Ben checks out his Halloween costume.

Ben and I bought his costume this past week. We went to a local consignment store, but I expected all the good costumes to have been picked over by then. Fortunately we had good luck! I found an adorable elephant costume for $6. And apparently this was quite a steal. It's a Tom Arma costume which retails new for about $60 US.

Ben goes to the farm!

Last week Ben and I met some friends (Melissa and Estella / Judy and Elliot) for a morning at Forsythe Family Farms and he had a blast! His favourite was feeding the rabbits (or "wahbahs", as Ben calls them), but he also enjoyed the goats, pigs (at whom he snorted), and sheep. The kids also enjoyed the sand pit full of buckets, shovels, and trucks. We left with some fresh vegetables and an apple pie (it was delicous!)

Melissa was our photographer that day. Here are the photos she took.

Left to right: Ben (stripes), Elliot (green tee and hat), Estella (brown knit hat)

Elliot supervises as Ben feeds the rabbits.

Ben still feeding the rabbits (those bunnies must've been pretty darn full by the time we left!)

Elliot and Estella having a snack.

Elliot has too many important things to do, so no time to sit still for a photo! Poor Estella looks like she's feeling snubbed.

Estella and Ben. Earlier they shared crackers, now Ben has his arm around her... I guess this is as close to a first date as it gets!

Update on Ben and photos from our Cape Breton trip

Ben's vocabulary is exploding. He's started saying many new words, linking more words together, asking specifically for more of something (by naming it), and he's really understanding the concept of people's names.

While visiting with Grandpa and Nanny Jean Ben started calling them "Gampa" and "Nana" (with emphasis on the second "na"). In fact, he started calling them by name on the day we arrived. I was floored. Until then the only people Ben named were Daddy, Mama, and Daisy (which he calls both our cats, Daisy and Sasha). *And* since Granny and Granddad Bloomfield were up yesterday Ben has said "Granda" (for Granddad) and Granny is getting "Nana" for the time being. I guess "Granny" is prooving a bit tough for him. We were practicing with pictures this morning.

Ben is continuing to work on potty training skills. He still pees on it, he tries to poop on it, but he's not quite at the point of letting us know in advance, so he does what he can when we offer the potty, otherwise it goes into the diaper. I'm still really impressed that he even knows what to do on the potty, and the rest will come with time. :)

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. Here are the pics from our visit in Cape Breton.

We'll miss you, Memere :(

Ben and I took a last minute, unexpected trip to Nova Scotia recently.

My grandmother/Ben's great grandmother (my mom's mom) passed away. We booked our flight on October 10th and flew home the next day. I'm sad that Ben won't have an opportunity to know her as I did, but I will always have photos and stories to share. Some of my best childhood memories are times spent with Memere and my great aunt Margaret. Both were incredibly sweet, lovely women, and Memere will be forever loved and missed by our family, as is Margaret.

Some pictures of Ben with his uncles and his Nanny Anita at the Toronto Zoo

I can't believe I haven't posted these photos yet. I've been going through a number of photos and trying to get caught up, so here's a great place to start.

Nearing the end of the summer Nanny Anita and Ben's uncles Adam and Matt were in Toronto. We all got together for a day at the zoo. What a day it was for Ben. He had a great time bonding, especially with his Uncle Matt who was such great fun for Ben. Matt took Ben down the water slides at the splash pad (always a highlight for Ben, but was extra fun this day).

Here are some photos from the day.

Ben used the potty for the first time today!

And he got the hang of it really quickly too!

During this morning's shopping trip I picked up a potty for Ben. We came home after lunch, he had his nap, and by the time he woke up I'd forgotten about the potty, so we played for a while. By the time I remembered I figured I'd missed our window of chance. Sure enough, I checked his diaper: he'd peed and pooped already. So I cleaned him up and let him sit on it anyway while I dumped his diaper contents into the toilet. I wasn't paying him any attention and when he stood up I noticed he'd peed in his brand new potty! What an exciting moment around here. Ha-ha! After I dumped and rinsed it, he sat back down and had the tiniest of teeniest poops. He was quite pleased about that, and of course pointed it out to make sure Mommy noticed too.

And Ben's successfully peed in the potty three times today since! He loves it so much that when he finishes peeing he stands up, looks in the potty, looks at me, says "mo' pee!" and sits back down to pee a little more. So clever and so funny! He also tried to bring it to bed with him.

So all in all a stellar start to potty training. Figures, I just bought an enormous Costco-sized case of diapers on the weekend.

Some of Ben's favourites

Ben's favourite foods

• strawberries
• kiwi
• carrots
• grilled cheese
• Cheerios
• fish sticks
• meatballs (the PC Blue Menu meatballs; he won't touch my homemade meatballs, in true toddler style)
• pasta
• rice

Ben's favourite toys

• cars, cars, and more (or mo' mo', as Ben would say) cars
• the Playskool Ball Popper
• sand and water table
• wooden blocks

Ben's favourite activities

• swimming (oh, how Ben loves swimming)
• getting "horsey rides" on Mommy and Daddy's backs
• the chase game (being chased or being the chaser; doesn't matter!)
• going down slides
• racing cars on the XBox with Daddy
• colouring with markers
• helping to unload/load the dishwasher and to sweep the floor

Ben's favourite books

• Each Peach Pear Plum (it's an "I spy" style book and he's quite good at locating the characters)
• Bright Baby's First 100 Words
• Hop on Pop
• I Love You Through and Through

Ben's favourite TV shows

• Dora the Explorer (Nic wonders when Ben will begin to prefer Diego)
• Pocoyo
• The Backyardigans (which, for Ben, is all about Pablo, otherwise known as "Pah-bo")
• Wonder Pets
• Max and Ruby

Ben's favourite shape

• the star (I suspect thanks to Dora; Ben is all about the 'tar, so much so that he'll put them into his shape-sorter, dump them out, and do them all over again, leaving behind an array of neglected circles, squares, and triangles on the floor)