jasper raced through the front door this afternoon and handed me a white envelope. he looked very chuffed.

read this! he demanded, dancing around.

i raised my eyebrow.

please read this, mummy! he offered, still squirming and smiling.

i turned my eyes away from the computer and looked at jasper.

do you need to do a wee?

no, replied my son, drawing very near to me and pressing his arm against my hand.

i opened the envelope and saw that inside was a brightly coloured party invitation. as bidden, i read every single word outloud to jasper.

this is the fourth birthday party jasper has been invited to since september. he is a regular on the party circuit.

he expressed this happiness with a hooray! and after informing all his siblings that he was going to a party, he returned to me and again asked me to read the invitation. this time, post read, jasper began singing (and doing the actions):

it was a dinosaur birthday party

everyone’s playing party games

rom-pomp-a-chomp! through the roses they stomp

they garden will never be the same – cha cha cha!!!

four more times before bed i was asked to read the invite, and every one else was asked to read the invite as well. sebastian was asked, but declined, but marianne and gary both took turns reading how jasper has been invited to stephen’s party, and had the opportunity to view jasper in full dancing mode.

at bedtime (blessed bedtime!) i asked jasper what book he wanted me to read and he zipped off for a minute, and three seconds later he reappeared, inevitably holding the party invite. a book shorter than goodnight moon! i like it.