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.) 

29 months old!

I'm not entirely sure why Bennett is without a shirt in this first picture.  I think we may have been in the process of getting ready for his bath, which usually involves removing clothes wherever he is.  Sometimes he wants to go to the bathroom/hallway to remove his clothes, but not always.  And if he's in the bathroom, he's more likely to start climbing into the tub while still half dressed.

We had put the train table (temporarily) away in the basement when the house was decorated for Christmas.  Then it stayed down there while I had some totes of outgrown clothes sitting in the front room.  Those finally got brought down to the basement, but the train table still hasn't returned.  Soon.  In the meantime, Bennett still plays with his trains on the floor.  And on this occassion, he just played with the junction.  Moving the gates makes a clanging train crossing sound, which he finds to be lots of fun.

When we picked him up from school one day he was busy learning to use scissors.  He had his fingers in correctly, but then he would turn his hand upside down.  I think he needs a bit more practice. 



Reading with Mumma one night.

29 months old!!!  He didn't want to cooperate for the picture though.  Playing was much more fun, so this is the best that I've got.

We wrapped up the final lesson of the skating session.  Bennett was so excited to get a ribbon!  When we collected him at the end of his lesson he had it attached to his wrist and proudly showed it to us.  And he wanted to hold it the whole way home.  What's exciting though is that this particular ribbon means that he passed the Pre-Tot class.  And what was fun for me, is that at one point during class I heard his teacher exclaim, "yay, Bennett!"  I'm not sure what he was doing to garner the praise, but whatever it was, we're happy for him.  I had already signed him up for Pre-Tot again for the next session, but I imagine they might shift him into the Tot class.  Or, in all honesty, I'm sure that keeping him in Pre-Tot again wouldn't be a horrible thing.  But he can now stand up (and apparently on Saturday he did it all by himself) and march a few steps by himself.

I picked up a couple of shakes for Chris and me. We let Bennett have a few sips and he LOVED my Shamrock shake.  What was cute though is I had been out getting my hair cut and Chris had tried to teach Bennett to tell me that he liked my hair.  So when I got back, Chris asked him if he had something to say to Mummy.  His response (having just had some of the shake) was "thank you", said in the most clear voice he's ever used.  Super cute.  Then Chris prompted him and he said, "Mummy, head".  Close enough.

At one point this weekend I was sitting with Bennett reading a book.  There was a picture of puppies.

Me: How many puppies are there?  Can you count them?

Bennett: One, nine.

Hmmm, as a friend commented on Facebook when I relayed this story that I better not take him to adopt a puppy any time soon as it's pretty important to understand the difference between 2 puppies and 9.

Say, "cheese".

We got more snow this weekend.  (That's 3 weekends in a row, for those of you keeping track.)  Sunday afternoon Daddy asked Bennett if he wanted to go outside and shovel and he got VERY excited.  He jumped off the couch and ran to the closet to get his coat.  Then he made sure we all had our boots, snowpants, etc.  He's a little distracted in this video because there were some people across the street who he was watching.  Hopefully he's this excited about shoveling when he's a teenager, but we're not holding our breath.



Week in review

Once again it was a pretty quiet week, although we did get out on this weekend.

Back when Bennett was about 6 months old, I went to a consignment sale and picked up this toy, which we called "the cube of awesome".  Bennett was just starting to stand and would hold onto it- although it was a little tippy so we would have to help it to stay stable.  He played with it nonstop.  Then he stopped for a while, but lately Bennett has been getting back into it.  This week we counted some of the triangle beads that are on the top.  One of the best toy purchases!

Saturday after skating we went to Sturbridge because they were having a sleigh rally.  Being Presidents' weekend they also had some presidential events, including these tricorn hats the kids could wear.

And since then, Bennett has been telling us all about what we did.  "Boba, back, ocken (oxen), cookies."  Obviously we can tell what the most important parts of the day were to him.  :)



Just one of the sleighs.  Cute kid all bundled up, as well as a dog for the sleigh dog category.



Sunday we woke up to a couple of inches of snow.  We all went out to shovel the driveway. Someone was walking down the street when we were out there and laughed a bit at Bennett.  Considering he was taking snow and dumping it back onto the driveway, he wasn't exactly being the most productive.  But he was having fun, so that's really all that matters.



The past 2 weeks

It's been a pretty quiet, low key couple of weeks.  Here are some pictures and videos of everyday life.


Hey Mummy, there's water on the floor.  Right here by my foot.

  

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

  

Lisa (and son Ben) gave some no longer used trains to Bennett to play with.
Awesome!  He's loving them.  (He especially likes the cargo.)

