Sarah and Adam: The Next Generation

About Gus

Although Gus's tricks are more subtle than Jasper's, he is no less impressive, in his 4-month old fashion. A few notables:
* At his 4 month appt, he weighed 17.1 pounds, in the 90th percentile for height and weight. He is a big boy!
* He has repeatedly rolled over from front to back.
* He can put his hand (or an object in his hand) in his mouth, and keep it there, very briefly.
* He blows bubbles at you and sticks out his tongue.
* And he laughs! (see below)

Who loves ya, baby?

A couple highlights and a couple videos:
--We went hiking with Cynthia & Rick (and Kia, their dog, who ran back and forth on the trail), and ended up at a fish hatchery where we saw salmon spawning. For the next few days, Jasper would periodically say, "Member fish jumping up? Member Kia, she a crazy dog!"
--Jasper enjoys milk both as food and as deeply calming recreation, but it's not soothing if it's not in the right type of sippy cup. So now, he requests it by brand name, sorting through the cupboard saying "Nuby! Nuby!"
--If a toy Jasper wants is out of his reach, like it's too far back on the couch or on the table, he stretches for it and says "It's safe! It's safe!"
--Gus really likes to interact with people. He's fine for ten minutes playing with his toys, but then he really wants someone to come and smile at him. And he'll become talkative, just letting you know he'd really like a face in front of him, please.

Sleep! And Tiny Balls in a Tank

First things first - A week ago Gus turned 4 months old, and we decided to sleep train him. Hooray! Although it hasn't taken perfectly, he's generally going to bed now at 8:30 PM, waking up at 4:30 to eat, and then sleeping through until 7 AM. All in his crib in his own room! Even from the first time we put him down in his crib, he only cried for 7 minutes before he went to sleep. Also, he is laughing a ton - we'll try and get video up this weekend.

A few quotes from Jasper:
- Upon seeing a container of tic-tacs, he holds it up, examines it, and says: "Tiny balls, tiny balls. Tiny balls...in a tank. Tiny balls in a tank!"
- Sitting in his high chair, playing with a bottle of milk, a bottle of water, and a piece of ice: "Water, Milk, Ice, Pretty cool!"

Chatting with Gus

Gus goes bananas.

First...Then

Jasper's been learning about delayed gratification as we say "first we'll do this, then we'll do that." We knew he had the hang of it when Sarah said "First we'll change your diaper, then you can have some milk" and Jasper responded, "First milk, then diaper."

Today he took it a step further. Adam picked him up from his crib when he first awoke, and took him to the chair where they usually read a couple books while he wakes up. Jasper announced, "First book, then book."

Other quotes from this morning: --(when climbing on the couch and reaching for the power strip of plugs that sits on the back of the couch, formerly out of Jasper's reach) "we don't, we don't..." (as in, "we don't touch the plugs")

--(recalling a trip to the aquarium) "That a pretty cool diver." Followed by the story of the wave tank at the aquarium: "Starfish on top [above the water level]. Wave crash. Crash! Crash!"

--(For a while he's had a stuffed cat that he liked, and it showed signs of becoming a love object, so we bought a second one as a backup. They've lived in different rooms, and he plays with both but probably thought they were the same one. This week, he found both of them at once and has started carrying around and sleeping with both of them together, clearly much more attached to the pair of kitties than he ever was to one of them.) "Kitties kissing, kitties kissing!"

--(Opening his Richard Scarry book to the page about a girl going to the hospital) "Tonsils! Tonsils!" Isn't it funny how tonsils is one of those words like typewriter that he learns because it's in one of his books but are essentially historical concepts he'll have no use for in life? Also in the same book, there's an alphabet of animals. These always run into trouble around the end of the alphabet, and this particular book more than most--for X it shows a swordfish-looking thing called a Xiphias. We've always referred to this animal as "a kind of fish," so sure enough, that's precisely what Jasper called it today.

Meanwhile Gus doesn't say much but is really into sticking out his tongue right now--usually just the tip, like a cat. He's also strong enough to sit up for several minutes in a little infant chair that gives him a lot of back support. That's where he was sitting this morning when Jasper started backing toward him and preparing to sit in Gus's lap. It's not totally ridiculous, since Jasper only outweighs Gus by about 8 pounds, but still, it's not something we want to encourage, yet.

Finally, Jasper's pretty decent at counting, sometimes getting all the numbers and sometimes sounding more like "1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10!" But the best part of the counting is that he always counts in the voice of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. That's the only time where he uses that voice, and we just have to teach him to add "my pretties!" to complete the effect. It's hilarious, and we'll try to capture it on video soon.

Tiny Bananas!

This morning was really hard--everyone woke up before 6am and everyone was cranky. Adam eventually put Jasper in his high chair for breakfast, peeled a banana halfway, and put it on the tray (Jasper likes eating whole bananas these days and only occasionally eats the end with the peel still on it). Jasper shouted "Tiny Bananas! Tiny Bananas!" Adam, wanting the kid to just eat his breakfast already, glared in response.

Jasper (tyranically): Tiny Bananas! Adam (slowly dawning on him): Did you want me to cut your banana into little pieces? Jasper (triumphantly, grinning): Tiny Bananas!

And the rest of the morning was fine after that.

Hair in mouth

Jasper runs up to me and says, "Hair in mouth, hair in mouth." I say, OK, stick out your tongue, which he does. I remove the cat hair, and he runs off happily. Oh, the power of language!

Adam sings "The Muffin Man" song, and Jasper interrupts - "Muffin Man, Come here! A muffin man, a muffin man, come here!"

Jasper's talking just took off in the past few days - he talks NONSTOP, all the time, narrating everything he sees and does, with full sentences, lots of verbs, connecting things he sees today with things he saw two weeks ago or even longer. It's quite remarkable, especially since according to the american academy of pediatrics book, at 18 months, kids should have from 4-10 words...

More Chattering

Both boys are chattering up a storm these days. Gus mostly gurgles, oohs and ahhs. Jasper on the other hand is saying things like:

* "A Seahorse is, is, is, MOVING." (He has started to discover increasing numbers of verbs, it's quite exciting for him!)

* When Jasper wants Adam's water he shouts, "Water over there, water over there." Adam acknowledges his request then explains Jasper will need to drink his own water, not Adams. Jasper responds with "Water over there, PLEASE." How can you refuse??

* Jasper has taken to saying, "no way," when he wants to be especially emphatic.

* "That blanket is falling down. Fall, fall, falling down!"

* "Puppy. Kia. Kia Dog Water Shake!" When remembering a visit to the beach with Kia the dog a few weeks ago.

* "Run!" Narrating his action as he runs to see his mom.

* Sarah says "delicious" (about some blueberries). Jasper responds with "Pancakes!"  We laugh, then Sarah suggests that maybe tomorrow we should go to St. Clouds (to Adam). Jasper interjects, "Brunch, brunch." (except that it sounds more like "bwunch")  About 15 minutes later  he continues with "Brunch, St. Clouds, Pancakes!"

Oy Vey