A Turtle and Some Magic

My boss found a nice sized turtle in his yard yesterday and brought it to work today so I could bring it home for Jasper. I picked Jasper up from school and told him I had a surprise in the car. He said, "What is it Mommy??" I told him it had a shell, walked slowly and put its head in and out. He said, "It's a turtle!" Later this evening, he decided to name him Jeffery. (He used to have a sock puppet named Jeffery...) He said that Jeffery liked pizza and meat!

Jasper and Josh got the turtle out and let it run around in the back yard. Jasper even picked it up and put it on his playground and even pushed him down the slide.

After all that turtle playtime, it was time for a bath! As I was getting Jasper dressed, he held out both hands with his fists clenched and said, "What hand is the penny in?" I had never heard him say anything like this before, so I pointed to one hand. He opened it and said, "NOO" so then I pointed to the other hand and he opened it and said NOO. Then he put his hand up to my hear and pretended to pull a penny out and said, "It was in your ear the whole time. I'm a magician. I have a rabbit and a hat and I'm a magician!" He even duplicated the trick with a real penny for Josh. He first actually stuck it in Josh's ear so he could really pull it out when he said, "It was in your ear the whole time!" We don't know where he learned this!!

I'm so far behind!!

I have not been doing a very good job of keeping this blog updated lately. Summer is BUSY!

Here's some highlights from the past few weeks...

Jasper says the FUNNIEST things now. A sampling:
*"I want to push the ding dong button." (the doorbell)
*"Whatcha doin' Mommy?" I said, "Watering the flowers." Jasper replied, "That will make them happy!"
*When given tangerine pieces and told they're like peaches, Jasper said, "I want pretty peaches."
*"Your toenails brown, Mommy?" I said, "Yes, Mommy painted them." (not really brown, a dark pinky color) Jasper said, "Daddy paints his toenails, too." (Daddy hurt his toe and one is all black)
*Jasper said,“Mommy, be a dragon.” Josh said (trying to convince Jasper to eat a veggie,)“You know what dragons eat, don’t you? --Carrots!” Jasper quickly replied, “AND boys!”
*When seeing painted breezeway for first time, Jasper said,“Cool – it’s blue!” The next day he said, "I like this color!"
*As I was pulling into a parking spot, Jasper said honestly, "Mommy, it's not going so well."

Jasper's Grandma Cathy got him his "very own playground." He loves it! He can climb the climbing wall like a pro. He played with a frog we found in the yard the other day and decided the frog should go down the slide.

Jasper spent the night with Grandma Debbie and PaPa Brooke last weekend. (So Mommy could paint the breezeway - looks great!) He was, of course, an angel for them. He got to sleep on his new cot, which he seemed very excited about. We picked him up on Saturday, and we went to the Binkerd's house for a cookout to celebrate their baby boy (due in a couple weeks.) They also have an 18 month old, Kiley. Jasper loved playing with her and all her neat toys. She had a sandbox and Jasper liked playing in it, if he didn't have to actually touch the sand.

One day after dinner, Jasper said, "I want to go to Bounce Place." (We've gone to Bremen Bounce, a place that has those big blow up jumping things in them, twice.) He was quite adament about it, so I improvised and we made our own 'Bounce Place" out of every pillow in the house. Jasper loved it!!

Jasper and I made a bus out of the box that his playground came in. This was another idea from the book that we have. It was complete with a door, a windshield, wheels, headlights, and a steering wheel. Jasper thought it was pretty neat!

This week, Jasper got to go to Grandma Cathy's house and he had a blast. So much so that he said, "I don't want to leave yet!" He was asleep not 5 minutes after we left, though!

The past few hot days, we've played water games in the evenings. We used squirt bottles and squirt guns and wet sponge balls. Yesterday we ran through the sprinkler. Soon we'll put up the pool.

Today, Jasper got to see Grandma Judy and Grandpa Jack. He didn't want them to leave either, and he hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed them!

Tomorrow starts another new week. Starting this week I will be working 4 days a week because my job is so busy. Jasper will either go to daycare, Grandma Cathy's or Grandma Cathy or Grandma Judy will come here to watch him. I will have Fridays off. I am giving piano lessons to two boys, so that will be on Fridays as well as playdates, errands, chores, other summer outings, etc. It will be busy, but fun.

