Yeah, it really is about the kids.

It's a really small one, but it made me smile again when I thought of it a few minutes ago. We were outside, the boys were playing in the snow after I'd finished shovelling the walk and James somehow got on to asking about the size of our house.  I said it was two stories tall.  To which James replied, "Or maybe three  stories!"  I responded that, well, there was a layer above our upstairs but it was the attic and since it wasn't liveable space we don't count it. James :  What's liveable space?  Me :  Parts of the house that we live in.  James :  What lives in the attic?  Me :  Nothing, bud.  Well, probably some spiders, but that's about it.  James :  AH! My favourite animal! I feel like for all my mistakes I'm doing at least something right. Finally, here's a decoration he made in school that I've hung up over my desk.  The spider part never stops moving, thanks to the air currents in the office.  It's awesome.

Christine picked up the boys today and took them to their swimming lessons.  As usual for a Friday, I had dinner on the table when everyone got home and I started asking James about his day.  I don't yet ask Daniel about his day because he usually doesn't have anything in mind to tell and since last weekend the only thing he's been talking about is Day of the Diesels , so that's that. James didn't really have a lot to say about his day but then Christine remembered the big news of the day.  The exchange went something like this: Christine :  Oh!  James!  What happened at school today?  James (brightly): We did science! (Science is frequently the highlight of his day.) Christine : No, what else happened?  When I came to pick you up?  James (serious now, fixing his gaze on me): I don't want to tell you. This usually denotes something bad, but since Christine was kind of laughing about it, I figured it wasn't too serious.  Turns out it was very