Just Gotta Dance...

My third-born is just goofy, crazy, silly, weird, and SO fun.

It's really true that you love all of your children equally but differently. My heart completely just bursts with so much love for this little boy who just goes through life at top speed all the time and with total, unbridled joy and exuberance in everything he does.  I love his energy and his enthusiasm. I love when he says "Mommy, I'm going to HUG you!" and runs at me as fast as he can, throws his arms around me and squeezes his arms as tightly around my neck as he can.

That act right there? That's Jonathan in a nutshell.  I really just enjoy him so much lately I can hardly stand to put him to bed at night because I miss him! (someone remind me of this post when he hits that evil stage they all hit at age three and I want to sell him on Ebay)

I think, somewhere in the back of my mind, it is slowly becoming very, very real to me I will never walk this way again and I'm even enjoying the things about him that should probably get on my nerves. LOL. It also helps that he is going through an incredibly easy, pleasant and fun phase right now.

Part of this fun phase is that he is completely and TOTALLY head over heels obsessed with Just Dance for the Wii. It's ALL he wants to do and absolutely nothing makes him happier than dancing.

It's right up there with any of Ben's obsessions (which also have their own blog label because they have been interesting over the years, to say the least...) This particular one is just a whole lot cuter and more publicly acceptable than some of Ben's have been.  (heat pumps,  for example...oy... that was a fun one)

So the little one, he dances. He dances ALL day. He dances every day. He dances everywhere. He dances when there is music and when there isn't. He sometimes dances to music that is clearly only playing in his head.  In a box. With a fox. In a house. With a mouse. You get the idea.

Any chance he gets he escapes to the basement playroom to play Just Dance.  (this is really what should get on my nerves, but it doesn't because it's adorable and I know, probably fleeting...)  I have had to sometimes lock the door to the where the Wii is so I can keep it under control.  But I know  if I leave it open and let him go, I can sneak down and watch him talk to himself and work on his dance moves. I spend way too much time just standing in the doorway giggling to myself.

He also will steal any internet-enabled device he finds so he can pull up Just Dance videos on YouTube. If you're with Jonathan and you don't have an unlimited data plan. Hide. Your. Phone.

He shops for new Just Dance installments on Amazon. "Can we buy Just Dance FOUR? Pwease pwease pwease?"

He will dance for an audience, but only in that, if you turn on one of his songs and there happen to be people in the room, he won't NOT dance. But he really doesn't give two figs if anyone is watching or not.  He just wants to dance for himself. He never even notices he has an audience. I wish I had just a little of this. He makes people laugh and smile wherever we go.

He memorizes the choreography exactly. Not even kidding. If you watch the screen, he's doing his two-year-old version of whatever the figures on the screen are doing. After a few tries of a song, he doesn't even need the screen.

He can also read the song titles. (among many other things) We discovered this recently and it's another post entirely.

Anyway, it's his top obsession at the moment, so the old one is fading and there is wayyyy less opening and closing of the DVD player lately, which is good for both the DVD player and my sanity.

The new obsession is also kind of fun at parties and school fairs when he busts a move to whatever song is playing.  Looking forward to my brother's upcoming wedding reception! ;)

I wish there were a preschool dance class for boys. I would sign him up in a heartbeat, though it probably would blow up in my face because he generally likes his dancing (as with everything else) on his own terms. But it might be fun for awhile.... "for awhile" being the key words... because I've learned my lesson. I used to think with Ben that these obsessions would lead to bigger things....that he'd stick with them. I know now though that I should just enjoy  them while they last because eventually they will give way to something else once he's learned everything he wants to learn about whatever subject he is fixated on.

So we'll enjoy the dancing while it lasts and I'll be over here hoping the next obsession isn't Star Wars because goodness knows we have enough of that going on over here already and 23 light sabers is really enough for any one family, even one with three boys! Besides, that's Ben's current passion (fifth or so round of it... sigh...) and I don't think I can take any more Star Wars talk from sun-up until sun-down.  One of HIS current favorite things is to watch videos of himself at slightly older than Jonathan's age talking about Star Wars and make fun of all the things he had wrong.  LOL!

I wish I could get them both obsessed with Just Dance at the same time. Maybe we could go on Ellen? I hear she really likes quirky kids... like the four-year-old who used to bite animal crackers into the shape of states.

