Mommy's Little Helper, part 2

Jasper is no longer just interested in the inside of the washing machine. He wants to touch all the buttons, too! He can just about reach the buttons when he's standing on his tip-toes. Of course, the nearest button to him is the "cancel" button. It's only a matter of time before he's trying to wreak havoc on the laundry, too. Looks like I'll have to keep the laundry room door closed ... or else.

Now that he's explored the washing machine, Jasper has decided to move on and take up dishwashing. He figured out that the dishwasher is just the right height for him to climb into when it's down.

Amazingly it can hold his weight, even though I was pretty scared it might tip over. Of course I was also laughing pretty hard during all this. Jasper grunted his way up and then was ready to grunt his way over the other side.

He thinks this is pretty cool! I plan to pull out these photos when he's older and protests cleaning up after dinner. :)

Zoning Out

Sometimes in the evening, even after a good long afternoon nap, Jasper can be really sleepy and completely zoned-out at dinner. Here are some photos that show this:



Of course, when we get him down and let him play before bathtime, he is full of energy again.

Crunching Numbers

Jasper loves anything with buttons. The calculator is no exception, although it does not have the magical powers that the remote control has. It still cracks us up how he can turn on the DVD player and start playing music without knowing what's going on. The look on his face when music starts playing is so funny. It's like "where'd that come from?"

Waking Up

This is how we find Jasper when he wakes up from almost every naptime and even in the morning. Most of the time he makes noise to let us know he's awake and generally only cries when he's been woken-up prematurely or if something is actually wrong. Otherwise, he's quite content to just hang out til we come in to get him.

(I think he might have been dancing here.)

(here he's making faces at daddy)

10 Months Old!

Here Jasper is sporting his new shirt from Grandma and Papa Jasper, brought back from Sweden. Drew dressed him this morning and brought him to me saying (speaking for Jasper), "Mommy, I want to be called Lars today." :)

This week Jasper got another cold. I'm nearly losing my mind with recurring sickness at this point. I think we're going to boycott the church nursery for a few weeks and see if we can have a normal life for a while. Normal as in: no flaming red eye, no snot-machine nose, no yucky cough, no crazy sleep pattern, no excess irritability. Where did my sweet child go? He was nabbed by the sickness boogie monster, and I want him back!

On the first day he was sick, Jasper started out his happy self. Here he's playing with his cement truck which I've dubbed "Googley Eyes." She rolls her eyes up and down as the wheels spin. Jasper loves to get down on the floor right next to her and watch her eyes. It's adorable!!!

Jasper also still loves to climb up the doggy stairs and play on the ottoman. His favorite thing to do is try to go over the edge head first. I'm working on training him to go down feet first.



These days, Jasper has started crawling and climbing up the stairs with a toy in hand. He clutches it pretty tightly and can maneuver around various obstacles still clutching the toy. He's also started climbing up the stairs on his feet, not on his knees. He's improving at maintaining balance.

You can see I need to get Drew on board with the whole feet first thing.

Each night after work, Drew plays with Jasper. He climbs all over his daddy, grunting the whole time.

Jasper is captain of our neighborhood watch committee. He vigilantly watches outside our front window and likes being entertained with the passing cars.

I bought this train at a second-hand store and got it out for Jasper to try out this week. He likes pushing it, as he does all his trucks. He crawls next to the toy, pushing it along the floor. As for the train, I don't think he's really figured out it can be taken apart. He's not quite taken an engineering approach to it, but given time I'm sure he will.

It is only a matter of time...

...until he doesn't need any help to walk around our house.

Waterscape

Erica had the great idea to head to Brushy Creek Lake Park Waterscape. It was hot here, mid-90's, and we thought it would be a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon as a family. Jasper and I got dressed for the water, and we made the quick 15 minute trip to the park.

I wasn't sure how Jasper was going to do, so we started slowly. He liked touching the water jets.

Then, we slowly worked up to the sprinkles. You can see me checking to see how Jasper was doing. He really started to like the water hitting him on such a warm day.

Once he discoverd that this was fun, look out! He loved just roaming around not caring about how much water was hitting him.

Overall, Jasper had a GREAT time, and we look forward to visting the waterscape again.

Mommy's Little Helper

Since we've been back in Austin, Jasper's mobility has really skyrocketed. He was commando crawling all over Grandma and Papa's house, but now he's pulling himself up onto almost every piece of furniture, cabinetry and appliance. He was fascinated by the laundry room today, perhaps because the washer and dryer were running a lot to clean up the loads of backpacking clothing from daddy or the poopy clothing we've been burning through since Jasper's been on the antibiotic. He loved the washer - just the perfect height for him.


Yesterday, while playing in the kitchen with me, Jasper crawled - for real! It was only from the sink to the refrigerator, but I praised him wildly and told him the whole while that he was "really crawling." Of course, he hasn't done it since. But now I know he knows HOW! Today it sank in how much life has changed as a result of his increased mobility. I was following him everywhere or chasing after him to make sure he wasn't getting into anything he couldn't. We have to do some more baby-proofing around here. :)

Kalamazoo Time

While daddy was backpacking in the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area of Washington, Jasper and I had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Papa Jasper, Auntie Lindsay and Uncle Chris and Daisy in Kalamazoo.

Jasper got to play with all sorts of new toys ...

wrestle with papa ...

play with Uncle Chris ...

(Jasper loves Uncle Chris's facial hair.)

hang out with papa in his office ...


go to an apple orchard with Auntie Lindsay, Grandma and mommy ...

and sit in a pile of pumpkins ...

