The Good Stuff

Wednesday was a big day for Jasper.

#1 He did not wake up with a snotty / congested nose, after having been in the MOPS nursery last Friday and in the church nursery (all morning) on Sunday. Since September, Sunday - Wednesday has been the germination time for a cold or sinus infection or something to appear in Jasper after spending time in the nursery. This is a really big thing for us! It was a tough two months of sickness, but ever since he's had his tear duct probed, he's been well. We're very thankful for his health. Immunity building is good long-term, but not good short-term.

#2 Jasper took his first STEPS!
Drew is great at pushing Jasper to make big developmental leaps - far better than I am. He notices changes in his behavior and creates situations that encourage Jasper to be pushed a little. He doesn't get to spend as much time with Jasper as I do, but the time he spends he really tries to make into quality time.

Based on how well Jasper's been walking with his walkers (how he can steer them, even picking them up slightly to steer) and how much longer he's been able to stand unassisted, Drew tried a little trick with Jasper. He built a tower of the cardboard bricks on top of a diaper box. That way, Jasper had to stand up to knock it over completely. Then once the tower was knocked over, Drew held out Jasper's puppy for him to grasp ... and he moved it far enough away that Jasper had to walk for it. At first Jasper grasped the puppy and walked while putting a small amount of weight on the puppy and thereby on Drew. But we repeated this activity multiple times until we could hold the puppy out far enough away that Jasper couldn't reach it but walked toward it. Drew got this idea remembering how Linnea learned to walk - to fetch her moose.

He's still wobbly, but he is getting braver at walking around. I worked with him today to build up his skill, but he's also been walking on his own initiative.

• This afternoon we stopped by Azalea's house to drop off a gift and chatted with her mom, Ame. Their two dogs were milling about, and Jasper loved that. He walked a little at Ame's trying to catch the dogs.
• This evening while I was making dinner, Jasper was playing with his trucks in the kitchen. All of a sudden I looked up to see him walking out the kitchen door for the living room. He essentially made it from the kitchen table, across the ceramic tile to the carpet in the living room. It was really a weird feeling to see him walk away from me without any prompting.
• And tonight, when Drew came home from work, I stood Jasper up, pointed / showed him who walked through the door and let him go ... and he walked, wobbly legs, arms in the air, laughing all the way across the kitchen to his daddy. It was precious, and to say it made Drew's day would be a total understatement.

Here's a video of Jasper walking tonight: