Life Is a Trampoline to a Three-year-old

            Love my three-year-old nephew.  He reminds me of Jenna with his sophisticated vocabulary and knowledge.  His parents said he is currently into volcanoes - claiming that they saw 18 on the way her and four since they arrived.  Jenna may have used the word "volcano" to mean hill or mountain, but volcano is much cooler to say as there are more syllables.

            BJ also likes to jump and suck his thumb.  I wonder if he jumps over volcanic lava the way that Jenna used to - well still does at times.  What a great imagination!

            Thumb sucking is hard to break.  We had used a food substitute called imitation butter to get Kayla to stop sucking her thumb as it was the only non-harmful thing we could find to put on her thumb that she didn't enjoy sucking.  I don't think I ever succeeded in finding anything that Jenna liked.

            The six-year-old seems to have a persnickety manner.  His way or no way.  It appears that he may run Kayla ragged - though not as much as Bill will (or already has).  Bill has a sense of humor and can laugh things off.  Gary does have a sense of humor - not one that I am able to relate to. However, he is unable to laugh off uncontrollable situations.  I think he is the opposite of his dad in handling (or mishandling) situations that seem to be out of his control.  Unbelievably, he is an even pickier eater than Jenna.

           I think Gary would rather drink juice or punch than milk or water.  Of course, chocolate milk is acceptable, but I think it is given as a reward.  We keep cases of bottled water, which interested him.  Jenna had referred to the bottled water as "ice juice" as it sounded better than water.  Gary seemed to be okay with ice juice and had actually requested some on his own.

            My niece seems easy going for the most part.  Jenna took her aside to teach her pop songs.  They really do have fun together.