how perfectly swell

"Born is the King of Israel" (Matthew Prins, 2007): A+++++++

2008-04-23T11:35:00.002-04:00

Last year, right in the middle of our half-cross-country move, I heard from a couple people that my just-released handbell arrangement "Born is the King of Israel" had gotten reviewed in Overtones, the pretty-much-only handbell magazine. Well, I had never had one of my pieces reviewed in print before, so I was very much looking forward to reading the review, but there was one tiny problem -- no one I knew kept that issue of the magazine. Fast-forward to this morning, when, looking for something else on the website of AGEHR (the pretty-much-only handbell organization), I realized they had a PDF of the Overtones issue that contained my review. Fast-forward to this very moment, when I post the review for your pleasure:

Strike!

2008-04-17T23:19:00.002-04:00

I know this isn't appropriate for an under-three kid, but Benji loves to play with coins. He likes to line them up in neat rows and he likes to put them in things, including the piggy bank. But his favorite thing to do with coins is to put them in the video games. So about once every month and a half or so we head over to the arcade with Grandma and Grandpa where thankfully they have a good dinner deal that includes 80 tokens — more than Benji can go through in an evening!

His taste in games over there changes periodically. He's been very fond of Deal or No Deal for a while, although on our last visit he only wanted to play it once after begging to play it that one time. His favorite right now is probably the bowling game. The ball is just a bit bigger than a skee-ball so he can easily hurl it down the lane. It's so funny to watch him line up and actually try to aim. And he's pretty good at it. The next time the Iowa contingent visits, I highly recommend a visit to the arcade. Daddy gets to play poker, Mommy gets to sneak in a game of pinball, and Benji gets to bowl!

Tickets!!! Look at how many tickets Daddy won for Benji!

Someone's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great namesake

2008-04-09T15:41:00.003-04:00

Apropos of nothing, I've been doing some deep, serious genealogical research recently (i.e. plugging names of people in our family tree into Google) and putting my results into Geni, which is sort of a genealogical wiki project. And between what I've found and some research Josh did a while back, we've made a fair amount of headway on building back our family tree, finding some lines that go back 15 generations from Benji and Ava. What we've found, in summary:

Our parents: 2 of 2 (um, I'd hope so)
Grandparents: 4 of 4 (um, see above)
Great-grandparents: 8 of 8
2nd-great- (i.e. great-great-) grandparents: 12 of 16
3rd-great-grandparents: 14 of 32
4th-great-grandparents: 18 of 64
5th-great-grandparents: 18 of 128
6th-great-grandparents: 16 of 256
7th-great-grandparents: 14 of 512
8th-great-grandparents: 8 of 1024
9th-great-grandparents: 6 of 2048
10th-great-grandparents: 8 of 4096
11th-great-grandparents: 6 of 8192
12th-great-grandparents: 4 of 16384

Most interesting fact I didn't know before all this: My 10th-great-grandpa John Whitney came over from England to America in 1635, making him one of the first 30,000 or 40,000 American settlers. And his final son, my 9th-great-grandpa, was born in America in 1643, making him (I would guess) one of the first 10,000 or so immigrant children born in New England. His name? Benjamin Whitney. We'll pretend it was intentional.

Tag?

2008-04-02T14:03:00.001-04:00

So apparently today's version of a chain letter takes the form of "tagging" people on their blogs to write 10 random things about themselves. I've never been a fan of chain letters so I choose not to tag anyone else. But, Melissa's (Matthew's cousin) request to get to know me better was quite reasonable so I shall list:

1) We do not have cable. Never have. With as little as we watch TV, it seems a big waste of money. And now that we got a digital tuner we easily have 20+ stations with rabbit ears, so why bother with cable.

2) One could argue the cable thing also has to do with me being old fashioned. I still send hand-written thank you notes, barely use my cell phone, have never sent a text message, and have no idea how to use the graphing calculator gathering dust in my drawer. I've never been to myspace or facebook and don't understand why they're so popular. When I started college, the campus didn't have widely-accessible email and even when we did get it the next year it was on the mainframe.

3) On the old fashioned front, I love to quilt. I recently took a quilting class and I was the youngest in the room by a long shot. At least half the room was talking about their kids that were not much younger than I. It's not really a hobby that's popular with my generation, but it's my artistic outlet.

4) I also like to take classes for random other arts and crafts. I've done the first two Wilton cake decorating classes, taken stained class class, and tried out blown glass.

5) I am totally nostalgic and love mementos and old-fashioned scrapbooks. I do dabble in the pretty papers and stickers that are so popular today, but my favorite scrapbooks to make are ones that are full of, well, scraps. Ticket stubs, wrapping paper, postcards, photos, etc., along with some captions to capture the memories make the best scrapbooks to me.

6) As a result I am a total pack rat. I have shirt boxes full of brochures, tickets, etc., from various vacations. For the big trips, I have one shirt box per trip. I have no earthly idea when I'll get to organizing them and I couldn't bear to throw them out during the recent move. So, they just follow me. And I get totally sucked into memory lane when I open one up.

