Archive: The Fine and Right Education of the Young Doctor Benny

What the heck happened that I quit updating this blog?

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll give you the answer: crawling.

Sadie started crawling in her ninth month and now on the day after she turned eleven months I am finally getting my head above water.

She's crawling. She's pulling up to a standing position. She's adorable. But she's in that stage where she requires pretty constant attention to stop her from hurling herself down stairs, smashing her skull open on the hearth, and electrocuting herself with a lamp. So. Her nap times have become violin practice times and school times and in general Benny times, since the rest of the day is so consumed with monitoring Sadie's health and well being. If the naps were any reasonable length, or if the children could manage to fall asleep before 9:00pm, I might still be a functional human being, but she's also constantly teething and wretched, so she doesn't sleep well during the day and seems to do even worse at night! WHEE!

I am now starting to get things under control or at least get accustomed to the new level of insanity, and we have a new web site for both kids:

Keep Your Eye On The Kids

I'm cross-posting this to Sadie's blog. :)

Is this the coolest thing ever? It's the Oxford English Dictionary in Limerick Form. So far they're up to words that start with AR.

http://www-b.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php

Sadie is on the floor in the living room playing and Benny is eating a Halloween cookie and I'm cleaning up the sink. He says to me, "Ooooh look! I gave her a bite! She likes it!" Okay, whatever, second child syndrome, if the child eats a bite of sugar it's not going to kill her. Then I look up and see Benny hovering another bite over her open mouth and singing, "Sugar! Sugar! Come on for sugar! Sugar!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! Corruption.

Maybe Benny should learn to write the Korean numbers he can say. What do you think?

http://www.learnkorean.com/lesson/lesson12.asp

I think he would love it.

I asked Benny what he wanted for breakfast and he said, "Nothing" which is his standard response and I said, "Well you have to eat breakfast so you have some energy to go to preschool" (which is of course MY standard response) and he said, "Well, maybe just a plate."

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

He's a waif model in training. And he ended up eating an entire bowl of oatmeal thanks to my firm belief that an entire bowl of oatmeal will get him through most anything.

I forgot to blog that he moved up from a Ray to a Starfish in swimming class. The classes go Pike, Eel, Ray, Starfish which seems entirely backwards to us, but whatever. Starfish is as far up as he can go. After he learns the strokes in Starfish, including the breaststroke I think, he is fully taught. I think it'll take about a year for him to get really strong on his strokes, so he can stay in Starfish as long as it takes. That is perfect because next fall I want him to move over from swimming lessons to swimming team. You have to be five. This is the team I want him on in about a year:

http://www.norfolksilverdolphins.com

His new teacher, Raelyn, is doing a fantastic job. I still meiss Deanah but what can I do?

Off to preschool.

Benny and Gabe had co-op today and had a fabulous time. Misti and Scott had prepped a really cool craft where the kids decorated mini-pumpkins with cut out sparkle paper for eyes, and pretend hair, and arms and noses and everything -- it was very elaborate! And charming. They both loved it. They also read Halloween books and learned about spiders. They made a huge spider web all over the room with skeins of yarn. I think on Wednesday we will take flashlights and go on a spider hunt through the building.

Then he had violin class and was just naughty enough not to earn his ice cream back for this week. He had a bit of trouble doing what he was told and listening and spent a fair amount of time lying on the ground in a rather recalcitrant manner, so another week without ice cream will hopefull not kill him, especially since it's Halloween and I'm sure he'll find another way to pack in the sugar, eh? I am waiting for him to put in a really excellent lesson where he is actively trying to be good, not just being forced to be borderline civil.

He came home and found a cricket which he identified as an insect with six legs and three body sections. He's been playing with it ever since. It started out alive. He said to me with wonderment, "Oh, MOM, do you know that this is a TALKING insect?!" Hehehe. Caaaarazy. I took lots of pictures. Benny dressed up like a tiger today in his black and orange striped PJs with tiger ears and a mascara-d on nose and whiskers. He also had a foam tiger to walk along with him, that Grammy got him at the zoo last spring. He looked RATHER CHARMING. On Wednesday he'll be a pirate, and on Friday for the parade he'll be a blue wizard. On actual Halloween night, I'm going to let him pick whichever is his absolute favorite to wear.

He wants to make jello. He doesn't eat it, just plays with it, but who cares. :) :) Off I go.

