Aug 29 2007
My Son the Flesh-Eating Musician
Ben’s logic continues to develop. And I quote:
“Did this fish have a mouth? Was it alive and swimming in the water?”
After he gets the answer, “Yes,” he continues to wolf down his baked salmon. So, we dodge that bullet.
Then this one comes when the in-laws have us over for steak (it was delectable):
Ben looks down at the tiny cubes of steak cut from my Kansas City Strip (or New York Strip, depending where you are). “Was this a cow?” he says.
“Yes, Ben, it was,” I say.
He happily devours the remaining bites on his plate.
Whew! Dodged that one, too.
I was only joking about skirting the issue. I was more proud than anything else that he made the connection and asked the question. As far as his decision to keep eating? I can’t pretend to know what he worked out in his mind. Perhaps it was as simple as, “Well, these adults I love and respect are eating it, so here goes nothing.”
The boy never has been much of a joiner, however, so I suspect there was more to it. Something more like, “This is one of the tastiest bits of food they’ve ever given me, so forget Billy Crystal in City Slickers. Cow, meet my stomach.”
In other news, the other day as Ben and I drove home from eating delicious pork chops at the in-laws’ house (they’ve had lots of family in town lately and have graciously included us in the festivities)… Aside: Apparently the clever use of the word “pork” hasn’t sparked Ben to connect it with pigs, by the way. Wait a second, we don’t call steak by the name “cow,” so who told him about that one? Oh well.
My point was, on the way home, I hummed the Star Wars title theme. It was more of an open-mouth hum like, “Daaa, daaaa, da-da-da, daaa, daaa,” the only kind that can hope to do such music justice.
Only a few measures in, Ben said, “What is that from, Daddy, E.T.?”
Now, one might call into question my ability to carry the proper tune. Trust me, I was nailing it. Ben had recognized something about John Williams’ style that allowed him to make that connection within a few seconds.
He has seen E.T. twice, to my knowledge, and as of that night, his only viewing of any Star Wars film was the pod race from Episode I (the boy loves racing). Yet somehow, in that wonderful four-year-old brain of his, he knew that the composer of both was one in the same.
I replied, “No, but it was written by the same composer who wrote E.T.. Very good, Ben.”
Tonight when Ben asked me to hum both in succession, I had to think a moment, kind of like I do when trying to do the same with the na-na section of “Angel is the Centerfold” and the “Smurfs” theme song. Anyway, after I hummed it with my mouth closed, he said, “No, Daddy, do it like, ‘da-da.’ Like that.”
That’s my boy.
Some of you may have noticed that a few paragraphs up I wrote, “as of that night.” More on that later.
(NOTE: I altered the ending of “Off Planet” after Moksha Gren pointed out something I forgot in my rush to finish. It’s a bit of a cheat because part of my excuse for any problems is that I post chapters as I write them, but it was just too huge to leave that way.)
Enjoyed this post and getting into the head of a 4 year old. Nice writting style.
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Sue of photowannabe
Actually, he just asked if the steak had been an animal, and then we told him it was a cow. Sorry to be such a stickler for details, babe.
Steak comes from cows? Oh, damn my parents!
Ok, I”m confused… did Mark or Shan write this post?
Either way… he IS getting smarter, get used to it…
Though, that he knew who John Williams is yet, I’m doubtful.. *LOL*
sue - Thanks for dropping in, and of course for leaving your comment.
Shan - Oh, yes, you are correct.
Lenny - How’s Squiggy?
And, yes, those cute little dumb animals you see wandering the fields are called cows, and they become steaks. Sorry.
Dave - I’m not sure what confused you. I wrote it, and Shannon corrected me. Pretty common behavior for a married couple. If this never happens to you, then please let me know how you pull it off!
I don’t think he knows who John Williams is, but I admit I might be a little biased in thinking he recognized the musical style. But, still…
Regarding songs, my boy does makes the same sort of connections to what he knows. These days, when Tom Cochrane comes on the radio with “Life is a Highway”, he’ll smile at me and ask what that song is. Like he already knows the answer but he wants to test his father.
So I say, “It’s ‘Life is a Highway’, Dex.”
And he says, “No Daddy! That’s the CARS song!”
Of course.
*LOL* Happens to me all the time Mark!
Sorry, I must have misread her comment (or I hadn’t had my coffee yet which is more likely)
Simon - Ben received the Cars Soundtrack as a gift and the first time we popped it into Homer’s CD player, he recognized it. Of course, it is the Cars song.
Dave - Glad to hear I’m not the only one.
But, if you look at the percentages, the number of posts she corrects me on is pretty small. I’ve got that going for me.
Oh no…Ben is showing latent vegetarian leanings!! It must be terrifying to know that your only son is following (even if in only a small way) the footsteps of the Gren.
When Juju was little she declared she would not eat anything that ever swam. To this day she does not eat seafood.
I always wondered why they call patties of ground beef “Hamburgers.” Who came up with that???
I’m quite impressed with Ben’s connective/cognitive powers. You wasted all that time on sports. He’s going to be a musical genius!
(please insert *wink* after “sports” in the above comment, as I was not serious. I think every parent should expose every child to as many activities as possible. I’m sure there are kids out there who could be great artists/musicians/race car drivers, whatever… and just never had the opportunity to try and find out.
Please insert the other half of the parenthesis after the above comment and remind Linda not to comment on your blog when she’s: a) tired and b) hopped up on cold medication and caffeine.
Thank you kindly.
Cool little collection post of Ben’s insightfulness (is that a word?). I think I’ll love the age when my boy is starting to connect things together like that.
Moksha - Again tonight, he grilled us about the meat (ha). We had chicken. I’ll not tell more, to avoid a spoiler for possible future posts.
Linda - You are whacky! I’m leaving the parentheses the way they are just to illustrate that.
Émilie B - It’s delightful and frightening at the same time. Frightlightful? Delightening? Nah, I don’t like either of those. Just be prepared, because he will amaze and astound you when you least expect it.
Nice recall from the Benster. By the way, I don’t doubt for a second that he could link two John Williams’ songs. They’re amazing.
Charles LOVES rock and roll. The other day I played a CD that had a variety of music on it, and I pointed out a Rolling Stones song (Wild Nights..I think that’s the name anyway) and told him that they were one of the most famous rock and roll groups ever. Then I told him that I thought the Beatles were probably even a little more famous.
A few days later we were listening to the radio and a Beatles song came on (8 Days a Week), and with no prompting he said, “Who is this Daddy?” I said, “The Beatles.” Naturally he replied, “I like them better than the Rolling Stinks.” I had to think for a second to recall the connection, and I was stunned that he remembered that I had compared them. They hear EVERYTHING, and remember EVERYTHING. Scary. Oh…and then I had to try to make sure he knew they were the Rolling Stones, and not the Rolling Stinks. He was close anyway. Actually that might be pretty close to the truth, because I have a feeling Keith Richards might be a little funk y most of the time.
Charles - It does blow my mind sometimes how quickly they can commit something to memory, and then recall it at will, without hesitation.
And, I must admit, I laughed at “Rolling Stinks” for two reasons. First, I’ve never been a fan and I like only two or three of their songs, and b) your comment about Richards’ being “funky most of the time” laid me out.
Between the two, I’m definitely a Beatles man.
Recent note: Tonight, Ben asked Shannon to sing the “Raindrops” song, because about a week ago I started singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” to him at bedtime. Well, as much of it was I remember. Anyway, she said she knew it, then proceeded to sing the title and stop.
That was all she knew. Ben and I helped her get through the next several lines.