7) But this doesn't mean I'm not organized. Most of my boxes are labeled and I can find most items fairly quickly. I also have certain ways that I like certain things done. For example, like Melissa, the clothes in my closet have to face the same way and are clustered by season and roughly by color. I also do this in Benji's closet, which is proving to be advantageous now that he's into picking his own clothes. We just pick him up and stand in front of the section that's weather appropriate and let him pick from there.

8) My phobia is city interstate driving. Some people have fear of spiders; others have fear of heights. Me? I have fear of the beltway (and now the Tri-State). When we picked this house, we drew a circle around the office and figured out where we could live that required no interstate driving to get to work.

9) I don't remember the last time I cooked. Mind you, I do know how and cooked when I had my apartment in grad school. In fact, I would periodically see an interesting recipe and get quite ambitious on the weekend. But since getting married I've done almost no cooking. I haven't cooked in the new house at all. Christmas cookie baking, yes. Stovetop cooking, no.

10) I am not a pet person. I know many people love their cats and dogs as if they were their children, but I don't get it. My only pets have been goldfish. We still need to find a good place in the new house for the fish tank so we can get new fish. I know Benji will love having fish again, so I need to make that a priority.

Obnoxious self-promotion.

2008-03-29T16:32:00.002-04:00

Upcoming performances of my handbell arrangements and compositions of which I have been made aware:

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Chicago Bronze performing "Cumulonimbus":

April 26th, 7:00p at Mt. Mercy College's Chapel of Mercy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
April 27th, 4:00p at Federated Church of Sandwich in Sandwich, Iowa
May 17th, TBA in Illinois
May 18th, 7:00p at Cutting Hall in Palatine, Illinois

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Embellishments performing "Good Vibrations":

April 19th, 2:00p at Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama
June 20th, 7:30p at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook, Alabama

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Denver Bronze performing "Korobeiniki":

May 11th, 4:00p at Hampden Hall at Englewood Civic Center in Englewood, Colorado
May 17th, 7:00p at Parker Hall at Mainstreet Center in Parker, Colorado

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Enchantment Handbell Ensemble performing "Korobeiniki" and "Good Vibrations"

June 13th, TBA at Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Area XI Festival)

Feelings, nothing more than feelings

2008-03-26T22:46:00.001-04:00

Benji has been really good with academic concepts like letters, numbers, colors, shapes for quite some time now. So recently I've been trying to work with him on more abstract ideas like feelings and emotions. One of his books, "Baby Faces", shows babies with different feelings like happy, sad, sleepy, shy, etc., and we've been reading that lately. I've also been asking Benji how he thinks the characters in his books feel when different things happen to them. For example, when Rainbow Fish loses his piece of sea glass how does he feel? Sad.

Benji seems to be picking up on these ideas and using them elsewhere. A particular favorite of his is to tell you "Benji's crying" as if you your ignoring the loud screaming was because you didn't notice it. He will also offer to kiss you where it hurts if he accidentally bonks you in the head or steps on your toe. But last night was my favorite. We were on the changing table getting ready for bed and he wanted his hippo (a little rubber purple hippo bath toy). I gave it to him and he told me that "hippo is scared" and that Benji would "take care of hippo." The expression on this toy's face is sort of surprised or scared, depending on how you look at it, so this was a great observation of Benji's. But what I was most impressed by was his desire to take care of the hippo. He held the tiny hippo in his hand and clutched it to his chest, as if to protect it. We then talked about how we could take care of hippo and decided that hippo could sleep on the changing table because he would be safe there (safe from being stepped on on the floor).

Coupled with this greater understanding of feelings is a strong improvement in the ability to communicate clearly. I don't think last month we could have had a full conversation about what to do with the hippo. And I know in the last month Benji has gotten better at recalling what happened during the day and telling you. Most evenings I now get a report about what Benji played with and what he ate, provided by Benji with a little prodding from Daddy. And tonight he had one of the most complete sentences I've heard from him: "Uncle Dave's favorite number is nine." Subject, verb, object, adjectives — oh my!

Vroom Vroom!

2008-03-17T09:07:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up one of our annual traditions was to go to the Auto Show. This was well before I could drive, but it's still something I looked forward to. I loved the giveaways, the prize drawings, and just how big it was. Several years ago Matthew and I went to the Richmond Auto Show and it was so tiny! I had begun to wonder if my memories had completely blown the Auto Show out of proportion. This year my memories were confirmed. We met my parents down there and everyone had a great time. Matthew checked out the concept and exotic cars, Grandpa eyed the Corvettes, and Benji practiced his driving skills. Grandma and I collected freebies, fed Benji car-shaped cookies, and enjoyed watching our boys with their cars.

Benji gets a taste of Grandpa's favorite car — the Corvette.

I guess those steering wheel toys have given Benji enough practice to feel right at home behind the wheel.

Grandpa shows Benji all about the knobs and dials.

