"Laugh!"

So I recently decided to remind Ben of the one joke that he knows and have been prompting him to tell it to people every once in a while. The joke is "A 3-legged dog walks into a bar and says: I'm lookin' for the guy who shot my pa(w)" I know, horribly punny, but it's an easy one for him to remember.

It turns out that it's not always easy for others to understand, but Ben sure loves to tell it and people get a kick out of his enthusiasm. Then I tell them what the joke really was... Oh well.

The other night at the dinner table, Ben was singing a song from his Veggie Tales Christmas CD and it was just cracking us up. He took this as an opportunity to launch into his joke which cracked us up even more. But by the time he got finished telling it we had gotten control of ourselves and weren't laughing. This was confusing for Ben, so he looked at us for a couple of seconds and then said "Laugh!" Not demanding or whiny, just reminding us that we were supposed to laugh. Of course this sent us into gales of laughter again, so Ben got exactly what he wanted.

Mousetrap, I wanted to play Mousetrap

With the Christmas season in full swing, Ben has been watching the VeggieTales video "The Toy that Saved Christmas" quite frequently. This means we have new phrases Ben will just quote out of the blue.

One of my favorite comes from Bob, who was a reluctant passenger on a sled ride. After a horrendous crash, Bob is head down in the snow and he says, "Moustrap, I wanted to play Mousetrap. Roll your dice, move your mice. Nobody gets hurt."

Ben laughs quite heartily when Bob says that, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't completely get it. Especially since he has no idea what mouse trap is. I'm not sure if it's because he's heard us laugh and knows that it should be funny, or if he gets from the tone and timing that Bob is being funny. It's hard to say, but it sure is fun watching him develop in all these new ways.

Daddy, Will You Keep Me Company

The other night after he went to bed, Ben was sad for some reason. When I went to talk to him he told me that he wanted me to keep him company. We talked for a couple minutes and I told him that I couldn't right now but that God would always keep him company. I told him that God would love to talk to him.

"Why?"

"Because he loves you very much." I answered.

"Why?"

"He made you. He put you all together in mama's belly."

"Why?" (Can you tell he's almost 3?)

It was time to end the why questions, so I asked Ben a question of my own: "What do you think you could tell God about?"

"Ernie and my green blanket."

"Do you think he'd like to hear about Victoria coming to babysit you?"

"Ya!"

"Ok," I said, "I'll be back in a few minutes. While I'm gone, you can talk with God and he'll keep you company.

I came back later and heard Ben talking. I couldn't understand it, so I went in to see what he was doing. I lay down next him in his bed and asked him what he had been talking to God about.

He said, "Ernie, my green blanket, Victoria babysitting me. And the birdies!"
So Ben proceeded to tell me all about his birdhouse that is hanging from his ceiling.

"The bird in our house. The one that's downstairs... when he flies upstairs... and then flies into my room... he can fly into my birdhouse. I painted that birdhouse green... and red... and pink... and purple! I painted it at Ocean's house."

So we talked about Ben's birdhouse for awhile and then it was time for me to leave again. He started to get sad so I reminded him that God would keep him company.

He said," 'cause God made me, and Kyle and mommy and you and Kyle and me..." not knowing quite where to end the list.

"You're right Ben. And don't forget, when I'm not here to keep you company, God will always be here, so you can talk to Him."

Police Every Dud

Thursday night, I came home and I hadn't taken my earphones out before I came in the door. So of course Ben wanted to know what they were. I told him and he promptly replied, "Can I use them? I have ears!" All the while pointing at his ears and pulling on them to make sure I can see them.

So I pull one out and give it to Ben. Then I found the Veggie Tales Christmas Album on my iPod and started "Feliz Navidad", sung by Larry the Cucumber. He was very intrigued and we listened for awhile and then it was time for supper.

As we were heading to the table Ben is singing something and I asked him to repeat it so I could hear it. He turns to me and says "Police every dud! Police every dud!"