Today Besh went with Mommy to go get Mommy’s car washed. On the drive home they quickly realized that the cleaner used inside the car smelled rather disgusting, so they proceeded to roll down the windows. At which point Besh felt the need to tell Mommy something very important.
Besh: “You know what this car needs, Mommy?”
Mommy: “What, Besh?”
“More cowbell.”
Today’s post is a straight copy from Sara’s email (with one addition of mine later):
I just had to share this one. Mornings are rough around here. It is hard to get Besh motivated in the mornings. This morning, I told Besh he could do things in whatever order he wanted as long as he was ready to go by the time the clock said 8:20. I gave him some tips on when to do things but ultimately left it up to him. Though we were out the door in time, there was a major scurry at the end. We got in the car and I said, “ok, everybody take a deep breath.” As we pulled out of the driveway, this is the conversation I had with Besh:
Besh: “Mommy, I am sorry I gave you a rough morning.”
Mommy: “Besh, Thank you but you didn’t really give me a rough morning. We just had to hurry at the end. I really want to be able to let you choose the order you do things in the morning. But we just need to figure out the timing so that we aren’t rushing at the end.”
“I have a good idea. Do you want to hear it?”
“I would love to hear it. I think you have great ideas.”
“Why don’t we set the timer in the kitchen? That way, when it beeps, I will know to go pee pee, brush my teeth and get dressed. Then, I can relax and watch tv before it beeps.” (The timer he mentions is the one on the oven, we use it to measure his daily hour of wearing an eye patch to address an eye issue.)
“Besh, that is not a good idea. That is a spectacular idea! I love it.”
“Yeah. I’m a smart kid.”
We then called Ryan to tell him. After I told him the story, Besh said, “was that a good idea, Daddy?” Then a pause [During that pause Daddy said "That's a FANTASTIC idea!"] and then,
“Yeah. I comed up with it all by myself.”
Two stores, the first from Sara:
Besh had an eye checkup yesterday. We were in the bathroom at the eye MD. Besh saw an environmental awareness poster with an Indian chief and asked who the guy was. I said he was a Native American. We had the following conversation:
Besh: “What does that mean – Native American?”
Mommy: “Well, there were people who lived here before this was even our country. They are called Native Americans. He is Native American and looks like he was a chief.”
“Oh. I bet he was President even before George Washington.”
“Besh – George Washington?!?!”
“Mommy, he was the first President of the United States. For real.”
“Besh, how do you know about George Washington?”
“I read it in a book.”
The book, by the way, was one of the Magic Tree House books Besh and I (Daddy) have been reading at night. We’re up to #25 out of around 44. Oy.
The second story is mine:
Last night I was sitting with Besh as he had some frozen yogurt for dessert. He huffed at one point and then looked at me.
Besh: “Brain freeze!”
Me: “Oh!”
“You know, brain freeze is like winter. It’s like you ate winter and it went in your throat.”
“Oh yeah?”
“For real.”
In case you didn’t know, “For real” is now the ultimate trump card in Besh’s book. For real.
A recent conversation between Besh and Mommy in the car.
Besh: “I want a sister.”
Mommy: “But, sweetie, you have a brother.”
“I know. But I want a sister. It’s supposed to be one boy and one girl. Two boys? What is that?”
“I hear you, honey. But we love Isaac. We wouldn’t want to give him back.”
“Yes, we love Isaac. But now I need a sister.”
“Well, Mommy’s not really ready to have another baby right now.”
“Let’s ask Nonni! Nonni would do it for us.”
“Oh, sweetie. Nonni can’t have babies anymore.”
“She can’t?”
“No. When a woman gets older, she can’t have babies anymore.”
“Oh. You mean her baby room is closed?”
“Yes, sweetie. Her baby room is closed.”
We’re pretty sure he heard the word “womb” and turned that into “room.” Either way.
A few Besh shorts for Monday morning:
—
Recently I splurged and bought myself a kinetic sculpture for my office/theater. If you’ve seen Iron Man 2 then you’ll likely remember the scene when Tony Stark goes to visit Pepper in her fancy CEO office. The sculpture that keeps flipping around on her desk–yeah, that one. What can I say, I’m a geek.
