18 months old!

Jasper is now 18 months old (for those of you mathematically challenged, that's 1.5 years). He is learning new things every day, and adding to his list of noises, hand gestures and antics. He certainly keeps me on my toes everyday! Before I give you an update of all his silliness and smarts, here's a walk down memory lane.

Jasper at 1 month old: Not so much head control here nor interest in what's going on.

Jasper at 6 months old. Much more body control and facial expressions, exploration of his toes and more interest in and interaction with the outside world.
Jasper at one year old. Totally active and full of life. Plays with his toys well, favorites being his trucks, and plays with us.
Now, 18 months old. Much bigger and bolder. Climbs on everything that is sturdy enough to not topple over. Laughs all the time and fully knows how to manipulate his world, including the people in it. :)

As you can see, his hair has continued to grow, grow, grow! Can you believe how much is there? I still am baffled at times. When it's wet, you can tell how long it is. I'm not sure yet how to cut it to preserve his "look" and yet give him some relief on our hot Texas summer days. I'm sure I'll post when something dramatic happens.

These days, Jasper still loves to read books (especially about trucks), play at the park including going down the slide on his own, play in his sandbox, climb on our deck furniture, and once he figures out how - climb on the bull wire used in the deck railing. (Today he asked me for help to climb, but I wouldn't. He got up on the bottom frame, holding on to the bull wire. I figure it's not long before he figures out how to climb higher, and there is no way I'm going to help him figure it out any faster! Lord have mercy on me when that day arrives. I shudder to think even now.)

Grandma Jasper bought him some flashcards a little while ago, and we've been working with them these days. he has his favorites ... guess which ones ... the car, bus, boat, airplane, wagon. We also encourage him to match the cards. Some cards have a collection of smaller images which match bigger images on other cards. He's gotten quite good at matching. He also came up to me the other day carrying the frog card saying "hop, hop, hop" and making a hopping motion with the card. Yeah, he knows what he's talking about! Since his intellect is developing and he is following directions, we've also started having him help pick up his toys before bathtime. he knows which basket holds all the trucks, and he knows where all the flash cards go. It's great practice for him, and it helps me out, too!

Probably a couple months ago I told a good friend I "longed for the day" when I could have a logical discussion with Jasper. Poor kid, his parents are so logical we really hope he doesn't turn out to be anti-logic or really artsy. How will we relate? But I digress ... At that point in time, I had been struggling through a month of increasingly stubborn tantrums and was running out of patience to deal with them. However, since we turned our discipline routine up a notch, Jasper has started to get the picture about what he really can and cannot do. I still give him warnings and try not to make mountains out of mole hills, but we're drawing a line in the sand and he's responding. Now I just have to get in his face and explain that if he takes a particular behavior any further he will feel the consequences of his disobedience. Generally he stops. As far as I'm concerned, that IS a logical conversation with a toddler, and I am ecstatic about it. It really makes my life so much less stressful to be able to communicate with him and express a wide range of emotions and thoughts. It's awesome!!!

I don't know if this is a common thing for kids to figure out at this age or not, but Jasper has taken a big liking to wearing our shoes. Moms or dads - he loves it! He also likes putting on our sunglasses. He looks particularly good in my glasses. :) trying on grandpa's sunglasses. he looks kind of matrix-esque, doesn't he?
good combo: daddy's shoes and jasper's glasses.

these are mommy's shoes, and yes he was that excited to be wearing them. scroll down to see the heels! these shoes make clop-clop noise as he walks, and yes he can walk quite well in them.
(a little midriff showing. we're going to have to have a modesty talk soon.)


Jasper enjoys brushing his teeth. our regular routine is to give him one toothbrush to essentially chew on, and then after a minute or so we go in and brush with another one which has toothpaste on it. here he's hanging out with daddy, taking care of their oral hygiene.
I bought him a $2.50 golf set at Target last week to see if he'd be interested. Right now he likes best to chase after the golf balls after daddy has hit them.
but he did take some practice swings.
Jasper also loves these sand chairs I bought to use when he's out in the yard playing in his pool, water table or in the sprinkler. I figured I could put them close to the pool so I could keep my feet in the water to stay cool. We've had 10 record setting temperature days since mid-May, so we do everything (already) to stay cool when we can. This weekend Mark and Teri came over for dinner and had fun watching Jasper play with his water toys. Jasper also enjoyed sitting and chill-axin' with Teri for a while.
Jasper and I go for walks in the morning, but so far there has been no hiking for the Gant clan. Saturday mornings would be our best bet (since it gets hot quickly), but with Drew at his new job at Apollo he's been putting in hours on Saturday mornings ... so hiking has been on hold. But Jasper has the outfit as soon as we hit the trails. :)

Yesterday we met our new neighbors. They are a young couple with no kids yet. But they have toys. As Jasper and I were talking to the wife (Megan) and her mom, the husband (Cameron) drove up and backed his truck into the driveway ... with a trailer carrying a 4-wheeler. Oh goodness! Jasper was excited! And then to my surprise, Cameron offered to let Jasper sit on the 4-wheeler. And he didn't just sit on it. We positioned him to hold onto the handle bars ... and then Cameron shook and rocked the 4-wheeler so it was like a carnival ride for toddlers. Oh My Goodness! You can imagine how it worked to extract him from that when we had to go in for dinner. Yes, major meltdown. He would have stayed on that forever.

A rare treat: a family photo taken by grandpa Gant when he was here last month.