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.
In case we ran out of cards before getting to you (sorry, more than 75 cards was out of the budget) here's our card from this year.
Here's the note that we included with the cards:
You may be wondering why we chose to feature oxen on our holiday card this year. The reason is simple. Doc and Blue (Doc’s horns go down, Blue’s horns go up) are one of the two teams of oxen at Old Sturbridge Village, an 1830s recreation village. OSV was an important part of our lives in 2013 as, to date, we visited 39 times this year (there may be another visit post-Christmas). 25 of those times were consecutive weekly visits. On our many visits we’ve watched the animals grow (plus we’ve learned the names of all of the animals that have names), helped plow a field, swept out a bake oven, made tin biscuit (cookie) cutters, pet chickens, sheep, and the calf, been photographed for the local paper, harvested ice on the mill pond (Mr. Chris even has a cameo in one of OSV’s promotional videos), eaten lots of cookies, watched musical performances (and particularly enjoyed fifes), took many wagon, stagecoach, and river boat rides, learned the names of many of the interpreters, learned why the animals on this card are technically steers and not oxen (they aren’t called oxen until they are fully trained and these are still learning), helped cut and stack wood, picked and sorted potatoes, toured the root cellar, watched a Naturalization Ceremony, learned how to command a team of oxen to turn slightly left vs. a sharp left (“haw to me” vs. just saying “haw”), watched demonstrations at the sawmill, gristmill, and carding mill, watched a Revolutionary War reenactment, toured the costume storage building, cooked a period meal using period methods, watched blacksmith, shoemaker, tinsmith and print shop demonstrations, threshed grain, watched animals be harvested, dressed up as Doc for Halloween, and so much more. Needless to say, OSV was a big part of our year!
What else did we do? Bennett and Mr. Chris went sledding for the first time, we continued with ice skating lessons, had our 10th Annual Pinewood Derby, went swimming, potty trained in 4 days, had a great cardiology visit (Bennett’s heart continues to do well), celebrated 10 years of marriage, Bennett had his first haircut, we raised money for Boston Children’s Hospital, and Bennett turned three and had a Curious George birthday party.
Dinners for the past couple of weeks have felt very rushed. We try to think of what we can make quickly so that we have time for whatever our Advent activity is.
Monday wasn't too bad. Bennett got to watch Rudolph. I tried watching with him, but he was really fidgeting and asking too many questions so I had to get off the couch.
On Tuesday we made birdseed ornaments to give as gifts. Some of them turned out better than others. Later in the week I made some more since we didn't have enough from the first batch. I've read some negative reports about these, so hopefully they don't crumble too much or grow mold.
Wednesday's Advent item was some winter pencils. Kind of lame, but Bennett liked them. We asked him to draw a picture for Santa of what he wants for Christmas. He drew "a red present with a bow".
On Thursday we made a cotton ball snowman. I made the face but Bennett did the rest.
On Friday I had my work holiday party so we enlisted Grandpa to babysit. At 3:30 I got a call from school that Bennett had a fever. Grandpa still watched Bennett but since Bennett was under the weather I don't think they were able to have much fun- pretty much dinner and bed.
On Saturday we had planned to go take the "official" photos with Santa but Bennett was still not feeling well so we ended up watching lots of movies/tv-- Cars, Toy Story, and multiple episodes of Curious George.
Saturday night it snowed. On Sunday Bennett went to Nana's house. He helped shovel the driveway and then they went for a walk in the snow. Later on Auntie Hanna came over and they all went to pick out a Christmas Tree. They came home in time for nap and then later we ran some errands.
Well the traditional weekly post has now been delayed long enough that this one will have to cover two weeks.
We start off with Thanksgiving, or as Bennett would call it, "Thanks-for-giving". Wondering what one eats on Thanks-for-giving? "Thanks-for-giving food", of course!
As we usually do, we went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. We drive down and back in one day, so it makes for a pretty long day. It was a small-ish crowd this year, 19 adults and 2 kids.
We didn't even bother trying to get Bennett to take a nap. We knew the odds for actually getting him to sleep would be pretty slim. Instead many of us went on walk. Unfortunately he ended up wanting to be carried much of the way. But here he is with Michael checking out an old tractor.
Back at the house there were lots of people to play Zingo Bingo with Bennett.
After supper he fell asleep in my lap. This is absolutely not normal for him at all. I think he was just over a year old the last time he fell asleep in my lap. Soon after this picture was taken we did wake him up to use the potty and change into PJs and he ended up waking up a bit too much. We left soon afterwards and he quickly fell asleep in the car.
Overall it was a nice Thanksgiving but it went by very quickly and we left feeling like we had barely talked to anyone.
