Daddy Daycare and Weekend Fun

Daddy Daycare-
Chris has July (mostly) off from work so is watching Bennett a couple of days a week.  The other days Bennett goes to school and Daddy stays home and works on his etsy business.  One of the benefits of Chris being home is that I get texts throughout the day letting me know what's going on.  Below are some of the texts and photos that Chris has sent to me.  Comments from me are in parentheses.

Friday 7/5

• 99 big yellow hats on the wall, 99 big yellow hats.  If one of those hats should happen to fall...  It takes that many hats to get to the country house.  (This is a Curious George reference.  We find it odd that sometimes they live in the city and sometimes in the country.  The books are this way as well, with no explanation of them moving or getting a vacation home.)
• Now we're doing Legos.  He's building a "house".  Pieces that don't fit are "bad".

•  "my lunch"

• Just read the Sandra Boynton collection.  This was after reading the other half of the bookshelf.
• He's washing the table with his squirt gun.
• Ice cream soda.  Literally.

• Clifford is attacking me.  Just in case you wonder why I'm not here when you get home.
• Bennett would like to go to the store with you.  He wants corn on the cob for lunch.
• I have to make hotdogs outside.  And he didn't mention going outside until I asked if he wanted a hotdog for lunch. (You can't make it on the stove?) Nope.  Outside.  (Have fun with that.  Maybe he'll run around a bit and tire himself out for nap?)  I'm doing them inside.  (Wimp. )  I'm caving. (Ha.  He's whining, isn't he.  "My want outside.")  No. Just politely insisting that hotdogs go outside.
• "I need shoes.  Get those.  Go outside.  I need hat."
• Apparently the leaves all over the deck are the result of "Daddy make mess outside."
• We're using the umbrella.  Cause we also have to eat outside for hotdogs. (which in the next few days prompted multiple conversations where Bennett asked why Daddy opened the umbrella.)
• George is going to Scotland.  To play golf.  At the Uncle with the Green Tam's Castle.  The Man With The Yellow Hat (TMWTYH) has a brother who has to show the deed on the castle every year or pay the back taxes.  400 years worth.  Otherwise he has to move out by 3pm.  TMWTYH was wearing a kilt.  Yellow of course.  No tam.

Wednesday 7/10

• Your son took out his umbrella and held it over his head on the way in to Wegmans.  Then put it away when we got inside.  (He doesn't have an umbrella, so this was all pantomimed.)
• He pinched his neck in the car.  He said "kiss my neck when get home.  Give me big hug and kiss."  I said sure thing.
• (He then sent this photo, which I recognized as being a "house".)

• Everyone is sitting down to watch the movie.  Curious George of course.  That uses all of the Legos.  The ones that don't have wheels anyway.

• Ate half of a hamcheese (this is what Bennett calls it) sandwich.  Left some of the cheese, which is weird.  Took it apart and ate the ham, then some cheese and then ate the bread.
• (@1:40) Went up at 1.  He's still talking.
• (@2:40) He just pooped so maybe now he'll sleep.
• (@3:04) He finally fell asleeo shortly after the poop.
• And we're outside in the pool.  (It's that nice out?) It was kinda nice.  Then the rain started.  He wasn't happy about having to come inside.

Friday 7/12

• Mummy, I waked up.
• (Absolutely GORGEOUS weather!  Cooler temperature and very little humidity.)  Almost let him play in the pool this morning.  But I think we'll wait until this afternoon. (I was wondering about that.  Still a little cool for the pool.  Did you empty it?  And if so, did he freak out?)Nope.  He actually wanted to help.
• Pumping up bike tires. We may need to go for a ride later. (OK.  If it stays this nice, I'm game.)

• He's helping inflate tires.  It's very tiring. (It's good to put him to work.  Hopefully he gets more air in the tires than he lets out.) He didn't help for long.  But now he wants to go for a bike ride.  And I'm not up for that right now. (That was your fault for working on them now.  I could have told you he would want a ride now.) But that's what's been stopping us, right? (Yes, but you should have been prepared to do a ride right now.) Nope.  Teaching him about being patient.  And we don't want to prevent Mummy from having fun.  
• (This photo of Bennett in a pirate hat sweeping around the garden.)

• He's kicking his soccer ball around the garden.
• And now we have a cape and going up the rock wall.
• (after nap) And now for the pool.

When I got home we did go for a bike ride.  He was very excited!

And now for the weekend recap.

On Saturday morning Bennett went to Nana and Grandpas.  He mentioned numerous times how we walked with Grandpa to the playground and his shoes got all wet because he jumped in puddles.

After nap Bennett started working on some puzzles.  These are a couple of Curious George puzzles that he's working on.  He's done them so many times he almost has them memorized.  

We went to Toys R Us looking for some more challenging puzzles.  We weren't thrilled with the selection, but we spent a while exploring the store.  He did really well and didn't get too upset when we had to leave.

On Sunday we went back to Sturbridge.  I'm wondering if we're now averaging 3+ visits a month.  Last year we went about every other week.

