It's starting to warm up a little!

On Baseball's opening Bennett wore his Braves jersey.  Don't worry, he also has a Red Sox shirt that he wore today, as today was the Sox home opener.  We haven't actually exposed Bennett to baseball much, so I'm not sure he even knows what it is.  Maybe we'll have to remedy that.

Slightly warmer weather this past week (not that you would know it by the winter coats) so we went out for ice cream for dinner one night.  Note to self.  The "kiddie" size ice cream is still too much.  Next time order the "baby" size for Bennett.)

It did warm up enough that we went for a walk on Friday night.  Bennett grabbed my snowflake hat.  Yes he needed a hat, but really?  Snowflakes?  I'm tired of winter!  We went to the bikepath that runs near our house, and we think he walked about three-quarters of a mile.  As mentioned in previous posts, we are hoping that he will be able to do the 2 mile walk for Children's Hospital on his own but we also have no idea how far he's capable of walking.  He also had his first pee in nature.  This will be much easier when he learns to pee standing up!  Instead Chris and I held him up in a squat position.  We're somewhat afraid that every time we walk past that dumpster now, he's going to say "pee".  The boy doesn't forget anything!

Maybe not the most flattering picture of Bennett as he pulls up his undies, but here's a glimpse into the chaos that was our living room on Saturday afternoon.  Dolls and a blanket (they had been put to bed), fruits and veggies (they also had been put to bed), a tipi, vintage Little People house... Just a typical day, I think.  And he was having fun, so that's all that matters.

Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  We were a little nervous about this as it was one of our first outings where a bathroom isn't immediately accessible.  (We'd actually gone to the mall on Saturday evening and he did well there, with a bit of a scramble to get to a bathroom.) 

Bennett's pretty trained now.  He sees these openings and he runs right over for a picture.

Ah, sheep!  One of the flocks has started lambing and they were outside.  (Last time we came we couldn't find this particular flock.)  When we saw the other flock by the farm I was commenting to Bennett that they were all the "daddies", but then an interpreter corrected me, saying that only one of them was a ram.  The others were ewes who happened to have horns.  They are due to lamb a bit later.

When we were by the farm Bennett wandered into an empty field.  He picked up a stick and was quite happy to poke around at the dirt.  We'll have to remember to keep a better eye on him in the future when they plant crops in the field. 

We have some alphabet flash cards, and for the letter "O" there is a picture of an ox. So we explained to Bennett that it's one ox and two oxen. He's familiar with oxen since we see them at Sturbridge. Now whenever he sees that flash card he says, "Oxen, cookies." Apparently those two things are very much entwined in his brain!  We also may need to teach him that he can't always have a cookie when we go to Sturbridge, but that's a fight that neither Chris nor I look forward to having.

And finally, here's Bennett playing one of his new favorite games, "bedtime".  If only actual bedtime went so well. 

Potty training review

This photo has nothing to do with this post, but posts are more fun when they have a picture in them.

Astute readers may have noticed in an earlier post that there was a picture (and video) of Bennett sans pants.  Well, that's because we started potty training.  Eek!

We first tried potty training last year on Labor Day weekend.  It was a method that claimed that he would be "trained" in 3 days.  We were very optimistic, and then very disappointed when it didn't work.  It was a method that had him wearing undies and having to use the potty in the bathroom.  I understand the logic in this since he would need to learn to pull down undies and get to the potty in time, but it also makes things even more challenging right in the beginning.  It also encourages frequent consumption of liquids so that you get more opportunities to try to use the potty.  I think that first day Bennett had about 50 accidents- mostly little dribbles.  We would rush him to the potty, but then he wouldn't want to sit.  This method also told us not to prompt him to use the potty, but instead to say, "Are your undies dry?  Remember to let Mummy/Daddy know when you need to use the potty.", thus putting him in charge of knowing his body and his signals and when he needed to go. We stuck this method out for 4 days, never really having any success.  He knew when he was wet, but he wasn't interested in trying to get to the potty.  We were exhausted and frustrated (and feeling like failures) and decided to quit.

