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.

Look what Jasper has to tell you...

He is going to be a big brother!

I'm currently 22 weeks pregnant, going on 23. Our next little boy is due October 6th. If you'd like, you can watch the ultrasound video (below) to see him moving about. We decided not to post any specific images where they point to his boy parts and type "BOY" with an arrow, but you'll see them if you watch the video.

So far so good with this pregnancy. I didn't start showing as soon as with Jasper, so my maternity wardrobe has to be altered despite being pregnant again close to the same time of year as with Jasper. Oh, another thing is that I'm still on leave of absence from IBM. (Go Big Blue!) It's an amazing opportunity for me to be home with Jasper during these years. Being on LOA also means that the one pair of maternity shorts I had from before (only worn on the weekends) is not going to make it now ... considering I wear shorts and a tank top every day. No lie. We come home from church, and I change (or I nap). It's only June 6th, but we've had record heat in Texas since mid May - every day has been over 90 degrees ... and we've had three days at or over 100degs. ... In MAY & early JUNE! ... This is working up to be a long, hot summer. You'll find me near water, most days in our own front yard, all summer long. We'll escape to northern Minnesota and our family's cabin on Lake Pokegama for a week in early July. I'll be praying for cool nights at least.

We've started telling Jasper that there is a baby in mommy's belly, and I've started mentioned that his brother is not going to be happy with him as he crawls all over me. But other than that I don't know how much he gets. He's still not talking yet. He has animal sounds he makes, uses sign language to communicate major needs and says other random things like "hop" and "off." But none of these will allow him to let me know if he understands his life is going to change. We'll see. He clearly picks up almost everything he sees and hears, so I'm sure it will start to sink in.

We're quite happy and nervous about this little guy coming into our lives. I'm nervous because I know what to expect. With Jasper I just was so thrilled to have a baby coming and so ignorant of the work and sacrifice involved that I approached it with glee. I don't have the same glee feeling these days. I'm such a realist that I unfortunately spend a little too much time looking past the miracle and glorious blessing of another child to think, "how will I DO it?!!!" Thankfully Drew has 100% confidence in me and reassures me all the time. But it is still daunting and awe-inspiring. For some reason, God has chosen to bless us with another child, and on days when I don't think I have what it takes to even raise the one we have walking around with us, I trust that He will give me the strength and insight to raise two together. Jasper is a great kid. We've been blessed so much already.

Here is the video of the ultrasound. (there is no audio)

Grandpa and Grandma Gant Visit

Over the Memorial day weekend, Drew's parents came for a visit. They explained they needed a "Jasper fix." :) We were happy to have them here, and they got some great time with Jasper ... reading to him, spending time at the park, giving him baths, etc.

The Texas heat wave (mid- to upper-90's) had already started when they arrived, so we took the opportunity to spend time in / around the water whenever we could. However, we haven't introduced Jasper to pools yet. Instead grandpa and grandma bought him a water table to play with in the yard or on the deck. We also visited the sprinkler park again.

Before they bought a "real" water table, grandma and grandpa make a trial one from a dishpan. Jasper liked it. I think he just really likes getting wet.

There was lots of time spent reading while they were here. Grandma brought us new books for our collection, and they read old ones too. I think Jasper's early morning hair is the best!

This is an awesome picture from the park!

Grandma bought him a broom so he could help keep the deck clean. He likes to help with that household task.

I don't know where he learned it, but Jasper loves to make this funny face when he is particularly happy & excited.
The toy fish grandma and grandpa bought were great for shooting water at Jasper.
He loves running under the sprinkler head of the hose. He'd do it for hours!!!!!!!

Check out the videos from our playtime while they were here.

Time playing with the water table quickly evolved into time running through the sprinkler. Jasper had a blast and got soaked!

Jasper has become quite at home at the sprinkler park. He especially loves running up to water shooting up from the ground and getting his face right in the stream. Then when he's all wet, he runs away grinning from ear to ear. It's a lot of fun!

An interesting development while G&G were here is that Jasper voluntarily stood up in the bathtub, picked up a cup (generally a play item) and peed directly into it. He had complete control over what was happening. Grandma wasn't sure if this was a common thing, but she just took the cup from him and emptied it into the toilet. Then Jasper sat down, and the bath continued. He hasn't done this for us, but who knows ... perhaps it just might sometime down the road. We've never had to deal with a "code brown" as some of our friends have had to contend. We're quite happy about that! :)

Don't Ask me How

... but Jasper climbed out of his crib this morning!

I SO wish I knew how he did this, but unfortunately neither of us actually witnessed what happened. When Drew gets up in the morning, he closes Jasper's bedroom door so that the noise from Drew showering, eating breakfast, us talking, etc. does not wake Jasper up. Drew left for work at 6:45am, and at 7am I was in the bathroom with the baby monitor to hear when Jasper woke up. I heard him wake up and start moving around. Soon I heard the springs of the crib mattress squeak from him walking. Then I heard a loud noise, like the crib was shaken forcefully, and Jasper cried hard. I said, "It sounds like Jasper fell in his crib." So I opened the door to his room ... to find him standing there. He did not have any apparent injuries, so we just went about our day.

Tonight, Drew lowered the mattress to Jasper's crib further, and as he was doing that ... just to add to the "firsts" of the day ... Jasper pee'd on the bathroom floor while we were filling his bathtub. What fun!

Bring on the Utensils!

While grandma Jasper was here in early May she suggested we have Jasper try using utensils. (I swear it's a good thing I'm not doing this motherhood thing in a vacuum because I just don't think of trying new things on my own!) She started him using his spoon to load up peas with his digger (spoon) and pusher (finger) ... using truck illusions was her attempt at getting him to "dig" it. He understood what she wanted him to do but had some trouble in the execution department. He had a hard time loading up the spoon, but once it was loaded he could generally get it to his mouth pretty well. He has to keep working on his alignment, but he's getting better every day.



