Name Calling

James found himself in timeout three times today for calling someone "Boo boo butt." On the spectrum of horrible name calling, this falls on the mild side, but hearing it angrily flung from my own son's mouth toward another son...sheesh...just sent a zing of horror up my spine. James was in timeout before I had even fully registered the situation.  It was a knee-jerk reaction.

Later, I overheard him talking himself down from saying it again: "Wobuht jus' a boo-...uh...me no like time outs."

So, here's the thing. At some point, they will find names to call each other that don't bother me as much as this one. Or maybe they'll discover worse ones. And they'll yell them at each other with all the passionate fury of a child been wronged. I remember a few moments like that from my own childhood, actually. Then what? I will probably look back and laugh at how uptight I was about something so minor as "boo boo butt."

Just gotta figure out where the enforceable boundary is here and my reasoning for that boundary.

I asked him to open his eyes REALLY wide so I could get a picture of those crazy-cool irises.

A real smile from my James-y

Bed head Mass-uh-you before his haircut.

Good things come in little packages. The primary kids performed a little song at our church Christmas dinner on Friday.