Mixed Media

We introduced Ben to finger paints last fall.  It went fairly well.  He always enjoyed it once we got going, but he absolutely hated the make-shift smock that I insisted he wear (an old tee shirt of mine, and highly problematic for the purpose).  So recently I got him the absolute best smock of all time at A Better Bib.  And for an extra five bucks I got his name embroidered on the back.  I love this smock.  And if he had rejected this one, it would have seriously bummed me out.  I introduced it very carefully -- just left it casually draped across the coffee table ("Oh, what's this?  Hmm -- has your name on it.  Check it out -- it's got elephants!"), and I avoided the word "smock" like the plague.  It worked.  Here's Ben at work, and one of the finished products -- it's a mixed media work, finger paint applied with paintbrush and crayon tip.

One thing I can tell you

This morning, as Ben and I were headed upstairs after breakfast, I said to him, "One thing we're going to do is clip your fingernails."  He immediately launched into, "One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.  Come together (boom boom boom) right now (boom boom boom) over me."  This was followed by various sound effects intended to evoke Paul McCartney's famous bass line.  The boy loves his Beatles.

The other day Ben woke up Way Too Early from his nap, but as he was talking happily to himself I let him be and eavesdropped via the baby monitor.  "But whatever the reason, our hearts or our shoes, we stood there on Christmas Eve hating Fiona and Emily."  In case this sounds familiar, he was once again reciting a passage from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this time translating it into the first person plural, and citing as the object of our loathing the teenage sisters Fiona and Emily who have found youtube fame with their excellent covers of Beatles songs.  (Yes, more Beatles.)  As a matter of fact, Ben loves Fiona and Emily.  He's always demanding that we tell him a Fiona and Emily story.  Typical story lines revolve around Fiona and Emily hosting a picnic (attended by Winnie the Pooh and friends, Sid the Science Kid, Bob Dylan, and -- naturally -- the Beatles themselves) or going to the moon in a rocket, accompanied by the same variegated crowd.

Aaaaarrhh, Maties!

We celebrated Pi Day yesterday -- a little early, but the real Pi Day (March 14) falls during our Spring Break next week.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, the first few digits of pi are 3.14, hence the celebration on March 14.  Depending on your Math Geek Quotient, you might even celebrate Pi Minute at 1:59 in the afternoon (3.14159...).  (If you celebrate it at 1:59 in the morning, then you are probably studying for a math exam later that day.  Which no doubt many of my students were doing -- I gave two midterms yesterday.)

Anyway, Ben loves Pi Day.  Here he is wearing his Super Pi tee shirt (thanks, Grammy!).  I'm dressed like a pirate, because ... well, it was a pirate-themed event this year.  Long story.  Pi-rate -- get it?  I wasn't really intending to cast such a flirtatious glance -- a moment before I had been looking at Ben, and then I started to turn my head right as the picture was taken ... you know how it happens.

The Asparagus Song

(If you're confused by the title of this post, read this.)


Short, sweet, and always in motion.  Oh, and his haircut isn't really that crooked.  He has the most infernal hair growth pattern -- we call it the Dagwood -- and that's just the way it was hangin' that day.

Oh.Wow.

Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha`olam, asher kidishanu b`mitz`votav v`tzivanu l`had`lik neir shel Chanukah.

That is the blessing that one sings while lighting the candles on each night of Hanukah.  Neil did the honors last December.  Ben was very intrigued, and after a few nights could be counted on to come in on the final "Chanukah".  Once or twice since then Neil has sung it for him on a whim, but we've never made a big deal out of it.

So here's what went down at dinner tonight.  Ben was eating asparagus.  Neil playfully asks him to sing a song about asparagus.  Ben thinks for a moment, and says, "Here's an asparagus song."  And proceeds to sing the entire blinkin' blessing.  Almost word perfect.  Yes, in Hebrew.  With an extra flourish on the "Chanukah."

Yeah.  Have I mentioned that this kid scares me sometimes?  In a good way, mind you.  And just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he went on to sing it again, and then I got him to do it a third time over his late night yogurt.  No, he didn't pronounce every last syllable perfectly.  But the bulk of it was there.

We'd better get working on those Passover questions.

Of Pooh and Geodes

I seem to have a considerable lag time when it comes to the calendar thing.  Here are December and January:

Some of you may recognize the Wonder Pets paraphernalia featured in early December.  Yes, Ben is a fan.  I am too, I must admit.  India Gate (December 7) is our favorite restaurant, up in Buffalo; Ben likes the naan and two large sculptures of a cow and elephant.  That must have been a day that Ben had an audiology appointment and we grabbed a meal there afterward.  The mass of red protuberances on the 8th is a very poor rendition of a large outdoor sculpture on campus that has taken Ben's fancy.  Hanukkah started on the 11th, and we made cookies on the 12th.  On the 22nd we flew to Wisconsin and celebrated Christmas with my family.  We flew home on the 28th, and I honestly have no recollection what the giant 7 on the 29th is supposed to signify.

While we were in Wisconsin, my sister gave us an old VHS tape of Winnie the Pooh (seeing as how her college-age daughter has presumably outgrown it by now), and you can see images of the cast sprinkled throughout January.  Other characters making an appearance are Elefun and Froggio (licensed cartoon characters that just happen to have their own line of toys -- our acquaintance with them is due to a free DVD that came with one such toy), a rather sickly looking Grinch, a Blue Meanie, and Skippyjon Jones (a.k.a. El Skippito -- we borrowed the book from the library and love it).  My sister, Ben's beloved Aunt Kathy, visisted for about a week in January, and we made a really good ratatouille on the 17th, hence the eggplant and zucchini.  Ben and his Best Bud Jackson made their ski debut on the 14th, in our backyard.  Jackson is a natural athlete with no fear; as soon as boots touched skis, he was off on a tear.  Ben is a little more reserved when it comes to such things, and needed some coaxing and cajoling.  We figure they'll be good influences on each other.

And here are a couple of other pictures from my sister Kathy's visit.  In the first one, Ben is signing "red".  In the second, he and I are using a magnifying glass to examine a fragment of a geode that Kathy and Ben had just busted open.  One of Kathy's Christmas presents to Ben was a great rock collection and the accompanying magnifiying glass.

The Grinch on the Pot

We haven't really gotten into Official Toilet Training yet, but we have a little low-key "potty time" every night before bath.  Ben loves it.  I emphasize this because one might draw quite a different conclusion from his post-potty soliloquy tonight.  I should also add that his favorite book right now is "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" -- a little out-of-season, but shows good taste.  After tonight's potty time, we took his hearing aid out as usual (he doesn't wear his CI on the toilet) and put him in the bath.  This is what followed:

"I hated my potty, the whole potty season.  Now please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.  It could be my head wasn't screwed on just right.  Or perhaps it's because my shoes were too tight.  But I think the most likely reason of all is because my heart was two sizes too small."

I've commented before on how he has a really amazing memory -- I think that's been a key part of his quick language acquisition.  With relatively minimal exposure, he memorizes long passages from poems, books, songs, etc.  Often, it's clear that he doesn't fully understand everything that he's memorized (something I see in my college students all too often!), but in this case, he was able to translate into the first person, so obviously he's making a lot of sense of this passage.  In any case, I thought it was absolutely hilarious.