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.  :) 

Stunning Summer!

It's time for the weekly recap!

Puzzles continue to be an almost daily activity.  He zips through them pretty quickly now.  Time to either mix them up a bit so that he isn't doing the same ones all the time (tricky since he likes these so much) or get him some more difficult ones. 

This week he wanted to play wiht his LEGOs again.  He hasn't used them in a while. One night he built a fence and then got the horses from his Little People farm sets to put behind the fence.  Cute! 

Silly glasses from school got played with.  Given how cheap they are and the fact that the lens from one is popped out, maybe it's time they got relocated to the circular file, but Bennett doesn't seem to mind.

For a while now I've been thinking about getting Bennett a child-sized carrier so that he can wear his dolls.  I wasn't sure he would be into it.  But then one night we wrapped George on his back with a towel while Bennett was on his way to bed after his bath.  Ever since then, Bennett wants George on his back after bath.  So maybe he would like a carrier after all.

I went ahead and got one for him and when it arrived he happily tried it on.  But then after a couple of minutes he wanted it taken off.  Apparently, in his mind, the Boba (this is the brand) is only for use at Sturbridge.  I guess this kind of makes sense since that's pretty much the only time that I wear him in my Boba.

So on Saturday when we went to Sturbridge we brought the Boba Mini and George along.  He was very happy to wear George!  He took George off for potty breaks and at lunch but then happily put him back on again.  Now we just need him to use the Boba at other times and maybe it will really have been worth the expense.

Speaking of Sturbridge, here's our traditional photo in the cut-out.

Doc and Blue, the two oxen shown below, were out and about when we arrived.  Bennett was very excited to see them and showed off his knowledge of which one was which.  We were told that they needed a bit more cart training, so they had the lovely task of hauling some manure. 

For months we never went in Cooper shop. Then a couple of months ago we went in and now Bennett always wants to go in and try out the draw knife.

Betsy had a calf her day before, right after closing time.  She was keeping her distance from everyone.

As we were leaving I put Bennett up on my shoulders.  The only thing that could make it even cuter would be if George was on his shoulders rather than his back.

We forgot to take this picture on Saturday so we were a day late.  (Which is better than I've done in some previous months.)  Bennett is now 33 months old.  I like that he has the Curious George book in his lap.  Very fitting of his life right now.  Thought about switching Paddington for CG but decided to stick with the traditional stuffed animal.  And since Bennett is such a creature of habit, he may not have even allowed me to make the change.

On Sunday morning we went to visit Mimi.  Before we left I was cleaning up the front hall and came across a picture of a giraffe that Bennett had colored.  I suggested that he bring it to Mimi since she likes giraffes.  He was cool with that and then he ran off to get a library book of his (Cecily G and the 9 Monkeys) since it was about a giraffe.

After our visit we came home for lunch and nap and then headed off to Auntie Mel's house.  The boys played outside for a bit and then we headed off for the pool.


I think I have this less than awesome expression on my face because I was getting splashed.  The downside of Bennett still being pretty young is that I had to get into the water more quickly than I wanted.  But he was rushing in, so I had to keep up with him.

 

He had a blast jumping off the side of the pool!  Sometimes I held onto him and sometimes we just let him jump on his own.  He kept jumping over and over again. 

After the pool we went back inside, got changed, played outside a bit longer, ate dinner, and then headed home for a late bedtime.  It was a great summer day!

Night time potty training

Day training is going well.  For the most part we are accident free, but some days/evenings are worse than others.  I think social gatherings might be a problem, but for the most part we're pretty good.  I did want to give a synopsis of how night training went for us.