  

Meals are more fun when eaten out of a divided tray/plate.



We visited Brandeis to go to dinner with Daddy during tech.
Bennett got to go on stage.  He didn't really like being in the "sand". (It's ground cork.)  
He also doesn't ever get in his sandbox either.  He always plays from the side.



Playing with fences is lots of fun.

 


Daddy spilled a cup of water on Bennett, so off came his shirt and pants.

  

Eh, what's up, Doc?



We may need to start using the lock feature on the fridge or Bennett
will start to get water and ice everywhere.



This hat, which claims it is 12-18 months, finally fits!



Shoveling out.  The driveway has about 14"at this spot. 
Our best guess is that we got about 23", although our neighbor felt that number was too low. 



Standing in the street.  Behind him is the mound of snow from the plows.

 Here are a couple of examples of Bennett signing his colors.  In the first one he REALLY wants to watch the video of the Colors song.  We've found his signing to be rather helpful with deciphering his words.  He may not be able to identify all his colors, but he can sign (maybe not correctly, but close enough) colors, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black and white.

And here he is counting.

And the report is in...

US News and World Reports released their rankings of the Best Children's Hospitals 2012-2013 and Boston Children's Hospital was ranked as #1 in the Cardiology & Heart Surgery category.  Also, of the 10 categories included, it was in the top 3 of 9 categories.  And the one it missed?  It was number 4.  That's not too shabby!  (It receive 3 first place, 4 second place, 2 third place, and 1 fourth place).

I'm definitely glad that we live so close.  When we've gone to appointments and staff members are making small talk with us, they will ask where we live.  We really are one of the close ones.  People come from all over the New England area, not to mention the rest of the country and world to be seen at Boston Children's Hospital.  So to give thanks for all of the support that they have given us, we will once again be walking in June to raise money to help them with all that they do.  Chris, Bennett and I would be extremely grateful if you would consider donating to this worthy cause.  You can sponsor us here at my page, or here at Chris' page.

Birthdays and ice cutting

Bennett turned 2 years, 4 months old.  Recently when people ask me his age I've been tempted to say that he's almost two and a half, but he really isn't.  A lot of development can still take place in those two months.

More fun playing with play-dough.  This time Daddy joined in, making a giraffe which then danced around for a bit.  For now we're sticking to one of the rules from school which is that you can only play with one color at a time.  This means we don't end up with nasty mixed together colors.  I'm sure down the line this might change as we want to make cooler items with multiple colors, but for now when all he wants to do is roll things out and cut them up, it works just fine.

I know this will come as a surprise to all of you, but on Sunday we went to Sturbridge again.  This past weekend was "Fire and Ice".  It's an event they have in both summer and winter.  In the summer there are antique firetrucks and icecream.  I'm not sure where the fire was in the winter, but there was ice cutting for the first time in a number of years.  Chris even got a chance to give it a try.  And then was interviewed for a promotional video that they were making.  It was very cold (I think it got up to about 30 degrees when we left) so we didn't stick around for too long.

In the evening we went to a surprise party to celebrate Auntie Hanna's 18th birthday.  Hard to believe that the little girl who was 3 years old when I first met her is now about to graduate from high school!

While we were at the party Uncle Andrew did some push-ups with a wriggly 30ish pound weight on his back.



Communication

I love the way that Bennett communicates with us.  Ok, I could do without the tantrums that we get when things don't go his way.  (For instance, when pushing up his sleeves for dinner, Mummy has to do his left sleeve and Daddy does his right.  We are NOT allowed to do the wrong sleeve or both sleeves.)

One night he came home from school and wanted to watch TV.  He went over to the couch and pointed at it.  We said no, he couldn't watch.  He saw some books lying on the couch and coffee table, and thinking that he wasn't allowed because he had things out already, he put them away and then sat back down and pointed at the TV again.  And this time he made monkey noises to let us know that he wanted to watch Curious George.  Sorry Bennett.  You don't get to watch TV every day.

Another night, while we were at the dinner table, I picked up my phone to check something.  He likes to use my phone to watch this video of a girl signing colors so he started signing "colors" to let me know that's what he wanted.  No, not now.  Next he signed "orange".  I said no, he couldn't watch now, he would have to wait until we were done.  So he says all done and pushes his plate away.  Then he signs "all done".  Hmm, this still wasn't working for him.  I said everyone had to be done- Mummy and Daddy were still eating.  He tried saying down, bib, washcloth- anything he could think of to let us know he was done. 

It really is cute to watch how his thought process works.  We're not doing what he wanted, so he feels we just don't understand what he wants- so then he tries expressing it differently.  If only he would do this more often rather than having meltdowns all the time.