Strange Days...

After having shared so much on this blog for so long, I am not sure what happened that made my thoughts dry up. I miss writing and am worried that I am losing great stories to a terrible memory because I don't write them down anymore.

Jman turned 7 yesterday!!!! This amazing energetic, inquisitive, comical little wild man continues to steal my heart while at the same time frustrate me to no end. He and I have an intensely passionate relationship - he adores me or he can't stand me. Oh and it can turn so quickly. We have gone through several weeks recently where anything I asked of him would set him off in his version of a tantrum. My desire when addressing his behavior is not to simply strike fear in him to stop the behavior but to really get at the heart issue. "Because I said so" does happen some times but I don't feel that is the best solution for this child. He is a people pleaser. Knowing this makes me rethink how I approach his behavior. For instance, this weekend Baba had his Spring football game. Jman and I had to find something to do for 3 hours (because we all road together) so we went to a local shopping center. As we were walking up he begs me to go look around the Build A Bear Store. I reluctantly agreed with no intentions whatsoever of making a purchase. He had already received his birthday present.

Then... we saw the Star Wars outfits and I stone cold facade was vaporized ;) However, Jman is more drawn to the military outfits (doesn't surprise me, just didn't know that would be a bigger draw that Star Wars.) Well he already has one animal, a dog with a Braves uni. that Grandma got him for his first Easter. I told him he could use HIS $$ to buy an outfit. Of course I am adding my plug for the Darth Vader outfit. Well, then silly me tells him to look at the animals and see if he can find his dog and try the outfit on the dog. Needless to say I ended up telling him I would buy the animal and he had to buy the accessories/outfit. We ended up with a camo. bear, camo clothes, a beret, dog tags, brown lace up boots, and a nice sound effect - a growl!!!





and the final product:



I really underestimated how much he and I would enjoy this. Only bad thing, Baba wasn't part of it and he really wanted to do this with him. I guess that means there will be a trip back for Darth Vader after all.....