We started night time potty training at the end of April, which was about a month after we started day training.  After about 2.5 weeks of night training I was feeling as if things were a disaster and wrote this post in response to someone else on a forum who was having trouble with training.:

• He'll pee before his bath around 7:45/8:00. Sometimes he'll pee again while sitting on his potty hearing his bedtime story.
• Then after being put to bed, about 10 minutes later he's calling again for the potty. He's one of those kids who stays in bed due to the "magic forcefield" and won't get out on his own. Sometimes he calls 3-4 times, but usually only pees one of those times. Not sure if it's a stall tactic or what.
• 10:30/11:00 ish- whenever we go to bed we put him on the potty. Usually dry when we go in and he will pee on the potty.
• 1:00, although recently we started pushing this time a little later. To begin with he was often wet when we went in to him, but lately he has been dry. If not wet, he will pee on the potty.
• 3:30-4:30 - We've played with the timing on this one a bit, trying to get to him before he wets the bed. This is probably the trickiest for us. Lately he's been dry a bit more, but I would say in the 2+ weeks we've been doing this, it's been about half wet, half dry. Again, if he's dry he'll pee on the potty, but not if he's already wet.
• Wake up between 6:30 and 7:00. I'd say this is also a 50-50 split of wet and dry. Depends if we wake him up versus him waking up on his own.

It's exhausting and frustrating and I wish there was a magic wand to wave to either keep him dry or convince him to wake up and pee on his own. He can hold his pee 2.5-3.5 hours during the day but won't do it overnight. Like you, our son is in daycare so we really don't know how much he drinks there. He doesn't drink a lot at home in the evenings. We are lucky that when he wakes up overnight he goes right back to sleep. I'm also lucky because my DH and I alternate going in to him overnight so it's not one person doing all the work.

 

As much as I want this to be figured out quickly, I don't think it's an easy process. Jamie says in her book, "I usually stress that night training comes 2-6 weeks after day training." So I keep reminding myself that this could take a while, which helps with not feeling too discouraged about the lack of "success". And for us, day training went pretty quickly and easily, so it's hard not to expect night training to also go well. But it is harder since he's not awake and thus not aware of what his body is doing.

3 days later, I wrote this post:

So just when I thought things had gotten just about as bad as I could handle, we saw some improvement!

For the past 3-4 nights now my son has stayed dry! We're still going in and waking him up multiple times a night, but we haven't had to wash sheets, which is fabulous!

1 night I slept through an alarm and he woke up about an hour later needing to pee. But the sheets were dry! Woo hoo! On another night when DH put DS on the potty he didn't pee, but then woke up an hour or so later having to go.

I think we might be ready to lengthen times between wake ups or try not setting alarms and just let DS wake up when he needs to pee.

Huge news on 5/21 (about a month after starting):  Last night he slept through the night (well, we put him on the potty around 10:30) and he was dry when we got him up at 6:30 in the morning!!!  Woo hoo for staying dry for 8 hours!!!!

About a month after starting night training Chris and I went away for the weekend.  We weren't sure what would happen when we were away or when we got back.  Apparently while we were away he woke frequently during the night (5-6 times?!) and would pee each time.  So when we got back we decided to not set any alarms.

Ugh!  We had wet sheets multiple times that night.  The next night, when I went in to check on Bennett before going to bed, he was covered in poop.  Yuck!  And it had been there a while, so Chris had to give him a bath (at 10:30 while he was half asleep) while I cleaned up the bedding.  Luckily he fell right back to sleep. 

Since then we've been setting alarms again, but weaning off the frequency.  And on 6/2 he slept through the night from 10:30-6:15.  And proving that he's awesome about going back to sleep, when Chris put him on the potty at 6:15, he told Bennett it was still sleepy time and we got another 30 minutes so that we could get ready before we had to wake him up- at which point he said, "Go away Daddy!"

As of today, June 18th, we've had about a week or so now of dry sheets!  We still wake Bennett and put him on the potty before we go to bed but we aren't setting overnight alarms anymore.  Some nights Bennett wakes up in the middle of the night needing the potty but other nights he sleeps all night.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's a 50/50 mix.  And I've stopped keeping a nighttime pee journal, so I guess that means things are going well.  We've also re-introduced PJ bottoms (we took them away after the first couple of nights) and things seem to be going well.  Can I officially say that we're done with night training?

Happy Father's Day

This week was pretty light on the photos until the weekend.  I kept thinking that I should pick my camera up but I just never got to it.

