Of Course!

Ben and I were building blocks this afternoon and he asked me to build a baseball stadium for his little Playmobile baseball dude he got for Easter. I was actually quite proud of my creation... it even had dugouts, bleachers, a jumbotron and foul poles. But, I digress...

Beside me, he was working intensely on another structure. I asked him what it was and he replied that it was a library for the baseball player.

"Why does a baseball player need a library?" I inquired.

"So he can go read books about baseball when he's not playing!"

Well, obviously! Why didn't I think of that?

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!

The Smith Sodium....

I was working on Ben's scrapbooks on Friday (I'm only TWO years behind now instead of four! Yay!) and he was looking at the pictures as I sorted through them.

"Where am I in THIS one?!" he asked, in total awe.



"Oh! That's when we went to the Smithsonian! They have a whole museum about airplanes and space flight."

"Can we go there TODAY? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!"

Eighteen times a day now, for two solid days, he has asked if we could please go to the "Smith Sodium" NOW now now. I explained we need to wait for warm weather because it's a lot of walking and we have to plan ahead because we have to leave Simon home with someone.

Poor kid. Patience is not his thing. I can sympathize. I can also giggle at his pronunciation. ;) Hee. Smith Sodium.

Another Ben Funny....

Yesterday, Ben was having a conversation about planets with my brother, who rattled off all of them, ending in Pluto.

Then Brandon said, "Well, Pluto USED to be a planet, but now it's not."

Ben: Yeah, now it's just a dog.

The Kid Cracks Me Up!

Ben makes me laugh out loud quite a bit lately... he's just so funny, and so serious and so funny because he's so serious.
A few things that have made me chuckle the last two days...

His globe obsession has morphed (in less than 12 hours) into a very focused obsession about the planet Jupiter. Do not ask me why because I really do not know. All I know is that he is all into Jupiter and had Tom pull up several YouTube videos last night about Jupiter and OMG, I am already sick of Jupiter. But anyway, so last night, Tom and I were ready to go to sleep, but Ben was still awake in his room. So I went in to check on him and try to encourage him to lay down and he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his doodle board drawing pictures of Jupiter and Jupiter's storm spot... over and over... and talking to himself about it. I almost felt bad telling him he really needed to go to sleep, but I swear, the child would stay up ALL night long if we didn't go in and turn out the light.

Today at school, he says they made "January pictures" out of popcorn. I suspect the point was to make a snow scene. "But I made JUPITER!!!" Yes, of course he did. He says his teacher thought it was cool. LOL. If it had been the Thankgiving project, I'm sure he would have been thankful for Jupiter today.

The other thing that made me chuckle today was his story about what he played in the Big Room at school. First off, he made me guess, and after about a hundred guesses, I finally asked for a hint. "It starts with a C, like kuh kuh kuh," he offered. "Cooking"? "Cards?" Stumped, I needed another hint... "It sounds like caaaaaaa..." Ah ha, remembering his other current obsession, I knew immediately. "You played castle?" I asked. "YYYYYYYYYYES!!!" he yelled. And then came the funny part --

"I was the princess... and Georgia was the queen, Drew was the prince and Alex was the knight."

Obviously, Ben did all the assigning of parts. Heh.

"We played on the up and down stairs thing and the bottom part was the dungeon.... I put Tyler and Marcus in the dungeon for awhile."

HA! I nearly spit my coffee onto the steering wheel. SO funny. I'm guessing Tyler and Marcus were oblivious to the whole dungeon scenario being played out at their expense, but it still makes me laugh. ;)

Overheard from Ben's Room...

Ben likes to make up his own versions of the books we read all the time. For obvious reasons, the Christmas story is in the rotation a lot lately. Needless to say, his versions are usually kind of interesting. ;) Anyway, Tom overheard the following while he was brushing his teeth tonight...

"The shepherds were watching over their flocks by midnight and there were one, two, three shepherds and the shepherds said, 'Why can't we go to Bethlehem in car? Why do we have to go by camel?"

I'm Not Even Sure I Should Blog This or Not...

But it was so funny, it made me snort water out of my nose... so I figure I want to remember this one.

The Scene:
(this afternoon)
Benjamin comes down the stairs decked out head to toe in one of his costumes. This one was a suit jacket, a clip-on tie and an Indiana Jones hat.

"I'm going to work!" he yells...

"Okay!" I reply. "Have a good day!"

"Okay, I will!" he answers.
(pauses)
"I'll bring home beer!"*

I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time.



