Ben is 4

Ben just celebrated his 4th birthday! It hardly seems possible that our baby is 4 already. I know it will just keep going fast and I'll be saying the same thing every year, but still… Wow!

Ben has grown into such a fun boy. He warms our hearts and makes us want to scream all at the same time. He is a wonderful big brother and can often be caught jumping up from his seat at the table to pick something up that Kyle has dropped, whether Kyle should have it back or not. Last Sunday, Kyle dropped a piece of banana on the floor and before we could say anything Ben had run over to pick it up. We thought he'd just take it to the garbage for us, but he very carefully blew all the dirt off of it. He was so sweet we didn't have the heart to tell him he should throw it away.

He's also very much his own boy. He knows what he wants and he can be very persistent in asking for it sometimes. He also surprises us at how much he likes routine. Last night, we kept giving him ideas about what he might want to do for his birthday... did he want to go to a movie? eat at a restaurant? Nope, he wanted to play at home and go get a happy meal and bring it home to eat. I even tried to talk him into watching his new Veggie Tales DVD while he ate dinner, but he told me very plainly that he wanted to eat at the table and THEN watch Veggie Tales.

Ben is also still a source of great stories. One of Ben's birthday gifts was a plastic suit of armor complete with sword, shield, breastplate and helmet. We told him it was his knight in shining armor costume. He's really a fan of it and has taken the sword to bed with him at least two or three times in the three days since he got it.

The other night as I was putting him to bed he lobbied for me to help him get his armor on and I told him we didn't have time.

He pleaded with me saying, "Daddy, I want to have a night in shining armor."

Did he just say what I thought he said? We had a short conversation and I confirmed that he indeed thought the armor was for night time, not for a knight. How would he know, he's never seen a knight before. I tried to explain it and I think he understood a little, but it was pretty darn sweet that he wanted to have a "night in shining armor."

Ben's Song about Jesus and the Fishermen

After a recent devotion, Ben again graced us with a Benjamin Isom original song. This one was particularly memorable so I thought I should share:

Jesus told the followers to come follow me,
They were fishermen and they loved to fish with Jesus
And Jesus ran to his boat,
Shaa!

Really, Really, Really

I guess it's inevitable that all kids will start with the hyperbole eventually, but the question is when will it end...

This evening we were dropping our van off at the mechanic's so Ben and Kyle got to ride in my little blue car. It's a 1989 Chevy Cavalier to be exact. Or if the label on the trunk is to be believed, a Chevrol Cavalier. It lost the "et" who know when... The head liner is also held up by 100 thumb tacks. The glue has long since disintegrated and for quite awhile the fabric was only being held to the roof by the dome light in the middle and the molding around the edges.

The point being, this is a car that has seen better days and is mainly to get me the two miles or so to the train station and back, but in Ben's mind it's the best thing since sliced bread. He just loves to ride in it and was so excited tonight. I asked him why he liked my car so much and he responded with the standard 3-yr old "I don't know." So I pushed a little.

"If you like it so much, there must be a reason," I said. "What is it about my car that you like so much?"

"Well Dad," he said very matter of factly, "I really, really, really, reaaalllly like it."

Well of course, that explains everything.

Kyle started walking!

Well it finally happened last Friday. And I got to be home to see it. I think it kind of took all of us by surprise. I was home early so we could go to Ben's first Parent-Teacher conference. I had been holding Kyle and he wanted down so I set him down on his feet. He just stood there for a moment (which he does quite often) and then instead of plopping down onto his knees he picked up a foot and started stepping.

He took about three steps and then went to his knees. I could barely get the words out to get Mindy's attention because Kyle and I were both so excited. For about 5 minutes I just kept setting him back up on his feet and he kept trying. It was such an exciting few minutes. Kyle was even clapping for himself, he was so excited.

What a privilege it is to be a witness to all this growing up that my boys are doing.

Shaw!

As I've probably mentioned before, Ben really likes to sing a song after devotions that is about the story we just read.

Sometimes, there is a song that can be sung, but most of the time Mindy and I don't know a song that we can sing. Ben quickly informs us that he will teach us the song. It usually has the same sing-song melody and just sort of tells the story in two or three lines, sometimes more if Ben can't find a good place to end it.

But without fail the song always ends with an enthusiastic "Shaw!" accompanied by a fist thrust into the air jubilantly.

