Ben

I love this kid soo much. And I think the real reason is he is a mini Phil. All the things I found adorable in Phil, I find in him. But there are some that aren't so adorable like they both have ridiculous gag reflexes...which lead me to this story.
I took the kids on my bi-monthly all day errand trip to Ventura. As a reward, we went out to eat at their (really my) favorite place, the Habit. Now for any SoCal residents that have been in the Ventura county area can affirm that Oxnard has a funny smell. And sometimes that smell can permeate into Ventura. Yesterday it did and it may have been a raw sewage problem, I don't really know. But I do know it was strong and gross. I told the kids to quickly go inside so we didn't have to smell it. We walk the 50 steps to get just inside the front door and Ben starts dry heaving. I thought, "oh great here it comes, right inside here with all these people and I don't want to leave, I want to eat here!!!". His eyes were watering and he was being all loud about it and then he started coughing and then it subsided. I am so proud of him for taking some deep breathes and keeping it together. I think the only reason he didn't throw up was because he had no food in his stomach!!! He said to me once he had recovered, "whew.(yes, my 2 year old says whew) I thought I was going to throw up from that smell!!!" It was hilarious to me. And it's things like that that make me adore this kid.