Ben at a party

On Saturday Ben went to a friends 2nd birthday party.

Ben likes parties.

He also went in a paddling pool willingly for the first time. He even fell over in it and it wasn't the end of the world.

I know it doesn't look like much, but this is huge progress!

New garden toys!

One of my co-workers spotted two great toys left out on the curb by her neighbors.

She swiped them, pressure washed them and dropped them over to us.

Ben is in heaven

Ben and his guinea pigs

A few months back a colleague of mine gave me two (thankfully) incredibly calm and long suffering guinea pigs. These lived in my classroom and tolerated my students poking and prodding them, along with visits from Ben every weekend.
He was in love with them and would get out of the car shouting "geee piiiiiis!"

My replacement science teacher is allergic to them so they moved in with us. Ben is SO thrilled!

Here he is hanging out with them while I clean out their cage.

A two year reunion (almost)

Ben had two friends to play this weekend. Ellie and Helena are both about a week younger than him. We were friends with their parents when the mums were pregnant, and while we have all since scattered to the four winds it was a joy to see them all again.

Musical genius (part 3?)

Once in a while (more often than we admit) Ben gets to watch his favourite musical videos.

One of his big heroes is a musician called Laurie Berkner, you can see a sampling of her music here and here.

When given this chance he often ends up like this.

I like to think he is composing wonderful music in his head.

New job (for me, not Ben)

While this isn't technically a Ben post, it's a big change that effects him.
A of today I am no longer a classroom teacher, instead I am the technology integrator for our school, in charge of making sure we use technology well. I have a job title, but no job description right now. I am kind of a "tech person without portfolio" currently.
Exciting, but a big change. Especially since I went to our head and told him to Crete the job, now I ave to live up to my original claims.
So from today this is my new home at work. No big classroom, just a little desk in the corner of the tech office. Hopefully I wont spend to much time at it.

Where does it go Ben?

When we try and get Ben to let us change his nappy we have a new game.

When confronted with several ridiculous options for where the nappy goes, he will eventually tell us it goes "on my bottom"

Cutest thing ever.

Musical genius (continued)

We will tour the land, delighting young and old with our musical stylings.