What Do They Call You?

Ben has started attending a Montessori Pre-School this fall which is very exciting for all of us and leads to some very interesting dinner table conversations.

The teacher in Ben's classroom is known to not call the children by nicknames, at least that was the case when Mindy worked there before Ben was born.

So we decided to ask Ben about it one night at dinner.

"So, Ben. What does Meghan call you at school?"

"She calls me Benjamin," he said.

"What about Rhonda?"

"Sweetie Pie."

I laughed quite heartily at this because I could hear her calling Ben that very clearly in my mind and it was just priceless that Ben had repeated it.

"What does she say when she needs to get your attention," Mindy asked

"Come on."

Mindy and I both just about lost it right there at the dinner table, and Rhonda really enjoyed the story when we shared it with her. It is so fun to be surprised and delighted by seeing your children interact with the world and hearing them tell you there version of.

Kyle's Whistling

The other day I was putting Kyle down for bed and I was whistling a happy tune as I gathered his pajamas and fresh onesie.

Suddenly, I noticed Kyle was vocalizing in a very high-pitched voice along with my whistling. I wasn't sure, so I talked to him a little bit in a normal voice and he just chattered back to me the same as he always does....

Then I started whistling again and there it was: more high-pitched vocalizing. I tried it a couple more times and each time the same result and Kyle looking at me with a very pleased grin on his face.

It was so cute.

Somebody's got Daddy's Number

A few days ago when Ben and I were swimming after his swim lessons, I noticed him doing something that I didn't want him to do anymore.
So I asked him, "Ben, do you need to go potty? You keep grabbing yourself."

"No."

"Ok," I said, "but if I see you grabbing yourself again, we'll go and sit on the toilet."

"Ok." And he made a very obvious effort for the first few seconds and then seemed fine.

About 2 minutes later, I thought I saw him grabbing at himself in the classic "potty dance" kind of way and so I asked him, since I wasn't sure.

"No, I'm not, Dad," he said as I noticed that he was continuing to do it obviously.

"Aw Ben, this is so sad. You lied to me about that so now we're going home."

This wasn't too traumatic because he unsurprisingly just about burst before we got to the toilet in the locker room. He didn't say much about it while we showered and got dressed, so I wasn't sure if he'd really comprehended that the consequence was no more swimming. So on the drive home, I just casually mentioned it.

"That was really sad that we had to leave the swimming pool early because you lied to me."

"Ya it was, Dad," he said very nonchalantly, "but I'm just ready to go home and see Momma some."

I got the distinct feeling I'd just been had.

That would be really sad

On our way to a picnic on Saturday, we were passed by an ambulance. Mindy and I commented to one another that we hoped no one was hurt very badly.

Not two seconds later, Ben pipes up from the back to say, "That would be really sad if a kid was hurt and had to have a doctor's appointment."

More fun with a Literal 3-year old

This morning as we were cleaning up breakfast, Ben was bringing his napkin and the foil top to a yogurt container into the kitchen as part of cleaning up.

He was getting ready to set both of them on the counter when I reminded him that those things could go in the trash.

"But I didn't use my napkin, Daddy," he explained as he put the yogurt foil in the trash.

"Ok," I replied, "you can use it again another time."

"But I didn't use it for breakfast, Daddy."

"I know. I said that it would be ok to use it again."

"But Daddy, I didn't use it for breakfast!"

"Oh, ok Ben, then you can use it some other time" I said finally getting that he couldn't use it again if he hadn't used it in the first place. Duh, Dad!

The Holy Pokey

Ben is standing here next to me as I work on the computer and listening to his Veggie Tales Backyard Party CD. One of the songs in Hokey Pokey. We've been singing the Hokey Pokey with Ben for quite awhile, but he's really getting into it tonight.

And as he belts out the chorus, a big grin is spreading across my face as he sings "Let's do the Holy Pokey!, the Holy Pokey! That's what it's all about."

Butterfly Hug

A couple years ago, when Ben was learning how to kiss us goodnight, we taught him how to give butterfly kisses and Eskimo kisses.

It was quite novel for awhile and we did it quite often, but lately it's been a little more intermittent. The other night, Ben gave me a butterfly kiss and then asked if I'd like to have a butterfly hug.

