lance and Henry's sled, used to haul logs and such.)  Bennett found the sleds and I obliged by making a pipe cleaner yoke and hooking up the team.

And that pretty much sums up our week.  Feels so long ago now, since it took me almost a whole other week to finish this post.

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!

Advent, week 3

 Quite a busy week for us!  I'll be happy when things quiet down a bit.  Wish I had some time to just sit at home and relax.  I did take Christmas Eve off, but I think the morning will be willed with last minute errands and wrapping presents and then Bennett will be home in the afternoon.

Monday's Advent activity was to watch Frosty the Snowman.  I don't think Bennett was very intersted.

On Tuesday we opened this magic growing Christmas Tree that was supposed to grow to 6x its size.  (May take up to 72 hours.)  It's now been over 6 days and it has barely grown at all.

Tuesday night we got lots of snow, so when we got home from work/school on Wednesday Bennett got to help shovel the snow.  I stayed inside where it was nice and warm and took horrible photos through the window.  :)

On Wednesday Bennett also got to make Santa's beard out of cotton balls.

Thursday we brought Brit to the vet.  She's been loosing a lot of weight and isn't eating.  (She now weighs only 5 lbs.)  The vet took some x-rays.  She's constipated and likely either has irritable bowel or a tumor, but without further testing he can't say which.  We switched her to some different food which she hungrily ate the first day and has now grown less interested in, and also gave us a laxative to give to her twice a day.

As a somewhat related question, how do you decide how much testing to do for a pet who is 13 years old?  We can't spend too much more on testing and treatment.   I don't think she's in pain, but we also know she isn't healthy. 

When we got home Bennett watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

On Friday Bennett got to color one of those $1 craft packs that comes with a little coloring book, some crayons, and stickers.  I think after about one minute he had lost interest in it.

Saturday was a busy day.

 And not the best video, but it does show Bennett standing up and marching on his own.  He had been doing a lot more marching just before this, but of course I was late getting the camera ready.

After skating we went to the mall for the official photo with Santa.  It was definitely a popular day for visiting Santa and we ended up having to wait in line for about an hour.  Luckily everyone seemed to be in good spirits about it.

And here's a collage of the past years.  I love that it's the same Santa/backdrop in all of the pictures.

And as if our Saturday wasn't busy enough, we had friends over in the afternoon for the annual graham cracker house decorating.  It was a smaller group than usual this year as a few friends couldn't make it and others got sick en route and had to cancel.

Sunday morning we ran some errands doing some grocery shopping, etc.  The afternoon was full of baking.  I made 3 batches of fudge and Bennett made some cookies with Daddy.  Then later I made some Chewy Noels.  Another batch of Chewy Noels and another batch of cookies are still planned.

And that wraps up our week!  I hope this week will be a bit more quiet, but we will see.  The elves are busy in our house trying to get some gifts finished up.