Benjamin, On Turning Three

I interviewed Benjamin the other night while we were waiting for his brother and sister to get their pajamas on.  I like doing this interview with my kiddos near their birthdays so I can have a record of how their answers change as they grow.

1. What is your favorite color? Blue
2. What is your favorite toy? motorcycle (I hear stories every afternoon about whose turn it was to play with the motorcycle at day care)
3. What is your favorite fruit? oranges and strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show?  Team Umizoomi
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? strawberries & "the other chicken" (He was referring to my audacity to serve some chicken and black bean concoction instead of plain chicken tenders for dinner the other evening.)
6. What is your favorite outfit? a shark shirt
7. What is your favorite game? trains
8. What is your favorite snack? strawberries
9. What is your favorite animal? a giraffe
10. What is your favorite song? "A B C D E" (and then he sang it for me)
11. What is your favorite book? His Mickey Muse search and find book
12. Who is your best friend? Daniel & Simon
13. What is your favorite cereal? both (he likes to mix regular Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? bikes
15. What is your favorite drink? lemonade
16. What is your favorite holiday? winter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? giraffes
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? chicken (haha!)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake (hahaha!)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a monster "Grrrrrr  ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!"

And after the interview, just for fun, I asked him his whole name.  He replied, "Benjamin Uncle Alan Lieber."   I LOVE IT!!  Have I ever told this back story?

The book is called "I Was So Mad" hence the facial expression.

One night the kids were talking about their names.  You may recall from this post that Frances is named after both of my grandmothers.  When it was time for Henry to come along I felt like we should pick names from Ken's side of the family.  Ken's maternal grandfather was named Henry and that name "fit" with Frances' name so we picked it.  Ken didn't really want his first name used, so we went with Charles for a middle name.  It's Ken's middle name and his father's first name, so it counts double.

Did I mention that we never found out ahead of time what our kids' genders would be.  I knew Frances was going to be a girl and I knew Henry was going to be a boy.  So far we were two for two.  I knew that Benjamin was going to be a girl, so we had a great girl name picked out and ready to go.  When Benjamin was born, Ken said, "I have good news and bad news.  The good news is we have a beautiful new child. The bad news is we don't have a name!"

We spent a lot of time in the hospital going back and forth on names.  We really couldn't decide on anything. Somehow we came to Benjamin and agreed on that, but couldn't figure out a middle name.  Someone (not Alan) suggested the name Alan and I liked the sound of it.  Alan is also my dad's middle name, so it counts double too.

Back to the night my kids were talking about their names...The older two know who they were named after, and they are quite proud of the stories. Then they told Benjamin that he was named after Uncle Alan.  From that point on, Benjamin has told us that his name is "Benjamin Uncle Alan Lieber."  Makes sense, right??

Check back on Monday for a report on birthday festivities!  Have a great weekend, friends!