At playground

Music

Ben loves to sing and dance. He often sings the entire 45 minute drive to his grandparents' from our place up to Berkeley. His favorite songs? "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Old Macdonald", "ABC", and "London Bridge is Falling Down." The wording is pretty much made up of random words he knows with hints of the original lyrics every now and then, but the tune is very much recognizable. And he would go on and on. Pretty much no room for KFOG or KQED radio.

With dancing, he used to just kind of bounce around or bob his head back and forth whenever he heard music. He's now advanced a notch, however, to choreograph his own movement. This one we got on video is our favorite. It's his slow dance in which he extends his arms out, palms up with his head slightly tilted sideways. It reminds us of Tai Chi. The laughing at the end is ours, not part of the music or a planned part of the show.

Sweet kiddo

While I was driving home, after having picked him up from daycare, Ben said out of the blue: “Mommy, I you”. “I love you too, Ben Boo!!!!!,” I replied, with a huge smile on my face.

A few days later, "I you" evolved to "I I you."

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This coming Wednesday is Dad's birthday and Little Big Ben helped celebrate by handing Dad a lovely birthday card in the morning and sleeping without a peep at his grandparents' house so Mom and Dad can go celebrate at Fonda.

Ben and Mom think they both are so blessed. Dad is the most wonderful guy. Even with demanding and stressful work, Dad has always put us first. He's also very in tune with Ben from the moment he was born.

Have a happy birthday, Daddy!

We went on our usual morning walk along the canal when Ben noticed a little girl on her tricycle. Not only that, but she came over and said to us “Ni hao”. Ben conversed with her using whatever Chinese vocabulary he had in his repertoire at the time. This includes Zheige (this), Ma-yi (ant), hao (good), gou (dog) then they ran off and played together. Little Big Ben recently started to play very well with kids his age and older. We agree that he’s definitely not shy. Just like a politician, he goes around saying to random passers-by hi, hello, bye. At the playground, he expresses interest in what other kids do and play and is eager to join.

Choo...choo....

Little Big Ben just got a new toy. Hmm...but it’s actually not that new. It’s the train set that used to belong to Dad and his sisters when they were kids. Ben obviously was very excited after having played with just the one Thomas the Train this past few months. Now he has more trains and many tracks. An intricate train track Dad builds would normally last for about 10 minutes before Ben tears it all down…only to be beautifully rebuilt again by Dad. He doesn’t seem to mind. Mom still can’t decide who’s more excited to receive this fun family treasure.

It's now all about the trains in the Taussig household.

Happy hiking

We tried the packpack for the first time to see how it works with Ben. Looks like Little Big Benloves the free ride and the view from up there. So much so that he was singing and wouldn't stop talking the whole hike. Actually the latter semd to be true to most occasion these days. Double B is now unstoppable when it comes to talking!!! Anyway, everyone did well on the hike--especially Dad who had to carry the heavy load. Great job Dad!