One of the cars we let Benji "drive" was the Hummer. That thing is so big! It apparently also made a big impression on Benji because after we went on to the next exhibit he specifically asked to go back to the Hummer and could not be fooled or distracted by another car. We had to take him back to the Hummer. (This also goes to show how quickly he picks up on words from single mentions of them.)

Don't you read the gearshift carefully every time you get in the car?

Matthew really enjoyed checking out cars he couldn't possibly afford and wouldn't really want in the garage. But he sure looks good in them, doesn't he?

If Daddy gets to play with an exhibit, Benji has to, too.

Quick quiz: How much does this car cost?

One of the exhibits had Jeeps driving over all kinds of tough terrain, including steep inclines and big rocks. Benji needed a better view on Daddy's shoulders.

Another one of those photos where Benji looks "older than his years" in my opinion.

More snow

2008-03-12T23:44:00.001-04:00

It's been such a cold and snowy winter this year that Benji's zest for the snow really helped to make it more bearable. Sometimes it was just a snowball or two on the way in from the car or in a parking lot. But sometimes it was full-fledged snowsuit snow playing. It was particularly fun when Grandma and Grandpa would come over for some fun in the snow. Grandpa really gets into the snow playing, while Grandma is ready for indoor games when it's time to warm up.

Grandma and Grandpa brought over the plastic saucer toboggans that Uncle Dave and Mommy used when they were kids so that Grandpa could take Benji on his first sled ride.

Grandpa is so much better at making snowballs than Mommy.

Or maybe Mommy and Benji can throw snowballs at Grandpa.

This seems like such a stereotypical "toddler in snowsuit" picture, with his hat falling over his eyes and tons of layers of gear.

Thankfully Benji is happy with being pulled around on the sled and isn't begging to go on large sledding hills — not until next year, that is.

Got to pose for an inter-generational family picture.

We tried to build Benji's first snowman, but since the snow didn't pack very well it was a miniature snowman.

Although Benji loved "Frosty the Snowman" and all kinds of snowmen during Christmas, he didn't understand that this was a tiny snowman and instead he preferred to knock over the tower or to take the head off and throw it as a snowball.

We figured out that it was much more fun to sled down the ice on the driveway than on the snow on the lawn. So much faster!

Sofa-buying update (much of one).

2008-03-01T23:13:00.004-05:00

We bought a sofa today. (Well, actually we bought a sofa and a love seat today, but tomorrow, after we look at the size of our living room one more time, we have the option to turn the love seat into another sofa if we think it will fit appropriately.) (And by "turn the love seat into another sofa," I don't literally mean that we will try to tear apart the love seat ourselves and add on another 20 inches to make it sofa size.) (And by "we" in all instances above, I mean "Kim," since she was the one who signed the paperwork.)

Here is a sofa picture.

It is not a picture of our sofa.

However, our sofa looks mostly like that, except that our sofa is brown leather rather than black fabric, and our sofa doesn't have pillowbacks like the pictured sofa, and our sofa goes down to the floor rather than resting on exposed metal legs, and our sofa has two seats that recline while that one has zero, and the above sofa is very angular than our sofa is softer and rounder. But otherwise they're practically identical.

Old and new memories of the Museum of Science and Industry

2008-02-27T12:11:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite museums growing up was the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I still have fond memories of many of the exhibits which are no longer there — the nutrition/food economics exhibit on the left when you walk in and the newspaper exhibit where you choose how to lay out the front page. And so many favorites still exist — the annual Christmas around the World, the ice cream parlor, the fairy castle, and the huge train layout. So when we heard that January would be free month at the museum (when we went as kids it was free every day; now it's $11 per person plus parking) we jumped at the chance to take Benji there. It's such a large museum that we didn't see many exhibits. And of course Benji is too little fully appreciate the museum. But, it was nice to start him early and focus on the exhibits he would enjoy — the farm in the basement with tractors and combines to climb on, the whispering gallery, the chick hatchery, the space shuttle, and the newly-renovated train display. As one would expect, his favorite parts included pushing buttons, especially in the Internet display.

The farm exhibit is particularly popular so Benji had to wait patiently in line to visit the combine. I think he enjoyed it once he got up there, although he was also surprisingly cooperative when it was time to get out.

Whoa! This is way bigger than the tires on Daddy's car.

It's kind of hard to explain the idea of astronauts and space shuttles to a two-year-old (I think he called the shuttle a bus and then an airplane), but Benji got a big kick out of posing in the space suit.

We learned that once upon a time Chicago had a cable car system like the famous San Francisco ones.

It's hard to see, but in each of Daddy's shirt pockets is a mold-a-rama figure. You know you're a daddy when you wander around with toys in your pockets!

I was hoping for Icelandic, myself.

2008-02-21T23:17:00.005-05:00

Flush!

2008-02-19T14:52:00.002-05:00

It's been over a week now that we've had our brand-new non-stinky toilet, and it's wonderful! Even Benji noticed it was a new toilet after daD installed it. It really was a family team effort for this update — Christmas money from my parents, Christmas gift cards from Josh and Beth, and installation from daD and moM. Thanks to everyone for this totally mundane but much appreciated gift.

