language gap

I was pointing out a gap between the top storm window and the library window frame, a gap that was letting in some of the snow that's still falling from our most recent winter storm.

Benjamin came into the library and said, "'I hate gaps!' he said angrily."

After we had suppressed our laughter, I said, "He said it angrily, did he?"

Benjamin: "Yes, he did."

Me: "Why did he say it angrily?"

Benjamin: "Because I'm angry about the gap."

Me: "Oh, I see."

Benjamin: "What's a gap?"

as in uffish thought we drove

Benjamin and I were stuck in traffic the other day. The boy had requested "a drive," and I had obliged. Traffic was thick on the way out of town and on the way back in.

As we sat in gridlock, Benjamin suddenly said, "Look, papa: it looks like a monster!"

Where? Where?

There!

He was pointing to the car in front of us. Between the shape of its trunk and the shape of its tail lights, it did look very much like a monster staring back at us.

Benjamin said, "It has eyes of flame."

I think that counts as his first literary allusion. He was thinking, of course, of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky":

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

starfall.com

No exaggeration in that slogan.

Nathalie suggested we each teach the boy our own first language, which leaves me with the task of teaching him to read English. But I feel like I'm watching Starfall.com do my job for me.

(And Benjamin pursues it with the obsessive determination I associate more with video games than with educational websites.)

rooster eggs

The term "rooster egg" has a new meaning for me.

Why would "rooster egg" have any meaning for me in the first place?

In an essay I wrote a few years ago, I mention "Uncle Raymond [who] is a famous logician. (Also a magician, a musician, and a mathematician. I'm not making this up. His stage name was Five-Ace Monty.)"

Most of his logic puzzles are fantastic. Some of his basic, introductory puzzles aren't his own, and these aren't always as great.

Here's one of them:

Question:

If a rooster lays an egg on the exact top point of a roof that slants off at 30° in one direction and 45° in the other, which side will the egg roll down?

Answer:

Roosters don't lay eggs.

Yeah? So? I know roosters don't normally lay eggs, but the puzzle doesn't assert that they do. It asks a conditional question. What if a rooster laid an egg…

Obviously the whole thing annoyed me enough to stick with me three decades.

But now I have a new association with the term. Benjamin asked me if we could look for rooster eggs in the back yard.

Rooster eggs? Is this some wild-goose-chase term he learned in preschool? No, apparently it's a small child's misunderstanding of what he overhears and what he dimly remembers from a year ago.

"Is it Rooster yet?" he asked.

"Ah! No, my boy. You mean Easter. Easter eggs. And no, it's not Easter quite yet."

---

Postscript Nathalie points out that the basilisk (aka cockatrice) is born from a rooster's egg.

Gargoyle Marcus

Benjamin: "What's your name, papa?"

Me: "Brian, but not too many people call me that. What's your name?"

Benjamin: "Gargoyle Marcus."

The boy seems to have 2 categories of obsession: what he is to be called (Tiger, Monkey, Gargoyle) and what everything else is to be called (robot, tractor). Right now he's a gargoyle and everything else is a tractor.

HOWEVER, I'm starting to suspect that he understands the word "tractor" to mean "tool," because I talk about digging tractors, plowing tractors, dirt-moving tractors, lifting tractors, etc.

Benjamin: "That a tractor, papa."

Me: "These are scissors."

Benjamin: "That a tractor for cutting."

- papa

First day of... school

Benjamin started preschool on Monday. He'll be going 3 days a week. He LOVES it—particularly the playground.

I'll try to post more about it later (and add one of the not-so-great first-day-of-school pictures I took), but for now here is what his first "What I did Today" sheet said:

I ate turkey and cheese, grapes, peppers, and corn. 
[Note from Maman who packed the lunch: It wasn't corn. It was chickpeas.]

I ate graham crackers.

Other drinks/snacks I ate today were: water, juice, milk

[I'll skip the diaper info.]

At naptime I slept from 12:55 until 2:28. Notes about naptime: good nap.

Today I had fun when we:

• Had fun making a key chain.
  
• Practice[d] the planets and states.
  
• Story time
  
• Spanish time
  
• Played outside
  
• Trace[d] the letter "O."
  
• French time
  
• Bubble time
  

SVO

I keep forgetting to blog about Benjamin's communicative advances. Before his nap today, for example, he told me: "Maman cherche minou" (Maman look for [in this case "get"] kitty). (And no, the kitty in question was not Lutèce, but a plush toy.) He is able to make subject + verb + object sentences more and more—and they are often orders (no big surprise seeing that he is 20 months going on 2½ years).

A month or so ago, while having lunch with his babysitter and her family, Benjamin was heard to declare "I like this!" before adding a typical "Mo'?" (More?). Apparently Miss Angel makes delicious chicken salad (guess I should get her recipe). But that was the only use of "I" heard until lunch today when he proclaimed what sounded like "I like pizza!" (His papa had just given him a little piece of mushroom pizza—this child loves mushrooms, we'll see if that lasts.) I suspect that he has no grasp on the pronoun "I" but instead is mimicking his verbally advanced playmate Lucia (who is exactly a year older than him). I am fairly sure I have heard her declare "I like this!" Though, of course, today Benjamin replaced the "this" with "pizza." I have yet to hear him use the French "je."

-maman

Sentences heard around the house

Yesterday during morning snack:

"Benja mange pretzels." (Benja eats pretzels.)
"Plus pretzels... p(l)aît maman." (More pretzels... please [his shortened version of s'il te plaît] maman."

Then, when I asked for his bowl to get him more pretzels, he said:

"Benja tient bol." (Benja hold bowl.)

I did not know that he knew the verb "tenir" (to hold). But, then again, every day I hear him say words I didn't know he knew.

For example, when he drops something he now says, "Zut alors!" (Darn it!) Wonder where he learned that... Good thing I started to be more careful about swear words when he was born.

-maman

verbs

Benjamin's first definite sentence, complete with verb:

"Benja mange Cheerios."

First he did his S.O.V. thing — "Benja Cheerios mange" — but his mother modeled the correct order and he repeated her and stuck with that.

For completely correct French, he still needs an article: "Benja mange des Cheerios." But we're not worrying about articles or prepositions yet. I'm must happy to see verbs emerging.

- papa

PS Actually, he is starting to develop prepositions: he's gone from mo' (more) to plus (French for "more," pronounced "plooce") to plus de, as in "Plus de travail, Maman!" (Which means "More work, mom!" It's what I just overheard him telling his mother outside. Apparently he was pointing to a snow shovel.)

almost 3 feet

I was very confused for a very long moment this afternoon when my wife, reviewing Benjamin's measurements from his various doctor's checkups, announced …

"Benjamin has grown a foot since he was born!"

- papa