A Day in the Life of Benny

Benny is no longer using his high chair. As of this week he has been using this portable booster seat. He is showing us what a big boy he is becoming. Here he is eating mini pancakes for breakfast. What a big boy!

Everyday Benny shows us more of his personality. He is one funny guy. He thought it was particularly funny to put his blackberry on top of his cup.

What a silly boy!

Play Time

Our local mall recently put in a new play area for kids. Benny just loves it there. It is a Noah's Ark theme so there are a lot of animals portrayed two by two for the kids to climb on or through. Benny's favorite is the elephant slide.

Here he is on the baby turtle.

Daddy is catching him coming down the elephant slide.

He likes to do it all by himself and would do it all day if we let him.

Here he is on the ladybug.

All around the play area there are little activities for the kids to do. This one has a peg that Benny can move around the picture.

Swim Lessons

Benny had his first swim lesson on Wednesday. I was fortunate that my boss let me come in late so I could be with Benny. He was very excited to get in the water, but once in he kept clinging to my neck. Our instructor, Chris, is very nice. She had us sing songs and play games. Benny used a sponge to get his face wet and then squeezed it out on his head to get his whole head wet. He also used a small bucket to scoop up water to pour on his head. I had to show him how to do theses things, but by the time we were done with the activities, he could almost do it himself. I told Chris that this was the first time Benny had ever been in a pool and she was very surprised by how great he was. He only cried a few times and spent a lot of the time shaking from fear. The last part of the lesson had us in the toddler pool. This pool is just right for Benny. At the deepest it is around 2 or 3 feet deep. He liked walking around in the shallow end which is only 1 foot deep. Brad was exercising while Benny and I were in the pool. So everyone got a workout that day.

Unfortunately, Benny does not have another class until next Wednesday as they are not having swim classes on Monday due to it being Memorial Day!

Update

Hi there! I just wanted to give everyone an update on what is going on out here on the West Coast! From all the posts, you can see that we have been very busy. Not only was there Easter and the Puyallup Spring Fair, but we also visited the zoo again. We are trying to take advantage of any sunny days we can get.

Even though there have been cases of the swine flu in the state of Washington, it has not affected us in any way. I caught a common cold last week and I think Brad brought it home from his work because he was sick before me. I think Benny is finally getting it but I am not sure since he is still dealing with teething issues. I am feeling much better but not a hundred percent yet.

We joined our local YMCA last week. Benny really enjoys playing in the nursery there. I started a Twelve Week Class. In this class I meet with a trainer and we discuss my exercise goals and we map out a program tailored to meet those goals. Every time I go in to exercise, I have to log in and put in what I did that day (ex, treadmill , bike etc). I will then meet with the trainer every 3 weeks to see how the program is working and make any adjustments. The great part about it is that I can count working out at home as part of the program. My immediate goal is to do a cardio activity three times a week at least 30 minutes each time. Brad has gone once so far and really liked the variety of equipment and programs. We signed Benny up for swim lessons. These are parent/child lessons, so one of us will be in the water with him. If we get in, he will be starting May 18th and go until the 2nd week of June. We will keep you posted on that.

The Little Buisnessman

Benny likes to climb up on the office chair and draw on anything that is on the desk. It is one of his favorite things to do. Enjoy the video.

More Fair Pictures

Here are more pictures from the Fair.

These are turkey chicks. Benny liked talking to them.

Benny liked the petting farm. Here he is giving a pigmy goat a hug. He had fun chasing the goats around.

Here we are making Benny's frisbee. The frisbee is spinning around and we just squirted paint on it. Benny picked out the color of the frisbee. He actually said red.

Here he is with his bug antenna. He picked out the color for the band as well as the pipe cleaners. He had fun crawling like a bug through this fake log.

Here Grandpa, Benny is helping mill some corn. We have the corn that he milled. We plan to put it in a feeder in the back yard.

Puyallup Spring Fair

Back on April 16th we took Benny to the Puyallup Spring Fair. He had a great time. He really enjoyed looking at all of the animals. They had set up a special area in one of the buildings for young kids. Benny had a lot of fun there. He played with Legos, painted a frisbee, saw some reptiles and even made some bug antenna and crawled through a "log".

This picture is for Aunt Jill. Benny liked touching this turtle.

Benny went running over to where they were doing free face painting. I don't think he really knew what was going on, but he sat still long enough for them to put some paw prints on his hand. Sadly the paw prints washed off by the days end.

This was some sort of contraption that kids could bang on and make music. Benny was so into this until he saw the Legos.

They had something called Dock Dogs. It turns out that they set up a big pool and dogs would show off their jumping skills to go fetch a ball or stick that was thrown into the pool. Benny just loved it! He really likes dogs!

Here is the pool.

More Easter Pictures

Sorry it took so long to update this, but we have been very busy around here. Here are pictures of Benny eating his Easter candy. This was his first time having a marshmellow peep and chocolate bunny. Enjoy!