*please know that we are not ridiculously heavy beer drinkers over here. Tom has bring bringing home various microbrews lately trying to find one we both really like. ;) We share one a couple of times a week. ;)

Things on His Mind...

From the mouth of Ben out of nowhere this morning... as if he had been pondering this for quite some time.

"I don't know who will be the ring bearer in Georgia's and my wedding!"

I'm Glad I Didn't Have Those Wedding Invites Printed...

Benjamin announced on the way home from school today that he is no longer going to marry Carly. Poor, poor, adorable, spunky little Carly.. It seems there is another woman.

It actually went something like this.

"I'm not going to get married to Carly anymore."
"Oh no? Why?"
"Well, I still LIKE Carly and I still want to be her friend."
"Well, that's nice! But no wedding?"
"No, because now I'm going to marry Georgia. She's really nice! She wore the LONG-sleeved dress today, which is the one *I* wanted to wear though. Hmph."

So yeah, out of sight, out of mind, it seems, with my fickle four-year-old. All it takes is another cute little girl who wants to play costumes with him... and bam! His heart belongs to another. ;)

Today's Tidbit from School...

I don't get MUCH from Ben about what went on at school. But occasionally, he throws me a bone. Today's?

"I wore a dress again today and mine was prettier than Georgia's."

(shakes head)

Funny Ben...

Tom was watering some herbs we put in our window box yesterday afternoon... Ben stood next to him, just watching...
Finally, he said:

"Oh!!! Is THAT how you grow mud?"

Wow. So Far, Four Really HAS Been Different...

There has been a noticeable change in Ben over the last 2-3 weeks. There has been almost no whining. He is so polite, it's scary. Please this, thank you that, May I, excuse me...

On his actual birthday, true to his word, he tried a carrot. (he had been saying when he turned four, he'd eat vegetables) He asked for it all on his own, saying, "I'm four now. So I'm going to try that." And try it, he did. He didn't like it. But he tried it. Now he says he wants to try grilled cheese, tuna fish and sushi. I think we'll start with the grilled cheese.

He's been an absolute pleasure to be with lately. I took him to the dentist yesterday (we rescheduled from last month because he freaked out when we were there) and he was awesome. He got his teeth cleaned and checked. Chatted up the hygenist, the dentist and the receptionist. And gleefully spun the "no cavities" prize wheel. He even said, "thank you!" when we left. Who is this child?

So, I tentatively say... yay for four!

A Ben Funny...

Ben loves him some 50 cent words... it's not our doing, really, other than the fact that we don't talk down to him. He just likes the way words sound and likes to repeat them and play with them and try to use them. Sometimes, he even manages to use them correctly.

Heard earlier:

"Now WHERE is that ship?" (one of his miniature star wars ships)
"It sure is quite a conundrum. That's spanish for 'mystery'."

Seriously, he cracks me up. ;)

Chatter...

The following is a transcription of what Ben just said as he ran through the room... he cracks me up.

"I found a ladybug downstairs and it has a yellow face and it's like, THIS big."

(I estimate this particular ladybug to be approximately 8 inches long, based on Ben's hand measurement)

I'm going upstairs to get my magnifying glass so I can see it better. I'll be superdooper quiet." (Simon is sleeping)

"Ah HA! Got it! NOW I am a bug detective. I'm going to go look at it with my magnifying glass and be a bug detective to try and see how long bugs live!"

Snot Fest: Day 4

I did at least get out to get Ben to school this morning.

It was against his wishes (he has a cough, but is feeling fine and has no fever anymore, he just didn't feel like leaving the house), but we made it. When I arrived to pick him up, he was running all over the playground, so I think he had a good day in spite of himself. He's taking it easy watching the Backyardigans now and I'm trying to decide how to entertain him for the rest of the day that will obviously, once again, be spent in. our. house.

Simon, on the other hand, is clingier than Saran Wrap. He was up every hour last night. No fever anymore, but other than that he is just miserable. He won't eat anything but his bottles, and not even much of those. His nose just keeps running, the poo just keeps coming, he has the worst diaper rash I have ever seen on either of my children and there is no schedule to speak of because he does not want to be put down anywhere. Sometimes, I get lucky and he falls asleep on me and I can get away with putting him in the crib.