So we decided to show off a little for grandma and grandpa Gant when they were here over Memorial day. In addition, I decided to add the fork to our repertoire. He does quite well with foods that are easy to stab with the fork, but on some harder ones he loses interest kinda quickly. check it out ...

I heard that Jasper's friend Azalea was eating Cheerios with milk, and for the life of me (again) I can't figure out why I didn't try it earlier. Jasper loves it! (He's just like his grandma Jasper.) His breakfast now starts out with a bowl of Cheerios. He even drinks the milk when he's done. We have to help him with the bowl, but he's learning to drink out of cups better all the time. He's just gotta get that whole portion control thing down. check out our morning fun ...

The Spell of the Backyardigens

The Backyardigens is a totally awesome show. I love it as much as Jasper does, but he especially loves all the singing and dancing. His face lights up when the intro plays, and he becomes entranced when the episode is particularly song-infused. We let him watch it on occasion - like when we need to clip his fingernails and toenails or when he is acting particularly unruly right while I'm trying to make dinner (and Drew isn't home yet). It works like a charm. His response does vary based on the show's content. Sometimes I find him dancing along with the "kids" on the show, and sometimes I find him in exactly the same position in which I left him (on the couch or on the floor). The one thing we have learned is that he does not like the show to end. The show has a particular format, and the end always has the "kids" going into one of the houses for a snack. As they do that and shut the door behind them Jasper bursts into tears. So now we have to stop the show before it gets to that point to keep him from being too upset.

Here is an example of the show's appeal to him.

Papa and Grandma Come to Visit

On May 1st, papa Jasper retired, and he and grandma hit the road for a trip to Texas. It wound them through Indiana, Tennessee and tornado-ridden Arkansas. Thankfully they had no problems on their drive, and they even made it into Austin earlier than planned. We had a great visit with them. Grandma kindly did some shrub pruning that I was nervous to do. Drew came home from work just in time to see Jasper smelling the rosemary bush grandma was pruning. He was taking a good long sniff, and he was having fun. We had a variety of weather here the week they were with us. Some days were lovely and allowed us to have all the windows open. Some days were hot and humid and called for the A/C. But most days gave us the opportunity to be outside at least some. Papa took Jasper for walks, hit golf balls and tried to ease into this retirement thing. We returned to the sprinkler park Jasper liked so much while grandma and papa were here. Unfortunately the sprinklers stopped working while we were there and Jasper never really had a chance to get into it.
But he did spend some time pretending he was a lion with grandma. She started this thing with Jasper while she was here where she'd hold her fists up by her face and say "here comes the lion, sneaking through the jungle, looking for Jasper ... ROAR!" at which time she'd open her fists to be like a lion's mane/emphasize the roaring. The first time she did it she roared pretty loudly, and Jasper was startled. But after that she was a little more tame and he LOVED it. He never got the opening the fists portion of the gig, but he would walk up to grandma and hold his fists up by his face to get her to do it ... over and over and over.

Mother's Day was a lovely day here in Austin. We had a great brunch together and then ...
Jasper and papa enjoyed some (TPC) golf after napping.

Papa and grandma also bought Jasper a sandbox for the deck while they were here. Jasper enjoyed getting his bare feet in the sand and (unfortunately) throwing the sand. We're working on that.
Here grandma and Jasper are enjoying some fun play time.
and a little bit of wrestling.

Grandma, Papa and Jasper

We were sad to see grandma and papa go, but they have busy lives to lead and needed to be back in Kalamazoo for a wedding and to get the house all buttoned up before spending lots of time at the cabin this summer. While they were here they were a big help. Grandma helped me with multiple sewing projects around the house and bathed/put Jasper down for bed every night. They were even willing to do some babysitting so Drew and I could go out one night.

Wrestling!

A typical after dinner / before bathtime activity in our house is for the boys to wrestle. Drew says it gets Jasper tired out for bed. I'm not sure exactly how accurate that is, but they both love it!

Here you can see, after their wrestling match Jasper finds himself victorious. Drew looks a little whiped-out, don't you think?

This latest injury (the cut/puffy lip) is from a fall Jasper took into a pile of leaves and twigs. We don't know exactly what caused the cut, but for a moment upon cleaning it we were sure we'd have to load up and head to the Dell Children's hospital. Thankfully it again proved to be a little bleeder and we consoled ourselves that it wasn't a through puncture and therefore the cut would heal on its own. The interesting thing is that the lip itself was not cut (on the outside at least). The puncture was above the lipline, but sometime in the night we think Jasper might have scratched the wound and caused it to be enlarged. We were surprised when we got him up on Sunday morning to find it looking worse than the day before.

If it's not one thing it's another. No sooner had that wound healed and Jasper fell at the park face first and cut the bridge of his nose on his sunglasses. That cut is currently healing.

These days there is no piece of furniture that is safe from Jasper (except the beds ... they're still too high). He can climb onto anything and pull things down from all the tables. We have to be quite intentional with where we put things or they soon will be in his possession.


He loves climbing on the couch and playing there. He's taken a few tumbles off of it, and so far each has been controlled enough that he hasn't been hurt in the least bit. We'll see if that continues.

Riding along in my...

...wheelbarrow! While Erica and I finished up some yard work, I looked for a way to have Jasper participate. While using the wheelbarrow to move some heavy/wet leaf bags, I found Jasper a ticket to ride.


As you can see, he had a good time participating.

Drew arrives home!

Erica surprised me one day recording my arrival home from work. I treasure the fact that my son looks forward to my arrival home.