Projects, projects, projects

Our breezeway repairs were completed yesterday (for less than the estimate!) and I started taping so I can paint soon. We had some leftover supplies that we were able to return to Lowe's tonight so that will go toward the flooring.

Tomorrow Josh and a friend are digging postholes for a new, bigger, stronger fence for Nano. He's been jumping out of his current one. We got all the rest of the supplies for that project this evening.

Jasper has had a good couple of days. Yesterday he went to daycare like normal, but I took a vacation day to be home while the guy was fixing the breezeway. It was nice to be 'home alone' to get some things done (mainly laundry and cleaning...) It was nice to be home with the whole family last night since I had been gone Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at various church meetings.

Jasper woke up at 5:45 this morning ready to go. We went to the Hershberger's new house today for a playdate. Jasper was excited to see their big playroom (and he was not disappointed!) We stayed there until around 1:30. Jasper slept for maybe 30 minutes on the way home and then woke up when we got home, whined for about an hour while I made him lay down and then was up and wanted to play! I don't know how he does it! We worked in the breezeway and in the workshop, Jasper took a tractor ride with daddy. Then we got cleaned up and went to Ponderosa for dinner and shopping for our project supplies.

The Big Hobby Room Project

I've been so excited to renovate our breezeway into a mud room/hobby room. Of course it's been a bit more difficult that anticipated! First the pipe to the hot water heater busted this winter and got water all over the floor. We were able to find a plumber to cap it and we plan to replace it with an electric heater. As we were pulling up the carpet (because I want to install laminate wood flooring) there was a place that was kind of bubbled up and soft. Josh stepped on it and fell through! Josh tore up the subfloor in that area (no small feat since the nails were rusty!) and found that the joist had completely rotted in that area. When he got the last corner piece out - he could see outside! The 'foundation' (an old concrete porch/patio had crumbled so the corner of the breezeway was basically just hanging in midair. We called a contractor to come look at it. The day he came (Monday) it was raining and we saw that water was pouring in. This is why the joist and the floor rotted. The contractor is going to have to tear up some of our deck, replace the concrete, put in flashing. Then replace the joist and put in the subfloor. He's doing all of this for less than $600 and he's coming tomorrow. As soon as this is repaired, I plan to paint, then put in the laminate flooring, put on baseboard and trim around the door, make curtains, and then eventually I want to install some cabinets, a countertop, a corner storage unit/bench, refinish a couple of old chairs and buy a small chest freezer. Can't wait to have a place to store all mine and Jasper's craft supplies!

Jasper Draws A Monster

Jasper is really beginning to have some control over his drawing. He can easily draw circles and straight lines. He has begun saying he's drawing mommy or daddy, and will draw two dots and a curved line so it looks like a smiley face. Yesterday he drew a circle and said, "Look, Mommy, it's a monster." Then as he drew lines coming off of the circle he said they were two arms and two legs. He drew two dots and said they were eyes.

He's also been trying to write letters. So far, he's told me he drew a D, an A, and an H. I could actually identify them, too!

Jasper Makes New Friends

 
We went to a cookout at the Hildebrand's house on Sunday evening. Jasper was very social and quickly made friends with Brian (1) and Jenna (3 1/2.) Jasper and Brian played on the slide and in the wagon together. When Jenna arrived, she and Jasper were soon running after one another. After dinner, the adults were playing euchre and dominos and Jasper and Jenna were getting out every toy in sight. Around Jasper's normal bedtime he announced he was ready for bed. We got his PJs on and then he and Jenna covered up on the couch to watch some cartoons. The sleepy time didn't last long and he was going until we left at 11 p.m. (and then he was up and at 'em at 7:30 a.m. the next morning!)

Cousins Galore

 Jasper had a great weekend and got to see lots of his cousins on Saturday evening. We went to a cookout at Jeff and Lanette Combs' house. The whole extended family was there including the two babies, Nathan (1 in a couple weeks) and Ada (turned 1 in April.) The coolest part was that both of the babies started walking right there in front of us! Jasper had a blast playing with them and with his older cousins Austin and Jayden.