As for the next home improvement, we're thinking that Mr. Bush's tax rebate would translate into a nice new set of sofas. Isn't it my patriotic duty to spend that money?

Snow, snow, everywhere

2008-02-13T13:13:00.001-05:00

Back in early December snow was still something pretty and fun. It was a new novelty to Benji and he wasn't sure what to do with it, but he sure was curious. For his first snow adventure he was quite cautious and showed no interest in climbing too far into the snow. Rather, he was content to help Daddy shovel and just see what this white stuff was. That particular snowfall was light and dry and didn't pack very well so we couldn't do snowballs (we've done plenty of snowballs since then), but that didn't matter to Benji. So while Mommy and Daddy are tired of the snow and of driving in it, Benji still loves the stuff.

Benji's first steps into the snow. He didn't really want to go in too far, but he was very interested in it.

Notice how short the drifts are in this picture compared to ones I'll post later in the season. Today the drifts on our driveway are well above Benji's head.

Benji has his own shovel so he can help Daddy "clean the snow".

Is he ready for us to send him out to clean the driveway?

OK, enough of this shoveling. Now it's time to see what snow feels like.

Hmm... Daddy's shovel looks like more fun.

Benji needs to work on that shoveling technique. He liked to shovel snow with his little shovel and put it in Daddy's shovel. Or he liked to shovel snow out of the drifts and put it back on the driveway.

Ames Christmas

2008-01-31T21:30:00.000-05:00

You know, it really is kind of nice to celebrate Christmas three times every year. I think Benji really could get used to all of these festivities. And it's nice not having to travel nearly as far for the holidays as we used to.

Our visit to Ames this year was completely full of family visiting. On Friday evening we had dinner with Matthew's Uncle Mike and Aunt Lana, whom we hadn't seen in a year and a half. On Saturday morning we had our Christmas morning celebrations with all the present opening (lots of pictures below). Benji was a great Santa's helper, until he opened his presents and wanted to play with them. There sure were some great presents that morning! And on Saturday afternoon Matthew's cousin, Brenda, and her family came to visit for dinner. Her clan was quite boisterous and Benji loved watching their antics and joining in the laughter and fun.

Other activities over the weekend included the traditional Jones soda tasting, shopping for Iowa State gear, and a women's basketball game. Of course there was also a stop at Olene's for Sunday dinner and plenty of time just playing with our new presents.

We arrived early enough on Friday afternoon that we were able to have dinner with Mike and Lana while they were visiting.

I love when all the presents are stacked under the tree!

While we were waiting for Ava to wake up and everyone to get ready for present opening, Benji was too excited to wait. He took presents from under the tree and brought them to Grandma to find out who they were for.

Oh, yeah, and he got hugs from Grandma, too.

During a previous visit to Richmond, Grandma shared her Cheerios and milk with Benji. Now every time he sees Grandma he has to share her cereal.

Benji was a great Santa's helper, handing out presents to everyone. That is, until he opened his first present and was totally distracted. But it was very cute while it lasted.

So many things going on. Do I watch Daddy open his present or see what Ava is doing over there?

Benji doesn't get all the cool presents. Daddy got a John Olerud bobblehead, perfect for the computer room or the rec room decor.

Ava looked a little sleepy and uninterested in her present.

But now that there are tags to play with she perked right up!

Giant present for Benji!

It's so big Grandpa needs to help.

What is it?

After opening the easel and finding the letter magnets that came with it, we lost Benji's present delivery service. It kept him happy the entire weekend!

As the morning continued on, Ava got more into Christmas.

Ava seemed more interested in the bow than in the present.

After a while Benji stopped playing with his easel and instead decided to explore the tree. This year Grandma covered the tree in bells, which was perfect for Benji. Ornaments you can play with and not break! And while we were busy opening presents, Benji decided to sing "Jingle Bells" with the bells on the tree.

When I tried to sing along with Benji, he got upset and stopped. But he later moved to the other side of the tree and sang some more.

Throughout the weekend both Benji and Ava enjoyed playing with the easel. Benji even found a new use for the easel — hide and seek!

Grandma and Grandpa saved the best for last. What a snazzy looking tricycle with chrome bumpers and all.

OK, I'm done with Christmas. See you all later!

A rare photo of Grandma with both grandbabies.

Christmas Afternoon

2008-01-29T12:44:00.000-05:00

After all the Santa excitement at our house, we went over to my parents' house on Christmas afternoon. We had more presents and a delicious crab leg dinner. (As a side story, Benji must have really liked having Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in the dining room because on a subsequent visit he tried to drag his high chair into the dining room and wanted to eat in there.) As was the case that morning, Benji was very excited about presents, but he quickly got sidetracked by wanting to play with them. So while we were opening our presents (and Benji's clothing presents) he played with his Duplos, Uno cards, and Cabbage Patch Kid (this one "eats" pretend food, which seems to go along very well with Benji's love of the pretend microwave).

