A Taste of Summer

Today was gorgeous! Jasper and I stayed home all day, and had such a nice day - I can't wait for summer! This morning I told Jasper that he was officially in charge of potty. I told him I wasn't going to make him go, that he was in charge of telling me when he had to go. About 5 minutes later, he told me and got there with not even a dribble. A few minutes after that he had to go again (this time, he told me he needed to sit down.) Again, no accident, and after we read Green Eggs and Ham TWICE, he was all done. He only had one actual accident and that was shortly after he got up from his nap. He seemed upset about it saying, "I got pee on my stool." (The stool he stands on to be tall enough for the big potty) The only other one was my fault (Note to self - when Jasper's in charge of the potty, don't dress him in shorts with a belt!)

That small potty success really set us up for a good day. We had a fun morning of chores and painting some pasta for a necklace. Then we packed a picnic lunch together and headed to the park, played on the playground and then ate. He wanted me to go down the slide after him and he stood at the bottom with his arms out to "catch" me. Jasper took a nice long afternoon nap (giving me time to get some things done) and then we had a snack, completed our pasta necklace and went back to the park. Daddy met us there and then we all went to McDonald's for supper. Then it was back home for movie night. We all watched Monsters, Inc. Jasper loved it. He got a little scared a couple of times, but overall he did great - he was even growling like a monster throughout! Bedtime was smooth - Josh read him the "Busy Body Book" which talks about all the body systems, etc. Jasper now flexes his muscles and says in a growling voice, "My muscles!" He also said excitedly, "Daddy, Daddy, my brain is in my head!" It was a good day.

Earth Day

To celebrate Earth Day, Jasper made a couple of tree crafts. He painted a small paper plate green (as well as his hands and the table) and painted a piece of cardboard that I cut for a trunk brown. We glued them together and now we have two trees hanging on his art hooks.

We also went outside and buried some old onions and potatoes to see if they'll sprout. ???? And we threw our fruit/vegetable scraps in the garden. Then we went on a nature treasure hunt. I made a list of things we could find in nature: an acorn, a stick, a leaf, a pine cone, a rock and a flower. I did my best to draw a picture of each. He only recognized the pine cone (which I thought was the hardest - go figure!) He found a few acorns, a couple pine cones, tons of leaves and then he got tired. All of the things he found are in his little wheelbarrow. When he wakes up from his nap, we'll probably go finish.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the library where they are giving away free trees.

Letter Sounds

Jasper knows the sounds to several of the letters! I had no idea he knew this, but yesterday on the way home from daycare (he was very upset because he wanted to stay at school and play)I got him to talk about his day and he kept bringing up a girl named Gabby. She's probably 4 or 5, and Jasper apparently likes her because he said he wanted to make her an orange heart with glitter when he got home. He said, "I want to write Gabby's name on it, Mommy." So as I was getting ready to tell him how to spell it, I decided to see if he knew the sounds. I said, "What letter makes the "guh" (not sure how you write out letter sounds) sound?" He said "G" I went on will A, B and Y and he knew them all! Later I did some others, he knew D, T, S, M, O and some others. He knew them both ways, by me saying the sound and he'd say the letter or by me saying the letter and he'd say the sound! I was AMAZED. I know that he learned it from a Leap Frog DVD "The Letter Factory" that we borrowed from the Hershbergers (so many weeks ago, I'm embarrassed to say!) I think we'll have to buy that one.

Jasper Makes Up a Song

Jasper is always singing. He knows several songs like "This Old Man," "Ring Around the Rosie," "Three Blind Mice," "I Love You, You Love Me," "Jesus Loves Me," "Skip to My Lou," "The Wheels on the Bus," the theme song to Wonder Pets and a few others. But he is also always making up words to his own songs. On the way back from the zoo he starting singing a VERY long song, so I tried to capture it on video. It's a little wobbly and long, but it's so cute. At the end he starts whispering, like he knows someone is watching...

Jasper and the Lawn Mower

Jasper has taken a couple of rides on our new lawnmower. He's a bit concerned of the loud noise it makes, but is thoroughly excited when Daddy goes fast! Josh had to put some gas in the mower, and was kind of checking it out, and Jasper starting looking underneath and under the hood like he know what he was doing. He said, "Daddy, my tractor is broken!" Then he said, "I fix it!"

Jasper's First Trip to the Zoo

We went to the Potowatomi Zoo on Saturday. We bought a membership for the summer, so we went to check it out for the first time. Jasper had a great time. He really liked the lions after he got over the initial scare of their loud roar. He also enjoyed feeding the carp. He thought the monkeys were funny, too. It was such a beautiful day. We only stayed for about an hour and a half. It's nice since we can go back as many times as we want, we don't have to do everything in one day!

Googly Eyes

On Friday morning, Jasper and I made a sock puppet. Jasper was more interested in playing with the "googly" eyes than anything else! He glued (all by himself) to eyes and a "nose" on the lid of the container I keep some craft supplies in. He also glued a pipe cleaner smile that we made for the puppet. It was the first time he'd made an actual face out of anything. I thought it was pretty cute!