Brothers, buddies, and all that fun stuff

Cozmo and Jasper have been best buddies since J first came around. As best buddies do, they accept each other's lesser qualities: Coz looks the other way when J drives his trucks and tractors on his head/back and steals his chew bones, and he understands when J forgets to do 'nice touches' and instead gives him a whack on the butt.

Jasper, meanwhile, doesn't get too mad at Coz when he licks Bubba (J's blanket), steals food out of his hands, and J knows Coz doesn't mean any harm when he knocks him over or accidentally scratches him when they're playing.

Here's a handful of photos of the boys today, including one where Coz is giving me a look that says "Let me guess, Jasper's going to steal my bone again. How fun!"

All caught up

Yes, we had to spend a few minutes Sunday getting Jasper untangled from a string of Christmas lights. Luckily he stayed close to the tree and didn't run off, pulling the tree with him.

Before and after

Just a look at what the Wilson's Christmas tree looked like before decorating this afternoon, and after. Enjoy.

Helping out

Jasper was a pretty good helper when we put up the tree today. He especially liked Nat's candy canes and his 'Jasper 2008' ball.

Christmas decorating

The Wilson family took a trip to Menards in Altoona on Sunday to get our Christmas tree. After Jasper and daddy got naps (daddy's been sick this weekend), we put the tree up and started decorating.

Jasper got a little attached to the ball with his name on it and Nat's two decorative candy canes, but a little distraction (the John Deere DVD) and he forgot all about them.

Nat had the brilliant idea to put the tree in one of our old metal wash tubs and it looks great! (Thanks, Country Living magazine.)

Best buddies

Cousin Sydney Wilder passed down the John Deere DVD that she got a few years ago from great-uncle John and great-aunt Roni Wilson. Syd went through a phase where she watched it about once a day. Now Jasper's the same; when he's not watching it, he's asking if he can watch it, but we try to limit it to once a day.

He actually calls it 'Grandpa,' (J's word: Pompa) because he associates tractors (and pretty much anything fun) with Grandpa Paul Wilson.

On Friday morning, after a long night's sleep, Jasper woke up asking to watch 'Pompa.' Nat was gone shopping so after breakfast J hopped up on the couch and I popped in the movie. (It's 45 minutes long by the way, and he'll watch every minute of it if you let him.)

I was in the chair reading the paper when I noticed both the boys — J and Cozmo — intently watching the movie. (I think they were both still a little sleepy.) I had to get a pic!

One more from Thanksgiving

Forgot about the one of Jasper and 'Uncle JJ' - uncle Jason Henderson - just hangin' on the couch, watchin' football on Thanksgiving night.

The end result

We forgot to take photos throughout the day on Thanksgiving, but we snapped one at the end of the night when we finally got home — at 10:30 p.m.!!! That's only about 3 hours past Jasper's normal bedtime, and the poor guy had less than an hour nap during the day.

Oh well. He had a great time playing with the Wilson side for lunch at Jeff and Gina Sherman's in Stuart and the Trissel side at grandma Vicki's in Waukee.

J-man is wrecked!

Photos from Noah's bday party

We took a minute during Noah's birthday party last Friday to get a couple of photos, including all the young cousins. From left, it's Jasper Wilson, Pryce Smith, Dominic Parrino, Noah Henderson, Perri Smith and Payton Smith.

Other photos include Jasper and Perri playing cars and trucks; Natalie and her cousin Autumn and Autumn's son Dominic; and Dominic just hangin' with his mom.

Crazy driver!

I was picking up leaves last weekend, Natalie was taking photos and Jasper was cruisin' on his 4-wheeler. It wasn't going very well in the grass (it wasn't fully charged), but he didn't seem to mind.

J loves anything and everything he can ride, starting first with my motorcycle and moving to grandpa Paul's tractor/combine/4-wheeler triumvirate. He's going to LOVE riding bikes when he gets a little older, I'm sure.

Wink, wink

After about six weeks of growth Natalie finally made me shave off my beard. I wasn't totally into shaving and I kind of wish I hadn't, but I took full advantage of the process by showing her what I'd look like with a number of different facial hairstyles — really long sideburns, a bushy goatee and, of course, the mustache.

I wish I had taken photos of each 'phase,' but I didn't think of it until I saw myself with the tickler. Had to get a picture!!!

Everything in its place

Jasper has begun to show some signs of being a bit obsessive — mostly over his Bubba (blanket) and his cars, trucks and animals. Most of the time he's a normal kid, driving them around with a 'bbbrrrvvoooommm' and making each animal's sound when he's playing with them.

