Benjamin is "Puzzled!"

Once in awhile Benjamin just shocks the heck out of me! That happened again recently when he appeared to gain a new skill overnight...the skill of putting together puzzles!

We haven't really done puzzles with Benjamin yet...he seemed a little too young. We do have those wooden puzzles where you fit the animal in the right spot but not a true puzzle with interlocking pieces. One day we were at our local "Chick-Fil-A" restaurant (I don't know if they have these where you are...but it is a pretty good place for fast food...just chicken!) Benjamin was eating the chicken strips kids' meal which came with a prize...a box of puzzles. Each puzzle was a picture of some animal with some interesting factoids about them. Each puzzles was double sided with three interlocking pieces.

At first Benjamin became VERY frustrated because he couldn't fit the pieces together. I encouraged him to try to do it but he just wanted ME to do it. I offered to help by us BOTH holding the pieces and putting them together. We put all the puzzles together and then it was time for bed. The next morning Benjamin was playing while I was chatting on the phone. Before I knew it he'd gotten the box of puzzles and put ALL the puzzles together BY HIMSELF!! He'd gotten all the pieces matched correctly too!! He was SO proud of himself so I took a picture of him with his completed work!

Boredom is the mother of necessity

So..as I'm sure you've heard, we had a few little fires here in San Diego County last week. Actually the fires are still burning...just not as ferociously as they were. Luckily we never had to evacuate, although we did make a list of what to bring in the event we had to go. Needless to say...with all the t.v. coverage about "Firestorm 2007" and the inability to go outside because of the poor air quality...it was a boring week!

Nate and I were out in the backyard this morning in our masks cleaning the ashes and soot of our new patio furniture. We diligently vacuumed and then cleaned each piece of furniture and it began to rain just as we finished...thank goodness!! That is not what this blog entry is about though....what it's about is what happend INSIDE the house while we were outside!

Benjamin was inside the house entertaining himself, as usual, when he came to the window and started saying "Mommy! Daddy! I made Mickey Mouse!" Nate and I were like.."huh?" Nate decided to go inside and investigate. Once he'd seen it he told me I had to go look at what Benjamin had made. Somewhere he'd found a quarter, nickel and a dime and made "Mickey Mouse" from them on the table. Isn't he brilliant?!?

I promise I did not manipulate those coins before I took the photo! He was so proud of himself. He just kept saying over and over how he'd "made Mickey Mouse." I had to leave the coins there all morning!

Sing.....Sing A Song!!

So Benjamin has taken to bossing me around. It's really quite cute...for a two year old (but I can imagine it might get a little old with an older child!) He tells me "Sing Mama....SING!" or my personal favorite...."Dance Mama...DANCE!" At least it gets me a little exercise!

Benjamin also does his own singing. Some of his personal favorites are "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle." But recently he's been singing some songs that I wasn't aware he knew. The best part is to listen to his personal rendition of the songs. Here are a few of my favorites:

Old McDonald Had A....Horn?

Ole Dunald heed ferm
E-YI-YI-YI-YO
Beep! Beep! Here...Beep! Beep! Here...Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!


Are You Sleeping?

Why you sleepin'? Why you sleepin'?
Brubber Gee....Brubber Gee
(This is where I think he moves into the French Version of the song!)

My favorite part of Benjamin's singing had to be the other day. I was changing his diaper and a song popped into my head (as is often the case) so I began to sing, "Ooooh baby I love your ways...everyday yeah." And without missing a beat Benjamin sings back his reply " I love you too...ooooooh!" I'm such a lucky mom!

By the way...I promise to put some more photos up on the blog soon!

I'm madly in love....

I am madly in love....with Benjamin. Is it weird to say you are madly in love with your two year old son?? I can't help it, he's just so spectacular!! His loud little chuckle just melts my heart. He can be crying, kicking, throwing a complete fit and I just look at his soft little cheeks and want to kiss them. If he's done something inappropriate and I'm looking at him and explaining why he isn't supposed to be taking trash OUT of the trash can (for example) he'll just look at me with his big eyes and say "Mama mad?" and crack that beautiful smile and I'm a goner. I just want to kiss his little cheeks and hug him!

Everything he says and does is brilliant, amazing and super fantastic (at least to Nate and I!) For instance (you had to know I would be sharing a story!) tonight he was riding his "Diego" scooter through the house (yes...I let him ride it in the house) singing a song. When I started paying attention I realized that he had made up his own song....he calls it the "Belly" song. It goes something like this......"Belllly.....Belllly.....Belly Belly....ahhhhh!" BRILLIANT!!

So...what is a yak anyway??

I know that all parents think their children are brilliant.....I am well aware of those little things they look for that confirm that their children are gifted. That being said.....I'm fairly certain that Benjamin is a genius, and I have the proof!!

Awhile ago I bought Benjamin these little wooden alphabet blocks. I liked that they looked sort of old fashioned and they all had letters and numbers on them (that's me....always finding an opportunity to educate!) He's played with the blocks off and on but recently he's really been into them. He likes to ceremonially dump all the blocks out of their little bag onto the floor and then build "choo choo" train with them. Basically that's the blocks all lined up single file across the coffee table. He is surprisingly adept of keeping the blocks in a very straight line but, although impressive, that's not the brilliant part.

The other thing he likes to do with the blocks is to build a "tower." At first he demanded that Nate or I build the block tower so that he could swiftly knock it down (arguably the best part!) After a few days he began to build his own towers. He's really good at stacking the blocks one on top of the other. So far his record is 14 blocks stacked on top of one another, but that's not the brilliant part either!

The other day we were feeling sort of lazy (okay...it was me...I was feeling lazy) and didn't really want to go through the effort of building a tower. Benjamin began to hand me the blocks one by one and I would tell him what letter was on each block and the corresponding pictures that demonstrated the letter (do you see where I'm going with this?? There really is a yak in the story!)

"This block has the letter 'N.' It makes the sound 'nnnnn' like 'nest' and 'needle.' 'Nest' and 'Needle' start with the letter 'N.' There's about 60 blocks with each letter being represented twice and some that just have numbers. So the next day Benjamin is building his block "choo choo" again. He picks up the block with the letter "Y" and says "Oh....Yak!" WHAT?!?! Nate and I just looked at each other with disbelief. Then we both wondered aloud...."So...what is a yak?" We better find out quickly because our child is most certainly a genius!