The past three weeks

So I've gotten bad with updating the blog.  So this is a summary of three weeks.

January 27th - February 2nd

• Upon seeing me dressed in my apron and cap:

Bennett: Are you Victoria?
Me: Do I look like Victoria?
Bennett: Yes.  Are you Ryan?
Me: Do I look like Ryan?
Bennett: Yes.

          I guess this means my costume is a success!

• The next day, after I had put my apron on, he told me I needed my cap so that my hair wouldn't get dirty.

•  Wore a play skirt as an apron.  Said he needed it so that his clothes wouldn't get dirty.

Playing with the Lego "mall"

Bennett made a card/craft project for Nana's birthday

• Saturday Bennett had skating and then he went to Aunt Gentry and Uncle Andrew's house for a bit so that I could do some sewing and get my hair cut.  We then went to visit Daddy who was working all day/evening (tech).  Bennett fell asleep at 6:45 in the car on our way home.

• On Sunday we had our weekly trip to OSV.  Bennett helped the farmers split logs for fence posts.  In the tin shop he had lots of fun playing with the various sizes of measures.  We also learned the names of two more interpreters.

• It got slightly overcooked, but the weekly pie was apple.

February 3rd - 9th

• On Monday he started falling asleep during dinner due to lack of nap

• On Wednesday we had a snow day.  Mummy tried to do some work from home but Bennett watched a bunch of TV and we also went outside and shoveled the driveway a couple of times.

• On Thursday Nana came over for dinner and then played Legos with Bennett.

• On Saturday we went to Sturbridge where they were celebrating Valentine's Day.  Victoria was portraying Esther Howland, the woman who popularized Valentine's in the U.S.  She was in a different building than she normally is and this building also has some dress up clothes.  So Bennett dressed up as Dave.  :)  The sleeves on his shirt were a bit long, but as Victoria mentioned, she doesn't recall ever having seen Dave with his sleeves rolled down.

Bennett made this valentine and later gave it to Victoria. 
She then gave him one in return.

• In the tin shop Bennett again had fun playing with all of the measures.  As we were leaving the village we ran into Phil (the tinner) and he gave us a tour of the tin production shop, musket storage, etc.

• At Victoria's recommendation, the weekly pie was a chicken pie.  Pretty simple- just chicken and gravy in a crust.

• On Sunday we went to the local sledding hill.  We went up pretty high and had a blast, but other than in this one photo we had Bennett walk up the hill, and after having done that a few times he was tired out.  (But pulling him up was too much work for us.)

• Other Sunday afternoon activities included working on writing his name on his Valentine's for school, reading books, and playing out various things from Sturbridge.  In this case, he was chopping wood and putting it in the woodbox, and also fixing a gate because Henry broke it.

February 10th - 16th

Opening a Valentine's gift from Grandma and Grandpa Tedford

Brrr.... it was cold!

• On Thursday we got another big snowstorm so we left work early.  Of course this was the first day of the week that Bennett actually napped and he didn't like being woken up.  He was very disoriented and didn't understand why he was going home from school.

• Happy Valentine's Day!  He had gifts to open from us and also from Nana.

• Saturday was another trip to OSV.  He had fun playing in the snow.

• While we were in the farmhouse we had this conversation:

Bennett: I want to go back outside
Me: Now, it's cold out.
Bennett: I want to be cold.

• We also stopped at the shoe shop.  I had ordered a pair of shoes to go with my costume but they needed to be finished.  (They are left unfinished so that you can add buckles/laces however you want.)  I'm sure I could have done it myself, but Peter was nice enough to finish them up for me.

• We got more snow on Saturday night, so on Sunday we cleaned up driveway from more snow plus I climbed up on a small roof to clear off more snow/ice from the gutters.

• Grandpa came over for dinner and the weekly pie was a Jefferson Davis Pie.

In other completely unrelated news, I recently was looking through some old pictures- slides that I had scanned years ago- and I came across this one of OSV.  Based on the date of 1978, I would guess that this might have been from my very first visit.  I'm guessing an extended family member also came along since all 4 of us are pictured here.  (Ok, technically I'm not pictured, but at less than a year old I'm either in the stroller or in arms- certainly not taking the picture.)  It's interesting to see how much is the same and what has changed.  There were a few other pictures from that trip, but it's a little hard to tell what some of them are of.

Recapping the last two weeks

I never got around to updating the blog last week, so this will cover the past two weeks, mostly with pictures and just a bit of text thrown in for good measure.

