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.
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.
Everyone loved Bennett's custom wrapping paper, with many people saving their paper. Aunt Gentry got a piece with a pretty perfect looking footprint that she mentioned would be great for framing. Glad to hear that it was such a hit. I'll have to remember to have Bennett make some again next year.
On Christmas Eve Bennett wore his kilt to church. Getting an active toddler to stand still for a picture is tricky! He got lots of compliments from other people at church, both those we knew and some we didn't. One we didn't know was a Scot who came up to us mentioning that he liked the kilt and saying he should have worn his, and that it was a good thing Bennett didn't have a dirk with him in church.
When we got home from church we changed Bennett into clothes that wouldn't matter if they got messy and it was time for him to eat dinner, open Christmas PJs, and leave milk & cookies for Santa. We'd done some baking but hadn't actually made cookies. (Instead we had fudge, bars, and some snack-y things.) Good thing one of Chris' former students had mailed us some cookies that arrived just in time to put out for Santa.
Santa came and put a bunch of presents under the tree.
Bennett woke up at a normal time. We changed his diaper but wanted to leave him in his PJs for opening presents. Well Bennett is very routinue driven and was not happy about this! Finally we convinced him to go downstairs.
He kind of looked at the tree and presents, went over and grabbed one and wripped the paper off. Then he moved on to the next. Wow, we got through presents quickly! Maybe he went so quickly since we hadn't gotten many toys for him? (We figured the swing set over the summer was a big enough gift to last for a while! Plus he's too young to really know or care.) His favorite gift was new sneakers, which we almost hadn't given to him.
After we all got dressed I got Mimi and brought her over for lunch and more presents. She gave Bennett a bunch of dress-up hats: fireman, policeman, cowboy, pirate, witch...
After eating I brought Mimi back to her place while Bennett and Daddy napped. Unfortunately Bennett didn't take a very good nap. I was supposed to start packing the car when I got home but they were waking up by that point.
So instead Bennett helped us gather things to pack into the car. Chris brought me my pillow so then Bennett brought his downstairs. And he only tried a couple of times to take things off the pile and put them away.
We finally were packed (we packed way too much stuff) and hit the round around 4:00. We drove for a couple of hours and stopped in CT for dinner, changed Bennett into PJs and headed back out.
As an aside, the fine for littering in CT is $219. Who came up with that price, and why? Wouldn't a round number make more sense?
Chris and I took turns driving, although he probably did the bulk of it. When we were going through the mountains of Virginia and into North Carolina we were going through snow squalls and pouring rain. Not the most fun when sleep deprived so we took it nice and slow. And I even stopped at a rest area shortly before dawn to take a quick nap. It was around this time that Bennett was starting to wake up. Luckily he stayed pretty quiet until I pulled out of the rest area and then he started chatting.
We stopped in South Carolina for breakfast (we meant to go to Steak 'n Shake but I missed the exit) and then got to our hotel around noon. Phew, we were exhausted! We got to Chris' parents house, failed to get Bennett to take a nap, so they watched him while Chris and I napped.
Bennett dubbed them "Mama" and "Papa" (his way of saying Grandma and Grandpa) which led to some initial confusion as to Mama/Mommy. He also was very excited about the 15-year-old "puppy" and quickly returned the routinue to take Brownie on a walk- where the leash went, that he needed to put on his shoes to go outside with Grandma, etc.
What was a little odd for him was the evening bath and bed routinue. It probably didn't help that we did things a bit differently every night. The first night we did bath at the house and then left to go back to the hotel. The second night we tried putting him down for a bit at the house (took a while to fall asleep) but then moved him to the hotel, and of course he woke up when we transferred him. Then the third night he had a sleepover (more on that later) and finally the last night we went back to the hotel for bed and there were lots of noisy people in the hall. I would say that overall he was a champ and mostly coped with all of the changes.
We had brought some of Bennett's toys with us, and on Thursday the cousins came over and had fun playing with the trains and then taking Bennett into the backyard to check out the swingset.
Friday we went and fed the ducks at a nearby park, went for a walk, and checked out one of the playgrounds.
