My son...

We had our pastor and his wife over for dinner last night and after we had eaten we were sitting in the living room. Ben was being a goober and was running around being "Super Ben". Then he climbed up on top of the ottoman and was yelling, "Suuuuper Ben". Andrew told him he needed to sit on his bottom. So Ben sits down and then yells, "suuuuuuuuuuuuuper bottom." We all laughed and then it was quiet for a minute and then, my dear son, clear as anything, yells, "suuuuuper penis!" Nothing is ever dull around here...

I was nursing Elijah this morning and watching the Today Show while Ben was driving cars around the ottoman. They were talking about nutrition and produce.

Today Show... "vegetables like spinach and kale..."

Ben..."I love Cael."

(For anyone who doesn't know Cael is one of his cousins.)

This is Ben's prayer that I overheard the other day. I was putting dishes away and he was sitting at the table driving a front loader, Outlaw (the monster truck) and Outlaw's brother (slightly smaller monster truck).

"Dear Jesus, thank you for God. Thank you for my loader. Thank you for Outlaw's brother. Thank you for Outlaw. And my front loader. Amen."

Who knew that monster trucks could inspire spirituality in two year olds?

We went for a walk today and at one point Ben stopped to pick some little flowers beside the sidewalk and then sat down and played with them for a few minutes.

Me: "Ben, do you know who made the flowers?"

Ben: "Nonna!"

Me: "Nonna can do a lot things, but I don't think she can make flowers. God made those flowers for us." I was a little conflicted telling him that God made the flowers because really they came from seeds, but I figured we'd save the more detailed explanations for later.

Ben: "Yeah, God."

Me: "That's right. He made the trees too."

Ben: Yeah. God made the flowers too. God made the flowers pretty for Ben."

I just thought that it was such a sweet little thought that the flowers were pretty FOR HIM, just like he gets presents that are for him so why should ...

I've started talking to Ben about what food does for his body...carrots help you see, chicken makes you strong, etc. So he was drinking some water the other day and I couldn't think of anything specific to say so I just told him that "water is good for your body". He gave me a confused look and then said, "water is good for my MOUTH"...

Ben was running around today and he tripped. He sat up and said, "I dropped me."

Ben was sitting on the potty and had just finished peeing. I said, "How about some poop?" And he said, "How about no?"

The other day I went upstairs to get Ben up from his nap when he started banging on his wall. So, I was in there and we were talking.

I said, "Were you whacking your wall?"

Ben: "No."

Me: "What were you doing?"

Ben: "Making music."

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We were reading the magazine that Matt & Laura brought for him. One of the pages has pictures of words and you're supposed to pick out which ones rhyme. I was trying to show him how the words sound the same so I was just saying the rhyming words:

Me: Saying each word as I point to the picture "Log, frog, hog".

Ben: "That's a pig."

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Ben had his two year check up today. We were standing at the reception desk filling out forms when an elderly, plump, bearded man walked in. Ben looked him up and down and immediately started calling him "Santa Claus"... :) I'm pretty sure he didn't hear him. If so, he graciously ignored him. :)

Overall today, Ben was actually a bit more of a pistol and not so much "sweetness", but I guess that happens from time to time.

At one point though he was playing with this Fisher Price Little People "Christmas Train" that we bought for him last year and just pulled out of the closet. It has three train cars, an engine, an animal pen, and then the caboose, which features an oven with a working door and baking gingerbread cookies. It also has a Santa Claus, a Mrs. Claus who is holding a cookie, and a reindeer.

As Ben was setting it up and playing he first noticed that Mrs. Claus was holding a gingerbread cookie in her hand. This made him very excited as he just learned about gingerbread cookies while Matt & Laura were here. He calls them "cookie men". So first things first he pretended to eat the cookie man out of her hand.

At that point he lost interest in Mrs. Claus and picked up ...

Ben is batty about pumpkins. He LOVES them. He first saw them on his Calliou video because it goes through a couple of holidays and so whenever he saw a pumpkin he'd say "Calliou". Now he knows what they're called and is constantly on the lookout and this time of year he's now seeing a lot of them which makes him very happy.

For example we went to the commissary (grocery store) yesterday to pick up a couple things and they had put out big tables with gourds, carving pumpkins, maize, and the like. Ben spotted this table as soon as we walk in and starts screeching and dancing and running for the pumpkins. It was very funny. So we got five little decorative pumpkins and promised we'd come back and get the big pumpkins later. I paid less than a dollar for his little pumpkins and they've been his constant companion since then.

He took one of them to bed with him for his nap, he routinely takes one or two of them to the potty with him, drives them a ...

Andrew and I were talking about baby names the other day and asked Ben what he thought we should name "baby". Apparently instead of the word baby Ben heard "A...B..." because his response was "C...D...E...".