A friend of mine once told me that Ben “oozes happiness”, and I think that’s a pretty accurate description. His days are full of imagination, creativity and play, all at his own direction or with his willing involvement. Who wouldn’t be happy about that?
Today, just as an example, he woke up and spent the morning playing with his Lego and sewing clothing for his Webkinz animals. The kids had art today, which meant we walked up early to hang out with Marcella at Starbucks and then go to Essentials, which is a store that sells everything including Lego mini-figures. He took money and bought two of them. At art class they worked in pastels, focusing on blending. Most of the kids did one or two pieces. Ben did four. Debbe, the teacher, said he was focused and busy the entire 90 minutes, and although he did twice as much as anyone else, his stuff didn’t look rushed.
After art we went over to Riverside Park to soak up as much of the 77 degree afternoon as we could. Ben and his friend Andrew played with Nerf guns and shot up the place several times over. Then we had ice cream and headed home. While I was making dinner (tuna casserole, which is the best thing I’ve made so far, in my opinion) Ben staged a Lego battle with his mini-figures and ships he’d built. After dinner, he got out our set of pastels and some pastel paper and did another drawing similar to what they were doing in class today. He asked to take a bath at around 8, and afterward asked for me to show him how to latch hook. I’m making a latch hook rug for the kids’ bathroom, and after a few tries he was doing it on his own. Then he and Maya decided to make a new “Scary Doll” video, and disappeared into her room to work on story line and set up the props. And now he is happily sitting on the living room floor in front of me (it’s 10:25pm and Maya is in her room editing videos, I think) brushing his American Girl Doll’s hair and changing her earrings. I’m sure that when he’s done he’ll head off to his bedroom, and once I come in to say good-night he’ll be asleep in seconds.
A day in Ben’s life is a pretty good day. I can’t imagine having to tell him that it should be spent any other way.