the millennium child enters double digits as some polar bears take a dip

"mom, when were you born, again...? i know it was in the 19s, but i can't remember when exactly."

these were the words that left our eldest son's mouth earlier this week as he entered his eleventh year of life. kind of makes me feel old. well, he's no spring chicken himself anymore seeing as how he now has a decade under his belt. i'm only half joking when i say that as you actually wouldn't know you were talking to a 10 year old most days upon having a conversation with the lad. jameson's grandfather labeled him jameson the wise some years ago and i'd have to say he was very perceptive in doing so.

i don't know why he seems so sage for his age (most of the time), but it might have something to do with the fact that he's the oldest kid in the family and was the only kid for the first 4 years of his life. i think it took him about six or seven years to realize that there was actually a significant age difference between him and aim and me. it also took him about that long to quit calling aim and me by our first names. it didn't bother me so much that we were all on a first name basis, but it drove other people absolutely nuts.

many of my memories of jameson as a kid are a mixture of him bouncing off the walls in various apartments throughout provo while in school and then climbing on walls in our apartment in san jose. one particular wall-climbing memory i have of him occurred one shiny afternoon when just jameson and i were hanging out at home. on this blessed day, it just so happened that i was in the laundary room switching some clothes from the washer to the dryer (there, it's been documented, i've done laundry at least once in my married life), when all of a sudden i hear a little boy's voice calling for me from the other side of the apartment to come check something out.

"hold on, jameson, i'm almost done."

but the requests kept coming... and i kept shoveling clothes from the washer to the dryer wanting to complete the task at hand before leaving to tend to jameson. after a couple of minutes, i finally finished and headed out to see what all the fuss was about only to find jameson on the other side of the apartment... but not on the ground. no, my friends, that would have been far too ordinary for this blogmaster's son... you see, instead of having his feet firmly planted on tierra firma, jameson had wedged himself between the two hallway walls, by virtue of his own strength, outside the bathroom to the point where he was perfectly parallel to the floor below him. his arms and legs fully outstretched as he was clearly applying the maximum amount of pressure on each end of his body just to keep himself afloat, if you will.

kind of fun if your a kid. i used to do it. some of you have probably done it. thing is, jameson was only 4 at the time and not only doing it approximately nine feet above ground (he'd climbed all the way up to the ceiling), but he was also unable to get down on his own because he was too high up in the air. oh, and he'd been wedged there for the 4 or 5 minutes i'd spent switching up the dirty laundry to the point where he was literally shaking and probably seconds away from falling to his death... well, probably not his death, but probably a lot of pain.

luckily, i got there in time to get him safely down so that some 5 or 6 years later we could gather together at the cooper household and celebrate the 10th anniversary of his birth. james, you're a good man and i love you.

the party was fun. pretty laid back and easy for us as parents (maybe the older they get the easier the parties get). we just had the friends over for a late night (i guess late nights are the same things that we used to refer to as slumber parties except that kids don't actually spend the night slumbering at your house, they just go home around 10 or 11) and they played games and watched a movie. we even had a fog machine, which was a special request by jameson (luckily, grandma coops had one, thanks, special k). best part of the night, though, was when jameson and his brothers each got one of those cool nerf swords as a gift (thanks, emcghee) and an absolute battle broke out upstairs consisting of slashing nerf swords, light sabers, and pirate swords.

i was downstairs when the rumble commenced, but as i ascended upwards and stumbled upon this beautiful chaos, my boyhood instincts overcame me and i had to be a part of this momentous event. as such, i set the camera down and charged forward securing my weapon of choice (green light saber) and the carnage ensued. i pretty much made short work of the novices and it was a sight to behold (aim has recorded some of it, so maybe it will show up here at some point)... weapons-a-blaze and the murky effects of fog from a fog machine simmering all around. it was rad.

another rad moment that took place in the early hours of new year's day in the form of an early morning polar bear swim i reluctantly participated in... and so did mrs. blogmaster, twice! let me just say that it was way cold and even as i sat in the throws of a bubbling hot tub, i couldn't get warm. mrs. blogmaster, being one of two women to participate in the swim, in the midst of 5 or 6 guys, dove in twice.

of course, she was so sleek and stealthy in her dive and torpedo like cruise across the pool and into the hot-tub that she minimized her actual time in the cold water. she was nothing like the rest of us neanderthals who cannon balled in and then tried to run across the pool. no, my friends, she was pretty much the female version of michael phelps but with more swimming attire than a skimpy speedo. the entire 48 hour period was a blast and, therefore, i sincerely thank everyone who had a part in it.

to say the least, the entire day was exhilarating. in fact, i'm already looking forward to next year's swim, although i'm not sure how much longer the heart of someone born in the 19s can handle the extreme temperature changes.

pics from james' party.