lasterday part 2

Not long after I finished the previous post, I fed Bennett dinner while Anderson and Paul were still on the golf course. His hastily-made dinner consisted of grits and grapes because Bennett doesn't like the chicken wraps I made for Paul and Anderson (normally I do not make two dinners, but since he was eating alone, I figured I could swing it this time). During the course of explaining to him what he was going to eat for dinner and that he could not have fruit snacks until after he ate his meal, he actually asked me, "Are you trying to be a bad mom?" Honestly, there wasn't any disrespect in his tone or malice in his voice. Sometimes I think he talks just to hear the sound of his own voice.

As soon as he finished eating all of his grits and grapes (yuck, I know), I heard him go to the pantry to get his promised fruit snacks. Then, I heard him start singing a familiar tune with the following lyrics: "hong-a-sing-a-lay, hong-a-sing-a-lay". I thought to myself, "That sounds like Beyonce's Single Ladies, but those are definitely not the lyrics. So I went and stood by him at the pantry to see that he was staring at the fruit snack box that had a huge picture of Alvin and the Chipmunks on it. If you have seen this movie, you know that Single Ladies is the theme song to that movie. Bennett has seen it once, but I'm sure he saw lots of ads for it when it was in theaters and out on DVD, so he had not forgotten. Anyway, he translated, "All the single ladies, all the single ladies" as "hong-a-sing-a-lay, hong-a-sing-a-lay".

He is now sitting next to me playing on his "DS" which is actually a Leapster Explorer. He has a pet dog on it, and he was asking me what the name choices were for his names. One of them is Peaches. He just looked at me incredulously and said, "I don't want a dog named after a vegetable."

I wish I could just keep a video camera running. He'd get some You Tube hits, for sure.

lasterday

Bennett never uses the term "yesterday". Instead, he says "lasterday", though sometimes "lasterday" refers to last week, last month, last year. I love this and refuse to correct him. It's just too cute.

Lasterday, I thought about the fact that it has been way too long since I have blogged. I decided then that I should take a moment to write down a few of the things my precocious four-year-old has been doing and saying lately before I forget. And let's face it, I generally have a five minute retention span, so I am recording these things for posterity as much as I am for my friend's and family's amusement.

• I was telling Bennett on our way to Laura's house yesterday that I wanted him to do something (what it was I can no longer remember), and he said, "Of course I will, Mom. I would never let you down. Would I ever let my mom down?" I shall quote this back to him at some point in his life, I'm sure.
• My niece, Cole, was at my house today, so we had some good girl time, just the two of us. I dressed her in a bright pink t-shirt of mine, a pair of Bennett's jeans that were too small, painted her toenails and fingernails, put on some blush, mascara and lipstick, and gave her some jewelry and purses. She was thrilled. She would have loved a pair of shoes, but I had none in her size. Bennett came into the bathroom as we were finishing up our "makeover" and says, "What have you done to Cole? She looks like the ladies in your Bible study." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "She looks like an old woman." (I am by far the youngest member of my Bible study group-, most of them being my mother's age. And no, that is NOT old to me.)
• Bennett knows that I have a "no potty talk rule" in the house. That does not, however, deter him from trying to sneak opportunities to participate in this activity when he feels he can avoid consequences for doing so. For example, the other day we were riding bikes in the neighborhood, and after about a mile or so, Bennett exclaims in a voice loud enough for many neighbors to hear, "My butt is on FIRE!" ("Fire" was pronounced, "Fy-ah"!) Poor thing. His bike seat is rather hard, and he isn't used to riding that far but is generally restricted from adventuring beyond our street. Anyway, once he saw that his exclamation got a smirk out of me rather than admonishment, he persisited to say it four or five more times before I told him it was no longer necessary to announce this. That did not keep him from retelling this story several times the following day just so he could say the word "butt".
• Last night, Bennett wanted us to play basketball in our playroom on our Fisher-Price Grow-to-Pro basketball goal. (Sidenote: This is a GREAT toy. We have had two of these, one when Anderson was a toddler, and the one that just replaced that last month when the other one's backboard no longer stayed on the post properly, probably due to lots of wear and tear over the last eleven years. We have not had a toy that has been played with more than this basketball goal.) Back to the story, Bennett assigned teams. First he said that he was on my team. Then, he said that married people were supposed to be on the same team, so Paul and I were then teammates. Then, about a minute later he decided that he would instead be my teammate. At that point, Bennett and his brother were roughhousing (this is all before the game even started), and Anderson fell down on a golfball that was left in his pocket. Needless to say, this didn't feel good at all. As Anderson lay on the ground feigning more pain than he actually felt, Bennett turned to me and said, "I guess Dad's gonna need a new teammate." This then led to a discussion about compassion and care for others. (I should add in fairness that he normally is compassionate and caring.)
• This morning we were playing Snakes and Ladders. (It is similar to Chutes and Ladders, only you put the puzzle together first before you play. Very cute game with only 50+ spaces rather than 100, so it goes much more quickly.) Bennett would ask before he rolled the dice, "What do I need to roll?" He wanted to be able to take as many ladders up as possible. I would tell him how many spaces he needed to move (let's say 4 as an example), and then he would ask, "Mom, will you pray that I roll a four." The first time I said, "Sure", so we prayed. Of course, he rolled a four. He asked again, to which I said, "You can pray and ask God, buddy." So, he did pray that he would roll a four. But before he rolled he said, "I think I'm gonna roll a 2." What a perfect moment to explain faith!!! I said, "Bennett, you don't want to think like that. If you ask God to roll a four, then you need to believe you will roll a 4. Just picture in your mind what it looks like to roll a four, then thank God for helping you roll a four." He did, and yes, he rolled a 4. In fact, he prayed a lot during our game today, and I think there was only two or three instances (out of many!) where he didn't roll what he prayed for. I know God was teaching me something during our game as much as he was teaching Bennett something. I've been pondering and praying a lot lately about the way we think and believe and how it affects what happens, and I know this was a moment God was seizing to show me faith in action in a very practical, visible way. What was particularly sweet is when Bennett beat me and said, in his most enthusiastic and consolatory voice, "You got second place!!! That's great, Mom!" (Note: When he got second place in the next game, he wasn't initially quite as enthusiastic about that. But after a good talk about being gracious with wins and losses, his tone instantly changed and he said, "I like second place, Mom!")
• This afternoon he was playing Star Wars with his brother and cousin, Andrew. He was swinging at them with a light saber saying, "I am using the forest, I'm using the forest!" Yes, he meant "force".

Being a mother can be a difficult job. But the rewards of being home with my boys, watching them grow, mature, develop into young men who love God and love other people by far outnumbers the challenges of this journey. I am so glad God gave me boys who keep me entertained along the way.