To Infinity and Beyond

Halloween was fun this year and Benji was so cute in his costume. Admittedly, he was far more excited about getting candy than he was about dressing up in his costume. So it didn't bother him at all that he had to wear a coat over his costume and his wings on the outside. He also got more excited about trick-or-treating when we caught up to the neighbor kids. He ran way ahead of slow mommy, but at least the other moms were keeping up with the kids.

Even though the costume was not the highlight (I mean, what can compete with candy) Benji still thought that Buzz Lightyear was cool. In fact, in the past week he has gotten excited about his Buzz Lightyear jammies (we actually found these cool jammies that looked better than the things being marketed specifically as costumes). He wanted to wear them two nights in a row and was disappointed last night that they were dirty.



Let's make sure everything fits before the big day. I have to give credit where credit is due. My mom is responsible for those great Buzz Lightyear wings!



Off to school!


Trick or treat, Daddy!

Libellés : Benji

Four-Year-Old School

We're about two months into preschool (four-year-old school, as Benji calls it) and Benji is loving it. Class is 2 3/4 hours a day, Monday to Thursday, which seems to be just right. There are 15 kids in his class with one teacher and one teacher's aide. They also have two special classes — music and gym — where the teachers from the big kids' part of the school come down to the preschool. Benji is particularly fond of gym class and gets so excited when he thinks it's gym day (and disappointed when class isn't on the day he expected). I think he also likes music class since he can actually tell you the teacher's name (Mrs. Cantagallo) although he gets very shy when you ask him to sing one of the songs he's learned.

Thankfully Mrs. Snell sends home a weekly newsletter to tell us what the kids have done each week since it can sometimes be difficult to get Benji (or any preschool kid) to tell you about his day. I know they say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and I think they say prayers, but Benji seems to think they don't do prayers and claims there is no cross in the room (admittedly the cross is kind of small). They have Circle Time with a story most days as well as open play most days. They do the Weekly Reader most weeks and a religion leaflet about once a month. They do lots of art projects to practice cutting, coloring in the lines, and drawing. We still don't get many drawings home from Benji, but we do get things he's colored which are getting better. I'm just happy he's apparently coloring without an argument since we all know that he would rather do a maze than color. I think his favorites, though, are the things that require cutting and gluing. I also get the impression he prefers painting to crayons.

I know they've done the basic color mixing with finger paints as well as related books and other activities (one week it was red and yellow, etc.). The newsletter says they did a leaf walk two weeks ago, but Benji doesn't seem to know what I'm talking about. Last week they spent most of the week doing Halloween-themed projects such as a ghost and a pumpkin. Earlier in the year they did projects with the book "Click Clack Moo Cows That Type" and I think they read a lot of Clifford books. The newsletter says they're working on a shapes book, but I haven't seen that yet. They also spent two weeks on apples, including making applesauce from scratch, doing a family tree, and making apple hats.

At the beginning of October they started weekly show-and-tell. They each have a little flannel bag and whatever they bring has to fit in the bad and not be alive. So far Benji has brought the paper fishing game my mom made for Benji's birthday party, the Double Shutter game Matthew's parents gave him for his birthday, and the Bop-It game that Josh and Beth gave him for his birthday. Are we sensing a trend here? The kid really can't get enough of games. Every Sunday we pick something out and do a little bit of practice — what is this? why is it important? how does it work? Benji gets nervous about talking in the group, but I think the practice helps him feel more comfortable and the fact that he's showing off games gives him something built-in to show. I know that he refuses to raise his hand during Circle Time (he claims he's scared) but as far as I know show-and-tell has been successful.

Parent-Teacher conferences are at the end of November, so we'll have to see what his teacher has to say. In the meantime, here are some photos from the first day of school.

Libellés : Benji

Big waves and big animals

One of my favorite places in San Diego has always been La Jolla, so we certainly couldn't go to California without a stop in La Jolla. It's just so beautiful on the rocky coastline! We had a nice lunch overlooking La Jolla Cove, although our table wasn't on the border of the patio so our view wasn't as fantastic as it was during our last trip a few years ago. It was still a very enjoyable lunch (and the kids' menu came with a little toy called Bendaroos which Benji had never seen before and was very happy playing with).

After lunch we headed down to the coastline to go out on the rocks. We considered going down to the beach, but when we looked down on the Cove it was completely packed and it must have been high tide since the entire beach was under water. It didn't look safe nor fun, so we stayed up on the rocks instead. And since Benji had enjoyed getting splashed at Cabrillo earlier in the trip we thought he would enjoy this as well. He was a bit disappointed with the first set of rocks we climbed on — there wasn't enough splashing.

But the second set sure didn't disappoint on that front. At first just Benji and Daddy went out further on the rocks to scope things out. They got some nice gentle splashes and were able to jump out of the way before getting too wet. So they decided it was safe for me to come out and join them. I think I was out there for exactly one spash — the giant one that got all of us soaked! That was definitely not the amount of splashing that Benji was looking for so it was time to head back to the car. On the way, though, we stopped for some ice cream at Cold Stone which sure put Benji into a better mood despite still being pretty wet.

Today was our day to drive up to Anaheim, so we ended our stint in San Diego with a stop at the Wild Animal Park on our way out of town. It's amazing how much hotter it is out at the Wild Animal Park than it was on the coast. If we weren't dry yet from the big wave, a few minutes out in the desert was all it took to finish drying off. On our way walking out to the tram ride "Journey into Africa" we saw one of those new giant tethered ballons. Benji was intrigued by the idea so we watched for a while while Mommy rested and had a cold drink. Benji's pressed penny radar also found his souvenir for this destination.

When we got out to the tram, Benji was disappointed that this wasn't a real ride (i.e. a roller coaster), but I had brought with his kids' digital camera so he quickly enjoyed himself being a little photographer. It was so cute to watch him trying to take pictures of the animals, some of which were pretty far away. He also tried to match some of the animals to the pictures on the inside of the tram.

After the tram ride, we went over to one of the special shows they had — the bubble show. This one didn't have any animals so I'm not sure why it was at the Wild Animal Park, but Benji and the other kids enjoyed it. He loved trying to catch the bubbles that floated out over the audience and he even went down to the front at the end when they had the bubble machines spewing out tons of bubbles.

By this time it was getting pretty close to closing so we didn't really have the time to see any other major exhibits. We looked at animals on our way back to the front and then we saw a very nice outdoor seating area. There were several sofas with cushions like you'd find on an indoor patio, and they were so comfy! We sat there for a long time, just enjoying the peacefulness and each other. Benji had a Goldfish and peanut butter snack and we had fun doing silly things with the Goldfish crackers. Funny how you need to go on vacation to a different state to enjoy such a simple pleasure.

But then it was time to really go and was starting to get dark. The last exhibit we saw was the nursery. There were two or three baby leopards or cheetahs (something like that) and Benji loved them. He decided they were "so cute!" We looked at the toys they had and talked about how we had to be quiet for the babies so they could sleep. At that time he didn't yet know about the baby in Mommy's belly, but his interest in the baby animals was quite encouraging.

And then it was time to finish our drive to Anaheim. I wonder what the next day of trip-o-logue will hold?



Benji enjoyed the rocky California coastline.





Splashes! Can't pose for a photo for Mommy when there are big splashes to watch.


Here's the second part of the rocks we visited. Daddy and Benji spent a long time out there enjoying the waves and splashes before they invited me out there.


While I was watching my guys, I also saw a dolphin and a sea lion in the water. This picture really doesn't do it justics and I don't even remember which one is in this photo.





A little rest from the splashes.


Mommy needs some pictures with my guys' faces.


Mommy and Benji with a big splash, but this was not the splash that got us all wet. Notice how wet my overalls are in the picture.


I really like this close-up and how happy Benji looks.


On our way back to the car Benji wanted to sit down on a bench and rest a bit. While resting he made a new game of the big waves. Also notice how very wet his hair is here.


Our little photographer is trying to figure out his camera.





I think Benji was practicing his photography in the station while we waited for the tram to depart.


Benji tries to find the animals on the guide in the tram.


I wonder what animals we saw.


The giraffes were my favorites on this ride.








Picture of Mommy!





Lions sleeping on top of an SUV. How silly!


Benji loved trying to catch bubbles at the bubble show. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't get to the very front row to catch the most bubbles.


After seeing a cool bubble show, Benji had no interest whatsoever in the elephants. But I still thought this was a nice photo.


On one of the paths we saw some sort of deer, which we were worried had somehow escaped the habitat. After it wandered away an employee came over looking for it. She figured out it was actually a native deer and not "one of ours". Still, a little weird to see it wandering around.


Benji really loved the baby animals. I wish we had found the nursery earlier in our visit.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Who cares about Shamu when there's a bounce house?

Instead of getting tickets to just Disneyland for our California trip, we got a combo pass called a City Pass. For less than $50 more than the 3-day Disneyland pass, we also got admission to Sea World, San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park, and Universal Hollywood. There's no way I'd pay the $65 gate price for Sea World (especially since none of us could ride the new big rides), but it's a nice place to go if the price is right. So that was our main destination for Day 2 of the trip.

Benji's favorite part of Sea World was the rides — of course. The last time I was at Sea World (probably 20 years ago) it was all about the animals, but now they have several large roller coasters (Benji didn't meet the height minimum so we didn't go check them out) and Elmo's Bay of Play. He was quite fond of Elmo's Flying Fish (basically the Dumbo ride shaped like Elmo; strangely their policy was that I couldn't ride, but really, how dangerous could this possibly be?).

But his favorite "ride" was the bounce room. This was no standard bounce house where they cram 10 kids into a tiny inflatable. No, safety-minded Sea World lets 6 kids in at a time and the room was huge (maybe 15 feet x 15 feet). With so few kids in such a large area I could feel safe letting Benji run around in there. The first time in, he kept trying to stand up and run around like the bigger kids but kept falling down before he could even take a step. So he crawled over to the edge and complained at me that he couldn't do it. A bit of tough love was appropriate here so I just sent him back to the middle and told him to keep practicing. (Lately he's been getting overly frustrated when he can't do something perfectly the first time. Therefore we're working on the idea of practicing to get better.) He certainly didn't master it on that session, but it looked like so much fun and he knew that smaller bounce houses were fun so he asked to go back in many times. Very quickly he was running around like a pro! Later that evening we couldn't even get him out of the bounce room willingly to watch fireworks. It must be pretty fun in order to rate higher than fireworks in Benji's mind!

We did, of course, also go to the big shows — Shamu, the sea lions, and the dolphins. Benji didn't really like the dolphin show, due more to the fact that it had pyrotechnics including fire. We had to cover his eyes for about half the show. Admittedly it was quite hot when the fire was on and the show certainly would have been better with less fire and more dolphins. Perhaps we should have sit further back. We sat in the very last row of the "splash zone" which concerned Benji. He did not like those Splash Zone signs so we had to convince him that even if we did get splashed it would be a very little splash (we stayed completely dry). For Shamu we had to sit way back in the stadium even though we were still 15 minutes early for the show and I thought Benji was rather unimpressed by the whole thing. However, days and weeks later he's referred to seeing Shamu the whale. I guess you never know what information and experiences they're soaking in.

The other favorite part of Sea World was touching animals. They don't let you touch nearly as much as they used to (no more petting the sea lions or walruses and touching the dolphins costs a pretty penny) but they still have a tank to touch rays and a tidepool to touch starfish and crabs. We tried the rays, but they didn't come close enough to the edge of the tank for Benji to reach and he refused to let Daddy hold him up higher. (He still asks us why they didn't want him to touch them.) They starfish were much more successful. The tidepool was much shorter and had fake rocks to climb on so Benji could get up over the edge to touch things much more easily. There were lots of starfish in there, so we went around the whole tidepool touching various starfish. He also liked picking them up. There was a sign that said not to take the animals out of the water (which he read, of course) so we told him he could pick up the animals (gently) as long as they stayed under the water. He liked feeling the bumpy starfish and looking at the underside. There was one crab in a very large shell that apparently was quite heavy and impressed him.

Prior to the Sea World part of the day, we did the "Mommy & Daddy" part of the day with a trip over to Balboa Park. Since we were unsuccessful with Balboa Park and its artist galleries on Sunday, we decided to try again. As we were parking we heard the organ playing, which was quite surprising. Of course we had to check it out. It turns out that there would be a performance that evening for an organ festival they were hosting, so some folks were rehearsing. So while Matthew missed the real concert the afternoon before, he ended up with his own private concert with a front-row seat. I'm so happy for this serendipitous finding. In fact, it was so lucky that by the time we walked past later in the afternoon it was all done.



Organ rehearsal at Balboa Park.


Just like on Day 1, Benji continued covering his face for photos and laughing.


Styling in his sunglasses.


Doesn't Daddy look good in the Elmo fish ride?


And to think this was considered too dangerous for me to ride.


I loved the view of the bay from the sea lion and otter show.


Oh yeah, there were sea lions at the show, too.


Shamu!


Back to the Elmo ride. Better than Shamu, right?


Benji's favorite ride, the bounce room.


Benji was a little upset that the triangle music station was missing its stick, so we had to show him you could hit the triangles together. There were similar hands-on activities at Disneyland, and he enjoyed those too.


He waited and waited to play the giant xylophone.


It's hard to touch a ray when your hands only go 2 inches into the water.


Did you know that starfish are bumpy?


Benji touched so many starfish! We went around the entire tidepool touching every starfish he could reach.



I think this is Benji picking up the crab in a large shell.


He also loved turning them over and looking a the bottom. I'm happy to say he was very respectful of the animals.


Back to the bounce room for some wild fun! Late at night the line was super short so he got tons of play time (although it was too dark for good photos).

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Our California adventure begins

The highlight of our first day was definitely Cabrillo National Park. We didn't even end up making it up to the lighthouse, but that's OK. Because they closed earlier in the day, we decided to start by driving down to the tidepools right down on the water. We were approaching low tide so we could go quite far out onto the rocks. Benji just loved the waves. He would get all excited when a wave would come in and he'd wait for the splash, yet he would also hold both hands up "to protect [himself] from the splashes." Apparently even low tide was too high today to see much sealife in the tidepools (or at least that's what the sign said) but that didn't matter. We still saw two small crabs, which was apparently enough for Benji (and he'll see plenty more tomorrow at Sea World).

After we climbed back up to slightly higher ground, Benji enjoyed looking around for big rocks to sit on. We also watched the surfers and talked about how hard that must be. Then when it was time to get back in the car so we could go up by the lighthouse he thought we were going so far. We had to show him the lighthouse on the top of the hill and asked if we wanted climb all the way up there. He decided that no, we didn't want to climb that mountain. I don't think Uncle Dave would agree with Benji's definition of a mountain!

Back at the top, we spent a bit of time in the gift shop, where we all got our National Parks Passports stamped. Although we had started a book for Benji back in Richmond, he didn't remember that at all. I think, however, when I talked about getting our books stamped that he thought we were getting his "book map" stamped at the library and that we were getting a prize. I suppose he did get a prize of sorts, though, since he picked out a souveneir all by himself — a small book of mazes in the shapes of sea shells. Still, no coloring books for this kid. But mazes, yes! We also did a pressed penny at his request and he even turned the crank most of the way (with a bit of help from Daddy; note that this clip is VERY long so it may not be worthwhile with a slow connection).

Other places we went today included Old Town (our favorite art gallery/co-op that had been there since my family had gone to San Diego 20 years ago was gone — big disappointment) and a failed attempt to see the organ concert at Balboa park (drove forever and still couldn't find a parking spot). We also had a nice dinner at Seaport Village. The restaurant wasn't just on the water's edge, but was literally on the water — on stilts. Matthew and I both enjoyed the seafood (I even got the three-fish platter — yummy) while Benji ate every last noodle of his macaroni and cheese. Benji also really enjoyed watching one particular seagull walk around outside our window. There was a small walkway around the perimeter and the seagull walked back and forth the whole meal, with Benji getting excited every time his bird friend walked past our table. After dinner we strolled around the shops and shared a piece of fudge.

So Cabrillo wins today. It's especially nice because it's somewhere that Matthew and I would have gone to without Benji yet it was fabulous to see it through his fresh eyes.



When we first got there I stayed behind a bit since I didn't want to fall. After scoping things out and seeing how much Benji loved it, Matthew came back to get me and help me down onto the rocks.





From a distance I couldn't figure out what Benji was doing, but it turns out the upturned hand was his attempt to stop the waves.


Since these are tidepools, Matthew is trying to point out a crab (I think).


Oooh! Big splash!











Wait! Someone other than Benji as a focal point in a photo? Isn't he good looking, too?





Family self-portrait off-center.


Benji started an odd habit on this vacation. He thought it was totally hilarious and silly to put his hands in front of his face for photos so we had to get creative to get decent photos.


Ah, finally the whole family!











Benji got tired of my taking photos and started blowing up his cheeks and popping them. Another view into his growing sense of humor as silly preschooler.


Which one will be our new computer wallpaper?


The "bored teenager" look.


After we finished with the tidepools themselves we walked a bit around the overlook.





This one is a favorite of mine!


Benji's seagull friend at dinner.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Mother's Day with the Cubs

If you had asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day I have to admit that a Cubs game would not have come to mind as a first choice. However, it turns out to have been a fantastic way to spend Mother's Day. The game was up at Miller Park and that park is so family friendly! They have a nice kids' area underneath the stands, they have more between-inning entertainment than at Wrigley, and they let the kids run the bases after the game. Throughout the game Benji repeatedly told me "I love you Mommy!" and "You're the best!" Who could beat that for Mother's Day?


Traffic was lighter than expected, so we got to the game well before it started. So we spent some time in the kids' area, which included a replica of the slide the mascot goes down when the Brewers hit a home run, a pitching cage, a running game where you race a cutout of a Brewers player, and balloon animal clowns.


