Puzzle Mania

Jasper loves puzzles. ... LOVES them! He devours new ones. It's clear he figures out where he should start - what element of the puzzle he should do first and how to expand from there. Then when he's finished putting it together, he generally breaks it apart and says "let's do it again!"

I brought a new puzzle home on Friday that he wanted to try out right away. It has Elmo and Ernie - Elmo in pajamas & slippers, brushing his teeth; Ernie in a bubble bath with his rubber duckie. He can identify all the Ernie pieces and put them together. Once he does that, he sometimes starts singing

rubber duckie, you're the one.

you make bathtime so much fun.

rubber duckie i'm awfully fond of you.

Remember the giant fire truck puzzle we gave Jasper for Christmas?



He can put it together on his own now. We don't have to help him at all. You have to be patient. You can't rush him. Given time, he'll get it done. It's really fun to watch & listen to him put it together. He talks to himself as he does it, identifying the pieces "let's do the wheels" or "here is the bumper."


I bought him a truck puzzle that I left for him as a present when I went to Michigan. That was at the beginning of April, and he can put that together on his own now, too. He likes having us work on it with him, but he doesn't need us. Here are some shots of Jasper and Drew working on the puzzle.



Oh yeah, he likes to celebrate small achievements, too.

Given the opportunity, Benjamin likes to work on the puzzles, too.

Jasper can recognize patterns really well. I need to keep finding new puzzles to challenge him. This is one of the latest ones (an Easter gift):

With this puzzle we've been teaching him about where people live. He easily locates Kalamazoo, Michigan; Akron, Ohio; Minnesota and Texas. Last week I told him who lives in Minnesota (Shivelys), and that is where the cabin is - where we ride in Papa's boat. This Sunday Papa called during dinner. They talked about a variety of topics (eating eggs, golfing), and out of the blue Jasper said "Papa, are we going to go to the cabin?" Drew and I were floored by the mental association he made.

This afternoon we worked on this puzzle, and I asked him what he wanted to start on. He said "the boats." There are three boats off the Atlantic coast, and he can find those pieces and get started from there. It is fascinating to watch him work on this puzzle and try to see what he sees. The brain works in such amazing ways!

6 months old !

Look at what a big boy he is.

What a difference 6 months makes! Within approximately one week of turning 6 months Benjamin (1) started sitting up steadily, (2) would roll over with ease: front-to-back and back-to-front and (3) stopped spitting up with great frequency and volume. It was rather amazing!


All the doctors say that a baby's esophageal sphincter muscle calms down and starts actually doing it's job (keeping food down) at 6 months time, but I just wondered if that would truly happen for Benjamin. I had told Drew some weeks ago that if Benjamin did not stop spitting up at 6 months I was going to be pretty down. But that is nearly behind us. A new day has dawned for our little guy, and we're thrilled at his advancements.

Because of his work schedule, Drew does not get to see much of Benjamin each day. But, Benjamin clearly knows who his daddy is and loves seeing him and spending time with him. Whenever Benjamin wakes up in the later evening, Drew first tries to console him and loves having chances to cuddle with him. We're losing our baby day by day. This is supposed to happen, but it's still hard.

He's tipping the scales at 20lbs, 3oz and running 27 inches tall. I don't know how to keep him in clothes. He's busting out of Jasper's old clothes, and anything less than 12month-sized clothes are too small. Soon he'll outgrown his car seat (at 22lbs), and he's in size 4 diapers. Size 4!


The foray into solid foods has begun with the introduction of rice & oatmeal cereal. He did not reject it out of hand like his older brother had, but we quickly determined that he likes it thick and warm. Anything too thin, and the mere process of getting his lips and tongue around the spoon would push the watery cereal out of his mouth. But he'd turn around and open wide like he wanted more. Ah, parenting ... it's such trial and error! We've got Benjamin going on both rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. Jasper loves oatmeal himself, so he thinks it's pretty cool that Benjamin likes it too.





He talks and babbles in a beautifully happy tone. He's most eloquent after eating, when his belly is full and he hasn't a care in the world. He's full of smiles most all of the time and still thinks one of the best things in the world is his older brother.

Here Benjamin is trying hard to figure out what his brother is eating ... it's Cheerios, of course. On this particular day, Jasper had been feeling sick all morning, and here after a long nap he was feeling well enough to eat something. I gave him dry Cheerios, and he took the bowl out to the living room and sat right next to Benjamin. He could not have sat any closer to him, and it was absolutely adorable!


Despite the fact that he looks tippy, Benjamin actually has remarkable control over his body. He can reach far ahead of himself to get something and then pull himself right back up.




As you might imagine, everything still goes in Benjamin's mouth. On Easter Sunday, when I picked him up from the nursery, two workers told me "we think he's teething." I just smiled, sort of laughed and said "did he get anyone's jaw?" That seems to be his favorite thing on which to gnaw. I'm not spat upon anymore, but I'm nearly drooled to death every day.

Benjamin does not have any consistent wake-up time in the morning. two weeks ago, for three days running he was sleeping past 8:30am ... one day until nearly 10am. I couldn't believe it! Then 4 days later he was awake at 6am. Go figure! Despite the weirdness to his wake-up time, Benjamin still naps like a champ (thank you, Weissbluth).

Benjamin likes to play with both the piano and guitar. He loves it when he can get the guitar to play music (and loves it especially when Jasper turns it on and dances for us!) I wonder if this indicates any musical affinity.

