Benjamin's 2nd Birthday

Benjamin turned two on the 17th of April.
We had a little birthday party with Benjamin's friends and their families in one of his favorite parks in the neighborhood.

He loved having all of his favorite friends at one time and playing/running around the big park with them. And he loved the birthday song and birthday cake too, of course, even though he looked a little bit perplexed at first to see everyone singing the song for him, looking at him!

When he was asked, "How old are you, Benjamin?", he answered, "Two!" with just ONE finger up (;-) and made people laugh and smile.

Here are some photographs taken on the day, but you can check out all the photos here and here.
You can also see a video clip of birthday song and Benjamin's candle blowing here.

Benjamin's First Egg Hunting (Easter 2010)

Last Sunday (April 4th) was Easter Sunday, and we did our first family Easter egg hunting for Benjamin.

At first Benjamin didn't really understand what he was supposed to do: for instance, at the very beginning, he rushed straight to see ants, passing by an egg just in front of him ;-)

But then, after finding a few eggs and seeing that there are always some goodies inside them, he got all motivated and started running around the garden looking for them.

It was only a few days before Easter that I decided to do egg hunting this year for Benjamin, so I got the eggs and treats at the last minute (the day before Easter Sunday) and therefore I didn't find much options left at the store for nice-looking eggs without any pre-stuffed candies in them. (I wanted to choose and put goodies in the eggs on my own.) But I finally found some good ones (=empty eggs), and then I moved to the toy section where I bought two match-box cars and one tiny monkey soft toy.

I prepared about a dozen eggs in total, and in each of them I put some goodies such as the match-box cars and the little monkey I bought, dried prunes (cut into small pieces), some disney stickers, and kid's organic honey graham crackers. (These crackers were a hit because they are one of Benjamin's favorites, and also they happen to be bunny-shaped - thus perfect for an "Easter Bunny" treat!)

While I was preparing the eggs after Benjamin went to bed on Saturday night, I was talking to Amar describing every kind of goodies that I was putting in each egg, and saying things like "Amar, so maybe we should get up early tomorrow morning and hide the eggs in the garden before Benjamin gets up, right?!" And then Amar teased me saying, "You are like my Mom! :-)"

Benjamin enjoyed the whole thing and he looked so happy running around the garden with his daddy and mommy cheering for him. Our first family egg hunting proved to be such a success, and I am so glad that I decided to do it even in the last minute!

Please watch a short movie (5-minute long) if you have time to. (Please click here)

He thought that this little monkey looked like George (from his favorite picture book "Curious George") , and cuddled it against his cheek calling it "George!"