Fear the Buggy Man!

We took a family trip to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum today and had a great time! The highlight of the day was the paper airplane flying contest. There was a class of eighth graders and their teachers participating, but Carlie and Jay Allen jumped in there, too. They both did a great job in the first couple of rounds and then Carlie's paper airplane missed the target just a little bit and was out. She immediately went to Jay Allen and whispered encouragement in his ear and coached him on through the next three rounds. Jay Allen won each round and was the overall winner! If you think he was intimidated by the young teenagers he was competing against, I will tell you that I turned around in time to see him stick his tongue out and taunt all the eighth graders who were out of the competition when they were cheering one of their classmates who was still in. Jay Allen hates losing and he loves winning and that was obvious to all who saw him today. I am just glad he didn't bring any of his Taekwondo into the airplane competition. I don't know where he gets that competitiveness, but he showed some great focus and concentration. The young man running the competition was a former Navy Petty Officer who was quite impressed - he said that he had never seen a kid that young win or do that well. I told Jay Allen to let the "instructor" know that he used a Jumpmaster eye to make that winning airplane, but he decided against taunting the instructor, too (good call).

An Early Thanksgiving

I just wanted to share a short post and some pictures from our great Thanksgiving with friends. The past two Thanksgivings have been wonderful - 2007 with our family and one of our friends from GA. 2008 with the friends in the DC area and a different friend from GA:-) Each one of those people represent our reasons to be thankful and we are.
Now to the pictures!

The Potty Train runs off the Rails

This post is intended only for parents of children who are potty training or have completed potty training and have one of these stories of their own. This story is not intended to discourage young couples considering children or expectant mothers (sorry, P).
On Veteran's Day, I was hanging out with all three of my children in our basement. They were all playing together great, with the occasional run to the kitchen for a snack. I did not notice (in time) that James had been gone on a snack run for a little longer than required, but no worries, Cammie was in the kitchen or close by to monitor his snack selection, or so I thought. Cammie was actually upstairs and James was unattended.
Just as I asked the big kids where James was, he appeared at the bottom of the basement steps. I won't describe every detail of his appearance, but he had on a shirt, no pants, and had his hands extended in the air. The image before me was hard to process and to fill in for the missing details, I will tell you what I said. "Boy! I hope you have had your hands in chocolate!"
He had not. I grabbed the child known as BIG MUG by the arms and raced up two flights of stairs screaming for his mother. When Cammie saw us coming, she starting barking orders to me before I even got there.
"Get me the wipes. Get me a towel and some soap. Get James a diaper."
I tried to comply with her orders, but remember, I had just run up two flights of stairs carrying a 40lb kid - holding him in a very controlled position. After I caught my breath, Cammie had Big Mug in the tub cleaned up and recovered. Cammie was interrogating him on how this had happened while I went looking for the missing diaper. To get the right mental picture of me looking for this diaper, think of a Scooby-Doo cartoon where the gang is looking for a villain, but fully expecting the villain to scare them to death when they find him.
For those of you who read my last post, you know that James just received recognition for his progress in potty training. Being the aggressive kid he is, James was trying to progress even further - maybe further than he was ready for. When I got to the downstairs bathroom, I discovered that James had gone potty like a big boy successfully, but the paperwork had gone haywire. His attempt to clean up went from bad to worse and that is when he came to get me to help.
I know that only fellow parents understand this, but we claimed the whole episode as a success. James had continued to progress on "The Potty Train", the diaper was found in the bathroom, and I got a great cardio workout in. And in addition, we have yet another great story to tell our grandchildren one day:-)

Front and Center!

Anybody who has been in my home knows there are many clues that we are an Army family. There are various bugle calls that sound from my computer; the Mail Call sounds whenever an email arrives, and To the Colors and Retreat sounds at bed time. There are also punishments handed down from the BCFJ (Benefield code of Family Justice), PT sessions, and some hand to hand combat (also known as 'rasslin).
There is one area I had been a little negligent in. The awards system in the Benefield family was limited to a POB (pat on the back) and an occasional ice cream cone. I decided to fix this, so last Monday evening, my computer sounded assembly (click on any of the Bugle calls to hear them play) and I lined up the whole family in order of seniority.
To James, for his efforts in potty-training, he was awarded an Official Army Brat Coin.
To Jay Allen, for his exceptional performance in Tae Kwon Do, he was awarded an Official Army Brat Coin.
To Carlie, for her academic achievement that earned her student of the week honors, she was awarded an Official Army Brat Coin.
To Cammie, for running this family circus as smoothly as anybody could, she was awarded an Official Army Spouse Coin.
And there was special recognition to them as a family for again being without Dad during the holidays (for the third time in their young lives).
This concluded the first Benefield Family Awards Ceremony.

All Saint's Evening

Here are pictures of our two Hulks and our Pumpkin Princess. Nothing very scary here, but I had a horrifying costume that I wore Friday night - a 2008 Hillary Clinton Hat! At least, I thought it was scary. Considering who is leading in the polls right now, the Hillary hat actually wasn't scary at all, but it was definitely a costume that caused people to give me a double take. Even people who just met me couldn't believe that my hat really said Hillary 2008.
I wore the hat to dinner with my brother Friday night and now, he will spend the next three months explaining to people in his hometown who the guy in the Hillary hat is:-) That is not as good as me telling all his friends that he turned forty this year and making my younger brother two years older than me, but it was still a good one. Of course, my brother is a police officer and I can expect to be pulled over and hand cuffed by one of his buddies next time I make it to town:-)
You should also know that only three of these children are ours and the extras belong to our neighbors. Some of you who we are reconnecting with have been having kids so fast that we have lost count (Sechrists), but we are holding at three.