Yeah, it really is about the kids.

We've had snow since arriving, but yesterday was absolutely perfect.  It was light, fluffy and warm all day so the snow today was wet and sticky.  I was in town for a bit and when I got back to the farm Christine and the boys had just moved outside to build a snowman.  I grabbed a bowl of soup, returned a call from my sister, then went outside to join them. While the snowball fight was going on, Grampie George hopped in the big blue tractor and built us a snow hill.  Christine and I took a few slides down the side to create a couple of reasonably solid tracks, then turned it over to the experts. And tonight, partway through story time Daniel interrupted me to tell me:  "Daddy?  I love snowball with you and Mama and James."

This one is by request. James and I were out on a supply run yesterday.  Drug store for toothpaste and the like.  It wasn't too busy with the Christmas Shopping Living Dead yet so I was doing okay.  At the check-out the cashier was positively sunny: Cashier:  Hi guys! How are you doing?  James:   <mumble mumble> Cashier looks curiously at me and I shrug.  So she tries again. Cashier:   How are you guys doing? James:   <mumble mumble mumble> She gives me another look and I smile at her to give her a bit of encouragement, so she gives it one more try. Cashier:  Are you guys having a good day?  James  (brightly) :  On Saturday my butt threw up! You can probably figure out the context.  I'm going to leave it like I left that other one .

A couple of weeks back I made my shredded pork for the first time in probably seven or eight years.  I planned to make it sufficiently mild that the boys might have some too and just add my own spice to it when I was assembling my wrap / sandwich / whatever.  Then, wandering through the grocery store, James spied a package on the shelf and so we came home with a dozen fresh jalapenos. I sliced most of them up but a couple of them I decided I'd eat whole.  James was so fascinated by this that I decided to play it up for him a bit.  By the third meal of this it'd become a ritual and even Daniel was getting in on it.

Last night I went upstairs right around midnight to check on James and take him to the bathroom, because he's still not great at waking up in the middle of the night to pee.  He's always been a sound sleeper — I frequently joke that while he has a hard time falling asleep, once he's out I could pick him up by his ankles and move him from one bed to the other and he'd never wake up — and that works against him in having a dry night, so I'm usually staying up until 11pm or later to help him out. Last night. I carried him to the bathroom and had him sitting on the toilet.  He was clearly in that semi-sleep state, then, as clear as a bell, this exchange happened. James:  Dad?  Me: Yes, James?  James:  You can't hear them, but I do.  Me: ... I'm out.

As most of you know, Christine was out of the country from October 25th through November 4th.  The boys and I drove to the maritimes to meet her and her dad when they returned on November 4th, but that's a story for another time.  If ever.  Seriously.  I drove with both boys in the car for eleven hours as the only adult(-ish type person) and there's actually very  little to tell.  I literally cannot imagine how the trip could've gone more smoothly. Anyway.  While she was away I kept things both as normal as possible for the boys (despite they were now functioning in essentially a single-parent home) and as busy for them as possible.  The latter so they didn't have time to (a) get bored and drive me insane and (b) ask a lot of questions about where mom was and when she was coming back and why she had to leave and such. The plan worked flawlessly.  Up to and including when I had my friend, Paul, come over on Hallowe'en night to hand out candy while I took James an

The light switch in our bathroom has been failing.  Since I've never cared for these switches anyway, I decided to take the opportunity to replace this: with this: And since I had James help me when I replaced the light and fan switch in his bathroom with the one that includes the built-in LED nightlight, I convinced him to help me with this project. Before we started, though, I thought I'd prepare him for what we were going to do. Me:  So, buddy, here's what we're going to do.  We're going to turn off the power, because we're working with electricity and we need to be careful so we don't get a shock or get burned, right?  James:  Right.  Me:  And we're going to be very careful each step of the way so we don't hurt ourselves because we're also going to be working with the wire-cutters and very heavy-gauge wire, right?  And if we're not careful, we might get a cut from the wire.  James (cheerily):  Or a scar!  Me:  Yeah,

