Fall Pocono Adventures

Jill, Ben & I recently spent a long weekend at our friend George's Pocono house.  I've been going to this house with George and our other friends at least once a year since high school (almost 25 years ago!).  So going with with Jill and Ben was a new experience for me.  We had a great time and even did some things that I've never done before in all the years that I've spent in the Poconos.



We drove up late on a Friday night so Ben slept the entire way there and stayed asleep until the next morning.  Since we've done with this Ben before, I've often thought that it must be really weird to fall asleep in one place and then wake up someplace completely different.  So it was no surprise that when he woke up on Saturday morning and he was definitely confused as to where he was.  I walked him around the house and pointed out all the cool things around and in about five minutes he was off exploring.  There's lots of interesting things to find and play with in George's house.  This horn being a fine example....

There were also two kayaks sitting in the living room and porch that he climbed in and out of a dozen times, a couple TVs with about 6 remotes that he carried around the house for most of the weekend.   I was excited to show Ben the lake, because he's never seen one before.   I don't think he realized that the lake was actually water until I threw a little rock in to make a splash.  As soon as he realized the lake was actually a big pool, he wanted to go in.  This is pretty much why I don't have any pictures of this moment; I was busy trying to keep him from running into the cold lake!  I finally just had to pull him away and we explored some other areas and we even made a new friend!

 Then we discovered that leaves are fun to walk around in and kick...

Whew... time for a break..



There are a few things that we know Ben likes to do that are also available in the Poconos - playgrounds and zoos.  We've taken him to both many times before, so why not in the Poconos too!  So that afternoon we took a ride to a local zoo in the woods.  The nice thing about Pennsylvania is they are a little more relaxed with things..  When we go to zoos or petting zoos in NJ, we usually have to pet or feed the animals through the fence.  But not in Pennsy!   Ben got to jump right in and get real close to the animals!

Look at Ben feeding a giraffe! 

And here he is herding some turtles!

And having a discussion with some goats!

No, no, Ben... you can't stick your finger in the goat's nose.

Then throughout the weekend we took many walks around the neighborhood and of course stopped at a couple of the playgrounds.  We certainly can't walk by a playground without stopping - especially when there's a big duck staring at you!

And a Frog too!

After checking out the duck and the frog, we headed to the swing - but we usually only last a few minutes here...

And then we're off to the slide.  

Little slides are fun, but...

Ben decided he was ready for this big slide!  Up we both went!

  And down Ben goes!!
And check out they psychedelic picture on the way down! 
Yes, that's Jill at the top end and there is a big smile on Ben's face too. 
We must have gone up and down this big slide 20 times.

 

After sliding for a while, our little eagle eye spotted some dogs walking by, so we chased them down we got to pet them for a while.  Their masters couldn't stand there all day and needed to keep walking, so we stared at them as they walked away and then spent five minutes waving good bye to them.  Too cute.

The next day Ben and I decided that we would try going out on the kayak together.  Jill was pretty much freaked out about it, but she felt a little better when I told her that most of the lake was no deeper than my knee.  So we gave it a try.  The toughest part was getting Ben in the life preserver.  He wasn't happy about that at all.

But once we were in the water, all he wanted to do was play in the water.

So we didn't stay out long in the kayak.  We headed back to the dock where we took off Ben's shoes and let him dangle his feet in the water and use some sticks to make splashes.

I think maybe we'll wait until next year to try kayaking again.  We'll stick to swimming and splashing in the pool for now.

What better way to end the day than to build a fire. 
Ben helped Daddy put the wood in the fireplace.

 And we all enjoyed watching the fire as we all drifted off to sleep I think before 9PM.  I can't remember... we were all exhausted!

Tomato Drive Thru

A little more than a year ago I would have easily been able to say that there was absolutely nothing made of plastic in my backyard.  I can no longer make that statement.  Plastic things seem to be popping up in my yard a lot lately like mushrooms.

Most evenings after we all get home from work and daycare, we have dinner and then we go outside to play for an hour or two before dark.  Sometimes we go for walks, but lately because of all the plastic fun that is sprouting up in the backyard, we have great reasons to stay close to home. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an affection for cars.  This trait seems to be rubbing off onto Ben.  Fortunately Ben's cars are much cheaper than the ones that I like...   Ben starts the evening by going out to inspect his fleet of cars.  He checks the trunks to make sure we didn't leave the phone in there again.... in the rain...    Then he makes his choice for his first ride and off we go.  (or on this evening he got Grandma to push him!)  Go Speed Racer GO!