Oh wait... no... what wasn't on Ellen. That was in the backseat of my car sometime in 2008. I have the weirdest kids EVER... and I wouldn't change them for the world. ;)

Catching Up...

Last week was busy, busy, busy...

Hoping to catch up here a little this week!

Dusted off the camera yesterday to take some new pictures after a Facebook meme from May 4th (Star Wars Day!) inspired me. I knew my Star Wars obsessed kids would want to try "Vadering". ;)

We haven't stopped laughing at this picture.

Ben didn't want to be Vadered, but he agreed to a light saber battle.

Since I had the camera out, I took a few new pics of the kids since it has been WAY too long.  Simon was quite amenable to this.

Ben, notsomuch...

And Jonathan gave me at least 23 seconds of his time... 

I also got my vegetable garden planted this weekend! We'll see how this little experiment goes. I have two different kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, red bell peppers, and jalapeños all planted in my box.  I planted peas too, but the sprouts weren't looking so great by the time I got them in the ground. I think they wanted to be planted a couple of weeks ago, but sadly, the box wasn't quite ready. :(

There's also a bunch of garlic and a blueberry bush I planted down there in some of the open space back in the fall. And in that same area,  I also put whole mess of herbs in a spot that usually gets taken over by "ground cover". That's what the landscaping guy claims it is, anyway... all I know is it's ugly and looks like weeds and if I'm going to have something go wild and crazy down there, I'd rather it be something fun, like basil, mint, oregano, and rosemary!  Will take a picture later. :) 

All Inclusive Update....

I love summer.... I think this every single day, multiple times a day even though we've been stuck inside a lot lately because of 100 degree temps and no car. I just LOVE the laziness of it all. I'm trying to savor it and store it all up in my mind because the crazy days of having to be out the door at 8:55 every morning are fast approaching.

Okay, so updates...

Hrm... 

Ben -- has mostly phased out of sharks and has yet to pick a new obsession... waiting anxiously to see what we'll all be living and breathing for the next few months and hoping it's not Metroid. He has become VERY into the old Nintendo game lately. I told Tom to do everything within his power to make sure this does not become the next 24/7 obsession because I HATE the video game phases... gahhhh... 

We went to the eye doctor the other day to follow up on his second grade teacher's observation that he couldn't see the board/projector well this past year. As we suspected, he is ready for glasses. We knew it was coming after he had his first appointment three years ago (apparently they can predict these things now with eye measurements), so no surprise, He is super excited to go pick them out! 

Simon -- has been super sweet and pleasant lately. I feel sorry for him sometimes because he is often the odd man out when we have playdates. Ben likes to hoard any older kids that come over and he is too old to play with the toddlers. I'm excited for him to make some new friends at school this year that are all his own.  I'm also looking forward to him playing soccer in the fall because I think it will do him good to have something that is all his own... he is constantly being dragged to things Ben is doing or interested in. I have toyed with the idea of putting him in the new martial arts school that is right by our house, but not sure if we want one more commitment right now.  

Jonathan -- BIG happenings on the talking front in the last two weeks. He has a solid 25 words that he uses every day now, including his newest ones, "Hot" and "Cold". Also, just this week, something clicked and he is repeating most things if you say, "Say, xxxx" And... we got our first multi-word phrase when we were playing with water balloons the other day! H came running in to the mud room, where I was trying to fill them faster than they could break them, tugged at my leg and said, "More blue balloon!" (it sounded like "Mo boo ba-oon.") So things are coming along. We continue with speech therapy because he is still behind at this point. It can't hurt and the teacher has given us lots of ways to encourage him to use words... but I do think it's all going to be fine. :) 

OH! And in even bigger news, we broke him of the crib climbing thing and I am STILL shocked that it worked. It's proof that Super Nanny knows what she is talking about. I basically just went in every single time I saw him throw his leg over the side and made him lay back down. (five times the first day at naptime) At the end of his nap, if we went in and he hadn't climbed out, we praised him and clapped and made a huge deal out of it.  It only took about two days... and no more climbing! Thank goodness... that was bad times.

So that's where we are lately... :) Summer is flying by and I have a birthday party of some kind to plan soon... how did THAT happen?!

Camp Invention 2012

Well, I am proud to say that Ben made it through the full week this year! Hooray! And by day two, he wasn't complaining anymore and was actually excited about what he had done there when I picked him up every day.

