Life At Home - Gone Fishin'

I'm not sure what prompted it, but Ben recently got it into his head that he wanted a fishing rod. This past weekend, that's all he talked about. "Go get fishing rod? Go fishing? Look at fishing rods, Mama?" He was non-stop. So, we took a trip this weekend and Daddy and Ben each got a fishing rod. We all went out for the first time today.

My little man was so cute in his little bucket hat (which he now calls his fishing hat), carrying his fishing pole (which is twice as tall as he is) tromping down the path to the water. First we went to Gay City State Park in Hebron. We stayed there for only a few minutes because there were a bunch of teenagers making a whole bunch of noise.




So, then we decided to drive down the road to Bolton Lake. We had more luck there. Eric actually caught 2 fish!







We had a good time. If you're interested in seeing more pictures of the day you can check out my album on Facebook.

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We've been pretty busy lately. Sorry if this post is too much for some of you, but for the family who read there are quite a few pics included with this post.

First, we had Easter. Ben woke up Easter morning and was all excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought him. This kid made out like a bandit! Really, I think we went a little overboard. It seemed more like Christmas than Easter. Oh well. It was fun. Here's Ben with his Easter basket:

Here he's trying to scare me with the dinosaur that was in the basket:

So, after a very fun morning we get ready and drive over the Grammy's house to spend the day with family. We're there for all of 10 minutes and disaster strikes. Ben went running down the hallway, tripped over a chair and went flying. He had a mouth full of blood and just about gave me a heart attack. He had a hole under his lip. We decided to take him to the Emergency Room because I was concerned that he might need stitches. We went to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. I have to say, they were wonderful there. He ended up needing 3 stitches just under his bottom lip. How do you put stitches in the face of a 2-year-old? You either hold them down or sedate him. We decided against sedation for a variety of reasons so they just wrapped him up in a sheet like a burrito and they did what they needed to. We had a conversation with the Dr about whether or not he could or would pull the stitches out. He said it was extremely unlikely. What do you think happened? He pulled every one of them out overnight. When he came out of his bedroom in the morning they were all gone! I couldn't believe it! Oh well. The Dr said it wasn't worth putting them back in again. He'll likely have a scar there now but he's only 2 so it won't be very noticeable when he's older.
I'm so mad - I don't have any pictures of his first ever stitches (cause I'm just sure they won't be the last)!

This past Saturday we decided to take a family trip to the Southwick Zoo. It was nice outside and we wanted to take advantage of the warm wather. I also had a BOGO coupon from the Entertainment book so it was a great deal.

This tiger was right up next to the fence!

They had a small playground. This is Ben on one of the slides.

A Mommy and Daddy Baboon. There's a baby hiding in mom's lap but we could only get glances of it.

Eric took this one of Ben and I on the train ride they have.

Eric and Ben

If you've been reading lately, you know that Ben is a huge fan of Thomas now. He absolutely loves trains and the Thomas characters in particular. We were very lucky to get a fantastic deal on a train table, the tracks and a whole mess of trains secondhand through a co-worker of mine. Ben was ecstatic! After we put him to bed last night, Eric and I stayed up and put the whole thing together.
That's what he's been doing aaaalllll day! We had to go out for a while this morning and all he kept saying the whole time was, "Go play Thomas? Go home play Thomas?"


That's the update. Oh! one more thing for those of you interested. Do you remember the litter of kittens that we fostered for a while? Click here to see the original post. We kept the longhair male with the raging eye infection (third pic in that post). Here's what he looks like now:

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Thomas and Friends Live on Stage

I was lucky enough to get 4 free tickets from MomSelect to see Thomas and Friends Live on Stage: A Circus Comes to Town! The show was last night and Ben and I went along with my brother, Jon, and nephew, Jacob. We had a great time!

Ben has become a huge Thomas fan of late. If you read my recent post you know how excited he was about his new Thomas playset. His new favorite movie is Thomas and Friends: The Great Discovery. He quotes whole scenes of that movie while he's playing or when we're in the car. He can name all of the engines. So, when we told him we were going to see Thomas he was absolutely thrilled. He had been looking forward to it for weeks.

We had a great time at the show. Before it started many of the cast members came out and walked through the audience talking with kids and getting everyone amped up. Ben didn't talk to anyone but everytime one of them walked by he turned to me and would say "Mama, look! Train driver!" or "Mama, look! Clown!" As soon as the lights went down he became absolutely still and quiet. His eyes were huge! He kept saying, "Where Thomas?" over and over again until he came out. I was a little worried that a 2 year old would lose interest part way through the show and not want to sit still, but he was absolutely enthralled. He sat in his seat and watched the entire show while pointing to things and naming the characters the whole time.
After the show Ben couldn't wait to get home to tell Daddy all about it. He got a new conductor's hat and kept saying that he wanted to "show Daddy!"