While we were in the midst of that, I came across another method- Oh Crap! Potty Training.  At the time, I didn't really read much of it.  I was wanting a miracle cure.  This "non method" wasn't the miracle I was hoping for but I did plan to read through it more fully at a later time.  The book sat unread for months.  In the back of my head I knew we were quickly reaching the end of a magic period of time when learning to use the potty was supposedly easier.  Bennett also all of a sudden started getting really excited about undies.  So Chris and I looked at a calendar and tried to pick a time when we could take a couple of days off from work.  We knew a whole week (or longer) would be best, but we couldn't do that.  Instead we got 4 days.  A weekend, and then Chris took the Monday off from work and I took off the Tuesday.

I think we also realized that there are multiple definitions of "trained".  To some, it means 100% accident free.  To others it might mean that the child gets to the bathroom by his or herself and can take care of pants, etc on their own.  Some might feel that it means that when taken to the bathroom/potty the child knows what to do and can provide results, but the parent will need to help get them on the toilet, help with pants, etc.

When we started last year, I think I was of the mindset that "trained" was going to mean one of the first two things, or somewhere in between.  But now I don't think it needs to be that perfected to mean they are trained.  After all, when a child learns to walk, they are still going to frequently fall down.  But we say that they have learned to walk.  So why with potty training are we suddenly holding them to a higher standard?

So this change in mindset definitely helped me go into this experience much  more open and accepting of accidents.  Also, this second method we used didn't talk about timelines.  Instead there were different "blocks" of learning and once the child learned one block you would move on to the next.  Of course people want to know how long this "should" take, so when pressed, the author said that block one usually takes 3-7 days.  And I think this is where the 3 day potty training methods would end.  It's the learning of the basics, but nothing to help you over the next hurdles.  Oh Crap then states that for the child to get through the next couple of blocks and to fairly reliable be able to get toilet/potty on their own without prompting generally takes 3 or 4 weeks.  This was eye opening and so helpful to me to not have unrealistic expectations.

We were so happy and excited that Bennett got through block one in about a day and a half.  Then we had 2+ days to work on block two before he had to go back to school.  And we were pretty nervous about how that would go.  As of this writing, we are now on day 10.  We haven't tried nap or night training yet, so we are by no means done, but we feel that things are going well.  Here's a rundown of how things went.


Potty training day one:

Overall, it was a better experience than when we tried this 6 months ago. Similar method to what we tried last time, but some differences that probably worked to make it better. Plus Bennett is more aware and more cooperative than he was last time.  The big differences were that now he was naked from the waist down (no having to mess with pulling down undies) and we had a potty in the living room- much quicker and easier to get to.

In the morning had pee accidents about every hour. No problem. He’s still learning what we expect of him. However, they were all pretty small. Mostly dribbles. He did have a good pee on the potty right before nap. I think we startled him with our excitement though so maybe he would have peed more. Put a diaper on him for nap and he was really sad about it. He was saying, "no diaper, undies".  We had told him he could wear undies when he learned how to use the potty.  Since he had just used it, I guess he thought he had "learned"?  It's a good thing that he wore the diaper though because it was pretty wet when he woke up.

After nap, 13 small dribble-type accidents happened about every 5-10 minutes. He (mostly) realized he was peeing and would run to the potty but then nothing would happen. He also was farting a bit so would go to the potty thinking he had to poop. We got a small poop in the potty, most likely by pure accident.

Then the rest of the afternoon/evening was a mix of potty success, accidents, and 1/2 successes (start with an accident and finish on the potty). And of course we had a glorious poop accident. Ugh. That wasn’t nice to clean up- especially since it dropped in a couple places as Bennett ran to the potty.  But hey, he was running to the potty, so that's progress, right?

Total count for the day was 28 accidents/successes.

Potty training day two:
It went so much better than the first day!!!

• 7:40 woke up, took off diaper, sat on potty (no result)
• 8:40 accident
• 9:10 accident but then finished on the potty
• 10:55 accident
• 12:50 POTTY!
• 1-2:50 nap with DRY diaper!
• 2:50 POTTY!
• 3:30 POTTY!- no prompting
• 5:07 POTTY!- no prompting
• Put on pants and went to Target. Sat on toilet at Target when we arrived and again just before we left but didn’t pee either time. We were gone for about an hour.
• 7:45 dribble accident in pants
• 7:50 accident in pants (a bit more) sat on potty (nothing) changed pants and had another small accident. sat on potty and nothing.
• 8:00 accident in bath tub

Lots of other prompting to sit on the potty, which he did most of the time, but he either didn’t have to pee or just didn’t release when he got there.  And sometimes he flat out said, "no".  We didn't push him, figuring that he knew he body and he just didn't have to go.  (Part of this method is about sometimes having to trust the child.)