Now that Benji knows what a snowman is, he loves the decoration on his stocking. Grandma made a similar one for Benji at our house and then decided he needed one at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too. I agree! They're both adorable.

Hmm... I wonder what's in here. Maybe some "tickets". When Benji opened his card and found some Christmas money, he called it "tickets". They're not quite the same as Enchanted Castle tickets, but he's got the right idea. Smart lad!

Santa has such handsome helpers, doesn't he?

Such a cute giggle and smile!

One present was a giant set of dominoes. Benji thought they were both fun for counting the dots and for making towers.

Which case should I pick? Or should I take the Deal? Benji loved his "Deal or No Deal" electronic game. I bet he could do as well as many of the real contestants.

Of course everyone needs a new set of letters for Christmas!

Now that we have real winter, Benji needs some warm sweaters. Grandma crocheted a beautiful beige sweater for him, and it looks like he'll be able to wear it for at least two seasons.

Benji's third Christmas, Act 2

2008-01-24T09:38:00.000-05:00

After breakfast we got back to the present opening, which Benji loved. Oh yeah, and Mommy and Daddy loved, too. Especially watching Benji's excitement. Isn't that what the "magic of Christmas" is all about?

Benji enjoys playing with Thomas the Tank Engine train sets at storytime that we thought he'd like a train set of his own. We were right.

As with the Duplos, we had to pause from all present opening to play with his new train set.

The past several times we've gone to Enchanted Castle we've saved up the tickets. Since Benji gets a kick purely out of taking tickets from the games and putting them back in the counting machine, we thought it was better to save up for a bigger prize. And we finally had enough for the giant Care Bear.

Big hug!

Or maybe big tackle!

Giant bear is actually taller than Benji. What's not to love about a teddy bear larger than you are?

Ah, now there's a sweet hug.

A present for Mommy and Benji? What could it be?

Benji must remember our fish back in Richmond. He immediately recognized the fish food canister in the present and got very excited. We still need to find the best place for the fish tank and go pick out fish, but it will be really nice to have fish again.

When Benji saw the nativity scene earlier in Advent, he immediately called it "Church" which I think is a fantastic recognition and association. And since the nativity is actually plastic or vinyl or something unbreakable like that I wanted to let Benji get up close and personal with the nativity.

His favorite part was the stable animals, especially the sheep. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since he could count the sheep. But he did like the baby and the mommy and the daddy, too.

Daddy got presents, too.

Benji helps Daddy read his "Entertainment Weekly" magazine subscription. Not as much fun as Mommy's fish present, but still good fun.

Memory like an elephant

2008-01-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

For anyone who thinks two-year-olds have no longer-term memory, I submit several cute kid stories.

1) After church this Sunday on our way out, Benji told me "go eat" and I figured he just wanted to have lunch so I told him we'd go home to get Daddy and then go have lunch. He repeated this again in the parking lot, so I asked him what he wanted to eat. He pronounced that he would like "donut". I thought this a bit odd since we don't have donuts very often. As we got closer to the car I asked him again and he again responded "donut". It finally dawned on me that when we went to church in Ames there were donuts and coffee after Mass. And on one of the Sundays of Advent the church we went to that weekend had donut holes afterwards. Apparently Benji thought this was a new addition to the church routine. Something I had completely forgotten had made quite the impression on him.

2) During "Christmas break" we went to Brookfield Zoo with my family, including my brother. It was a nice trip but because it was chilly we didn't see the whole zoo. We spent a lot of time in Tropic World and of course had to see the elephants and giraffes. When we were visiting in Ames we got to talking about the zoo and I asked Benji what we saw there. He told us he saw "monkeys", which is indeed what most of Tropic World has (monkeys and gorillas, but Benji was calling the gorillas monkeys). I asked him what else he saw and he told me he saw elephants and giraffes. He didn't add in any extra animals and he covered the main ones we saw. To build on this, last week he found his mold-a-rama elephant from the zoo and told me "coins", which indeed is how he got his elephant from the machine. This all makes me very glad we got the zoo membership and can go back a few times this summer.

3) Most days when I get home from work I ask Benji what he did today. And most days I don't get much of a response. I then move on to more specific questions like "did you go to storytime today?" But last week when I asked him he told me he went to the "park". And I asked him what he did at the park and he said "swings". So, the park must have made quite an impression compared to most daily activities.

4) Last weekend we were at Sears looking at washers and dryers and "Finding Nemo" was on the TVs across the room. We told Benji we'd go home and watch the "fish movie" and he seemed pretty excited. So we were taken aback when we got home and he started screaming angrily "fish movie, fish movie!" We think he thought we were going to the movie theater to see the fish movie. We don't go to the movies very often, but he did seem to really like the previous movie we'd seen ("Enchanted"), so I guess he wanted to see Nemo in the theater.

Now of course you can see this is all a selective memory, focusing on things he's particularly enjoyed and things that are out of the ordinary. But it just goes to show that kids are absorbing way more than we think they are.

