I’ve been taking swim lessons down at the Y.

I’m learning lots of things, like blowing bubbles, kick kick kicking, and “chicken, airplane, soldier!”  Also, I use spoons and not forks – “we’re not eating salad here!”.  My favorite thing to do is to float on a couple of pool noodles and kick my way around the pool, but my teacher insists that I go without when I’m practicing with her.  I’m getting better!

Lately, I’ve learned to pump my own legs to make the swing go higher!

I practice every chance I get – like at Shannon’s birthday party!

Here’s my first Lego project that I made without any help from Mommy or Daddy. It’s a school bus!

It has wheels to roll on, and a steering wheel to drive it. And it is mostly yellow, and has seats for people to sit in!

(Ed Note: Hopefully, this is the first of many yet to come…)

Our trip started with a visit to Aunt Barb and Uncle Steve.  We had lunch and dinner with them, and while I was there I got to pick some really big lemons from their tree.  Thanks for the lemons, Barb and Steve!

Then we went to our hotel in Monterey where I got to move all our stuff inside with the cart.  I really like those carts they have at hotels.

The next day, we went for a walk out to breakfast.  I tried to stop Mommy from taking my picture:

For breakfast, I had a Mickey pancake with whipped cream!  Mmmmm….

Then it was off to the aquarium.

This was the first tank I saw.  There were sharks!  And a diver was cleaning the floor with his vacuum.  Just like we do at home!  So, what’s so special about this aquarium, anyhow?

Later, I touched some sea creatures at the touch tank.  Kinda slippery!

Then there’s the tank where the fish swim in circles.   Around and around.  Seems like they would get dizzy.

After the aquarium, we stopped for ice cream.  I got to finish off the sundae we shared.  Mmmmmm…

My favorite animals at the aquarium were the otters, but somehow my photographer didn’t take any pictures of them, so I can’t show them to you.  Maybe next time.

Look what I did!

A line with two bumps.

A line with some other lines.

And two lines with a line connecting them.

B!     E!!!   N!!!!!!!      BEN!!!!!!

We had playgroup at an apple farm recently.  Auntie Linda and Uncle Rick came along to help pick apples and learn about the apple farm.

We got to pick and eat some apples, and see how the apple tree farm works.

I got to help Mommy make some chocolate chip zucchini muffins the other day.  I got to spoon all the batter into the muffin cups.  Talk about hard work!  But I did a good job and barely spilled any.  Which was really good, because that means more muffins!  And when they have chocolate in them, you don’t want to mess around!

We’ve been getting a lot of cherries from the farmer’s market lately, and… guess what?  I learned to use the cherry pitter to remove my own pits!

I’m still working on the best technique to get them out, though.

Here’s a flashback to this past summer where I was helping Mommy plant the herb pot.

I learned to read my initials, which are on all my socks. Having your initials on your socks is important when you are in the Panda room.

If you ask me what the letters stand for, I will tell you my name is Benjamin Rainbow Stark!