This Post Is For Lisa

This post is in honor of my wonderful friend Lisa who I think is the only person in the entire world that actually reads this blog. Oh - wait - my other wonderful friend Diane once told me that she read Ben's blog. As far as I know those are the only two people in the entire world that have ever even looked at this blog other than me. If you do read this blog and can't or don't want to post a comment, do me a favor and drop me an e-mail so I know that someone's reading this thing! I'm just curious whether or not this is a waste of time and space on the World Wide Web. Anyway...here's an update about what Ben's been up to lately.

School. Thanksgiving. More school. Playing my Nintendo DS Lite. School. More Nintendo. School again. Playing on my laptop. That pesky school. More school. School. That's about it. Oh - wait - a couple of sleepovers at Ga's house. Ga's birthday, too. And don't forget school!

Seriously, Ben's been doing well. School has been good and keeping him plenty busy. He adores MICDS and couldn't be happier there. He spends a lot of time playing with (and talking about) Harrison and Bjorn, his two best friends. He recently told me that he's been playing with Alex too, the little girl who was in his class last year at Hope Montessori. Audrey's mom has told me several times that Ben and the other boys play Power Rangers and chase the girls (and she claims that they like it although I've already apologized in advance for the time when they don't like it anymore - and undoubtedly that time will come sooner rather than later). This morning at drop off Samantha's dad told me that Samantha said that Ben likes to play Power Rangers so he won't play with her (we'll be discussing *that* this afternoon!!). I know that Ben is the Power Rangers ringleader. There's absolutely no doubt about that one in my mind. The boy is obsessed with them!

Thanksgiving was fine. Very low key this year. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Adam, Ga and Ga's friends the Kermans at South City Diner then Ben and Ga and I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Cohn's house (more of Ga's friends) where Ben and Bradford (he's in 1st grade - a bigger boy!) played all night and had a great time.

Ga headed to Florida for the winter yesterday. I wish I were there right now considering how cold it's been here lately although it's supposed to go up to 50 degrees today so that's not too bad. I am a fair weather friend, but Ben just loves the cold. I'm not sure where he gets that from! I tell him he's crazy, and he tells me that it's not nice to call him crazy so I have to apologize but then mumble under my breath that he's still crazy. He loves cold and snow and is seriously into Christmas music. Every single time we get in the car he asks me to turn the radio on to the Christmas music stations (in case anyone wonders, he prefers the "jazzier" songs as he puts it). He's also extremely disappointed that we aren't decorating our house for Christmas because we're Jewish. We were in the car the other night with some friends who are also Jewish, and he said, "We don't celebrate Christmas because we're Jewish." The "we're Jewish" part was said in the most depressed voice you've ever heard in your entire life. When he was asked what he does celebrate, he replied "Thanksgiving." He didn't sound too thrilled about that either. I feel his pain. I always loved Christmas and used to tell my parents that I wished I were normal so I could celebrate Christmas. I think a lot of little Jewish kids long for Christmas trees and decorations!! Chanukah just doesn't do it for us.

That's really about all that's been going on around here. Ben spends a lot of time with my Nintendo DS Lite and watching Noggin, the Disney Channel and the Cartoon Network. He would spend 24/7 either playing Nintendo or playing on my computer if I let him (but I don't) with the TV on. He's a typical man already!

Welcome to the New Blog!

I've been so delinquent at updating Ben's website (http://www.benjamingreenberg.com/) that I've decided to try this blogging thing for awhile. Maybe I'll be more likely to keep everyone posted on what's going on in Ben's life (and the life of his family). Everyone else on the planet seems to have a blog so why not Ben too?

A quick update to catch you up with what's going on with Ben right now:

Ben spent the last school year at Hope Montessori in Room 1. He loved it and so did we. He had a really fantastic year and learned so much! He continued gym classes at both My Gym and Little Gym throughout the school year. In the fall he did a parent/child soccer program and in the spring he did a parent/child baseball program, both at the JCC. He and I went to Florida three times over the winter to visit Ga (what Ben calls my dad) as well as last summer and again this summer. Ben stayed at Hope Montessori for camp all summer and had a blast! We took a quick jaunt to Indiana in mid-June to Holiday World and had a fabulous time. We spent 10 solid hours there (from park opening to park closing) and still didn't get to everything. We'll definitely have to go back next summer for at least two days.

This morning Ben went to orientation at his new school MICDS where he'll be in Junior Kindergarten. It's an amazing prep school where Ben can theoretically stay until college (keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't get kicked out between now and then). His new teacher is Mr. Wuertz, and he seems awesome. There are 13 kids in his class (as well as another JK section about the same size), and the kids are all so cute! After the orientation there was a JK 'welcome back to school' party on the playground complete with Krispy Kremes and juice boxes. School starts for real on Wednesday and consists of half days until the following Wednesday so that the kids can get used to school which I think is a great idea. School starts at 8 am four mornings a week and 9 am on Wednesdays, and my understanding is that drop off and pick up are nightmares. It's going to be a serious challenge to get us up and there on time every single school day for the next 14 years (ugh!), but it'll all be worth it...or so they tell me! Here are some pictures I took this morning at school:

The good thing about this blog is that I should be able to pop on and quickly post things so be sure to check back often. I promise to be better about updating this than I have been about his website!