In the visitor's center is this display on the wall explaining how to direct the oxen.  I think Bennett may need some lessons.

While taking a ride with Pete and Jim Bennett started waving and saying hi to the horses leading the stagecoach.  So we asked our driver what their names were- Worthy and Barney. (Shown here are Pete and Jim.)

I made a book of photos from the first year of our OSV membership.  Bennett loves looking at it.  I've already started one for his year as well.  I decided that it should have a "meet the animals" page, so I took a number of photos of the animals.  Here's the new calf, Summer, who was born on the Summer Solstice (June 21st.)

On the daily agenda was "Meet the oxen".  Since it was down at the farm we thought it would be Lance and Henry, but instead Doc and Blue came up the road pulling a wagon of teasel.  We told the farmer about how Bennett was directing imaginary oxen around the house and he thought that was funny.  He mentioned that his son sometimes uses these types of commands (gee, haw, ho, etc.) to direct him around the grocery store.

After lunch Bennett participated in the French and English tug of war.  He was on the English side, but unfortunately they lost. Maybe because right before they started pulling Bennett ran off to the water pump.

That's right, filling his hat up at the pump and dumping it on his head was much more fun.  At least it cooled him off a bit.

Here's Worthy and Barney.  (Worthy is on the right.)

Why yes, I do have my son pose as girls.

And that pretty much wraps up our week!

Happy 4th of July Week

The week was a little wonky with the 4th of July holiday on a Thursday.  Bennett wrapped up school for the week on Wednesday.  Lots of patriotic crafts were made this week!  They made fireworks (painted the tips of Q-tips and glued them on black construction paper), foot/handprint flags, and colored the Statue of Liberty below and also Uncle Sam who is further down this post.

On the 4th we decided to go to Sturbridge.  It was HOT, but still a good time.  Visiting the cooper shop seems to be a new tradition of Bennett's and he always wants to sit down on this bench to give it a try.

While we were in the cooper shop we found out more about the "save the sawmill" fundraising campaign.  We are all for saving the sawmill, but none of the information really said what exactly we were saving.  (unlike last year's gristmill project which was to repair the water wheel).  Turns out the roof and some of the rafters are pretty rotted and need to be replaced.  With a deadline of October we keep wondering when they are going to get started on the repairs.

When we were down at the farm Bennett pet a chicken!!! This is huge for him because he normally doens't want to pet animals.  He could have pet the calf but he wanted nothing to do with that.  One of the women was holding the chicken though so I wonder if that had something to do with it.  Maybe she was much more approachable (and cat-like) that way?

We made our way back to the center village and noticed Rhys (the employee) heading into Doc and Blue's pen.  He hitched them into the yoke and then started brushing them.  Once they were good and brushed he started walking them around to tire them out a bit before the procession

We decided to have a picnic lunch out on the common.  As we were eating Bennett kept asking where Doc and Blue were.  Luckily they were usually somewhere in eyesight.

We also got to meet Lance and Henry.  Ever wonder which is which when you hear the names of a pair of animals?  Well, when they are hitched up, the first name always refers to the one on the right (when you look at them in this direction.)  We also were wondering how we would be able to tell them apart when they weren't hitched up and we discovered that Henry has the horns that stick out like a Longhorn.  (With Doc and Blue, Doc's horns point down.)

Sturbridge is a fun place to visit on the 4th because the families of the employees are welcome to come and be costumed.  This is a great way to get some extra kids in costume.  A small group of kids went to the school, and this group became a mini-militia who got a crash course in musket handling.

Finally it was time for the procession!

Please excuse the jitteriness of the video, especially at the beginning.  Lots of waiting around for a procession that took less than two minutes!

And then afterwards Bennett kept talking about Doc and Blue in the parade.

When the procession had made its way back to the common it was time for a Naturalization Ceremony.  How neat!  (There had been increased security and bag checks to get into the village because of this.)  Unfortunately it was about nap time and Bennett didn't want to stay still and be quiet so we missed most of the ceremony.  But imagine our surprise when we ran into Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry while on the way to the bathroom!  We chatted for a bit and then headed out.
 We made a quick stop in the playground area because they have more cut-outs.

Back at home it was a continuation of a car nap and then when he woke up we went outside to cool down.  Befitting the holiday, Bennett had a patriotic swimsuit in his pile of hand-me-downs.  We went outside and played in the pool.  I'd given him some balls made of cut up sponges as well as some shower poofs and he had lots of fun playing with those.  (The next day he learned he could thrown them at Mummy and Daddy to get them wet.)

There's a saying that when growing corn on the cob it should be "knee high by the 4th of July" so I had to climb onto my garden bed to test this out.  Perhaps for the 1st time in the 4 or so years I've tried growing corn, it's actually higher than my knees!

And to wrap yo the holiday, here's a blurry Uncle Sam costume from school.