Wearing his kilt to school

Bowling with Daddy

A little over a month ago we took our cat to the vet as she had lost weight and wasn't eating.  Two weeks ago we knew it was time to have her put down.  She had lost even more weight, she wasn't eating, she was having diarrhea daily, and was having trouble jumping onto the bed and couch.  We brought Bennett with us so that he could say goodbye, and also so that we could maybe explain things a bit better rather than him coming home and wondering where she was.  When we got back from the vet he said to the other cat, "Tony, Brit not here.  She still at the doctor."  We drive past the vet daily, so we've had a few more conversations about Brit and we just keep explaining that her heart stopped beating and she stopped breathing, and that means that she died.  And when you die, you go to a cemetery.  Pretty sure he doesn't fully understand the cemetery concept, but we can explain that one more another time.

On Saturday we continued the weekly trips to OSV.  They were baking down at the Freeman Farm, including a pork & apple pie.  Here Victoria measures molasses for a gingerbread.

Lance and Henry in the snow

Bennett discovered our Legos, or more precisely, Daddy built the Grand Emporium, or "the mall" as Bennett calls it.  He loved looking at everything and moving the people around.

Inspired by OSV, I made my own pork & apple pie.

On Sunday we celebrated Auntie Hanna's 19th birthday!

Naps have been a bit wonky these past couple of weeks.  One week he only napped two days, the next he napped 3 days.

Watching a parade.  Or were they in the parade?

We finally upgraded the cardboard barns from Bennett's barnyard to the wood ones.  This also meant the big barn got a roof.  It's a little snug, but he's doing ok with it.

The sheep were given some hay.

The chickens laid eggs. 
When we next went to OSV we told Dave about this. 
Dave asked where they laid eggs and Bennett said
"In the chicken coop, in the nesting boxes." 
Hmm, do we really need to make nesting boxes?

The pigs are eating toast. 
Previously the toast had been electric blankets for the cows and chickens, a la Click, Clack, Moo

More playing with the mall.

This past Friday Bennett was sent home from school with 102.9 fever.  After nap we checked again and even after some Tylenol it had gone up to 103.1.  We took him to the doctor but since there were no other symptoms, his ears were fine, and the strep culture came back negative we just needed to wait it out.  By Saturday morning the fever was gone and he was feeling fine.  We skipped skating but then went to OSV where we went on sleigh ride around the common, saw the stagecoach in the parsonage barn, and helped fill the parsonage wood box.  We're getting used to these quiet winter days at the village.  The crowds of summer are going to be a shock to us!

On Sunday Daddy went to work to make up for the time he had lost on Friday when Bennett was home sick.  Bennett turned his toy workbench into a forge and played "blackmsith".  He watched a bunch of Curious George and then played in my craft room while I tried to do some sewing.

Wearing one of his capes.

More pie baking this week.  On Monday since I was home for MLK Day I baked a cherry pie.

My weekend pie was a quiche for dinner on Sunday.

So what's this sewing I've been working on?  I'm making an 1830's outfit to wear to OSV for a couple of their upcoming Dinner in a Country Village events that we are going to.

Corded petticoat.  3 sections of cording. 
Bottom section has 35 rows, middle has 20, top section has 15 rows.

Here's my shift, stays (I will be remaking these), corded petticoat, and 2nd petticoat. 
I still need to make sleeve supports and likely a small bustle.

And the mock-up of the bodice.  Need to change a couple of things.

Food battles, the mind of a three-year-old, and adventures at OSV (including pig butchering)

Lately we've had some challenging meals with Bennett.  Unless it's a food that he LOVES (pancakes, mac & cheese) he often picks at things a bit.   Depending on what the food is, how much is on his plate, and how he's done with the food in the past we will either encourage him to eat X more bites or to finish everything.  We also give him the choice of eating his dinner or going straight to bed without bath or books.  Normally, when presented with this choice, he chooses to eat his dinner.

On Monday we were having leftover chicken pot pie, or more accurately, leftover filling- no soggy crust.  He had done well with it when he ate it the night before but on this night it was a struggle.  After a few bites and lots of struggling/encouraging him to eat, he spat out a bite.  I asked what was wrong with it.  Sometimes he'll spit things out if his bites are too big, but on this occasion he said, "I didn't like it."  Sorry kid, that's not a valid reason.  Since it had been quite the battle up until this point he had to go straight to bed.  He wasn't a happy camper about this, but he did quiet down pretty quickly.  I guess that was a sign that he was likely pretty tired to begin with.

Opening a surprise Christmas gift from Auntie Mel.

On Tuesday Bennett used his imagination quite a bit.  He started off by playing grocery store- scanning items and putting them into a bag.  Then he used a piece of ribbon as a jump rope.  And finally he piled all the animals in the pig pen.  Not sure exactly what that was about, but likely they were all sleeping.

