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.

The snow is melting... Finally!

This was an interesting week.  More specific reasons as to why will be in a different post, but Bennett had some quality Mum and Dad time this week, staying home on Monday and Tuesday, and then again on Friday when he had a couple of appointments.

On Monday he was home with Daddy.  They watched some Curious George, and this was the position he sat in to watch.  (Not the best picture, but it was a cell phone self portrait, so what do you expect?)  I guess being draped across Daddy's legs is comfortable?  He sat in a similar pose for me on Tuesday as well.

I made Bennett a couple of pairs of pants.  Here's one of them.  I was trying to use fabric I already had, so some of the fabric choices are interesting, to say the least.  These almost look like PJ pants.  Finally I gave in and went to the fabric store.

We had lots of fun playing with Duplos.  I keep wondering if Bennett would do ok with regular Legos (or at least the larger blocks- not the tiles or plates) but then we break down and buy him more Duplos.  But we all had lots of fun playing and building.  We made lots of stores, houses, etc.  Bennett still likes to destroy our creations more than build them, but he does do some building as well.

This pile of snow looks huge here, but as of this morning, it's much smaller and I imagine it will be all gone either today or tomorrow.  What a difference a week makes! 

At any rate, on Tuesday after Daddy got home we went out to play for a little while.  Bennett found a stick and thought that poking and stepping in the snow was fun.  And seeing my garden reminds me that soon I should get out there and plant some peas and maybe some other early things like lettuce.  (I think it's still a little early for broccoli.)

It's a little small and hard to see, but here's another pair of pants I made.  These are striped fabric.  I like them, but Chris thinks they look like prison pants.

As I mentioned here, Bennett had his first visit to the dentist on Friday.  He did awesome!   In the afternoon he saw his pediatrician, just to touch base and see how he's doing.  (I have no idea with what frequency most kids see their doctors, but I think we get extra appointments due to his heart and speech delay.)  His stats are that he now weighs 28.2 lbs (30th percentile) and is 37" tall (80th percentile).  I had thought he weighed a bit more, but I guess I was wrong.  He also got measured on the big boy scale and his height was taken standing up for the first time, rather than laying down as has been done in the past.

Saturday was skating and errands and then in the evening Bennett went to a seder with Nana and Grandpa while Mummy and Daddy went to OSV for Dinner in a Country Village, a program "where costumed interpreters oversee the preparations, but the guests do the roasting, baking, and mulling. Participants 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."  It was a lot of fun and we would love to go back again.  Although we are thinking it might be more fun to go with a group of friends.  They are already booking for next year (and some dates are sold out) so check your calendars and let us know what might work for you!

Here's Chris skewering the chickens to prepare to roast them.

And here I am whipping cream with a twig whisk.  This was a group project since it takes a while and your arm quickly gets tired.

On Sunday Bennett woke up to see that the Easter Bunny had visited!  The Bunny knows Bennett well and he got some play eggs, stickers, a Curious George book, Curious George puzzles, chapstick, and M&Ms.  He also got a toothbrush, which is still pretty exciting to a toddler.

Here he is looking at the puzzles.  You can see some eggs on the floor at his feet.  And why yes, he is wearing Christmas PJs on Easter. 

After getting dressed it was time to search for eggs.  Most of the eggs were empty, but a few of them had some small plastic dogs inside.

After church Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry came over.  They had fun playing with all the Easter grass.  Luckily it was made from paper, so it didn't make as much of a mess as the plastic kind would have.

After lunch we went to visit Mimi, and then it was home for a late, and much needed, nap.  What a busy day!

And now for a couple of videos.

We had no idea that Bennett knew this word, but he started saying it all on his own!

Lots of friends and family had March birthdays, so here's a rendition of Bennett singing Happy Birthday.

And another plea for donations as we walk to raise money for Boston Children's Hospital.  Here is a link to the team's page. We would love it if you would sponsor Bennett or Fiona (or really any of us, as the adults are required to raise a minimum of $150).  No worries if you can't, but even $5 or $10 can help make a difference.

Fun around the house and in the snow

 Thank you to those who have sponsored us already in our walk for Boston Children's Hospital.  If you haven't yet but still plan to, there is still plenty of time!  The walk isn't until June.  (This likely means that you will be hearing from me until then asking for donations.)  You can sponsor Bennett, me, or Chris.  Just click our names to take you to the donation pages.  If you are trying to decide who to sponsor, our preference would be for you to sponsor Bennett.

And now for pictures and videos from the past week.

You may think that Bennett is eating toast in this next picture, but you would be wrong.  What looks like toast is actually a pancake, possibly Bennett's favorite food (other than fruit).

Someone had a major case of the giggles!  He was laughing even more before we started recording!  He thought that the puppet drinking from the cup was the best thing ever!

 

On Tuesday Daddy had to work late.  When we were mostly done with dinner we video chatted with Daddy.  And then Daddy started making funny faces at Bennett, so of course then Bennett had to make silly faces at Daddy.

Here he is from Daddy's point of view.

On the way home from school one day Bennett wanted to sing The Wheels on the Bus.  I tried to record him by holding up my phone from my seat in the car (Don't worry, I wasn't driving.) which is why it's kind of jerky and not great quality.

Friday we had another snow storm.  Luckily our plow driver cleaned up most of the snow while we were at work, but we had a bit of cleaning up to do when we got home.  Bennett got a bit better about not shoveling snow back onto the driveway.  Even if he had though, we wouldn't have cared because he was happy and he was letting us do what we needed to do.

And here's a quick video of him shoveling.

Bennett has always been interested in what we are cooking.  He'll ask to be picked up and we encourage him to get in his tower.  Sometimes he moves it closer to the counter (especially when he wants to sneak food) and we often have to push him back a bit for safety reasons. 

On this occassion he was very interested in the nachos that were been prepped- but probably because of the chips and the cheese.

After nap on Saturday we went outside to play in the snow.  Bennett wasn't too interested in making a snowman, but Chris and I had fun with that.  Unfortunately, about a half hour later it toppled over.  And although Bennett didn't play in the snow too much (although he did play more than we thought he might) he did have fun going down the slide and playing on the swings.  The swingset has been pretty neglected this fall/winter due to cold and darkness. 

Here we tried having Bennett stand next to the snowman.  I think he thought we were trying to get him to measure himself against it or something, which is why he backed up to it.