Blossoming Bennett

Just like springtime itself, Ben seems to be really blossoming lately. He's full of lots of new words (paragraphs, really), insight, and is gaining smarts to play us against each other. Its actually kind of cute right now, such as:
9am Ben: Mommy, I'd like some candy please.
me: No, Ben. No candy.
Ben: BUT MOMMY! Daddy said I could have some when I woke up!
(quite sure that didn't actually happen!)

I'm not so sure how cute it will be when he's 16 and trying weasel his way into borrowing the car, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it ;-)

And I continue to realize that he soaks up everything around him, when I hear him saying things like:

"COME ON!" When we're stopped in the car waiting for someone to turn etc...(So I have a little verbal road rage, sue me. Hehe.)

"You can't be serious."

"You've got to be kidding me."
(the last 2 are said when things are not going his way...just like I say them.)

And my favorite:
"SERIOUSLY!" (which I say all the time for all sorts of reasons.)

Ben's a fun kid to be around - curious, comical, cute. Here he is having a little too much fun with his milk at dinner. Nick was getting mad at me for letting him do this, but who of us doesn't remember blowing milk bubbles and watching with anticipation at how many more you could blow without the whole thing tumbling over the edge of the glass.


We love our neighborhood, and our neighbor behind us is one of the reasons why. She's a "neighbor grandma" to our boys. AND! she bakes us delicious sourdough bread. I love getting a call from her, saying, "Send Ben to the fence, I've just made bread!" Here they are, making the bread hand-off. She called back to me and said, "Ben said, 'Thank you for the yummy bread!'" Polite manners without being prompted - excellent Ben!

Lego craziness - Ben got in a groove for a couple of days, building these huge Lego towers. This one is taller than he is!

I've been cleaning out closets this spring, and its resulted in some paper shredding. Ben is fascinated with this activity, and will help me with it for about 30 min at a time (a stack of papers takes awhile to shred 1 piece at a time!) Xavier thinks the noise is hilarious and giggles. Yesterday, Ben told me, as we were shredding, "Mommy, I'm such a big kid. I'm helping you shred these papers! I'm a good shredder. I try hard, and do a good job." That last sentence is a good summation of you all the time, my sweet Bennett. :-)