Galactic Triptych

Benjamin created this portrayal of space yesterday with multiple rocket ships and planets, the moon and the earth. He was admiring it this morning with a grin on his face and then commented, "It was hard for me to draw all the planets because I've never been there."

Gaffes and Laughs

Isaac has undertaken one of life's great challenges. (This only after much resistance. Finally this week, no one (meaning his mother) would put a diaper back on him one night. Avoiding the diaper-in-hand-Isaac for a moment, I went to get the mail. Isaac decided to chase after me down the sidewalk and he then did a naked jig--covered by a T-shirt--in front of Stewart our neighbor to continue his protest. Apparently, that made him cold enough to finally agree to underwear. He's been a champ about the learning curve since).

We are all cheering him on.

He has a brother that put on 14 pairs of underwear--just for him.


And another that laughs with glee at every flush.

With this kind of support, we are sure he will succeed--at just about everything! We should also mention that Isaac should be glad to only have to don one pair of underwear. According to Benjamin it is very difficult to move while wearing fourteen.

Goodnight Dylan...

Dedicated to Aunt Susan and Her Goats

Dear Aunt Susan
I drew this today. It is a picture of a goat like yours. The goat has grass and a big lake for when it gets thirsty. This is the goat's barn where it can go in at night. The door is like a cat flap so that it can go in and out whenever it wants. The sun is going down. That's why it is yellow, orange and pink. There is pink in the sky for the sunset. I'm going to put this in my book of animals.

Benjamin

Dear Benjamin,
I LOVE your picture of our goat! You included everything a goat needs as
well as gave them such a beautiful sunset : ) We have two baby goats now
that think we are their moms. They follow us everywhere. They lived in our
house for awhile in a box by the kitchen stove because it was so cold and
they needed a warmer place than outside. We feed them with a bottle three
times a day. They are getting big now and love to jump and run all over the
barn yard.

I'm glad you got to visit our farm and see the goats this last summer.

I love you!
Aunt Susan

To the Rescue

Benjamin has a thing for catastrophes--storms, power outages, tornadoes or terrible things. The only difficulty is that he likes things to be so bad that there is no way to fix the problem. For example this is what happened today before church. I wouldn't mind, except for when I'm supposed to offer some kind of solution and then he rejects my solutions repeatedly. I'm sure that's part of the game. He is the son of Mr. Worst Case Scenario.

"Policeman (that was assigned to me!) The power's out. There is no electricity. All the cars are broken down."
(I'm washing dishes) "Call the power company. They're the ones to fix it."
"They can't. They don't have any fuel for their vehicles."
"Policeman, (Isaac talking now) help!"
"Why don't you go get a bulldozer?"
"No. No one can help. It's dark and there's no power. There was a storm. It took all the power out. What will we do?"

This went on for some time. Isaac and Benjamin ran around the downstairs dealing with the problems of the city while I did my dishes. Every so often, they would pop in to confer with "Policeman."

Finally, "Policeman, can we use your ambulance?"
"Sure."

Then I had to shower. When I came back from the shower, this is what I found.

I was told that they were the rescue train on a mission to help all the people who had lost their power. Now I want to live in THAT city!

What I really love about this is how somewhere underneath it all is the influence of Virgina Lee Burton and her stories. I am so thankful for her creativity and books. She wrote Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow while watching her boys play with their trucks in the sandbox. I love how she puts a story into what her little boys were doing. My boys and I love reading her stories and we love how the little guy can save the day. As the mother of ALL boys, I'm very grateful for books about trucks and diggers and steam shovels that have some flair beyond the facts and parts.

Mr. Tippy Top's Birthday Party

Mr. Tippy Top has many friends in Topsy Turvy Town. He wanted to invite all of them to his birthday party, but they wouldn't fit in his tower. So he decided to have a big party in the park. He invited the dragon, Red Rita, and all the puppies. Blue Puppy couldn't come because he was tied to the railroad tracks. Just when the train was about to come, Husky dog saved him. Then they were able to come to the party. That made Husky dog a hero and everyone was happy. There were lights and decorations in all of the trees and everyone had fun dancing. Mr. Tippy Top had a problem. He wanted to have ice cream for everyone. How would he get enough ice cream? Well he thought, if a dragon can make things hot, then there must be something or someone that can make things cold. He decided to go catch a cloud. He made a special balloon with a rope to go up into the sky to get a cloud. He brought the cloud to earth and then dumped all the ingredients for ice cream into it. The cloud shook it all together and then he was able to serve everyone from his ice cream truck. At the end of the party there were fireworks. The fireworks even spelled "Happy Birthday Mr. Tippy Top" and "Horray for Husky Dog for saving the day!"

