Rocking at the Zoo

We had a fun outing to the zoo this past Saturday. The group, Rock-A-Baby, that holds Benjamin's weekly music class put on a concert which was a hit with both Benj and Julia, we saw quite a few animals, we had lemonade, and we played in the new water area. Here's a peek at the fun:

Waiting for the show to start

Catching and popping bubbles at the end of the concert

More bubbles!

Had to get one of these:

Benj's first solo dog picture

lemonade!

Landscaping Part 1

With the warmer weather finally here we have started to turn our attention to the outside of our new house. We have started planning and tackling quite a few projects - more than we anticipated I think - and are starting to get a better of idea of what we're looking for long-term. We've spent quite a few afternoons on our first project - clearing back the brush in the woods behind our house. Our first goal in doing this is to push back the tick line a bit but it has turned out that it's actually going to end up being a nice extension of our yard... after having some trees cut down, leaves and branches cleared, ground leveled, and grass planted! We're making progress though and have been happy with each step that is completed. For today I have pictures of my clearing efforts:

 The piles were eventually MUCH bigger! And while I did most of the digging and pulling, Andrew had what I considered the most arduous task - cutting and bundling it all. Pictures of that to come!

Heard (and seen) around our house

Keeping me entertained this week:

• Julia needed to go to the bathroom during dinner the other night. At the time, Benjamin had been making funny faces at her to get her to laugh. So when she asked to be excused, she said "Mom, I need to go potty - can you pause Benjamin for me?"

• Benjamin helped to unload the dishwasher and then load up the breakfast dishes Wednesday morning. After we were through he found another dirty spoon on the table, brought it over to the dishwasher, had me open it, and then proceeded to put the spoon in the utensil holder. He put it in and then I noticed him looking at the other spoons in there... after a couple of seconds, he took it back out, turned it around (so it faced down like all the rest), and put it back. Wow. I can only hope for your future wife's sake that you always pay so much attention!

• Julia spent some time with Grandma Les on Tuesday, helping in the garden and around the yard. When she came home we needed to plant a few things in our yard. As were putting a thyme plant in, she spotted a pom-pom on the ground. She then proceeded to pick it up, dig another little hole, and plant it. She explained to me that she was growing pom-pom bushes and that she had planted some at Grandma's too! It could be interesting to see how this develops! 

• And, in case you're wondering, the pom-pom she found was dropped for her by a bird. We have scavenger hunts almost daily to see if any pom-pom birds left her presents overnight!

Play Ball!

This past weekend was opening weekend for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Julia who is a big baseball fan and has been looking forward to heading to a game for weeks actually went to 2 games! She, Grandpa Rick, and Alex went to a game on Saturday and then we all headed back to Pawtucket on Sunday. It was a bit chilly but we stayed through all 12(!!) innings and thankfully the Paw Sox won in the end!

Benjamin also seemed to have a good time. It helped that we were sitting on a grassy area in the outfield and he could wander around as he pleased.

Of course, one of the highlights of the ballpark for Julia is the food and somehow, even though it was pretty cold, she ate a freezepop - blue raspberry as you can tell!

And Paws came to visit us in the outfield!

When we were leaving Julia was already asking when the next game was so I think we'll be back in the stadium quite a few times this summer!

Writing

Here are a few samples of Julia's current writing. On the left, from top to bottom are "NO-NO", "BROTHER NO-NO", and "CUCUMBER." On the right is "SHOE." The words are all her choices - I suggested cat or cup or bat but those were a no-go!

Heard Around Our House

From Julia:

• Andrew was away a couple of weeks ago and due home around 6:00. At about 5pm Julia started looking at the clock and asking when Daddy would be home. I explained that the big hand needed to be on the 12 and the little hand on the 6. So the big hand had to go all the way around the clock. She was satisfied with that for a few minutes and then she asked again when Daddy would be home. I repeated my answer to which she responded "Mom, can't you just move the hand to the 12?"
• That same night Julia and Benjamin were in the tub and Julia was practicing her swimming. I asked her to be careful because she kept kicking Benjamin. She asked why and I told her because she was getting big and took up almost the whole tub. Her response was "I need a bigger tub!"
• A couple of days Julia was pretending to be a doctor. I was picking some things up at the time and she wanted me to be the patient. So she came over and asked me what was wrong. I said "I have a very messy house." Her reply: "I can't help you with that."
• This morning Julia woke up, came downstairs, and with a huge smile on her face announced to Benj and I, "I am as happy as a bug!" I'm not exactly sure what that means but I'm happy that she's happy!

From Benjamin:

• diaper, 
• stinky (as in "stinky diaper") which makes him crack-up at the same time, and
• ice cream (this one is sort of an interpretation on my part but he makes the same sound every time and there's no doubting what he means!)

Julia's Gallery - The Whale

Materials: marker on paper

Comments: The whale is swimming in a yellow ocean. This is one of the first pictures where Julia has drawn a shape and then colored in (and around) it. She also colored in her name on the right.

Words!!

Benjamin has gotten quite vocal in the past week or so! He's trying out new words everyday - so far the ones we've been able to recognize are bowl, ball, bubble, cracker, down, all done, and of course, uh oh! Julia is working on getting him to say "Julia" or "Birdie" but no progress there yet!

I've been trying to get a video but he apparently is not one to perform on demand.