Sure, I said, leaning in and not knowing what to expect. Ben wrapped his one arm around me and put his other on top of my head and tousled my hair. It was pretty sweet. There was a tear in my eye as I left. I love to see him getting creative.

Shoot

I was reminded again when we were on vacation that I will probably hear everything I say come back to me in one way or another.

During one of our many bike rides when we were at the cabin in Sisters, Ben had a little trouble and one of his training wheels went off the road. It really suprised him and he shouted out "Shoot!"

I snickered a little bit because it was just darn funny to hear that come out of his mouth, so Ben turned and looked at me with all seriousness and said, "Daddy, I said shoot because my, bike went off the road and that startled me."

Another funny example was when he told Mindy the other day, "I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders."

Oh be careful little mouth what you say takes on a whole new meaning!

Signing

When Ben was little we used sign language to try to give him a way to communicate with us before he had all his vocabulary figured out. A popular sign was "more" closely followed by "please".

Recently we started using signs with Kyle so that he can start learning them. Ben is very interested and very helpful. A few nights ago, he made a sign with his fingers together at the fingertips and his forearms pressed together in front of him and told us, "This is a tree!"

It looked like a tree, but I wasn't sure, so I asked him where he learned that. Turns out he had just made it up, so we helped him look up the real sign for tree and showed it to him. He also learned spider and at times just loves to show us his signs.

He's also started using the sign for toilet in earnest. We could never get him to use it before, but now, he's really funny at the dinner table. He'll be sitting there not saying a word and just signing toilet, waiting for us to notice. When we notice and ask if he needs to go to the bathroom, he nods emphatically and silently heads to the bathroom. It's really cute.

I Want to Take Them Off

As with every Fourth of July, there was a family reunion in Sisters again this year for the Isom family. My Grandparents, all my Aunts and Uncles and whoever else can make it that's related somehow. It's always a great time and this year was no exception.

One of the highlights of the trip is always swimming. Ben was very much into the swimming this year and we went to the pool no less than 4 times in the four full days that we were there. On Monday, we were having a lot of fun in the big pool. He had found some goggles and was wearing those and I was throwing him up in the air and letting him splash down in front of me.

Lots of fun, but I had to wonder what the makers of little boys swimsuits were thinking when they didn't put drawstrings in them. Little boys have no hips, so needles to say, Ben was having trouble keeping his up and he started to think it was pretty funny. After another throw that left him with his trunks just about off, he stopped me from throwing him again and said: "Daddy, I want to take them off"

"Ok," I said, thinking that he meant the goggles and heading for the side of the pool to let him put them down.

As we started over there, he elaborated and said, "I want to take them off and get both my butts wet!"

Needless to say, we didn't go to the edge of the pool and I had to explain through my laughter, that taking his swimsuit off in the pool wasn't an option.

"So Someone's Looking for our Green Blankets?"

This past weekend, we went to the beach with my parents and younger brother. The boys had a blast with their grandparents and we got a couple evenings to ourselves. We got to fly kites and play on the beach and swim in the hotel pool... It was a great time.

Sadly, we managed to leave Ben's green blanket in one of the hotel rooms. And this isn't just any green blanket, it's his special lovie. We realized this about 6:30 last night and did some frantic looking and called the hotel to see if they could find it. Ben hadn't brought it up yet, so we were going to wait until he brought it up and then explain what happened.

Of course at bedtime it was requested, so I sat him down on his bed and told him what happened. He was pretty sad at first, so I told him about when I was a little boy and I lost my special blanket and that I remember being really sad too. Then I told him that some people at the hotel were going to look, but I didn't know if they'd be able to find it. He thought about that for a couple seconds and then said,

"So someone's looking for our green blankets?"

"Yes, Ben. Someone is looking for your green blanket," I said.

"And yours too, Daddy."

It was so sweet that he wanted to make sure someone was looking for my "green blanket" too.

Single Minded

Kyle has really started moving quickly lately and it makes for new challenges in corralling him. He's also turned out to be very single-minded at times. None of this out of sight, out of mind business for him.

The other day, while we were getting ready, Kyle was playing on the floor in our room. The bathroom that adjoins our room has a couple boxes of toiletry items that are not safe for Kyle to play with. Of course what is he drawn to...

So I pulled him away from the box, faced him the other direction and placed two or three favorite toys in front of him. Problem solved, right? Nope. He immediately turns around and makes a beeline to the bathroom. This time, I close the door and he's sad for a few seconds until I get him back in place in front of his toys again.

