20 Months!

Sooner or later we're going to have to figure out how to make this a blog for two and how to chronicle things fairly for both boys. Until then I'm falling back on our given structure by Jasper's age. He's creeping up on being 21 months old. I find this hard to believe ... mainly because I didn't think it was that late in the month of August. I don't really keep track of what day it is anymore - especially in the summer, and when I have to fill out the date on some type of paperwork, etc. I am always scrambling. (This is another reason why I don't use checks anymore.) I really only mark time by the weeks until baby #2 is supposed to arrive (6 as of today!).

Here are some shots of Jasper over the past month, hanging out with mommy and daddy.

I thought the best way (maybe) to get Jasper ready for his little brother's arrival is to get some books that talk about becoming a big brother or having a baby come into the family. We've been reading them since the beginning of the month, and he loves these books. He usually wants to read them more than once. This photo was taken at the beginning of August.

That very same weekend we went to IKEA to buy Jasper's "big boy bed." It's a twin size, but the mattress can sit low in the bed frame, so it's virtually 1 foot off the ground - similar to toddler beds. He has tried to crawl out of his crib (he's succeeded once), and sometimes when we go in to get him up he grabs us and uses us as leverage to climb out with his feet. So, it's probably a normal time to do this. More than that, Drew thought it would be a good idea to have him transitioned before his brother comes so we have one less transition to deal with. For the first three weeks it's been up we just have used it as a reading spot. Jasper loves it! He loved helping his daddy put it together.

The bed does make things a little crowded in the room (although not as bad as it looks here).

He's getting the hang of things right away!

Sometimes Jasper pretends that his MP3 player (maybe he's not pretending, actually) is a phone. He disconnects it from the headphones and then walks around with it held up to his ear saying, "Hi, Dad."

Jasper and Drew like lounging on the couch and ottoman. The ottoman has to be close enough for Jasper's legs to reach, but he certainly has the ab control to perch himself up there between the two. Drew of course will position himself like this, and then Jasper loves being just like his Dad.


Here they are, just chatting ...

discussing the finer points of life.


Yes, I'm getting big. This photo was taken on August 10th, when I was 32 weeks.

One of Jasper's favorite activities is talking on the phone. Mostly he wants to call daddy, but sometimes it's Auntie or Nana. Whenever I talk to Drew on the phone, Jasper insists on being part of the conversation. Really all he says is "Hi, Dad!" while holding the phone up to his ear, cradled by his shoulder. He hardly says anything else w/o prompting by me (and even then not so much). So I put the phone on speaker, so Drew and I can carry on our conversation which is intermingled with "Hi, Dad."

This past weekend we absentmindedly let him play with the phone on Saturday morning before we were meeting friends for breakfast at 8am. It finally dawned on me that it might not be such a good idea since he was unsupervised and could make a call (all he has to do it push the send button twice, and the last person I talked to gets called). I told Drew that it wouldn't be such a big deal since he'd only call Drew's phone. But Drew looked at me and said, "Ah ... no. You talked to Lindsay last night." At this point I ran for Jasper and found he had just called Auntie Lindsay. I terminated the call but was unsure how many rings it got in first. I then said, "Yep, he called Linds!" Drew responded, "Well, at least it's a quarter to 9 for her." (Thankfully the phone did not connect on her end and wake her prematurely on a Saturday morning.) We both wistfully laughed when we found out later Auntie Lindsay did not wake up until another phone call at 11am that morning.

After his nap last week, Jasper hauled the package of diapers out to the living room and started driving his bus across a diaper. He likes to have the cars/trucks "jump" or go over hills as they drive, and I think that's why he liked using the diaper. I don't know. I was in the kitchen and thought he was being a little too quiet, so I came out to look and found this cute scene.