The "Elephant" at the "Circus"

Earlier this month we took Ben to a "circus" on family night at the community center at a nearby base.  It took him a few minutes to warm up.  Once he did, he ran and ran.

This was a huge blow-up maze.  Air was blasting out of this end as the kids piled in.

Ben finally got the courage to crawl in.  Unfortunately, he took off down one of the paths and couldn't find his way back and started to scream and cry.  Another kid found him, took him by the hand & led him out.  Ben got over his tears in about five seconds & tried to go back in (but we didn't let him).

Coloring a clown with MARKERS!!  He only gets crayons and pencils at home.  That green band on his right wrist bugged him the whole time.

Discovering the bean bag toss game.

He was thrilled to play with all these balls.  He didn't even care when he got konked on the head a few times.  Daddy helped him slam dunk, too.

And we're back to the bean bag toss.  Soon after this, someone announced that a special guest would be making an appearance....

...an ELEPHANT!!!  Ben was the first kid to run up to this poor guy.

But Ben wasn't the only little kid to swarm the elephant.

I should mention that it was really hot in this room.  Can't imagine how hot it was in that costume.  Notice which kid is front & center.

Ben was pointing and saying "elephant" over and over.

They announced that the elephant couldn't stay much longer but would be playing a game of tug-of-war with the kids before leaving.  We had to drag Ben away from the elephant.  We bribed him with pizza.

Ostend, Belgium

After visiting Brugge, we drove half an hour to the North Sea coast.  Mike got a great hotel for us (with air conditioning!) just a couple blocks from the beach.

Yep, Ben still loves the ocean.

Our hotel room was very nice, especially for a European hotel (rooms here can be quite small).  We had this huge shower stall AND a nice big bathtub.  There was a living room area with a fold-out couch that served as Ben's bed.

The boardwalk near the fish market had a bunch of food stands with a ton of great seafood.  There was also an ice cream stand - every day Ben got a cone.

This jungle gym was downtown just past a restaurant where we had a great lunch of fish I've never heard of.

Playing peekaboo with Daddy.

Hanging out at the hotel swimming pool.

I've never been in an indoor pool area this dark!  And it was just off the lobby.  Ben insisted on getting out of the pool just to go back down the pool steps over & over.

Walking around downtown, we found a waffle stand.  Oh, those delicious Belgian waffles.

Brugge, Part 2

More of our time in Brugge...there were always long lines for the boat rides.

This is what happens when Ben sits in a regular restaurant seat instead of a high chair.

This horse sculpture water fountain was a very popular photo spot for tourists.  Ben thought it was pretty neat.

There were lots and lots of carriage rides along this road.  We weren't brave enough to drag Ben onto one.

Apparently there is something very cool about bathtubs that are not at our house.  Ben was thrilled with the tub in our hotel room.

Mike took Ben on a morning walk during our last day there while I packed.  No boats in the canals before 10 am, so it was safe for the ducks & swans to come out.

More exploring on the morning walk.

We had gone inside this medieval hospital earlier in the trip.  It was pretty much a huge, cavernous room that echoed a lot.  We tried to keep Ben from shouting the alphabet too loudly in there.

The cafe where we discovered that Belgian waffles are AWESOME!  They are supposed to be dessert but we got one for Ben for a morning snack.  They are dense and have little clumps of sugar throughout.  Yummmmmmmy.

We spent a bit of time in the Salvador Dali museum in the town square.  Ben was looking at this sculpture:

He was really interested in the nose & ear switching places.

We didn't have time for Ben's post-lunch nap because of the hotel checkout time, but he konked right out in his stroller.  That doesn't happen often.

Next up: Ostend, Belgium!

Brugge, Part 1

Last week we had our first real vacation with Ben.  We started by driving four & a half hours to Brugge, Belgium.  We reserved an apartment for two days because a hotel room would have been too small & we got a kitchenette to cook some meals for Ben.  He really liked the living room, aka his bedroom.

 We unfolded one of the living room chairs to make a bed for Ben (behind Ben in this photo).  He took to it really well.  I'm glad we had gotten him used to his toddler bed a couple months ago.

Our first dinner, at a restaurant in the town square.

Ben loved his high chair.

Some awesome spaghetti from the kids' menu.  This was the first of many spaghetti-based meals for Ben on our trip.  Mike & I had some fantastic mussels & Belgian french fries.  And Mike had Belgian beer, of course.

We got there on Friday afternoon.  When we got up Saturday, it was raining, but we walked around before the town got flooded with weekend tourists.  The rain didn't last long.

We ate a traditional English breakfast at this restaurant.  I've never had baked beans for breakfast before.  The waiter was very sweet to Ben and didn't mind him dancing around all the tables.  Ben liked having the audience.

Statue in the town square.

The courtyard behind the big tower in the town square.  Ben loved the space & the echoes.  He got a lot of smiles from other tourists.

We couldn't visit Brugge without going on a boat ride around the canals.  Ben threw quite the tantrum while we waited in line.  We got some glares, and one women even shushed him.  But he calmed down once the boat started to move.

Happy boy with the wind in his hair.

This very nice man, who spoke a lot of English, helped to calm Ben down when we first boarded the boat.  He even let Ben look at his camera...and took a very cute picture of him.

Quietly enjoying the ride.

This was just the start of our trip...more pics to come!

Macaroni & cheese

This was taken a couple of weeks ago, while Mike was out of town.  I tried to get a video of Ben saying some words.  Tougher than it sounds, because he gets distracted by the camera.  He refers to mac & cheese as " 'caroni cheese."  Partway through the video, there's a sound in the background that Ben mistook for the front door opening & closing, which he knows usually means Daddy's home. 

I've had several people ask recently how Ben's speech has been going.  He is progressing by leaps and bounds, or at least it seems like that to us!  He says too many words to keep track of.  Many of them are words he hears other people say & he repeats.  He is also saying a handful of German words, most of which he picked up at kindergarten.  But the biggest development is him saying short sentences.  A few weeks ago he was saying short phrases, but now he's communicating complete thoughts.  He can tell me when his cup is empty by saying, "All done juice."  Yesterday Mike took him to the park and he saw a dog.  When the dog walked away, Ben asked, "Where dog go?"  Then he said, "Bye bye, dog."  He did the same with birds: "One, two birds.  Bye bye, birds."  Later on his walk, he asked Mike, "Where Momma go?"  He was very happy to see me after his walk...and after he got his ice cream cone.

Ben vs. The Peacocks

A couple weeks ago our friend Ali invited us to the Kaiserslautern Zoo.  It was our first time there.  One of the first displays we came across was this big bird cage.  Ben fell in love immediately.

A birdwatcher just like his daddy.

He saw a peacock walking around outside the cages and made a beeline for it.  Don't worry, that peacock could run.

He escaped into the pen with the chickens & roosters.

In addition to this lion, we saw a sleeping tiger.  Ben did not care about either of them.

Once he figured out he couldn't go IN the cage, he lost interest.

In a different part of the zoo, chasing another peacock.

This was right outside the reptile & monkey house.  He had a great time inside, and an even better time when he discovered this fella.

He really liked the owl exhibits and said "owl" over and over.  There was a petting zoo area with goats.  I bought some food pellets and tried to show Ben how to hold them out in his open palm.  He preferred to hold a single pellet between his fingers and feed it to the goats that way.  He was really tickled by this.