Ben, The Fly Whisperer

Oh, the little quirks that make these kiddos unique.  Take Ben for example.  We went to a potluck supper last night and during dinner, which consisted of hot dogs and cake pops, his two favorite food groups, he got up no fewer than two dozen times.  It seemed for every fifteen seconds his bottom was in the chair, he needed to spend two minutes OUT of the chair.

That is to say, Ben does not stay still often unless television or other electronics are involved.

And yet....this child came to me last month holding a Squinkies ball in his hand.

Squinkies are these little squishie toys that Molly and Ben have far too many of.  They come inside little plastic balls, kind of like the 25 cent toys you can get out of machines at the grocery store.

So Ben brings me this tiny, one inch wide plastic ball and says "Mom, I caught that fly that's been bugging you, so I can let him outside and you don't have to kill him"

And as I stared at him incredulously, he opened the back door, opened up the ball, and out flew a big fat housefly.

Over the next two weeks, as the houseflies had their 'spring season' we found more and more of them sneaking into the house.  It seemed like Ben was catching them at least once a day with his Squinkie method.

I could not believe this!  How was he doing it!??

One day I caught him in action as he stalked a pair of flies.  He just snuck up on them slowly and quietly, and somehow, though they'd hop around a bit, they didn't spook like they do when I hunt them down with my trusty flyswatter. 

 He'd just inch and inch and inch up behind them with his open plastic ball, and eventually, they'd just hop inside.  He'd close the ball and voila, they'd be trapped!

Clearly, while he still can not sit still, he is suprisingly not lacking one bit in

FOCUS

DETERMINATION

OR

PATIENCE

There you have it.  The Cesar Milan of the fly world.