You know how kids sometimes mimic expressions they hear other people use but don’t get them quite right?    For years Ben has said, “split black” when he means it is so dark you can’t see anything.   Of course he means “pitch black”.   I never corrected him, because I love those kinds of things.   Maya used to always misspeak the Eeny Meeny Miney Moe rhyme, and would say “Eeny Meeny Miney Moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if you hollers let him go…”

Of course, eventually they figure it out, and it has happened with ‘split black’.  Ben and I were walking out this evening to buy a large box to make into a ‘club’ for him (he may be turning 7 on Sunday, but box houses are still the height of fun), and he was telling me about waking up in the night and that it was ‘pitch black’ in his room.   Oh no!   I really loved the expression split black, even though it didn’t make any sense.   He probably read it somewhere, or Maya finally got around to telling him he was saying it wrong, but it is gone forever.    Sadly I don’t think I have him on video saying it, either.

But I do have a lot of video of both kids when they were younger, and thanks to the wonder of iMovie, have put some of them together in a great ‘trailer’.  Many of you have probably seen this on my Facebook account, but I’m feeling sentimental tonight so I’m posting it again here.

Of course, I wouldn’t want them to stay babies forever, so I’ll take the loss of the cute expressions, because it is so much fun to watch Ben’s brain work.  He is not a big fan of classes, and lately even the art class has been too rowdy for him (he asked me if he could take private art lessons from his teacher, and I’m thinking that will only happen if I win the lotto).   But he takes the things he learns and brings them home and then spends hours creating art on his own.  Yesterday he plastered almost the entire living room wall with his drawings and scissor art.  He calls it his ‘gallery’.  Then today Maya wanted to go over her Spanish homework before her class tomorrow, and Ben, who has never shown much interest in it before, announced that he wanted to do the Rosetta Stone.  (language program)  I just assumed he meant the Spanish one, since that’s the language we were practicing, but when I went in to Maya’s room to say good night, he was there happily working through German Level 1.

He embroiders and sews and builds arenas for Playmobil soldiers and sings and loves his dolls and his Bionicles and is the happiest kid I know.   I guess losing ‘split black’ is an ok trade off.