He loved all the different activities this year and loved his two counselors. I didn't realize until this year that EVERY actual teacher working there is a teacher from his school. That was nice. There were five of them and three of them knew him, at least in passing. Bonus. It made him feel really comfortable too, which helped a lot.

It's an awesome camp and I would send him again in a heartbeat, but he says he doesn't want to do it again next year even though he had a great time, but we'll see. Maybe we'll find something new and different for next summer.

Here he is with his camp trophy and his "invention". He calls it a Denti-blood-luna and, as far as I can tell, you put shark teeth in the top and it sharpens them and makes them so humans can wear them and be sharks.

Yes, the shark obsession is ebbing some, but still continues...

So Far, So Good, Random Stuff and Almost Beach Time!

This is the first year Ben has actually been into summer reading! I really think it's that the school librarian told them they had to do it and signed them up at school. In his mind, that makes it completely black and white, no question, done deal. AWESOME.

We have been back to the library once already for one of the four stickers and I think we'll be back before we leave for vacation for yet another one.

Bridge books are going well too. I took a clue from the above fact and told him the pages get turned into the third grade teachers. Voila. Compliance. And since Ben is into it, Simon LOVES them... he feels like such a big kid when he sits down to do his "homework." :)

In other news, Ben hit a HUGE milestone at swimming lessons yesterday and swam all the way across the pool!!!!! The teacher pushed him a little more each time. She kept looking over at me to make sure I had seen how far he got and I could tell she knew he could do it. So the third time, she just kept backing up and he just kept going!!! He was pretty proud of himself. :) I wish I had gotten a photo after, but I was busy chasing crazy monster baby.

We are headed to the beach this coming week for Shark Week 2012. Yep. Big surprise that is the theme this year. ;) Sometimes I feel guilty that Simon is just along for the ride with Ben's obsessions, but he doesn't seem to mind and gets as into it as Ben does for however long it takes to run its course. Yesterday, they played with the Playmobil boat stuff for THREE HOURS, meticulously setting it up all up Simon's bedroom floor and recreating pirate and shark attacks.  It was SO sweet....

Anyway, stay tuned for the traditional beach pictures - Ripley's big tire, boys digging in sand, 156 pictures trying to get one of all thee boys in front of the dunes looking at me and smiling....

Can't wait! :)

RIP Camaro Lightning....

8/12/10 - 6/15/12 (not a bad run for a Betafish!)

I discovered our dearly beloved Betafish , Mr. Camaro Lightning, deceased this morning in the fishtank in Simon's room. No one else has noticed yet that he is floating vertically near the bottom.

I'm not sure what got him. He looked healthy and has been eating and swimming normally lately.

Very sad. He has been around quite awhile, since Ben's LAST fish obsession phase, (which was preceeded by a Cars phase, hence the name)

Anyway, so, I guess we'll have funeral flush later. Ben has talked about wanting to set up our big aquarium again, so maybe this will be a good opportunity to do that. :)

Update: Oops. Ben noticed. "Mom!!! The fish in Simon's room is REALLY dead!"

Sharktastic!

So I was telling the Facebook people how Ben has jumped headfirst back into his shark obsession from two years ago. It started with the story he brought home from school, then he started carrying his shark books everywhere and quoting shark facts to us... we visited the aquarium last weekend and beelined for the sharktanks. He also dug all the rubber sharks out of the pirate treasure box we have in the playroom and has been looking high and low for his shark tooth necklace which we can't find ANYWHERE. Oh, and now he is saving his money for a megalodon tooth.

This morning, immediately after getting out of bed, he started watching an Imax documentary about sharks (it was really interesting!) and then, starting working on finishing up this drawing from art class, which he informed me he wants to get a frame for so he can hang it in his room.

Weeee!!! Ben's obsessions sure are a ride for all involved! I am loving this one though... it has been awhile since he has been into something sciency. For a solid year, it has been Pokemon, Ninjago and Bakugan. This is SUCH a nice change.

Ben's Shark Story

Ben came home from school with this yesterday... I don't think it was an assignment, which means he did it in his free time. I took his temperature to make sure he was feeling okay. LOL. He does write a lot in his room... but i'm shocked he did this in free time at school. Kudos to his teacher for transforming my kid this year! (last year, he had to be pushed to write more than a couple sentences about anything at school... )

So, without further ado, I give you "The New Hexo Mystery" (chapters 1 and 2... I guess it's "to be continued...")

Ben's Evil Plan...