Wednesday night Bennett woke up at 1:45 and climbed into bed with us.  It was quite the uncomfortable night for Mummy and Daddy.  At 5 Daddy put you put you back in your own bed.  No idea why he woke up or felt the need to come into bed with us.

If Chris and I call each other on the phone Bennett always asks to talk. We generally put the phone on speaker.  Bennett will say hi but then he usually asks if he can "make Daddy go away".  No idea why he loves pressing that red button so much!  Well one night this week he hung up on Chris before we said that he could.  So I told him that he made Daddy sad by making him go away and Bennett started crying.  Not exactly the reaction I was expecting.  But then he asked for a tissue because "my eyes are leaking".

He also is always asking to take his hat off in the car.  Based on some comments that he makes, I think he gets hot and cold mixed up.  Because apparently, "My hair is cold" and "can I take off my hat?  It makes my hat cold."
Another fun moment from this week was when he named two of his Duplo people Victoria and Dave (two of the OSV interpreters) and put them in his farm.  He also turned part of the barn into the farmhouse and put Victoria inside.

All smiles when we picked him up from school on Friday.

On Saturday at skating we tried Bennett at the next level but he just couldn't keep up.  As the kids were marching/skating across the ice, Bennett was the slowest and then about half way across he just stopped and started watching everyone else.  So they moved him back to pre-tot where he happily marched across the ice to pick up balls that his teacher threw for him to retrieve.

After skating he went to Nana's house where he got to wake up Auntie Hanna, did some baking, and had a playdate with the grandson of one of Nana's friends.Back at home, after nap he woke up pretty grouchy.  It also didn't help that he wanted to watch George and I insisted in watching Nemo.

This weekend was the annual pig slaughter at Sturbridge.  It starts on Saturday with the gutting, hair removal, sausage making, etc.  On Sunday they do the inside butchering where they make the various cuts of meat.  When we got there Bennett recognized right away that it was a pig hanging in the barn and also one on the table inside the house.  Later he asked where the pigs were.  Daddy told him that the female went to a new farm and he wanted to go visit her.  He did great with seeing the pig being butchered.  Lots of questions of what people were doing/ what's that.  He helped Dave fill the wood box. We also learned that various buildings have basements- including a trap door in the bank porch (although we couldn't find it) and a basement in cooper shop with a transformer.  We also got to feed hay to the cows and the sheep.

Carrying a flake or two of hay for the cows.

Putting the hay into the stanchion

Carrying hay to the sheep

The cows each get 3 flakes of hay and the sheep get 1 flake for every two sheep.  The sheep also get a different kind of hay called "second cut."

And now, this is your warning.  Please stop reading if you don't want to see pictures of a pig being slaughtered.

We found it very interesting to see how much fat/muscle/,meat is above the spine at the back of the neck.

Victoria invited Bennett over to her side of the table and then got down on his level to explain things to him.

Victoria and Ryan removing the bacon from the ribs

Starting on the second side

Happy New Year!

We kicked off the New Year with a brunch at Leslie's (Daddy's co-worker) house.  Bennett loved playing a game with a couple of the other guests where they would look all over for Spencer, Leslie's cat.  Was he in the closet?  Nope.  In the shower?  Nope.  What about in the toilet?  Nope.  In the office?  Nope.  Under the bed?  Yay!  We found Spencer.  And repeat...


Down at the play farm, much like at the real OSV farm, the rooster was put in time out "for biting the chicks".  The back story to this?  We noticed at OSV that the rooster was in a cage.  We asked why and Farmer Dave told us that the rooster was in time out.  Apparently the rooster has been acting up, biting the farmers, etc.  So it's time for him to find a new home.  I guess that conversation/punishment resonated with Bennett.

This photo must have been from after his nap because his hair is super curly.

On Thursday it started snowing.  Just a dusting in the morning, but when Bennett looked out the window he announced that there was enough snow to go sledding.  After school we opened up Bennett's new fire station Duplos that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Tedford. He's had a blast playing with these, and was using the people to open the doors, spray the hoses, etc.  I've never seen him play with dolls/action figures in this way before, so that was neat to see.

By Friday the snow was much worse.  Mummy and Daddy still had to work so Bennett went to school but was one of two kids there.  The benefit of not many kids in?  He got to do whatever he wanted!  After dinner we baked cookies.  I had hoped to make this variety before Christmas but we ran out of time.  They were ok, but not my favorite.  One of those kinds that sounds better than they actually are.