Benji's third Christmas � pre-breakfast

2008-01-13T23:34:00.000-05:00

As I've said before, this Christmas season has been amazing! Two years old is a magical age for Christmas and I've just loved introducing Benji to the season. Christmas morning was no exception to this magic!

Although Benji didn't drag us downstairs Christmas morning (which I'm sure he will in future years), once we got there and he saw the presents under the tree he was so excited. Honestly, I expected him to tear through all the presents at lightning speed since he's been starting to grasp the idea of brightly wrapped presents holding new toys. But instead he was the slowest present-opener I've seen. Unlike so many older kids and adults who want to move on to the next present, Benji showed more excitement and gratitude at each present. He wanted to open all the boxes and play with each toy immediately, which we more or less tried to honor. And although we did move on to more presents, it wasn't because he was losing interest in the current one and discarding it. I think he could have played with his new Duplos so much longer than we let him (we were getting hungry and decided it was time for breakfast) so that just goes to show how selective the proverbial short attention span of a toddler can be.

Since I took so many pictures, I'll split Christmas into a few posts. More to come later...

Since Benji had no real concept that Santa had come and left presents under the tree, he was just as happy to play in Mommy and Daddy's room in the morning. I'm sure it will change soon enough that he will wake up super early on Christmas morning and drag us downstairs.

We finally got so excited to watch Benji open presents that we dragged him downstairs.

Look at everything Santa brought! I wonder who the giant present is for.

Oooh! Presents for Benji! Now he got excited.

Blocks! Benji was so excited about his first present that we had to open it immediately so he could play with it. I guess Santa knew what would be a big hit!

After being so excited about the idea of presents, I'm surprised Benji got totally sidetracked. We built towers and animals with his new Duplos, totally uninterested in the rest of the presents. Of course that's probably a good thing since he's acting less greedy and more appreciative of the presents he received.

Benji has been so interested in taking pictures that we gave him his very own camera for Christmas. Granted, it's our super old 1-megapixel camera, but it seems to work well for him. It's actually quite large which is good for Benji to handle. By today's standards the picture quality isn't fantastic, but it used to be what we were very happy with. And he enjoys taking his own pictures.

I just loved the expression on his face in this one.

Remember when I said earlier that Benji liked to put presents in the tree?

Halftime! By breakfast we hadn't opened very many presents. But look at what fun the Duplos were!

Making trees and cookies

2008-01-06T19:19:00.000-05:00

I've always loved getting ready for Christmas, but this year was absolutely fantastic. It was so much fun to introduce Benji to the many traditions of Advent and to see his excitement and understanding of these traditions (admittedly only the secular traditions because the real religious importance is far too abstract for a 2-year-old). I'm not quite sure how we're going to wean Benji off of Christmas now that it's over, but for now I'll just reflect on and treasure some of Benji's favorite parts of Christmas.

Christmas carols: Many nights at bedtime I sing various children's songs to Benji as a lullaby. But sometime in November I got tired of singing the same songs and realized I know tons of Christmas songs. By the time Advent rolled around, Benji was familiar with Christmas songs and even had his favorites. The first one we heard him singing on his own was Jingle Bells but he got pretty angry if you asked him to sing it on command. By the end of Christmas I would also hear him singing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph when he didn't think we were listening. And he certainly had favorites to ask Mommy to sing — "the snowman song" (Frosty), "the reindeer song" (Rudolph), "the drum song" (Little Drummer Boy), "the house song" (a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song that goes with one of the animated light shows on YouTube), and "the tree song" (12 Days of Christmas, think about the partridge in the pear tree).

Christmas lights: I have been completely into Christmas lights for as long as I can remember. The tackier and more outlandish, the better. So it's no wonder that Benji loved the Christmas lights. When Matthew put up the lights outside our house (which isn't a huge display) Benji was so excited. He loved going up to the fake deer and petting them. Imagine his excitement when we went on our annual car tours of the area for light looking! His favorites by far were any of the animated displays where the lights flash and dance in coordination with music. And when we couldn't get out to see lights, YouTube was good for a quick fix!

Christmas presents: On December 6, St. Nicholas visited our house and put a variety of presents in Benji's shoes. He had started figuring out what presents were about at his birthday, so he was really excited by the pile of presents at the front door. For several days after St. Nicholas Day he would periodically declare "Benji present" and troop off to bring us one to open. It was great practice for the big day! One day after all the presents were already opened he declared "Benji present" so Daddy wrapped a piece of paper around the DVD remote and told Benji to put it under the tree. We later found out Benji was putting these "presents" in the lower branches of the tree, not under the tree. So funny!

