Oobleck

Stephen was home from work sick yesterday, and Benjamin thought it so unusual that Dad was on the couch that he was a little fly buzzing around him all day. I finally had to get something out that was so new and could distract him from wanting Dad to play with him. Benjamin hadn't ever played with oobleck (cornstarch and water mixture), so we made some. Laughing, dripping, and squishing was the order of the afternoon. Stephen even got up and took a few pictures of us having fun. He taught Benjamin that it was a "non-Newtonian fluid" ("fluid in which the viscosity changes with the applied strain rate" Wikipedia definition). I think that I enjoyed playing just as much as he did. The secrets of a preschool teacher need to be pulled out more often!

First Trip to the Dentist

Yesterday, Benjamin had his first dentist visit. He was so nervous about it! I don't know how he even knew about the dentist, but it was for sure equivalent to a house of horror for him. I have been prepping him for the event over the last few weeks by telling him how he was a big boy now and could do big boy things like go down the big slide at the park (he is finally unafraid), put on his own shoes, fill up his own cup when he is thirsty along with many other jobs specifically designed for a three year old. Another thing I described as a big boy task is going to the dentist like Mom and Dad. He knows the dentist from church as "Luke's dad" from nursery so Stephen and I have been pointing him out for the last few weeks at church and reiterating things like "There's Luke's Daddy." "See he's so nice." On Sunday, Benjamin even told him out of the blue that he was visiting him this week. He would buy it from me at times and be okay with it, but when I told him this morning that today was the day, the only word to describe him was distraught. He ended up doing really well on Dad's lap after the initial crying stopped. I was able to go in for a minute and get a few pictures before my check-up. Here are some pictures of the big day. (Notice his very sad teary eyes in the first picture!)

Pike Place Market

I had the day off today so we decided to go to Seattle and see Pike Place Market. You've probably seen this place on television. It's where they throw the fish through the air. It was pretty chilly by Washington standards, but we had a lot of fun walking through the stands that looked like those you'd see in a farmer's market. They had a lot of beautiful produce. The fish all looked amazing. I don't think I would have ever of thought raw fish would have smelled good, but it did. They had trout, salmon, shrimp, crab, and a lot more. We decided to buy a rainbow trout from the stand that throws fish. They even filleted it for us. It was a really big trout and only set us back seven dollars and change. All the people who worked there were pretty comical. They had a scary looking monk fish which had a string attached to it. Every few minutes someone would come up and take a close up picture and the guy behind the stand would yank the string and growl loudly which would cause the person taking the picture to scream. We had lunch at a place that makes their own cheese. We bought some tomato soup, "the world's best mac and cheese," and grilled cheese sandwiches. Rebecca and I both thought that they were the best grilled cheese sandwiches we'd ever had. Benjamin ran around in a park for a while an we got a few good pictures. Overall it was a great day! Here are a few slide shows of the pictures.

"I'm just downloading it Mom."

The other day I asked Benjamin to take some things to the recycle bins in the garage for me. It was quite a box of papers and plastic bottles. He was taking a long time in the garage, and I thought it shouldn't take that long to just place the whole box in the bin. I went to check on him and said to him "What are you doing?" He was taking everything out of the box to put in the recycle bin one by one and said to me "I'm just downloading it Mom."

As a little child . . .

Benjamin and I were coming out of the store yesterday, and an elderly, mentally handicap employee came over to talk to us in the parking lot. He was saying a sentence to me over and over, and I couldn't understand what it was. Finally I heard him say, "I am doing a great job." I said back "Yes you are." He repeated the same sentence to me again and again until I finally repeated it back to him with "Yes, you are doing a great job." Our next exchange went like this. "See there are no carts in the parking lot." I replied "There are no carts in the parking lot. You are doing a great job." He said. "I am a good worker." And I affirmed his statement repeating the same words back to him. I was holding Benjamin at the time, as I was about to lift him into his carseat when the man approached us, and so I could see his face clearly during the conversation. Benjamin had such an inquisitive look on his face during the exchanges, especially when the man just kept repeating the same sentence until I figured out the response he needed. His facial expression did not change after I set him in his carseat. I wondered what he was thinking and if he would ask me about the man. I wondered if he would ask me about the conversation with him because it was very obvious there was something different about it. The next thing that he said to me brought my thought process to a grinding halt. He said "Mom, that man is really smart. He can get all those carts together." I looked at him as my heart filled with the warm tingles of the Spirit and said "Yes, he is really smart." I just wonder how often I look at what I can't do or others can't do instead of seeing how "smart" we all are in our own individual and unique ways. It was obvious to me that this man was very limited by the things he couldn't do, but to Benjamin he was a genius for what he could do. A great lesson learned by mom.

Happy 3rd Birthday Benjamin!

We love you!

Aspen Grove

We went to a cabin in the mountains this past weekend with Stephen's family. We had a great time sledding, snowshoeing, celebrating Benjamin's birthday party a week early, and spending time with family. We also really enjoyed taking pictures with the new camera! Here is a slideshow for favorites of our little family.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com