http://weardenfamilynews.blogspot.com/2013/06/benjamin-today.html
and honestly, a lot has changed since then. It is high time I update!
The benefit of the current age of the kids is that at least with two of them, I can ask and they can at least partially answer on their own. First up, my baby Banjo!
I got to ask him a lot of these questions, which was endlessly entertaining, at least to me. He is a character, that is for sure. Benjamin is...loud. And rowdy and reckless and raucous and recalcitrant. He's also very sweet and funny, a well of curiosity and energy. Ben is really a combination of his Daddy and his Uncle Patrick--from Michael, he got his interests; Uncle Patrick, his demeanor and disregard for personal safety. Whether it is biting through his lip when he falls off the dresser he was scaling, or drinking the entirety of his brother's medication and landing in ICU overnight, this child is certain to be the death of me.
Stats
Age: Ben is four years old; he will be 5 in early September. He has not started school yet but we are hoping to get him in Pre-K in the fall.
Nickanames: Ben, Benny, Banjo, Benji, Bing Bong, Bang, Bingles, and really any onomatopoeia that starts with a B.
I wish I could tell you how tall he is, how much he weighs. I actually cannot off the top of my head. All of my kids are usually over the 75th percentile in height but close to the 50th-60th percentile in weight. Good weight-to-height ratio.
Favorites
Toys: "Batman toys and all the superheroes toys because they are so cool. I like my Batman."
Last Christmas, my cousin Grace got Ben a Batman and a Batmobile. Those are his go-to toys, the ones he HAS to know where they are. He has been asking for months if I will get him a Robin toy for his birthday.
Ben loves Star Wars--he sleeps with a talking Kylo Ren and has a complete collection of toys from when his father was younger. He especially likes the Death Star and the spaceships. Also from his father, he has a strong collection of Marvel superheroes; his favorite is Galactus because he is bigger than all the rest of them, but the Sentinel is up there as well. He seems to like playing the bad guys, most likely because when he plays with his cousins or his sister, no one wants to play the villain and it usually falls to the youngest: Benjamin.
Book: "My favorite book to read is Toy Story because they're so cool. I like some game books too like [World of Warcraft] because it is so awesome because it is magadash {????}"
Books, Ben really doesn't sit still for books for very long. He went through a very long "Pout Pout Fish" phase. His Aunt Janice sent the kids the first two Pout Pout Fish books and plushies, and those became the ones that we read again and again to him until the words lost all meaning.
Emerald reads to him a lot, but he most prefers her to read from the Bibles. Probably because we have so many variations of Children's Bibles, and she is fascinated by them. The "World of Warcraft" gamer guide was left in my house in Lubbock, ended up moving here with us because it was in our stuff, and by some very odd train of circumstances, it landed in Benjamin's hands. And apparently, that is what he is into.
Songs:
"Shut Up and Dance with Me" by Walk the Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JCLY0Rlx6Q
("I like the part that goes 'Oh don't you dare')
"Ghost Town"--a song that Emerald wrote.
Lyrics: Ghostes haunt you at night
They're leaving spiders under your bed
Zombies and skeletons help them
Every town should be Ghost town.
"Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls
The last I very sincerely doubt; he likely said it because he remembered it was my favorite. The kids are just starting to develop musical tastes that have nothing to do with animals or farmyards. Benjamin likes sort of pop rock--Adam Lambert, Mariana's Trench, Fall Out Boy are the kinds of songs he suggests while we are driving.
Movie: "Just cool movies like Batman, all the superhero movies. Doom is my favorites. That's all my Batman."
With movies, Ben really does like superhero movies. He doesn't have the focus to sit through too many, except a select few animated--right now, "Zootopia" and "Big Hero 6", sometimes "Wreck It Ralph". During the school year, I watched "A New Hope" with him probably every day for a month.
Game: "My favorite game is World of Warcraft."
{Me: You've never played it.
Ben: I know. You can download it for me so I can play it by myself"}
"On the Xbox I like to play Star Wars [Battlefront]. My favorite guy is Jabba."
Benjamin plays Overwatch with Michael--he likes the gorilla, Winston. Honestly, he loves to play anything as long as he is spending time with me and Michael. When I play Fallout 4, he likes it when I use my cages to catch Radstags, Mirelurks, and Brahmin. I let him give them goofy names like Sugar Bombs and Warlord.
