Blocks

Just as with the table and chairs, Ben has been telling us that he might like blocks. He does this by stacking things. He started with boxes of Indian curry from Trader Joe's and progressed to cans, which he does wonderful things with. So finally we went to Waltham and combined lunch at our favorite Guatemalan restaurant (Ben loves the rice and beans and the guacamole) with a trip to the Construction Site, a toy store that specializes in construction toys, and bought him a nice set of blocks. He is very happy with them (but still stacks cans sometimes for old times' sake).

Birthday greeting

Ben's mommy's actual birthday was on a Monday, and Ben went to school and came back with a message for his mommy.

Butterflies!

The next day, Ben and his parents went to a butterfly garden, a big greenhouse-like building with thousands of butterflies in it, of all sorts. Ben thought it was interesting but a little alarming.

Hotel room

Ben thought it was fun to stay in a hotel room, with its giant bed. He has been much more interested in books lately, and liked sitting in the big chair and having a story read to him by his daddy. Of course he also liked jumping on the bed and playing ball in the room.

Mommy's birthday

For his mommy's birthday, Ben and his parents went out to western Massachusetts, in the Amherst/Northampton area, to have a family weekend. They went to Atkin's farm market to have some lunch (meatloaf and potato chips for Ben). It's a place his daddy used to go all the time when he was in college. Then they went to the Eric Carle museum of picture book art. Eric Carle is the guy who wrote "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." Ben liked looking at some of the original art, but he loved the big lobby and the library, which is stuffed full of wonderful picture books and lots of toys. It's a great museum for little kids. He'll have even more fun there in a couple years, when he can see the puppet plays and spend a little more time looking at the art.

Snowsuit

Ben is ready for the snow. he even has mittens, although his parents have not yet been able to convince him to wear them.

Bellydancing baby

Ben likes his mom's bellydancing scarves. They make good jingly noises, and you can play peekaboo with them. He practiced dancing with her best one in order to get ready for going to see her dance (and lots of other people dancing) at her class performance/bellydance party in a restaurant near his house. He loved being in a place where people were both jingly and showing their bellybuttons (he's been a little obsessed with belly buttons). However, he was tired, and it eventually became overwhelming, so he had to go home. That meant he missed Melina spinning a sword, balanced on a dagger that she held in her mouth, an act that truly amazed Sibel, who came along for the evening's entertainment.

New table and chairs

Ben was telling his parents for some time after he started school that he wanted a chair. He'd sit in his pushcart, he'd sit on a pile of books, he even sat on a jar of peanut butter. So finally one day his mommy took him to Ikea, where they bought him a table and chairs (and some more meatballs). It was a little tall, though, so daddy cut an inch and a half off all the legs, and finished the wood. Ben just loves his table and chairs. He sits in the chairs every day, and likes to do art at the table, and also eat snacks there. He also pushes them around the house depending on where he thinks they should be on a given day. He also figured out that he can use a chair to get at a higher shelf, much to his parents' dismay.

Pennsylvania connections

Ben's big cousin Kara, whose wedding he went to in the summer, was in town for business and stopped by to visit. Ben was very happy to see her. He is also very proud of his new Penn State sweatshirt, a present from Grandpa Roy and Grandma Bert.

Trick or Treating

On Halloween night, Ben liked hanging out on the porch and handing out candy, as well as going up and down the stairs. We went around the block to see the scene, and he had a great time at Liam's. They both were very interested in throwing candy and running around crazy. Ben was also very happy to have some pretzels at Julia's house, and was so impressed with her costume as a scuba diver that he was using his parents' reading lamp as a scuba apparatus many days later.

Halloween parade

At Ben's school, Riverside Children's Center, they do a Halloween costume parade through Waban (the Newton they are in). Andy went along (Jekka had to teach). They all put on their costumes, and then got in their special wagon for the parade. The bigger kids walked, and the babies rode in their special giant stoller. A wonderful time was had by all, and afterwards the whole school all had chicken nuggets and tater tots for lunch.

Carving a pumpkin

Ben enjoyed helping his parents carve a pumpkin for halloween, especially the part where he kept dropping a spoon and a toy car inside and then fishing them out.

New word

Ben has added the word "hat" to his vocabulary. When there is a witch's hat in "Where is Baby's Pumpkin?" he says "hat" and pats his head.

New adventures in eating

Ben is increasingly interested in eating with a spoon. For a week he wanted cheerios and milk for breakfast and ate it with a spoon. (He generally doesn't eat much breakfast, and what he's willing to eat then changes constantly.) He also eats other things with a spoon, although often the spoon goes a little too vertical and the food slips off. He also sometimes just uses the spoon as an intermediate tool, such as with ice cream, which he usually scoops up with a spoon, but often eats by taking the ice cream off the spoon with his hand (ice cream is thus a particularly messy dish).

The children's area at the apple orchard

At one stop, at the middle of the route, there is a play area, with donkey rides (when he's bigger), a petting zoo, food, and equipment to play on. He enjoyed seeing the animals, and petting a goat. He tried climbing a straw pyramid, put himself into pictures as an apple and a buffallo, and had some pizza. It was a wonderful day, and tired him out.

Apple Picking

A ritual of fall here in Massachusetts is going apple picking. Ben went with his parents to a local organic farm that is set up primarily for apple-picking trips. They have a little "train" that goes between different areas of the farm, each with different sorts of apples and pears. The route is a brick-paved grape arbor. In order to make picking easier, they even train the trees so they grow along a flat plane, and keep them short, so all the apples can be reached without a ladder. Ben had a wonderful time. He liked walking in the orchard and picking (up) apples. He also discovered that he likes biting into apples. He didn't eat a great deal, but he certainly bit alot.