(Despite misplacing his shoe, he's still having a pretty good time. The pumpkins are just the right size.)

This patch of pumpkins was a little bit bigger than the last, and Jasper wasn't too comfortable in it. I thought he'd get up and be cruising between them all, but he really didn't even want to touch them very much.

Going to Grandma and Papa's House

Last Tuesday, Jasper's cold had gotten bad enough that I thought, "Really, before I get on a plane and find myself in Kalamazoo for 8 days, maybe I should have Jasper's doctor see him." His nose was still a snot machine. He had developed a weird cough (and yes, I am paranoid about whooping cough). And, to top it all off, he was stopping in the middle of playing and crying. This level of irritability is just not right for our son. He had been grabbing at his left ear a bit, and the drool machine had been turned on. I thought he was teething and really wanted them to listen to his chest.

At 3:05pm we got in with the nurse practitioner. She hadn't seen Jasper since he was 5 days old, but our doctor was out. We like the NP, so I was totally comfortable going to see her. Jasper was irritable and hard to control during the visit, oh and he had a "big ol' ear infection" in his left ear. Great. Did I mention we were flying to Kalamazoo? The NP was quite concerned about how the air pressure changes on the planes would hurt Jasper's ear, so she prescribed an antibiotic, gave us a prescription for medicated ear drops and eye cream - since his eye was still red and green-goopy.

On Tuesday night, the night before our flight, administering the antibiotic was less than successful. This was his first antibiotic and the first medicine of any kind we had to administer via a syringe. We had given him Tylenol and his vitamin with the medicine dropper before, but the syringe is a bit different. And truth be told, the amount we had to give (3mL) is a bit more than his vitamin (0.5mL). Drew gave him the full dose of medicine all at once which Jasper promptly rejected and forced out of his mouth. Did I mention we were flying the next morning? Normally Jasper is an excellent flier. He's never had an issue with plane air pressure on take-off or dissent. However, traveling alone with him while he was sick, I was more than nervous. I lost it at this point when it appeared that probably 90% of the medicine didn't go into his mouth. Drew was a bit shaken as well, but we recovered and gave him another half dose and prayed that would be good enough.

Whether or not the antibiotic had any effect, Jasper was an excellent flier. He slept for an hour after take-off on the first flight and played for the remainder of the time in the extra seat next to us. He ate green beans and pears nicely in his stroller while we waited during our layover in Cincy. On the short flight from Cincy to Kalamazoo we did not have an extra seat, and he did not sleep. He was a monkey boy, but he enjoyed eating Cheerios to pass the time. He slept well and Grandma and Papa's house that night. A 1-hr nap all day is not enough for him, but despite all that, he was a great kid.

Front Window

By the beginning of the 3rd week of September, Jasper has discovered the front window in our house. It's just the right height for him to pull himself up, prop himself up and look outside at what's going on. Most of the time, there is nothing going on. We live on a quiet, 1-block street. Activity out the front window consists of looking at the vegetation and the occasional dog-walker, older gentleman riding his bike or kids walking home from school.

To him, it doesn't matter. He loves just standing there. Sometimes he brings a toy with him, and he plays with the toy while he's standing there. A friend of mine came over for tea, and she and I sat and talked in the living room while Jasper entertained himself at the window for quite a while.

His feet are so cute!

Daddy's Birthday

The Wednesday before Drew's birthday (that would be 9/12 ... yes, I am behind on updates) Jasper started to sound a little congested. By Friday he was a bonafide snot machine. His second cold had arrived. Poor thing, he was really a mess. Not only was his nose completely congested, his right eye also was red and green goopy. That eye has a blocked tear duct, so the tears have nowhere to drain. This eye is a veritable fountain when he cries, and he can definitely produce a very dramatic sympathy-inducing tear at the slightest incident.

On Saturday we did a little work on the deck while Jasper napped, and then we all cleaned up and headed out to run some errands. It was HOT, miserably hot and humid. But I think one of the best things for congestion is getting out into the heat of the day instead of staying cooped up in air conditioning. Jasper wasn't irritable, but he looked like he had lost a prize-winning fight. Poor kid. He endured a confusing tour of the I-35 exits for Georgetown on our way up to the Tractor Supply Store. Wow - that was a little bit of an eye-opener, being in that store. They did have livestock wire which we're fixin' to use on the deck, but it wasn't quite what we wanted. So, the trip was almost a bust, except that we took the 4Runner off road the back way out of the store.

On Sunday we all played hookie from church and slept in. We went out for lunch and then hunkered down for the remainder of the day. Jasper thought the gifts daddy got for his birthday were super cool. :)

** Update **

Somehow it escaped me to mention the rather profound achievement Jasper made on Drew's birthday. He pulled himself up to standing in his crib. After lunch Jasper was quite tired, and yet he fought us in going down for his nap. He was just cranky. He cried for a little while when we first put him down. This is unusual, but since he was sick - not out of the ordinary. I checked on him while he was crying, stayed just a short time and then walked out of the room. A short while later Drew went in to check on him and came out holding Jasper with a rather grave look on his face. He said "He was standing up."

Since we still had the mattress in the high position, that was something about which to be concerned. So, Drew handed him to me and said, "I'm lowering the mattress right now." The tyranny of the urgent, right? Thankfully I have an engineer husband who got it taken care of pronto. Unfortunately, Jasper still wouldn't fall asleep easily. All in all, it ended up taking us 2 hours to get him to go down for a nap ... and he proceeded to sleep only 30 minutes. Whatcha gonna do?