Foods: "Spaghetti and meatballs and mushrooms and sauce, strawberries. My favorite ice cream is vanilla, my favorite pie is chicken pie, and my favorite cookies are M&M. I like kool-aid, the green one."
Benny really is my worst eater--Emerald and Gabriel will eat pretty much anything; Ben hardly eats, at least at meal times. He has learned a lot of bad habits from his brother. Sneaking food is the one that annoys and frustrates me the most. When I was picking up his room the other day, I found an entire bottle of honey emptied behind his bed--he had taken it and drank straight from the bottle. You can hear him between meals digging through the cabinets; if you say "Who is in the kitchen?", the pantry or fridge door gets slammed and you hear the slap of his bare feet as he hauls it back to his room. An entire smoked ham disappeared from my fridge, only to be found Ben gnawing on the outside of it like a crazed sewer rat.
Color: "Dark emerald green because it is shiny like gold."
Big Sister is who Ben tries his darnedest to be. Her favorite color is green? Great, so is his. Her favorite meal spaghetti and meatballs with mushrooms? What a coincidence! So is Ben's. In Benjamin's mind, if Emerald likes it, that must mean it is good. Which goes the other way, too. Like most households with small children, we have a wide variety of different colored plastic dishes. The amount of consternation the color of a plate can evoke in these children is unreal. The best colored plates to get are green and pink. The worst are blue or yellow. If I was more inclined, I suppose I could buy sets of dishes in the colors they preferred. But you just KNOW the moment I do, there will be a shift where none of them would use the color I bought, but would have developed an affinity for soft gooseberry or some equally absurd and unobtainable shade, and I will be stuck eating off of bubblegum pink dishes for the endless eons of eternity.
Activities: "Play with water guns, going to the zoo and seeing the giraffes and hippopotamuses and crocodiles and alligators. What happens when you smile at an alligator?"
Benjamin just wants to play with other kids. He doesn't seem to know even how to play alone. I have often thought it is because he is the youngest child--for Emerald and Michael, who are both oldest children, they had to entertain themselves for years before they had a playmate. Michael's brother is five years younger than he is; Gabriel does not engage in appropriate or meaningful play with age appropriate peers. Emerald was four before she had a sibling to play with. She had years where she played by herself, entertaining herself. Benjamin has never actually not had playmates around. It doesn't even seem to register to him that he could play alone.
Having other kids over, other kids to play with, it doesn't really matter what they are doing as long as Ben is involved. He also loves going places, but again if it is just me and him going to the playground or Sonic play place or whatever, if there are not other kids he will just sit there, get sad and leave.
Dislikes: "Monsters, bears, all kinds of stuff. Broccoli. All the vegetables. That's why I didn't eat the lettuce.
I don't like to wait for stuff.
Or go down a waterfall."
Benjamin lives in a lot of fear. He is terrified of water, getting his face wet in the bath or climbing into a pool. On fourth of July, Mom had to chase after him as he ran off into a field yelling, "I don't want to go swimming today!"
We have to keep "Bear-B-Gone" spray on hand at the house:
Just in case a bear is trying to hide in his closet or under his bed. He will not walk in tall grasses or look up into trees, because there is probably a bear in there. Do not ask me from where it came from. I suspect it came from "Brave", which he watched when he was younger, but I am not certain. Bears are his greatest fear and have been for quite a while, since he was still talking in third person and he would tell us,
"Ben scared of bears."
Benny is my baby. He brings me such joy, even when he is being a pain (which is happening with ever-increasing frequency). He loves to ask "Why?" about everything around him--Why is he named Ben? Why is her hair curly? Why are you playing that game? Why did God make this?
When he gets it into his head that he wants something, he is relentless, refusing to accept that it might not happen. As the baby, he can be whiny and cries far too often for my taste, and his volume knob seems to have broken off at 11 on the amp. The child is LOUD. Sitting still for him is nigh-on impossible.
You know what he is like?? He is mentos in diet coke. There is too much Ben for one Ben to contain, and all the excess is just spilling over the top.
Every day we play this game--
Ben: Mom, I love you!
Me: I love you more.
Ben: I love you most!
Me: Awww, you win.
Ben: No, we both win 'cause we have each other.
--Andie
These words are like a warm hug! ♡
ReplyDeleteThank you, Milliner! <3
ReplyDelete