It was a really great show and would definitely be worth checking out for any fans of Thomas and Friends. I know Ben will be talking about it for weeks. The show is currently on tour and I highly recommend checking to see if it's coming to a city near you. Click Here for a listing of dates and cities.

Here's Ben with his new conductor's cap. He likes to wear it backwards because it's still a little big and it covers his eyes when he wears it right. That's James (the engine) in his hand, by the way. As soon as he woke up this morning he wanted to play with his Thomas toys.

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Life at Home - Thomas the Train and Potty Training

I haven't posted anything for Family Time Friday for quite a while because 1) Nothing all that interesting has been happening, 2) I have not been very good about taking pictures recently and 3) Fridays have been busy for me lately. So, instead of posting family updates on Friday I've decided to start new "Life at Home" posts. These will probably be posted on Tuesdays but may appear on other days of the week as well depending on what's going on in our lives. So, for all of my family members that look for new pics of Ben, check back a few times a week.



Ben's latest obsession is Thomas. You know - the little blue train who lives with all of his other train friends on the Island of Sodor? I'm sure all you moms out there know what I'm talking about. He loves trains and has recently started watching Thomas DVD's. Now he recites a list of all the trains' names. Thomas and Percy and Gordon and Emily, etc, etc... We're going to see Thomas Live on Stage in April and he's very excited about that. He mentiones it probably once a day. So, today we were at Target just looking around. Of course, we went down the toy aisles and, of course, they had a whole Thomas section. He looked around for a while and spotted this:

(It's the Learning Curve Take Along Thomas and Friends Morgan's Mine Set in case you were wondering)

It's a pretty large box - not heavy, but large - with a handle on the top. It was on the bottom shelf so he grabbed it and started dragging it down the aisle. He stops, looks back at Eric and I and says "Take it home! Pay for it!" Then he started dragging it towards the front of the store. It was just so darn cute all we could do was laugh. We don't give in every time he wants to take something home but decided today it was ok. We started following him and I asked if he wanted to put it in the carriage. He said "No! Pay for it!" I explained that we could carry it to the front of the store in the carriage to pay for it. He just said, "No!" He was determined to do it himself. I so wish I had a video camera with me.

We got home and put it together and he played with it for (I kid you not!) FOUR HOURS! That doesn't mean much to you if you don't have a 2 year old and don't know Ben but suffice it to say that this is a kid who doesn't play with one toy for more than 10 minutes at a time. Eric and I were stunned! He sat on the floor and played with this thing for Four Hours!

Today was also another milestone for Ben. He pee-peed in the potty for the first time!! Woo-Hoo! I was so proud of him! He just turned 2 at the end of January so we haven't really done much in terms of potty training yet. He tells us when he has a dirty diaper and sometimes he tells us he wants to go to the potty but he only sits on it for a couple of seconds and says "all done!" Today I was getting him ready for bed. I was changing his diaper so he was naked and then started jumping on the bed. Then he stopped and started peeing. Once he realized what he was doing he actually stopped himself from going! I scooped him up and ran him into the bathroom and sat him on the potty and he actually finished going in the toilet! I was so excited! He thought it was great because he got to flush the toilet. lol That was his great reward. Obviously this doesn't mean he's going to be potty trained by tomorrow but it's a great start and I'm happy he's starting to get the idea. Maybe we'll have to try some Pull-Ups now. We'll see how it goes. I'll be so happy when we're done with diapers.

That's what's new with us. Stay tuned for another update soon.

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Family Time Friday

Ben was all about getting messy this week:

Daddy was sharing an ice cream cone but I think he got all of two bites.

I told Ben to smile and say "cheese" and this is what I got.

He got some finger paints for Christmas and he loves them!

He decided to paint himself, too. He was using Crayola's washable finger paints. I have to say, they are great! We put him in the tub after he was done and it washed right off with no scrubbing or anything.

In other news, we've been doing some major wedding planning. The date is set for Christmas Eve of this year and I think we've decided on the venue for both the ceremony and reception. And, instead of the traditional evening reception, I think we're going to have a morning ceremony and a brunch reception. I'm very excited because I found the perfect dress. It was the last one I tried on and I immediately knew it was the one. My Mom and Maid of Honor were with me and they agreed. Of course, my mom cried so that was the best sign that this was the one.

