Visiting Family

Aaron's cousin Mike and his wife Leah were in town for the holidays, and Benji got to meet their son (his second cousin) Cormac, for the first time. He said "baby!" and was very sweet and gentle with little Mac. Benji and Mike became good friends after playing with trains during brunch. --Victoria

Happiness is a Train Table

He enjoys playing with his trains so much that he had to climb onto the table with them... --Victoria

Sleepy Superhero

These are (in my opinion) the cutest of Benji's many cute sleepers. The logo says "Daddy's Little Sidekick" and the fabric is printed with a belt, boots, and cape. He's almost outgrown it, so I make him wear it as frequently as possible. --Victoria

Reading in the rocking chair

Benji climbed into the rocking chair himself, with a book. My parents will find this a familiar scene -- it's the same rocking chair they had when I was a child, and I once climbed into it with my little brother when I was only a year or two older than Benji is now. --Victoria

"If You're Happy and You Know It...."

A Ramp for Little Cars

Benji discovered a great ramp for his trains and little cars -- the printer. --Victoria

Benji Meets a Cello

Continuing the music theme... When I go to my dance practice on Wednesday nights, I always take Benji with me, and he loves watching the musicians play for the dancing. Last week, he tried out a button accordion, and recently, he got to see a cello for the first time. --Victoria

More Bananas

Benji loves bananas, which he calls "nanas" -- and this is one of the words he uses most frequently. --Victoria

Benji Loves the Piano

When we visit Susan and Yuri (Aaron's parents), Benji loves to play the piano. He also loves remote controls. And now, he combines the two loves, by playing the piano WITH a remote control. Also, he can now climb onto the piano bench all by himself! --Victoria

Visiting Friends -- Car Trip

Benji amused himself on the way home by writing a memo about his trip. --Victoria

Visiting Friends -- Tower of Cups

While we were visiting Jessica and Ross, Jess kindly let Benji take all the plastic cups out of their kitchen cabinets and build a giant tower with them. He was a very proud and happy little boy. --Victoria

Visiting Friends -- Playground

Benji and I drove to Philadelphia to visit our friends Jessica and Ross and their sons, six-year-old Jonah and six-month-old Ari. Jonah showed Benji around a giant playground castle, and helped him navigate the difficult parts. --Victoria

Apple Picking, part 3

Aaron made us pose by the sign that said "Large Mums"!

Apple Picking, part 2

Apple Picking, part 1

A few weeks ago, we went apple picking with Sarah and Yousef. Between our two families, we ended up buying an entire bushel of apples. That's a lot of apples! Benji saw some goats and said "doh!" (dog!). Then he saw some chickens and said "doh!" again. Sigh. --Victoria

Halloween

Apologies for the blog silence. Things have been really busy at work. Benji, of course, is still as cute as ever. For Halloween, he went as a dog (with Doh the Dog as his puppy). His friend Xavi went as a garden gnome. We didn't go out trick-or-treating, but we did go to the "Hilloween" street fair near Eastern Market. --Victoria

Benji and his friend Jack

Our neighbors Andrea and Patrick have a little boy, Jack, who is one day older than Benji. Andrea and Aaron have just started doing regular babysitting swaps several times a week, so the boys have been able to play together a lot. This is good for both of them, because they're learning from each other -- only good things so far. . . --Victoria

Favorite Book -- Moo, Baa, La La La

One of Benji's current favorite books is called "Moo, Baa, La La La." He likes to say "moo" and "baa" and will often say "lalala." There's a page in the book that starts with "no, no" and he always says "no no" when we get to that page. He also likes to say "KACK" when we get to the page where the duck says "Quack." I love it that he loves books and reading already. --Victoria

The Many Faces of Benji

Benji Loves Books

Like his parents, Benji loves books. He has started to bring them over to us and hand them to us, saying "da!" -- which means "read that."

--Victoria

Rainy Day Benji

Sometimes, he's in a rainy mood too.