Saturday was the first week of a new session of skating.  We definitely should have put Bennett in the next level!  He had passed pre-tot but since he still seemed pretty timid we had thought it might be best to have him stay at that level for another session.  Nope, he did awesome all on his own!  They tried to move him up to the next class right then, but he resisted.  Next week he doesn't get the choice.

Here you can see him in action.

After nape we went sledding at Jericho Hill and got to use the new toboggan.  We weren't sure how Bennett would do because he hadn't been a fan of this hill last year-- too much snow in his face, I think.  Since it used to be a ski hill, it's fairly steep.  No problems at all this time!  Bennett loved it and kept asking to go again.  And the snow in his eyes issue?  Well he solved that problem by covering his face with his hands.

Blurry video, but you get the gist.

When I asked Bennett about why his animals were all lined up I was told that they were in a parade.

Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  We're not sure if we will once again try to have weekly visits.  We kind of want to but also think that it's a little crazy.  But since we want to have the option of weekly visits, we needed to go.  Bennett really does love it there and gets excited when we mention that we are going, so I guess that means it's worth it to go, right?  It only becomes an issue when it's pouring rain or we're sick or something like that and I insist on us going so that we don't break our streak.  So far we haven't run into a situation like that (really cold and/or light rain doesn't keep us away) but I imagine we could have to make those decisions this year.

On this particular visit all Bennett wanted to do was go sledding behind the cooper shop.  I don't even remember us mentioning that we could do that, but he knew it was something we could do.  But first, it was time to help the farmers with seasonal work.  We were the only ones there so they decided that feeding corn husks to the cows would be a good task. 

It was awesome!  We started off just tossing the husks over the fence but quickly moved on to them eating out of our hands.  Really neat to feel them pulling the husks out of your hand.  This is another one of those occasions where we wonder if "normal" visitors would be given this opportunity or were we given this chance because they knew we were familiar with the cows and that we should look out for Lance and Henry's horns.  (Which admittedly I did kind of forget about in an effort to get husks to one of the girls being pushed out of the way.)

Finally we got to go sledding.  Bennett started off going down the hill with Daddy.

After that first run we decided that we should have him try on his own.  He loved it and did great.

But the best part?  He even pulled his own sled back up the hill!

Here's one of Bennett and Chris going down the hill together.

Back at home, Bennett decided that his oxen needed to pull sleds.  (He had seen Lance and Henry's sled, used to haul logs and such.)  Bennett found the sleds and I obliged by making a pipe cleaner yoke and hooking up the team.

And that pretty much sums up our week.  Feels so long ago now, since it took me almost a whole other week to finish this post.

Wrapping up 2013

Not too much happened in the days between Christmas and New Year's so this post will be pretty light on photos.

On Thursday Bennett went back to school and I went back to work.  Chris started the job of rebuilding the farm buildings out of wood rather than cardboard.  I got a call at some point during the day that Bennett was complaining that his ear hurt and that he was out of sorts.  He's commented off and on for a few months that his ear hurts .  Normally after one complaint he's fine for days/weeks until the next complaint.  But on Thursday he complained multiple times.  I was able to get an appointment for him.  The doctor removed some built up wax and saw that there was fluid in his ear but it wasn't infected yet.  He said we would know within the next 24 hours if it were to get infected.  Luckily after removing the wax and a dose of Tylenol at home he was fine.


Friday Bennett was back to his old self again!

Saturday we had skating and then had to hurry home for one more Christmas celebration.  Uncle Andrew, Aunt Gentry, Grandpa, and his friend Susan were coming over.  Grandpa brought a turkey which we served with various leftovers.  However, Bennett wasn't eating well and was likely tired from a busy morning so he made the choice to go upstairs for nap rather than finish eating.  This meant that we had to open presents without him.  Of course he woke up from his nap just as everyone was leaving and then he opened his presents- some puzzles, a hat, and for the family, a toboggan!  Can't wait to be able to use that.




Bennett continues to play with his farm (which is good since we put so much time into it and it takes up a lot of space) but some some reason he likes to pile all the animals together so that they can "sleep".

On Sunday we rounded out the year with a final trip to Sturbridge.  This brings our count for the year to 40 visits.  We'll have to see what we decide to do next year.  A winter activity for them is to dip candles, so Bennett go a chance to give it a try.  Other than that, it was a pretty quiet day at the Village.  We got to see Doc and Blue working (and misbehaving quite a bit) as they pulled a cart from one end of the village to another but otherwise not too much to report.

Monday was a pretty normal day back at school/work and on Tuesday Bennett was picked up early as it was New Year's Eve.  Nothing special going on for us.  Bennett went to bed as normal and Chris and I stayed up watching Harry Potter.

And that pretty much wraps up 2013!