Here you pedal to race cutouts of the sausages. Unfortunately, Benji couldn't reach the pedals so he was kind of sad he couldn't quite do the race.


But the running game was one he could definitely do.


Chilling out with Daddy.





The mascot slides down when a home run is scored, but for Benji it was just a fun slide.


We didn't dare try the batting cage, but we thought the pitching cage would be good. Benji didn't come anywhere near the catcher but he enjoyed himself.



After playing, we still arrived at our seats well in advance of the game. As we were settling in, an employee came up and asked Benji if he had ever caught a ball at a game. I thought he was just chit chatting, but it turns out he had a ball from batting practice and gave it to Benji. How special!








Benji's game ball. He enjoyed looking at it and holding it during the game.






After the game we waited in the VERY long line to run the bases. Those few minutes were probably the highlight of Benji's game. Every so often he still talks about it so we have to remind him that it's only at that stadium that we get to run the bases.

Libellés : Benji

Art is something you create

So we were watching the Saturday morning news last weekend and they talked about the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute and how admission would be free this week. Although we weren't sure if the crowds would be overwhelming, we decided to take advantage of the free admission (it's now $18 per person) and see what Benji thinks of art museums.

It turns out that while the museum was busy, it wasn't overwhelmingly crowded. And the older parts (which we prefer anyway) weren't crowded at all. As a pleasant surprise, Benji fell asleep right before we parked the car so we popped him in the stroller and had a bit of a "date" walking through the galleries without arguing with or chasing him. After he woke up, we had lunch in the courtyard (the area used to be a sit-down restaurant but with the new Modern Wing they converted that to seating for the cafeteria). During lunch, Matthew and Benji had a conversation about art. Matthew said that art is "taking a look at pictures and photos that people had created." Benji told Matthew that "art is also something you create."

So after lunch we went to the family galleries where they had several rooms with different projects for the kids. In the first room Target gave every kid an apron to wear (and bring home) while making their art. The project in that room was a watercolor painting. While Benji didn't really paint the pictures provided, he did spend a lot of time on his project. He liked mixing the colors together to see what they would make. He also liked arranging the "paintbrush" Q-Tips into different shapes after he used them. In the second room you got to make your own art tote bag with fabric markers. Benji drew a pattern of circles and squares. Then he actually colored the two circles and did quite a nice job of staying inside the lines. He generally doesn't color things because he is super-critical of himself and coloring in the lines but I was pleasantly surprised that not only did he want to color the shapes but he was also quite good. He also decided to make up a story while he was making his artwork, something about a boy who dropped the marker. Matthew and I also got to make a tote bag in that room. I traced the whole family's handprints on mine!

After two art projects, we thought maybe Benji could stand to see a little bit of the real art so we took him through the second floor of the Modern Wing. He was not impressed, but, then again, neither were we. We did have a few art learning moments, though. Benji looked at one of the sculptures and asked what it was. Being modern art, we had no idea so we asked him what he thought it was. At first he wouldn't answer but after both Daddy and Mommy gave answers (a STOP sign and a lollipop), he gave a suggestion, too (a tree). We asked him that question on a few other works and discussed art a bit. Of course it was a simple discussion, but it was nice to get Benji thinking about art.

We went back to do one more art project and then the museum was closed. So we walked around Millennium Park a bit, including a stop at the "bean" which Benji got a big kick out of. He also enjoyed rearranging the family in different orders when we sat down on a bench and later on some steps.

I'm so glad we took a chance on free admission day. It could have been super crowded, but it was just right. Enough people that that you felt you were at something special and lots of special activities for Benji while also some time to look at art while he slept. A nice spur-of-the-moment Saturday afternoon!

Libellés : Benji

I think there's candy inside!

Easter certainly isn't as big of a holiday as Christmas, but Benji had a good time nonetheless. When he woke up to see his Easter basket outside his doorway, he was more excited than usual to open the gate. He particularly liked the bunny tic-tac-toe board and the candy and we had to both play and eat right there outside his room. Eventually he figured out there were eggs to be found, and the Easter egg hunt was on! He found eggs on the stairs, he found eggs under the living room chairs (in the same place he had hid Daddy's birthday presents and their clues), and he even found eggs on the bathroom mirror!

As Benji gathered eggs through the house, he opened each one to see what they held inside. He was especially fond of the ones that had candy inside. He even took it so far as to eschew the ones that contained other stuff. There were three giant eggs that contained Hot Wheels trucks and some medium ones that had Mr. Men stickers. I had thought those would be the hit of the egg hunt, but instead he actually told us "Trucks! I don't want trucks!" and then gave each of us one of the truck eggs. I don't really think it's that he didn't want the trucks, but more that he wanted more of the candy (and to eat it on the spot). But still, it's quite the remark from my three-year-old.

For Easter afternoon we headed over to my parents' house where we had another egg hunt and colored eggs. I don't recall mentioning egg coloring to him, but he kept asking about when we were going to color eggs. So he was quite happy to not only get a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but to also get to color eggs. And the day was topped off with yummy bunny cupcakes!



Oooh! Candy in the egg!


Eggs, eggs, where are you?


The Easter Bunny even hung an egg from the doorknob!


Happy to be done with church.





Looking so stylin' in his new Easter outfit from Aunt Lorraine.

















This is such a classic Benji look when he gets excited.

Libellés : Benji

My son, the Teddy Graham destroyer

On Monday I was the helper parent at Benji's preschool and I really look forward to that chance to observe him in a different environment. Like the other kids, he played by himself for a while and played with the other kids for a while, although I think he played by himself (or with Mommy) more than most of the other kids. As is typical, he was more interested in playing Match Up, doing the maze, or sorting the shapes than in making the art project. He did play with the parking garage with the other kids and built tunnels for the cars with the blocks. At his suggestion the whole class decided to play with the doctor tools (with the baby dolls as the patients). And in the large motor room, he enjoyed showing Mommy how he can walk sideways on the balance beam.

Snack time, however, was the funniest part of school. I brought Teddy Grahams (chocolate chip flavored ones, which the kids loved). At some point Benji held up one of his teddy bears and told everyone how it didn't have an ear (I'm not sure if he bit it off or if it came that way, although I'm guessing he bit it off). The other kids (mostly the boys, I think) thought this was pretty funny and started biting body parts off of their teddy bears, too. Then we all talked about what our teddy bears couldn't do with certain body parts missing. For example, Benji's couldn't hear while one of the other boys had a teddy bear that couldn't walk. Benji also had one where he bit off just one leg and the teddy bear hopped all over the table. They all seemed to be having so much fun, and more interaction than I generally see Benji have.

I had assumed that they had all done this before since I know Teddy Grahams are a popular snack. The teacher said that this was a first (although she certainly wasn't bother by the snack dismemberment). So, yes, my son instigated the whole preschool class to dismember their Teddy Grahams. What will he think of next?

Libellés : Benji

Waiting for Toy Story

Magic Kingdom and EPCOT are definitely our favorite parks at Disney World, but with two other parks we have to throw in some variety. On our fifth day, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney MGM Studios). It's a nice enough park, but it has a bipolar focus on both shows (not Benji's style) and very thrilling rides (Benji's not tall enough). There's not much in the middle that holds Benji's attention. What it does have, though, is the ride with the longest line in Disney World — Toy Story Midway Mania. When we arrived at maybe 10:30 the fastpasses were out to 7:10 (and the park closed at 8:00 that day). So we got our fastpasses and tried to figure out how to kill an entire day while waiting for that one ride.

We tried to see the Little Mermaid show, but while we were in the pre-show area Benji announced that he had to go potty. Thankfully we hadn't been in line very long so we didn't really waste any time, but we never did make it back to see that show. We then read the map and discovered that Star Tours was only a 40-inch height minimum. It had been 15 years since I had been on Star Tours, but from what I recalled it seemed like it would be right up Benji "the thrill seeker's" alley. While it was pretty much what I remembered, Benji told me afterward that he didn't like that ride and didn't want to go on it again. It wasn't terrible since he told that to me very calmly, but clearly we wouldn't be going on that again.

After lunch, we headed over to the "Lights, Motors, Action!" stunt show. Now that he liked. No cars crashing, but lots of cool driving on two wheels and cars flying over each other. He was on his feet watching excitedly through the whole show. And when they asked for kid volunteers from the audience he eagerly raised his hand (we were way too far back in the amphitheater to get called on).

We wandered past Toy Story to see how long the stand-by line was (80 minutes) and Benji thought we should get another fastpass. Of course they were all out. As I was kneeling next to Benji, pointing to the sign for him to read, and telling him they were all gone a random stranger walked up and gave me a set of 4 Toy Story fastpasses. Those are the hottest ticket and someone gave them to me to make the day of my disappointed three-year-old. By the time I turned to show Benji and turned to thank the guy profusely, he was gone. Quite the random act of kindness! The passes weren't good until 6:40, but I was still so appreciative because that meant Benji would be able to go on three times after all day of waiting.

Our next stop was the Playhouse Disney live stage show. In general, we're not familiar with Playhouse Disney since we don't have cable. But we had seen some of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the hotel and at Josh and Beth's house. The storyline of the show focuses on it being Minnie's birthday and all of the characters from the different shows had to do things to prepare for the party. Benji is fascinated by birthdays and their trappings — the cake, the singing, the presents — so he liked the show. During several of the scenes they blew things into the audience (tissue paper leaves and streamers) and even when Benji sees those things around the house now he talks about how they're from Minnie's birthday party!

Next Daddy took Benji to the animation exhibit where they have computers to play with while I went over to the adult rides (Aerosmith Rock 'n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror).

After dinner it was finally time to head over to Toy Story Mania for our fastpasses. Since we had a set of 4 from the random act of kindness, we split up and Matthew took Benji on first. Then I took Benji on. But, we didn't make it very far on our ride. We were on the first activity when the ride broke down. You know it's not a good sign when, instead of saying "stay in your seats; the ride will resume soon", they say "stay in your seats; someone will come to get you soon". Benji was so disappointed! He had just been on the ride, so he knew exactly what he was missing. And we were one of the last groups to be offloaded so I just had to keep comforting him. I, too, was disappointed since we had waited ALL DAY to ride this ride and I didn't even get to ride it at all. And while it was interesting to see some of when we got walked off, it wasn't really all that impressive of a ride with the lights on.

As we were all being escorted to the exits they gave us fastpasses for Toy Story good for one ride during the next week. Well, we had no intention of returning to the park (we didn't have park hoppers and another day at the Studios would have been a big waste) and the park was already closed for the night. So while Matthew calmed an upset Benji I marched over to Guest Services. I was gearing up for a fight to get some sort of compensation such as an upgrade to park hopper for the rest of the trip, but the case member simply took my name and address and said I would have 3 one-day one-park passes waiting for me at the window. I would just have to show photo ID and use the pass that day, but other than that there are no strings attached. We decided not to use them on this trip since Benji had calmed down, but it sure is nice to know I have over $200 of Disney tickets I can use any day in the future. And it's a nice reminder of why "it doesn't hurt to ask".

When we returned to the hotel that night, Benji had an amazing surprise waiting for him — Grandma and Grandpa! He knows that we were on vacation and that Grandma and Grandpa don't live in Florida, so imagine his shock when he saw them! We played some silly games in the food court until it was time for bed — time for Grandma and Grandpa to go to bed, that is. Benji could go on forever at Disney World so it's definitely the adults that run out of steam first. In any case, we visited for a while and then went to our rooms to rest up for a full day at the Magic Kingdom with all five of us!



"Lights, Motors, Action!"


Streamers and leaves from Minnie's birthday party.





Even with all the rides and shows, Benji still enjoys the simple pleasures including a game of hide-and-seek. Another simple pleasure was pushing his stroller in circles.


Giant toys in the queue area of Toy Story Midway Mania.


Notice Mickey on his shirt is wearing the 3D glasses.


Toy Story Mania with the lights on.





Silly games in the food court.


Who doesn't love a little plate balancing?

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Good Morning, Mickey!

On the third morning of our trip, Benji had a surprise visitor. When he woke up there was a new Mickey Mouse in bed with him! Mickey was a perfect souvenir to go along with the Mickey Mouse ears and he quickly became a new best friend. Even now after the trip is over, Benji sleeps with Mickey every night and talks about how much he loves Mickey.

But, when it was time to go to the parks and leave Mickey behind, there were no arguments. After all, who would choose Mickey over more rides? So we went off to Epcot.

At the entrance to Epcot they play a variety of music to set the mood. Among those songs are the theme songs to some of the attractions. This morning they were playing the music from Soarin' as we walked under Spaceship Earth. I don't think Matthew or I noticed it at all, but Benji got very excited and wanted to go immediately to Soarin'. So we sent Daddy to get fastpasses while Benji and I took a ride on Nemo and saw Turtle Talk.

By that time we needed to head over to the Coral Reef for our lunch reservation. Unfortunately we didn't get a seat by the fish tank, but we still had a nice meal. My favorite part had to have been dessert. Matthew and I split the Wave, a chocolate lava cake. Yummy!! It also had a few Mickey sprinkles for garnish and Benji just loved those. We got Benji his own dessert — a make-your-own sundae. He loved it last time and he loved it again. In the process of making and eating his sundae, he got chocolate sauce all over his face. So I told him if he were a Mr. Men book he would be Mr. Chocolate Face. He loved that thought! Now I just need to think of a good storyline for Mr. Chocolate Face.

At the tail end of lunch our window for more fastpasses opened up so Matthew ran over to Soarin' to get another set. Then we all headed over to Nemo and Turtle Talk again. Every time we go he very much wants to talk to Crush during the show and he's never been called on. But after the show was over and the theater was emptying the cast member was asking the straggler kids if they wanted to talk to Crush. So Benji said "hello" into the microphone and he seemed pretty happy about being able to talk to Crush.

By this time our first fastpasses to Soarin' were valid so we had our first thrill ride of the day. Benji loved it as much as ever! Then we had to wait for the next fastpasses. We headed over to Innoventions where we played the "What's Your Problem?" game show again. There were more kids than last time, so Benji had to play with a "team" but he had a blast again! While in Innoventions, we visited Mickey for photos again and played with some of the displays and computer kiosks.

We tend to spend very little time in the World Showcase on our Epcot visits but Matthew and I keep saying we want to do more of that. So we headed to the left side of the Showcase where we tend to spend almost no time. We tried out the boat ride in Mexico where they had recently added Donald and the Three Caballeros to an existing boat ride. It was kind of cute, but not thrilling enough for Benji. I did like the general atmosphere within the Mexico pavilion and may have to go back there sometime for the restaurant. We took a quick stop at Norway thinking we could just walk on to the Malestrom boat ride, but it was a 30 minute wait. Benji was quite angry, but that ride is definitely not worth a 30 minute wait. So we continued walking around the World Showcase Lagoon and eventually stopped for dinner. I walked a bit further to pick up dinner at the France pavilion. They had a delicious little ham and cheese croissant and a creme brulee. The sandwich was the biggest bargain in the park at only $3.25 and so tasty, too.

After dinner it was time for that sweet spot of the day for thrill ride riding. We rode Soarin' twice, Test Track twice, and Soarin' yet again. Test Track is another 40 inch ride and definitely more thrilling than Soarin' so we have to be more careful and hold onto Benji during a few parts (so his head doesn't bounce back against the seat strangely). There's a part inside the building where your "car" is put through its paces on various tests, such as a steep incline, bumpy pavement, and stopping with and without antilock brakes. Then you go outside for a 65 mph figure-eight around the building. It's the fastest ride in any Disney park, but it's actually only as fast as going on a highway in a convertible. Still, Benji screamed with laughter and joy with the wind in his hair. He loved it!

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Should Florida be this cold?

We decided a winter trip would be a nice break from Chicago snow, although it turns out we had a cold snap for about half of the trip. Since we carefully watched the forecast leading up to the trip, we were well-prepared complete with hats, gloves, and coats. So although the crowds seemed to be kept away by the 40 and 50 degree weather, we didn't let that stop us. The third day of our trip, while not actually the coldest day, was the one that felt the coldest. I think it was windier than the other days and the Magic Kingdom has fewer indoor places to escape than Epcot does. But this was the ony day we'd be able to see Spectromagic (Florida's version of the Electical Parade) so it was definitely a Magic Kingdom day.

We started this day in Tomorrowland with a ride on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Benji's score "tied" Mommy's so he was very excited (actually, mine was 10X Benji's; he just didn't see the extra zero on mine). We also rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (commonly known as the Peoplemover), which is truly an underappreciated ride. It has a few quick turns to keep Benji happy, a nice breeze when it's hot out, and some time to rest your feet — all with a nice overhead overview of Tomorrowland. We were a bit chilly from the Peoplemover, so we took a spin on the Carousel of Progress and I had the catchy tune "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" running through my head the rest of the day.

After lunch at the Columbia Harbor House, we made our way aross Fantasyland to the favorite roller coaster. It was the longest line I have ever seen for that ride, so Matthew took a ride around the park on the train while Benji and I waited for Goofy's Barnstormer. We actually squeezed in 2 rides before Matthew got back, but of course Benji wanted more. With a bit more time in the line, we actually took our time to notice more of the theming, including the chickens in the first show building and the fact that the roller coaster trains look like airplanes.

We rejoined Matthew and headed over to the teacups. While I think I may enjoy teacups more than Matthew, it really is a special ride for Daddy and Benji. Matthew spins the teacups so much faster than I ever could — and Benji would probably be happy if he could spin even faster. On this trip the two of them developed a little ritual game of "I can't spin it" where they try to spin the wheel before the ride begins.

