Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Literally

Ben is cute
Tonight I was eating dinner with Zeke at our small kitchen table and he asked me to tell him a story.  I agreed and began telling him "Zeke and the Beanstalk" while I continued to spoon food into his mouth.  He loves to hear stories, probably because all the stories we tell are about Zeke.  For example, Zeke and the Beanstalk (Jack and the Beanstalk), Zeke Goes to Grandma's House (Little Red Riding Hood), Zeke and the Three Bears (Goldilocks), Zeke Makes Lemonade (just what it says), etc.  
I started out the same as always, "Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Zeke, and he lived with his Mama, his Daddy, Ben, and a cow, in a small house with a farm.  One winter, after there hadn't been very much rain, Zeke's family was running out of food and getting hungry.  
"One day Mama went to the cupboard and it was bare.  There was no food left and everyone was very hungry.  Daddy was so hungry his tummy sounded like this, 'PPPPFFFGGGHHHTTT!'   
Mama was so hungry her tummy sounded like this (in a higher voice), 'ppppfffggghhhtt!'  
Zeke was so hungry his tummy sounded like this, 'ffffggggaaaahhhhtbbbla!'  
Ben was so hungry his tummy sounded like...."

Zeke listened with great interest and chewed absentmindedly.  He knows the story well and he mouthed the words with me whenever I said a sentence he'd already heard dozens of times.  

"...so Mama brought the cow to Zeke and said, 'Zeke, I need you to take this cow to the market and sell it for food.  The cow is the only thing we have left -"
"Yeah," Zeke interrupted me.  "The cow and the bear!"
I paused, confused.
"The bear?"  I asked.  He pointed to our kitchen cupboards.
"The bear in the cupboard," he said again.  "He ate all the food!"

Zeke eats a whole turkey for Thanksgiving

Monday, November 28, 2011

All Grown Up

The Binky Fairy came to Zeke's house two weeks ago.  She took away all of Zeke's binkys, but she left something magical for a little boy who's all grown up:  Buzz Lightyear.
He loves this toy.  The buttons really do all the things Buzz Lightyear does in the movie, and the wings really pop out.  Zeke loves to run around with the toy making it "fly"; sometimes that's how he comes out of his room in the mornings after the blue light turns on.  Zeke calls it his "Buzz Lightbeer" toy because he heard Woody say that in the movie, and he's certain that's the right name.