Collaborative bedtime story by Benjamin and Renee

Puppy's New Job

This is CDC designed by Benjamin for his puppies. This is the story he had me write down for him.

I didn't need Puppy anymore, so he had to find a new job. Blue Puppy likes working at CDC. He likes working there because there's a special moving stair elevator that takes him to his office. He likes working on mosquitoes. That's the best thing he likes on the second day. Puppy walks to work because he doesn't have a car yet. Never mind. He takes a train.

The New Economy

Benjamin has developed an taste for interior decorating. Namely, he'd like a new bed. Not just any bed. He'd like THAT bed from Ikea with the tent and the light that attaches to it. It would make it so much easier to stay up late reading his books if he had THAT light on his bed. Plus, it would be his OWN bed. When I tried to dissuade him, there were quite a few tears of disapointment. Somehow moving to Tahiti does not quite make up for us NOT getting him a bed right now. I am a bit sorry about that. I think it would be a great bed too and his current sleeping arrangements are not that ideal.

Benjamin has also discovered money. This means money actually means something to him now. Up until now, he's not really cared one way or the other. The man at the U-Haul store gave the boys each a cardboard truck bank. Benjamin has since begun to devise schemes to get coins to put in his new bank. "If I don't have to sit on Misery Mountain, then can I have a penny?" "If I'm really brave when you put the medicine on my hands, then can I have a penny?" "Can I keep any coins I find in the house?"

Later "I can save my money and buy a surprise!" I ask, "What kind of a surprise are you saving your pennies for?" "It's a secret." "Moms need to know these things." "I'll whisper it to you." He whispers in my ear, "I don't know yet. But it's a surprise."

This morning. "I know what I want. I want that bed at Ikea with the tent over it that has the light that attaches to it. I can save all my money to get that."

Milestones

If you know Benjamin, then you know that he loves his blue "Shaggy Dog" puppy/pup-pup. His first word was pu-pu for this little dog. He won his stuffed dog playing BINGO in Hawaii at the Family Reunion. He doesn't actually remember this and he wasn't actually playing because he was only 4 months old. They've been inseparable ever since. They've been very cute together and have had many wonderful adventures. When he was a baby, we would know that Benjamin was awake because he would lay in his crib shaking his puppy. We would hear puppy's rattle and know to go get our snuggly, smiling cherub. We had to do surgery last year to replace the rattle. The Giraffe donated his. Benjamin and his puppy love to travel together and pretend the day away with all kinds of activities and games from puppy shows and circuses to all kinds of different puppy adventures. Puppy even gets birthday parties and Christmas presents and he has a special "viewcam" to keep an eye on Benjamin when they're apart.

In the last little bit though, we've been trying to solve a problem. In Benjamin's words, "Puppy makes me suck my thumb!" The thumb issue is a difficult one. I sucked my thumb too. I stopped doing it in public long before I ever gave it up to go to sleep. I remember all the effort my family put into to trying to tease me out of doing it, the things they put on my thumb to keep me from putting it in my mouth and the general troubles. Benjamin's dentist said, he needed to give it up or he would need orthodontics. The pediatrician said to in a sense not make an issue of it, but to make him keep his puppy in his room. If he needs puppy then he can go to his room. He will either rest or return to be with everyone else and that he would naturally give up the habit. This sounded like good advise. If you ask Benjamin the "rule", he can tell you where puppy is supposed to be, but following it...not as easy as the pediatrician proposed. I constantly battle with myself about the whole thing. I think the relationship he has with his dog is very important. He's his absolute best imaginary (practically) real friend and advocate. And ultimately you can't take a thumb away from a child. It has to be a choice. I've never wanted him to give up his puppy, just the habit connected to him.

