:: Swimming Hats and Hungry Monsters ::

As far as weekends go, this one has been pretty good.  We didn't go anywhere exciting and we didn't have any thrilling experiences... but it was a good weekend.  We slept in, watched TV and just hung around the house.  Not bad. Just what a weekend should be, I guess.  Relaxing. Fun.

On Saturday, while Ben was taking a bath and I was getting his clothes ready, I heard him call for me... "Mama, come look at me.  Come look at my swimming hat!" I looked through the bathroom door to see Ben wearing one of my mixing bowls on his head.  It was his hat.  His "swimming hat." It made me laugh.  

Quite a number of my kitchen utensils have found a new home in Ben's bathtub.  He has tons of bath time toys to play with... we have bought him rubber duckies, plastic boats, dinosaur water squirters... but nothing seems to be as much fun as my whisks, mixing bowls and spatulas. During the summer, I usually lose about two strainers and at least one tea pitcher to the pool in the backyard.  I'm not even going to bother with buying beach balls and floaties this year.

On Saturday afternoon, Ben climbed up on our bed with a book in his hands and began to read us his favorite book "One Hungry Monster." At first, we just thought he was going to pretend to read it... he knows certain words and can spell, but he has never actually read a series of complete sentences, and certainly not a whole book. Well, guess what? He read the book.  The entire book. He really concentrated and sounded out the bigger words... we were so happy!  I went and grabbed several other books from his closet and asked him to read each one, and he did. He can read so well.  He's only four years old, and he is reading like a superstar! So, I told him this week we would go get him a library card, and he can pick out books all by himself.  He was so excited.  I am so proud of him.

Today we went to a birthday party for Ben's friend, Gabrielle.  She turned six years old today. Ben stayed in the pool the entire time we were there.  Well, he did get out of the water for cake and ice cream, but he jumped right back in after he was done. So, he was pretty hungry and very tired when we got home. It made bed time so much easier.

So, that was our weekend... not bad, huh?