Christmas TV specials: This is probably the Christmas tradition Benji was least excited about, but he still enjoyed snuggling on the sofa with Mommy to watch "Frosty the Snowman" or cutting cookies while watching "Rudolph." He was not impressed at all by "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Christmas tree: It took us three days to put up our Christmas tree, but it was worth it to take our time and involve Benji as much as possible. Our artificial tree requires you to find the letters on the branches to get them in the right order and of course Benji was capable and happy to help with that task. When we were finished he declared "Benji make a tree" which is actually a pretty accurate description of the artificial tree process. The next day we let him follow after Mommy holding the lights and garland when I draped those on the tree. And the third day Benji hung most of the ornaments on the tree (and the remaining ones Daddy hung at Benji's direction when he wanted one higher up). And he certainly had his opinions about where the ornaments would go. For example, all of the teddy bear ornaments are on the same branch. I guess he thought they belonged together. This year most of the ornaments are on the bottom three feet of our tree so it's a bit unbalanced, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Christmas cookies: This year I was both excited and nervous about making Christmas cookies with Benji. I knew he'd love Christmas cookies, but I was nervous he'd either try to eat the dough or track a mess all over the house. So I was thrilled when my mom agreed to help with this adventure. It was so much more fun to share this holiday tradition and easier to get the task accomplished.

We plopped Benji in his high chair to control the mess and give him a good surface to work on. We started with the family crescent cookie recipe and Benji enjoyed playing with the balls of dough and then giving them to Grandma to put on the cookie sheet. He didn't try to eat it at all. Later that day we brought him back for the rolled sugar cookies and cookie cutters. We let him pick which "shape" each time; I think he was partial to the tree and the snowman. He also liked the sprinkles, which didn't surprise me at all given his fondness for Parmesan cheese. Throughout the rest of the Christmas season Benji loved eating the fruits of his labors, asking Daddy for "snowman cookies" on a regular basis. (I'm happy to report that he hasn't asked for one at all since we got back from Iowa, which is good since we don't have any more Christmas cookies.)

Nativity scene: This year I set up my grandmother's nativity set under our Christmas tree for the first time in a while. I figured Benji was well beyond trying to eat the nativity and maybe we could learn a bit about Christmas. The first time Benji saw the stable, he immediately declared "church". I hadn't told him at all what it was so I was thrilled and amazed that he immediately made that association. Then we talked a bit about the baby and his mommy and daddy. And of course we counted the sheep and called the donkey a horse. He treated the whole thing very respectfully and seemed to like the baby Jesus.

So who was the real winner of the Iowa Caucuses?

2008-01-04T15:46:00.000-05:00

Obviously Huckabee and Obama were the actual winners of the Iowa Caucuses in that they received the most delagates to the Iowa convention, but which candidate actually gained the most from their performance (or the performance of others) in the Iowa caucus? To figure this out, let's look at the Iowa Electronic Market, a futures market where people can legally bet on the 2008 elections. Here's the Republican futures for January 2nd, the day before the election (converted into percent change of winning the nomination):

Romney: 32.3%
McCain: 25.6%
Guiliani: 22.2%
Huckabee: 12.8%
Thompson: 6.1%
ROF (including Paul): 3.4%

And here's today's averages, parenthetically followed by the candidate's change since the 2nd:

McCain: 30.6% (+5.0%)
Guiliani: 24.2% (+2.0%)
Huckabee: 19.7% (+6.9%)
Romney: 16.9% (-15.4%)
ROF (including Paul): 5.3% (+1.9%)
Thompson: 3.3% (-2.8%)

As expected, Huckabee was the largest gainer, but McCain (my Republican of choice) was actually not far behind, despite finishing fourth behind big loser Romney and moderate loser Thompson. In fact, McCain's fourth-place finish has somehow propelled him into the favorite to win the Republican nomination, while Romney's second-place finish has dropped him from first to not even one of the top three candidates. Go figure, I guess.

Not that you can't already accurately hypothesize what happened to the Democrats, but we'll do them as well. From January 2nd:

Clinton: 61.3%
Obama: 28.4%
Edwards: 11.3%
ROF (including Richardson): 1.7%

And from today:

Clinton: 50.7% (-10.6%)
Obama: 44.7% (+16.3%)
Edwards: 3.7% (-7.6%)
ROF (including Richardson): 0.7% (-1.0%)

Caucuseering.

2008-01-03T13:56:00.000-05:00

Based in my experience visiting my parents in Ames the past few days, I think that if I were an Iowa voter, I would caucus for the candidate who called me the least often -- that is, only five times during the final week. That said, those four days in Iowa have given me the false confidence to make caucus predictions:

Clinton: 33%
Edwards: 31%
Obama: 27%
Richardson: 5%
Biden: 3%
ROF: 1%

Richardson, I'm afraid, is going to have some problems meeting the 15% viability threshold, although if he tracks just a few points higher than the polls suggest, he could get 15% or more of the delegates and be the big surprise out of the caucuses. And as for Obama, I'm just not convinced that the young and the independent are going to come out in numbers high enough to push him over the candidates preferred by older and more Democraty Democrats. (Me being one who's youngish and independentish, it's no wonder he's my favorite Democratic candidate.)

