My Funny Ben!

Ben has had some cute moments in the last week or so that I had to share with you. He is such a character! He is very smart and confident and funny, and he is growing up so quickly!

Last night he had a choir concert celebrating the end of the year. After suffering through 15 minutes of listening to the 4th graders playing their recorders, including a song called "Pedal to the Metal" set to an electric guitar accompaniment... *cringe*... his class lined up to sing. It might be the automatic bias that comes from being his proud mommy, but his face stands out in the crowd. He swings from being the most animated singer to looking the most bored, depending on whether he likes the song. At one point, he yawned and stretched his arms up to the ceiling. His choir teacher probably wanted to whap him with her baton. However, when they sang "La Bamba" he was shaking his little booty and nodding his head with the beat. I wish I had some pictures to show you, but unfortunately they all turned out blurry. I must have had the camera settings messed up or something, dang it!

After the concert, we went on a Mommy-Son date to get ice cream at the Frosted Rock. He picked a peach sherbet with gummy bears, and I had cake batter flavored ice cream with brownies. YUM! We enjoyed talking to each other about school, books and movies. When we sat down, I said, "So, Ben. Tell me about yourself." He gave me a blank look, and I said, "What? That's what people do on dates! They get to know each other." He just shook his head and rolled his eyes at me.

I also have to tell you about last week's cute baseball moment. He was up to bat and hit a decent ball that bounced out toward the shortstop. He ran to first base, and the first baseman missed the ball, so Ben just kept running to second. The second baseman missed the ball, so he kept on going to third base. By this point, he must have decided to just go for it, and hardly paused on third as he ran toward home. He nearly got out, but he beat the catcher to the plate by a few seconds. He was so proud of himself. He was yelling, "Mom, Mom, Mom! Did you see that? I got a home run! You gotta put it on the blog!" (Again, no camera. Blargh! I have got to get better at the camera thing!) Ryan and I weren't sure how to handle the situation... on the one hand, we want him to run his little heart out and try his best. He is so excited about baseball; we'd hate to do anything to dampen his enthusiasm. On the other hand, it probably wasn't the most fair homerun ever made. These are 8-year olds. Of course they are going to drop the ball, and Ben has a bit of a tendency to want to bend the rules. His coach didn't seem worried about it, though... so we congratulated him on some awesome running and praised his passion for the game.

I love you, Ben!