This summer Bennett will be spending some extra time with Daddy.  This gives them some extra bonding time but also helps our budget out a bit.  So on Friday Bennett stayed home with Daddy and played.  (This is his Duplo "house".)

And here's Bennett reading a circular and telling Daddy about all the tools that he should buy.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Children's Museum.  Our membership expires at the end of the month and we haven't used it nearly as much as we should. 

Once of the features of the museum is a 3-storey climber.  We thought Bennett would love it.  We were wrong.  The first time he tried it there were a bunch of other kids around so we thought that was the problem- he didn't want to push past them.  So we tried it again later, but nope.  Not sure what the problem was.  Usually he's a pretty active and adventurous guy.  Maybe he just didn't understand it?  Still too many people?  Who knows.

Instead we checked out some other areas such as creating power by riding bikes or walking around in a circle.

Then we went upstairs and he got to play in the store.  Using the cash register was lots of fun.

In the construction room he got to check out the Bobcat.

Daddy got to be a construction worker.

And Bennett was a welder.

In the gift shop Bennett discovered the selection of Curious George toys.  He even took one of the stuffed George's around to show him some of the other toys.

On the way back to the car we stopped at the Fire Museum.  It's just a small place with a couple of engines but Bennett was allowed to climb up on this one.

And speaking of fire stations, on Sunday (which we spent at home) Bennett played with some of Daddy's Legos.  This was a set that Bennett had gotten Chris for Father's Day.  Not only is it a big firestation, but it also has a couple of trucks and a helicopter.  Bennett's still a little young to play with this, but he had fun.

And I'll wrap up this post with a video of Bennett directing Doc and Blue around the house.  It's mostly him (at the end) saying "Doc, back".  This is because while we were watching the oxen Doc kept trying to move away and Rhys had to keep telling him to back up.  I guess Bennett picked up on that because all of a sudden we noticed him on Friday night with an imaginary stick (whip) saying, "Doc, back".  It took us a bit to figure it out, but once we realized what he was doing we thought it was pretty cute.

Outdoor fun

This weekend we spent LOTS of time outside.  Luckily the rain held off.  But before we get to the weekend, let's review the rest of the week.

A couple of months ago a friend of mine who lives in Michigan mentioned that she was going to be going to Valpo to meet up with a friend of her's and she asked if I wanted her to pick anything up for me.  At first I didn't think I wanted anything but then I thought a shirt for Bennett might be nice.  So now he gets to show his support for Valpo, even though he has no idea what that means.

We walked down to our polling place on Tuesday to vote in the special election.  Bennett came along.  He even got an "I Voted" sticker when we were all done.

Bennett got to try out paint with water.  Until it dried it looked pretty yucky since we could see through the paper.  I'm glad I tore the page out of the book so that they didn't all get wet.  Of course the picture was of Curious George.

After dinner one night we went to Dairy Queen.  This is the first cone (that we know of) that Bennett had.  Of course it melted faster than he could eat it so Daddy had to help a bit so that he wasn't a complete sticky mess, although he still got pretty messy.

On Friday when we picked him up from school we were talking to the teachers.  Bennett ran off to the preschool room and returned with this stack of puzzles.  Yup, our boy is puzzle crazy!

When we got hom Friday night we put Bennett to work in the kitchen helping to make hamburgers. 

While the burgers were on the grill, he grabbed a cape that I had made last summer (that until this week he's had virtually no interest in) and his broom and went outside to sweep the grass, the stairs, the deck...

Saturday morning we went to Tougas Farm to pick strawberries.  He only ate 2-3 of them (and those I even had to coax him!) but his face would make you think otherwise.  He was covered in berry juice.

After picking we went over to their playground.  He RAN to the cutout to have his picture taken.

After the swings and the slide he tried out the monkey bars.  We're still a ways away from him being able to do these on his own, but I'm sure that day is coming pretty soon.

On our way to OSV on Sunday (we have to call it OSV because if we say Sturbridge he immediately wants to go) he balanced one of his books on his head in the car.

And it wouldn't be a Sturbridge trip without the cut-out photo.  Yup, I do make him be the girl, although on this ocassion he decided which one to do.

It was hot so we went to the pump so that he could put his head under the spiggot.  But then I thought we should fill his hat up with water which he then poured all over himself.  It had the added benefit of helping reshape his hat!

While we were in the shoe shop Bennett looked out the window and saw the horses.  He started saying "hi horsies" so I took him outside so that he wouldn't distract everyone else.  When we got outside I asked him to say hi to the horses.  He instead said, "Hi Pete.  Hi Jim."  I hadn't remembered the names of the horses, but he did!  I was completely impressed.  Unfortunately the wagon they were pulling was full so we weren't able to take a ride.  And the next time we saw them the wagon was full again!

Down at the Freeman Farm Bennett was able to help with chores.  I think he's still a couple of years away from helping Daddy out at work, but he gave it a good try.  And yes, that is Curious George you see on his back.  He had a CG shirt on as well, and at one point someone referred to him as the Man With the Yellow Hat.  :)