Today is the last day to order from my Tastefully Simple online party in case anyone is interested. I would be so appreciative if anyone decides to order. You can Click Here to order online.

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Family Time Friday

Nothing really all that new this week but I thought I would share these pics of Eric and Ben. They are a couple of my favorites:

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Family Time Friday

This past Sunday it was kinda yucky outside and it was really cold so we decided to try an indoor playground that we've heard of. It's called the Great Escape and it's in Glastonbury if there are any other CT readers out there. Ben loved it! He had such a blast!

They have a huuuuuge playscape area for kids and they have a smaller area for little kids. Small kids can go in the larger playscape with a parent, too. They also have quite a few arcade games and skee ball and other games. The place was a little run down and there were quite a few arcade games that were out of order, but all in all the place was really fun. We're thinking about having Ben's 2nd birthday party here.

Here are some pics of the day:

He thought he was driving the car.

About to go down the slide.

His favorite game is the basketball. He kept going back to it and saying "Dunk it! Dunk it!" He actually made a few baskets, too!

He tried so hard to play Skee-Ball but he just couldn't roll the ball hard enough to get it up the ramp. It kept rolling back to him.

He loooves the slide!

He also had a blast in the ball pit. Eric kept throwing him in and he was laughing so hard!

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Family Time Friday

Lots of pics and a couple of videos in this post. Sorry if it takes some time to load.

I've mentioned before that Ben is a huge fan of Hi-5. He dances and sings along with the songs and just has a blast. It's the only show that holds his attention for an entire 25 minutes. Every other show he just glances at and goes about his business. He must ask to watch Hi-5 10 times a day or more. We have to seriously limit his viewing. lol

Here's Ben dancing to one of the Hi-5 songs:


In case you're not familiar with Hi-5, it's a "band" made up of 5 young people who sing and perform skits. The show is geared towards kids aged 2-8. Here's a video of one of Ben's favorite Hi-5 songs:


Here's a video of Ben dancing to one more song. Actually, this one doesn't have very much dancing, but he loves to sing along with it.


I highly recommend this show. It's very clean, the kids on the show are great, and Ben definitely learns from the skits. He has actually started counting on his fingers because of a Hi-5 skit that he likes. It's also very refreshing to see a kids show where everyone dresses appropriately! The girls (and guys too) wear clothing that's funky and colorful without showing cleavage or anything else not really appropriate for young kids. It's on Discovery kids at 7am and 12pm in my area. You should definitely check it out.


On another note, we found homes for all of the kittens. "Bootsie" the short-haired black female went to a co-worker of my mother's, "Romeo" the short-haired male went to a friend of Eric's and "Patches" the long-haired tortie went to a friend of my co-worker's. I'm so happy that they all found great homes!

So, what about the fourth kitten? His name is now "Sylvester" and he's officially a part of the family. He's sitting on my lap keeping me warm as we speak. Smoosh, our other cat, still isn't quite sure about him. He tolerates Sylvester using his litterbox and eating out of his bowl but he doesn't really want to play with or cuddle up to the kitten yet. Frankie, on the other hand, seems to really like the kitten. Frankie is our French Bulldog for those of you who don't know. Here are Frankie and Sylvester sleeping nose to nose:




Lastly, this week Eric and I had some alone time because Ben stayed with Grammy (my mom) for part of last weekend. We took a beautiful walk along a trail that happens to be right down the road. I just love the fall. It's my favorite time of year so I wanted to share a photo from our walk:

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Family Time Friday

Unfortunately, Ben hasn't been feeling well for most of this week. He started with a runny nose last weekend and has been a little off ever since. Some days were better than others but for the most part he was feeling pretty yucky and was very clingy. We did have some fun moments, though:

Daddy shared some pizza with Ben and he wanted to eat it by himself. "Hold it! Hold it!" That's what he says when he wants to do it himself. I'm not sure how much of that piece he actually ate. lol

We got this Radio Flyer Rock n Bounce Pony for him for his birthday. He loves to jump and bounce so we thought it would be perfect. His feet couldn't reach the floor for a while, but now he's big enough to do it himself. He has a blast on this thing!

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Family Time Friday

This week was pretty uneventful in our house. We didn't go anywhere or do anything outside of our normal daily routine. I did get some really cute pictures of Ben with the kittens, though.

He had just given the kitty a kiss!

Hug! Poor kitty looks like she's being squished but he really didn't have her that tightly. I promise! lol 2 seconds after this was shot he dropped her and she sat right on his lap. The other two don't really like it when he holds them but this little girl doesn't really seem to care.

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