Romney: 29%
Huckabee: 27%
McCain: 17%
Giuliani: 10%
Thompson: 8%
Paul: 7%
ROF: 2%

I think Huckabee's two missteps in the last couple days — the "attack ad" and choosing Leno over Iowa for Caucus Eve — are going to swing the the race to Romney. People are talking about Giuliani potentially finishing last among the six major Republican candidates, but I just can't see one of the national leaders finishing that low. Thompson's done for.

Fall back

2008-01-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

Looking outside at the foot of snow on our driveway and the single-digit temperatures, I am longing for a somewhat warmer topic. So we will look back fondly at fall, when I thought it was already too chilly for this Virginia transplant but now realize it was pretty good.

Our new house has far more trees — and leaves — than either of our Richmond homes. So one weekend when my parents were visiting they graciously offered to help us get the leaves raked. The chore went so much faster with more people. And Benji loved trying to help. Here you can see him trying to rake, but he was really much better at putting leaves into the bag. Of course he was best at running through the piles of leaves!

When he got tired of running through leaves, Benji invented a new game — football golf. That's an aerodynamic nerf football with a tail that Benji is using as a golf club or perhaps a baseball bat to hit his basketball.

In our basement rec room Benji has his own table complete with art supplies where he loves to "go downstairs color." Grandma also enjoys thinking of creative projects to do with Benji.

Notice how Benji is trying to fold a piece of paper, just like Grandma.

Does Benji make a good Pilgrim?

He really preferred the Indian feathers.

Thanksgiving � Food, family, and friends

2007-12-25T08:53:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was full of food, family, and friends. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house and my brother was even in town for the holiday. Benji didn't remember Uncle Dave since it had been a year since they'd seen each other, although we do show him pictures of Uncle Dave so Benji did have some idea that this was a special person. We also saw my family on Sunday of that weekend, meeting them at Enchanted Castle and Benji seemed a bit more at ease with Uncle Dave that time. I hope they get along well at Christmas.

We also saw Megan over the holiday weekend, meeting her in Racine for a few hours. And, as with Dave, Benji was suspicious of this stranger as well. (Lisa, take this as a warning that when we do get together he will be suspicious of you, too.) He seemed a bit happier with Megan, though, at the end of the visit when she gave him his birthday present.

Grandma was daring and decided to have Thanksgiving dinner at the dining room table with a toddler. She even gave him a plate from the good china. It was really nice to have dinner with all the special stuff and I'm happy to report that Benji behaved perfectly. He didn't eat any turkey, of course, but he loved the side dishes, especially the rolls.

What a good Indian!

I wonder how those photos came out...

Mommy, my turn for the camera, please.

While Megan and I chatted away at the Racine mall, Benji played on the kiddie cars, planes, and ice cream truck. Thankfully he hasn't yet figured out (or at least hasn't begged us yet) that they'll move if you put quarters in.

It was so good to see Megan! Now that I'm closer, we shouldn't let it be so long.

On a cold snowy afternoon, a visit to the giant arcade is tons of fun. Most toddlers love balls of any sort so it's no surprise that Benji is particularly fond of Skee-Ball.

Grandma helps Benji get the hang of Skee-Ball while Uncle Dave wins the tickets.

Feeding the tickets into the ticket counter is just as much fun as watching them come out of the games!

A little post-game snack! Yummy!

Great idea Grandpa! It's even better with animal cookies! Mmmm mmmm mmmm!

Thanks for sharing your ice cream, Grandpa.

Now that the ice cream's done, Benji is ready to hit the road. Mommy, however, wants a nice photo with Uncle Dave.

Fifth time's a charm

2007-12-23T07:11:00.000-05:00

Benji is loving the Christmas season — the lights, the cookies, the music — but it took a while for him to get warmed up to Santa. In concept, he recognizes Santa in pictures, but his reaction in person is quite different. Overall I'm glad he's wary of strangers, but it did make getting my classic Santa photo more difficult. Just wait until next year when he really understands that Santa brings him presents...

Santa #1: This was our first visit to Santa for the season. Although the picture's not very good, you can still see that he's not too thrilled with Santa.

Santa #2, Round 1: This Santa was downtown when we went for the Festival of Lights parade. Even though Santa gave him a little teddy bear, he was still quite skeptical.

Santa #2, Round 2: Since the line wasn't long and they didn't charge you to take pictures (most won't let you take pictures with your own camera), we tried this Santa again. Benji was intrigued by Santa so he was amenable to walking up to him and meeting Santa again.

He seemed happier standing next to Santa so I thought that would be OK for a picture. But, we couldn't get him to look at the camera.

Santa played little games and tickled Benji's hand to get him more comfortable, which Benji actually seemed to like. Santa was very nice and spent more time with us than I would have expected.

Santa #3, Round 2: To finally get the good picture, Matthew took Benji to the mall on a weekday afternoon. I believe they had to visit Santa twice to get Benji acclimated to Santa once again. I'm quite pleased with the final outcome.

Let the writers' strike continue!

2007-12-19T17:53:00.000-05:00

Because.