The Besh Moments In Life

[Note from Ryan--This was actually done on April 13, but I just realized it was never approved. Going to work with Sara to make sure she has access to blog here for the exciting months to come!]

Hi all!  Ryan hooked me up so that I can contribute now.  Hopefully, it will just help us remember even more fun stuff.

So two, tiny stories for my debut – both from this morning.  Gamaw (Ryan’s mom) was in town for the weekend.  She has a VW bug (consequently, all VW bugs are known as “Gamaw cars”).  Besh has a miniature model of one.  When he woke up this morning and realized she was heading back to California, he suspended his Gamaw car on a plastic drumstick (so that it looked like wings).  He then said, “this is Gamaw’s airplane.  It’s taking Gamaw back to California.”

The second event happened on the drive to school this morning.  Besh has known the Spanish words for the colors red, blue, green and yellow for over a year.  Today, we passed by Chuck E. Cheese and he said, “Mommy – that’s the yellow Chuck E. Cheese.  There’s a yellow Chuck E. Cheese and a purple one.  That’s the amarillo (sp?!) one.”  Then, he thought about it for  a second and said, “what’s the Spanish word for purple?”  We asked his wonderful teacher when we got to school.  We now know the word is “morado (sp?!)”.

This is all from Sara.  And I am not laughing about it one bit.  Not even a teeny, tiny, little bit.  Zip.  Nada laughing.

So, we let Besh stay up and watch the Tony Awards live and in their entirety with us.  He was especially excited when we explained to him how much we loved them.  If you didn’t see it, the opening number was spectacular and ended with a rousing rendition of “Let the Sun Shine In.”  It was awesome. 

The first day after the Tonys, Besh walked around everywhere – the house, the garage, our local jumping place (Goin Bananas) – singing “Let the Sun Shine In.”  He even swayed and put his hands in the air.  It was adorable.  I thought it was great that we (really Ryan) had made the call to let him watch them.

Then came day two.  Besh woke up and asked to watch the Tonys again.  I was getting breakfast ready and said we could watch after he ate something.  He said, “Mommy, I want to watch that guy sing, ‘Damn!’ again.”  When I inquired about which song he meant, he informed me that there was a guy in a jacket and tie who sang “Damn” to a woman.  I figured out which song he meant (Ryan’s note: it’s from Next to Normal, a musical about a family coping with the mother’s manic depression–it’s a pretty powerful song) and tried to explain that damn was a word that could hurt other people’s feelings.  That he shouldn’t say it and that, sometimes, words can hurt other people as much as hitting them.   That didn’t seem to fully resonate, so I then said, “do you remember that the woman cries after he says that to her?”  He acknowledged that but then said, scrunching his face and giving it a very bluesey attitude, “but I want him to sing ‘DAAAAMMMMNNN’ to her again.”  After some other attempts at explanations (including asking the biggest gamble question ever, “have you ever heard Mommy use that word” to which, thankfully, his answer was, “no”), I told him there were rules to using that word.  I said he could use it if he was ever in a suit and tie on a Broadway stage.  He seemed cool with that.

Later, his teacher came over to babysit.  He was across the room engaged in some other activity so I very quietly explained that he had just begun to use the word damn (spelling it out).  At which point, he ran over to us and said, “Miss Aimee, I like to watch the Tony Awards.  I like it when the man sings, ‘DAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMNNN.”  Miss Aimee started lauging (it is hilarious to see him do this).  So, I tried to reiterate that some words are hurtful and can make people sad.  At which point – without blinking an eye – he says, “but she’s not upset.  She’s laughing.  She’s fine.  DAAAMMMMMMMMMMNNNN!”  We then reverted to the rules.  You must be on a Broadway stage, wearing a suit and tie.

We’re working on it but I think it’s going to be a long process.  Damn. 

Sara and I have always been theater fans.  For the first few years of Besh’s life we had more babysitters in New York City than we did back home.  Even today Besh has seen more Broadway shows (2) than he’s seen movies in a non-home theater (1).  One of the DVDs Besh likes to watch is a compilation of old televised Tony awards shows.  It includes some scenes from the original production of Chicago.

Today, while Sara was driving Besh to his Dinoland field trip and listening to Sirius’ On Broadway channel, the song from the DVD (“All I Care About is Love”) comes on.  In the opening lines, with the background singers moaning “We…want…Billllllllly…B…I…double L Y,” Besh proudble proclaims:

“Jerry Orbach is in this show!”

Skips the song, skips the show, goes right for the talent.  That’s my boy.