bursting at the seams

As if there wasn’t enough evidence that Ben is. . . well. . . having a good time with this whole “growing up” bit, I offer these couple of anecdotes to make it even more clear:


Sometime last week on a random beautiful sunny morning set amidst a string of other beautifully sunny summer dawns, Ben found it fitting to wake up a little later than usual allowing his mommy that extra precious half hour of sleep she always seems so sore to miss. When he finally came out of his room and climbed into bed with Anna, he declared to her waking eyelids, “Mommy, I’m happy.” Needless to say, her day was instantly that much brighter.


Yesterday morning, Anna received a phone call from her dear friend Mary (whom Anna had happily agreed to help through her labor and delivery when the time finally came) telling her that, yes – the time has finally come! Anna had no one to watch Ben while I was at work so she made last minute arrangements with his part-time daycare to take him for an extra half-day. Later that afternoon when I picked up Ben I decided to treat him to a special boys-night-out for being such a good sport. We flew down to the nearest BW3 (that’s local-speak for Buffalo Wild Wings, or as I like to call it, Buffalo Yummy Yummy Yummy Yummy) and I ordered Ben the kids meal. Now wouldn’t you guess, it came with chocolate milk. We were planning on taking our food home with us, so while we waited the hostess offered to give Ben his milk. I supposed that wouldn’t be so bad, seeing as it was a treat to come here in the first place, so I sat the boy down on a bench and helped him get started with the straw. Now if you’ve ever seen Benjamin attack a cup of chocolate milk you’d know that once the straw touches his lips he won’t stop slurping until he’s suctioned every last drop of milk off the bottom of the cup. And if he can’t get ‘em all with the straw he’ll take off the lid and eat the cup just to make sure. But this time, about a third of the way down, Ben paused to take a breath, looked at me and said thankfully, “I like my daddy,” then resumed his assault on the milk. What a guy.


We’re just loving these moments with him right now. He’s reaching that stage where he’s developing a sense of empathy, and it’s just so cute to see it pour out of him. He accidentally kicked his Buzz Lightyear toy when climbing into the car a few days ago, and I heard him say to the toy, “Sorry Buzz! Sorry!” Anna just buzzes every time she hears Ben say, “Oh thank you, Mommy. Thank you!” He says it like that every time! “Oh thank, you, Daddy. Thank you!”. A couple of weeks ago he watched as his best buddy Noah was reprimanded by his mother for pushing Ben, and when he caught a glimpse of Noah crying at the top of the stairs during his “time-out”, we had to physically restrain Ben from running to Noah, all the while pleading to us, “I give Noah a hug. I give Noah a hug.”

He has such a big heart. Maybe that’s why he’s growing to be such a big kid - the rest of his body is just trying to keep up.

Would you look at that - a talking goat!

Ben: Hey, goat! What are you doing just siting around there by the fence?

Goat: Ahhhhh, wise guy. . . I'm tied to it with a three foot rope! So pretty much my options are limited, you little. . .

Ben: So, you want me to untie you for a little while?

Goat: No, I'd love to sit on de asphalt all stinkin' day. . . Yes! Dat would be great! Would you untie me, fella, because my stinkin' hind legs, dey are frickin' cramped. . .

Ben: Hey, goat - I think you have a knot there on your face. . .

Goat: Eh?

Ben: A knot.

Goat: Oh that. Yeah. . . you better "knot" mention dat again, you little stinker. . .

Ben: [laughing]

Goat: So, eh. . . what else, fella? What are you doing? We should go get some beers and look at some girls or whatever. . .

Ben: Actually, me and my mommy were on our way to the Reggae Festival.

Goat: Oh, the eh. . . Ragu Festival? I heard about that thing on de AM radio. Yeah, sure. Sometimes the old man zookeeper passes out and leave de AM radio on, so I get to hear de oldies songs, you know, and some current events kind of things. It's not M-Tz, you know, like you kids listen to dese days, but it keeps me company. I don't watch de TV you know, because I'm not allowed in de house.

Ben: [laughing]

Goat: So you are going to go to de Ragu Festival, heh? Maybe I can tag along? That would be fun. We could do de mosh pit? Throw me around. Put me on de mosh pit, pass me around. Crank it up, Benjamin!

Ben: We only have two tickets.

Goat: [sad pause] Oh - that hurts.

Ben: Yeah, well. . . we're going to go anyway.

Goat: Nice, nice. You're going to go and have de good times, and I'm going to sit here on de asphalt. . . and stinkin'. . watch my tail get smaller.

Ben: Sorry, goat. But we gotta go now.

Goat: Hey maybe you can come tomorrow, you know, like eight o' clock, we can go dancing or something?

Ben: I don't know. . .

Goat: You should stop by.

Ben: You know, I'm kinda busy. . .

Goat: Ohhh, all right. . . I be busy too, sitting here on de asphalt with de rope tied around me. . .

Ben: All right, my mommy is calling me. I really gotta go.

Goat: Okay, okay, kid. Have good mosh-pitting!