Labor Day

On Labor Day, we played on the beach again in the morning, after having a little breakfast in the room. We did more castle building and some smashing, and walked a little by the shore. The tide was coming in very fast, and Ben was a little spooked by the waves. His mama made a series of 10 little castles as sentinels, so we could watch the progress of the tide coming in as they were swept away. We brought leftover muffin along to the beach so that Ben could feed the gulls, because feeding the gulls is central in Curious George Goes to the Beach. Ben had a fun time feeding them, although one of them stepped on one of the sentinels. After the water came up near our castle, we took a quick swim in the hotel pool (Ben enjoyed it although it's very different from the lake), went out to breakfast, and went home to get ready for the beginning of the new semester.

Pillow Fight

Ben loves staying in hotels. He likes to jump on the bed and explore everything. This time, he also had great fun having a pillow fight with Andy. He now keeps trying to start pillow fights with his parents at naptime. Luckily they don't use pillows at daycare, or he might be starting them there too.

Labor Day trip

On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Ben and his parents went off for a one-day trip to the coast of Maine to have a last little summer vacation. We were in a town called Wells Beach. The water was very cold, so we just waded a little in it, but Ben had a great time playing in the sand with his buckets and shovels. He and his parents made a nice sandcastle, and Ben had an even better time stomping on it than he did making it.

Week without school

The last week of August, Ben's school was closed, so he spent lots of time in playgrounds with one parent or the other. One day we all three together went on an outing to Ikea and a nearby toy store. Ben liked the meatballs and had lots of fun in the children's area, trying out all the little beds. He was particularly fond of one with a canopy. At the toy store, Ben got a baseball mitt, ball, and bat. His friend Liam has a mitt, and Ben thought it was great. He has been practicing catching with it and loves throwing the ball with his daddoo. He tends to throw the ball with his mitted hand, but he's still pretty good at throwing. Catching he's still working on.

Carshow and more cars

While Joanne was visiting, we all went to a carshow at a local car museum. Ben thought it was very interesting to see all the old cars, and particularly liked the play area in the museum, which was full of all kinds of car toys, especially ones to climb in. He also liked climbing in the firetruck in the elementary school playground at Newton Center, where we all went to play and have a picnic. There's also a big new playground there that he likes but I don't have any pictures of it yet. Back at home, Ben got several more toy cars for his birthday, so his collection is somewhere over 60 vehicles by now. He likes to set up car shows with them, and also to arrange them into an "apple street," his name for a traffic circle. He started making apple streets in England, where there are lots of them.