Recent Conversations, Benji's Hobbies

Earlier today, while we were all in the car, Chad and I briefly talked about if/when to plan a third child. (NOTHING was decided, so don't get your hopes up). This evening, this ensued:

Ethan (poking my breast): There's a little baby in there.

Hope: No, that's my breast. There's no baby in there!

Ethan: I wish there was a baby in your tummy. That would be cool!

Chad didn't say anything but I saw a pained look on his face.

A few days ago, this conversation happened:

Ethan: Mommy, spies are bad!

Hope: Well, some spies are bad guys, and some spies are good guys.

Ethan: I'm a good spy. You be a bad spy.

Hope: I don't want to be a bad guy. I'll be a good guy spy. Here, why don't you hide under this laundry basket and spy on the bad guys.

Ethan (under the laundry basket): This is my spy lab! I'm in a spy lab.

Hope (laughing): Oh, what do you do in your spy lab?

Ethan: I look for bad guys, because they are bad guys.

After church today, when Ethan was picked up from the 3-year old room, I asked him if he had fun in there. He said, "Yeah, it was awesome."

Benji has a new hobby. He likes to drop things into the toilet ... yes, even when the lid is down. He knows how to open it up. If we forget to close the door to the bathroom, we might find him either playing in the toilet water, or dropping things in there. Once I found a collection of bathtub toys in there. Another time, I found four baby wash cloths mixed up with toilet paper in the bowl.

His other hobby is putting things that are not trash in the trashcan and taking trash out of the trashcan. I mean, I guess I can see how this would be really fun. He's put a pair of shoes in the trash, a new tube of mascara, and one of Ethan's toys. I wonder if some day we'll wonder where something is, can't find it anywhere, and realize that it must have gone out with the trash weeks ago.

Benji also can now say "No," although he doesn't understand the meaning yet. He just copies me when I say it. He once said "turkey" when Chad was giving him turkey. And once he copied me say "Woof woof" when I showed him a picture of a dog. He can also say, "Hi," and he does actually understand the meaning of that word.

I steal

I loved Jessica's post like this so much, that I'm stealing her idea. However, I must warn you that mine will not be as funny as Jessica's because in hers, she describes how 2-yr old Ella told her all about how boys have a penis and girls have a magenta.

Interesting tidbits:

When Ethan talks on the phone to the grandparents, he talks to them as if they're actually there. For example, "See, look at this snail. It's really big," or "I show you a spider web. See, it's yucky."

The other day, Ethan was playing with a transformer, making it run along the couch. He said, "See, it crushes everything in its path." Later that night, I realized it's a line from a book, where "The omnidroid crushes everything in its path."

Ethan's concept of time is limited to the past, but he calls it "next week." For example, "That was where we went next week" or "Where's the toy I played with next week?"

I recently made Ethan instant oatmeal, which he hasn't eaten in a long time. The packaging and the method of cooking it is so similar to Easy Mac, that he confused it with Easy Mac, and called it "mac 'n' moley." "Is my mac 'n' moley ready yet?"

Ethan is obsessed with good guys and bad guys. He asks about every toy, "Is this a good guy or a bad guy?" When we play with transformers or anything for that matter, it's "You be the bad guy; I'm the good guy."

He's also obsessed with flying and powers. He asks me frequently if such and such toy can fly and if it has powers. This morning he asked me if he had any powers.

Watching SpongeBob last week, Ethan picked up an unfortunate word: "butt." When he used it by repeated a line from the show, I snapped, "Ethan, I know SpongeBob uses that word, but we do NOT use that word in our house." He promptly replied, "I can say it in someone else's house?"

I've been babysitting an adorable and chubby little girl lately named Lilliana. The other day, she had her arm up on the table. Ethan pointed to one of the fat rolls on her arm and said, "Wee-anna has strong arms. Her arms are so strong."

Our once-innocent Benjers is already a pro at tantrums. If you take him away from something he wants, he screams "Aah, aah, aah, aah," kicks his legs simultaneously, and shakes his head from side to side. The kid can get so frustrated!

Benji really enjoys throwing things off the high chair, or out of his bed, or out of toy boxes and then saying, "Uh oh."

He LOVES his blankie. At night time after bath, he's usually really fussy and crying. We have a routine where I say, "Let's go find your blankie. Where's your blankie?" He half-laughs and half-cries "huh huh" till we see it. Then I say, "There's your blankie!" and he laughs and rubs his face into it.

He got his first pair of Robeez last week. They're brown summer sandals and they're super cute.

Thanks to Chad, Benji thinks it's time to wrestle whenever I'm lying on the floor. If I lie down, Benji drops what he's doing, laughs, comes over to me as quickly as possible, and lies down on top of me, laughing, expecting me to wrestle him.

He likes to give kisses. He opens his mouth really wide, goes "Aaaaah," and plants a literal wet one on your face.

He's walking more and more and likes to toddle around the house. If he's unhappy, then he toddles around saying, "Mommm-my, mommm-my." If he's happy, then he toddles around saying, "Wuh wuh deesh. Ah bah mush mush, ooh uh, nuh nuh naaaaay no nooo, boosh ayay."

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have grown to like ice cream less and less and cookies more and more. Cookies are my weakness. Big, fresh-baked, soft, gooey cookies. And I didn't used to care for peanut butter cookies; now I love them. Here's a FANTASTIC recipe for them! Use Skippy natural super chunk.