and one more makes four: February 2009

Thursday, February 26, 2009

In conversation with Ben

I was reading a book to Ben and he asked about an expression on the faces of the people in the book. I told them the people were curious and he replied, "They're not cruious, they're not monkeys." Apparently only Curious George is curious.

As we drove past the newly renovated casino near us, Ben looked at the waterfall on the outside of the casino and declared, "Look! The zoo!"

b: Mom, where is your cheese?
j: I ate it.
b: I'm going to eat mine. Where is the cheese?
j: In your tummy.
b: Will you open the door (pointing to his tummy) so I can see the food?

Ben has a strong opinion about pickles: he does not like them! Because of that, he told me today at lunch while eating Mickey D's cheeseburgers that "boys don't like pickles." I also don't eat the pickles so he then told me that "girls don't like pickles." Jake always eats our pickles and after semi-arguing with him that we did not need to save the pickles until dad got home from work, he told me that "daddy's like pickles."

Today is a cloudy day and as we were driving home from preschool Ben asked where the sun was. I told him it was behind the clouds. He was quiet for a moment and said, "I think the sun is at preschool."

Ben likes watching Little Einstiens. The shows focus on a particular piece of classical music and an artist. I have downloaded most of the songs for him to listen to and this is when Ben will sit at the computer and be still and really listen to the music. One afternoon we were listening to Grieg (In the Hall of the Mountain King) and Ben looked outside and as the wind was blowing the trees he said, "Mom! The trees are dancing to Grieg!"

Jake and I must use the word "bummer" more often than not. Now Ben has adopted the word and just hearing it come out of his mouth is really funny. He will say, "Awww, that's a bummer."

Jake must have shown disappointment or some kind of emotion around Ben and he told Jake, "Dad, get happy." That must be a preschool expression he learned.

As Ben is learning gammar, he mixes up tenses. His current phrase is, "What you did?" I crack up almost every time he says it. Or he will say, "We goed to the store." or Who's going to comed over today?"

As he refers to something we did in the past, he expresses it as something we did "last year" (even if it was something we did two days ago).

He pronounces earlier early-ler
girl is glirl

One Saturday morning Jake was letting me sleep in and I heard him sing a song to Ben about being a little more quiet...the tune was to: are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother john....etc...
The lyrics:
Mama's sleeping, Mama's sleeping
Let her sleep, Let her sleep
You don't wanna wake her, You don't wanna wake her
Let her sleep, Let her sleep

and then I just listened to them play...it was a good extra rest time.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

V-Day 2009

My parents and sister came for the weekend to help us get our yard cleaned up and to celebrate LOVE weekend. Dad chainsawed, we dragged limbs, raked leaves, mom and Jake constructed a compost pile.... and then we ate a grand meal at the end of the day.