Cheers!

At some point in the month of December, Drew taught Benjamin how to do cheers. 

I came into the kitchen one evening while Benjamin was finishing up dinner to find Drew sitting with him with the biggest grin on his face.  “Watch this!” he said.  “Benjamin, … cheers!” to which Benjamin would virtually slam his cup into Drew’s then take a sip.  Then after seeing Drew’s big smile, Benjamin looked at me with a similarly huge grin.  How cute – one of his first tricks!  I’ll post a video as soon as I find it.  Jasper loves doing cheers with Benjamin. 

Jasper is 3!

We celebrated Jasper’s birthday family-style while we were in Ohio.  But at his age Jasper has figured out what birthdays are all about, so we wanted to do it up Texas-style, too. 

While he was sleeping the night before his birthday, Drew and I decorated the kitchen, paying special attention to his new chair.  On the morning of December 1st, before Drew left for work, we let Jasper open his presents and had a fun morning together.  Jasper thought it was great! 

Of course, he still had to do his morning breathing treatment before breakfast and presents.  But, this isn’t any bother to him.  He gets to watch about 15-20 minutes of his pick of videos during the treatment.  Benjamin likes that part, too. 

 

Benjamin gave Jasper the blue flatbed he’d been asking for.  Jasper thought that was great! 

 

Here he’s checking out the flatbed to make sure it meets his high standards.  

Next up was his gift from daddy and mommy …

A Fisher Price Fire Hall, for imaginative play.

Benjamin was a happy on-looker and enjoyed his breakfast in the process.

 

Oh yeah, happy campers are we!

Jasper and Benjamin played with the Fire Hall all morning.  Benjamin particularly loved chewing on the fire hose.  

 

We already had Drew and his rescue helicopter (seen below) and were delighted to see that the Fire Hall has a helipad on top.  How fun!

After breakfast, morning playtime and nap, we met Drew for lunch.  We gave Jasper the option of where he’d like to eat and he selected “the lunch place” (aka Panera).  The sky was gray and cloudy, so I checked the weather before we left … and somehow missed the torrent of rain into which I was going to drive.  That was pretty irksome because I didn’t bring any rain jackets.  Oh well, we met Drew at the Panera close to his office (a good 30 minutes from our house) and got inside without getting too wet.  We had a fun, cozy lunch together and headed home for nap.  That night we had Jasper’s favorite meal for dinner: Nana’s special meatballs!  It was delicious!  (We’re all fans.)

On Saturday, December 5th, we had a little Cars-themed party with Jasper’s friends. 

Luke & Ellie and their family came.  Two of Jasper’s Z-named girl friends were in attendance: Zeren and Zaylin.  Brooklyn and Annabella came with their mommy, and the Burchfields blessed us, too.  Miss Mallory came early and played a pivotal role in getting the party off the ground and keeping it well-attired.  She was our tattoo artist.  :) 

We cleared out the living room for plenty of play room for the kids.  The tent was a HUGE hit with everyone taking turns going in there for secret hiding time.  We had Rudy’s BBQ for lunch, and then all the kids decorated their own cupcakes.  It was great!  They all loved being independent and creative.  Those who are sugar-starved showed the most vigor, but all the kids had a blast! 

Ellie was very precise with her decoration.  She decorated a cupcake for Drew, too.  It was lovely. 

Luke was having fun decorating, too!

 

Jasper is getting into the decorating spirit.

Annabella is heating things up!

Jonathan has his hands full with Cayenne and Paisley (but I don’t know which is which!)

 

Big sister Zaylin LOVED the frosting on her cupcake.

 

Brooklyn created a masterpiece!

Jasper got … messy

Benjamin thought the cupcakes were delicious, too!

 

Mallory and Mark sharing a laugh.

Zeren, Ellie and Annabella are staying busy on the far side of the table.  Zeren totally covered the top of her cupcake with blue sprinkles.  Teri’s initial reaction was to say “Zeren!”  She looked up at Teri with worry in her face, but Teri quickly adjusted and said “that’s beautiful” and Zeren was immediately pleased.  It was precious!  

Parents and kids alike enjoyed the cupcakes.  The recipe is from Magnolia Bakery in NYC – one of the more famous and popular cupcake bakeries in the country.   Their vanilla-vanilla recipe is delicious!

Before he left, Zeren’s dad Mike sweetly offered to take a photo of our entire family.  Hyped-up on sugar but ready for naps, we all had a good time!

T is for Teething, Too!

The week upon our return from Ohio (after Thanksgiving), Benjamin was a bear!  Our normally happy-go-lucky little one was off-the-charts cranky!  After having our shoulders bit for a day or two (picture Benjamin lunging at us with mouth open wide!) and seeing the drool faucet turn out “loud” (as Jasper calls it), we figured he must be cutting new teeth.  The only thing is … we couldn’t see any new teeth coming in.  It wasn’t for lack of looking.  It was for not looking in the right spot!  I don’t know why this is, but with his front 8 teeth firmly established, the next to come in are not right next to the existing ones, but one spot over – further back in his mouth.  I felt like a veterinarian pushing up his gums (much as one does on a horse – but not a gift horse, of course!) and there was tooth #9 coming in on top on the right.  Poor kid!  This has been the first really painful tooth to come in. 

Tooth #10, the compliment on top has also recently come in (around Christmas).  With all the pain associated with these eruptions, brushing his teeth is a dangerous proposition.  You have to hold the fingertip brush lightly and not let your finger get trapped, because OUCH! he chomps!  In addition to all this chewing, we have not worked at extracting his pacifier.  Benjamin only uses it when he is ridiculously upset (read: being left in the nursery) and for going to sleep.  He can go without it for naps but often is so tired when it’s bedtime that the pacifier just makes him calm and lets him fall asleep easier.  When he gets up from naps or in the morning, we can hold out our hand and say “pacifier out,” and he’ll either spit it out into our hand or take it out with his hand and give it to us.  These days I’ve also started saying “why don’t we leave your pacifier in the crib,” and he’ll take it out and set it down (or toss it) in the crib.  It’s pretty cool. 