Then that night, as I mentioned earlier, Bennett had his first sleepover. I'd been away from Bennett before for a work conference, but this was the first night that Chris had spent away from Bennett since his initial time at Children's- so since Bennett was 3 weeks old. They started their evening with Bennett helping Grandpa make pancakes. Bennett loves to help cook! And then the report that Bennett had no problems at all going to sleep. We'd warned them that sometimes Bennett wakes up in the middle of the night needing to have his blankets adjusted. Because of this Grandpa had trouble sleeping and was up at 1am. He checked on Bennett a few times and every time Bennett was turned around a different way in the bed. But he slept soundly and didn't wake up until Grandpa went in shortly before 8am and turned the light on in the room.
Saturday we celebrated Christmas! In Chris' family everyone takes turns opening their stockings, starting with the youngest and moving on up in age. This means that Bennett gets to go first.
When it was Chris' and my turn he helped us, and then he went and helped Grandma and Grandpa as well.
After stockings we moved on to presents. It was a bit overwhelming, which is rather understandable since there were 12 people! And he wasn't too happy with me when I tried moving things aside that he had opened. He wanted to play with them now!
Although he liked the train toy pictured above, I think his favorite is this fruit below. There are two halves held together with velcro and he can "cut" the fruit. He also got some other fruit that didn't cut, but that didn't stop him from trying.
Since Christmas isn't all about Bennett, I have to share this picture of his 10-year-old cousin, Dekota. Dekota loves Legos. In fact, other than a book that we gave him, all of the gifts he recieved that day were Legos. And the book was The Hobbit to go with the Lord of the Rings Legos that we gave him. But what he's opening here is a 2 gallon bag full of miscellaneous Legos that we got for him. He was so excited and shaking because he was so excited. I hope he finds some fun things in that bag!
After presents it was time to eat. We also provided crackers for everyone to open. We've had these in the past, but people still seemed a little confused by them.
After everything was cleaned up we headed outside for a family photo. I think some people were a little upset with me when I told them they couldn't wear jackets, but I think this looks nicer. I took about 20 pictures, and as luck would have it, in each one of them somone is less than perfect looking. This one was the "everyone look goofy" picture, which I think is my favorite of the bunch.
After Bennett's nap we went ice skating! At first all of the adults had said that they wouldn't be skating. I think that maybe they were afraid of falling or making a fool of themselves. Luckily, in the end, almost all of them gave it a try. And better yet, they all had fun!
They had the walkers, which are both a blessing and a curse. They help them stay upright, but then they end up doing stupid things- going to fast, or not doing things "correctly", so they end up falling. Plus the walkers were too small for them. By the end I made Dekota and Elizabeth stop using them, and they were doing ok.
Sunday morning we had everyone come over to the house again because we had forgotten to get a picture of all of the cousins together. Then after lunch we headed home.
I mentioned that we missed going to Steak 'n Shake on the way down. Luckily this wasn't a big deal as they built one in Augusta! We ended up getting shakes from the drive-thru twice. It might have been nice to get food, but the timing didn't work out. Next time?
We also stopped at Sonic on the way out of town so that I could get a cherry-limeade. It's nice being able to go to places that we don't have at home. Now we just need to find ourselves a Taco John's!
I think one of the hardest parts of the trip was entertaining Bennett in the car. On the way home he was interested in "reading". We'd brought a lot of books, but not enough! I'd give him one, he'd read it for a bit, then hand it back/drop it, and say "more" (mo-ah-- think Boston accent). I'd hand him another and we'd repeat this. We went through a dozen or so books until they were all gone. I tried repeating books, but he wouldn't have that. And he didn't want his cars and he didn't want to color. I was running out of things to give him! Luckily his fruit kept him entertained for a little while, and then it was time for dinner and bed.
We finally got back to MA around 8am, making much better time than we had on the way down. He wasn't supposed to go to school on Monday, but we were exhausted so we called them up and asked if we could bring him in. They were only open until 3 since it was New Year's Eve, but that was good enough for us! We dropped him off and then went home to nap.
Since there was no school on Tuesday and it had snowed we knew we had to take Bennett sledding. We decided to go to Sturbridge since we would also be able to go for a sleigh ride. They had 1830's reproduction sleds and we all had a blast!
For Bennett's first time down the hill he went with Chris.
After that he requested going in the Boba (backpack carrier). I tried telling him that he couldn't because it wasn't safe, but he was pretty insistent. So he ended up on my back and I did my best not to fall on him. And he LOVED it! So many giggles.
And finally, here's a video of Bennett and Mummy going sledding. Hmm, he just needs to keep his hat on straight. And there really should be sledding etiquette where you don't walk up the hill right where people are trying to come down!
So there you have it. That's how we spent our Christmas Vacation!
