I always said I'd never suggest it...but I was wrong!!

James is officially signed up for hockey and I'm as surprised as the next person!

I always said that I wouldn't willingly put him into it unless or until he asked us to do it. It's not that I'm against hockey, it's just that I'm not a fan of cold arenas, early mornings and expensive weekend trips away IF he decided he loved it and stuck with it (which if he shows a real interest this year then I would of course encourage him to stick with it). For the past 2 years he's been completely obsessed with playing hockey in my parents driveway and always says he wants to play on the ice, but up until now I wasn't really convinced.

Jim and I were talking about which fall activities to sign James up for we and we naturally started talking about learning how to skate. When we suggested skating lessons to James he seemed really into it. I started looking into it some more and was shocked to discover that CanSkate registration was considerably more expensive than hockey was. And that was only for 12 weeks! At least hockey goes for almost double that amount of time and even with the cost of used equipment it's still very reasonable. So, we asked him what he thought and he decided that yes he wanted to try out hockey, even though right now he can't skate at all. We've told him that if he commits to it he has to stick with it for the season and even understanding that he wants to do it...so we're going with it. At least 3 of his little buddies from school are in the same league which I think is helping (or in my case, hurting) our cause. We'll see how he feels when he has all of the pads on and is on the ice in his skates for the first time! I'm sure there will be many pictures to come!

Here he is signing his part of the parent/player contract.

Don't forget to come in and snuggle with me...

James says this to me probably at least 3 nights per week. And every time I make my way up the stairs to go to bed and I am about to climb onto his bed for the requested snuggle I ask myself...

....how much longer will be ask me to do this for?

I realistically know and expect that in the next year or two he will stop asking and I'm okay with that, but I will be sad when he does stop asking altogether. Until that time, I'm going to go in and get my extra snuggles...even on some nights that he doesn't ask for them, because sometimes Mommy just needs them too!

Can something really be too handsome??

Last Friday, on James's first day headed off to school for a half day we were getting ready in his room discussing his clothes for the day.

Side note: James rarely cares what I lay out for him. He almost never refuses and has been know to say to me "Mom, just lay out whatever you want me to wear today." I can admit that for the control freak side of me that likes my kids to match I like it this way (and yes I know I'm lucky...and that these days are likely coming to an end soon!)

Back to the clothing discussion. I pulled a shirt out of the closet and instead of saying, "here put this on," I asked him what he thought of it.

Here's him in the shirt I suggested. He also happened to be wearing those shorts that day too so I figured it was a great outfit for a first day of school. 

The next thing I knew he flat out refused to wear the shirt and when I asked him why he literally said to me "because Mom, it's TOO handsome of a shirt for today"

I just started laughing and said "WHAT?" He insisted to me again that it was just TOO handsome for school that day and that he had to wear something else.

So, I let him pick a shirt instead.

This is which one he chose! Apparently Frankenstein isn't handsome at all so it's totally an appropriate shirt for school. The only bad thing was that by the end of the afternoon when I went to pick him up it was smoking hot outside and the poor guy was sweating up a storm running around on the playground with his friends. He ended up taking it off and walking home in an undershirt (YES, he also insisted on wearing an undershirt too!)

Apparently once he felt that the shirt I picked would be TOO handsome there was no way I was going to be allowed to do his hair because as soon as I tried to brush it I was told very sternly that "NO, Mom, you are making it too handsome! I do not want it spiky!" All I was trying to do was flatten it down because he desperately needed a hair cut!

Oh James, your personality is shining and showing even more now than it ever has (which is scary because you've had a wonderfully crazy personality for years now!). I love you big guy!

My funniest FB statuses in months!

On the morning after our busy first day of school/daycare Jordan woke up in a particularly terrible mood and was acting like a very typical 2 year old.

Here was my first FB status of the morning, at 6:47am
You know it could be a long morning when your 2 year old is awake before 6am and has his first timeout at 6:45! I wish you the best of luck today Theresa with this butthead! I hope he's in a better mood for you than he is for me!

He was awake at 5:55 and we had to get him up because he was yelling and I just knew he would wake up James if we didn't go in and get him and the last thing I wanted was a tired and cranky James! Jordan was whiny and cranky from the second his feet hit the floor and his mood didn't improve much over the span of the next 2 hours. I tried everything....snuggling with him, letting him watch his cartoons, feeding him a snack...but nothing worked. Before 7am he got his first timeout for hitting me for something because he was mad and I had told him no. 

Around 7:45 when I went to sit him in his high chair to eat breakfast he absolutely refused to eat anything that I had put in front of him. He started screaming at me so I took him down and walked him over to the timeout corner where he proceeded to scream his little head off some more (I'm sorry to our neighbours!). It was at this point that my always very observant and opinionated James came out with two of the funniest things he's ever said before.