Occasionally, though, he gets it in his head that his toys need to be lined up perfectly and he gets to work. This specific time (pictured), it wasn't easy to line them up straight so he settled on piling as many of them as he could get on my lap.

He didn't like it much when I finally got up, but he got over it pretty quick and started lining them back up again on the table.

Sleepy boy

What happens after a weekend during which Jasper attends two birthday parties, stays with his grandma Vicki and visits grandparents Paul and Debbie? He falls asleep within seconds of being strapped into his car seat.

Friday night we had a birthday party for cousin Noah, who turned 10 today (Sunday). Saturday we had a birthday party for friend Isabelle Meyer, who just turned 4. After Isabelle's party grandma Vicki took J to dinner with a bunch of her friends and (I'm sure) kept him up past his bedtime. This is just one night after J stayed up until after 10 at Noah's party. (He normally goes to bed between 7:30-8 p.m. and wakes up around 7 a.m.)

Today we picked J up at Vicki's around 11 and headed out for lunch and to play at the Wilsons before leaving around 4. After about an hour at home we got back into the car and headed to Merle Hay Mall for Friends & family Night at Sears. Found a few deals before getting home and putting J straight to be.

Good, but tiring, weekend!

Lookin' up

Before all the leaves fell off the big tree in our backyard we spent a few minutes staring up at them, listening to them rustle around and slowly fall to the ground.

J caught me looking up first, then followed suit. Mommy joined in next. (Cozmo didn't seem to care at all.)

A few of my favorite things

Jasper's pretty set in his routine, which includes a small cup of water/juice after breakfast, a nap after lunch and, of course, a cup of milk before bedtime. Maybe the most important of J's daily (and nightly) habits is having his blanket nearby.

He calls it Bubba and, actually, he's got two of them - one blue (the original) and one white (the backup). They're the same type of blanket, just a different color, and he doesn't seem to mind that fact.

Bubba gives J some security. If he falls, sometimes he calls out for it. Same thing when he's tired. And sometimes he just wants to hang with his buddy, Bubba, and carries it around — usually tripping or slipping on it, falling, then calling out for him forgetting that Bubba is the one that made him fall.

Spoon man

Jasper got a little possessive of his spoon tonight and kept it in his mouth for about 10 minutes after he ate. He was a little grumpy when we tried to get him to put it away, but then it turned into a game.

He even took a minute to pick his nose.

What a good guy!

Playin' dress up

We were invited to a Halloween costume party on, believe it or not, Halloween. So Nat and I and our friends Kyl and Ami Gillespie got all gussied up and headed to Adam and Heidi's garage in Altoona. (They are the ones dressed as a witch and a, um, Mexican.)

The Gillespies dressed up as a football player (Kyl) and cheerleader (Ami) from GMG. Kyl is the head football coach at Green Mountain-Garwin.

Natalie dressed up as a lady bug with homemade wings and all.

And I built my own human Scrabble costume, complete with words on both sides and extra letter tiles fashioned into a hat. (No, "G. E. I. B." doesn't stand for anything. Those were random letter selections.)

Pretty good times. Plus, now I've already got my homemade gift to give away for the Diddy Christmas. Sweet!

Fun in the leaves

Not to be outdone by Jasper's fun time in the leaves, Cozmo took a turn once J moved on to picking up sticks. It's rare to see Coz get on his back and this was one of the oddest things I've ever seen him do. He rolled onto his back and wiggled all the way down the little hill he and Nat were sitting on. Very funny!

Fun outside

We took advantage of the nice weather today and played for a couple of hours after the Broncos lost to the Baltimore Ravens this afternoon. It was Denver's first loss of the season and it was an ugly one. Oh well. I wasn't sure they'd win 6 games all season, so they've surprised the heck out of me thus far this season.

Anyway, it was 65 and sunny so I picked up leaves while Nat and J swung, then we played in one of the leaf piles for a bit. Jasper didn't quite fall in love with the leaves, but stayed in them long enough to throw a few handfuls for Cozmo to chase and he rolled around in them enough to cover most of his clothes.

He also found time to pick up sticks, climb the fence when Nat was chasing him, help me mow up the leaves and watch passing airplanes. (Notice the four pieces of sidewalk chalk he's holding, which he wouldn't let go even though he wasn't real interested in drawing tonight. Instead, he carried them around long enough to get chalk all over his hands, face and clothes.)