The week was full of lots of baking of pies. Tuesday night I baked a Marlborough Pudding for Liz. On Wednesday I made a pear pie and a pecan pie. And then on Friday/Saturday I made another Marlborough Pudding, a carrot pie, and Chris made chicken pot pies.
Why all this pie? Saturday we hosted "Piesgiving". Andrew and Gentry brought lamb pasties and a pork and apple pie and Dad brought over spinach pie.
Spinach Pie
Pork and Apple Pie
Marlborough Pudding
Lamb Pasties
Individual Chicken Pot Pies
Carrot Pie
After Bennett woke up from his nap we went to visit Mimi. We brought her some Thanksgiving leftover, including a few of her favorites that hadn't been provided by the nursing home.
Beaumont had already decorated for Winter
We also painted some ornaments. These were from kits which only came with red, green, and yellow paints. Kind of hard to do much with limited colors!
On Sunday we had our weekly OSV visit. It was very quiet at the village. Most people were likely busy traveling home from Thanksgiving. Plus the weather was a bit yucky so I'm sure that kept many people away as well.
One of the things on the schedule was to help the farmer with seasonal work. I think the original plan had been to cut wood, but since Bennett was the only one around to help, the farmer decided to sharpen some tools instead. Bennett got the job of turning the sharpening wheel.
Back at home, we made an Advent wreath.
During Advent I'm trying to come up with some sort of activity every day. One day we made a paper chain out of construction paper. The next day we painted wrapping paper.
He'll probably hate me later in life when he sees pictures of himself just in undies, but we knew how messy this would be, so stripping down to the undies was a necessity.
We also decorated our tree. Although the ornaments that Bennett put on were all on the lower branches, they were mostly spaced out. Well, not these. Luckily they weren't too bad so I didn't need to rearrange much.
Last Friday was the holiday party at Bennett's school. He was very excited that he was wearing party clothes and he even told everyone he saw that these were his party clothes.
After eating all of the kids got to decorate cookies. Bennett seemed to think that making sandwich cookies was the way to go. It certainly was less messy than having to deal with all the frosting and sprinkles that he used.
Last Saturday we went to Sturbridge for their Christmas by Candlelight program. This officially ended our streak with 25 weeks in a row-- from June 22nd through December 7th. We also learned that we aren't the only regular visitors. There's one family who also comes pretty much every week, but they have a child who's a Junior Intern. Not sure that is quite the same as us since the parents have to come to provide transportation. Then there's another family who comes 2-3 days in a row and then comes back again a few weeks later for another 2-3 days in a row.
Anyway, while we were at Christmas by Candlelight we started off watching part of a performance by Full Gael. We've seen them perform before at OSV and really like them. Bennett wasn't quite as mesmerized this time as he's been before, but he did enjoy the music.
Next we walked through a couple of buildings, making mulling spice sachets, learning about Saint Nicholas, etc. Then we made our way to the bonfire on the common where we ran into Dave and Victoria. Victoria let us know that she would be reading Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and invited us to listen. So after dinner that's where we headed.
We then headed to a few more buildings where we sampled fruitcake, gingerbread, and viewed a miniature village (complete with a few miniature OSV buildings). At the tinsmith we made twisted tin ornaments.
As we were leaving we passed back through the visitor center and noticed that the line for Santa was much shorter than when we arrived so Bennett got to see Santa.
I'm not quite sure that Bennett understands that Santa brings gifts and that you are supposed to ask Santa for what you want for Christmas. When we saw Santa at the mall on Saturday (we were there for something else so figured we would see how he did with Santa) he asked for "a truck". Or at least I think that's what he said. He was pretty quiet. At OSV, while standing in line we prepped Bennett that Santa might ask what he wanted. He said "a hat". What color? "Red." Ok, sounds good. Santa can do that! But then when Santa asked him his response was, "a present". What kind of present? "A red one."
Since then I've tried getting more info both asking, and having Bennett draw a picture for Santa of what he wants. He drew "a red present. With a bow on it."
On Sunday we were going to go to the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture. We arrived there about an hour after they opened and the line was at least two hours long. We turned around and left. He was a bit sad at first but instead we went to Ikea and he forgot all about it.
Back at home Bennett helped wrap presents to mail to Georgia.
I guess the lack of napping last week was a fluke. This week he was back to napping every day, although on Sunday it took him quite some time to fall asleep.
Monday was my birthday. Bennett had lots of fun opening my cards and presents. And yes, my presents were mostly Legos. Why do you ask?
Then it was time for cake. Or more specifically, cupcakes. I did have to bake them myself, but they were quite tasty.
And apparently when you have a three-year-old in the house, hats are a necessary accessory.