Everything was hunky-dory for a few minutes until I had to go back in the bathroom for something. The minute the door opened (and I tried to do it discreetly) Kyle was turning to make another run for the bathroom. He wanted that box and was doing everything he could to get to it. Including pushing the door when I didn't latch it after I came back out. It's fun to see him have that much focus, and a good reminder that we're getting to that stage where a lot of extra vigilance will be required.

Forethought

So Ben and I were playing a little game kind of like follow the leader where he'd do something and I'd mimic it and then we'd switch and I'd do something for him to mimic.

We were having a lot of fun with it and then I did something where I put a block in a box and put the box in a specific place. I hadn't thought about the fact that we'd have to get the block out of the box before Ben repeated the action.

So Ben was giggling and hopping around getting ready to repeat it and he headed over to the box. He took the block out, put the box where it had started and then came back over to where I'd started my action. Needless to say, I was very impressed by the forethought that he had to think about what he was going to do and get the box reset. What fun watching your child figure stuff out like that and become more independent every day.

Quoting Easter Stories

Ben was really enjoying the Easter stories we read to him this year out of various books, so we read them to him a lot. Not suprisingly, this led to him quoting them in random places.

A couple of weeks ago, he was playing with his toy boats in the bathtub, when I hear him talking about Mary's encounter with Jesus in the garden after she found the empty tomb. Then without skipping a beat he said, "This boat has a big motor! VROOOM!"

Then, just a couple of nights ago, he was reading his Noah's Ark bath book in the bathtub. We was relating the part where Noah builds an ark out of wood. Then he says to whoever he was reading the story to in the first place (I didn't ask), and says, "Jesus died on a cross made of wood, for the forgiveness of our sins."

I love that he's just taken this story in as part of his general knowledge. It's so exciting to see him grasping bits and pieces of these things and be reminded of the stories by other things. This is one of the joys of being a parent that makes all the frustrations and heartache worthwhile. I love being a Dad.

I Love You Too Much...

Recently we've been struggling with argument where there's no real why to explain to Ben that he's mistaken. For example, the other night I was feeding Kyle some squash and Ben was convinced it was potatoes.

After going back and forth a couple of times with Mindy, she effectively ended the argument by saying: "Ben, I love you too much to argue."

Essentially, it's not worth the argument to change your mind, so you can think they are potatoes all you want.

A couple weeks later, Ben was coming out of his room during quiet time and Mindy asked him to go back into his room and close the door.
Ben responded, "Mom, I love you too much to argue."

Needless to say Mindy was speechless

Crosses Everywhere

When the Easter season started this year, we got out some books and started telling Benjamin the story of Christ's death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and his resurrection to prepare the way for us to spend eternity in Heaven.

Naturally, this year he is understanding much more than he did last year, and it's really exciting to answer all his questions. He knows that Jesus died on a cross, even if he doesn't understand the full
magnitude of it. This is very evident in the fact that he sees crosses everywhere.

The street sign on our corner was casting a shadow on our front lawn and Ben looked outside and said, "Look Mom, a cross!"

Then at lunch, Ben was eating some olives and he looked at the end where there's the little x from the pitting process and said, "Mom, olives have crosses!"

Bob has Feet

Last week, we took Ben to a live VeggieTales show. It was a lot of fun. People in VeggieTales costumes singing and dancing. How much more could any kid ask for?

Well, the Veggies don't have arms and legs, so the costumes depicted that very well in that they went all the way to the floor and the people wearing them had black shoes on so that it wouldn't be obvious if they did accidentally show their feet.

Well, Bob the Tomato comes "bobbing" out on the stage to start the show and his feet showed a couple of times. Not much and you could barely see them.

But Ben doesn't miss a thing. He turned to me and whispered: "Bob has feet." I didn't know what to say. He was right. He wasn't scandalized or disappointed or anything, he just was stating a fact that Bob had feet. Something that he'd never seen about Bob before. It was so cute.

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing

Ben loves to sing. I may have mentioned that before, but in particular, I'm thinking about evening devotions. We usually try to read out of his Goodnight Bible before heading to bed. It's got about 40 short (2 page) Bible stories. When we're finished we pray and sing a song or two. Lately Ben has wanted to sing songs about the story.

