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!"
A nifty lamp for Benji's bedroom. (The old house had overhead lights in all the bedrooms. This house does not so right now Benji has a living room table lamp in his bedroom. I would like to have something more kid-friendly for him.)
A kitchen faucet with a sprayer. (The current one doesn't have a sprayer and the on/off handle isn't on the spigot. I never knew I could miss the sprayer. I do.)
VTech Touch 'N Discover Alphabet Town. (Every time we go to Target's toy section he hunts this toy down and plays with it. He even saw it out of the corner of his eye at Wal-Mart and kept asking for "wheels on bus" which turns out to mean this toy.)
Items related to Curious George, Elmo, and Clifford.
Seriously. We just watched it five times in a row because he kept on asking.
In other Christmas news, this Chicago Christmas light website is so useful that if it didn't exist, I would've had to create it. Oh wait. It didn't, and I did.
At least Iowa State's football team got three wins.
With seven games remaining, the Miami Dolphins are mathematically eliminated from winning the AFC East. If this weekend Miami loses to Philadelphia, Jacksonville beats San Diego, and Tennessee beats Denver, the Dolphins will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with six games remaining.
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.
Over the weekend, my car finally turned over 30,000 miles. This may not sound like much, but recall that my car is a 2002. Knock on wood, it's still running great! But it's still too bad the warranty isn't for the later of 3 years or 36K miles.
This is what happens when you don't Google yourself often enough.
I was subbing for Chicago Bronze today, and someone mentioned that they had seen a college group performing my handbell piece "Cumulonimbus" on YouTube. And, um, yep, there it was, online for six months before I'd seen it:
The performance is a little slow but otherwise isn't bad -- particularly for a group that, as the comments say, had only five people who had rung before.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
