Back to the Grind

Well, it's back to the grind after another great week of vacation. We started the week with a nine hour miserable car ride to NH, then went to Norway and Paris (Maine, that is) before heading back to Mass. Ben's now been to playgrounds in five different states! He also went on a train ride, went blueberry picking, went swimming and on a boat ride. He also saw lots of relatives, like his aunt, two sets of grandparents and his two great grandmothers. Here are some pictures.

On the train with Grammie and Pepere.

Picking blueberries at Grampy and Grammy's

Blowing bubbles with cousin Brooke

J.R. and I went to Fenway to watch the Sox take on the Yankees. Unfortunately, it was boring game with few hits, and even worse, the Yankees won. We had awesome seats though and J.R. was able to be at Fenway for a game.

Every time Jeter came up to bat I'd shout "I hate you but you're hot!" Hey, Yankee or not, he's hot.

It was Papi's first night back.

I'm still horrified that the Red Sox have a mascot (Wally - get it, Wall-y the Green Monster?), but here's J.R. sitting with a statue of him.

Other highlights of the night included Leanne Rhimes singing the National Anthem, Kenny Chesney throwing out the first pitch (I'm not into Country music but thought it was cool they were there - even I know who they are) and Jack Nicholaus threw out a ball too. We also saw Beckett pitch for the Sox, and Chamberlain and Rivera pitch for the Yankees. Rivera was not met with kind applause.

The first day back to daycare for Ben was good in the morning...Ben went right to a toy and started playing. I didn't even kiss him goodbye because he was to busy washing his hands. He cried when I picked him up though. He was behind a chain link fence and was all upset because he couldn't get to me. He cried when I dropped him off yesterday and today, and cried again both days when I picked him up too. I understand the dropping off cry, but it's strange that instead of being happy to see me and giving me a great smile (and boy are those smiles great) as he runs to me, he gets upset because he can't get to me fast enough. I'm hoping that now that he's going to daycare five days a week, he'll get better. Although, he's definitely at the age where separation is a stressor on him. Poor guy. Another stage he's in is the "what's that" stage. He points to everything and says "dat". It's cute, but I'm sure soon, it'll be annoying. He likes trucks and loves busses. Today we were in the kitchen and he heard a bus go by and said "dat". He said "ball" over vaca too. He has also signed "more" a few times lately and does "all done". We've been trying to teach him sign language for 7 months now and he hasn't done anything. He recognizes eat, and more, but to him, eat is opening his mouth and more is reaching out and/or opening his mouth. His "more" looks like he's waving to his food. It's cute. Because of that, though, I think he probably did it a few times before we realized what he was doing. Tonight he was eating blueberries and he was making noise/fussing a bit because he wanted more. Well, my back was towards him so he had to get my attention somehow. Once, I looked back at him to see what he was up to (he was in his high chair, I was washing dishes) and he looked at me and did "more" perfectly. He did it over vacation too. What's really great is that he did it, like I said, perfectly, just like J.R. or I would do it (more is making all your fingertips touch each other). A lot of times, kids will point with one finger to the palm of their other hand. We've let a lot of other signs go, but I'm trying to pick back up on "sleepy/tired", and "bed/sleep" as in go to bed. Speaking of bed...yeah, he's back to wanting to go to bed at 10pm. Sigh.