Let's Hope Chicks Really Do Dig Scars

Perhaps we have a clumsy kid. Or perhaps it's not the best idea to give a child a cup of milk to carry around in his half-sleepy state. Or perhaps falls are just going to happen - lots of them. Many more than I'd like. I think all things are possible, and this morning "all the stars aligned against us" to produce one of those such events that sends me packing for my ulcer bag.

Jasper fell, apparently onto the milk cup he was carrying, and when he came up in his heavily crying state and we turned on the dining room light we could see, with clarity, the blood. So far we haven't had a heavy head bleeder with this kid. This again was just small amounts of blood that stayed in place and cuts that just looked uglier than they were. Thankfully Drew was around this time, and I did not have to deal with this on my own. We cleaned him up, measured the longer of the two (on the hairy edge of 1/4") and reasoned we couldn't think of a single thing a doctor could do to his eyelid. Jon - please correct us if we're wrong.
This afternoon Jasper is not showing any irritation with his eye. He doesn't rub it or demonstrate pain when he tries to keep it open. So we're still watching and waiting. The cut on his eyelid has bled a little more throughout the day and then dries on his eyelid and is a lot of fun to try and clean up. (He doesn't like it.) But other than that we're hoping this too will pass.

This parenting gig is fun.

Thankfully Jasper stayed asleep for a good long afternoon nap - almost 2 hours. I realize for some of you folks, that ain't much. But for this kid, it's reason to celebrate. He is happy this afternoon, probably getting into more trouble as I type (yes, he was), and gleefully ate a bowl of seafoam salad for an afternoon snack. I loaded up his spoon, and he quickly took it to his mouth which would then crack into the most innocent of smiles from pure delight. It was a fun little time. Now I should play with him some - you know, show him I enjoy hanging out with him, 'cause I do.

Happy Easter!

Erica dressed Jasper in his new Easter outfit from Grandma and Papa Jasper, and we snapped some photos after we came back from church.





Jasper enjoyed all of the cards, and he will continue to enjoy the books that Grandpa and Grandma Gant sent for Easter. After Jasper opened the rest of his Easter basket, we went out on the deck to try out one of his gifts.

Easter Egg Hunt

Erica loaded the eggs and hid them in the front yard for Jasper to find. We did this on Saturday because the weather was supposed to worsen for Easter. I have to follow that by stating that I know what worsening weather means to many of you, but this was not worsening weather. Regardless, Saturday presenting better photo opportunities.

Jasper didn't actually get into the hunt until it was nearly over. We walked around, and he would find the eggs. However, as the hunt continued, Jasper got more excited as he found the eggs. We had fun with the experience.

In case you are wondering, some of the eggs were filled with cherrios or goldfish crackers. Jasper really didn't care about that contents beyond them as noise makers when he shook the eggs. The biggest highlight was shaking the filled basket to scatter the eggs. While we didn't get a great shot of him shaking the basket, I'm sure the previous videos gave you a sense of his enjoyment in shaking the full basket. Here Jasper is reloading before another shake.

Where is Your Nose?

On his face, of course! Check it out ...



In addition to this, Jasper has started tumbling. I've known of a few kids his age taking an actual class at the Y. We're not members, and while I wasn't interested in signing him up for classes I thought he might respond to learning some tricks. He loves to do somersaults. He knows how to get in position, and by the end of the trick he is all smiles and ready to go again.

In the process of learning how to do somersaults, Jasper has also learned that he can use his head as the fifth leg of a tripod for various activities for which he needs to bend completely over. One of which happens to be going down stairs backwards. I've been working up an ulcer for the past few weeks on how to get him to learn to go down stairs safely. Yesterday he came down off our front step into the front plant bed by backing up to the ledge then putting his head and hands down and then stepping down. In turn his hair got a bit dirty, but it was a successful dismount with no broken bones, teeth or skin. For this I was thrilled!!!

Future Rock Climber

Jasper has started climbing one of the big rocks in our front yard. Some time ago Drew would help him climb up. Now he's pretty much mastered this. He still needs a little help getting down, but he loves the freedom of being able to get up on this rock. This video is from Friday, and if you can believe it, he's already doing even much better at climbing. He can climb up the steeper side all by himself now.

Spring Has Sprung

With Easter just around the corner, I took out our decorations last weekend and introduced Jasper to plastic eggs. He loves them! He'll spend time just sitting looking at them, trying to open them and nesting them - then shaking them to make his own music. He also loves that they are "gravity-averse" and get air quite easily. Check out the video to see what we mean. (I apologize in advance for the shaky filming. It's a short video. Also, I realize that my aim is poor without excuse.)