James is such a sensitive kid, he honestly makes me want to cry sometimes, because of just how earnest and concerned he gets about some things.  And then he can turn it on a dime and make me want to laugh or scream (or both). Tomorrow Christine is out golfing for the day, so it's just us guys. Today James and I were driving over to St. Laurent and on the way he recognised the part of town we were in and we had this exchange: James :  Dad?  Me : Yes bud?  James :  I love SkyZone .  Me ( thinking ):  Yeah, it's pretty cool, huh?  We should go there again sometime.  James :  Yeah!  Like tomorrow.  Me ( thinking, but cautious now ):  Yeah ... I'll look into that. But in this case that really just meant, I would take a couple of hours to dread what might happen when it's time for us to go and I have to chase Daniel, screaming, across a freakin' warehouse with trampolines instead of floors then drag him out of there to the amusement of all the other par

Yup.  Back to school day for James.  First day of senior kindergarten.  I was golfing today, so I got home late, but James was, of course, still awake, so I went in to his room to hear about his day. Me : Hey buddy, did you have a good day at school today? James: Yeah.  Me : Are your teachers nice?  James : Yeah.  Me : Do you like your class?  James (considering): Not everyone shares.  Me : Oh really?  James (brightening): Yeah!  But at daycare we share.  Me : That's right. But, y'know, not everyone at school goes to daycare, so they're probably not all good at sharing yet. But they will be.  James : Martin doesn't share.  Me : Give him time, I bet he'll learn to share.  James (happy now): But Noah shares!  I love  him! He says bathroom words and makes me laugh!  Me (chuckling a little): Oh yeah?  James : YEAH! He says "poop" and "pee" and "toilet" and "chocolate tornado"... For the record, Ja

This week James is back at daycare after two weeks at his swimming camp.  He had such a good time with the swimming camp we signed him up for another two weeks in August, because, really, there's no way to lose here.  He loves it.  It's good for him.  If he turns his swimming into a sport he does all his life, it's a pretty good one.  So, yeah, we're doing a lot to encourage that. But this week, he's back to his daycare.  Christine dropped him off on Tuesday (because Monday was the civic holiday here and while she had to work us guys stayed home and spent about four hours in the pool on the deck).  She said as soon as he was in he ran into Lizzie and this exchange ensued: James : I love you, Lizzie! Lizzie : Why do you love me? James : Because I do. Upon which Lizzie went and collected a picture she had drawn and written her name on and gave it to him.  He turned to Christine and told her she had to take it home and put it on the fridge, but first she had to

Yesterday I got up with the boys, we had a quick breakfast, then made for the Agriculture Museum at the experimental farm. We were there a little over two hours, but never made it off the play structure, which isn't all that usual.  It's a very nice structure.  There's several slides, a net-bridge, all kinds of ramps and steps and catwalks and such, all barn-themed, of course. The hit this time, though, was the silo, which happens to have hand and foot holds cut into one side so kids can climb up in the interior.  The boys moved in and basically didn't want to move out for much of the time we were there.  Although, to be fair, right now Daniel wants to do whatever James wants to do 90% of the time, no matter what it is James wants to do.  But James was sold on the silo being fun, so Daniel was too. They were pretending it was the tower from Paw Patrol for a lot of the time.  The cows in the barn were being very  loud, so they were pretending to be the pups

Yesterday was James first day at his summer swimming camp .  We were both more than a little concerned about how well he would do with it because it requires a significant amount of independence and the regular message we had been getting from school (and what we observe ourselves, obviously) is that he's easily distracted, hears fine but doesn't listen well and generally has no problem doing whatever the heck he feels like doing when he feels like it, rather than working with someone else's schedule. Contrast that with what happened when he came home from his first day at camp yesterday.  He did great, the councillors said he did really well with paying attention and following direction and that he was swimming at an intermediate level.  More importantly, though, he absolutely loved  it.  I asked him if he had a good time at camp and he replied. "No, no!  I had an AWESOME time!  I love swimming camp thiiiiiiiis much." While holding his arms as wide as he co