(sigh) I'm pretty good with my kids when they are sick, I think... I get to do lots of the nurture, coddle thing that is my absolute favorite part of mommyhood. However, I am SO drained right now, I could just cry. I feel bad for Ben because I keep having to just up and leave him alone so I can rock Simon... I feel sorry for Simon because I can't just spend all day on the sofa holding him and neglect Ben. It's not fun. These are the weeks I think two children are more than enough for me to handle. :(

Another Ben funny though: I was snuggling with him last night before bed and prepping for for having to go to school today. He informed me that he does like school... but asked, "Why do we have to do all the sitting still, learning stuff?"
Poor little G-family short-attention-span-gened child. He's sure in for a rude awakening when he gets out of preschool and into REAL school where the sitting still learning stuff to running around and playing ratio is much higher. ;)

Quarantine: Day 3

Eh. Not that we could leave the house today anyway... it's bitterly cold and windy. I'd hate to take Simon out in this even if he were 100% if I don't have to -- and he's not 100% and I didn't have to, so I didn't. Man, I am getting tired of my house though. You best not come near here or I will grab you by the arm and pull you in just so I have someone to talk to and to tell me about the goings on in the big, wide, exciting outside world... or at least to tell me what's new in the Dollar Spot at Target.

Simon has added liqui-poo to his list of maladies. I suspect it's more a side effect of the extra snot and drool than anything else, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, he's still pretty miserable. He has blessed me with an afternoon nap though and my right shoulder is enjoying the brief respite from his 22 pounds of baby self.

Anyway, enough of the sicky talk. I have a Ben funny I want to document. Yesterday, he was just doing a string of ornery things... mostly involving dropping or throwing hard toys onto the wood floor (big fat no no in our house now and he's having trouble adjusting to the new rule). He kept saying these things were accidents when they clearly were QUITE intentional. I finally stopped him after about the 10th declaration of "But it was an accident!" and said, "Ben... WHAT does "accident" mean?"

I should have seen the following coming from a mile away...

"Accident means it's something you don't get upset about."

Heh.

Benjamin was recounting Christmas to us and said that when he came down the stairs Christmas morning, he "mistletoed". I think this is the Christmas version of tip-toeing. ;)

They Just Keep on Comin'...

More "out of the mouth of Ben"... both from just minutes ago. I really need to just start carting the laptop with me all over the house lest I miss something... oh wait, I do that anyway. ;)


Here's one for the future wife to giggle at someday: (asterisks are so I don't get Googled) ;)
- "Mommy, what kind of pen*s do YOU have?"
"I don't have a pen*s. I'm a girl. Girl's don't have pen*ses." (this is an ongoing discussion around our house as of late)
"Oh. Well *I'M* a boy. I have a pen*s... I have a tiny pen*s."

(snicker)

- "When I'M a grownup, I can do ALL sorts of grownup things... "
"Like what?"
"LIke go up in the attic... (thinks for a minute) and drink wine."

Also, this just in... (because it often takes all day to get anything out of him about how school went) From the sound of things, much to Ben's total excitement, Mrs. Poe (Ben's teacher) got a new clock. I had been hearing nonstop for the past couple weeks about how the old one broke... but apparently it has now been replaced... with a red one... a dark red one... with Roman numbers...no wait, regular numbers.
Woo-hoo! Ben will be able to sleep at night now! ;)

"Quick! Somone Dial IX-I-I!" ;)

Ben, as you know, goes through life always obsessed with something... you may remember the heat pump phase, or the ceiling fan phase, the Cars movie phase and the long-lived (but thankfully mostly over) Star Wars phase. Well, his current obsession is the clock. Any clock, really... and learning to tell time. He talks endlessly about the hands on the clock and which one is which and how fast they each move and the gears that run the clock and analog clocks and digital clocks and... etc...

Well, recently, he encountered a clock that had Roman numerals and of course, asked what those were. So Tom explained them. And now he's all about the Roman numerals...

Sometimes, to motiviate him to do something quickly, I'll use the old "I'm going to count to twenty and see if you can finish before I get there!" trick. Well, a couple days ago, I told him I'd count to twenty while he went upstairs to get his shoes... his answer?

"Mommy. Count in Roman numerals!!!!"

?!

So yeeeeah... I stood at the bottom of the stairs saying:
"I"
"II"
"III"
"IV"
"V" ...

(shakes head)

This kid is too much, I tell ya...


P.S. yeah, fixed the title. I wrote it before the first cup of coffee. ;)

A Ben Funny...

Forgot to blog this on Friday... but it's one I definitely don't want to forget.

When Ben and I were putting together our gingerbread house fixer upper, I was having a lot of trouble at first piping the icing onto the pieces. Ben was getting impatient with the whole process and I said, "Mommy's just having a lot of trouble getting the icing out! This is really hard!"

His reply?

"Mommy... you just have to believe in yourself!!"