Overall, he was doing well without pants, but we would like him to learn to get to the potty while wearing pants since that’s what he’ll need to do at daycare. Too many accidents (I think 3 is their magic number) and they’ll put him back in diapers.

Potty training day three:

• 7:40 woke up
• 8:10 accident
• 10:45 POTTY!
• 12:40 needed to pee but wouldn’t. Tried to nap but fussed on and off until diaper change at 1:50
• slept 1:50 - 3:15, wet diaper when woke up
• 4:15 POTTY!
• 5:50 POTTY!
• 7:05 dribble, then POTTY!
• 8:00 dribble in tub- unknown if peed more

Potty training day four:

• 7:00 woke up
• 7:25 POTTY!
• 9:10 POTTY!- no prompting
• 10:45 POTTY! (while we were out visiting DH and his coworkers)
• 12:00 POTTY!
• dry nap diaper (woke at 2:15)
• 3:00 small accident in pants, finished on potty
• 3:40 accident
• 4:35 POOP on potty!- no prompting
• 4:38 potty- no prompting
• 6:15ish accident while playing outside
• 7:20 potty

Potty training day five:
This was the real test as he went back to school.  We were pretty nervous about how this would go.  The night before we wrote down a bunch of observations/tips/suggestions based on what we've seen.  We figured this would be easier because it could be shared with all of the teachers, rather than one teacher having to remember everything we said.  We were thinking one teacher would be there when we dropped off, and we were happy about that since we thought she would be receptive to what we were saying.  Instead it was the director who was there. 

Drop off frustrated us a little. Bennett did awesome and peed on the toilet while we were there. But the director was just kind of negative and seems to project more of a "I’ve never done things that way before so they can’t possibly work and then we’ll have poop all over the floor" kind of vibe. She REALLY wants him in undies right now (and was NOT happy to hear that he didn't have any on, even though we had told her last week that our plan was for him to be commando). I’m half expecting her to put something on him during the day. We gave her our list of tips/observations and I don’t think she agreed with many of them.


She asked us about poop. I commented that yesterday he pooped on the potty all by himself without prompting. Her response was, "So you only had the one poop?" Aaargh! Bennett always poops more at school than he does at home, but come on. On day 4 he did it all by himself. Can’t you be excited for him? Don’t set him up to fail.

At pickup, I was expecting the worst- for them to put a diaper on him, or require us to do diapers going forward. They stuck it out today doing our method, but are requiring him to wear undies tomorrow. He had a couple of poop accidents, which meant poop on the floor, so that pretty much was the deal breaker. Their notes didn’t explicitly say which were the accidents, but based on their notes and # of pants we brought home, I think this is how the day turned out.

• 6:50 woke up and peed on the potty
• 7:35 dropped off at school, peed on potty
• 9:00 potty
• 11:00 poop accident- also maybe pee accident
• 11:30 poop accident
• 1:00 dry (no clue what this note meant- successful potty, or tried and didn’t go?)
• 3:00 potty
• 4:00 accident
• 4:35 accident
• 5:00 accident
• 5:30 we arrived and he was sitting on the potty but didn’t do anything
• 5:45 potty, right before we left
• 6:05 arrived home, potty
• 7:00 potty

I’m sure he tried numerous other times and just didn’t do anything. They won’t put a potty in the classroom “because of the other kids” so it’s a bit further than he’s used to having to go to get to the bathroom. We’ve just had a potty in the living room.

The director wasn’t there when we picked up, which I’m glad about. One of the other teachers did acknowledge that it’s a different environment, other distractions, etc which is definitely true. Plus they likely aren’t paying as close attention as we were so might be missing signals. And they may not be as forceful with their tone with him as we have been to get him to sit, which sometimes results in getting a pee from him.

His regular teacher was out that day but would be in the next day. She’s pretty young (and doesn’t have her own kids like the other teachers do) so may not have preconceived notions about how potty training should go. However, her mom is one of the teachers who was in, so who knows what mom told her. But she also will have fewer kids to watch tomorrow, so should be able to get more individual attention.