On Friday we went to a Father's Day cookout at Bennett's school.  It was an interesting dynamic of who talked to who, who left first, who stayed longest, etc.  Pretty much the infant families hung out together and left first.  Then the younger toddlers left, and then the older kids left.  We were there until the end (and pretty late!) just hanging out chatting and playing games/puzzles with one of the other families and with the teachers.  One of the teachers brought her teenage daughter who Bennett absolutely adores!  This was great for us because Emily got to try to corrall him to eat and then help him with the potty.  Good thing she was willing to help out!

The cookout is potluck with the school providing the burgers/hot dogs but then each family signing up to bring a side or a dessert.  Last year I baked these  cupcakes.  Apparently in the days leading up to the cookout various people were asking the director if I would be making them again.  Luckily she realized that they were a TON of work and that I likely wouldn't be making them again.  Instead I made cupcakes in ice cream cones.  I thought that they would be cute, but they didn't quite live up to last year.

Bennett helped make them the night before, and Friday morning he woke up asking to eat a cupcake.  We told him that they were for the party.  All day long he kept asking.  When we arrived at school that evening we had to put the cupcakes in the director's office so that Bennett (and the other kids) wouldn't eat them first.  He still tried running in there to get one though.

It was cute watching the kids eat them.  Many of them tried to lick them like an ice cream cone.  I guess it makes sense though since kids often only eat the frosting from a cupcake anyway.



A dad helping G eat her cone.  And then playfully shoving it in her face.  :)



I have no idea what this really is, but Bennett thought it was sunglasses.  Reminds me of Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.



At least he was safe and put a helmet on, but now he just needs to look where he's going.

 On Saturday we went to Day out with Thomas at Edaville.  Last year we didn't go on many rides but this year we had a bit more time.  Bennett wasn't so sure about the carousel at first, but once it got going he loved it.  Of course it doesn't hurt that he likes horsies.

This video isn't sideways like the thumbnail would have you believe.

As we were walking past the hill with the gazebo Bennett surprised us by rememberding that it was where Sit Topham Hatt was when we visited 9 months ago.  Who knew it made such an impression!

I like his hands on the side holding on.  :)

As we came out of the gift shop we saw Sir Topham Hatt so we got into the line for a photo.  We weren't sure how he was going to do, but he did great.  Much better than last year where he ran away from Sir. Topham.



Maybe it's jus tme, but I think this Sir Topham Hatt looks a little creepier than the one last fall.




After taking the photo we got in line for food.  It was so slow!  Rather than make Bennett wait I stayed in line while he and Chris went on a couple of rides.  They rode the airplane and also went in a rocket.  Bennett couldn't figure out the control lever to raise the plane up, so he stayed down low.  Much easier to take photos though.  :)

After lunch we checked out a train engine that the kids could climb into and went on more rides.

The girl in the plane with Bennett must have younger siblings because she did really well with Bennett adn tolerated him wiggling the flying lever  back and forth.  And then after the ride she even undid his seat belt for him.

Soon it was time for us to go on our train ride.  The ride was fairly uneventful.  Last fall the coach had been empty except for us, but this time it was full.  After the ride we quickly got in the line for photos with Thomas.

Then we went on a couple more rides before heading home.  Bennett got a VERY late nap in the car and when we got home Daddy mowed lawn while Bennett played outside and helped water garden.  He also discovered that jumping in puddles is fun.

On Sunday we had a fairly un-exciting Father's Day.  We had a bunch of errands to run.  First stop was Brandeis for a little while.  Bennett decided that "Daddy make mess" so he grabbed a broom and did some sweeping.  What's funny though is that the shop was probably the cleanest that Bennett has ever seen it.  He also took some scraps of wood and threw them away.  When those were all gone he requested "Daddy cut wood".

We then had a couple more stops, another extremely short car nap and got home shortly before dinner.


We need to teach a corn eating method.  Lots of corn left on the cob when he was "all done".



After dinner we went for a walk.  I think the horrid nap was catching up to him because he was not in the mood to walk and kept asking to be picked up.  It was like pulling teeth to get him to walk.  If only Fiona had been there to take his hand and pull him along.