1. Get tin foil

2. Get Tepig (a Pokemon figure Ben has)

3. Place Tepig in tin foil

4. Ball the tin foil

5. Challenge my brother

6. Make him scream

7. Throw it at him

Found this note on Ben's bed this morning. By the time I got downstairs, he was already hunting around the kitchen for "tin foil" and the plan was underway.

It actually did result in Simon freaking out.... because HE didn't have a Tepig to wrap in a foil ball.

Next plan? Take over the universe with Saran Wrap.

Three-fer Update....

Benjamin--

Ben had the weirdest/shortest stomach bug ever over the weekend. I thought for sure he'd be out of school today, but there was only one "incident" and it was overnight on Saturday and then he kicked the fever by early Sunday and was eating, drinking and playing completely normally. He was none too pleased about his recovery as off to school he went this morning. HA.

I spoke too soon when I said in a recent post that he wasn't currently obsessed with anything. It is 24/7 Pokemon over here and BOY am I growing weary of this one. Ready to move back to the solar system or maps and flags or any number of his past obsessions that he revisits periodically.

Simon --

Simon is cracking us lately. He has been pleasant most of the time, which is a nice change from the constant scowling of the last year. He is also mostly over his dislike of girls and even invited one over at school on Thursday, much to his teacher's amusement. He did tell her she would have to play with boy toys since we have no girls toys. Then his teacher said he promptly UNinvited her while waiting in line for the bathroom when he decided (and told her) that he didn't like her hair. But it's progress and we'll take it. ;)

He is big into making movies and "soundtracks" for said movies lately. His most recent creation was a karate movie, which I put on FB and will try to post here later. I couldn't stifle my laughter. He REALLY wants to take a karate class. The very thought makes me cringe... I never thought I'd entertain the idea of letting one of my kids do that. But he keeps asking!!! There is one at the Little Gym around the corner that does karate and gymnastics sort of combined... might have to give it a try.

Jonathan --

I could swear my mostly still non-verbal baby said "marshmallow" clear as day this morning while pointing to the bag I had in my head as I was making Ben's lunch. "Mah me yoh". I did a double take and actually said, "Did you just say marshmallow?" In reply he held out his chubby little hand. I'm sure I won't hear that word again for a year because that's how these things go over here. Weird though. He is SO much like Ben, it scares me sometimes. He is currently OBSESSED with ceiling fans and light switches and turning lights on and off. Gah. He throws a complete fit (as in, lays on the floor screaming) when you won't pick him up to reach a light switch. He's a tantrummy one, this one. I do want to take him on a field trip soon to the fan and light aisle at Home Depot. That was always a huge hit with big brother.

I had a proud mommy moment over the weekend when we took them all out to eat at the Avenue in White Marsh. The older couple at the table next to us stopped me as we were leaving to tell me how well-behaved our children were. And then, walking by the fountain on the way out, an elderly lady and her son stopped us to say they had seen us earlier and the son said his mom had commented how well-managed and well-behaved they all were. She then chimed in to say that she had had nine kids that we should keep going. LOL! Let me think, umm.. no. But anyway, those sorts of comments are always nice when you are out and about. :o)

New FIsh on the Block...

I am pleased to report that Mr. Good Eats the fish, may he rest in peace, has a successor.

He has been dubbed Camaro Lightning.

I love that our pets reflect whatever obsession Ben has at the time we got them. Davy Jones (the cat) was named during his Pirates of the Caribbean phase last summer, Mr. Good Eats was named during a brief Alton Brown (of Food Network fame) phase two summers ago. LOL.

Camaro LIghtning will aptly commemorate the latest cars phase we are enduring enjoying. ;)

Maybe He'll Be An OB/GYN?

So Ben... he has this sort of side obsession right now. Actually, when I started really thinking about it, I realized it actually goes as far back to when I was pregnant with Simon, he was just too little to really articulate it.

Pregnant bellies.

(Back then, he used to LOVE to play this game where he'd stick a ball, or his froggy lovey in his shirt and then push it out.)

One would assume that being almost six this time around, he'd have lots of questions and whatnot about the baby and how it got there and how it's coming out. And he IS a little curious about all that. But mostly? He's just into the belly.

I discovered this actually about a year ago when he was playing with his Legos at the dining room table and built a pregnant Lego woman out of people parts and an R2-D2 head. He also built a hospital bed and heartbeat monitor. (somewhere on here is a picture I took of it which was really quite funny) It was amusing at the time, and I noted that he acted a little shy about it, not wanting to tell me what it was, I had to guess. But then I kind of forgot about it...