Chris is pretty disheartened and really doesn’t want the undies. I think I have a better mindset because I was expecting worse. Bennett's at school for another day and then off for three days, which should also be good. Although Friday (day 7) he has both a dentist and doctor appointment.

He also wouldn’t nap at school. We’ve had some nap issues, and bed issues as well, since we started this. Hopefully those problems will get sorted out soon.  And you would think that with the lack of nap he would have gone to bed easily at night, but nope.  He was in and out of bed for an hour, opening and closing his door, calling for Mummy, stuffing his blankets between his bed and the wall, anything but lying down and sleeping!

Potty training day six:

Today there were a total of 4 kids at school, with 3 teachers (although not all teachers were there all day). There was the baby, a 15 month old (who is in Bennett’s class), and a pre-schooler, maybe 3.5 years?

I know I was a little nervous when we dropped him off this morning because he didn’t pee before we left the house (tried twice) and he didn’t pee for us when we first got to school. We were so excited though when we picked him up to see that he was in the same pants he had been wearing when we dropped him off, and then to hear he was in the same undies as well.

His teacher was awesome, writing down for us every time he tried, and if he did pee, whether it was a little one (what we’ve called dribbles) or if it was a regular size pee. He didn’t poop at school, but we got that at home- another self-initiated poop! He did have a minor pee accident with that one, I think because he was having trouble getting his pants down.

So overall today, it looks like he had 19 pees! Wow, that’s a lot! Most of them look like they were little dribbles, though. Based on the timing of many of them, it almost looks like they were prompting him every half hour. (Although I suppose maybe he tried on his own that frequently?) It’s great that he’s peeing on the potty, but I’d rather he have a decent sized pee rather than just eking one out every time he sits. Oh, and he also had a dry nap diaper.

Potty training day seven:

Another awesome day! One small accident while we were at a doctor appointment. He ran to the bathroom easily a half dozen times which was a bit of a pain. Chris and I alternated who would take him and who stayed to talk to the doctor. Anyway, on one of those trips his undies hit the floor. Not sure if they were wet from him peeling in them or if the floor had been wet. We think it was pee.  However, even if it was an accident, we're not really bothered by it since it was more of a process to get him to the bathroom.

And another self-initiated poop on the potty!

Potty training day eight:
Saturday was going great.  We went to skating and he peed on the big potty before class and again before we left the rink.  We ran a couple of errands and he peed before we left the store.  Awesome!  More pees in the potty at home, dry nap diaper.... Then he went to a party with his grandparents and had an accident or two.  However, the potty was no where near where he was playing, and I'm guessing he wasn't prompted like we would have done. 


And then we stopped tracking...

The author actually discourages a pee log.  I definitely understand that for the point we are at now.  There's really no need to track every pee or accident when you get to a certain point.  And Chris and I didn't track anything yesterday.  However, we definitely found it useful for the first week to know what his patterns looked like.  And it was helpful after a day filled with accidents to be able to look at the times he did pee on the potty, or remember that he went there on his own.  It also was helpful to know when he might be more likely to go so that we didn't over-prompt him.  Or to know that we maybe should wait for a pee before leaving the house.
At this point Chris and I are pretty much considering him "trained".  Sure he's still going to have accidents, and sure we're still going to have to do some prompting, but he has this figured out.  When he feels the urge to pee or poop, he goes to the potty.  We've just been doing other prompting at times when we want him to pee- before going out somewhere, before meals/ bath/ bed/ etc.

This has just been such a fabulous experience for us.  Maybe it's because we went into it expecting the worst, and then were amazed that he had it all figured out in about a day and a half.  Then we had another 2 days of us reinforcing things.  When he went back to school there was a bit of a setback, but that's understandable given the change of environment.  I guess today will be another good indicator for us since he's back at school again after another 3 days off, but I imagine things will go well.

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.

A visit to the dentist

On Friday Bennett had his first trip to the dentist, and he did awesome!  He probably should have had his first visit a while ago, but I put it off because we weren't sure if we wanted him to go to a pediatric dentist or to the dentist we see.  I often say that I've been to my dentist since I had teeth (not entirely correct since my dentist passed away and someone else took over the practice, but it's the same building and some of the same people) so I felt a bit guilty for wanting to take him elsewhere.  But Chris and I thought a pediatric dentist might work better for him since they have more experience with kids.