When Jasper and I go to story time at the library, there are a few songs that involve bouncing him on my knee. He loves these, and I've taught them to Drew. Well, I've just pretty much shown Drew how much he loves it. Last weekend, Drew started bouncing Jasper on his knees, and Jasper was having so much fun he just couldn't get enough of it. Check it out.

15 months old!

Jasper is one funny kid. He's 15 months old now and full of personality and quirks. I don't think there is a day that goes by that he doesn't do something funny. Lately he's taken up wearing pretend capes. He'll take anything he finds, a blanket, washcloth, even a sock, and hold it with both hands, then lift it over his head til it's around his neck. You can imagine how this works with a blanket and perhaps a washcloth. With a sock ... it's a little tricky. However, he is undeterred. I haven't been able to catch him in the act doing this yet, but I'll work on that.

Stepping up and down steps is a current fixation. We have small steps going in and out of the house that he likes to practice on each day. He still meets daddy at the door each afternoon and virtually begs to go outside to play. He's gotten very accomplished at all these steps around our house and now thinks he can handle any step in which he comes in contact - going up or down. He can figure out when a step is too high for him to step up (in which case he'll crawl up), but not go down. I'm probably going to get an ulcer over this. I don't know how to teach him how to distinguish steps that are too high that he needs to go down a different way. Any thoughts? I'm all ears!

here's a video of Jasper showing off:

he wouldn't push the broom for the video, but here is proof that he likes to do it:

I don't know how this started, but Jasper's also started walking with his feet spread out. When he's wearing slippery socks and on the kitchen floor he can go straight down into the splits. It's pretty funny! check it out:

Jasper has virtually mastered this "transportation" puzzle. He knows where each piece goes and can get each in its spot with just a little manipulation. He also knows where the pieces go on his "pets" puzzle, but those pieces are a little harder to manipulate, so he gets frustrated on that one much more quickly.
and when he's finished, he dumps out the puzzle to start again.

Jasper has started mounting his airplane backwards these days. He can get his legs over the seat better by holding onto the green handle. This position has the added benefit of allowing for a variety of music to play as a result of buttons being hit by his bottom and back as he moves and wiggles in the seat. If he has his shoes on, he can get the airplane to move forward. I guess the little extra length from the shoes, along with the grippiness of the soles, really help him move.

Snack Time

Grandma and Papa bought this table and chair set for Jasper for Christmas. Actually ... we picked it out while they were here for their annual winter pilgrimage to Texas. We found the chairs at the Pottery Barn outlet store. While carrying them around, Drew said two different people stopped him and asked him where he found the chairs and if there were any more. No such luck. We got the last pair. In addition to that, multiple other people commented on how cute they were as they passed us. My favorite was a pregnant woman we passed on the way out who didn't talk to us but very softly and emotionally said "oh, cute chairs."

This has become our new snack location. Afternoon snack time is generally in the middle of playing, so it's been hard to get Jasper to sit in one place to eat. I've previously resorted to watching the Backyardigens with him (an activity generally reserved for nail clipping). But now with the table, because he cannot get up on the chairs on his own (but he can get down), I can keep him in one place long enough that he's interested in eating his snack. We have a good time here every day. :)

Cool Kid

Is this one cool kid or what?

(fyi: his shirt says, "I do all my own stunts"

and yes, he's walking around listening to Jack Johnson)

iBert Seat

I don't want Jasper's blog to turn into a product showcase, but I'm a huge fan of the iBert safe-T-seat (http://www.ibertinc.com/). Instead of having your child on a seat right behind you or in a trailer behind, the safe-T-seat attaches to the stem of your bike. Jasper sits right in front of me, and I can see what he is pointing at as we cruise down the road. I had to do some adjustments to Erica's bike to have the seat fit without my knees bumping into the seat while I pedel, but it was worth the effort. Jasper and I went for a ride today, and I had a blast. Jasper had a good time as well. Many thanks to my friend Paul who turned me on to the seat.

Playing in the Park

We don't typically go to the park as a whole family. Usually, one of us takes Jasper to the park while I am at work or when I give Erica time to accomplish a task that otherwise won't get done. However, we have been to the park the past couple of weekends as the 3 of us. It affords us the ability to take some photos that otherwise can't be captured. Despite our sincerest requests, we still only have 2 arms each.

To better keep track of Jasper on the playset, we have him "climb" up the front of the slide. He likes the effort.

Not sure what we were doing here, but it made for a fun picture.

This was a particularly scary part of the swing ride based on both of them screaming.

Jasper is showing off his conga line technique. Actually, Erica caught Jasper while he is trying to catch his balance after a mis-step. He did stay upright, FYI.