New Year’s Weekend with Jasper

On Friday I moved in at Al & Emma’s to take care of Jasper while they went to a wedding.

So a kind of different last days of 2023 than I typically do this time of year, although I did do some of my “normal” stuff like making small end of year donations to various organizations. This year I donated to Planned Parenthood, Doctors Without Borders, The Trust for Public Land, Internet Archive, the Obama Foundation, and World Central Kitchen. And of course the cookie money donation to Goodman Community Center, but I’d done that one right after Christmas, the 27th or 28th (my Dad’s 103rd birthday).

Later on Friday after Jasper took his nap I tried to show him how pretty the sunset was. He seemed to like it at first but then got kind of upset staring out the window. Not sure if he was longing to play in the snow, or trying to figure out where Al & Emma went, or it really was the fading colors.

Saturday morning we got up and played for a bit then I loaded Jasper into his fancy swivel car seat in Emma’s SUV, that seems giant to me but in the grand scheme of SUVs is actually only medium-size. I felt like such a suburban house wife. We went to Whole Foods to get a few New Year’s Eve-y things, like shrimp and a bottle of Prosecco.  They had sent me a bunch of coupons and I thought I could use the smallest one, $10 off a $50 purchase. Even though I know it’s illogical – most of the time when I shop at Whole Foods I spend $25 or less. So why should I be tempted to spend twice that much to save $10. Anyways, I got some stuff that I only marginally needed, like some Stumptown coffee, so I wouldn’t use up all of Al & Emma’s, and more teething crackers for Jasper. Of course the coffee bag fell off the grinder and I lost some of it, and then at the register it turned out that alcohol was not included.  If I had not had Jasper with me, I think I would’ve gone back and found a more of merchandise to qualify the coupon, it couldn’t have been much. My total was $64 and the Prosecco was at least $12, but with him along I just paid and went home.

The kids hired one of their other babysitters to give me blocks of respite each day. She did dinner and bedtime Saturday, so I came home and had dinner with Mark and Pia, and Pia’s friend Annabelle. Broccoli stir fry with the last of the party peanut dip made into sauce. I also made a batch of these bars, that are gluten-free (and also good!) and gave a big chunk of the pan to Pia and Annabelle for their NYE celebration.

I took some time to cuddle with the cats that evening, and they posed for me.

On New Year’s Eve day I kept telling Jasper it was the last day of 2023. He didn’t sleep super well the night before and woke up on the early side and only drank a little of his bottle. I started giving him breakfast around 8:45 and the other sitter arrived at 9:00 while we were still at the table. I thought he’d go for an early nap but he got a second wind and stayed up and then took a long nap 11:00 to 1:15. I went home and gathered all our supplies for me and Mark to watch the ball drop and eat appetizers. We had Chicago style pigs in blankets and ham and cheese puff pastry bundles and cold shrimp with cocktail sauce and deviled eggs and the last plate of cookies.

I brought a carton of cookies for the other sitter, and I swear Jasper remembered that Al gave him cookies from the same kind of container when he saw it. I gave him a baby ruggelach (upper left in the picture) – might as well maintain tradition. His dad always liked them the best.

After his long midday nap, Jasper didn’t take a second nap. I tried to get him to sleep about 4:00 but it didn’t work. So we played and he had some dinner. I was hoping to keep him up until 6:30, but he only made it to 6:15.

Mark came over about 8:00 and we watched Times Square and he went back home after the ball dropped – at 11:00 since we’re in Central time. I cleaned up the leftovers and tried to watch different New Years shows. CBS was in Nashville and it didn’t want to load, plus when I got there it was endless Lynyrd Skynyrd recreations. I went back to NBC and watch Green Day in L.A. Promoting their impending 2024 tour. They sounded good and they looked OK for a bunch of 50-somethings playing 20-somethings on TV. Medley of songs from Dookie which is itself 30-something, or about to be. I drank most of the Prosecco and then dumped the dregs and recycled the bottle.

Then I went to bed. Jasper slept really well that night. He was a little restless between 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning, and I was hoping he’d fall back asleep till at least 7:00. It got quiet and the next thing I knew it was 7:15. I checked the monitor and he was just playing quietly in his crib. It was a great start for the new year. I got up and brushed my teeth and got his bottle ready and made coffee and opened the curtains and shoved a bunch of my overnight stuff into my backpack before going in to see him.

At 9:00 I handed him off to the other sitter and went home and Mark and I did the 5 mile Sunday walk I haven’t been able to do since all my knee trouble – I probably hadn’t gone on that walk for over a year – since fall of 2022 probably.

I made pumpkin scones and started the Hoppin’ John and then went back for another couple hours with Jasper until Al & Emma got back. Another no nap afternoon, but we went for a stroller walk and he got dozy.

I think the most interesting thing for me was being in that alone with a little kid or kids, and no other adults state, again, after 30 years of not being there. It’s like your own interior monologue plus observing all the things the kid(s) is learning and doing all at once. I guess the last time I was there was 1991. I have a bunch of favorite things he did:

• kissing the baby in the window, pic above
• knowing where that little tupperware was
• the night I went in and tried to give him his pacifier and couldn’t find his mouth and he grabbed it out of my hand, stuck it in his own mouth, and flopped back down to sleep
• knowing what container the ruggelach come in
• after his bottle new year’s day morning, he slid off my lap, marched up to his crib, pushed down the cloth protector, and retrieved one of his pacifiers and stuck it his mouth. Turned around and grinned big enough you could see it around the paci
• generally being fun to be around.

The other different thing this year is I often spend New Years addressing my year end cards. But they haven’t come yet, so not doing that yet. The email said they should’ve arrived today (Jan 2) but all I got so far is the stamps. Here’s the draft.