After teacups we tried to go over to Winnie the Pooh, but Benji shied away. On the previous trip he really liked it, but when we rode earlier on this trip he got a little scared. There's a dream sequence with psychedelic huffalumps and Benji covered his eyes. We thought he might still like to go on for the good parts and just cover his eyes for that part, but it quickly became clear that we won't be going on the Pooh ride again anytime soon. Instead, Benji started doing pretend rides in the middle of the walkway. He stopped right in the middle of the thoroughfare and started spinning around and mimicking the teacups ride. Then he decided we all needed to ride the roller coaster. We convinced him that we needed to move off to the side so people could get through and then we happily went on his "ride". He lined us all up in a row and then we had to go up the hill, around the track, and back to the station — all while doing muted roller coaster screams. Finally we "rode" Soarin' complete with the boarding instruction video (in which you need to remove your mouse ears) and seat belt buckling and with Benji telling us the various scenes we're flying past. It was amazingly imaginative, although we must have looked awfully ridiculous to a bystander as if we were doing Candid Camera. Still, I enjoyed losing myself in Benji's imagination and just living in the moment. The real rides would still be there, but his sudden need to show us his favorite rides would only last so long. I really wish I had a video of this, but then I wouldn't have been fully participating in the moment.

After our exciting "rides" we took a rest on a nearby bench and Benji ate a snack out of Mommy's purse. Later that day he told us he was hungry but he refused to go to a restaurant. He kept saying he wanted to eat on a bench. It turns out he wanted the snacks in Mommy's purse. So we had a snack at the Main Street Bakery instead of dinner. It's vacation, after all, right? Benji actually fell asleep in the middle of eating his cookie so when Matthew and I were done we headed off to Big Thunder Mountain for a quick "big person" ride. (Since Benji is now 40 inches tall, he could technically ride Thunder Mountain, but Matthew and I felt that some of the 40 inch rides were still not appropriate for him. Besides, that means we still have new rides for future excitement.)

By this time it was getting close to parade time so we woke Benji for a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. He was not pleased to (1) be woken, and (2) go on a ride he didn't perceive as being thrilling. Once he figured out there's a hill hidden in the dark, he was much more excited about future rides on the "pirate boat ride". We headed back to Frontierland for the parade (the back of the park is our favorite place for the Spectromagic parade since it's less crowded and you don't have to stake out a place an hour or more in advance). Since it was definitely getting chilly, we all bundled up, including hats, mittens/gloves, and a scarf. We must have looked a little silly, but it sure made a difference in being able to stay later in the park after I saw a mass exodus earlier in the day when the sun was going down. A few rides on the magic carpets and one fireworks show later and the third day of our trip was done.



Benji poses with the evil emperor Zurg after the Buzz Lightyear ride.











Benji and Daddy trying to spin the teacup before the ride starts.


Now we can start to spin it!





A chilly ride on the magic carpets.

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Forty inches tall

On this trip to Disney World we decided not to get Park Hopper passes. Since we didn't have free dining, we knew we wouldn't be eating as many sit-down meals and wouldn't have to go to Epcot as many days to get to the good restaurants. But we did still go for a few of our favorite meals (we went for lunch instead of dinner and actually had to pay attention to the prices, but we still had some really nice meals). On our second day, we snagged a lunch reservation to Le Cellier, the Canadian steakhouse. We split a bowl of their yummy cheddar cheese soup, I had a salmon sandwich, and Matthew had a burger (Benji had a PB&J we brought with since we knew from past experience he won't eat anything at Le Cellier, except maybe breadsticks). So much nicer than a counter service chicken strips meal and not too much more expensive!

Of course Benji didn't go to Disney World for the meals. He is a thrill-seeking rideaholic! He remembered that Epcot has the Nemo ride, so that's where we went first-thing when we arrived. We also followed that with Turtle Talk with Crush, as we always do. That really is a cool show.

On our way to lunch we stopped at The Land to pick up fastpasses for Soarin' — Matthew's favorite ride. On a whim, we had Benji measure at the entrance. If he stood up super tall (not tip-toes; just not slouching), he was just barely tall enough! We had heard stories of kids who were tall enough for rides in the morning but had actually shrunk enough by afternoon (apparently we all shrink a little as the day goes by and our spines compress) that they weren't tall enough, so we decided to hop in the standby line right away. It was about a 45 minute wait, but they have interactive video game screens for the entire audience to play while you wait so Benji didn't get too antsy. Since he didn't know what ride was waiting for him (and we didn't want to get him too excited since there was still a chance he could be measured again at the end of the ride and not allowed on) we thought he would quickly lose interest and get cranky. But the video games made a big difference!

As we predicted, Soarin' was a fast favorite! Benji couldn't stop talking about the "flying ride" for the rest of the trip. And we loved that we could now take Benji on Matthew's favorite ride — more rides on Soarin' for Matthew, fewer baby swaps, and a really cool ride for Benji! Unfortunately, it also meant that Benji now loves the ride with the hottest fastpass in the park so we can't just get back in line over and over again like with Goofy's roller coaster or the teacups. He did adjust pretty well to the fact that we needed a ticket to get on and that sometimes the ticket wasn't good yet. We'd have him read the time on the ticket and show him the clock over the fastpass return. That way he could see for himself that the ticket wasn't good yet. In general, he's more willing to accept rules if they come from an entity other than Mommy and Daddy (i.e. he knows the fireworks mean the park is closing so he doesn't argue with us when we leave then).

While waiting for Soarin' fastpass times to come up during the rest of the day, we visited Mickey and Pluto, played the game show in Innoventions, went to World Showcase, rode Spaceship Earth (the golf ball), played the games at the exit for Spaceship Earth, and ate dinner. The game show in Innoventions is called "What's Your Problem?" and solves problems using Velcro. It's definitely corny, but it was a total riot with Benji. He stole the show from the other kids and I have a fantastic video! While in World Showcase we went to the United Kingdom pavilion where I knew the toy store sells the Mr. Men/Little Miss book series. It's the same price as any bookstore so I thought it would make a great souvenir. Benji picked out Mr. Dizzy and Little Miss Twins. We also watched street performers in the UK and saw the new Canada movie with Martin Short.

Late in the evening we went over to Soarin' to use our last fastpasses, but we got an extra bonus — two extra rides! The lines were so short very late in the day that after we used the fastpass we got back in the standby line for a super short wait. And then we tried again for a no-wait line for the very last Soarin' flight of the night. The "flight attendants" were surprised we had made it back around so quickly. And we learned that if you go over about 20 minutes before fireworks everyone else is staking out a viewing location and there's no one at the rides — a trick we would use every Epcot night. (While Benji loves the Magic Kingdom fireworks show, the Epcot one is less appealing to him and we figure he'd rather go flying three times.)


Benji holds on for dear life after Mommy put him on the railing for a photo.


A little calmer looking, but the sun is causing him to turn away.











Benji gets ready to play the "Stack It Up" game on the "What's Your Problem?" game show. The game was a tie, so everyone got winner stickers! Also notice the wheel in the background. Benji was the one selected to spin the wheel (which determines which game you play) which made him very happy.








At the Spaceship Earth exit there are various games you can play, including this one where you "push" "power" to the parts of the map that need it.

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Disney again?!

In this family (OK, maybe just Benji and I) you can never get too much Disney World! So when they announced the "Buy 4 Get 3 Free" promo for this year, of course we had to book a trip, even though we had been there just 5 months earlier. We told Benji about the upcoming trip about two weeks before the trip, marking it on his calendar. He kept asking us "What number is today?" meaning "What's today's date?" and would then count the days until February 3. His anticipation was so exciting for me, too. When we finally got to February 3rd, it seemed like the wait at the aiport, the flight, and the bus to Disney World took forever.

After all that anticipation, our first stop had to be the Magic Kingdom! Benji was so excited about getting there that he didn't even want to ride in the stroller. He walked all the way from the bus stop and then excitedly made his way through the entrance gate. Just after getting in the gate, he stopped suddenly as the Mickey confetti on the ground caught his eye. On the previous trip, he had gotten quite attached to the Mickey confetti so it was no surprise he wanted to collect Mickeys once again. It's such a simple touch but one that means so much to Benji.

Once we finished with the Mickeys, Benji had a very clear agenda in mind — to the roller coaster! He clearly remembered all about the roller coaster scream and just loved it! He also remembered how he loves to run down the exit ramp after each ride — so he can get back to the entrance faster! After a ride or two, we decided to take a break. Benji was none too pleased about that idea until we showed him the frozen lemonade. There are two ways to Benji's heart at Disney World — rides and food treats!

During the roller coaster break we also went to buy Mickey ears for Benji and Mommy (Daddy declined). Prior to the trip I had talked about Mickey ears with Benji and he seemed pretty excited about the idea. When we went to buy them, however, he was quite opposed to the idea and we couldn't figure out why. After a bit of digging it turns out that he was concerned he wouldn't be able to ride any more rides with his new ears. He remembered how Daddy had lost his hat on the previous trip so he thought if he had a hat he wouldn't be able to ride. We had to explain that he would take off his ears on each ride and Mommy or Daddy would hold them so of course he would still be able to ride. Then he was very excited about Mickey ears and Mommy and Benji got matching headwear.

Our next stop after roller coaster was Benji's second favorite ride, the teacups. He wanted Daddy to spin it faster and faster! We then continued our tour through Fantasyland with stops at the carousel, the Sword in the Stone, It's a Small World, and Winnie the Pooh. While there I tried to get a picture of Benji and I in our new mouse ears with the castle in the background, but Benji was far too excited to pose for photos.

We had a late dinner then took a trip on the Jungle Cruise and caught the fireworks. At this time of year the parks close fairly early so at 8:00 it was fireworks and park closing. While we were tired from traveling, it was still only 7:00 according to our bodies so that seemed so early! It apparently was not too early for Benji since he fell asleep on the bus on the way back to the hotel. At least he was well-rested for the next morning of Disney World adventures!

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

A peek behind the magic

As a special treat for the Disney fanatic, I went on a backstage tour of the Magic Kingdom called the "Keys to the Kingdom." One of the big rules of the tour is no cameras, so you'll see quite a bit fewer photos from this day of the trip. Another rule is no kids, so I went by myself while Daddy and Benji slept in and then did the Teacups three times, the Indy Speedway twice, the Peoplemover, and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. It's a little weird that there's part of the Disney trip that I didn't participate in, but I also got to do my way cool special tour.

It's too bad I don't have any pictures from the backstage tour, but let's see what I do remember. A large part of the tour was actually "onstage" where the tourguide would point out hidden details and tell the story behind various aspects of the park. For example, did you know that Disney World was originally not supposed to have Pirates of the Carribean? As a result, its version is smaller than the one at Disneyland and has a hill so that it can get outside the berm to its show building. And for many of the larger indoor rides the vast majority of the ride isn't actually within the walls of the themed park but rather in nondescript green buildings outside your view. It was very strange to see half of Splash Mountain turn into the green show building as we went backstage. It was even stranger, though, to see the Jungle Cruise hippos sitting on the side waiting for repair. We also got to see the parade floats and I will definitely say that the Electrical Parade floats look so magical at night and very unimpressive during the day.

As part of the tour we rode the Jungle Cruise on our own boat where the skipper didn't do his normal spiel but instead out tourguide pointed things out. Did you know that the restless natives are actually saying "I love disco"? Listen carefully next time. It's not an urban legend; totally true. A true highlight of the tour was going into the utilidoors, the underground corridors that service the whole park. It was completely unmagical in that it is a utility corridor with service vehicles, etc., but it was really interesting to think about what it takes to make the magic work. I know it sounds strange, but I liked reading the employee bulletin boards. And there were signs everywhere telling you what part of the park you're in and how to get elsewhere. But I think the best part was having a tour guide to ask questions of that normal cast members aren't allowed to answer, both with the questions I asked as well as the questions others asked.

But that's enough of my Disney fanatic stuff. Back to the normal vacation stuff.

After the tour I caught back up with the rest of the family and let Daddy have a bit of a break. Since I took Benji over to roller coaster, it's not like Benji even noticed Daddy was missing. We also did Small World, Aladdin's Carpets, the Tiki Room, and the Jungle Cruise. Unfortunately Benji was not very impressed with the Jungle Cruise, but I think the problem was he couldn't really see the animals from his vantage point. Maybe next time.

For dinner we headed back over to EPCOT, this time at Chefs de France. I had shrimp and scallops with creme brulee while Matthew had the beef tenderloin and sorbet sampler dessert. Last time we were there I had a fantastic escargot appetizer, but now that the appetizer isn't included in the dining plan I decided to hold off and get the escargot at the Food and Wine Festival. After dinner we went on the Malestrom twice and saw the fireworks/laser show.



In Tomorrowland they have a giant granite globe that basically sits on water. Despite its size and weight, you can easily push it and turn it. It's another one of those simple pleasures that in a big hurried trip you can easily miss but that really intrigued Benji.


I really like the family reflection in this one.


Throughout the trip I was on the lookout for Hidden Mickeys. I couldn't find this one in the unofficial Hidden Mickey books, but I swear there's a hidden Mickey on this surfer's swim trunks. Can anyone else see it?


Can anyone guess Benji's favorite food? And he sure got a lot of it on this trip!


For quite a while Benji has loved to walk carefully on sidewalk squares. At Disney World there are many different ground treatments and textures. A particular favorite was this patio near a food stand in Adventureland. He loved the trapezoid and square mix and both Benji and Mommy had to jump around the shapes and call out the shapes. It was a peaceful resting time.


On our way out of EPCOT for the evening, Benji found this cool sidewalk. It didn't have nifty shapes like the Adventureland patio, but it had lights. How cool is that?


Nifty picture, eh?

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Roller Coaster Galore!

As you'd guess, we spent tons of our time at the Magic Kingdom. So after spending "yesterday" at Hollywood Studios with fewer Benji rides but the very fun and crowded Toy Story Mania, we went back to the Magic Kindgom "today." Of course our first stop had to be the roller coaster, where we rode four times in the morning and another three times after lunch. That brought the trip total to twelve! And did you know that no matter how many times you ride the roller coaster, Benji gets angry and begs for more? On two of the morning rides Daddy sat in front of us to get video of Benji's insane joy on the ride, from the anticipation of going up the hill to the "roller coaster scream" the whole rest of the ride. On one of those rides, Daddy lost his baseball cap but I don't think you can actually see it flying past me in the video. (Incidentally, we called lost and found many times and never got it back despite a great reputation of Disney for reuiniting people with their lost objects.)

Around lunchtime we went over to Frontierland and saw the "Woody's Roundup" show. It's out in the middle of the street in front of the Country Bear Jamboree and on previous visits I might have found it a nuisance since it blocks the street. However, with a preschooler I have a newfound appreciation for this entertainment. There's maybe a dozen cowboys and cowgirls as well as Jessie, Woody, and Bullseye and they invite the kids into the show. Benji loved getting out there and dancing and being part of the show! (Unfortunately, this particular show was a victim of budget cuts and we saw one of the very last performances.)

After lunch Mommy went on the Haunted Mansion by herself. This has never been one of my favorite rides, but it had just undergone a major rehaul and people were raving about the new effects. The effects were really cool and made the ride creepier than it had been in the past. I won't be taking Benji on this one, but I'm glad I tried it out.

In the late afternoon we headed over to EPCOT for our coveted Coral Reef dinner reservations. We had to take the monorail over so I made the special request to sit in the pilot's compartment. I also made sure to get the "monorail copilot license" to add to the collection of "bus trading card" and "Barnstormer frequent flier card" that we had gotten earlier. I think I thought it was cooler than Benji did, but hey, I'm allowed to be a kid at Disney World.

When we got to our dinner reservation, I made another special request to get a seat right by the fish tank. They were like "we can't guarantee anything, blah, blah, blah" but less than 10 minutes later we had a fantastic seat. It just goes to show that it doesn't hurt to ask. And it was definitely worth it! Benji loved watching the fish tank so he was peaceful while waiting. The kids meal was macaroni and cheese with a cute dolphin on his mile, so he was peaceful during the meal. And he got make-your-own sundae for dessert, so he was very happy at dessert. A peaceful meal is worth so much! But in addition to the peaceful meal, the food was fantastic! I got the catch of the day and it was so delicious. Not to mention the "Wave" lava cake for dessert. I could get so used to these meals!


Do you think Benji is looking forward to the roller coaster? He just loves the "roller coaster scream"!


Daddy forgot to take off his hat. Oops!


It's funny how the simplest things are some of the favorites. Don't get me wrong — Benji LOVED the roller coaster — but he also enjoyed playing with the fence posts and walking on the sidewalk patterns.


Cute closeup.





Benji so loved the roller coaster that he began counting the number of times he had ridden it. He kept a running tally throughout the trip, from day to day. So you'd see him with his fingers held up like in this photo as he walked around the park. It looks like "seven" in this photo (although it might have been "eight" as I think he sometimes started counting with his thumb). It was pretty amazing that when he woke up each morning he'd remember where he left off and start his count again (without us telling him).


Getting fancy with his fence walking.


See the coaster car just coming over the top? Such a high and scary coaster!


One of the cute live entertainment shows they has was "Woody's Roundup" where they invite kids into the show to dance with the characters. How cool!


It felt a little weird to let him leave my side and join the group of kids, but he is a preschooler and was still well within my sight.


The kids got to use hobby horses and do a little parade in the middle of the street in Frontierland.


Benji was several inches taller than the minimum for Goofy's Barnstormer, but he still liked to measure himself every time we got to the entrance. Still tall enough!


On our last visit Benji loved the Pooh Bear water play area. This time, he found Donald's boat which was right next to the exit of the roller coaster.


Not too wet yet, but having fun.


Hmmm... I wonder what this will do?


Surprise! This seems like a nice companion to the surprise water photo from our last visit.


Benji has gotten much better at playing with other kids.


One of my few scenic photos.


Since Benji and I were wearing nice matching shirts, Mommy wanted a photo in front of the castle but Benji was not interested.


When Benji and I finally smiled at the camera we got an extra person well-posed in the background.


On our way to EPCOT we were able to ride in the front of the monorail, but Benji was not impressed at first. He was far more interested in his lollipop.