Here is my FB status from just before 8am 
In the middle of Jordan's second screaming time out of the morning James says to me from the dining room while he's eating his breakfast "man, I would kick his butt if I was an adult!" Followed up by "I would drop kick him right out of the house!" Hahahahaha I'm glad I was in the kitchen and he couldn't see my face!

When I posted it my brother commented that he figured my mother had taught him that but I can easily admit that that was definitely Jim and I. We have used the phrase "drop kick you through the goal posts of life" maybe a time or two! :)

hahahahaha....kids really are ALWAYS listening! These kids definitely keep me on my toes!

Here is Jordie "talking" to someone on the iPod while laying on the cars table in the living room

And here he is after climbing up onto James's bike. he really just wanted to ring the stupid bell over and over...and over again!

Morning snuggles, playground kisses & dinner dance parties

Over the past few days James has said and done a few really adorable things that I want to make sure to write here so I have them saved for memories sake. I feel like now that he's in school full-time that there is going to be so much less time for these kinds of memories to be made at home. Before I know it he will be coming home with funny stories from school that I can share on here too (until he tells me he doesn't want me to anymore!) So, here they are!

Morning Snuggles
On Sunday morning when it was Jim's morning to sleep in I was pleasantly surprised when the boys didn't get me up until just before 7. I know I heard James first around 6:30 but then he was quiet so I thought he went back to sleep. When we got up I asked him if he had gone back to bed so he didn't wake up his brother and he said to me "No Mommy, he was awake too so I asked him if he wanted to climb into B's bed and have a snuggle until we could get up at 7"

I have no idea how long exactly their snuggle lasted but either way it melts my heart to know how much they love each other. Jordan was so excited and gave me the biggest smile when I asked him if James had let him snuggle in the big bed this morning. He loves his "B" more than anyone else in the whole world.

Here is a picture of them snuggling on James's air mattress at the cabin a few weeks ago

Playground Kisses
On Monday my mom was set to pick up James from school at 11:30 I decided to take a coffee break and run down to say hi and give my boys hugs (I try to do that anytime I get the chance to during the day!)
I got to the school before her and because she had misplaced her keys she was running a little bit behind. By the time her and Jordan got there James was already playing tag with with 3 of his friends in the playground area. Jordan went into the playground and all of a sudden James spotted his brother and ran over to him and then this happened:

James to his friends (with his hands in a T above his head):"Guys, we need a timeout"
Me: "James, why do you need a time out honey"
James: "Because I have to say hi and kiss my brother"  (Kiss and hug given)
James: Okay, we can play again now"...and off they all ran (including Jordan!)

All of the other moms standing around us just said "aaaawww" and my heart just about burst out of my chest with pride and love for both of my boys.

*James explained that he had to call a time-out because someone else was it and he REALLY didn't want to get tagged while he stopped to see his brother! *

This was James saying goodbye to Jordan when we were leaving him for his first afternoon at school

Dinner Dance Parties
James has really started to like my country music station and has some favorite songs that he likes to dance to no matter when they come on. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, middle of the afternoon, it doesn't matter, he wants to dance!

Last night we were eating dinner and a song by Sam Hunt called House Party came on and he smiled at us and just said "may I please be excused from the table for a minute?" I heard the song and realized immediately what he wanted to do. Life is too short to miss out on dancing to your favorite songs so we of course said "sure, go ahead." So off he went.

Here he is this morning dancing to that same song (it plays a lot on the Stingray music station we listen to at home!)

He often does this to his favorite songs, all while singing along too. He told us last night that his favorite songs are House Party, Little Red Wagon, Ring of Fire (oh yeah we have the Johnny Cash version in the van and he LOVES it!) and the one he is dancing to in the video below is Life is a Highway (he fell in love with this song in the Cars movie!)

A 5 year old conversation with James

Another September has come around so it's time for the yearly conversation with James. I was surprised that a few answers were the same as last year but most were different. The last question was the one that made me laugh and smile the most. I love this kid!

I love this picture of James from the ball park this summer (although it looks like winter with the long sleeves and hot chocolate!)