On Friday night Bennett went to Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry's while Mummy and Daddy had a date night. This took a bit of tricky coordination due to daycare closing time, train schedules, etc but we made it work. And the adult time was nice.
On Saturday we had skating. Bennett is being his typical self and not wanting to do things on his own- instead wanting help to stand up, march, etc. Apparently the allure of toys, other kids, etc isn't quite enough.
Then after skating we headed off to OSV. This weekend we consulted the weather forecast in advance and Saturday was the much nicer day!
When we got to the farmhouse Ryan remarked again about how she really liked Bennett's Halloween costume. Guess we really made an impression. :) Also while we were at the farm Bennett had been busy watching the animals. Then he looked over and saw Dave. Bennett ran over saying, "Hi Dave. Whatcha doin?" Nope, Bennett doesn't feel comfortable there at all. Nope, not at all. Ha!
In the tinshop he got to help Phil make more tin biscuit cutters. Phil didn't seem to remember that we had made one the week prior. Maybe at this rate I'll have a whole collection!
Here Phil is soldering the ends together.
And then Sunday was errand day. Chris and I split up in the morning (Bennett going with Daddy) to go to stores in different directions. I got back just as Chris had put Bennett down for nap and then he went off to work to strike the set. After about two hours of chattering to himself I finally got Bennett to go to sleep! If only it weren't such a struggle.
Last night we decided to see what Siri (the voice recognition function of our phone) could decipher of Bennett speaking. What was even more fun was when Chris and I each pulled out our phones and Siri translated the same things completely differently.
Are you at bat but hey Dr. my dad going to
Daddy had wine by black goggles are
Eric Bigelow won't just talk hi
Is going to refer me to have both of our clients sometimes he visited don't touch foam time bye Hey wonky hi hi Pigalle monkeys right and wrong with black killer delay like he doing
Hey dad schools hi hi forgot Michael's right the rope but like I need to read right the rent
Just Bennett Fagant No you can't push it looked like he bye Bye delay LOL contact the land at all man I get there and Karen Calamante all man going like he is doing (The Bennett and no you can't push it are things that I was saying at the same time.)
Hey Ricky doing Pool two what are you doing school today Paul okay dad I pay you already commitment program for me
What are you doing today okay alright want me to go away from me
I think we'll have to try this experiment again later to see how his elocution evolves.
I think the day might be coming soon and much sooner than Chris and I are ready for! I certainly hope that by talking about it we aren't making it come true. In the past 7 days, Bennett only napped one or two of those days. Noooooo! Of course we have to still attempt a nap for a bit longer which tends to mean lots of him trying to escape his room, talking loudly, etc. If only he would sit quietly and we'll just call it "rest time". This is especially challenging at school. They are fine with him not napping, if only he would stay quietly on his mat to read a book.
This week Chris also started tech for Cabaret. This meant I was on my own Wednesday-Friday after work/school and on Saturday from mid-morning through the evening. Then he had Sunday off as well as today before he goes back to tech for two more nights. Ugh. Luckily he's around in the morning to help get Bennett ready for school which is always tricky if I have to be getting myself ready at the same time without an extra adult to help.
One day when I went to pick Bennett up from school his hair was sticking up. Turns out he'd had a ponytail earlier. And then he got another one. :)
On Saturday we had our first skating lesson. I definitely feel a bit rusty from not being on the ice in about 6 or 7 months. Here's the only picture that I have of Bennett as he's getting dressed in warm clothes. He gets very distracted if he sees us so it's hard to get pictures of him skating. What's nice though is his orange snow pants! When I'm on the other side of the rink it's easy to see where he is among all of the other people in black or navy pants!
After skating Daddy went to work and Bennett and I ran some errands and visited Mimi. Then after a failed nap we went to Brandeis so that Bennett could check out the set and so that we could go to dinner with Daddy. I guess the lack of nap caught up with him, because he fell asleep on the way home at 6:10pm. I was really dreading how early he might wake up on Sunday but he surprised me. He woke up at 6:40! Bennett and I let Daddy sleep for a bit to catch up on some lost sleep.
A couple of hours later we woke Daddy up and got ready for our weekly trip to Sturbridge.
It was a pretty quiet day- chilly and a threat of rain which kept many people away. Plus there wasn't much on the schedule. But this worked to our advantage when we got to the tinshop! Phil put Bennett to work making something out of the tin.
First they went to one machine and bent the edge of the tin.
Then they went to another machine and crimped that bent edge over a piece of wire.
Then the folded it in half.
Next they bent up each side in a curve.
Finally Phil soldered the two ends together and we got a heart shaped biscuit cutter. Phil told Bennett to give it to Mummy. A perfect early birthday present!