It was pretty sunny on monorail until we made a turn.


Mommy has to steal kisses whenever she can.


Here Benji is pointing at the numbers on the track and counting them. Who knew that was the best part of riding in front?


If I can't get a picture in front of the castle, maybe I can get one with the golf ball.





A traditional arms' length photo.


Family photo from the Photopass (Disney cast member) photographer. I actually think Matthew's is better.


Benji the model.





For dinner we ate at the Coral Reef and were able to get one of the coveted tables right against the enormous fish tank. Benji enjoyed watching the fish go by while we waited for our food and looking for the fish to circle on our fish guide.


The Disney Dining Plan included dessert at every meal, and this was probably our favorite. A fantastic chocolate lava cake! Makes me hungry thinking about it.


Coral Reef also had Benji's favorite dessert — a make-your-own sundae at the table. He particularly liked eating the sprinkles right out of the cup.

Libellés : Benji, Disneyworld

Pre-Christmas

This year I decided to take off the last two weeks of the year, giving myself a long Christmas break. It was so nice to have so much time with Benji and Matthew, even if we didn't do anything super exciting but instead played games, baked cookies, and just hung out. Benji really got used to his "bonus Mommy days" too since he wasn't happy at all this morning about Mommy going back to work. He was excited about school, but he wanted Mommy to come with to school. And Mommy sure wasn't thrilled about going back to work, either.

So, let's take a look back at winter fun in our household.



Near Woodfield Mall there's a new "Legoland Discovery Center" that we tried out when my parents found some free admission coupons in the newspaper. Benji enjoyed himself, especially in the building area where he got to race Lego cars. I particularly liked the photos with the giant sculptures.


Oh no! Daddy's been eaten by a lion!



Although we're back to grass and bare pavement right now, we had quite a few snows back in December and Benji was very excited to go out and play in the snow. He also enjoyed kicking the snow.


The snow was so hard and ice coated that Benji didn't sink in at all when he tried to make snow angels.


Sledding down the driveway gives just enough slope for tons of fun.


Snow chair!


For our gingerbread house, I decided it would be easiest and let Benji participate most by coating the roof with "gingerbread glue" and letting Benji create an artwork.


Surprisingly Benji didn't eat the candy until after he was done decorating.


He made a careful design on this side of the roof, includng "polka dots" and "eights" and gave me an adorable interview about his project.


We also went to Enchanted Castle with my parents and brother. Benji had a wild good time, including air hockey with Uncle Dave.

Libellés : Benji

This is why we don't go to Disney World in summer

For some variety, the fourth day of our trip was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios). This park really focuses on shows, but it also has two adult thrill rides (including Tower of Terror) and the brand new Toy Story Midway Mania. It turns out, Benji doesn't really like the shows and kept asking all day for the roller coaster and Magic Kingdom.

Unfortunately the only real ride he could go on was also the one with the insanely long line. Toy Story opened earlier this year and has some pretty neat technology so it definitely had the longest line anywhere in the four parks. When we arrived, Fast Passes were all the way out to 4:20 and the line said it was 50 minutes. Now, if we were there during the summer every ride would have one or two hour lines, but we're totally spoiled and balk at 20-30 minute lines. Still, we hopped in to wait it out for the new ride (unfortunately, the wait was actually 80 minutes — I think it broke down while we were in line).

The queue area for Toy Story has a lot of detail and is fun to look at. There are giant toys everywhere and they're actually the toys as they would have appeared years ago. Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling doesn't look like Benji's current edition — very retro. Toward the end of the line is the highlight of the queue — the animatronic Mr. Potato Head. He sings and moves and his eyes blink. He's supposed to be able to take off his own ear, but that apparently wasn't working the day we were there (and I had read earlier that they were having trouble with that part of the technology). The ride itself takes you around to many different stations where you play carnival midway games with 3-D glasses and a shooter. For example, you pop balloons at one station and "throw" rings around the aliens from Toy Story at another. I was surprised at how quickly the car moved from one station to the next, but that made it a bit more of a thrill ride for Benji. With our Fast Passes, we were able to take advantage of a loophole and got Benji on the ride three times total — once by waiting in line, once with Daddy's pass, and once with Mommy's pass.

With the rest of our time at the Studios, Benji spent a long time in the Animation walk through attraction. You see, there were computers to play with there, including his favorite computer coloring book. Daddy and Benji hung out there while Mommy took a ride on Tower of Terror. I thought they might go to the Little Mermaid show, but apparently Benji got angry when Daddy tried to leave the computers.

In the evening we took the boat over to EPCOT for our dinner reservations at Restaurant Marrakesh. The food was pretty good and there was a belly dancer during the meal. Matthew, however, didn't feel very good that evening and didn't really enjoy this restaurant. So, he headed back to the hotel after dinner and Mommy and Benji took a "romantic" stroll around the World Showcase lagoon. He behaved really well and held my hand as we walked in the moonlight. On the other end of the lagoon is the Norway pavilion where we rode the Maelstrom ride. It's not very exciting by my standards, but there's a little hill on the boat ride similar to the little hill in Pirates of the Caribbean and Benji quite enjoyed it. So we rode another time and then stepped out of the ride to be greeted by the fireworks show.



Benji's favorite part of the Toy Story queue was at the very beginning — Candy Land.

Because the lines weren't as long as they would have been, he even got to walk on the game board!


Notice the retro Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling.


Got to have those 3D glasses. Notice the shooting mechanism on the left. This one has you pull a string rather than push a button.





So much detailed theming, even in the loading area.


High fives for Mickey. We eventually met Mickey at all four parks.


Celebrity sighting — WALL-E!





All tuckered out sleeping on the boat ride.


At then end of our evening, Benji was happy to pose with Spaceship Earth all lit up for the night.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Trick-or-Treat

For the past few weeks, Benji has been getting ready for Halloween, including going to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa, learning about pumpkins and spiders in preschool and storytime, and dressing up for preschool. So by the time we hit real Halloween, he was psyched and ready to get dressed in his costume and go get candy.

Mommy was able to get off early from work and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so Mommy and Benji had some great trick-or-treating time in the late afternoon. He was very polite, saying trick-or-treat and thank you. Whenever someone offered him a choice of candy from the bowl, he considered his choices carefully but I think it was largely because he didn't know what many were. But once Mommy pointed out some favorites (i.e. which ones are chocolate), he quickly identified them at future houses.

Tons of kids were out and Benji got so many compliments on his costume. We saw the neighbor kids several times, but Benji was too slow to keep up with them. He enjoyed practicing his horse galloping and I enjoyed just spending time with my little guy. Even though we dawdled and generally enjoyed ourselves, we still got to visit so many houses (last year we only made it down our block and Benji was more interested in trying to collect landscaping rocks than in collecting candy). On the way back to the house, Benji decided he was done and just sat down on somebody's lawn. Of course we still needed to get back home, so I gave him a piece of candy "for energy" but that strategy backfired on me. He would walk a few steps and then sit down again and ask for another piece of candy.

By the time we got done trick-or-treating and having dinner, we didn't really have enough time to carve our pumpkin before bedtime. So we held off and did the pumpkin on Saturday. Benji was very excited about the whole pumpkin experience. He actually remembered carving the pumpkin from last year and wanted to know where his knife was (recall that last year after we finished carving he brought over his play food plastic knife and "carved" the face himself) so I had to bring it up from the basement for him this year. He was quite upset that his plastic knife didn't work. But after Daddy used the real knife to get things started, Benji finished cutting off the pumpkin top and enjoyed being silly with it. We let Benji draw the face, but he didn't like his first attempt. He's so critical; it was quite a lovely face. But, we cleaned it off and let him try again. His pumpkin face was so adorable! And Daddy carved it faithfully, even trying to capture any wiggles in the lines. What a good Daddy, and what a fun Halloween! I can't wait to see what he remembers next year.


Benji's costume was a cowboy, but if you ask him what he was he answered that he was a horse. Regardless, he loved it.


Whoa, horsey!

Libellés : Benji

Rain, rain, go away

While "yesterday" was hot and humid at Disney World, "today" was our rainy day of the trip. The morning started off great — a wakeup call from Mickey and Stitch and then breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. Last time we were at Disney World, Benji hugged the noses of all the characters; this time he talked to them, gave high fives, and posed for pictures with "the animals". It was more crowded than last time, so we didn't see the characters many times. But Benji was pretty happy with the visits he got. He was also very happy with his chocolate chip Mickey mouse pancake. I'm not sure which he liked more — the Mickey shape or the chocolate chips. In either case, he had a good time at our character meal.

After brunch we again headed off to Fantasyland. And Benji was upset again that the castle was closed. But I asked around and figured out when it would open for the day and we rode some rides in Fantasyland in the meantime. We rode the carousel, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh and saw Mickey's Philharmagic. Philharmagic was the only attraction during the entire trip that Benji actively disliked. He didn't cry or scream, but halfway through the film he asked "is it done yet?" and looked rather perturbed. We took off his 3-D glasses for the rest of the film and he was OK, but he was still happy when it was done. We think he didn't like the way things look like they're coming out at you in the film, so no more 3-D films for a while.

Then it was back to the castle to see if we could go inside. The doors were finally open so we could walk from Fantasyland through to Main Street. It really is beautiful to look all the way through the castle. On one hand Benji was happy to finally get in the castle, but on the other hand he was disappointed that there were no games or rides inside the castle. Benji's perspective on the world is so different than ours and so wonderful!

Our next stop was Toontown for a few spins on the roller coaster and a visit to Mickey's house. It was a magic moment to see his excitement at meeting Mickey. We were escorted into a room to meet the Mickey and Minnie and Benji ran towards Mickey, came back to us, and ran to Mickey's arms when we said it was OK. He hugged both Mickey and Minnie and happily posed for photos. While we were riding the roller coaster this afternoon, it began to drizzle and quickly turned to heavy rain.

We waited out some of the rain in the gift shop by the roller coaster while Benji ate a Mickey lollipop. We finally got tired of that and ran over to the train station and rode around the park a few times. We eventually got off in Frontierland for dinner at Pecos Bill's and some rides and shows over there, including Country Bear Jamboree, Aladdin's carpets, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Frontierland is a great place to watch the parades, so we saw the electrical parade and then rode the magic carpets over and over again while waiting for the fireworks. It was so empty that they didn't make us get off the ride and we rode until they shut the ride down, including one ride as the fireworks were starting. I think it spoiled Benji a bit because when we came back later in the trip he thought he would get to ride again without waiting in line. We finished off our evening by sharing a piece of fudge with three friends in the hotel room. Yummy!



One of my few "postcard" photographs. It was such a beautiful morning it's hard to believe how much it rained later in the afternoon.


Big hugs for Tigger!


Mommy gets to pose, too.


We definitely didn't get Benji to pose with the characters last time. Now, however, he is happy to pose for pictures (and he looks at them afterward on the camera screen to check himself out).








I wonder if the best part of brunch was the characters or the Mickey pancakes.


I wonder what Piglet and Benji are laughing at. Perhaps one of Benji's knock-knock jokes?


Big hugs for Pooh!





We only rode the carousel once during our trip. I guess it wasn't thrilling enough for Benji!


So cool in his 3-D glasses!


I was surprised at just how excited Benji was to meet Mickey and Minnie.





Benji has been on a lollipop kick for a while now so I brought some Dum-Dums on this trip in my purse. Somehow they just didn't cut it when he saw a 5-pack bouquet of Mickey lollipops. He asked for them in every store we went into, so during the rain we gave in and used some of his splurge money from Grandma and Grandpa on lollipops. He loved it!

Libellés : Benji, vacation

First day in the parks

After much waiting and excitement, we finally made it into the parks today. Because we had lunch reservations at Le Cellier, we started our trip and our day over at EPCOT. Benji didn't take too kindly to this as the kiddie rides are over at the Magic Kingdom. But we were able to appease him with the Nemo Ride, especially since he is so fond of the Nemo movie. Prior to lunch we rode on The Seas with Nemo and Friends and saw Turtle Talk, as well as riding Listen to the Land and Soarin'. Finding Nemo is probably Benji's favorite Disney movie, so it's no surprise he really liked the Nemo ride. Turtle Talk is very impressive, as it has an animated Crush that actually interacts with the children. Only I got to ride Soarin' on the first day since Benji is too short and we ran out of time before our lunch reservation for Matthew to ride. I really wish he had been tall enough to try it out, but I guess we need something new for next time.

For lunch we had coveted reservations at Le Cellier, the steakhouse in Canada. It's so famous for the steak that even I had the filet minon. The free dining plan was a huge reason this trip was fun for all. As I've said before, this makes it our "cruise on dry land" — tons of great food and totally self-contained.

The rest of our day was spent in the Magic Kindgom (which is also where we spent a large part of the rest of our visit). It was hot and humid, but that didn't matter to Benji. We were finally at the park for him! When we saw Cinderella's Castle down Main Street for the first time, Benji got so excited. I was actually quite surprised at how excited he got by the castle, but he had seen it before in a Sing Along Songs DVD I had gotten for him. Because of some shows on the castle stage every afternoon, the walkway was closed off. So we chose to go to Fantasyland via Tomorrowland and stopped off at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin along the way. But Benji was completely insistent that we needed to go to the castle so we didn't go to any other rides and made a beeline for the backside of the castle. At which point he burst into tears. Here we were at the "happiest place on earth" and Benji was crying and crying about how he wanted to go into the castle. It turns out he thought there were games and rides in the castle (we think partially due to the influence of Enchanted Castle) and that we were keeping him away from them. Despite all the rides he could see, he was upset about the (nonexistent) ones he couldn't see. Seeing all this, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother came over and helped to calm Benji down. Only at the Magic Kingdom would you have a real Fairy Godmother available calm an upset kid.

He finally calmed down and realized there were tons of rides he could go on and we began exploring Fantasyland. We had the first of many rides on It's a Small World, Dumbo, Pooh, and the Teacups. Then it was time for dinner at Cosmic Ray's and some air conditioning. Refreshed, we set out again for the rides. By then it was evening so the park was much cooler and more pleasant. We headed off for Toontown where we found what would easily become Benji's favorite ride — The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm (a.k.a. Goofy's Barnstormer). He loved the roller coaster. We went on it twice that evening before it was time for the fireworks, but we would return every day we were in the Magic Kingdom.

We watched the fireworks from Fantasyland instead of the more traditional in front of the castle, but I think I actually preferred this view. And as long as Mommy covered his ears, Benji enjoyed the fireworks. After the fireworks (when the park is technically closed) we saw that people were still getting on the Teacups so we hopped in line for a bonus ride before heading hope (or so we thought). They were still letting people in line when we were done, so we tried again. The third time they asked for our hotel key; it turns out it was Extra Magic Hours, which was a very pleasant surprise for us. So we took advantage of it and rode the Indy Raceway twice, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (a.k.a. the Peoplemover), and Buzz Lightyear. Afterwards, we sat on a bench in Tomorrowland and ate some chocolate cake leftover from dinner as a nice evening treat. It was so pleasant to sit there and take in the evening atmosphere. While waiting in line for the bus, I got another pleasant surprise as we saw the Electrical Water Pageant pass by on the Seven Seas Lagoon. It's not very fancy, but it's a very old tradition at Disney World and I had never actually seen it.


An area that would become very familiar to us is the bus waiting area. Here, however, we are on our way into the park.


EPCOT focuses more on educational rides than thrill rides, including Living with the Land. Benji actually enjoyed "the farming boat ride" and we went on a few more times during the week.


On the faming boat ride, we get to see so many foods being grown, including these Mickey pumpkins. Benji was also interested in the banana trees.


The Disney Dining Plan includes dessert with every meal, which was Benji's favorite part of every meal. We had so much chocolate on this trip!


Cinderella's Fairy Godmother calms Benji down when he can't go in the castle.


Benji's first of many character pose photos during the trip.


Benji was looking forward to the Teacups for weeks before our visit. He has a Little People amusement park that includes a teacup ride and we had watched a Disneyland Sing Along Songs DVD that includes time on the Teacups, both of which got him excited for this particular ride.





The Teacup ride lived up to Benji's expectations.


Try as he might, Benji could not pull the sword out of the stone.


Despite Dumbo's long lines, Benji loved "the elephant ride".


Playing on the fence in line for the roller coaster looks like tons of fun.


Before the roller coaster, Benji doesn't know just how much fun this ride will be.


But afterward he was so happy and ready to go again. It was "so fast and fun." He told us how we "go fast and faster" with such amazing excitement.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Getting there is half the fun

While our trip down to Florida went very well, I know that it wasn't half the fun. That would be pretty sad if our flight to Florida were half the fun of a ten day trip to Disney World, wouldn't it? Anyway, we flew out of Milwaukee and left with plenty of time to spare so we were actually able to get on the flight before our scheduled flight. It's always nice to start a vacation early and not have to spend as much time in the airport with an antsy kid. We had to split up two and one, but Benji behaved very well for Mommy. He enjoyed his airplane surprise and between that, his Fun Pad, and candy the flight went pretty quickly. The descent was a bit troublesome but he was happier after Mommy covered his ears.

The whole day he kept wanting to know if we were in Disney World yet and if we could go on rides. Unfortunately, we had no plans to go into the parks that day so we basically kept stalling. We played Twister in the courtyard of the hotel and checked out the giant stuff in the architecture of the Pop Century resort. We also went to Downtown Disney for dinner, where they have a small carousel. We paid our $2 and placated him with a ride, but of course he knew that wasn't the bid deal of Disney World. That evening he wanted to get in the car and drive home, so it was a bit tough to convince him to go back to the hotel (for all the following days he was quite content to go back to the hotel once he figured out how much fun this place was). In any case, the excitement was mounting and none of us could wait until the next day when we would really see Disney World.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Done with the Terrible Twos

Can you believe it? Three years ago we had a beautiful little baby and now we have a three-year-old! I guess that means we're done with the Terrible Twos, but I really don't think they were all that terrible. To mark the occasion, we were happy to have both sets of grandparents join us and Benji was very excited to have "seven friends" over at his house to play (he calls all family members "friends" and he counts himself among his friend count). I tossed around ideas for exciting events for his birthday, but finally decided that (1) I couldn't possibly top Disney World, and (2) Benji really loves spending time at the house playing with his toys and his special people. So I finally decided that his birthday party would would be very simple, but just perfect for him.