We started to prep him for his visit a week or two in advance.  Nothing major, just reading a couple of books we have about teeth/ the dentist and letting him know he was going to go and that he'd have to hold his mouth open for them, etc.  And I guess it worked, because he was fabulous.

Here the hygienist is showing Bennett her special "tickle brush".  She showed it to him first on his finger so that he could get used to how it felt.

Then she showed him her mirror and let him look at himself in it.

 

Then it was time for the cleaning.  He did well with the brushing and polishing, but when she started to scrape the tartar, that's when he got a little fidgety and wanted to hold on to me.  About a week ago we noticed some discoloration behind his bottom front teeth, so she worked on that to scrape it off.

While we waited for the dentist, Bennett got to pick out a couple of stickers, and they brought over some crayons and a coloring page to keep Bennett entertained.  Then the dentist came in.  You can tell how at ease Bennett was during the whole thing by how he's sitting here!  When she started doing more scraping he did need to hold my hand again, but that didn't surprise me.  

The dentist mentioned that the discoloration looked like iron stains to her.  Not sure where that would have come from.  But it's just on the tartar/plaque, so not anything to be too concerned about.  They got most of it off.  They probably could have gotten more, but since Bennett was squirming they didn't want to push him too much.  If in 3-4 months we notice it's getting really bad she suggested we come back in, but otherwise there's not harm in waiting 6 months until his next appointment.  And coming in earlier would just be to make it a little easier to remove it.

And when he was all done he got to pick out a prize.  He loved looking at all of the choices.  Pencils, erasers, poppers, bracelets, animals, etc.  In the end he chose a red plastic platypus.

Happy Spring?

A couple of mornings this past week we've gone into Bennett's room to wake him up and found him in interesting sleeping positions.  Here's just one- diagonally across his bed, with his head underneath the pillow.

The boy loves pancakes.  We eat them at least once a week for dinner.  We now need to make a double batch.  This gives us a few leftovers that we freeze and then bring them out for breakfast at some point.  Bennett was particularly messy on this occasion.

On Tuesday it snowed.  (What?  Isn't it just about spring?)  At school they went out to play and his teacher sent me this picture.  She said that right after she took the picture she threw it at one of the other teachers, who just happens to be her mom.  So where's the fine line between "don't throw things at people" and "snowball fights are fun"?

After school Bennett helped Daddy finish shovel the driveway, but I think he had more fun playing in the giant pile of snow from the plow (we still have snow from the storm in early February) sliding down it, etc.

Wednesday was Grandma Tedford's birthday, so we Skyped to with her a Happy Birthday.  I can't even begin to imitate how Bennett says "Happy Birthday" but it's pretty cute.  A couple of his cousins were visiting Grandma and he suprised us by being able to recognize them.  I guess looking at their pictures every day on the wall has paid off!


We stopped at the grocery store after school one day.  While we were in the check out line one of the cashiers gave Bennett a sticker.  She kiddingly told him to put it on his nose, so he did.  :)

Since St. Patrick's Day was over the weekend, they've been celebrating it all week at school.  On one day they received these rainbow headbands.  We had it sitting on the table in the front hall, so Bennett grabbed it and put it on.  (FYI- that's the expression that he makes when he says "cheese".)

On Friday he turned two and a half years old!  It also is Alexander's birthday.  On the way to school I had Daddy text Alexander's mom to wish him a Happy Birthday.  Then Bennett heard us and started singing Happy Birthday.  At first we thought he was just singing, but then he said Alexander's name at the end- right before he "blew" out the candles.

This weekend was spent at home, free of activities.  To break things up a bit, I brought up this Vintage Fisher Price Little People House that had been in the basement.  (We bought it at the church rummage sale when I was pregnant, so it's been sitting around for a bit now.)  Bennett LOVED it!  He pretty much played with it nonstop for 3 hours.  The next day I tried putting it away since we didn't have a good place to put it.  After his nap he started walking around the house asking about his "house".

We also had fun with fruit this weekend.  This all started when Bennett gave me a bowl of fruit to eat.  I thought it would be funny to just put my head in the bowl and have the fruit go everywhere.  Well someone thought that was HILARIOUS, and then we had to play this game numerous times for the rest of the day.