September 2015
What is your full name: "Barrows, James....James Barrows"
If you could change your name what would you change it to: "B"
How old are you right now: "5"
What did you do for your last birthday: "A ninja turtle party, a twoonie party"

Your favorite things -
Snack: "Peanut butter and apple"
Drink: "Papa's juice"
Vegetable: "Carrots"
Fruit: "Apple"
TV show: "Rescue Bots" "Paw Patrol"
Movie: "Air Bud"
Game: "Sorry"
Book: "Big Cars Book"
Toy: "My ball and my glove"
Animal: "a dog"
Holiday: "Vacation" Me: no buddy, like a day that we celebrate, so what's your favorite holiday. James:  "Boxing Day"
Restaurant: "Donkersley...I mean Eddie's" Me: do you mean Moose n Eddie's? James: Yup
Color: "Blue"

What do you love best about -
Your Mom: "She's so sweet"
Your Dad: "That he plays hockey with me"
Your Brother: "That he's so cute"
Your Nana: "That she's a great Nana"
Your Papa: "That, you know, he lets me watch golf in his den"
Diesel: "That he's my buddy"

The coolest person on earth is: "Dad"

When you're outside what is your favorite thing to do: "How about you say what's my favorite thing outside at Nana's?" Me: Okay (repeat question with adding at Nana's. James: "Play hockey"

What thing are you the very best at: "Baseball"

When you were little what was your favorite thing to do: "Play"

Where would you like to go on vacation this year: "Vancouver"

What do you want to be when you grow up to be an adult: "A co-worker"
Me: a co-worker. oh? of who? what kind of co-worker?
James: "A VIU co-worker"
Me; "ohhhh you want to work with Mommy at VIU, that's cool"
Me (and Nana in the background): aaaaawwwww
James: "Yeah, so I won't be able to miss you, so I won't miss you so much"
Reaches in for a big old smoochy kiss (*Mommy's heart melted in that moment)

First week of school is done!

This handsome fellow had his first day of Kindergarten (which was really only an hour...but still it was his first time in the school as an actual student so it counts to me!) :)

And this handsome guy headed off to VIU that same day for his first morning of the Carpentry program. I wish James had been ready for school in time for us to get a picture of them together.

I know this picture is fuzzy but it's the story behind it is the best part. James has been sitting in the back row of the van for months now and when asked always says he doesn't want to move back to the middle row. On this particular day as we are rushing to take Jordie to Nana's so we could get to the school James says to me out of the blue "Mom, I want to sit in the middle again so I can hold Jordie's hand." I think he was a bit more nervous than he originally thought he would be. It was such a cute moment that I frantically moved his seat to the middle row and got him buckled in.

Here he is just about to get out at the school

And just like that he handed me his backpack and off he ran

The lighting on my camera phone was terrible, I wish I'd taken this picture with my big camera instead! Next year! 

I was trying hard not to cry!

Walking off to see his kindergarten classroom

He found Mrs. Butula's room and just looked inside for a few minutes before we headed off to the library when the kindie orientation was happening.

I love this picture of him! My favorite of the day for sure!

And walking to library he actually held my hand (again I was fighting back tears!)

Adorable son of mine

Such a big guy now in front of his school

Lukas, James and Kooper

We went into the library and he asked me if he could grab a book and sit down and read it. I laughed so hard when I saw that he grabbed a joke book...about hockey! Both very much James!

James and Katelyn's first day picture!

And James and Kooper

In the classroom now and sitting waiting for Mrs. Butula to start talking

Singing songs

Jim and I met for lunch outside the school on his second day of school. It was so nice to see his handsome face during the day and hopefully we'll get to see each other often for a quick visit.

On Thursday we went in to see Mrs. Butula for our parent/teacher/child interview. I have known Brenda for years since I was just a young kid (about a year old than James is now!) and I was really excited to hear that she was a kindie teacher at Westview and even more excited when we got the class list to see that he was in her class!

Had to take a before picture so we'll see how much he'll grow over the next year!

First day of school on Friday. James went from 12 - 2:30 and had so much fun! Here he was hugging Katelyn.

And just after he put his school supplies in the bins

Fuzzy but still cute!

Signing himself into the class by moving his name from the Out to the In side of the board

Giving Jordie hugs and kisses goodbye. Jordie kept yelling "bye B"

Sitting in his spot and checking out his name!

And we can't forget Jordie's big first week too! Here is the super cool guy all dressed and ready to head off for the day with Auntie Theresa and Kaleb.

Kisses from James

All buckled in and ready to go!

These are a few cute pictures Theresa sent me of the boys playing together nicely in the driveway

And enjoying the park too

And the next day they headed to Hernando Park and enjoyed the beach

I'm so thankful for Theresa agreeing to watch Jordie a couple of times a week for us. I think they'll have a lot of fun! 

 

Such a great first week for all 3 of my boys! This upcoming week should be fun too with James doing two more gradual entry half days before starting full-time days on Wednesday. I get the feeling that everyone is going to do really well with the changes in our life...even if I feel like I'm struggling a little bit with all of the changes these days! I guess in our family's case the boys are just better with change than their emotional Mama.