After lunch he looked around the table at everyone's feet and declared that we all had socks on so we should go in the basement and play games (the house rule is that you need socks to go in the basement — it's kind of chilly down there). And that's exactly what we did. We played board games in the basement, opened presents, played more games (with his new presents), ate cake, and played games some more. From how happy Benji looked, I think it was the perfect birthday party for him. He was surrounded by the people he loves and that's clearly very important to him.



One of Benji's favorite books for bedtime stories is "The Secret Birthday Message" by Eric Carle, in which the little boy follows a scavenger hunt for his birthday present. So Mommy made a Secret Birthday Message just for Benji and hid it in his room the night before his birthday. We went on our little hunt first thing in the morning.


In the book, the present is a puppy, but in our version the present is a fish. When he saw the fish tank, he burst into tears. It turns out he thought that by getting the fish he wouldn't get a cake or candles. The poor little guy thought it was an either/or situation and the cake and candles were far more important than the presents.


So we had to think quickly and took Benji downstairs for some "breakfast cake" and put candles in his cinnamon roll and sang Happy Birthday. All was better.


At lunch we had a gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese, which was perfect for our guest of honor. He was very funny putting macaroni shells on each finger and eating them off his fingers.


You can't have a birthday without balloons!


And of course presents.


When he opened various presents, he wanted to stop all further present opening and immediately play with his new toys. This was especially true with new games as he is completely obsessed with board games (he even loves more adult games like Scrabble, Mastermind, Twister, and Blokus in addition to the traditional Candy Land and Cootie).


Who doesn't love a present that's almost as big as you are? Inside was a great car transport semi-truck from Grandpa and Grandma.


In a similar vein to the typical first Christmas where the kid likes the wrapping paper or the boxes more than the presents, Benji's favorite birthday present was also the cheapest — Travel Perfection. It's a great team game with Benji and one other person and he kept asking over and over to play it.


Of course we had to play a family game of Hungry Hungry Hippos.


The cake, candles, and singing is a very important part of the birthday ritual in Benji's mind. When we asked him how old he was in the morning he still answered "two" but after we had cake, his answer turned over to "three". Clearly the cake marks the birthday in his mind.


After the singing and blowing out the candles, Benji enjoyed playing with the singing cake man (also known as a Target gift card).


There's one happy birthday boy!

Libellés : Benji

First day of school

It hardly seems possible, but our little Benji is now old enough for school and yesterday was his first day of preschool. Granted, it was also the parent orientation day so we didn't leave the classroom but Benji was completely oblivious to us after the welcome song.

Some of the kids wailed and cried, others quietly hung with their caregivers, and others played with the toys and other kids. Benji was happily in the third group. He explored everything the classroom had to offer, from the pretend kitchen to the giant building blocks. In classic Benji style he brought the giant blocks to the teacher and announced the shapes, such as triangle and medium rectangle. When the teacher said it was cleanup time, he eagerly put all the blocks back in their proper locations. And during the end of school songs he danced happily and followed the teacher around the rug.

School was a complete success! This morning he even asked to go to school again. I think this bodes well for Monday when he has his first day alone. My little baby is growing up so fast, but I feel great about sending him to preschool after seeing how happy he was there.

Libellés : Benji

Our Minnesota getaway

As we're waiting for the big vacation this fall, we took a quick getaway to Minneapolis-St. Paul to have some fun and visit Aunt Megan. While I know that I enjoyed it more than Matthew (how much girl talk can he handle?) it was a nice break from the routine. And hey, Megan has a Wii! Benji was also quite fascinated by Megan's two cats. He didn't run up to them, but when Megan invited him over to pet Blackers he touched her ever so gently. They didn't seem too fond of him, especially when he stood by their food bowls and told them they needed to eat. Megan was excellent tour guide, taking us to the farmer's market, the sculpture garden (where Benji thought the Spoon Bridge and Cherry sculpture was a water slide), and one of the 10,000 lakes (Lake Calhoun, I think, where Benji wanted to go swimming).

As far as Benji was concerned, though, the best part of the trip was the Mall of America — and the amusement park inside. He could go on some of the rides all by himself and the ones where he needed a chaparone didn't need a ticket for the adult. So we got him an all-day pass and let him ride over and over. I think he rode his favorite ride 10-15 times!



Benji and Matthew got a head start on the rides while Megan and I went shopping. It looks like they took a stop on the carousel.


They also rode the giant ferris wheel. I think here Benji is looking up at the top of the wheel.





Benji loved the hot air balloon race. He felt like they were flying!





By far his favorite ride was "bouncy bouncy bouncy". We have no idea what the real name of the ride was (they were all named about Nickelodeon shows and we don't have that channel), but I think bouncy bouncy bouncy was a very appropriate name. (I think this video clip is especially long.)








Some of the other kids were upset on the ride, but Benji was an old pro. I liked that it had two restraints, including a seat belt that only the operator could unlock.


After we were done shopping, I took Benji on his first roller coaster. He loved it! We might have some trouble at Disney because he'll want to go on all the coasters, but we'll have to steer him to Goofy's Barnstormer.


He had to take Mommy on the Balloon Race!

Libellés : Benji, vacation

I need a little perspective.

Benji is a fan of computer games -- "the match game" (aka Memory), "the clock game" (aka a game where you put the numbers of the clock), "the shape machine" (aka this), and "Cootie" (aka Cootie on the computer, although he likes it in real life as well). Sometimes on each of these games he'll use the touchpad on my laptop (which he's getting better with, but still not great), but most of the times he'll point to what he wants me to do or give me verbal directions.

Anyway, probably Benji's favorite new game he calls "the go fish" (because at the beginning a fish with the word go on it swims by). What it actually is is a game the textbook company Houghton Mifflin created as a way to practice the skills kids learn in a specific unit in a specific grade. We've been going through the first-grade units recently -- most of which he's pretty-to-awfully good at, but some of which (particularly toward the end) he has some problems with. I'll admit I was a little disappointed at how he was doing with some of the later lessons until I realized, dude, this kid is two years old. If he starts school when the district says he ought, he won't be learning the skills in these later units for four-and-a-half years. High expectations are great and all, but, y'know, c'mon self. Let's be a little reasonable.

Libellés : Benji

An Old-Fashioned 4th

For the Fourth of July, we went up to Riverbend Rally to show Benji the sites in Matthew's boyhood hometown. The weather was fantastic and it was a great day with the family. There were carnival rides, food, a talent show, Bingo, and the parade — everything you look for in a local festival. I think every fire truck in the county and the next one over drove in the parade! And so many local businesses threw candy and other stuff from their floats! Benji is getting really used to bringing home loot from festivals. (In fact, we went to a small festival last weekend and he immediately wanted to know where the games were and what prizes he could bring home.)

We finished off the day with fireworks back in Ames. Benji didn't like the noise and asked to go back to the car, but once Mommy covered his ears he was happy and very much liked watching the fireworks.


It looks a little like Grandpa's Vette.


Vroom! Vroom!


Who's this fine-looking crowd?


1-2-3 jump!


Benji's been getting good at Bingo with practicing in the basement and going to festivals. He even won a round this time! It was his first game and the couple sitting across from us didn't look to pleased since I think they had been playing for quite a while and the two-year-old won immediately. And since it was playing for prizes instead of cash (see his John Deere storybook on the table?) he could actually win. Very exciting!


Happy Benji close-up!


As we all know, Benji is quite the chocoholic. This time he's trying a fried Oreo. He loved it so much that I think he ate more than I did.


I think I'll try Grandma's funnel cake.


Yummy festival food!


When Benji plays with other kids he likes to follow them around and imitate them. He does this at the playground, at playgroup, and with Ava. He even tries her two-finger sucking (and we find him doing it for a few days after she leaves).


Upside-down Benji!


I just love this picture of Benji and Ava!


Look Mommy! I found a Y!


We got to the parade over an hour before it started and were able to find a nice spot in the shade to spread our blankets. It wasn't on the curbside, which made catching loot harder, but it was a relaxing place to sit while waiting for the parade.


Maybe Ava can see the parade better from up here.


Partway through the parade a lady with a nice curbside spot for her family invited Benji to come up in front. Grandma went with to make sure he didn't run in front of a float and to teach him all about catching parade loot.


After the parade we went back to the carnival rides where Benji chose a motorcycle to try. Notice the tightly buckled seatbelt to make Mommy comfortable. I must give him credit, though. He didn't try to get off the ride at all until it was completely over.

Libellés : Benji

Playing nicely together

Benji and Ava have seen so much of each other this summer that I think they're really getting used to each other. Benji gets excited when he finds out Ava is visiting and the word "Benji" is one of Ava's clearest words. While they certainly have their moments of not getting along (such as when Ava gets scared of Benji's energetic running around or when Benji dislikes that Ava is playing with one of his toys), they seem to get along extremely well. And they got along particularly well during our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the 4th of July.


The alphabet puzzle was a favorite toy for everyone. Ava liked to hand Benji letters and tell him what letter each is. Benji seemed to really like his little helper.


It was so pleasant to watch them play nicely together.


See, Ava, we did all the letters!


I think later they actually both put pieces of the puzzle in together.


Upside down Ava!


Comfy Benji!


Benji shows off his spelling skills to Ava.

Libellés : Benji

Benji Bumper Bowling

Several months ago I shared pictures of Benji bowling the little bowling game at Enchanted Castle and you can clearly see how much he enjoys it. So when we got a few vouchers from the library reading program for free bowling we decided to give it a try. With the bumpers raised on Benji's turn and Daddy way out of practice (although he blames it on how dark the lanes were since they were doing cosmic bowling that afternoon), it was a surprisingly even match. And while I think Benji enjoys little bowling more, he got a big kick out of real bowling, too.


The first technique we tried teaching him was to put the ball on the ground and give it a good push. He loved watching to see how many pins he got down and was remarkably patient as the ball lumbered down the lane.


Another technique we tried was for Mommy to help him carry the ball to the foul line and then hurl it down the lane. This still didn't get the ball to go all the way down consistently and we had to call to get the ball rescued.








I just love the tiny bowling shoes!


It turns out Benji is strong enough to carry a 6-pound bowling ball pretty well.


So we tried yet another technique — walk, walk, walk, throw — in an attempt to get more power behind the ball.


It still wasn't consistent as the ball stopped halfway down the lane. There was actually a kid on the lane next to us that was younger than Benji and consistently got the ball all the way down the lane so we tried watching him to see what tips we could pick up. I think practice would be the biggest tip.


One happy bowler!

Libellés : Benji

Summer Fun

With summer in full swing, we've started the summer festival circuit again. A few weeks ago we went to Long Grove's Strawberry Festival and late June brought the Downers Grove Heritage Festival, while this past weekend was the Iowa Falls Fourth of July Riverbend Rally. Looking back at last year's Heritage Festival blog entry shows a nice milestone of how much Benji has grown and changed in one year and also how he has stayed the same.

Last year he was just getting the basic idea of the games at some of the booths. This year he figured out that many of the booths had free things to put in his pockets (we convinced him that the candy giveaways were just fun colorful things to put in his cargo shorts pockets) so he liked going over to the tables to see what they had for him. At one booth he got a balloon, which I suggested we tie to his belt loop so he wouldn't lose it. That backfired as he was confused and looked like a dog chasing his tail. Last year we couldn't get him away from the basketball hoop; this year he loved that game again but he also found more games to try. Many booths had bean bag toss games and he was really fond of those. He figured out if he stood right at the edge of the board he'd have a pretty good handicap and could play without anyone's help. And we were at the festival early enough in the day that Benji could play most of the games over and over again without waiting (as a bonus it wasn't nearly as warm as it was later in the day). There was so much to do among the community booths that we never went across the train tracks to the pay games and carnival rides.

Last year Benji could recognize his numbers and so had a great time pretending to play Bingo. For the past several months, we've been practicing with a Disney DVD Bingo game in the basement so he was ready to go in this year's Bingo tent. He had a hard time keeping up with the speed of the game's call so we ended up giving him a dead card from an earlier game for him to play along with (that also eliminated any questions about whether or not he was gambling). He definitely listened to the numbers being called and marked them appropriately; he just couldn't mark them fast enough.

Again this year Benji loved festival food. In Long Grove he was introduced to fried Oreos (which he called donuts) and at Heritage Fest he stole Mommy's chocolate fondue. This year he is far more verbal than last year and told us "I love chocolate" instead of just stealing it. In either case, he had an adorable messy chocolate face. He also had a grand time holding Grandma and Grandpa's hands and swinging and jumping between them. And he even got a pony ride!


Benji met a celebrity at the Long Grove Strawberry Festival.





Benji won a few free movies, but being able to spin the wheel was the big prize as far as he was concerned.


Oooh! Duckies!





The first of many bean bag games Benji tried at the festival.


See those cargo pants pockets? By the end of the day they were full of candy and trinkets.


Benji shows off his prizes — one flag sticker for each hand!


Pony rides!





Look mom, no hands! No Daddy hands, that is. Notice Benji is actually riding by himself.





Hooray! A basket!





Benji decided Mommy's fondue was delicious again this year. But this year he could ask for it by name — chocolate!





It's all gone, Benji.





Where's that number?


Maybe Daddy should mark the numbers instead.











What number did they just call? Do I have it?





Benji was looking for the basketball game all day long. While bean bags and Bingo were good, shooting hoops was the best.

Libellés : Benji

Tumbling class

Even though Benji isn't yet in preschool, he's already taken quite a few classes at the park district, including art classes, swim class, and tumbling. Daddy has been in charge of art class while Mommy gets special time with Benji at swimming and tumbling. Actually, tumbling class doesn't have quite as much Mommy-Benji time as swimming since Benji really listens to the teacher quite well (and I don't have to hold him to avoid drowning so I can just sit on the side and watch for at least some of class).

We've taken tumbling two sessions (and will start a third in July) and it's a very predictable, routine-driven class, but that's probably one of the reasons Benji does so well. Unfortunately that also means that if the teacher deviates at all he gets angry, but she rarely deviates from the routine. Class always starts with some stretches — legs apart on the floor and stretch to one leg, the middle, and the other leg. Then we go to the "squishy mats" one side of the floor and get ready for animal walks. While many kids are running wild around the room, Benji sits patiently on the squishy mat. Favorite animals include the snake crawl, the bear walk, the bunny jump, the scooter crab, and the frog hop. After animals, it's time for somersaults, the balance beam, and jumping (really more bouncing than jumping) with the vaulting springboard. After a bit of free play, it's time for stickers and shoes (and many angry kids because the fun is over). I'm really looking forward to the next session!


Check out that snake crawl.


The scooter crab is the toughest animal to do.


Benji thinks that Mommy can do somersaults, but so far I've been able to convince him that only Benji should practice his somersaults.


Benji has gotten much better on the balance beam since the first classes. And now he likes to walk on the concrete parking lot markers, putting out his "airplane arms" and practicing his balance.

Libellés : Benji

Benji's turn at bat

As I mentioned in the Cubs post, Benji has a new tee-ball set from Grandma and Grandpa that's helping him learn more about baseball. Of course he has much to learn about the proper form, but he's already having lots of fun practicing his swing. I think Matthew said they play with the baseball two or three times a week, mostly at the local park. They've even brought it to the weekly playdate with a group from church and Benji was quite the popular kid that week. It's great that he's able to work on hand-eye coordination, learn baseball, and practice sharing with other kids with this toy.


For Matthew's birthday, we went out to the movies while Benji played with Grandma and Grandpa. That's when he got his tee-ball set and started learning baseball.


He had a very specific routine that day where one ball had to be on the tee and the other had to be in the storage space at the bottom. We have since misplaced the second ball (maybe Daddy's trunk?), but thankfully he's been OK with just one ball.


Isn't this a great smile?





This is from Memorial Day weekend. Notice how much better his form looks! I must admit, though, that we were specifically teaching him how to properly hold the bat that day so I don't know that this is his natural way to hold it yet. Still, looks pretty good, eh?

Libellés : Benji

Go Cubbies!

To become true Chicagoans, we are immersing ourselves in Cubs games this year. It's been decades since I've been to a Cubs game, and I think I only went to one or two as kid. We were more of Sox fans growing up — who could beat free tickets for good grades? But Josh and Beth are huge Cubs fans, so Matthew and Josh teamed up back on the day tickets went on sale and got something like six or seven sets of tickets, all on weekends.

So far, we've gone to two of the games. Wrigley certainly is a unique feeling ballpark. I don't recall ever going to games that were as crowded as these were — there was even standing room only behind us at the second game. Both sets of seats we've had were fully covered, and the "ceiling" is lower than I recall it being in other parks' upper decks so you get more of the feeling of being somewhat inside than in, say, the Sox park. The view from our first game (which was in the upper deck) was great, with the skyline, the neighborhood, and the famous old fashioned scoreboard. The seats for the second game couldn't see the scoreboard, but they were one tier down and closer to the field.

Benji seemed to have enjoyed himself at the games, although of course they were a bit longer than his attention span. I think as he plays more with his tee-ball set he'll get more out of watching the games. For the moment, he's quite content calling out the numbers of the players and the numbers on the scoreboard. He also likes ballpark food, especially the ice cream. And he thinks he's such a big boy that he wants his own seat. At the first game he got his own (they were cheaper tickets) but at the second one he didn't so Daddy spent some time in the standing room section. He can actually see the field much better from a lap, so he was content to share for some of the game. And he loved cheering with the crowd! Unlike other sporting events we've been to where he has cheered for the other team quite a bit (like high school basketball where both teams had equal numbers of fans), Wrigley doesn't really have visiting fans who are vocal enough for Benji to join in so he looked like a genuine Cubs fan (especially with his adorable outfit).