Then I noticed he was really into this ONE part on a Sesame Street DVD we used to watch a lot (Elmo Goes to the Doctor) that featured a pregnant woman getting a checkup, with the doctor measuring the belly and listening to the heartbeat. It was on a loop in our van DVD player the longest time and he used to make me back it up to that part over and over and over again. Thankfully, it has gone missing.

I'd ask him, "Ben, what do you like about this part?" And he'd always answer that he didn't know and he'd squirm around in his seat.

Pretty much as soon as he knew I was pregnant this time around, he started staring at my belly all the time and acting all squirmy.

Tom and I have done our best to be open books about the whole process. We took him to the library and got him books about reproduction. He might be one of the most well-informed almost-six-year-olds out there. (though no, he doesn't yet understand how the sperm gets to the egg) I've read the books to him, talked about the pictures, showed him his ultrasound pictures and pictures from when I was pregnant with he and Simon. We watch A Baby Story all the time together because he's so into it... my assumption has been that the more access I give him to all the info, the less mystery there will be and maybe he won't continue acting so WEIRD about all of it. It's been a test of our parenting, for sure...

The real tip-off that the demystification was nowhere close to finished was when I picked up my laptop in our room in Disney, to find the Mac Help program on the screen and in the search box he had typed "preginit bellys.com" (he must have thought he was on the internet and THANK GOODNESS he wasn't!!! OMG! Can you even imagine what might have come up?)

Since then, we've ramped up our talking and reading even more. I took him to my checkup with me on Wednesday and he was fascinated and very nearly speechless by the whole thing.

OH! And just two days ago, he finally pulled out a lunchbox he had been hiding in the back of his closet. I've known about it for months and months now. It's where he hid the pregnant Lego woman he made. He asked me if I wanted to see what was inside and opened it to show me not one, but FOUR pregnant Legos and a heartbeat monitor. LOL!

I'd like to think that him taking that out of hiding was a huge step... in the meantime, I guess we'll just keep talking and keeping all this pregnancy/baby stuff out in the open so he feels more and more comfortable with talking about it.

What do *you* make of all this?!

Newest Obsession...

I am decidedly NOT into football. Not even a little bit. I like football season only because it means my husband will take the two boys and watch the games downstairs with them and I can go shopping or just hang out by myself.

So, you know how Ben latches onto subjects and learns everything single thing he can about them and talks about them 24/7 to anyone who will listen? Guess what his latest and greatest obsession is?

You guessed it.

Football.

It starts as soon as his head leaves the pillow in the morning... talking about all the different teams and who is in the playoffs and who's not... who's going to win the next game... who plays for what teams, what colors their uniforms are, what their logos look like, what number all the players are and how the scoring works.

It's an amazing body of knowledge he has acquired in the last few weeks. I just wish it were on any other topic but football. (yawn)

He even wants to take all the money he has saved this year down to Disney with us so he can go to the sports store at Downtown Disney and buy a bunch of these tiny little football helmets he saw last year with all the teams on them.

Forget the mouse ears, light up spinning Buzz Lightyear fiber optic doohickeys, or even the awesome toy store down there... he wants miniature football helmets.

Here's hoping THIS obsession ends with the football season. LOL.

Prego Lego!

Ben has sort of a strange obsession with pregnancy, babies and birth. It's been on and off since I was pregnant with Simon and has made a recent resurgence. I think he's starting to get curious about babies and where they come from and whatnot and I have a feeling there will be some questions to be answered when I get pregnanct again eventually... at any rate, he was playing quietly in the corner a bit ago and he wondered outloud what Lego piece he could use to make a hospital bed. A few minutes later, I went over to the table where he was working and found this:



He played out the whole scene and replaced the belly with another Lego guy laid on top of the mommy. It's not what it sounds like (thankfully)... as the other Lego guy was the new baby just born.

ROFL!

Mystery Solved... Kinda.

So Ben, he is not, shall we say, free flowing with his smiles. He's just not a hugely smiley, outwardly joyful kid most of the time. i actually feel sort of sad sometimes because so few people actually get to know Ben's sweet, happy side -- the side I see because I'm with him all the time here at home. The majority of time time, out in public, he sports his VERY serious, very intense, sometimes surly side and will only crack a smile when you really work for it.

