Kaela and Ben

Kaela and Ben make me laugh!

They're best friends, and they play so well together--but they're such opposites!

Kaela is our thinker. When she's quiet for a few minutes (which is seldom), she's trying to figure out number patterns, or how to spell big words, or what eggs do to a cake batter. We are rarely surprised anymore by her deep thoughts about the world--although we're nearly always tickled!

Ben's our feeler. The other day, he told us that he is so glad God filled his heart all the way up with so much love. At our choir concert Sunday night, apparently he whispered to Eric through the whole thing, "We are a church family. I love a church family."

Last week, when I picked them up from school, the first thing Kaela told me is, "Ashley called me a nerd." Of course, I was ready to call Ashley's teacher, mother, and Ashley herself...but Kaela knew that she should go through her "wheel of choices" for how to handle conflict, chose to ask Ashley to stop, Ashley stopped, end of problem. When she found out that real Bibles have chapters and verses, she wanted me to teach her RIGHT THEN how to look up a reference, and she's been looking things up every night since then on her own. I have no idea how she came to be so logical and sequential...but that's our girl! She reminds me when it's chorus day, when she needs to wear tennis shoes, and what days I have Site Council meetings. I don't know how I'd function without her!

On the same day, Ben's first report of the day was, "Well, Gabby is likin' me now." I asked him how he knew that, and he said, "She's just been smiling at me all day." The other night, I fixed cupcakes and he said, "Mommy, I am so in love wif you for this!!" He says at least 50 times a day, "You so sweet and funny. Mommy and Daddy and Kay-a are my best friends," or "I love you all the way up to the sky." He wakes up grinning and hugging, and goes to sleep the same way.

Tonight is typical. They're playing together in the hall. Kaela is building some elaborate contraption for how to close the doors when you're in the other room. She has them rigged up with fishing line in a system according to the frequency the doors are opened, and has an explanation for exactly why. Ben went barreling down the hall through the string, pulled himself back, looked around him, and gushed, "Wow, Kay-a! This is amazin'!! You are so good at dis, Sweetheart!"
She hugged him, told him he's her best friend in the world, and began explaining to her adoring audience how her device works.

Theirs is a beautiful friendship.