The 2 Musketeers

With his mum and little sister on holiday in New Zealand, I have had the privelage and pleasure of looking after Jasper while his Dad is at work.
Jas gets dropped off in the morning and because its early (being skool hols, my kids arent out of bed before 9), Im the only one awake to greet him. Its a bit cold in the mornings at the mo so I grab the blanket off my bed and try to set us up in front of cartoons for a while. Jas must think that me and blanket means him going to sleep and refuses to bunk down with me and has a bit of a grizzle. Hes really quiet in the mornings and a bit sullen and I know its because he misses him mum so much.
BUT all that changes when his big cousin gets up. As soon as Ethan rolls out of bed they are at it. Like this morning. Im sitting on the lounge floor playing twiddly fingers with JAS and all of a sudden he squeals delightfully and yells
'EEEF!'
and my sons reply of
'Hey Jaspa. You at my house again!'
while grinning widely at his cuz.Ethan always pronounces his name this way. Im suddenly invisible and the 2 do their morning ritual of catching up. After a bit, Ethan will announce that him and Jasper are wanting breakfast. This morning it was cereal 1st and then toast. So I give them their cereal and am doing their toast when I hear Ethan say to Jas
'No now look what youve done. My hoodie (his sentences are so grown up these days!)' and as I peek around the corner I see my son tip his bowl of breakky down the front of Jasper.
'Ethan! What did you do that for!'
'He put yuck hands on my hoodie mum'
'That doesnt mean you can do that to him!'
'Yes it does. Come on Jaspa. We go get changed'
GRRRR. He means me change them both AND clean up the mess. But they are so cute to watch and Im so grateful that they get to spend this time together. They spend the day playing and talking and poor Jas is happy to be bossed around most of the time. But Jas is still really happy to see his dad at the door at the end of each day.
Tomorrow is the 1st day of the new term and my brother has given me his 7 seater 4WD to cope with the extra child and carseat while I do the school run so I figure that after Ive been to the docs, Ill take him and Ethan and maybe Trinity and Patience for a toddlers trip out somewhere. Heres hoping the weather lets me.