I'm blogging from Dan's computer. Wow, I feel so cosmopolitan. I installed a Windows update that is preventing any transfer from any outside source to my computer. So, no email, no internet, nothing. It's a GREAT update and I recommend that we ALL try it right away! No doubt the problem has to do with this firewall thingy that is overcharged or something but... for now it means I have to come over to the other side of the office for my internet purposes.

Benny won the Tot Trot at the YMCA Waterside Stride event downtown in Norfolk today. By which I mean that of the children who ran, he ran fastest and crossed the finish line first. It was a quarter mile running race. Every child got a gold medal on a ribbon around their necks. Benny, however, actually in fact won. He said he was going to. He accomplished the task very calmly and with a completely matter-of-fact attitude. It was... astonishing. There was a lot of Dan in Benny today, in his quiet assessment of what was necessary and his quiet and steely application of his will to the problem. It was really something to watch -- the competitive streak in this child is completely beyond what I thought before. On some level, the kid is made of steel. I really had no idea. He ran as fast as he needed to run to beat the other kids -- he went out in front in the beginning and stayed out in front the entire time. I think if he'd had to throw himself across the finish line with his eyes bleeding and his limbs hanging off, he would have done it... without vacillating. It was a little crazy! He was very pleased with himself and loved his medal but was extremely calm about the result as if... of course. He is an amazing person, our Benny. Amazing.

I forgot to post about this:

Benny has a new game. After everything I say he says, "Said Mommy." Then he narrates his own actions and speeches in third person. Like he'll say, " "Come here!" called Benny." It is HILARIOUS. I was laughing so hard and Benny kept saying, "She laughed" or "They laughed together!" and it was making me laugh harder and harder -- it was such a scream. I'm not sure where that came from. Crazy boy.

Test.

Sadly our boating season is just about over. It's getting to the point we need sweaters and boots to get out on the water. However, here is a page of pictures from happier times this summer. Note that Benny is in the "tube" and is "tubin'" all by himself without the aid of any sort of parent. Brave boy!

Hey, here are some pictures of the new homeschooling co-op which is fabulous and marvelous! These are pictures of our first couple of meetings. Next Wednesday we're doing a Halloween themed day -- whee!

Remember when Dad and Benny went to see Hilary Hahn at Chrysler Hall?

Here are the pictures of them standing in the front room before they left. Didn't think to send the camera with him or send a shirt for her to sign PEH! But she did sign the program and the very very kind symphony lady sent it to him in the mail.

First day of preschool came and went with much less fanfare than last year, which is to be expected, given that he's an old expert at preschoolin' nowadays. Of course, he went in like an old expert on his first day last year too, so who am I kidding? Here are pictures from after school on his first day. The other little boy is, of course, Gabe!

Last Saturday, Benny played his violin at the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival. You may remember this event from last May. They do it biannually. Or semiannually. Whichever means twice a year. Anyway. We showed up at the Academy of Music at 10:00 as directed and found that there would be ONE HOUR OF REHEARSAL before we even walked over to the festival. Okay. Benny's usually good for about 40 minutes TOPS of attention span before he goes over the moon. So, I was cautiously pessimistic. Dan took Sadie to the mall to run an errand while I waited with Benny and watched the rehearsal.

At 11 we met up with Dad and walked over to the festival. The performance was MARVELOUS. Benny was COMPLETELY INSANE though and tried to play on every song, even songs in book four. The teachers spent plenty of time trying to corral him and eventually just took his bow away when he wasn't supposed to be playing. This eventually made him sad. But his spirits were renewed when he was given the opportunity to play a SOLO. Now at this point, he had been playing the violin and trying to pay attention for almost two hours. His brain was so fried he looked like a zombie. Mrs. Morton asked him what he would like to play and he said, "Twinkle." I breathed a huge sigh of relief, since he knows Twinkle better than anything and it seemed like the safe, wise, choice. Then he launched into a version of Twinkle that NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD BEFORE. I recognized what he was trying to play but couldn't place it. I shot a look at Mrs. Stevens and mouthed, "WHAT IS HE DOING?!?" She had no more idea than I did. It was... hilarious. It was clear it was Twinkle but it was full of these bizarre and complicated embellishments he was trying to play by ear. At the end, he gave a huge grand flourish and a bow like nothing I have ever seen this side of Transylvania. Of course, everyone LOVED his performance. I had about six people from the crowd ask me if they could have him. :) He had a fabulous time.

Here is a page of pictures of the event!