Happy Birthday Jameson!

The big 8 has finally come!!
Jameson turned 8 on the 10th~ He too was counting down to his birthday with great excitement.

It is soo weird to have an 8 yr old. to shop in the big kid section...just weird.

He has been looking forward to turning 8 for the ENTIRE year. He is super exited to be baptized at the end of this mo. We have had many discussions about baptism.. the process.. the responsibility .. etc. etc. etc.

So on his Birthday we talked about him FINALLY turning 8. He kept saying he couldn't believe he is 8. And he says and now I have to be really good... "because I'm 8 now". ( what mother is going to argue with that?)
I smiled at him and said I thought he was already a pretty good kid.
His response was.. yeah.. but now I can't be all crazy.. cause I'm 8 and it will only get me in trouble. And since I'm 8 I can't make any more mistakes.
As much as I want him to practice not making any mistakes. I felt he needed to know the truth of the matter. which is simply... we all screw up. Weather we are 8 or 80. I mean I didn't want him to be hard on himself and feel full of failing guilt simply because he was an 8 yr old boy. acting like a typical 8 yr old boy would. So of course a mini discussion was had.

All day long he was incredibly well behaved and didn't bounce off the walls as I expected him to do.( it is his birthday after all.) He kept asking me if I liked it now that he is 8 and not crazy.
( I must admit I loved it,I certainly don't want to encourage crazy or bad behavior...)
I praised him for controlling his excitement... for being NICE to his siblings and being well behaved. but again reminded him I didn't not expect him to change who he was or what he was all about.. That he was already a good kid that I was proud of. But just told him to practice on making good choices with good behavior. I also told him to expect to make mistakes.. heck I still do, and daily..
He was bit shocked by that.. cause since when do grown ups make mistakes?... I smiled and said even us grown ups are still learning.

I have always loved his thought process. He truly thinks thing thru and does all he can to doto understand and do it right.

He had tons of fun and the children's museum in Chicago. He loves to build an create. Loves it! He could have spent all day screwing in bolts to pieces of wood to make a house. And trying new designs of foam airplane models to send up to the ceiling to be launched. ( really and it was a very high ceiling.. it would go up on a vertical conveyor belt and then let go and we go to see how it would come down off the drop. He actually made the best one.. helicopter style.)
He never tires from stuff like that. And he is very good at it.

On his birthday since it was the last day of spring break and a Fri. I let him have his FIRST sleepover. He invited his little buddy Kapapeli to sleep over and his friend Thomas for cake n Ice cream.
They played pretty well and were excited to get his new Nerf machine gun out and running.. we ended up gathering up all the nerf gun( we have enough to start a war..) we had. Which ended up being all the kids against Paul and I. They thought that was awesome.. Just so ya know... never make just your head available...Nerf gun bullets sting. There were a few battle wounds. ( WELTS!) But they all thought that was a blast. ( cheapest entertainment ever!)
After Thomas went home. We set up the tent in the basement. We threw on a new movie ( bed time stories.) And Kapapeli was out like a light.. so when your friend is a sleep .. turns out nothing to do makes the other kids tired too. And here I was expecting to BEG for them to go to sleep till the wee hours of the morn.HA!
I will say this . .Jameson's friend Kapapeli is the most well behaved kid I have EVER met. I mean really.. It's hard to see him as 8. when he acts so much older. ( and he's Tongan so he is soo much bigger too.) I would adopt this child anytime. Amazing!

Jameson had a great 8. Birthday.
I can't believe he's 8!( oh, wait I said that already...)
I'm proud of him.. really, really proud of him!
oh, apparently he decided he didn't need to try to hard after all to be 100% fabulous. The next day he was back to being pure Jameson.. with Pure Jameson energy& attitude. . . Just the way I like him.
Happy Birthday Buddy!