We usually drive around the yard for a bit, but its inevitable that as soon as we pass by the tomato plants, Ben's going to want to stop for a tasty red tomato treat.  To an innocent stander-by, he simply just points and grunts at the plants, but to those in the know, he's ordering the #1 tomato combo with a side of tomatoes and a tomato slushy to go.  Oh, and hold the skins.

Grape tomatoes are his favorite and he won't take a bite out of anything any bigger, like a plum tomato.  He'll gnaw on it a bit, but then hand it back to me as if he's saying "this won't do.." and then point again at the grape tomato vine.  He will eat the cherry tomatoes, but we need to bite them in half to make them a little smaller - oh, and then he will also need to spit out the skins.  I'm still really not sure how he does that, but we have lots of cherry tomato skins littering the ground around the garden to prove it.   Most times he'll take the skin out of his mouth and hand it to me for disposal. 

The problem now is that he's pretty much eaten every ripe grape and cherry tomato in the garden.  There's a few green ones left, but its going to be a week or so before they're ripe.  So now we've been reduced to having to steal tomatoes from our neighbor's garden.  We started "Operation Tomato" when the neighbors  were away on vacation... heck, they were just going to rot, you know?  But then we got caught last week after they got home.  I think it was the tomato seeds all over Ben's face and shirt that gave him away.  Fortunately his cute little face got us the approval to eat as many tomatoes as we wanted.  Whew...

So then after a few tomatoes and a few laps around the yard, its time to change cars. 

Next up is the electric car he got for his birthday.

(Note the additional plastic growing in the backyard.)  

Ben's gotten pretty good at driving around this electric Kawasaki.  He now keeps his finger on the throttle, but we still have to help him steer.  Ben doesn't quite understand why the bush or fence does't just jump out of his way like Mommy & Daddy do.   Even so, he's very proud of his driving abilities.

What a good looking kid!

A few more laps and it's time to change cars again.

Ben loves pointing lately... he points at pretty much everything that interests him - in this case, Lybbie was standing by the door waiting to go in the house.  He needs to remind us of things like this...

Next up! Let's play on the new Clubhouse Climber!   Since this is a new plastic growth in the yard, he is still learning to play with it.  So we started out by climbing in the tunnel underneath.  Ben caught on pretty quickly.

Whew... by this time of the evening we're all stuffed with tomatoes and feeling pretty tired. 

Its time to get ready for bed!

Independence Day at the Zoo

When I say Independence Day, I'm not talking about July 4th, I'm talking about the first outing that we took Ben on where he has shown more independence than we've ever seen before.   Ben seems to love pretty much all animals, so Grandma Jean, Jill & I all took Ben to a local petting zoo recently.   Ben really got into it..

First he bonded with a horse... or maybe the horse bonded with Ben. 
Not sure...

They may call this a 'petting' zoo, but they make it pretty darn hard to actually pet these animals.  Of course Ben quickly figures out a way to pet them anyway.

Ben was anxious to go see what other animals were around for him to pet, so off he went.

No need to wait for Mommy & Daddy anymore!  He's got the ability to take off on his own now!

I wonder where he's headed now...

Yes, that's Mommy & Grandma way back there.  I had to run to catch up to the little bugger!

After walking around for a while we all sat and had some italian ices.  But not Ben!  He was still on a mission of hunting for some of the other interesting animals that were around.

But then he would come back for another spoonfull (or two) of cherry italian ice...

 

After getting fed himself, Ben decided that it was time that he fed some of the animals.  He watched a little girl give some leaves to a goat and two seconds later Ben was searching for leaves and feeding the goats too!

Its really amazing..this little kid turns one and his development has just taken off exponentially.  He's doing things that we never expected him to do at this age.  I think Jill & I had just a much fun watching Ben as he did feeding the goats.   

So what does one do after one gets tired of feeding goats? 

Well, play in the water fountain!  What else!!

And then what?  Well did you know that Ben was old enough to push his own stroller now?  He certainly thinks so....

Then we spotted a playground nearby and had some fun there too. 

Slides are just so much fun!

We all really enjoyed our first Independence Day.  But now I'm thinking pretty much every day is going to be Independence Day from now on. 

Summer Fun

Its summer time and I'm sure you're all wondering what Ben has been up to now that he's ONE!  As you can imagine, Ben is a very busy boy...  we've been doing lots of his faviorite things that I've talked about before. 

Of course he still spends each work day with his friends over at daycare. 

