Some things are best left unsaid

Wow, we went back-to-school shopping today and probably spent about a hundred smackers on notebooks, paper, pencils, blah blah blah. One of the things James selected, that was not on his list, was a new ruler. He just really liked this neat little bendy one, and whatever.. in for a penny, in for a pound! Plus, ya know, maybe he'll measure stuff and do some math 'n' stuff.

So we got home, and I asked James to bring it up to his room. He came back down, hollering for Daddy, and I told him he was outside, what did he need? He said, "that ruler would be really good for spanking.. it hurts!". I asked him, ".. and you wanted to let Daddy know that? You sure about that?". It didn't take him more than a few seconds to pick up what Mommy was laying down, and he replied, "oh. no."

The adventure never ends

So James is home "sick" today. He apparently threw up at camp yesterday, and even though he seemed perfectly fine otherwise, he insisted he was still sick today, and I didn't want to be that mom who makes her kid go to camp the day after he threw up and have him do it again.

Pain in my..... as is his wont, unless he's on Death's door, even if he really is sick he'll bounce off the damned walls. When he's fine, as I suspect he is, he's a friggin' mess. He's not been too terribly bad today, but it's like he WAITS until I'm on a phone call (the only work call of the day!) to lose his mind! I finally finish up, send him to his room to clean it, while I hop on one more quick call...

.. which is interrupted by James running into the room saying "I think I swallowed a Lego!". I excuse myself from the call, and ask him, "are you sure? what kind? how big?". Turns out it was a 2-dot block, and all of a sudden he says "I'm scared" and bursts into tears. I console him a little bit, and explain, "that Lego is going to go on quite an adventure".. and I explain how it's eventually coming out. Then he says in this sad little voice, "I wanted to play with it".

This too, shall pass... (haha.. get it?)

Young love

James has a crush. Her name is Maggie, she's a little bit older than him, and she lives down the street. She's cute as a button, and she holds her own with the boys (probably part of the appeal).

This boy cannot WAIT to get home and see if Maggie wants to play! And of course, she always does, because James seems to be alot of fun, too! They are awfully cute! Yesterday they were taking a milk break, and James told her, "you look like the Mona Lisa... the Mona Lisa With Milk!". Have you ever heard anything that smooth?

James told me last week that Maggie was his girlfriend. I asked him if he'd told her that, and after thinking about it for a minute, he confirmed that he had not. My suggestion to him was that he do so, since she might want a say in the matter!

Last night he informed me, "I told Maggie that I loved her". He seemed a little unsure about having done that. I asked him, "what did she say?". "Nothing. She didn't say anything". I let him know that his daddy pretty much did the same thing when I first professed MY love, so it's not that unusual! I said, "you might have surprised her when you told her that, and maybe she just needs to think about it.". He seemed ok with that, but you could tell that this was a big deal for him, it's like he knew what a big step it was to tell a girl that you love her. Wow.

Cub Scout Camp

Summer just gets better and better for the J-Dog. First 4H camp, then a week of Y camp, then Cub Scout Camp! A whole week of armpit farts, burps, shooting BB guns, archery, and no girls! What more can you ask for when you are a 7 year old boy?!

So pretty much every day they shot BB guns, bones and arrows (James' term), and fished. They rounded out the rest of the time with crafts, nature, and stuff like that. The only way you can actually earn your BB gun and archery belt loops is to do so at scout camp, so that's just the icing on the cake.

James was already a pretty good shot and very safe around guns, but now he also knows to ask "permission to enter the range", and he can rattle off every part of his gun. As I'm sure you can guess, that made Sterling tear up a little.

In order to sign your kid up for camp, you have to be willing to volunteer at least one day. Sterling did 2, and next year is doing the whole week. I'm sure it won't be long before he's running the place!

We finished off the week with Family Day, where we came out at lunchtime to hang out and see the camp, and then see the kids perform their skits. They are just as corny as you probably remember from your own scouting days, some things apparently never change! James was totally bummed when it was over, and is counting the days until next year!

Belated posts...

Ok, I am woefully behind on updates, so here's a twofer!

First, BEFORE SCHOOL LET OUT (yes, I'm that far behind), James' awesome teacher, Mrs. Mac, had a Pirate Day.. they were studying pirates anyway, so they totally rolled with it and had a whole themed day. Here's the pic of James on the way home (they made the earrings and got their tats in class!).

This also illustrates the other news, which is that James is currently missing about half of his teeth! He's got a real checkerboard going on there.. the top front two are missing, with one about halfway back, and the two bottom ones directly beside the very front ones are missing. He looks like a cute pumpkin! Poor thing, we had hot dogs and corn on the cob last night, and they were both a major struggle! But ya know, pirates aren't known for perfect denture.