In anticipation of our baseball games, my mom even taught him "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and we hear him singing it in his bedroom some mornings. At the April game, he missed the 7th inning stretch because he was getting a very messy diaper changed, but at the May one he belted it out proudly. He was kind of upset that it was a one-shot deal. He wanted to sing it again and singing it alone or with Mommy wasn't good enough; he wanted the whole stadium to sing it again.

April 20th Game:

A beautiful view! Notice how the ivy isn't green yet.


I don't know if Beth got a good whole family shot on their camera, but this is the best extended family picture I got. Many of my photos came out quite blurry or too dark, but there's still some good ones below.


What a good looking family! Also notice Benji's Cat in the Hat giveaway. Lately he's been into "Green Eggs and Ham" so he called his new toy "Sam-I-am" after one of the characters in the book. He calls one character Sam and the other one Sam-I-am, as well as calling the giant Cat in the Hat in his bedroom Sam-I-am. I can see why he makes that association.


Benji loved the ice cream out of the baseball cap. He thought it was so silly, but still quite tasty!


The April game was quite chilly so Ava and Beth were all bundled up. My dad had warned us it would be colder at Wrigley so I dressed us one step warmer than the weather would have otherwise dictated. It turns out I didn't fully digest Dad's warning and should have gone two or three steps warmer to be truly comfortable.

May 17th Game:

Since it was a much nicer and warmer day than the first game, I took a few minutes to take cute pictures of Benji with the famous Wrigley sign. I think I'll have to do this every year we go to get a good series of photos!


I think Benji was reading the inscribed bricks in the walkway. Can't get enough of sounding out words!


I can't decide which photo I like best, so you get to see several.


Maybe Mommy should get in the picture, too.


The view from these seats was closer to the field but more "indoor" feeling.


Benji loved sitting in seat 8 — his favorite number!


Watching baseball is exhausting!


Don't they look sweet together?

Libellés : Benji

Mommy, let's spell!

One day last week Benji was awake as I was leaving for work and called to me from his doorway, "Mommy, let's go spell." He led me downstairs to the family room and pulled out one of his toys — one where there are cards with three-letter words and a bunch of letter tiles. Unfortunately I was running late so I couldn't stop to play, but we had already spent plenty of time spelling earlier in the week and would continue to do so all week long.

Yes, my two-year-old is completely obsessed with spelling right now. He keeps asking us things like "Daddy, spell ice cream" or "Mommy, how to spell Mickey Mouse?" And he's also trying to sound out words on his own. Several of his toys have taught him the letter sounds with the song "B says buh" so he's been trying to put that to good use and sounds out the words in his books and elsewhere. We've also found random words spelled out on the fridge, such as "stop" and "pig." I'm sure some of it is memorization, but he's definitely trying to employ reading techniques and seems to understand the idea that the words are made up of sounds.

All of this is fed by his favorite TV show right now — "Super Why!" It's a PBS show where spelling and reading help to save the day and Benji really gets into it. It's the only show I see him actively participate in when the characters ask the audience to. So apparently it's doing its job since he's completely excited and gets the general idea (of course he gets a bunch of words wrong given the number of rules and the number of words that don't follow the rules, such as silent letters and vowel combos). Anyway, I love Benji's insatiable curiosity and need to learn!



And now I bring you a random photo dump. Since I don't have photos that really illustrate Benji's love of spelling and I have lots of random ones that don't warrant their own themed blog, I bring you the random photo dump.


In what was one of the snowiest winters ever, we had yet another snow in early March. We were tired of being cooped up inside and the temperatures weren't too bad so we took Benji to the playground.


I figured it wasn't any worse (temperature- and safety-wise) than playing in the snow in the front yard. Benji enjoyed the break in routine.


This particular playground has a rubber mat as the ground, so it wasn't a messy mulch mud to climb around in. It looked like some other kids had been having snowball fights before we arrived. I think Benji and Daddy are making snowballs in this photo after Benji went down the slide.


Just a cute close-up.


Although he's getting to be a "big boy" I still marvel at the perfect tiny hands.


Benji loved Mommy's birthday cake.


Can't you see how much he loved it?

Libellés : Benji

Strike!

I know this isn't appropriate for an under-three kid, but Benji loves to play with coins. He likes to line them up in neat rows and he likes to put them in things, including the piggy bank. But his favorite thing to do with coins is to put them in the video games. So about once every month and a half or so we head over to the arcade with Grandma and Grandpa where thankfully they have a good dinner deal that includes 80 tokens — more than Benji can go through in an evening!

His taste in games over there changes periodically. He's been very fond of Deal or No Deal for a while, although on our last visit he only wanted to play it once after begging to play it that one time. His favorite right now is probably the bowling game. The ball is just a bit bigger than a skee-ball so he can easily hurl it down the lane. It's so funny to watch him line up and actually try to aim. And he's pretty good at it. The next time the Iowa contingent visits, I highly recommend a visit to the arcade. Daddy gets to play poker, Mommy gets to sneak in a game of pinball, and Benji gets to bowl!


Tickets!!! Look at how many tickets Daddy won for Benji!

Libellés : Benji

Feelings, nothing more than feelings

Benji has been really good with academic concepts like letters, numbers, colors, shapes for quite some time now. So recently I've been trying to work with him on more abstract ideas like feelings and emotions. One of his books, "Baby Faces", shows babies with different feelings like happy, sad, sleepy, shy, etc., and we've been reading that lately. I've also been asking Benji how he thinks the characters in his books feel when different things happen to them. For example, when Rainbow Fish loses his piece of sea glass how does he feel? Sad.

Benji seems to be picking up on these ideas and using them elsewhere. A particular favorite of his is to tell you "Benji's crying" as if you your ignoring the loud screaming was because you didn't notice it. He will also offer to kiss you where it hurts if he accidentally bonks you in the head or steps on your toe. But last night was my favorite. We were on the changing table getting ready for bed and he wanted his hippo (a little rubber purple hippo bath toy). I gave it to him and he told me that "hippo is scared" and that Benji would "take care of hippo." The expression on this toy's face is sort of surprised or scared, depending on how you look at it, so this was a great observation of Benji's. But what I was most impressed by was his desire to take care of the hippo. He held the tiny hippo in his hand and clutched it to his chest, as if to protect it. We then talked about how we could take care of hippo and decided that hippo could sleep on the changing table because he would be safe there (safe from being stepped on on the floor).

Coupled with this greater understanding of feelings is a strong improvement in the ability to communicate clearly. I don't think last month we could have had a full conversation about what to do with the hippo. And I know in the last month Benji has gotten better at recalling what happened during the day and telling you. Most evenings I now get a report about what Benji played with and what he ate, provided by Benji with a little prodding from Daddy. And tonight he had one of the most complete sentences I've heard from him: "Uncle Dave's favorite number is nine." Subject, verb, object, adjectives — oh my!

Libellés : Benji

Vroom Vroom!

When I was growing up one of our annual traditions was to go to the Auto Show. This was well before I could drive, but it's still something I looked forward to. I loved the giveaways, the prize drawings, and just how big it was. Several years ago Matthew and I went to the Richmond Auto Show and it was so tiny! I had begun to wonder if my memories had completely blown the Auto Show out of proportion. This year my memories were confirmed. We met my parents down there and everyone had a great time. Matthew checked out the concept and exotic cars, Grandpa eyed the Corvettes, and Benji practiced his driving skills. Grandma and I collected freebies, fed Benji car-shaped cookies, and enjoyed watching our boys with their cars.


Benji gets a taste of Grandpa's favorite car — the Corvette.


I guess those steering wheel toys have given Benji enough practice to feel right at home behind the wheel.


Grandpa shows Benji all about the knobs and dials.





One of the cars we let Benji "drive" was the Hummer. That thing is so big! It apparently also made a big impression on Benji because after we went on to the next exhibit he specifically asked to go back to the Hummer and could not be fooled or distracted by another car. We had to take him back to the Hummer. (This also goes to show how quickly he picks up on words from single mentions of them.)


Don't you read the gearshift carefully every time you get in the car?


Matthew really enjoyed checking out cars he couldn't possibly afford and wouldn't really want in the garage. But he sure looks good in them, doesn't he?


If Daddy gets to play with an exhibit, Benji has to, too.


Quick quiz: How much does this car cost?


One of the exhibits had Jeeps driving over all kinds of tough terrain, including steep inclines and big rocks. Benji needed a better view on Daddy's shoulders.


Another one of those photos where Benji looks "older than his years" in my opinion.

Libellés : Benji

More snow

It's been such a cold and snowy winter this year that Benji's zest for the snow really helped to make it more bearable. Sometimes it was just a snowball or two on the way in from the car or in a parking lot. But sometimes it was full-fledged snowsuit snow playing. It was particularly fun when Grandma and Grandpa would come over for some fun in the snow. Grandpa really gets into the snow playing, while Grandma is ready for indoor games when it's time to warm up.


Grandma and Grandpa brought over the plastic saucer toboggans that Uncle Dave and Mommy used when they were kids so that Grandpa could take Benji on his first sled ride.


Grandpa is so much better at making snowballs than Mommy.


Or maybe Mommy and Benji can throw snowballs at Grandpa.


This seems like such a stereotypical "toddler in snowsuit" picture, with his hat falling over his eyes and tons of layers of gear.


Thankfully Benji is happy with being pulled around on the sled and isn't begging to go on large sledding hills — not until next year, that is.


Got to pose for an inter-generational family picture.


We tried to build Benji's first snowman, but since the snow didn't pack very well it was a miniature snowman.


Although Benji loved "Frosty the Snowman" and all kinds of snowmen during Christmas, he didn't understand that this was a tiny snowman and instead he preferred to knock over the tower or to take the head off and throw it as a snowball.


We figured out that it was much more fun to sled down the ice on the driveway than on the snow on the lawn. So much faster!

Libellés : Benji

Old and new memories of the Museum of Science and Industry

One of my favorite museums growing up was the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I still have fond memories of many of the exhibits which are no longer there — the nutrition/food economics exhibit on the left when you walk in and the newspaper exhibit where you choose how to lay out the front page. And so many favorites still exist — the annual Christmas around the World, the ice cream parlor, the fairy castle, and the huge train layout. So when we heard that January would be free month at the museum (when we went as kids it was free every day; now it's $11 per person plus parking) we jumped at the chance to take Benji there. It's such a large museum that we didn't see many exhibits. And of course Benji is too little fully appreciate the museum. But, it was nice to start him early and focus on the exhibits he would enjoy — the farm in the basement with tractors and combines to climb on, the whispering gallery, the chick hatchery, the space shuttle, and the newly-renovated train display. As one would expect, his favorite parts included pushing buttons, especially in the Internet display.


The farm exhibit is particularly popular so Benji had to wait patiently in line to visit the combine. I think he enjoyed it once he got up there, although he was also surprisingly cooperative when it was time to get out.


Whoa! This is way bigger than the tires on Daddy's car.


It's kind of hard to explain the idea of astronauts and space shuttles to a two-year-old (I think he called the shuttle a bus and then an airplane), but Benji got a big kick out of posing in the space suit.


We learned that once upon a time Chicago had a cable car system like the famous San Francisco ones.


It's hard to see, but in each of Daddy's shirt pockets is a mold-a-rama figure. You know you're a daddy when you wander around with toys in your pockets!

Libellés : Benji

Snow, snow, everywhere

Back in early December snow was still something pretty and fun. It was a new novelty to Benji and he wasn't sure what to do with it, but he sure was curious. For his first snow adventure he was quite cautious and showed no interest in climbing too far into the snow. Rather, he was content to help Daddy shovel and just see what this white stuff was. That particular snowfall was light and dry and didn't pack very well so we couldn't do snowballs (we've done plenty of snowballs since then), but that didn't matter to Benji. So while Mommy and Daddy are tired of the snow and of driving in it, Benji still loves the stuff.


Benji's first steps into the snow. He didn't really want to go in too far, but he was very interested in it.


Notice how short the drifts are in this picture compared to ones I'll post later in the season. Today the drifts on our driveway are well above Benji's head.


Benji has his own shovel so he can help Daddy "clean the snow".


Is he ready for us to send him out to clean the driveway?


OK, enough of this shoveling. Now it's time to see what snow feels like.


Hmm... Daddy's shovel looks like more fun.


Benji needs to work on that shoveling technique. He liked to shovel snow with his little shovel and put it in Daddy's shovel. Or he liked to shovel snow out of the drifts and put it back on the driveway.

Libellés : Benji

Ames Christmas

You know, it really is kind of nice to celebrate Christmas three times every year. I think Benji really could get used to all of these festivities. And it's nice not having to travel nearly as far for the holidays as we used to.

Our visit to Ames this year was completely full of family visiting. On Friday evening we had dinner with Matthew's Uncle Mike and Aunt Lana, whom we hadn't seen in a year and a half. On Saturday morning we had our Christmas morning celebrations with all the present opening (lots of pictures below). Benji was a great Santa's helper, until he opened his presents and wanted to play with them. There sure were some great presents that morning! And on Saturday afternoon Matthew's cousin, Brenda, and her family came to visit for dinner. Her clan was quite boisterous and Benji loved watching their antics and joining in the laughter and fun.

Other activities over the weekend included the traditional Jones soda tasting, shopping for Iowa State gear, and a women's basketball game. Of course there was also a stop at Olene's for Sunday dinner and plenty of time just playing with our new presents.


We arrived early enough on Friday afternoon that we were able to have dinner with Mike and Lana while they were visiting.


I love when all the presents are stacked under the tree!


While we were waiting for Ava to wake up and everyone to get ready for present opening, Benji was too excited to wait. He took presents from under the tree and brought them to Grandma to find out who they were for.


Oh, yeah, and he got hugs from Grandma, too.


During a previous visit to Richmond, Grandma shared her Cheerios and milk with Benji. Now every time he sees Grandma he has to share her cereal.


Benji was a great Santa's helper, handing out presents to everyone. That is, until he opened his first present and was totally distracted. But it was very cute while it lasted.


So many things going on. Do I watch Daddy open his present or see what Ava is doing over there?


Benji doesn't get all the cool presents. Daddy got a John Olerud bobblehead, perfect for the computer room or the rec room decor.


Ava looked a little sleepy and uninterested in her present.


But now that there are tags to play with she perked right up!


Giant present for Benji!


It's so big Grandpa needs to help.


What is it?


After opening the easel and finding the letter magnets that came with it, we lost Benji's present delivery service. It kept him happy the entire weekend!


As the morning continued on, Ava got more into Christmas.


Ava seemed more interested in the bow than in the present.


After a while Benji stopped playing with his easel and instead decided to explore the tree. This year Grandma covered the tree in bells, which was perfect for Benji. Ornaments you can play with and not break! And while we were busy opening presents, Benji decided to sing "Jingle Bells" with the bells on the tree.


When I tried to sing along with Benji, he got upset and stopped. But he later moved to the other side of the tree and sang some more.


Throughout the weekend both Benji and Ava enjoyed playing with the easel. Benji even found a new use for the easel — hide and seek!


Grandma and Grandpa saved the best for last. What a snazzy looking tricycle with chrome bumpers and all.


OK, I'm done with Christmas. See you all later!


A rare photo of Grandma with both grandbabies.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Christmas Afternoon

After all the Santa excitement at our house, we went over to my parents' house on Christmas afternoon. We had more presents and a delicious crab leg dinner. (As a side story, Benji must have really liked having Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in the dining room because on a subsequent visit he tried to drag his high chair into the dining room and wanted to eat in there.) As was the case that morning, Benji was very excited about presents, but he quickly got sidetracked by wanting to play with them. So while we were opening our presents (and Benji's clothing presents) he played with his Duplos, Uno cards, and Cabbage Patch Kid (this one "eats" pretend food, which seems to go along very well with Benji's love of the pretend microwave).


Now that Benji knows what a snowman is, he loves the decoration on his stocking. Grandma made a similar one for Benji at our house and then decided he needed one at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too. I agree! They're both adorable.


Hmm... I wonder what's in here. Maybe some "tickets". When Benji opened his card and found some Christmas money, he called it "tickets". They're not quite the same as Enchanted Castle tickets, but he's got the right idea. Smart lad!


Santa has such handsome helpers, doesn't he?


Such a cute giggle and smile!


One present was a giant set of dominoes. Benji thought they were both fun for counting the dots and for making towers.


Which case should I pick? Or should I take the Deal? Benji loved his "Deal or No Deal" electronic game. I bet he could do as well as many of the real contestants.


Of course everyone needs a new set of letters for Christmas!


Now that we have real winter, Benji needs some warm sweaters. Grandma crocheted a beautiful beige sweater for him, and it looks like he'll be able to wear it for at least two seasons.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Benji's third Christmas, Act 2

After breakfast we got back to the present opening, which Benji loved. Oh yeah, and Mommy and Daddy loved, too. Especially watching Benji's excitement. Isn't that what the "magic of Christmas" is all about?


Benji enjoys playing with Thomas the Tank Engine train sets at storytime that we thought he'd like a train set of his own. We were right.


As with the Duplos, we had to pause from all present opening to play with his new train set.


The past several times we've gone to Enchanted Castle we've saved up the tickets. Since Benji gets a kick purely out of taking tickets from the games and putting them back in the counting machine, we thought it was better to save up for a bigger prize. And we finally had enough for the giant Care Bear.


Big hug!


Or maybe big tackle!


Giant bear is actually taller than Benji. What's not to love about a teddy bear larger than you are?


Ah, now there's a sweet hug.


A present for Mommy and Benji? What could it be?