Sometimes there is no song about the story. For example, the Good Samaritan. We don't know any songs about the Good Samaritan, but Ben insists on making something up and we follow along as best we can.The other night, we read about David and Goliath. Of course Ben wanted to sing about them and I searched my brain for a David and Goliath song. I remembered one that I used to sing when I was Ben's age or a little older and got most of the words, but it just wasn't perfect. Then I remembered an old Bill Gaither Trio kids record. I got it out and put it on the record player. It had the song I was thinking about, called "Only a Boy Named David", but it was in a medley, so we heard some other old songs too. Ben just loved it and asked Mindy to play it over and over the next day. It included songs like "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego", as well as other old Sunday School songs.

The next weekend we made a quick stop at the store on the way home from somewhere and Ben and I went in. The store was nearly empty, so I let Ben roam a little bit in front and behind me as we went to get our 2 or 3 items. He was having a ball, running up and down the aisles singing the Cheeseburger song from VeggieTales. A ballad by a gourd who is longing for a cheeseburger. "Cause your his cheeseburger, his yummy cheeseburger, he'll wait for you... Oh he'll be back for you!" Over and over and over.

A little while later he switched to: "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony!" Of course the tune was great, right up until the word harmony. Cracked me up. Just singing and livin' it up.

Fingers and Noses

Ben: Why don't we put our fingers in our noses? Our noses have places for our fingers to go in. See? I'm putting my finger in this hole.

Mindy: [speechless with laughter]

That's so sad, Dad!

I was working on my cell phone trying to get the battery back while I was sitting at the lunch table with Ben.

The antenna broke off and I told Ben that my phone was broken.

"That's so sad," he sympathized. "Sometime you'll have to go to the phone store and get a phone that just the right size for daddies."

Cucumber or Pickle

Ben is a big Veggie tales fan by now and as most of you probably know, Larry the Cucumber is one of the main characters. At different times in the shows, Larry is called a pickle and he takes great offense at that. I didn't realize how much this concept had sunk in for Benjamin until a couple days ago.

Ben received some play food for Christmas and it includes lots of vegetebles, including a cucumber. When Ben and I were playing one time I said something about the cucumber and he told me it wasn't a cucumber, it was a pickle.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because cucumbers have eyes and pickles don't."

Needless to say I was speechless.

I Love You *What*?

When Mindy and I talk on the phone, I often end the conversation by saying "I love you oodles." And naturally, she responds with "I love you oodles too."

Well, Ben being in that mimic stage has apparently picked this up and yesterday he had a pretend phone call. The call was with the little girl across the street who's about a year younger than him. Nothing unusual about that until it ended and Ben said "I love you noodles too. Bye"

Working all the Angles

So Ben is definitely starting to think a lot more creatively about problems these days. While we were at Mindy's folks, Ben had done something that made the construction truck unavailable. This truck is a ride on toy that has lots of buttons and is an endless source of entertainment to Ben when we're at Grandma and Grandpa's, but sadly he had misused it. So it wasn't available for the rest of the day.

A little while after said incident, Ben came to me and said, "Dad, I need to go to the grocery store... It's a long way away, so I can't walk..."

"Very interesting," I said, not sure where this was going, but having a hunch. "Maybe you should see if you can get a ride from someone."

"I think I need to use my truck, Dad," he said with such seriousness, that it was all I could do to not crack up on the spot.

"It's really sad that it's not available, huh? I guess you'll have to wait or see if someone will give you a ride."

"Ok," he said sadly. And that was the end of it for awhile.

Later that evening, I came into the kitchen to hear Ben talking to his Grandma.

"I need to go to the store by myself," he said, "and it's a long way away, so I can't walk. I need my truck since it's so far away."

So now he'd figured out this new argument as to why he couldn't get a ride with someone else. He needed to go by himself. It's so exciting to see him reasoning things out and making his case for what he wants, but it scares the crud out of me for what the teen years will be like... At least I have a few years to prepare.

Trying to get back to Grandma and Grandpa's house

Tuesday evening we got back from our trip to Northern Idaho that I alluded to in my last post and it was great to visit Mindy's parent's again.

Ben in particular decided that he wanted to go back shortly after we got on the road headed home. We told him that we needed to go home now and we couldn't just stay at Grandma and Grandpa's indefinitely.

He seemed to accept that reasoning and was quite for a little while, but we soon found out he was just sitting back there scheming.

