And This is... American Idol!

Benny's pre-school class had an 'American Idol' type contest the other day.  This was his entry.  He got my vote.

Never Jump to Conclusions

For those of you that don't know, I now have a full time job.  I'm no longer a stay at home mom, and I'm a bit sad about that, although I like my job.

I now have a little kingdom all my own, a toddler classroom where I reign supreme and no one is allowed to walk around with food, or sippy cups clutched in their hands, I get to dictate what music is played, where we go and what we do.  There is a lot of diaper changing, but life is good and pleasant--until I have a toddler who manages to thwart me for 2 1/2 hours of nap time, but that's a rare occurrence.

The reason I'm sharing all this, is I'm trying to justify my lack of attention to my blog.  So sad.  I do have a few Benny stories to share.  Here is one from his first day of school.

I took this new job, because I could have my kids there with me.  Olivia is in the next classroom up from mine, and Ben is in Pre-school (he'll be in Kindergarten in August.  Hang on to your hat, Mrs. Welch.)  The first day of school, his class did a cute project in which the kids laid down on butcher paper and their outlines were traced.  Then they colored themselves in.

I went to see Benny on my break and he proudly showed me his creation hanging on the wall.  The teacher took me aside and said in a low tone, "We have a few questions about his drawing."

I could see why.  Benny had colored in his hair (brown), eyes, (blue) and turned his legs blue, which I assumed were his pants, but in that region below his bellybutton and above his knees, he had drawn a circle, and in it was a hot dog shape with arms and legs, dancing around excitedly.

I decided not to jump to conclusions.  This has served me well before, particular when Joseph asked in his cute four-year-way, "Mom, did Dad fill the baby inside you?"

Ryan and I exchanged alarmed looks over his head all those years ago.

"What do you mean, Joe?"

"Didn't Dad fill the baby inside you?"

The pronunciation came out slightly different the second time.

"Do you mean feel the baby?  Feel the baby kick?"

"Yeah, fill the baby."

Oh good, we could put off that conversation for, what?  Twenty years?

Anyway, much more recently, I turned to Ben's teacher and asked, "Did you ask him about it?"

"No.  I was a little scared to."

"Let's ask him."

So I put Benny on my hip and told him I loved his drawing, but by the way, what was that circle?

"It's what's on my shirt," he tells me proudly.  Okay, so he'd drawn his shirt a little low.

"Who's on your shirt?" I ventured to ask.

"It's Curious George!"  and he wiggles out of my arms, distracted by something across the room.

Of course it's Curious George.  Get your minds out of the gutter people.