What Ben's Been Up To

Wow...it's been a LONG time since I've updated Ben's blog! So sorry to those of you who actually check this. Life has been busy as usual. It's always something around here!

Since my last post, we've been to Michigan and to Florida. We've seen Playhouse Disney Live! at the St. Charles Family Arena. Ben also took part in his first play at school through an afterschool COCA class that he took. He's also had several playdates, attended a few birthday parties, spent Fridays swimming at school between January and March (and loved it!), had a dental appointment and has even had a couple of haircuts.

We had a great time in Michigan visiting our good friends Lisa, Jason and Brooke Ruttenberg. We hung out with them in Detroit and even took a drive up to Frankenmuth to see the world's largest Christmas store (Bronner's) and to partake in a famous chicken dinner at Zehnder's (Ben LOVED seeing the big Zehnder's chicken walking around). And yes, it snowed while we were there! After all, it *is* the tundra as far as we're concerned. We also got a chance to see our cousins the Wolfs and the Litvins which was really nice.

Pompano Beach, Florida, for Spring Break was very nice. It rained a few days and nights, but other than that, the weather was beautiful. (Grammy) Eleanor Rosenbaum and her grandson Jake came down the afternoon after we got there. Jake's parents and brother Sam joined us a few days later. My brother Andy even came down for a few days. We had a full house most of the time we were there. We even got to see our friends the Starkeys from Virginia a couple of times. They were down for their annual Spring Training trip. Ben also really enjoyed spending time with the cute 9 year old granddaughter of the next door neighbors who was down visiting with her family from far northern New York.

Ben had a lot of firsts on this trip - his first time fishing (he caught 5 puffer fish off the dock next door), his first time on a jet ski (he looked just like a Power Ranger in case anyone wondered), his first time in the Everglades and on an airboat, his first time seeing a live alligator in the Everglades, his first time holding a live alligator, his first time walking on the bottom of the Florida pool, his first time hanging out in the hot tub with the bubbles on full blast, his first time picking strawberries. I've put up a small album of photos on Facebook. Here's a link to it:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85922&id=548701684&l=5bcceeb1c3

I've also posted a few photos here. If you want to see more pictures, just let me know. I have a ton!

With a puffer fish he caught:

Holding an alligator:On the airboat in the Everglades:Picking strawberries:Chilling out in the hot tub:

This morning it snowed here in St. Louis, but it's like it never even happened now. Passover starts this week, and we're going to seders the first two nights. Easter is next Sunday, and Ben is extremely excited about the Easter Bunny coming and leaving him candy and money (inside the plastic eggs). It's all about candy and money with this kid! He's also started T-ball, and the first game is this coming weekend. He's continuing with his Little Gym class, and he's got a couple of birthday parties coming up. Before we know it, school will be over, and the summer will begin. It's hard to believe how quickly time has flown by!

This Post Is For Lisa

This post is in honor of my wonderful friend Lisa who I think is the only person in the entire world that actually reads this blog. Oh - wait - my other wonderful friend Diane once told me that she read Ben's blog. As far as I know those are the only two people in the entire world that have ever even looked at this blog other than me. If you do read this blog and can't or don't want to post a comment, do me a favor and drop me an e-mail so I know that someone's reading this thing! I'm just curious whether or not this is a waste of time and space on the World Wide Web. Anyway...here's an update about what Ben's been up to lately.

School. Thanksgiving. More school. Playing my Nintendo DS Lite. School. More Nintendo. School again. Playing on my laptop. That pesky school. More school. School. That's about it. Oh - wait - a couple of sleepovers at Ga's house. Ga's birthday, too. And don't forget school!

Seriously, Ben's been doing well. School has been good and keeping him plenty busy. He adores MICDS and couldn't be happier there. He spends a lot of time playing with (and talking about) Harrison and Bjorn, his two best friends. He recently told me that he's been playing with Alex too, the little girl who was in his class last year at Hope Montessori. Audrey's mom has told me several times that Ben and the other boys play Power Rangers and chase the girls (and she claims that they like it although I've already apologized in advance for the time when they don't like it anymore - and undoubtedly that time will come sooner rather than later). This morning at drop off Samantha's dad told me that Samantha said that Ben likes to play Power Rangers so he won't play with her (we'll be discussing *that* this afternoon!!). I know that Ben is the Power Rangers ringleader. There's absolutely no doubt about that one in my mind. The boy is obsessed with them!

Thanksgiving was fine. Very low key this year. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Adam, Ga and Ga's friends the Kermans at South City Diner then Ben and Ga and I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Cohn's house (more of Ga's friends) where Ben and Bradford (he's in 1st grade - a bigger boy!) played all night and had a great time.

Ga headed to Florida for the winter yesterday. I wish I were there right now considering how cold it's been here lately although it's supposed to go up to 50 degrees today so that's not too bad. I am a fair weather friend, but Ben just loves the cold. I'm not sure where he gets that from! I tell him he's crazy, and he tells me that it's not nice to call him crazy so I have to apologize but then mumble under my breath that he's still crazy. He loves cold and snow and is seriously into Christmas music. Every single time we get in the car he asks me to turn the radio on to the Christmas music stations (in case anyone wonders, he prefers the "jazzier" songs as he puts it). He's also extremely disappointed that we aren't decorating our house for Christmas because we're Jewish. We were in the car the other night with some friends who are also Jewish, and he said, "We don't celebrate Christmas because we're Jewish." The "we're Jewish" part was said in the most depressed voice you've ever heard in your entire life. When he was asked what he does celebrate, he replied "Thanksgiving." He didn't sound too thrilled about that either. I feel his pain. I always loved Christmas and used to tell my parents that I wished I were normal so I could celebrate Christmas. I think a lot of little Jewish kids long for Christmas trees and decorations!! Chanukah just doesn't do it for us.

That's really about all that's been going on around here. Ben spends a lot of time with my Nintendo DS Lite and watching Noggin, the Disney Channel and the Cartoon Network. He would spend 24/7 either playing Nintendo or playing on my computer if I let him (but I don't) with the TV on. He's a typical man already!

Spinning Webs

For those of you who don't know, Ben is a superhero. Sometimes he's Batman, sometimes he's Robin, sometimes he's Spiderman, sometimes he's Flash, sometimes he's a Power Ranger, sometimes he's Iron Man, sometimes he's Ice Man...you get the picture. He is a man of many talents and powers. Now he has an electronic web blaster that makes realistic sounding web shooting noises just like Spiderman. He absolutely loves the fact that he can shoot webs and is actually pretty good at it. He can shoot the webs over cars, over your head, through trees...you name it, he can do it. Here's a few pictures of him in action.