Benjamin's Fourth

Our Jami turned four on April 1st. When he was born on April Fools Day we knew we were in for some trouble and he has definitely been a challenge but he's a cute challenge.

On his birthday, we made monster birthday cupcakes courtesy of a kit that Grandma sent.

He also opened many birthday presents from friends and family. He's a fun kid to give things to because he's so joyful in his reactions.

Grandma sent some party favors which included slinkys for everyone. It turns out that slinkys make for really fun pictures. Certainly the boys had a blast.

Anyone else think these guys look like they should be in Westside Story? Totally Jets.

Watch out birthday boy!

Since it was his birthday, we even let him take a few pictures so that Marc and I could have a photo with our party hats on. Not too shabby buddy.

Later in the month, Benjamin had his birthday walk at his Montessori preschool. It's a very cute little ceremony where the child lays out a sunshine and the months of the year on the floor and then the child walks around the sun for each year of his life and the teacher reads something about the child about each year.

At the end, he gets to blow out a candle and serve a special snack to the class.

I love the facial expressions of the kids in the background. Blowing out that candle is dangerous and exciting or totally boring depending on who you look at.

Benjamin loves preschool and seems to be well-loved by his classmates. The only complaint from the teachers is that he is a bit absent minded. Since I teach music at the school, I often just take Benjamin home with me when I'm done instead of waiting for the end of the day. One time, I timed how long it took for him to get his shoes on after I asked him to get ready to go. After twelve minutes, I had to interrupt a dramatic play happening between his two shoes and his mittens so that we could go home. Benjamin can entertain himself for hours with just about any object and his imagination.

Benjamin is a hugger. He lives for hugs and gives them out generously. He is well-loved by teachers, friends and grocery store clerks alike. People often say, "Thank you! You just made my day!" and he lights up. I guess that is the upside of him being very unaware of personal space, it makes him less inhibited to show his affection. Of course, it also means that sometimes he is a little too up close and personal when he's talking to you.

Another specialty of four-year-old Benjamin is the question, "Right Mama?" He can tack on this question to the end of any sentence. Some days, I think every sentence ends with "right Mama?"
"My name's Benjamin, right Mama?" "And I'm a boy, right Mama?" "And Tobias is my brother, right mama?"

Sometimes my brain shuts off when too many "Right Mama?"s are asked I start automatically replying, "mmmhmm". This lands me in trouble when I snap back to reality and process everything I just agreed to for the last five minutes. The most memorable of these half-stupor conversations was in the van with Benjamin and Tobias driving to the rec center. Benjamin had asked several questions that were obvious like, "Our van is blue, right Mama?" "There's a fly in the van, right Mama?" "We don't like flies, right Mama?" That's about when I tuned out, which is too bad because things got interesting. "And flies can eat a whole car, right Mama?" "Mmmhmm." "They just take one bite at a time, right Mama?" "Mmmhmm." "They take one bite, right Mama?" "Mmmhmm." "And then another bite, right Mama?" "Yes, honey." "And then another bite, right Mama?" "What?" "And then gulp! The car is all gone! Right, Mama?" "Wait! No, no no no. Flies do not eat cars." I looked back to see Tobias with a very concerned face.

Marc has been working with Benjamin on trying to reduce the number of "Right Mama?"s he uses. When Marc is home, sometimes Benjamin gets into a "Right Dada?" conversation but not nearly as often. He said a very self-aware thing when Marc was talking to him about not saying it so much. Benjamin explained, "I think when I say 'Right Mama?' it means I need attention." Roger that little buddy. I'll try to be more attentive. You deserve it. You're cute and smart and creative and I love you. Happy Birthday Benjamin.