"Mom, I think I forgot something at Grandma and Grandpa's. We need to go back!"

He couldn't remember exactly what he forgot, but he was adamant that it was something, so we told him that Grandma and Grandpa could send it to us if they found it and we couldn't go back now.

So far as we can tell, there really wasn't anything forgotten, so our little boy is already starting with the scheming. This could get interesting really fast.

Ben's Water Bottle Adventure

We had forgotten Ben's spill resistant sports bottle when we drove to Idaho to visit Mindy's folks, so we bought him a bottle of water at a convenience store on the way and explained to him how it was different from the one at home.

He did great with it the whole trip there and while we were there and then on the way back the inevitable happened, or so I thought.

Ben was all the way in the back seat and I was driving so I couldn't see a ton of what was going on back there, but all of the sudden, I heard a glug, glug, glug.

I quickly got Mindy's attention by pointing back at Ben and urgently saying "What's that sound?" I assumed that he just forgot his bottle was there and had tipped it over.

Mindy was sitting in the middle seat to calm Kyle who was angry about still being in his car seat, so she turned around quickly and grabbed the water bottle. I didn't hear the entire exchange, but when she turned back around she was stifling a laugh, so I couldn't wait to hear the explanation.

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'I'm making a pond' ", she replied and proceeded to take the paper towels and sop up all the water out of Ben's cup holder, while I busted up laughing in the front seat.

Ben's Imagination

Ben has really started to come up with crazy things that we just don't know where it comes from. The other night, Mindy and I were discussing the Curious George movies and Ben started telling us a story about Curious George being up in the sky.

Ben: Curious George is up in the sky and his wife is trying to get him down.

Me: How'd he get up in the sky?

Ben: His wife threw him up in the air.

Me: Oh really.

Ben: And he's going down.

Me: Why's he going down?

Ben: He likes to see things.

Me: Ah, and then what are they going to do?

Ben: Go in his house with his wife

Me: Then what

Ben: They're going to eat lunch. They're going to eat lunch with us.

Me: What are we going to have for lunch with Curious George and his wife?

Ben: The kind of food they have... Some Fish

Me: What kind of fish?

Ben: Their fish. They're going to bring fish.

Me: Sounds yummy," I said, "Where will Curious George sit? Next to you or next to me?

Ben: Ummm...... Somewhere else.

Me: Where's he sitting?

Ben: There (Pointing at the end of the table)

Me: And where's his wife sitting?

Ben: Next to you.

So we had a lunch of fish with Curious George and his wife after he got down from being thrown into the air by his wife.

Little Tarzan

Man it just tears you up when your kids get sick, but Kyle has thankfully provided his own little comic relief.

Ben has been sick since Sunday so we were holding our breath to see if Kyle would get sick and much to our chagrine, he had a fever last night. High enough that the nurse recommended we come in to see the doctor.

When we got there he wanted to do all the normal things including checking his ears. The first time he looked he couldn't see a thing. He said the ear canal was hairy and full of ear wax. Great! Now we get to try to clean this sick little boys ears out which involved me holding his body and the doctor working on his ears.

Needless to say, Kyle got really mad, but then he eventually settled into cry that kind of went up and down over and over and just kind of letting us know he still wasn't happy, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it. When we finished the doctor said, "You know, he sounds a little bit like Tarzan"

I just had to laugh, because a) he was right and b) Mindy had just said that to me that morning.

Poor guy was finally getting calmed down and we started laughing at him. Thankfully, he took that as a compliment and it helped cheer him up a little.

Another New Prayer

Ben came out with another new prayer the other night and it was just to sweet not to share.

Dear God
Thank you for this day.
Please help our family
Ummmm
Thank you for our nice house
Thank you for all our healthy food.
In Jesus' Name
Amen

Ben's First "Original" Prayer

I say "original" because none of the words or phrases were his own, but it was the first time that he put them together in a way that we hadn't modeled for him before. It was very sweet.

So, I'm putting Ben to bed tonight and we are getting ready to pray. I've asked him recently if he'd like to pray, but he's always said no. So tonight I hadn't asked, but as we were closing our eyes, he said, "Can I pray tonight?"

"Sure," I said, expecting to hear the mealtime pray of "Dear God, Thank you for the food and help our family. Amen."

