A Big Box O' Benny

Tia had to cancel today, and I had a super busy morning at work. Balancing Benny entertainment with pressing work demands was stressful, but luckily Benny is awesome at making his own fun. The house was covered in stickers & yogurt, and I'm pretty sure I was the only person on the conference call changing a diaper but we made it through.

Toward the end of the morning, Benny was pretending that the blue crate was a car. When this picture was taken he was playing with his slinky (thanks Tracey!) and told me that he was in the little hot pool like the big kids.

Thanks Easter Bunny!

We had a lot of fun decorating easter eggs! Benny didn't really understand how to put them gently in the dye, and thought it was hysterical to chuck them in the cups and make the dye splash. Crazy guy.

We had a great time on Saturday hiking in the woods, and at the end of the hike Daniel broke off and hid the easter eggs he had stashed in his coat. Benny was super excited to find them, and lucky to have blitz to help him hunt.

there's a hole in my dog park!

Benny and Blitz found this hole and spent 15 minutes playing in it -- they would have spent 4 hours if I had let them.

I miss the convenience of the field right around the corner, but having to take blitz to the dog park gets us out on adventures. And, now that we've found the "New Dog Park" that is not too far, or too muddy, or too busy, it makes the whole thing a lot more fun for all of us.

And, Benny loves it. Tonight he fell asleep asking for more new dog park.

formal dog park

Benny insisted on wearing his tie to the dog park. He was being super insane and ran into the lake and fell face first in to the water. I took off his coat, and luckily he was wearing tights so I peeled his soaking jeans off him for the walk back to the car. In all the chaos, we lost the tie -- I can only imagine what people thought about finding a tie at the dog beach!

benny blog: take 3!

We're going to give this another shot. Benny does at least 6 amazing things a day and I want you all to be able to keep up with his discoveries and adventures.

Happy Camper

We went on my belated birthday camping trip this weekend!

Last year I almost cancelled the whole thing because camping with a baby seemed insane. Benny loved camping--and we had no concerns when we headed out to the woods for labor day.

This year I almost cancelled the whole thing because camping with a toddler seemed impossible.

Then our plans for getting out early on Friday were thwarted by Thursday afternoon. But, we loaded the car, packed the cooler, and headed out to what turned out to be the best camp site ever.

Benny ran and played with the dogs, splashed in the little creek that ran through the camp, walked in the woods, and generally got good and dirty. He was so happy when he woke up on Sunday and realized he was still in the tent that he immediately started to laugh.

Cafe Lord of the Flies

Mosaic is a community coffee shop we like to hang out at because of their demitasse room--a big room full of toys and insane kids. It's a great place to meet up with a friend, but recently Benny and I have been going once a week because he can play while I get work done.

One of the things I worry about as a stay-at-home is that I am depriving Benny of important social development at daycare. But, at Mosaic he gets a chance to learn how to play with other kids, resolve conflicts, and navigate the world without me holding his hand.

Rainy days tend to be pure chaos, and last week Benny got overwhelmed and needed me to be right next to him. I didn't get much work done. Today's rainy day he spent a lot of time standing next to me and holding onto me while he watched the action. I was starting to worry, but I continued to support him and encourage him to go and play without coddling him. By the end of the morning he was mixing it up with the other kids and didn't want to leave!

He's usually sleeping by the time we get home, and last week fell asleep mid chew of his bagel!