Growing Up

Lately it's become very obvious that we have more of a toddler in the house than a baby. It's lots of fun around here, but it's bittersweet for me too. Ah how the time flies.

These days Jasper's trying his best to get into all sorts of trouble. It's not really trouble, it's just pointing out how much our house is NOT baby-proof. I'm still tracking him down everywhere to make sure he doesn't injury himself too badly. His new fascination is opening and closing doors. He'd do it for a while if I were at all interested in staying in the room with him. But alas, we move on. He loves to watch me blow-dry my hair, which turns out to be a good thing since I can barely get a shower in during his nap and have to finish getting ready for the day after he's awake. I've move the mirror in our room on to the floor so he can see in it, and he comes crawling over at warp speed to look. He smiles anytime he sees himself in the mirror and today gave his best slobber kiss to the mirror baby.

Speaking of kissing, I'm trying to teach him that. Today when he got up from his morning nap we played in his room for a little while. We were wrestling, roaring back and forth and kissing (on the cheek). After kissing him again and again, I got him to kiss me ... and then he really got into it and gave me a big ole' slobber kiss. Oh my goodness I was laughing so hard I couldn't control myself. It was hysterical!

Jasper is pulling himself up onto any and everything. He pulls up onto the refrigerator door, all our cabinets, the bed, etc. He's also nearly perfected the butt flop. So when he's done on his feet, he just plops down on his bottom and then flops over onto his belly to crawl - either on his knees or his belly. We've been all-hands-on-deck for the last week (even our friend Teri) working on helping Jasper crawl on his knees. Jasper can definitely do this, but his preference is certainly the commando crawl. Auntie Lindsay pointed out that there is some talk among children's development folk that kids who do not crawl before they walk have a higher incidence of developing learning disabilities. No causality has been demonstrated, just a correlation. So ... we've laid off the walker and are constantly saying "on your knees, Jasper" and running to prop our hand under his belly to get him converted into the "proper" crawling position rather than the commando one. I wouldn't run except that he moves so fast, if I want to do it at all I have to move at his speed. Aside from the learning disability issue, upgrading from the commando crawl could mean less laundry to do. :)

Another key phrase in the house these days is "feet first!" After weeks of letting Jasper explore the doggy steps head first, we figured out that wasn't good for when we let him loose in the "real world." And he's already taken a nose-dive off the couch ... so getting the proper dismount established will go a long way in giving me peace about leaving him in a room alone for longer periods of time. He learned this phrase quite quickly. I think in less than a week. Last Saturday I took a minute to do something in the kitchen and came into the living room just in time to see him trying to go head first down the doggy steps. I shouted, "No Jasper. Feet first!" He was startled, excited and with a giggle turned around and headed down ... feet first. Since then he will show us he knows what it means, but he'll also show us he wants to defy us. More often than not when we say "feet first" he laughs. So, we're still working on that one.

With all this activity, Jasper has quite an appetite. I think he's going to eat us out of house and home. He'll plow through Cheerios, chicken, cheese, cereal, vegetable, fruit and sometimes yogurt ... in one meal. It's phenomenal! He's also teething like MAD! When we're nearing the end of eating, we'll give him one of his spoons to chew on. He gnaws on those spoons like there is no tomorrow. He also had a few rough nights sleeping, so we're quite ready for these additional bottom teeth to get the show on the road and break through. We'll send photos when they arrive.

Lastly, Jasper made a foray onto the deck this evening. Laying the decking is taking longer than we hoped, but we're in the home stretch. Jasper played in his ultrasaucer for over an hour while we got some more done. It was great!

(fyi, the outfit change was because I noticed mosquitoes hovering about him.)