R2 Deeter

Last week at the boy's school was the Scholastic book fair.  We attended it the night of Open House. It was a great distraction for Benji who was pretty much done with the presentation of the 3rd grade's pioneer projects about half a nanosecond after he entered the room.  While I'm not a big proponent of these book fairs (primarily because I am not a fan of paperback books), I *am* a fan of (almost) anything that gets kids excited about reading.  (For instance, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, while it may be a good book, it's more of a comic strip to me.  Drew waited with baited breath for the next book in the series to be released and then the next one and he would devour them in about thirty minutes... but that's not true quality 'reading material' in my opinion -- it's fluff.)

However, by Benji attending the book fair, I was afforded the opportunity to peruse the various displays set up by Drew's classmates and hear their oral presentations on their chosen topics.  It was amazing to see and hear all the hard word they put into these projects.  I heard all kind of reports on life in the early 1800s from being a cowboy to working in a mill and from running a general store to quilting and toys.

That was short lived, however, because soon Benji was back with his loot.  Once we were in the car on the way home, he wanted to read his new books.  Part of his new book bounty was a hardback (yay) book from Lego Star Wars.  [insert geekish mom grin here]

You see, much to my delight, over the last several weeks Benji has eeked into the the Star Wars phase of wonder and amazement.  He is completely enamored with Lord Vader.  So much so that I'm teaching him to say, "Come to the dark side.... we have cookies" to his older brothers.

Photo credit

He has even sat still long enough to enjoy part of Return of the Jedi.  The story line is, obviously, quite over his head, although he does ask questions so it has piqued his interest.  However, right now, I'm just enjoying the fact that he loves it!  Fast forward to last night... he was stalling getting ready for bed at the bookshelf.  He would pull out a book from the two or three shelves containing his books and decide that wasn't "the one" and slowly push it back.  After about the tenth one, as I impatiently stood there waiting for him to find "the one," I remembered that I had moved ALL of our Star Wars books over to another shelf.  I pulled out this little gem... and that was all she wrote!  Bingo!  Ding!  Ding!  Ding!  Winner winner chicken dinner!

Not only did we have a winner, but also, during the course of reading it, he proclaimed "I love this book.  It's my favorite." He flipped through each page stopping only to ask for help identifying characters or words he wasn't familiar with.  Initially, he wanted to read it to me but only "if you cwal up on my bed."  I leaned on the wall by his headboard as he opened the first page of this board book with complete excitement.  He just knew this was going to be a fantastic book.  It was pure delight for me to watch him take in everything on each page as he continued.  "A" is for Anakin.  "B" is for... Boba Fett (he knew this one).  "C" is for C3P0... and we proceeded through the alphabet.  Then you get to C's little buddy and yes, my friends, that is where "R2 Deeter" comes into play.  I love his Benji-isms.  I have to capture this on video, but in the event I'm unable to, I have this little nugget saved right here for eternity.  "W" is for "shew-baka."  We explained he is a wookie but his name is Chewbacca.  

The full genuine smile painted on his face was enough to make my heart burst.  It was a good day.  These are the moments that I truly love the little person he's becoming more and more.