Happy 4th Birthday, Benjamin!!

A perfect picture of the birthday boy: a mix of happy, thoughtful, and adorable with just a sparkle of mischievousness in his eyes!

The requested 8 layer cake! Chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake, mint chip ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, frosting! 

Benjamin's perfect birthday breakfast - watermelon and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!

And here's a little about Benjamin at 4 years old!

• How old are you? four!
• What is your favorite color?  pink
• What is your favorite toy? Calico Critters
• What is your favorite fruit? pineapple
• What is your favorite tv show? Jungle Junction
• What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut butter chocolate sandwich
• What is your favorite outfit? Fancy clothes, like dresses
• What is your favorite game? Space Monopoly
• What is your favorite snack? cheeseballs
• What is your favorite animal? penguin
• What is your favorite song? Roar by Katy Perry
• What is your favorite book? Poppleton
• Who is your best friend? Julia
• What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops
• What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play baseball
• What is your favorite drink? Lemonade
• What is your favorite holiday? My birthday
• What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Blankie, bubbles, waddles
• What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? oatmeal
• What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Chicken nuggets
• What do you want to be when you grow up? A penguin
• What makes you happy? Julia
• What is your favorite thing to eat? pineapple 
• What is your least favorite thing to eat? broccoli
• What is your favorite thing to do? Play Calico Critters with Julia
• What are you really good at? Climbing the slides at the playground
• What is your favorite movie? Mr. Poppers Penguins
• What do you and your Mom do together?  Snuggle at bedtime
• What do you and your Dad do together? Go to Dunkin Donuts
• What is your favorite sport? Biking
• What is your favorite place to go? The trampoline place

 I'd like to note a couple of things about his answers. First, the frequency that Julia comes up. Over this past year Benjamin and Julia really have started playing together, with Benjamin directing just as much of the interaction as Julia. They love to play pretend acting as superheroes from PJ Masks, taking on creature powers a la Wild Kratts, or racing around the house like track stars or race car drivers. They are constantly setting up shops to sell us things - jewelry they've made, pictures they've drawn, or just objects they've found. Somehow Benjamin always ends up as the only buying stuff but Julia only charges him 2 pennies. Since Christmas and the acquiring of his beloved Calico Critters, they will work together to set-up elaborate scenes for the critters to play in. I love this because they spend so much setting up the scenes but then rarely actually play or act anything out - exactly what I remember doing with my dolls as a kid!

The second thing to note is the off-the-wall quality of the answer "penguin" to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" This is a quirk of Ben's that I adore. If you've spoken to him lately you know he has a pretty good vocabulary. Sometimes I need to remind myself that he's only 4! So we'll be having a pretty straightforward, normal conversation and then from out of nowhere comes a silly or completely irrelevant thought that almost always makes me laugh! It's a wonderful glimpse into how his brain works! Here's another example from last night.
We were driving home from dinner and discussing restaurants we like and this was the conversation:
B: Do you like the place with the smoothies?
Me: Which place?
B: The exploding one?
Me: Johnny Rockets?
B: yes!
Me: yes, I like it.
Andrew: They have milkshakes, Ben. They're made with ice cream and milk, not smoothies. Smoothies are usually fruit and yogurt.
There was then a long conversation about ridiculous milkshake combinations
B: What about a caramel milkshake? How would you make that?
Me: Well you could mix caramel into vanilla ice cream.
B: really?!
Me: Yes, and you know we could make ice cream.
Andrew: yes, then you could make any flavor you wanted
B: yes, and you know what?
Me: What?
B: We could also make a bird feeder!!
....and that's where Andrew and I break into laughter! For the record, Ben was completely serious. He's been wanting to make a bird feeder for a couple of weeks. And this was his not so subtle reminder that we have neglected to do it!

The last thing I'll note is his answer to what he and I do together, "snuggle." Every year I purchase a book for each of the kids' birthdays and write an inscription with why I chose it and a little about them that year. This year Benjamin's book was The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss because my answer to that question would be exactly the same as his. Bedtime is my special time of day with Benjamin and I love getting to snuggle under the covers with him, our heads close together on the pillow and chat about anything and everything. It's a gift and one that I hope doesn't end anytime soon!