Anyway, once I put it together and had it running Sara and Besh were upstairs and I was showing the sculpture to Besh. Sara thought it’d be a good opportunity to teach Besh the words “perpetual motion” (because, you know, four year olds need to know how to say that kind of thing–kinda like when I teach him the punch lines to jokes that he can’t know the setup to 
). This was the conversation:
Mommy: “Besh, you see the sculpture?”
Besh: “Uh huh.”
“Do you know what you call it when something never stops?”
[Besh thinks, and then...]
“An argument!”
Pretty funny since that’s not the case in our house.
—
Another conversation with Besh at dinner the other night about the ongoing brotherly lovefest:
Besh: “When Isaac gets bigger, I’m going to give him his bath. Yep. That’s going to be my job at night.”
Mommy: “What made you think of that?”
“Because I love it when Daddy takes me (Besh speak for “gives”) my bath. So, I want to be the one to do it for Isaac.”
—
On the drive home with Mommy the other day Besh said something about Horton Hears a Who, then something about elephants.
Mommy: “What do you think elephants eat, Besh?”
Besh: “Beet roots.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Well, one time, I saw an episode of Curious George with mice. Then Curious George and the man in the yellow hat went to the zoo. The artist was there. And he said to them, ‘Aw, I just ran out of beet roots.’”
Sounds more like an episode of Twin Peaks than Curious George, but apparently this was an episode he’d seen months before and not since. Which is just another reason to be more aware of what we say in front of him.
Besh has talked about being on a Broadway stage for a while now, but recently he’s started to express some more powerful interests. He and Sara listen to the Broadway channel on Sirius when they’re in her car. Lately they’ve been having a lot of these exchanges:
[Broadway song comes on]
Besh: “Mommy, do you like this show?”
Mommy: “No.” or “Not really.”
Besher claps his hands.
Besh: “Closed!”
And lest you think he is just becoming the Sara’s enforcer, know that he definitely has his own opinons on the shows. Earlier this week on the way to school, “All That Jazz” from Chicago came on Sirius. The radio had just turned on, so it was the chorus.
Besh: “Is Bebe Neuwirth in this song?”
Mommy: “No. This is the Chita Rivera one.”
“Mommy, which version do you like better? This one or the one with Bebe Neuwirth?”
“I prefer the Bebe Neuwirth one.”
“Yeah. Me too. I want to see her in this show.”
“Well, she’s not in this show anymore. Do you remember which show she’s in now?”
Besh thinks a moment. Sara didn’t think he’d remember as he only saw a performance one time from the show from when we TiVoed the David Letterman show with the cast about a month ago.
Mommy: “She’s in the Addams Family now.”
“Oh yeah!”
“But, Besh, I’m not sure it’s a very good show.”
“You mean the music? It’s not very good.”
“Yeah. The music and the dancing.”
“Yeah. When we saw it on TV she was the best part of the show. She was the only good thing on there!”
So, Great White Way, you have been warned. In a few decades, Besher is coming. Your Capeman revival shall not survive.
Today’s quote comes from one of these short stories direct from Sara, but appropriate given how infrequently I’ve been posting these days. Hopefully that will change.
—
Yesterday morning, Besh ran into our bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror and said, with a lot of happiness and expression, “Good morning! I haven’t seen you in a while!”
Besh then started messing around a little in the bathroom, making faces and sounds in the mirror. Since we needed to go I said (in a slightly serious tone), “Beeeeeeesh!” To which he replied, “What? Isaac thought it was funny.”
—
When Besh was getting ready yesterday morning, he called to me downstairs: “Mommy – do you hear the birds? Do you know what they’re saying? They’re saying, ‘Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious…’” He then proceeded to sing the entire song including the dum diddlies at the end.
—
And one from me–the other day we were all in the car listening to the Broadway channel on Sirius (that’s what we listen to when Besh is in the car–if it’s just Isaac then we turn on Howard Stern because, and I’m not making this up, Isaac loves Howard: he stops fussing, he’ll sleep, he cooes). A song comes on and Besh listens for a bit, then says:
“Mommy, is this song from In The Heights?”
Besh hasn’t seen In The Heights. And the song wasn’t from the show. But I smiled and shook my head because I think it’s pretty cool that our 4-year-old was asking that question.
