Ben's vocabulary is increasing each day. He often surprises me on his knowledge and understanding of his surroundings and how he imitates the sounds he hears and my actions. This past Sunday, I fired up the Chevy and moved it to the street in order to pull the grapevines along the fence. Since Ben hasn't ridden in the Chevy much in comparison to our other cars, he was a bit frighten when the small un-muffled V8 fired up. Traci got behind the wheel and placed Ben beside her while I lowered the hood after disconnecting the jumper cables. I noticed Ben frighteningly holding on to Traci so I got in and took a seat on the passenger seat. The drive took a few minutes with the driver learning about the lack of power steering and how to manage the throttle with a broken spring. Once we arrived to our destination (100ft away), we all got outside and immediately Ben began to imitate the sound of the Chevy while pointing at the car. "Room! Room!" This continued for a little bit with each time getting louder and louder.
A few weeks ago Ben was getting over a small fever and we had a few boxes of tissue nearby to help him clear his nose. Just like most kids, he doesn't enjoy us cleaning his nose and perhaps because it begins to irritate the skin after a while. Anyhow, as we sat in the living room playing with his farm animals, his nose became runny so he grabbed a sheet of tissue and briefly placed it on his face in a act of clearing his nose.
"Garbage?!" he yelled.
"That's right Ben!" I answered while being surprised that he knew the word.
"Ok, Garbage." He replied as he walked towards the kitchen garbage. He proceeded to open the lid, placed tissue in the trash bin and said his final words to the tissue.
"Bye Bye Garbage."
That same day before his morning snack, I asked him to place his hands together for prayer. I joined him and closed my eyes yet before I could begin our short prayer he began to pray on his own, "Jesus, Jesus." He immediately got stuck and looked at me perplexed not knowing what else to say. I was speechless. First of all, he began to pray on his own and secondly, it's the first time he said Jesus. How awesome is that? It's amazing!
Later that day while playing in the back yard, Ben managed to hear the Jeep driving up to the house. He recognized the sound and got a glimpse of it as Traci slowed down to turn into the drive way. "Mommy! Mommy!" He exclaimed with the biggest grin while jumping in place. There was no more time spent celebrating as he darted towards the driveway and his little feet became turbo-charged from the excitement. Although most days Traci comes straight home from work, on this day she had forgotten to pay the water bill so she promptly took off once again. "Mommy, wait!" Ben cried as the Jeep drove away. He reached the sidewalk and once again got a glimpse of the Jeep although this time it was turning off to a side street. "Wait, Mommy!" He shouted, yet she was now gone. I followed behind him as he ran half way down our block calling out for Traci. I felt for him as he ran with a belief that he would be able to catch up to her. There were no obstacles, hurdles or distance that would keep him from being in the arms of his mother. I knew where she had gone and it would only take 3 minutes at the most since we live in a small town. "Ben, do you want to see mommy?" I asked as if though I was oblivious of what had just occurred. "Mommy?..." He answered as a smile replaced his sad face. "OK!!!" He exclaimed. "Well, mommy is home." I answered while knowing that she would arrive at the same time we would. Fortunately my guess was correct and as the car door opened, Ben lifted his arms towards Traci and said, "Mommy, up?"