Then suddenly last night, my little boy decided to grow up. As a result of the cold his hands and thumb in particular are sore and cracked. Lanolin is the only thing that doesn't sting, but he hates the greasy feeling. I think something about turning five and conversations or interactions with his friends may have influenced him as well. So at bedtime Benjamin tells me, "Put puppy up there really high. If I don't have him I won't suck my thumb. I'll sleep with husky dog instead." Just like that. His decision. I told him that he didn't have to do this, but that I was really proud of him (I told him this many, many times because I was). He stuck to it. He was very calm about it. Eventually he decided that mittens would help him too. So my strong little boy went to bed without his puppy by his own choice wearing mittens.

He did ask for some extra snuggling time with mom. Easy! He talked the whole time. "Now I'm done with puppy, he needs to go to work. He works at the CDC. We need to make him a box that will be his work. Do you think we can do that? When I'm done with my puppies then they will go to work. It's hard to go to sleep without my thumb. It's the only way I know how to go to sleep. You can have my puppy now, NeeMom."

So Benjamin did it!

I was proud and sad all at the same time. I'm glad for him, but I feel like I kissed my baby good-bye last night. I have the mother pang of wanting a child to become their everything yet wishing we could fly to Neverland to stop time.

ça va?

Benjamin chose to watch a "Bob the Builder" DVD for his show time. One little tiny hiccup. The language. For some reason, Bob was speaking French. That confused him a little. So my friend asked him, "Would you like to have it in English?" "No," Benjamin replies, "the Georgia way."

Oh, the fun we will have when we live in a place where not many people speak the English or the Georgia way.

For Travelin' Dad

Isaac at bedtime: "My puppy is sad."
Renee: "Why is your puppy sad."
Isaac: "Dad-Eric is back in Kentucky."
Benjamin: "My puppy is sad too."
Renee: "I'm sad too. We'll see him again real soon."

But we're all chin-up and no tears. Besides. Benjamin had so much exercising to do that it sure took his mind off of things. He kept asking me for more drills to do and then would do more laps around the downstairs counting all the way (to a hundred...kind of). Then he went upstairs to weigh himself. "I'm a new number now!!! 3, 6!" So that convinced him that a peanut butter sandwich would help him grow better than a donut and he told me that if we would go pick strawberries, then he would eat them because they wouldn't be too big. We might make 4, 0 before he's ten yet!

All Is Merry and Bright

Benjamin (Conversations inspired by his latest creation on canvas):

"I am an artist. We should have a Family Home Evening all of us around the kitchen table. You, Dad-Eric, Isaac and Dylan. I will teach you how to be an artist like me!"

"Does an artist do dishes? What else does an artist do?"

"Does my tree make you happy?" (Absolutely!)

"That's a heart. Because there is love in our family. Dad-Eric loves Nee-Mom. Nee-Mom loves me. I love Isaac. And Isaac loves Dylan."

We're loving everything, everything Christmas at our house. The boys are full of jingles and high spirits and our trees are just about the happiest things ever. We all can't get enough of the twinkling lights and Benjamin is begging to sleep next to our tree. I can't blame him. I think we could just stay next to the tree all day long and be pretty content. Some good music, gingerbread men and some Christmas stories--what more do we need?

Follow the Prophet!

Apparently, Benjamin wasn't left unaffected by the lesson about President Thomas S. Monson in church on Sunday that I taught.

I was pretending to be a bear today.
He got up on the piano bench (podium) put his hand in the air emphatically and said,

"I'm the prophet. Be a nice bear!"

Not a bad message. And short. And to the point.

Pullman Car

Yes. This is really where Benjamin slept one night last week. His idea. And I let him. I just couldn't say no. After all, as you can see, it wasn't any ordinary box. It was a sleeper coach on the Sante Fe Express. He seemed to sleep quite peacefully. I know because I just couldn't stop myself from peeking in on him many times.

Strummin on the old 'anjo.

Never a dull life around here--even for Dylan. Even when he's in his crib. The other two boys carried their stools in from the bathroom so that they could see him better and "chat" with him more.