"Dear God," Ben started. "Thank you for today and please help our family. In Jesus' name, amen."

I just about cried when I thanked him for the nice prayer. I had to kiss him on the cheek first to get my voice under control enough to tell him good night. What a sweet and amazing thing to experience. Thank you to all of our family who gave us the legacy of faith that makes it a reality for Ben to grow up knowing the creator of the universe.

Brotherly Love

The love between Ben and Kyle is continuing to grow and it's so much fun to see them interact. Especially Ben's actions toward Kyle.

It is so sweet to see Ben pick up the puppets and just jump right in with Mindy or I to entertain Kyle. One day Mindy even found him making the puppets do the Hokey Pokey for Kyle in the living room.

Ben also likes to love on his brother sometimes, and though he tries to be gentle it's not always as gentle as we would like, but Kyle seems to think nothing of it. Ben will kneel down next to Kyle and give him a big hug with one knee firmly planted on Kyles hand or arm. And Kyle just grins up at him. Then Ben says, "Look, Kyle's grinting at me!"

Whodunnit?

Ben and I had gone upstairs after dinner last night to see something he'd made in his room. As we were getting ready to come back down I said, "I notice the light is still on in your room."

"Why?" What other response should I have expected.

"Because you left it on," I said in an attempt to answer the latest in a never ending stream of whys.

So Ben headed for his room and then paused for a second, turned and looked at me and said, "But Daddy, you turned the light on."

I was floored; I didn't know what to say. I probably stammered something out, and Ben went ahead and turned his light off, but I can see I've got to be on my toes more everyday

More Language Fun with Ben

Ben is continuing to learn all the intricacies of the English language and it's so much fun to listen to the stages he goes through. For example the other day, he was having Ritz crackers at lunch. Near the end of lunch we were talking about when he was going to get up from the table.

"You should eat some more of your Ritz," I said.

After devouring all but one, Ben turns to me and says, "I have one more Rit to eat and then I can get up."

"What was that?" I asked to confirm my suspicion. It sounded like he had dropped the z (s sound) from the end to make it singular. Too funny.

"I have one more Rit cracker," he said proudly.

In an effort to not crack up laughing and also to model the appropriate way to say it, I said, "Yes, you do have one more Ritz cracker."

O Be Careful Little Nose

Don't you love how kids take something that makes sense and using their pre-schooler logic, turn it into something that doesn't quite fit. Well, apparently, in Sunday School they have been singing "O be careful little hands what you do."

If you're not familiar with the song it has multiple verses each with a different body part: be careful little feet where you go, little mouth what you say, etc. In the interest of participation, they asked the kids to choose the next verse and we now have "O be careful little nose what you smell." Of course, that is the verse that sticks in Ben's head and we've been hearing it all week. Cracks me up.

Is it morning yet?

Ben really doesn't want to go to sleep when it's bed time so he usually spends a fair bit of time playing in his room before crashing. This is a battle we chose not to fight because unless we do surveillance, we can't really enforce that he should be in bed. He gets the sleep he needs, so we don't sweat it.

The problems started when he could start coming out of his room on his own. Like any toddler, he's very curious, so when he hears stuff going on, he wants to know what it is. He also really wants to join us sometimes, depending on what we're doing.

Well, last night, we heard a new one. We were downstairs watching the end of the football game and we hear from the top of the stair a plaintive cry of, "Is it morning yet?"

It's so much fun to see him figure things out. For awhile we've been having questions about when bedtime is over, or when nighttime is over. The answer has usually had something to do with morning, so now he has come up with a new question.

Blow Me Down

I still crack up at the literalness of toddlers. The other day at lunch, Ben was messing around as usual and not eating much. Mindy and I had both finished eating and Mindy was in the kitchen getting us some dessert, so I called in to her.

"You know what, Mama, I think Ben is finished with his lunch, he hasn't eaten anything for quite awhile."

"I think so," she said as she peeked back in. Then Ben quickly shoved a piece of cheese in his mouth and Mindy added, "Or not."

I looked back over to her and said, "Well blow me down."

As I was turning back to Ben, I heard him blow a puff of air in my direction. He sat there and smiled waiting for me to fall down I suppose and Mindy ducked back into the kitchen to laugh hysterically. I was speechless. Nothing to do but laugh with Mindy and Ben who loves to make us laugh (like most toddlers) soon joined us.