Multiple personalities

Do all three year olds have multiple personalities? At times Ben is a defiant-fit-throwing-limit-testing-bad-word-using-time-out-taking-mean monster. And other times he's an inquisitive-imaginative-funny-kind-playful-considerate angel. In one of his recent monster moments I said to him, what happened to my kind Ben?  His response: "He's gone." At least he's aware of his multiple personality disorder.

Thank goodness today consisted of mostly angel moments. Grammy (great grandma munson) had offered to watch Alex, so I figured today was the perfect opportunity to spend a little one on one time with Ben. We drove out to Antelope Island to savor the beautiful day (70 degrees) and watch the bison get worked over. Every year around this time, they round up all the bison on the island (that part was last weekend), and bring them into the corrals to thin out the herd.  They tag them, draw blood, and auction some off to keep the herd at a sustainable number. We had never been to the bison roundup before and I thought it would be cool to watch and out of the ordinary.



Already released bison grazing on the island

 We had a great time and even got some special treatment from a couple of ladies we know that work on the island.  Ben got his very own clump of bison hair and was able to go behind the gates and pet one of the bison. That bison weighed over 400 lbs and wasn't even a year old!  The whole process is neat to watch because they're such huge wild animals. Coming through the chutes one at a time they go crazy and make quite a bit of noise. Ben kept saying "The bison are bamming each other." After the work is done, the chute starts to open up and they go mad, trying everything to get out and then they take off running.  Ben was particularly enamored by watching them put the ring in their nose and take off out of the chute.

Bison in the chute, about ready to be released

Ben is the king of silly these days. The more of an audience he gets, the sillier he becomes. He reminds me of Dave with that whole class clown routine. He has these nonsense words that he says all the time.  I get told several times a day "You're a wango." Whatever that is.  He also names everything Frido. A hybrid of Fido and Frodo?

I had to post these with a little narrative.  A peek into Ben's imagination:  the qtips are the fire (and the match), and according to Ben the way to start the fire is to clean out your ear with the match (pic on left), light your match (pic on right) and throw it into the fire (pile of qtips).

Ben's quote of the Day:  (Background:  I was doing my regular brainwashing with Ben, talking to him about moving to VA, and wouldn't he love to play in grandma and grandpa Vaughan's forest, and see more of his cousins...)  Ben's response: "But we can't move our house, it's stuck in the mud".