I'm not posting this on Facebook, as I frequently do the others.  If you're reading this, it's because you're snooping around on my blog, I suppose.  That's okay, but know that this blog ultimately isn't for you, it's for me.  I'm writing down all of this stuff because I think it's good for me.  And maybe someday it'll be good for the boys to read it, too. The reason I'm saying all of this is because this one isn't going to be easy for any of us and if you want to feel good and smile, go look at the other story I posted tonight Still I Fly .  It's just as real and will almost certainly make you smile. Really, if you aren't maybe a 30-year-old James, you probably want to skip this one.  It's a time-capsule for him because I can't tell him now what I really think and by the time I can ... that's a lot of years down the road. Go read Still I Fly .

This one's adorable. Recently Daniel has had a renewed interest in both Dusty Crophopper and  Planes: Fire and Rescue  the movie.  Around his birthday it was all he would talk about, but recently he'd found other things that were fun, too.  Something happened recently, though, and now he's back to Dusty and Fire and Rescue nearly all the time. For his birthday I found an orange Dusty that would float and could play in the bathtub with him.  It was the same size as the standard Hot Wheels 1:64 cars (which would make it, what, maybe 1:128? I don't know what the actual dimensions are for a Cessna, which is what I think Dusty is, but it's certainly bigger than a Corvette or whatever).  That was his absolute favourite at the time, he couldn't eat without it, he couldn't sleep without it, he couldn't go in the car without it, it was almost more important to him than his cars blanket. The relationship soured, though, when all that love resulted in

Bear with me here.  And try not to jump ahead. ... that Daniel. He used to love  brushing his teeth.  Then something happened.  We have no idea what it was but now we are living in the world of a full-on tantrum nearly every morning and night when it's time to brush our teeth. The night before last we had wrangled everyone off their beds after fighting the inevitable – and inexplicable – fights and reading a bounty of stories I bet would be the envy of a lot of kids out there.  All seemed good. The next morning I was getting dressed and concluded that I might wear a belt for a change.  So I went to the as-yet-nearly-unused drawer under my side of the bed to fetch one of the belts I've collected over the years. By now I'm sure everyone's already connected "A" and "B" in this story, so I'll jump right to it. This seems to be Daniel's latest solution to the tooth-brushing problem.  We can't brush his teeth if we can't f

For Christmas this year Mamoo gave Christine (and, as we'll see in a minute, the boys) a bird-feeder.  We used to have one in our old place and I liked it, but not long before we moved it suffered a catastrophic failure and it made a rapid descent two stories to the concrete patio below.  The patio was fine. Last week I picked up a 91" shepherd's hook that had a lot of positive reviews around the subject of using it as a bird-feeder hanging device.  It arrived on Thursday and yesterday I enlisted James and Daniel's assistance in setting up the hook and feeder.  James and I went out first thing in the morning and picked out the food we would put in it.  James only wanted to pick food that had pictures of cardinals on the front, which was fine with me because I want to attract cardinals again, we used to have a couple in our backyard but I didn't see them last year; plenty in the neighbourhood, though.  Anyway, we got back, both boys helped me set it up and then I

Quick one because I don't have much time this morning. I was preparing James' lunch today as I do most days.  Nothing unusual about it.  The last thing I do is fill up his water bottle and pack it in his back-pack beside his lunch bag.  Today his bottle had water in it from last night, so I had to drain it first.  I opened it up and just happened to look inside.   What the hell?  thinks I. I poured out yesterday's water and saw this. I know that guy, his name is Baby Spider.  Didn't know he was aquatic.

