This week we went sledding with some friends of ours. We went in the evening so the daddies could come too, and Anna thought it was the coolest ever that we were sledding in the dark. They took us to a new hill, which added to the excitement too. It was tons of fun, and we all got into it with even the mommies and daddies having sledding races. We decided to stop at a Tim Horton's on the way home for a donut and hot chocolate. The pictures above (don't mind Benjamin's hat hair) show how much Ben-Ben LOVED the donuts. The first picture shows him stuffing an entire donut hole into his mouth, good grief. And the second picture captures how in awe Benjamin was of the display case. He kept running over to it and pointing at everything, and saying, "Ooo, yuuum!" And isn't Ben-Ben (and Anna) just too cute in his over-all snow pants.
Okay, so Benjamin has been OBSESSED with the "pretend food" lately. He has always liked to play with it, but it wouldn't hold his attention for more than 5 - 10 minutes. Now the toy food is all he ever wants to play with, and it occupies him for hours during the day. Seriously. Until now, even his most favorite toys and activities - play-doh, toy food, coloring, Anna's dolls, cars, books, throwing balls, and blocks - wouldn't hold his attention for very long. I remember Anna having a much longer attention span at the same age, so it was a new (and yes, a bit frustrating) experience getting used to Ben-Ben moving on to new activities after a few minutes.
So, the pretend food. I don't know what it is. Maybe he is just getting older, or maybe he likes that he can name most of the food. But he will play with it for hours! He'll try to stuff all the food in the basket, which just barely fits, and takes some balancing skills. He'll name all the food over and over and over and over, and if there is one he doesn't know the name of he'll say to me, "Ah-dah-dah?," and I'll tell him the name. He'll use the spoons and pans as drums. He'll put food in the containers and stir as fast as he can, and say over and over, "Cook, cook, cook!" He just looooves it!
Speaking of all the words Ben-Ben is learning to say, here are a few of my favorite things he has said lately:
1) I saw a huge stain on one of their toys, and couldn't tell what it was, so I said, "What in the..." and Ben-Ben said, "Heck." I wasn't going to fill in the 'heck' part that time, but apparently sometimes I do. It sounded a little like the way he says yuck, so I had to investigate a bit. And yes, my one year old says heck. But, he only says it when someone says "what in the" first. hehe.
2) Whenever Ben-Ben sees any letters or words, especially when we are driving around, he will always say, "B, A, B, A, H! B, H! B, H!" And he will say it over and over, and louder and louder until you acknowledge him: "Yes, Benjamin, Do you see letters? Do you see A, B, C's?" And he will calmly respond, "Yeah." I can tell that he is so proud of himself for recognizing it, and he wants to make sure that everyone else sees it too. I just don't know why he doesn't call them A, B, C's?
3) Benjamin has been way in to coloring lately. He likes repeating the names of the colors, then he'll color a little bit and say, "Preeee!" (Pretty.) The funny thing is, whenever he uses the white crayon, which of course doesn't show up on the page, Ben-Ben will say, "Uh-oh, uh-oh. Broke!" Hehe. He then hands it to me, as if I would be able to "fix" the white crayon so it will work. It cracks me up every time.
Anna:
On the same sledding adventure as mentioned above - Anna with her good friend Maddie. The first picture is the only one I got of the sledding. I thought it was cute that the girls wanted to sit at their own table at Tim Horton's. So grown up. But then, Maddie's little brother wanted to sit with them too. (I'd never been to a Tim Horton's before, and was happy with the quality and price...although it probably helped that we only ordered one hot chocolate and Ethan and I didn't get any donuts. :)
Anna loves pretending she is a princess. Anna got the dress and gloves for Christmas (from Gma Suse, thanks grams!), which really helps with the pretending. I helped her put those on, and then she put on some additional accessories on her own. She really gets into character too. Anna's movements get slower and more graceful, and she has a certain voice she uses when she is a princess. So cute! We let her eat in her dress one time, because the dinner wasn't messy, and she took it so seriously. She kept asking if she was being "polite and proper" like a princess. And of course, she was. Oh, and she would even daintily dab at the corners of her mouth with a napkin. Where does she learn this? Books, a movie? It makes me smile. :)
The next two pictures are part of our girl time during Ben-Ben's nap. Anna chose the color for my toes. And for herself - she has been wanting to do "rainbow colors" on her nails for a long, long time. So, we used all the colors we had and Anna loved how it turned out. She was soooo excited to go to pre-school the next day and show all her friends and teacher. How funny!
Okay, I have one final story about my sweet, beautiful Anna. She has been very curious about adoption lately. You know, what it means, who we know that is adopted (a few kids from story time), why kids are adopted, where their mommies and daddies are, etc. After one of these conversations, Anna looked a little sad. I thought it was because she felt bad for kids who are adopted. No, no. When I asked her what was wrong, she said in such a sincerely sad, and disappointed voice, "I wish I was adopted.......From China." What? Sorry your life is so disappointing, Miss Anna. At least you have a mommy and daddy that love you to pieces, even if we did not adopt you, and even if you're not Chinese. hehe.
