First there was his pottery class where he spent all semester making bowls and crocks and other glazed objects which he wrapped, put under the tree and gave out for Christmas to every family member. Then there was all the money he earned for chores through the school year, which he totally spent on giving a present to each family member, and then there were all the little extras: the cards he wrote and handed to folks, and the assemble your own snow man kits which he brought from school, wrapped and gave to us al... and then there was just his general Christmas spirit which was one of giving and not one of getting.
Ben has to be one of the most generous persons I know. It is true, as I documented in blogs before, that he has no sense of how much shampoo to use in one hair wash, how much syrup to pour on one pancake, or how many donuts to take at church fellowship. He very much enjoys 'filling' things to the brim. Ask Ben to bring you a glass of water and you will get a full service job, complete with icecubes and filled to the brim. He hasn't quite figured out the fluid dynamics that further cause the contents of the water when in motion in the cup to keep moving at a constant velocity (Newton's First Law) while he comes to a screeching halt as he hands you the cup. It is a slight threat to your key board, or any other surface near or on you, which might prefer not being doused in water. Anything that he is asked to fill, he fills, but not out of greediness. It is more so out of the spirit of how fun it is to fill things up to capacity and see whether we can squeeze in one more grain of sand, drop of water, or squirt of glue. It's the process of filling that delights him. If, after pouring a gallon of syrup on a pancake you ask if you may eat his pancake, he takes the same delight in giving that he does in filling. It's yours buddy!!! He would give the shirt off his back, if he thought you wanted it... and never look back in regret.
I finally did solve the syrup, shampoo, etc pouring problem. I instituted a 1/4 cup measuring cup in the bathroom. He pours his shampoo into that (and yes, it spills over a tad, just for good measure), and that is all the shampoo ... and later bubble bath... he gets for the day. Ditto for the syrup. We have a 1/4 cup measuring cup at the breakfast table, and that suffices for the pancakes. That same principle, BTW, is applicable for Ranch dressing on salads. (Why did it take me 6 years to figure this out? I must be more developmentally delayed than I tend to give myself credit for!!)
We're ready for the new year, armed with an electric Spider-man toothbrush, new shirts and ties and pants, and mighty generous spirit which not only is great at saying thank you to everyone he comes in contact with, but which is perpetually cheerful, excepting perhaps when his two older brothers start laughing too hard, and Ben doesn't get the joke, in which case the result is a slug fest... and believe me, Ben has a mean fist :)
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