I posted a (very popular) similar picture a while back in and its amazing to see how much they've all grown since then!  Yes, these are the same kids (minus one).

Ben is still going to swimming classes every Saturday morning.  And he just loves it.

Just look at that smile! 

And take a look at him launching out of the water here!!

And here he is just after going under water...

What a cutie...

But I also thought I'd show you some of the things that Ben likes to do that I haven't talked about so much before.  Like did anyone know that Ben is getting into the Arts?  He just loves playing the piano.

Just about every day he spends a few minutes "tickling the ivories."  

Being that its summer, he also can't help but stay up late playing on the internet.

And of course watching TV with his friends...

Ben's pretty big for his age.  In fact he's off the charts according to our doctors - over the 100th percentile in just about every area.  He needs to maintain all that weight, so he does eat alot. 

In fact, he cleans his plate just about all of the time.

Yes, his plate is clean, but it also doesn't alway mean his tray is clean or that he eats it all.  Lately when Ben doesn't like something... he just tosses it - especially when I try and sneak in some veggies in with his meat.  Not that he doesn't like his veggies, but he's not always in the mood for them.  Meat on the other hand, he will always eat meat.

Watermellon, is another story...

Ben will eat the watermelon but he spits out the red part and chews on the rind.  Go figure.

Then when he's done, look what we find.

A very messy boy!

Cucumbers are fun too...  Fun to tease Grandpa with...

"You want some Grandpa?"  (Naaahh!)

Ben also likes teasing Lybbie...  He LOVES his Lybbie.

Lybbie's not so sure though...  But she doesn't always run away either.

But in the end, this little boy can pretty much do nothing wrong!  Just look at that cute face.

What a great summer this has been for everyone!

Ben's Birthday Weekend (Part 2) - "Ben's first Kegger!"

Ben's big birthday celebration was the day after his birthday.  Ben had friends and family coming from all over to celebrate with him!  Unfortunately since we were so busy preparing for the party we didn't take any pictures that morning and it wasn't until halfway through the party that I realized that we hadn't pulled the camera out yet!  How could we forget to take pictures?!!  Well we made up for it.    Here's a collage of pictures I put together from the party.  (click on the picture to enlarge it)

As you can see, we all had a great time in Ben's Backyard celebrating his birthday.  It was a hot day, but we all enjoyed hanging out with our neighbors, friends and family and we did our best to stay cool.

But wait...  where's Ben in all of these pictures?   

We need to look around and find him...

OK!  I found him!!

That's my boy!   Shaking his maraca's and trying to sneak some beer! 

Although this isn't far from what our day was like.. "Where's Ben?  Who's got him?"  Everyone was enjoying spending time with him and he got passed around so much throughout the whole day.    And for some reason, all the bigger little kids all wanted to hold him.  Ben didn't seem too mind much.  He loved all the attention and just went along with it.

Plus it was pretty cute too.

There was even a rare sighting of Uncle Gil playing with Ben while surrounded by children!

The funny part to me is that Ben just seemed to take all this celebration stuff right in stride.  It was like any other day for him, except with more people to hold him, play with him and feed him.  He enjoyed and took advantage of every second of it.  He's such a happy kid!  We're very lucky.

We did all the fun things that you do at a birthday party... 

We ate lots of food...  Sang Happy Birthday...

Opened some presents....

And then went and played in the Big Jumper!! 

Ben really liked the Jumper...  and his bone.

Here's a good "action shot" of Ben jumping on his butt.

Ben was very curious about the dog people though.  He couldn't quite figure out what was going on with them.  Are they dogs?  Are they people?

A karate chop to the nose revealed what was going on here..

ahh... she IS human!

In the end, we had a total of 61 people at our house celebrating Ben's party.  That's pretty good.  I don't think Jill or I have ever had that many people celebrating our birthdays.  It was great to see every one and we thank you all who came and helped celebrate with us. 

Can you tell that we all had fun?

Absolutely! 

Another way I could tell that everyone had fun is when I walked outside the next morning and found this...

A floating keg and empty juice boxes floating in the melted ice...

Now THAT'S a good party. 

(Since you never know who might actually read this blog, please note that no children consumed alchohol at our party as this picture might imply.  That would be very bad and I would never condone such activities.)

To escape a Part 3 of this series...  here's just a quick synopsis of the following day which consisted of two or three main activities.  Mommy & Daddy cleaned up and rested...  and Ben opened the rest of his presents!

And played with them all day!

What a great way to end the birthday weekend!