James has been super helpful lately. I suspect he is proving his independence as a six-year-old, but sometimes he doesn’t realize that he is not actually helping the situation, but rather making it more and more difficult for his parents to fix. However, we are slowing learning more and more patience, as James is learning to stretch his wings and help out more.

And destroy more.

Yesterday, the guys all went to Costco to load up on groceries and the when they came home, James raced out of the car and ran around to the trunk to open it. (We have a Tahoe, and he has learned how to open the trunk by watching us over and over again.)  What James didn’t account for was the shift in groceries during the course of the car ride.  As he opened the back of the car, items started falling out and an apple pie that Paul and Dave got to celebrate our first backyard bbq of the season fell out flat on the concrete.  Paul felt rage and frustration well up inside of him but before he could do or say anything, Sam looked at the mess and said, “Well, nobody is perfect!”

James felt terrible, Paul calmed down and started to pick up the mess and Sam just stood there handing out more words of wisdom. Sometimes that kid is pretty smart for a 4 year old.

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