James the 8 year old

Around his birthday, I was having a difficult time summarizing James into a neatly packaged blog post update.  But in reflecting on what I would like to say about James is that he cannot be neatly packaged these days.

He is a wonder of a child and we love him so much.  He is such a wonder that it is challenging to say, "James is ___" very clearly.  It seems he is everything all at once.  Sweet, kind, thoughtful, loving, smart, persistent, funny, joyful, determined, but also whiney, frustrated/frustrating, moody, angry, dawdling, lazy, jealous, and grumpy.  While that can be said for all of us, James is who he is at all times.  You get what you get with James as -- at least when he is home -- he is nearly always very honest about his emotions and his emotional state.  It is a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions and we have found that it can take a bit of energy to roll with the tides of emotions.  His highs are awesome and his lows are sometimes difficult to weather.  Over time, I'm sure his temperament will even; for now, I simply marvel at his honest demonstration of presence. 

The main element of James is that he loves Joshua, Alma, and me to bits.  While he rarely expresses it in "I love you" form, he demonstrates it often and delights in our joy.  We all love him and don't know what we would do without his humor and enthusiasm for everything including animals, Pokemon, adventures (biking, bouldering at the climbing gym), music, cooking, and playing games. 

James has a busy schedule with Mondays at PREP (religious education class), Tuesday at Dragon Gym, Wednesdays at Chess Club, Thursdays at violin lessons, Friday with family pizzamovienight, and Saturday and Sunday mornings starting with video games with Alma.  He is excelling at school, in all of these activities, and especially with the violin as he has a natural ear for music.  It is great to see his shyness dissipate faster when he enters a new situation and how he continues to feel more comfortable speaking up for himself when needed. 

For nearly every one of his 2,993 mornings on Earth, James has snuggled with me first thing in the morning.  On school days, Joshua gets up and jumps in the shower at 6 pm while James comes trudging into our room to climb into bed next to me.  We snuggle and chat until 6:45 with Alma joining us at 6:30 for a silly conversation about a random topic (this week's topic seems to be speculating on what my songs would entail if I were a rapper and how much money I would receive for concerts).  These conversations usually make my stomach ache slightly from laughing at their inane ideas.  I'm so grateful for this time together.

I love our resident 8-year-old, who is the perfect solution to a boring day.