Sarah and Adam: The Next Generation

It's Wonderful!

The other day we wrote about Jasper patting the trains at the store goodnight and singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Most recently, he did the same with his stuffed Kitty, and then tucked Kitty in under a section of newspaper. Jasper's also started telling us when he's tired and wants to go get in his crib, and the other night, after telling us he was tired, Jasper leaned over and put his head down on an end table, then started patting his own butt and singing "Twinkle Twinkle" to himself.

Gus can now sit reliably without support, and he likes to spend most of his time sitting up. He's pretty stable and can lean far to the side to reach an object, bracing himself with his other arm and putting one knee down for balance. So he's basically on hands and knees except for his left leg, which is folded under him in a sitting position, like a giant kickstand. Gus really also likes his jumper, which even when he's in a cranky mood unfailingly cheers him up.

A few moments

A few moments from the last couple weeks (with a video below, and more stories if you click the "continue reading" link following the video):

--Last night we went to Barnes & Noble to play with their train table. When it was time to go, Jasper didn't really want to leave. I asked him to put the trains in the train barn, where they sleep at night. He put them in there, and then patted each engine while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," repeating his bedtime ritual exactly. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. We gave Gus some little pieces of warm tortilla. With each bite, he would rock back and forth in pleasure and beam with sheer joy.

--Trying not to jinx it, but Gus has slept til 6am or later for 6 of the last 7 days...

--Jasper's learned how to rhyme. One night he said, "Hi, guy" and we started talking about the concept of rhyming. We gave some examples, and then ask Jasper what rhymes with hat, and he said cat. Then we asked what rhymes with log, and he thought for a minute and said pog. Finally, Sarah asked what rhymes with Kittyman, and when Jasper was stumped, she offered Pityman, which Jasper repeated for days.

No-Kay

First, Jasper mumbled. We'd try to clarify, like, "You're saying you want pancakes?"

Then, Jasper mumbled, we'd try to clarify, like, "You're saying you want pancakes?" and he'd respond "okay," in lilting tone, like it was a great idea, wish he'd thought of it himself. Many questions were responded to with "okay."

Now, when we do something Jasper doesn't want us to do, say, put on his shoes, he'll complain, "no-kay! no-kay! no-kay!"

UPDATE: A couple days later came the debut of "mo-kay," meaning "more, okay?"

On the Gus Front

Gus is turning into a regular little guy! A few big milestones:
* He can sit up on his own, without immediately keeling over.
* He is a madman in the baby bungee, jumping wildly and shouting the entire time, with a huge grin on his face (we've got to capture this on video).
* He apparently said, 'kitty' today. Although we didn't witness it, both Anna and her mom swear they heard it clearly, in response to them pointing out the cat. (He does regularly say dada, mama, and other noises that we have been assuming were nonsense until now.)
* He is getting a tooth! Finally! Although that does mean we had a middle-of-the-night teething wake-up.