January notes

jasper loves the thomas trains.  he talks about them a lot.  one of his favorite things to discuss when Drew asks him what he wants to talk about is “trains on the island of sodor.”  I don’t know what made me think of it, but Gordon is engine #4 and Jasper is 4 … so i asked him if we should start calling him Jasper Gordon Gant since he’s 4 years old.  He thought that sounded like just about the best thing ever.  Just a sneak peak at our lives …

poor benjamin has been coughing like a fiend for about 5 days.  it’s worse at night, a clear indication of sinus drainage.  but he didn’t actually start draining externally until two days ago.  he hates the saline drops we put in his nose typically at diaper changes in the morning, at naptime and at bed.  Yesterday he lay on the floor for his naptime diaper change and started crying saying “not my nose” before i had done anything.  poor thing.  maybe he’ll eventually get to the point where he endures them as well as his nasty vitamin.  despite his cough, he’s been full of energy (except yesterday – when he was fatigued, lacked appetite and had a slight fever).  we got some dvds at the library, and today at dinner he came up to me carrying one of them saying “what’s this, mommy?” with the cover turned away from me so i couldn’t see.  i said, “i don’t know honey.”  to which he said “what’s this, mommy?”  followed only by “can we see this movie?” “no, benj. not today.” “can we see this movie?”  (let the repetitive questions begin!)  he still gives smooches anytime he can, and we’re having to repeatedly remind him that he can kiss on the cheeks not the lips.  

On Sunday, after learning about the story of Gideon and the Mideonites, all Jasper wanted to do in the afternoon and evening was play Gideon and the Mideonites – which means one person (Gideon) toots the horn and rustles the torch (both props were made in KidStuff at church), the other people (Mideonites) run, and Gideon chases them down.  Drew was doing a lot of running around on Sunday.  Yesterday, I asked Jasper to help me make chocolate chip cookies after he got up from his nap.  it was his treat since he had stayed in bed and slept for his nap.  he thought that was wonderful.  what he loved was that i have an apron that is just his size that he got to wear.  he helped me gather the ingredients and combine some of them.  i asked him to unwrap the stick of butter and put it in the mixing bowl.  his hands were a little buttery after that, and he looked around to figure out what to do about cleaning them.  when i showed him he could just wipe them on his apron, he thought that was awesome!  he also said daddy would think the cookies were yummy.  he was pumped.  he stood on a stool on the other side of the island from me, nose just inches away from the cookie sheets, watching me load them up.  at one point, when i had stepped away, i heard him ask me, “mom, can i push this down?” I looked and saw he was pointing to a little flip of the dough on one of the cookie dough rounds, so i said “sure!”  he sooooo just wanted to touch the cookies.  he could hardly wait!  when benjamin got up, it was even more precious to see the two of them on separate stools standing on the other side of the island, noses perched over the edge looking with anticipation.  today, i challenged jasper to nap without diego pants.  he peed like a racehorse before nap and woke up 2 hours later dry.  yippee!  

while they have their moments and are working on being peacemakers, they boys are the best of friends and often greet each other with screams of delight or hugs and salutations like “my sweet brother!”  we’re learning where most all of the firestations are in Austin so while we’re out and about we can swing by one of them to see if we can catch a glimpse of a fire engine.  man, jasper is still just over-the-moon about fire trucks!  thursday is a pajama party at preschool, and he’s already told his teacher he’ll be wearing his fire truck jammies.