Benji must remember our fish back in Richmond. He immediately recognized the fish food canister in the present and got very excited. We still need to find the best place for the fish tank and go pick out fish, but it will be really nice to have fish again.


When Benji saw the nativity scene earlier in Advent, he immediately called it "Church" which I think is a fantastic recognition and association. And since the nativity is actually plastic or vinyl or something unbreakable like that I wanted to let Benji get up close and personal with the nativity.


His favorite part was the stable animals, especially the sheep. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since he could count the sheep. But he did like the baby and the mommy and the daddy, too.


Daddy got presents, too.


Benji helps Daddy read his "Entertainment Weekly" magazine subscription. Not as much fun as Mommy's fish present, but still good fun.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Benji's third Christmas — pre-breakfast

As I've said before, this Christmas season has been amazing! Two years old is a magical age for Christmas and I've just loved introducing Benji to the season. Christmas morning was no exception to this magic!

Although Benji didn't drag us downstairs Christmas morning (which I'm sure he will in future years), once we got there and he saw the presents under the tree he was so excited. Honestly, I expected him to tear through all the presents at lightning speed since he's been starting to grasp the idea of brightly wrapped presents holding new toys. But instead he was the slowest present-opener I've seen. Unlike so many older kids and adults who want to move on to the next present, Benji showed more excitement and gratitude at each present. He wanted to open all the boxes and play with each toy immediately, which we more or less tried to honor. And although we did move on to more presents, it wasn't because he was losing interest in the current one and discarding it. I think he could have played with his new Duplos so much longer than we let him (we were getting hungry and decided it was time for breakfast) so that just goes to show how selective the proverbial short attention span of a toddler can be.

Since I took so many pictures, I'll split Christmas into a few posts. More to come later...


Since Benji had no real concept that Santa had come and left presents under the tree, he was just as happy to play in Mommy and Daddy's room in the morning. I'm sure it will change soon enough that he will wake up super early on Christmas morning and drag us downstairs.


We finally got so excited to watch Benji open presents that we dragged him downstairs.


Look at everything Santa brought! I wonder who the giant present is for.


Oooh! Presents for Benji! Now he got excited.


Blocks! Benji was so excited about his first present that we had to open it immediately so he could play with it. I guess Santa knew what would be a big hit!


After being so excited about the idea of presents, I'm surprised Benji got totally sidetracked. We built towers and animals with his new Duplos, totally uninterested in the rest of the presents. Of course that's probably a good thing since he's acting less greedy and more appreciative of the presents he received.


Benji has been so interested in taking pictures that we gave him his very own camera for Christmas. Granted, it's our super old 1-megapixel camera, but it seems to work well for him. It's actually quite large which is good for Benji to handle. By today's standards the picture quality isn't fantastic, but it used to be what we were very happy with. And he enjoys taking his own pictures.


I just loved the expression on his face in this one.


Remember when I said earlier that Benji liked to put presents in the tree?


Halftime! By breakfast we hadn't opened very many presents. But look at what fun the Duplos were!

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Making trees and cookies

I've always loved getting ready for Christmas, but this year was absolutely fantastic. It was so much fun to introduce Benji to the many traditions of Advent and to see his excitement and understanding of these traditions (admittedly only the secular traditions because the real religious importance is far too abstract for a 2-year-old). I'm not quite sure how we're going to wean Benji off of Christmas now that it's over, but for now I'll just reflect on and treasure some of Benji's favorite parts of Christmas.

Christmas carols: Many nights at bedtime I sing various children's songs to Benji as a lullaby. But sometime in November I got tired of singing the same songs and realized I know tons of Christmas songs. By the time Advent rolled around, Benji was familiar with Christmas songs and even had his favorites. The first one we heard him singing on his own was Jingle Bells but he got pretty angry if you asked him to sing it on command. By the end of Christmas I would also hear him singing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph when he didn't think we were listening. And he certainly had favorites to ask Mommy to sing — "the snowman song" (Frosty), "the reindeer song" (Rudolph), "the drum song" (Little Drummer Boy), "the house song" (a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song that goes with one of the animated light shows on YouTube), and "the tree song" (12 Days of Christmas, think about the partridge in the pear tree).

Christmas lights: I have been completely into Christmas lights for as long as I can remember. The tackier and more outlandish, the better. So it's no wonder that Benji loved the Christmas lights. When Matthew put up the lights outside our house (which isn't a huge display) Benji was so excited. He loved going up to the fake deer and petting them. Imagine his excitement when we went on our annual car tours of the area for light looking! His favorites by far were any of the animated displays where the lights flash and dance in coordination with music. And when we couldn't get out to see lights, YouTube was good for a quick fix!

Christmas presents: On December 6, St. Nicholas visited our house and put a variety of presents in Benji's shoes. He had started figuring out what presents were about at his birthday, so he was really excited by the pile of presents at the front door. For several days after St. Nicholas Day he would periodically declare "Benji present" and troop off to bring us one to open. It was great practice for the big day! One day after all the presents were already opened he declared "Benji present" so Daddy wrapped a piece of paper around the DVD remote and told Benji to put it under the tree. We later found out Benji was putting these "presents" in the lower branches of the tree, not under the tree. So funny!

Christmas TV specials: This is probably the Christmas tradition Benji was least excited about, but he still enjoyed snuggling on the sofa with Mommy to watch "Frosty the Snowman" or cutting cookies while watching "Rudolph." He was not impressed at all by "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Christmas tree: It took us three days to put up our Christmas tree, but it was worth it to take our time and involve Benji as much as possible. Our artificial tree requires you to find the letters on the branches to get them in the right order and of course Benji was capable and happy to help with that task. When we were finished he declared "Benji make a tree" which is actually a pretty accurate description of the artificial tree process. The next day we let him follow after Mommy holding the lights and garland when I draped those on the tree. And the third day Benji hung most of the ornaments on the tree (and the remaining ones Daddy hung at Benji's direction when he wanted one higher up). And he certainly had his opinions about where the ornaments would go. For example, all of the teddy bear ornaments are on the same branch. I guess he thought they belonged together. This year most of the ornaments are on the bottom three feet of our tree so it's a bit unbalanced, but I wouldn't have it any other way.










Christmas cookies: This year I was both excited and nervous about making Christmas cookies with Benji. I knew he'd love Christmas cookies, but I was nervous he'd either try to eat the dough or track a mess all over the house. So I was thrilled when my mom agreed to help with this adventure. It was so much more fun to share this holiday tradition and easier to get the task accomplished.

We plopped Benji in his high chair to control the mess and give him a good surface to work on. We started with the family crescent cookie recipe and Benji enjoyed playing with the balls of dough and then giving them to Grandma to put on the cookie sheet. He didn't try to eat it at all. Later that day we brought him back for the rolled sugar cookies and cookie cutters. We let him pick which "shape" each time; I think he was partial to the tree and the snowman. He also liked the sprinkles, which didn't surprise me at all given his fondness for Parmesan cheese. Throughout the rest of the Christmas season Benji loved eating the fruits of his labors, asking Daddy for "snowman cookies" on a regular basis. (I'm happy to report that he hasn't asked for one at all since we got back from Iowa, which is good since we don't have any more Christmas cookies.)



















Nativity scene: This year I set up my grandmother's nativity set under our Christmas tree for the first time in a while. I figured Benji was well beyond trying to eat the nativity and maybe we could learn a bit about Christmas. The first time Benji saw the stable, he immediately declared "church". I hadn't told him at all what it was so I was thrilled and amazed that he immediately made that association. Then we talked a bit about the baby and his mommy and daddy. And of course we counted the sheep and called the donkey a horse. He treated the whole thing very respectfully and seemed to like the baby Jesus.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Fall back

Looking outside at the foot of snow on our driveway and the single-digit temperatures, I am longing for a somewhat warmer topic. So we will look back fondly at fall, when I thought it was already too chilly for this Virginia transplant but now realize it was pretty good.


Our new house has far more trees — and leaves — than either of our Richmond homes. So one weekend when my parents were visiting they graciously offered to help us get the leaves raked. The chore went so much faster with more people. And Benji loved trying to help. Here you can see him trying to rake, but he was really much better at putting leaves into the bag. Of course he was best at running through the piles of leaves!


When he got tired of running through leaves, Benji invented a new game — football golf. That's an aerodynamic nerf football with a tail that Benji is using as a golf club or perhaps a baseball bat to hit his basketball.


In our basement rec room Benji has his own table complete with art supplies where he loves to "go downstairs color." Grandma also enjoys thinking of creative projects to do with Benji.


Notice how Benji is trying to fold a piece of paper, just like Grandma.


Does Benji make a good Pilgrim?


He really preferred the Indian feathers.

Libellés : Benji

Thanksgiving — Food, family, and friends

Thanksgiving was full of food, family, and friends. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house and my brother was even in town for the holiday. Benji didn't remember Uncle Dave since it had been a year since they'd seen each other, although we do show him pictures of Uncle Dave so Benji did have some idea that this was a special person. We also saw my family on Sunday of that weekend, meeting them at Enchanted Castle and Benji seemed a bit more at ease with Uncle Dave that time. I hope they get along well at Christmas.

We also saw Megan over the holiday weekend, meeting her in Racine for a few hours. And, as with Dave, Benji was suspicious of this stranger as well. (Lisa, take this as a warning that when we do get together he will be suspicious of you, too.) He seemed a bit happier with Megan, though, at the end of the visit when she gave him his birthday present.

Grandma was daring and decided to have Thanksgiving dinner at the dining room table with a toddler. She even gave him a plate from the good china. It was really nice to have dinner with all the special stuff and I'm happy to report that Benji behaved perfectly. He didn't eat any turkey, of course, but he loved the side dishes, especially the rolls.


What a good Indian!


I wonder how those photos came out...


Mommy, my turn for the camera, please.


While Megan and I chatted away at the Racine mall, Benji played on the kiddie cars, planes, and ice cream truck. Thankfully he hasn't yet figured out (or at least hasn't begged us yet) that they'll move if you put quarters in.


It was so good to see Megan! Now that I'm closer, we shouldn't let it be so long.


On a cold snowy afternoon, a visit to the giant arcade is tons of fun. Most toddlers love balls of any sort so it's no surprise that Benji is particularly fond of Skee-Ball.


Grandma helps Benji get the hang of Skee-Ball while Uncle Dave wins the tickets.


Feeding the tickets into the ticket counter is just as much fun as watching them come out of the games!


A little post-game snack! Yummy!


Great idea Grandpa! It's even better with animal cookies! Mmmm mmmm mmmm!


Thanks for sharing your ice cream, Grandpa.


Now that the ice cream's done, Benji is ready to hit the road. Mommy, however, wants a nice photo with Uncle Dave.

Libellés : Benji

Fifth time's a charm

Benji is loving the Christmas season — the lights, the cookies, the music — but it took a while for him to get warmed up to Santa. In concept, he recognizes Santa in pictures, but his reaction in person is quite different. Overall I'm glad he's wary of strangers, but it did make getting my classic Santa photo more difficult. Just wait until next year when he really understands that Santa brings him presents...

Santa #1: This was our first visit to Santa for the season. Although the picture's not very good, you can still see that he's not too thrilled with Santa.


Santa #2, Round 1: This Santa was downtown when we went for the Festival of Lights parade. Even though Santa gave him a little teddy bear, he was still quite skeptical.


Santa #2, Round 2: Since the line wasn't long and they didn't charge you to take pictures (most won't let you take pictures with your own camera), we tried this Santa again. Benji was intrigued by Santa so he was amenable to walking up to him and meeting Santa again.


He seemed happier standing next to Santa so I thought that would be OK for a picture. But, we couldn't get him to look at the camera.


Santa played little games and tickled Benji's hand to get him more comfortable, which Benji actually seemed to like. Santa was very nice and spent more time with us than I would have expected.


Santa #3, Round 2: To finally get the good picture, Matthew took Benji to the mall on a weekday afternoon. I believe they had to visit Santa twice to get Benji acclimated to Santa once again. I'm quite pleased with the final outcome.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Future Chicago Bear?

With it being football season, Benji has been doing some male bonding with Daddy and Grandpa while watching Bears games several Sundays this fall. And apparently he's been paying closer attention than we realized. For St. Nicholas Day, one of his presents was a Nerf football (with a University of Illinois logo thanks to Grandma and Grandpa) and immediately upon opening it he declared excitedly "football". It happened that the Bears game was on TV in the background so he went over near the TV, put the ball on end with one finger, and gave it a little kick. Who knew Benji had such good form as a kicker? He then proceeded to do a variety of touchdown dances and hiked the ball to Mommy. He was so excited and knew exactly what to do with his football. It was hysterical, but I got zero photos — I was enjoying it in the moment instead of searching for the camera. And it was great.

Libellés : Benji

Trick or Treat!

After going on the search for the Great Pumpkin, of course we had to carve it. I've never been a big fan of cleaning out the pumpkin and sharp knives still kinda scare me, so Matthew was gracious enough to do both the cleaning and the carving while I took photos. He even baked the seeds for me (but not for Benji due to the choking hazard).

As for Halloween itself, Matthew taught Benji about the mechanics of trick-or-treat before I got home from work but it really looked more like the previous Halloween where he just put stuff in containers and back out again. With a bit more practice he started to get the hang of saying "trick-or-treat". So, it was off to visit the neighbors. Since he didn't fully grasp the concept of Halloween, Benji was the slowest trick-or-treater ever. We only made it down our block and back again before it started getting cold and dark. But Benji was happy as a clam with that. We strolled leisurely from house to house, with Benji reading the house numbers of every neighbor along the way. And for those that had stones in the landscaping, Benji was way more interested in trying to take their rocks than their candy. When we got back to our house, Benji went trick-or-treating at Daddy's door, but then he didn't want to go back in the house. So, he ran in wild circles in our driveway for a while. Imagine how funny it must have looked to have this toddler in an elephant costume doing laps of the driveway!



Benji got a big kick out of helping Daddy to clean the pumpkin. He wanted to see everything that was going on and climbed up on a chair to help scoop out pumpkin guts. Thankfully he was pretty patient in sitting on Mommy's lap during the actual carving so we didn't have any mishaps with the knife.


After Daddy finished carving, Benji wandered into the family room and found the plastic knife that goes with his fake fruit and vegetable set. He had decided he needed to carve the pumpkin too!


What a helpful young lad!


For the second year we dressed Benji as Dumbo again. Most of the costume fit pretty well, although the hood didn't like to stay up (and bobby pins weren't as helpful as I would have liked).


A week after Halloween Benji's park district class had their Halloween party so Benji got to be an elephant again. I think in this picture he's decorating his treat bag with stickers — aahh how we love stickers!

Libellés : Benji

B-E-N-J-I

We all know Benji has loved his letters for ages. Recently we've been working on things like "A is for Apple" and reading a word to him after he reads all the letters to us. Apparently through this Benji has learned to spell. On the changing table last night, out of nowhere, he proudly announced "B-E-N-J-I Benjamin!"

Libellés : Benji

Benji's Birthday Bash

Last year we threw Benji a big first birthday party with all his little "friends" over at the pottery painting store. This year, we went with a more low-key approach that was a blast for Benji.

Just down the street from our house is a large family farm, Didier Farms, that has a fall festival every year. A few days before Benji's birthday I was checking out their website to learn more about this festival and learned about "wristband Thursdays" — all-you-can-ride for $12. Guess what? Benji's birthday was a Thursday this year! How perfect to let him ride as much as he wants for his special day (and at $4 for every pony ride without the wristband, this was a great value)! Matthew took him over about an hour before I got there, where they painted a pumpkin magnet, saw the baby animals, and tried to pick up large pumpkins. During the afternoon he rode the pony ride 5 or 6 times, the kiddie train 6 times, the trucks 2 or 3 times, and just generally loved it!

As if pony rides and train rides weren't enough to make a fantastic birthday for a 2-year-old, we also met my parents at Enchanted Castle, a huge arcade, for pizza and video games. I know two probably sounds a little young for the arcade, but I also got strange looks for having his first birthday pottery painting. Call me crazy, but both were big successes. On weekdays this arcade runs a special with a pizza and 80 tokens to drum up business. So, not only is it super empty so Benji can run around without bumping into people or waiting in line, he also gets so many tokens it might as well be unlimited (like the wristband). What video games does he play, you ask? His two favorites are "Deal or No Deal" and one with a ball that pops in the air and lands in different holes worth different tickets. I think you all know of Benji's obsession with numbers, so it should be no surprise that he loves to sit in Mommy's lap and pick numbers (briefcases) in Deal or No Deal. It's funny to watch him as he carefully considers which number to pick. We try to steer him into choosing the proper deal, but ultimately he gets to make the decision. In the ball game, we think his favorite part is the music that plays between when you put the coin in and when you push the button to release the ball. He does the funniest little dances when he plays this game (note that this video is extremely long).

How could we beat this — pony rides, video games, Grandma and Papa, presents, huge cookie — for a two-year-old's birthday? And top that off with a second celebration two weeks later! (See moM's blog for video of that weekend since our camera wasn't working very well that weekend.) What will we do next year?

Just a lovely fall photo. Matthew told me that Benji got very excited about the pumpkins (they've been reading lots of fall and pumpkin stories at storytime lately) and tried to pick up many of them. Interestingly, when we went back to pick pumpkins for Halloween several weeks later he wasn't interested in the larger ones at all but instead picked out a very small pumpkin that he could easily carry.


Benji's first kiddie ride all by himself. Better hold on tight! (Actually he was really good, holding on and not trying to climb out — all 6 times he rode the train!)


We also let him go on the truck ride (it had seatbelts, too) after he begged. After all, how can you say no to the birthday boy?


I think he looks particularly old in this photo.


His favorite part by far was the pony rides. We didn't get many good photos of the horseys because we were busy taking videos. But Benji loved the horses. And we even got him used to the idea that if he got off, he could get back in line and go again. That was so much nicer than the wailing at the end of the pony ride earlier in the summer. I guess he is getting more mature and rational.