We also got a new set of Duplos.  It's a construction set and it has an axel that holds the scoop part of the front-end loader.  When Bennett first saw it he started using the axel as a trumpet.  When we put it to use as an axel, he looked all over saying, "where?"  (Only he says this in a Boston accent that sounds like "way-a".  Super cute!)

These next pictures are from Alexander's birthday party last weekend.  I can just imagine Bennett thinking, "I have no idea what this Star Wars thing is, or what exactly a light saber is, but playing with the big kids is fun!"



Food, a plea for donations, and a week of fun

This week was amazing in terms of Bennett eating foods that he normally wouldn't eat! 

• Chicken is one of those hit or miss foods.  Normally it's a miss.  But on Sunday we roasted a chicken and Bennett kept asking for more that night and he ate it later in the week as leftovers as well
• Wednesday, after months of offering and Bennett refusing, he ate broccoli!  And he kept asking for more.
• Thursday he ate scrambled egg, after rejecting it on previous attempts.  He tried a bite and although he didn’t spit it out, based on his facial expression I don’t think he liked it. He later piled it on top of his toast and ate a lot of it that way. After the toast ran out he tried another plain bite and spit it out.

Since we have amazing friends who also have great appreciation for Boston Children's Hospital, we've decided to form a team!  Please consider donating to Bennett or to any of the other team members (especially Fiona).  If you want, you are also more than welcome to join our team and walk with us.  The more the merrier!  (But be forewarned, if Bennett walks the route, which we hope he will, we will be moving at a snails pace- or maybe even slower!)

And now for the photos!

Ever since last week's giggle-fest video where we played with the puppet and the doll, Bennett has been playing with them a bit more.  On this occassion we were reading to the doll. 

And here's a video of us reading.  Towards the middle I try to get Bennett to say "horse".  He refuses.  For some reason, this is one animal he only makes sounds for- he won't say the name.

One night he decided to draw/write in this notebook that had been on the table.  All of a sudden we heard, "B-E-N..."  He then kind of trailed off a bit into indistinguishable letters.  We tried to get him to do it again on video with less than stellar results.  Apparently at school, every time they write his name on something they spell it out, which is where he's picked this up.  I think we need to work on letters a bit more at home, now that he pretty much has all of his colors.

Saturday was a busy day.  We had skating in the morning.  Chris realized he distracts Bennett way too much, so he can't watch anywhere near him.  Instead he came down to my end of the rink and watched the adult class.  He did happen to see when Bennett fell and hit his face on the ice (good thing he was wearing a helmet).  Luckily Bennett is fine, although I think the teachers were a bit worried.

After nap we had friends come over so that we could pass along some outgrown clothes and a few toys.  Jack is 14 months old, so this works out well to pass things along.  Not too much time between Bennett outgrowing things and Jack needing them.  And who doesn't like free clothes!  Bennett also did well sharing his toys.  We weren't sure how he would do- the last time other kids were over he was a bit possessive.  And lately Bennett likes to say that everything is "mine".

When Jack and his parents left Bennett played with the rice bin and then playdough.  Plus he colored with markers.  Wow, three of his favorite things!

Sunday was another jam-packed day.  We started off at Sturbridge, getting there right when they opened.  A lamb had been born this week, but I think they must have been keeping all of the ewes and the lamb somewhere away from the public, because all we could find were the rams.

Before we went into the village we looked through the visitor center.  Here's an early potty chair, complete with chamber pot.  Later when we were on the farm, the interpreter mentioned that babies would start sitting on the potty even before they could sit up on their own (high back, high sides on the chairs to keep them upright).  Washing and changing diapers is too much work!

Since it was St. Patrick's Day there was extra music, dancers, etc.  We listened to this group for a while, but then Bennett wanted to keep moving.

Bennett was eager to try this out.  He walked behind it on his own, but then needed Daddy's help to reach the opening.

The stilts were out at the schoolhouse.  When Bennett saw Mummy using the stilts he wanted a try.  In a couple of years I imagine he'll be using them all on his own.

  

After Sturbridge we headed off to Alexander's 6th birthday party.  We were later than anticipated since it took us longer to get there than we thought, but after acclimating to a new place, Bennett had fun playing lightsabers with the older boys.  They had the "real" lightsabers, and Bennett used a foam one.  He also tried out the hula hoop.  Playing with new toys is lots of fun!

Then we headed home, exhausted with just enough time for some books and toys before dinner and bed.

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.