Of course, it’s also a bit wrong that I have a 4-year-old asking if a song is from In The Heights. But that’ll be nothing compared to Isaac growing up listening to Howard (assuming he renews his contract, of course).
By Sara
There has been a lot of talk about marriage going around Besh’s preschool class. Each week, he tells us who is going to marry. The same girls are always at the top of his list but they rotate. Apparently, some of the girls are also talking about getting married at home. When Besh told me her wanted a playdate with a particular girl because he was going to marry her, it occurred to me for the first time to get his take on marriage. The following was our conversation:
Me: Besh, what does it mean to be married?
Besh: It means you stay together. You stay together forever.
M: What do you do when you’re married?
B: You build houses and farms and stores. And houses.
M: But, Daddy and I are married and we don’t build houses and farms and stores.
B: Well, I will. If Liah marries me, I will build houses and farms and stores and houses with her.
M: How do you feel about the person you are married to (forgive the bad grammar here, I was just into the conversation. Also, I haven’t slept in four months!)?
B: Excited. You are excited and sometimes you clap your hands and say, “Yay!”
M: Do you think I’m excited when I see Daddy?
B: Yes. You are.
M: How old do you think you have to be to get married?
B: 12 or 13.
M: How old do you think Mommy was when I married Daddy?
B: 29.
M: How old do you think Daddy was when we got married?
At this point, Besh was clearly done with the conversation. But, I have to remember to ask him questions like this more often. Because the answers are so entertaining!
A collection of short notes Sara has been saving up since we’ve both been too tired for longer posts.
Conversation with Besh on 2/16 while Besh was in the backseat and Sara was driving.
Besh: I want to go on a trip.
Mommy: Me too! Where do you want to go?
B: London.
M: That would be great. But Isaac is too little to go to London.
B: Okay, how about this plan? I go to New York with Nonny and Zeyda.
M: Can Mommy and Daddy come too?
B: No, just Besher. And Nonny and Zeyda. No Mommy, no Daddy.
—
Besh has this singing, dancing Pablo doll from the Backyardigans. Got it a long time ago even though he’s never seen the show. It sings really, really loudly, so we weren’t too disppaointed that it’s voicebox gave out even with new batteries. Sara explained how it wasn’t working anymore, so Besh had the following heart-to-heart with it. It was almost enough to make me want to get him a new one. Almost.
Besh: Birdie, I love you. But you are broken. So we have to throw you away. But I love you and I will miss you. Bye, bye, birdie. I will miss you.
—
Conversation with Mommy on 2/17:
Besh: Mommy, when Isaac grows up, he is going to be my very best friend in the whole wide world.
Mommy: I sure hope so, Besh.
B: He is, he is.
M: What made you think of that, Besh?
B: I just DID.
—
Among other fun things Besh says right now, beautiful is pronounced bee-YOU-tiful.
—
Said to Gamaw (a teacher in California) during her last visit: Do your students call you Ms. Gamaw?
Said to Mommy: If we had another baby, we’d have to sell Isaac!
Also said to Mommy: Mommy, I am bigger than Isaac but I am still just a little kid.
This straight from Sara:
On the car ride to school today, Besh said, “Mommy – I want to be a girl.” We then had the following exchange:
Me: “Why?”
B: ”I just do.”
Me: “Does it seem to you that it’s harder to be a boy than a girl?”
B: “Yes. It’s harder to be a boy.”
Me: (REALLY resisting the urge to talk about all the ways boys have it far easier than girls)
“What do you think makes it harder to be a boy?”
B: “It just is.”
Me: “Who are you favorite girls?” (I thought this would be another way to ask what girls can do that he can’t)
B: “Nonni.”
Me: “Do you think there are things you could do if you were a girl that you can’t do as a boy?”
B: “Yes. Lots of things.”
Me: “What would you like to do as a girl that you can’t do as a boy?”
B: “Feed Isaac.”
Me: (Trying not to cry because he’s so sweet) “Well, yes, that is a mama’s job.”
B: “How about this plan? You can put the milk in a bottle and then I can feed Isaac? Can we get some bottles? Will you put the milk in there so I can feed Isaac?”
Me: “Yes. We can absolutely do that.”