This year Benji was much better at opening his presents. With a little bit of help, he could rip the paper off himself. And he stopped and carefully inspected every present.


Instead of a birthday cake, we took him to the local bakery and let him pick out a treat. He chose a frosted cookie decorated with a doggie. I thought he might be a little upset at eating the doggie, but he was very OK with eating his cookie. He devoured the whole thing, sharing just a little bit with Mommy. No wonder he was so energetic the rest of the evening!


Tickets! Tickets! Benji doesn't understand that tickets buy him prizes (we're saving up for a bigger prize for him) but he still LOVES the tickets. He collects them from the machines very excitedly and then tries to put them back in the ticket slot or the coin slot. He also likes the ticket counting machine and helps us put them in the slot there.

Libellés : Benji

At the Zoo

At the beginning of the summer, moM and daD came out to visit us in our little temporary apartment and to get their Benji fix. Our big day trip during that visit was the Lincoln Park Zoo. Benji certainly liked the animals more than his last zoo visit (after all, he now knows the words for some of them), although the rocks were still more interesting. I think his favorite animal this time was the giraffe (also a favorite animal in his Noah's Ark toy and his animal puzzle).

"Oooh, Gramma! This rock is bigger than the other ones I've played with!"


"Let's see if I can climb the rock..."


"Yep, I sure am good at rock climbing, with Gramma's help."


"Hmmm... Giraffes or Gramma? Which is more fun to watch?"


"Ooh! Little rocks! And plants, too!" There was a conservatory next to the zoo that we took a little walk through. I think Benji rather liked it since so much more was at his eye level than the high fences around the big animals at the zoo.


You can never have too many big rocks to climb.


In the children's zoo there was this section of pipes set up like the old "telephones" — you talk in one tube and someone else listens at the other end. Benji thought this was pretty cool. And, it was just fun to run around among them.


At the beginning of the summer Benji was still a thumb sucker. Sometime over the summer, though — and we're not quite sure when — he just quit on his own. We hadn't even considered yet trying to get him to stop so I guess this is just one more way we should be thankful for such a cooperative child.


In another exhibit in the children's zoo you could get up close and personal with one of the animals in this tunnel. Benji was totally oblivious to the animal, however, and just loved standing in the tunnel. So much so that we had to pull him out so other kids could visit with the animal. What animal was it?


Yep. Still in the tunnel...


Benji and Grampa check out some animals in the monkey house.


Funny potty humor toddler story ahead: So Benji is coming up on the time for toilet training. He loves coming in the bathroom with us and has taken to telling us when he is peeing or pooping. So in the monkey house one of the monkeys (I think the black one at the top of the photo) pooped while we were there. Of course all the kids cried "eww!". Benji joined in and cried out "poop!" very proudly. I think that was his favorite animal moment of the day. Rock climbing and monkey poop. Yep, those are my kid's favorite parts of the zoo.

Libellés : Benji

Our little chatterbox

A mere six months ago we were all impressed at how many words Benji understood. Now it is time to be impressed with all the words he can say.

People: Mommy, Daddy, Papa, Gramma, Benji (sounds like "ahngee"), baby, Luigi, Elmo, Trash (Oscar the Grouch)

Foods: nana (banana), grape, apple, pear, milk, juice, yogurt, cookie, cracker, puffie, Cheerio, pizza, bread, peanut butter, cheese

Animals: duck, dog/doggie, cat, horsey, fish, bird, giraffe, zebra, bear, lion, frog, sheep

Transportation: car, airplane, boat, bike, train

Letters: A-Z

Numbers: 0-10, 11, 12, 18, 19

Shapes: circle, square, star, heart, oval, triangle

Colors: yellow, purple, blue, green, brown, white

Body Parts: nose, ear, mouth, cheek, chin, hair, eye, neck, shoulder, elbow, knee, belly, toe, foot, teeth, arm

Nature walk: rock, tree, flower, sun, moon, beach, grass

Objects: shoe, sock, boo-boo, TV, book, spoon, swing, slide, penny, coin, chair, tray, ball, clock, key, phone, hat, piano, remote, door, fridge

Polite words: please, thank you, bye-bye, hi, hello, help, night-night

Prepositions, etc.: empty, off, on, up, down, outside, no, OK, again

Phrases: oh no, oh my, boom boom (from the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom), Brown Bear (from the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?), all done, the end

And the ever popular: pee and poop

Libellés : Benji

Hooked on Phonics

Now I don't want any of you to read this thinking that I'm a crazy parent or that I think my kid is a genius. But I do want to say that kids pick up on more than we give them credit for, if we'd only pay close attention.

We were out at lunch yesterday and Benji wanted to play with the sugar packets while we were reading the menu. He inspected them quite carefully and paid close attention to the letters on the packets. When he lost interest, I cleaned them up and put them away. Later in the meal he stood on the booth and leaned across the table saying something like "ewal, ewal" and possibly with a "peas" thrown in. I couldn't figure out what on earth he wanted and just wanted him to sit down. But when I looked past his gaze and his outstretched arm, I saw the sugar packets and gave him one. That was precisely what he wanted.

No one had read the packets to him at the beginning of the meal, nor had we paid much attention to him at all at that point. Apparently he had been sounding out the words and "read" his first word. We've also been noticing him sounding out "words" (actually just random letters he put together on the fridge) with his refrigerator magnets.

Ten points to the reader who guesses what word Benji read.

Libellés : Benji

Benji phone home

In the next few months if you get an odd phone call with baby talk gibberish or heavy breathing, it's probably just Benji calling to chat. Or, if you're on the phone with Matthew or I and we suddenly hang up, blame it on Benji. He's really fond of the phone right now, but doesn't quite have the routine down yet. He'll desperately want to talk on the phone and has the most adorable "hello burble" but then he won't say anything. I can't tell you how silly I feel at work when I'm having a one-sided conversation with a toddler. But, when he gets talking away on the phone it's a total riot.


If the phone is within reach, Benji will even answer it for us!


Benji is very fond of the cordless headset phone since it lets him walk around while talking. What a modern baby!


What a multi-tasker! Benji talks on the phone, rocks with baby in his chair, and rings his handbell. I'm not sure one needs to multi-task with that combo of tasks, but Benji seems to think so.





In addition to the phone, Benji is getting the hang of the computer. Of course, he loves anything with buttons.


He looks so cute when he sits in "big people" chairs with those little legs hanging off the edge!

Libellés : Benji

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

While I don't miss more dirty diapers and angry tantrums, there are things I feel like I miss out on while I'm at work and Matthew spends the days with Benji. One of those things is the many times they go to storytime each week. To counter that, we've taken swimming lessons on Saturday mornings at the YMCA for two sessions. Clearly I don't expect him to become a champion swimmer from this, but it's great Mommy and Benji special time.

(And bonus points to those who can identify the title quote.)


Hi Daddy!


Benji is not destined to be a champion backstroker.


He definitely prefers swimming on his tummy, much like he prefers sleeping on his tummy.


Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...


We're learning a bit how to climb out of the pool.


Ducks are still a favorite part of swim class.


After class we sometimes play with just Mommy and Benji in the small shallow section. Benji particularly loves the lane markers and tries to swim towards them.

Libellés : Benji

Who needs Baby Einstein?

So maybe Benji isn't a genius, but this is very impressive.

Libellés : Benji

Let's go fly a kite!

Throughout this past week we've had absolutely gorgeous weather and Benji has been taking full advantage — going to the park, playing in the yard, etc.. The Saturday before last kicked off the beautiful weather and was definitely the best of these gorgeous outdoor days, both in weather and in activity. At the large park on the other side of the county they were having an annual kite festival and it was fantastic! It was free, including a free kite for Benji, and simple but fun. We expected to spend under an hour there, but all three of us liked it so much we spent over two hours!

Admittedly Daddy did way more kite flying than Benji, but Daddy had a great time kite flying (almost got it stuck around a light pole, too). Benji loved running around, watching the kites, and playing with a row of flags or banners right at his height. Partway through the afternoon we walked across the kite flying field to see what else was there and Benji found a small hill that excited him. He climbed up the hill, and back down again, over and over and with minimal help. He's getting to be such a big boy!


Hmm... Let's see what's going on here.


Benji flies his first kite, with a bit of help from Daddy.





Benji just loves wind in his face, and the wind was just perfect for a kite festival.


Benji was particularly fond of the kite tails flapping in the wind.


Daddy, can I help again?





Mommy, please get rid of the dirt on my hand!


Up the hill...


... and back down again.


That's Benji's kite over his shoulder. Pretty nice and flies well for a free kite.


It's kind of weird that we can let Benji run around while we sit on the grass, not needing to chase after him as closely as we once did. He's not nearly as likely to fall, and if he does it's not like I'm going to effectively catch him. So it's nice to find safe locations where we can let him run around a bit on his own.


I just thought this was a nice artsy picture.


Benji walked right up to Daddy and kissed him on the lips with no prompting. How sweet!

Libellés : Benji

A museum just for Benji

Yesterday we decided to check out the local children's museum for the first time. We pretty much let Benji lead us through the museum, picking out what interested him and wandering from one exhibit to the next. The exhibit that excited him the most was of a fake Ukrop's grocery store with a giant banana outside. We were halfway across the museum when he took off running (he spends most of his time running after something we don't yet see, like a far off water fountain). He ended up at the banana and proudly announced "nana!"

We had been trying for a while to practice banana and occasionally would get a "nana" response but I wasn't really convinced it was more than an accident or just mimicry. It turns out Benji really does know banana! Tonight I brought a banana home from work and I was holding it when I hugged him. He wasn't so interested in the hug, but again clearly stated "nana" with no prompting or special attention to the banana. Earlier today he had a banana for lunch and Daddy kept asking him "What's this?" but he refused to answer; instead he "asked" Mommy for her banana. Apparently Benji knows more words than we think he does but only uses them to his advantage or whim.

"Nana!"








Such a healthy shopper! He happily picks out produce like pears and tomatoes.











Benji currently loves playing in the sink at home so it's no wonder we spent a long time at the water exhibit.


What a fun place to climb! He liked climbing up and down the giant tongue, but had no interest whatsoever in going further into the digestive tract; I think that's probably for the best.

Libellés : Benji

Benji's Second Christmas, Round 3

When Benji gets a little older, I think we're going to need to be very clear that Christmas doesn't happen every three days all year round. This year, however, it was fun to celebrate so many times. And he was so unimpressed by much of the festivities that we didn't really have "Christmas hangover". He was spoiled by so many people to play with, but not by too many Christmas presents.


Benji really does look like a toddler compared to Ava here.


Gramma's lap has room for two.


Whose brilliant idea was it to taste Brussels sprouts soda pop?


Such wild partiers on New Year's Eve.


Please read to me, Gramma.


Did you see this pretty ornament, Grampa?


Look! A baby!


Benji just doesn't get it that there are toys under the wrapping paper.


Mommy was a little wary at first about a present of musical instruments, but it turns out they're actually much quieter than all the toys with battery-operated music and they reward more than just button pushing.


Does Benji have Daddy's musical talent?


The aftermath of Christmas.


All tuckered out!


Mommy, can I have your pomegranate? You know I love my fruits.


Crazy Uncle Josh!


I think Benji had more fun with Bumbo than Ava did at Christmas (but I'm sure she'll love it in the coming months).


Look at the daddies and their babies!

Libellés : Benji

Benji the mimic

I know that children have a phase where they learn through mimicking. Benji is undoubtedly in that phase. Some of my favorites:

Nose blowing: With all of Daddy's allergies, Benji sees a lot of nose blowing. For a long time he just thought it was hysterical and would laugh wildly when Daddy blew his nose. Now if you give him a napkin, he will hold it to his face and blow. While this is generally more useful for getting him to wipe food off his face than for getting snot out of his nose, he has occasionally cleared his nose, too.

The telephone: While Benji hasn't yet gotten the hang of the fact that he needs to talk into the telephone, he does love to walk up to me or Daddy when we're on the phone and ask for the receiver. Then he just listens. So if you're ever calling us and suddenly hear dead air or heavy breathing, just keep talking. Benji loves to listen.

Hand sanitizing: After changing Benji's diaper if I think I won't get to the sink so quickly I'll use a bottle of hand sanitizer on his dresser. Last night when I was getting him ready for bed he stood up on the changing table and reached over to the dresser. Of course I thought he was trying to climb off the changing table. Instead he took one hand and touched the sanitizer pump and then brushed his hands together as if he were rubbing the imaginary liquid in. It was totally adorable!

Hair brushing: One of Benji's favorite pastimes is to open up the drawers in our bathroom and pull out every item one by one (don't worry — we've taken out the dangerous stuff). We find things all over the house (sealed toothbrushes in the kitchen, packages of dental floss in the family room, hairbrushes in the rec room, etc.). But whenever he comes to a hairbrush in the drawer, he stops and brushes his hair for a while. Sometimes he brushes with the handle, but most of the time he even gets the right end in his hair. We are more than happy to encourage these early attempts at personal care.

Kissing: Matthew first described Benji's kissing a few weeks back and we still see this on and off. He will hold his hand to his mouth and pull it away ceremoniously while saying "Mmmmmmmmah!" There's the cutest little uptick in his pitch at the end to give it good emphasis.

Mama: Building upon the "Mmmmmmmmah!" sound of kissing, we've been trying to get Benji to say mama. Last weekend he started saying the mama sound pretty well although he still doesn't associate it with Mommy. We're continuing to work on that one (or at least I am).

Household chores: Benji has been fascinates with the dishwasher for at least a month now, but in the last few days Benji has started helping Mommy put away the dishes. He will open the door and bring me the pots and their lids or the silverware, closing the door in between each item. And tonight for the first time I saw him sweep the floor. He walked up to the broom and started swishing it back and forth. Unfortunately he hit into the walls a few times with the top of the handle so I think we need to get him his own little broom.

Other cute tidbits:

Sippy cup: In the past few weeks Benji has gotten extremely good with his sippy cup. He will pick it up off the tray himself and turns it around so the spout is the right direction. We used to have to help him hold it high enough to get the liquid out, but he now seems to understand that he should do this (sometimes he still needs help, but he's doing it himself more consistently). And two days ago he even decided that the cup needed to go into the round hole on his tray and put it there. Since we never put the cup there, we thought that was a pretty good observation of Benji's.

Going out: After all the attention we paid to shoes (and particularly Ava's Crocs) over Christmas, Benji clearly understands that word now. Shortly after Christmas he figured what it means if Mommy says "Bring Mommy your shoe" and most of the time would comply. (Of course, sometimes it's Mommy's shoe, but most of the time it's his shoe.) Now he understands that this means we're going out and that he needs his shoes and his coat. He also tells us he wants to go out by either bringing us his shoe or by standing at the laundry room door to the garage and knocking on it. It's not uncommon for me to come home from work to find Benji "opening" the door and peeking into the garage for me. Now that's the way to come home!

Libellés : Benji

Putting up the Christmas tree

Christmas is over, the outdoor lights are put away, the cookies are almost gone, and Benji's presents are finally all opened (he lost interest quickly in present opening so we didn't finish opening Santa's presents until this past weekend). So, that means it's time to write about decorating for Christmas, right?

As with everything else these days, decorating the Christmas tree took longer than usual. Matthew did most of the assembling while I entertained Benji, and vice-versa for the lights and garland. For a while Benji was actually interested in the tree and bringing Daddy branches but then the allure of the front staircase was just too much and he went climbing. You see, the front of the house is gated off so Benji rarely gets to see the front staircase or the front rooms and it's always a new adventure to him when he does get to explore there.

That night Benji also started using everyday objects as telephones. He found the remote for the Christmas lights and held it up to his face like a phone. It's particularly interesting that he has picked up on this since we normally use a headset phone and fairly rarely use a receiver. Still, it was very adorable and the start of a new Benji game. Over Christmas he loved when Grandpa would give him the real phone and Benji would stand in the kitchen waiting to be picked up and given the phone. And when we called Grandma for her birthday this week, Benji kept coming over and grabbing the phone to listen to Grandma. No talking; just listening. Apparently he does the same thing sometimes when I call home from work.


What a big boy helping Daddy assemble the tree!


Climbing the stairs is more fun than putting up the tree, especially since Benji doesn't get to see the front staircase very often.


Although Benji could walk by this point, he was still crawling far more than walking. Today he rarely crawls.


Benjamin has started pretending various objects are telephones. Here he's using the remote for the Christmas lights.





I think the Hershey's Kiss lights were especially appealing to Benji with their bright colors and cartoon-character shape.

Libellés : Benji

Benji's pet rock

As has the rest of the country, we've had an exceptionally warm winter this year. We've had several seventy-degree days in December and January, including today. Of course we like to spend as much time outside as possible on those days — and so does everyone else. When Matthew and Benji go to the playground on weekdays they get the swings and slide pretty much to themselves. On these warm weekends in winter, though, the playground has been so crowded! The slide is especially problematic with lots of bigger kids running around that area.

So when we went to the playground on one of these warm December days just before Christmas, Benji decided to leave the slide behind and take us on a nature walk. At that time he still didn't like to walk in public without holding a Mommy or Daddy finger so he grabbed Daddy and walked him into the wooded area around the playground.

While wandering around in the woods, Benji stopped to look at things in far more detail than any of us jaded adults do anymore. Everything was fascinating to him — the dried leaves, the tree bark, the rocks on the ground. Ah, yes, the rocks. He found one rock in particular that he loved and carried it around the rest of the afternoon. Even when he dropped it, he found that specific rock again and picked it back up. And in classic Benji style, he would give it to one of us, but expect it back again. Is this the beginning of a rock collection?


Do you like my new rock?


Uh oh! I think I dropped it.


Daddy, can you hold this please?



I don't want it in my pocket!!!


Mommy, we're going this way.


Aren't we cute twins?

Libellés : Benji