T is for Thankful

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.  Yet through it all God is faithful. 

Sadly, Jasper got sick on Thanksgiving day.  After not wanting much to eat for breakfast and then almost rejecting lunch, I was quite sure we were in for something bad as Jasper headed off for his nap.  Unfortunately I was right, and he didn’t even stay asleep an hour before he started throwing up.  He continued doing that every 45 minutes to an hour for the next 7-8 hours. 

He barely slept the entire time.  He complained about being thirsty and wanting water.  He was miserable.  Finally at 10pm it had been over an hour without any vomit, so we started dosing pedialyte in 1 teaspoon amounts every 5 minutes.  He was doing fine until 11:20pm when it all came back up.  Poor thing.  He was terribly upset and sick.  Thankfully he fell asleep on the floor after that, and Drew and I stayed up with him until 1am at which point we finally put him in his toddler bed in our room and went to sleep.  That was disrupted at 5am when he was awake and complaining about being thirsty, so we started the whole pedialyte process again.  He fell asleep on the floor again and at 7am when he woke up was allowed to have a little something to eat. 

At this point I don’t know what he had.  I had to go to bed.  While Drew slept with Jasper from 6-7am, I was up with Benjamin.  Drew and I had had virtually nothing to eat on Thanksgiving day since breakfast.  We had all kind of skipped lunch in anticipation of an early dinner.  Then Drew and I were very busy taking care of Jasper and Benjamin, not wanting to eat in front of Jasper and then were kind of not interested in eating with Jasper being sick.  I was in rough shape by Friday morning, but my sweet husband let me take a morning nap and I recovered. 

Before all that went down, Jasper had been having a fun time.  He finished his art piece with Kate, hung out in the kitchen with grandma and grandpa and went for a walk in the wagon with Benjamin, Jon, Kate, dad and mom.  It was a beautiful Thanksgiving day with actual sunshine – a rare occurrence in Akron, and mild temperatures.  Benjamin had a great incident-free holiday.  He loved spending time with Kate and exploring grandma and grandpa Gant’s house.  He took to climbing the stairs like a champ, too!  He was great!

Jasper is practicing his pastry skills with grandma – rolling out his own crust. 

Benjamin took to climbing the stairs like a duck to water.  I had to show him how to go down once, and then after that it was nothing!  He had major incentive to climb upstairs a few times – to reach Miss Kate!

Jasper and Benjamin are both big fans of Miss Kate.  We think uncle Jon made a good choice! 

As of Friday, Jasper made a slow but steady improvement.  His appetite and his color improved throughout the day, and he got to celebrate his 3rd birthday with family members from near and far.  Nana and Papa Jasper came from Kalamazoo to have lunch with us before Jon and Kate headed back to Columbus.  Lou, Kathleen, uncle Tom, cousin Judy and great grandpa and grandma all came over to grandpa and grandma Gant’s house for cake and pizza at dinner!  Drew and I decorated a cake to match a scene from the Cars movie, and Jasper thought it was great! 

This is a depiction of the scene from Cars just after McQueen has wrecked the road in Radiator Springs.  Sheriff drives up to him angry and tired from chasing him and says, “Boy, you’re in a heap a trouble.”  Jasper was able to tell everyone that, and everyone thought that was great!

As of this third birthday, Jasper now knows what presents are all about.  For weeks he’s been telling people (including our music teacher out of the blue) that he’s going to be 3 on December 1st and that he’ll get an assortment of trucks: a blue flatbed, a blue tow truck with the yellow things, two Doc Hudsons and Fillmore without the fuel tanks.  I don’t know why those 5, but it has been consistent for weeks!  Nana and Papa delivered on the blue tow truck with the yellow things, and Kate and Jon got him another Doc.  He was pleased!  We gave him this little stool right in front of the fire place as a seat of honor from which to open his presents.  It was great, and he was actually really super – he waited patiently for everyone to come into the room before he started opening his gifts. 

Here you can see he’s really wanting to dive into this gift!  He’s checking out the first of many trucks.

 

Grandpa and Grandma Gant got him an excavator and dump truck set.  I mistakenly called this a loader at first glance, and he quickly corrected me.  “ah, no mom, it’s an excavator.”  Thankfully this was the last gift he opened before nap, because it was very enticing and had all his attention once it was open.

Jasper posed for his pictures and then did an excellent job blowing out his candle.  Then he wanted to use his snow plow to scoop up some frosting to eat (his favorite part!).

 

Due to sickness, we did not get the Christmas card worthy photo we hoped to get over Thanksgiving.  These are two of only a few photos of us all.  It’s late at this point and time for Benjamin to head off to bed – hence the pacifier.  He’s looking sleepy, isn’t he. 

To our great relief and thankfulness, none of the rest of us got sick on our return trip to Austin Saturday morning.  It was nice to return to the warmth and sunshine of Texas to regain our strength.  Benjamin napped on our Cleveland to Houston flight, and Jasper fell asleep on our flight from Houston to Austin.  Even though it was a quick flight, that was it for a nap for Jasper.  Once we got home, the boys just played outside.  We were grateful to have the rest of the weekend to recover from sickness and travel. 

We are so thankful for all the blessings we have.  We are blessed to be a blessing, and we hope and strive to do this for God’s glory every day.