The kids made fruit pops all by themselves. Eden found the idea in a magazine. They used skewer sticks in place of popsicle sticks. Jasher was holding one that Alden didn’t see, and Alden sprinted right into it. It hurt him just below his eye, close enough that we imagined him losing his eye.

That made me think of writing down the run-ins that Jasher has had. Of all the kids, he’s the one we’ve come the closest to losing.

A little while ago Jasher ran out the front door, right as I heard the van getting ready to pull out of the garage. I ran after him, but I was too far back. Olea looked in her mirror right as Jasher broke in front of the van. She stopped and so Jasher was just fine.

We were on a trip to Italy where we walked around a farm. Jasher was on my shoulders. Poor Jasher wasn’t holding on very tight, and my grip wasn’t as good as I thought either. He leaned back. He landed on his head onto packed gravel.

During our move from London to Seattle, we had piles in our front room of things we wanted to sell. Against a wall was a big bookcase. Jasher was in the room alone on one of the days when it was very packed. He tried climbing up the shelves. The bookcase tipped over on top of him. On the ground nearest to him was a suitcase and a bassinet. Jasher landed on the floor in between them. The bookcase landed with one side on the suitcase and one side on the bassinet. Jasher was only safe from being crushed because he was in a foot-tall shelter right around his body. Elisa and I heard him scream from our bedroom upstairs. We guessed that something had fallen over on him. I remember being really glad to hear him crying, because if the bookcase had landed right on him, he wouldn’t have been able to scream. He ended up with just a bump on the back of his head.

A week after that we had our flights from London to Seattle. I was pushing a luggage cart that was piled about eight feet high with moving boxes. Elisa was pulling several suitcases behind me. Jasher ran on ahead, too far away from us. I couldn’t even see where he was very well. I left the luggage cart and ran to find him. The top-heavy luggage cart toppled all over the moving sidewalk we were on. Up ahead, Jasher tripped right at the end of the moving sidewalk. His shirt got caught in the teeth. Jasher couldn’t roll free. A man saw him and extricated him. I got there after he got saved. His shirt was ruined because of the holes in the back where the machine had started grinding him under.

Alden got some jellybeans tonight before bed, but I made him save some until morning. He said he would keep them under his pillow. That was fine with me, but I told him he would probably forget them. He insisted,

No, I will remember them. Every morning, I check under my pillow, to see if the tooth fairy left me a penny. So I know I will see them.

The kid is probably 3 years away from actually losing his first tooth.

Here’s a tidbit about Jasher: He can’t wear Alden’s old sunglasses, because his head is too big. We were curious and we measured his head. Alden’s head is 48½ cm around, and Jasher’s is 49½ cm!

Here’s a tidbit about Alden: Two weeks ago on the way home from church, Alden complained about being hot. He said, “I’m sweaty. Sweaty is Spanish for hot!” Sometimes he thinks he’s quite a polyglot.

Here’s a tidbit about Eden: Almost every day I give her a chess puzzle. She earns jellybeans if she can solve it. They have been getting progressively harder. Today she figured out this discovered check, and then mated me with just her rook and king.

[fen]8/4kq2/8/8/4N3/4R3/8/7K w – – 0 1[/fen]

I’ve been playing a bunch of chess myself. It’s my latest obsession. I keep playing matches on FICS, and hoping I can bump my rating up out of the beginner’s range.