At any rate, yesterday afternoon at lunch, he and I were having a conversation about what he would look like if he were a Lego guy. (welcome to a typical day of "Ben -- The Lego Phase") He decided he'd have a Darth Vader Anakin head, and that he wouldn't be smiling.

"Ben, why wouldn't your Lego guy be smiling?"

"Because I don't LIKE to smile, remember, silly?"

"Oh, right. Well, why don't you like you smile?"

(very matter of factly) "Because I like STAR WARS and they don't smile in STAR WARS!!!"

Well, okay then! Now I don't think Star Wars has everything to do with why he doesn't smile very often, (he's just a serious, intense kid), but given that about 80% of the time, he is acting out some kind of character FROM Star Wars? I think it at least accounts for some of it.

LOL!

Ben Astaire...

This Star Wars phase has been all about the music, the Legos and the Wii game. (thankfully, I have mostly been spared the 100,000 viewings of all the movies this time around!)

Dancing to the SW music these days is a daily activity. He has taken to choreographing whole routines to his favorite tracks. I wish I could have gotten more of this one, but Simon spotted the camera and tried to rip it out of my hand. LOL.

Anyway, for what it's worth I think this routine is better than I the one I posted the other day. ;) I particularly like the Michael Jackson moves in the beginning and also how he waits for "cues" in the music. ;) Hysterical!

Interpretive Dancer?

LOL! One of Ben's favorite things to do these days is turn on the Star Wars soundtrack and dance to it. He's rather creative about it too... he does all these slow, sweeping arm motions and spins and even throws himself on the floor dramatically during the battle parts. It's kind of uh... interesting? Some of it sort of reminds me of that Cosby Show opening they had for awhile where they were all dancing in the bright colored shirts/dresses.

I can't help but wonder what this child will become eventually...

At any rate, for your amusement, here is a short clip of some of his moves. And this doens't even really do it justice.


p.s. Yes, Ben is wearing Christmas pj's... and yes, they are too small and yes they are mismatched. They are his favorites. No, Simon is not wearing pants. He did not want pants and I did not want to fight that battle at 9 a.m. before my second cup of coffee He had also already painted a masterpiece in the kitchen, hence the filthy shirt. At the current time of 1:45p.m., he is actually on his THIRD shirt today. (sigh)

Early Adopter...

Disney has this new show called Special Agent Oso. They previewed it for weeks before it finally aired this past weekend. Ben caught the last five minutes. Yesterday, he watched the whole thing. By the afternoon, he was asking to see the Oso stuff on the Disney site. He played the Oso game for Simon's entire nap. By evening, he had crafted himself an Oso costume, consisting of a suit jacket and pajamas and a stopwatch that he hung around his neck. He asked Tom to pull up Oso music from the website but yeah, they don't really have all that in place yet. Ben was extremely annoyed about this.

So Disney Channel execs, your marketing strategy for this show? Apparently right on target. LOL. You have done something very very VERY right. Even SIMON is wandering around saying, "Oso? Oso? Again!"

You know what other show he loves that is amazingly underrated (by which I mean, I don't see much in the way of publicity for it)... Sid the Science Kid on PBS. It's like an animated, African American version of Ben. Sid even has a baby brother. I LOVE watching that one with him. Need to remind myself to start Tivo'ing that one because we rarely catch it.. I think it's on at a time when we are almost always out of the house.

In other Ben-related news, we are waiting with baited breath to find out what the next big Ben obsession will be. Current front-runners that seem to be making subtle appearances lately are foreign currency and golf. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Misheard...

So one of the settings on this Leapfrog Globe Ben got for his birthday lets you listen to the music from various countries/states. The music for most of the U.S. (mostly the south) is a snippet from "Amazing Grace". I told Ben this days ago and sang along to it and a few others. He thought it was cool that I knew words to some of his "globe songs".

A little while ago, he was clicking around on the U.S. and Amazing Grace played for Arizona. He was quiet for a minute and then said, "Wow. They must REALLY like the Amazing Race in Arizona!"

LOL!

Good Old-Fashioned Family Fun...

I was cleaning up dinner when Tom called me into the living room to see what Ben was doing. He had a map of United States propped up against the wall and was looking at it while contorting himself into odd positions. It took me a minute to realize he was actually making himself into the shapes of various states. LOL!!! We spent the next ten minutes guessing which states he was. I'm still laughing!