A genuinely quick one tonight, because, really, every single word I put down here will only diminish the effect. The week before last I picked James up after school and drove west (this is relevant) to the rec centre where he has his Friday swimming lessons.  It was a sunny day and I made some comment about how the sun was really bright.  James started free-associating based on that.  The sun is a star.  The sun is really bright.  The sun is in our eyes. Then he hit on it. James: The sun is like a big, giant eye ! I did not laugh.  At least I don't think I did.  But my mind instantly  went somewhere I knew his hadn't. Since then we've occasionally talked about the sun and he has been regularly associating the sun with being a giant eye in the sky.  Mildly unsettling, but still hilarious. Then I found this picture he drew today in school: Strikingly similar to but (I hope) legally distinct from... This is absolutely  going on the wall of my office where

I might've written about this one before, I know I've told the story before, but a quick search of the two relevant blog archives didn't turn up anything, so if I'm repeating myself, please indulge me a bit. Christine and I finished putting together cupcakes for Daniel's not-a-birthday-party tomorrow.  Well, I say "finished" but they're not quite finished.  The finishing touch goes on tomorrow.  Tonight we laid down turf (green frosting), railroad ties (without ballast ... I know, I know) and rails on the tops of the cupcakes.  There will be pictures tomorrow once we place the engines on their tracks. Anyway, so I've been thinking a lot about trains and tracks tonight.  Then I came downstairs to clean up a little bit and spent maybe fifteen minutes working out how to build a couple of circuits from the pieces of Duplo train tracks we have on the play-table in the basement. That inevitably reminded me when we came into possession of these part

Three years old today.  Wow.  He's been super  attached to Percy  in pretty much every form lately, so we got him a new Percy for the wooden railway.  This one doesn't talk ( those are apparently rare as hen's teeth now and more than double the MSRP), but it does make engine noises when the wheels move, and that's pretty darn good by Daniel's reckoning. We asked him what we wanted for supper tonight when we got up this morning.  He might  have thought for a full second before he announced happily, "Cake!" Alright, so we are doing cupcakes for a little play-date we're hosting for him in lieu of a full party on Sunday, but that's two days away, we can't make him wait that long after such a clear and simple request.  So Christine made him a Percy cake. Or at least the best she could do with no special cake-pan, no fondant and essentially no notice.  I thought the result was pretty good considering that's 100% butter-cream frosting

Last Friday night James was pretty sick.  He seemed fine at swimming, tired at supper (but easy to explain because he always goes all out at swimming) and by 11pm he had a fever of 100.7°F.  So that was how last weekend went, James and Christine stuck around the house an I kept Daniel out and amused. By Tuesday it seemed like business as usual, except by 10am Daniel had a fever and had to come home from daycare.  Daniel's fever didn't last very long, he seemed to be more-or-less himself by late afternoon, but I took Wednesday off and the two of us just hung out for the day. So in the morning we went out to the Nature Museum  in the morning (the biggest hit was the dinosaurs, even though that exhibit doesn't have a play area the way some of the other exhibits do) and in the afternoon we settled down in the theatre to watch a movie. Partway through the movie Daniel snuggled up to me and started nuzzling my shoulder.  I swear I thought it was the cutest thing ever.  I sa

I haven't written one of these for a while.  There's a reason for that but nothing I'm going to write down.  Either I (or whomever reads this after me) will remember when revisiting it, or I won't and it doesn't matter either way. So today is Family Day  in Ontario (and something like 2/3 of Canada, I guess?  B.C. seems to have had theirs last week, for example, I don't think QC has one at all ... I don't pretend to have any idea how different provinces deal with such things) and I've been planning for this one for a while now. It was a little touch and go because James had the flu this weekend, he was in very  rough shape on Friday night and most of Saturday, but Daniel and I mostly kept to ourselves and today all seemed quite well.  Actually, today was a really good day for it, too, because it was not nearly as wickedly cold as it has been (-33 °C yesterday when Daniel and I were heading out of the house) but it's the warmest now it's been