Hooray for Ben!

For the first time, Ben kept his pull-up dry at school all day.

First Photos

I let Bradley use a real digital camera for the first time on Thursday. He proceeded to take 80 pictures in 21 minutes. He took pictures of some rarely photographed places such as the furnace room, a close up of the yoga ball, behind the TV, and the inside of his tunnel. Other subjects included, the family room, daddy, pantry, kitchen, the oven, the basement, and the exercise room. His favorite spot was behind the couch. Brad took 14 pictures back there.

Funny Business

Bradley has his first exposure to the theater at SketchFest 2010. They had kids shows on Saturday, so daddy and Bradley went to see Bri-Ko. The show had no dialog, but was very good. Bradley really enjoyed it. I was afraid that he was going to ask me questions all through the show, but he was quiet and very attentive to what was happening on stage. We actually became part of the show. Near the end I was handed a glass of shaving cream, which was supposed to represent a cream pie desert. I got really nervous when an actor started to carry an actual cream pie up the stairs toward our seat. Fortunately he "tripped" half-way up and nailed somebody else. Before the show we had lunch at Flat Top. It was nice to go out to lunch together. I can't remember the last time just the two of us did that. (I would be remiss if I did not mention the awesome parking space we found across from the theater. Plus, we used all but six minutes of time we paid for.)

Perfect 10

Ben never embraced the team sports taught by Coach Kyle. However, he loves gymnastics class. I think the reason he likes it so much is that he changes activites every 4 seconds. Jump, roll, hang, repeat.

A New World Record

Call the folks at Guinness because we have a doozy. Bradley started off the new year with a streak of 11 days without a bowel movement. That may be a personal record, but probably not a world record. The world record came out on Saturday morning with a lot of crying. It was unbelievably large. I took a picture, but I am not going to post it. It was so large that the toilet backed up and I needed to get out the plunger.

Perfect Timing

The new year started off with a trip to the Home Depot. This month's project was a calendar. Every month the workshop is in a different part of the store. This time is was in the insulation department, which quite ironically, was very cold.

Merry Trainmas

Just like last year, we did lots and lots of train stuff during the holidays. The first stop was the PPG Wintergarden on Thanksgiving. The weekend before Christmas we visited the Hancock.The boys looked at the trains in the basement, ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and then looked at the trains some more. (The best part of that excursion was the awesome parking spot we got less than two blocks away and it only cost $4.) On 12/26, we went to Brookfield Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa and saw the new train display there. The next stop was the Arboretum for their annual display on Jan 2. It is a toss-up between PPG and Hancock for best train display. The PPG has some pretty fantastic ginger bread houses. Hancock is more elaborate and has lots of fun stuff to look for, like Nemo and Spiderman. As if that wasn't enough, we visited both train restaurants in the last month and the boys got a GeoTrax train set for Christmas.

The Great Communicator

When 2009 started, Ben's favorite word was "Mine". His speech has improved greatly and now he can say things like "Brudder did it." Here are a few more favorite phrases
"Hold it" - This is Ben's response when I try to take his blankie away. He knows we don't like when he puts in his mouth, so he claims he will just hold it.
"No hab it" - Ben's repsonse when he doesn't have a match in Disney bingo.
"Dada bizzy!" - He says this when he wants to sit in mommy's lap.
The last couple are self explanatory: "I do it", "Myself", and "I have boggers."

Bradley is up to three syllable words such as "BEN-GER-MAN".

Snowplow Restaurant

On Christmas Eve, we went to check out another airplane restaurant. Pilot Pete's at the Schaumburg airport is much bigger and better decorated than Charlie's in Bolingbrook. Since there were lots of clouds and a rain/snow mix, no planes we flying that day. However, the kids were amused by watching the snowplows on the tarmac. We also saw a few trains go by.

Everyone's A Winner

Ben wrapped up his fall sport class. He was a little shy and a lot of slow during the term, but still got a medal. I think his new nickname is "The Glacier". Ben's favorite sport was hockey. It is, by far, the sport that he is best at, but that is not saying too much. We are going to try gymnastics in the new year.