Benjamin likes being in the jumpy seat, and here it appears he's doing an Irish jig. He can get some serious air while jumping, but it doesn't take long for him to go from laughing to crying.


Yep, he's thinking about crawling. He gets onto his belly to grab things, and just recently he's starting to scoot. Stay tuned!


such cute rolls ...

A very common question is running through Benjamin's head: what is Jasper doing?

Quick Trip

While Grandpa and Grandma Gant were having some quality time with Jasper, Benjamin and I flew to Michigan for Auntie Lindsay's baby shower. Lindsay is due on May 7th. We can't wait to meet baby boy Atkinson!

It was a nice, albeit short, weekend with the extended family. Papa and Auntie Brittany drove to Detroit to pick us up. Lindsay, Chris and Daisy drove up from Indianapolis. Adam and Belle drove over from Minnesota. Coming from vastly different starting points and starting times, we all arrived within 1.5hrs of each other at Nana and Papa's house. Pretty good timing!

Benjamin and I were the first to arrive, and we were greeted by a very friendly welcoming committee - newly adorned with matching Meijer sale rack purchases. :) Karin and Linnea are growing up so fast, it's hard to believe it! As you can see below, Benjamin was bundled up in blankets in his car seat. We left warm Texas weather for the blustery winds of Michigan - and it was nippy!


While there, Benjamin got lots of attention from cousins, aunties, uncles, nana and papa. He showed a great affinity for touch and feel books, and he loved having his big cousin Linnea read to him! (She's in kindergarten.)

Jasper was quite fond of his Uncle Chris when he was Benjamin's age. As you can see, Benjamin is too! I think it's the facial hair.

Lindsay was blessed with awesome gifts from many friends in Kalamazoo. The shower hostesses, Wendy and Linda, treated us to a lovely morning (despite the kitchen disaster) with fun games and delicious food. Too bad Lindsay never tried those almond bars - only the best little treat ever! We had lots of fun visiting with former neighbors and church friends who came to the shower or stopped by on Friday to drop off gifts.

And then, in a flash, the weekend was over. Shivelys got on the road Sunday morning with the threat of snow all the way home. Atkinsons left for Indiana at the same time that we (Papa, Nana, Benjamin and I) left for the Detroit airport (mid-afternoon). Shivelys ran into no snow. Our flight left on time and only arrived a little late. Atkinsons just barely started driving into snow as they hit the northern part of Indianapolis, and Nana and Papa hit snow just 30miles shy of Kalamazoo. Everyone made it home safe and sound. What a blessing!

Jasper was waiting to see us at the airport when we got home. He was all jammied-up, but excited for mom to be home. Turns out the separation was harder on him than I anticipated. Three days was just a little too much. But it is a natural part of growing up and a good stretching experience. He of course was with people who love him and took good care of him while I was gone, so I never for a moment worried about him. Next time it will be easier. And there will of course be more "next times." Daddy's gotta climb those mountains. :)

Grandpa and Grandma Arrive

Yes, just after Nana and Papa left, in less than one week, we were blessed to be visited by Grandpa and Grandma Gant. March / early April is not a fun time in the midwest, but it's lovely in Texas ... so we always get visitors. :)

We introduced Grandpa to squeezable yogurt, of which he was a fan. Jasper had fun playing at the park with his grandparents who kindly took care of him while Benjamin and I travelled to Michigan for Auntie Lindsay's baby shower the first weekend in April.

While Benjamin and I were gone, Jasper et al attended Zeren's birthday party at Central Market. Miss Mallory (Jasper's first crush) was Zeren's nanny, and we've gotten together with them a few times for play groups. Jasper and Zeren like playing together and ask about each other. Jasper was looking quite cool in his new Lightning McQueen and Mater sunglasses. (If only we could find them again!)

Here is the birthday girl herself!

After the party, Jasper et al went on an adventure ... on the city BUS! Just a few blocks from Central Market is a spot to park and take the Capital Metro bus downtown. So they went to the Patagonia store. The very next day they got to ride the bus again to church. Jasper was loving it! He sooooo loves riding the bus, and this sort of fulfills one of Drew's goals - which is to rely exclusively on public transportation or self-propelled transportation. He'd ride down to Mellow Johnny's each Sunday if it wouldn't be so much of a burden on me to get the three of us to church on time. Oh well, one day things will be easier and he won't have to hang back to take care of us so much.


Jasper loves to wrestle with his daddy, and one night he got to have fun wrestling with his grandpa, too!

Benjamin and Grandma spent some time hanging out while Jasper and his Grandpa were wrestling, but Jasper took a moment amid the fun to come over and pose with his brother. How cute!

Rolling Down a Hill

Jasper went to Luke's birthday party at Springwoods Park and had a blast playing on the playground equipment. When he had exhausted that, he started running around. To keep him from running out into the parking lot, I suggested he roll down this small hill. I thought it was the perfect size for a 2-year-old to learn how to roll down a hill. It didn't take him long to get the hang of it and love it. It's similar to spinning around and getting dizzy, which he also loves to do!

Apparently this is a bigger issue if you are allergic to grass. Ugh.

Approximately an hour or less after this fun, Jasper's eyelids were puffy and pink. I was shocked. We've had the boy tested for "Central Texas allergens," and he came back just moderately allergic to hickory/pecan. There was nothing in the test results to alert us to grass. I'm assuming grass was also tested. Why wouldn't it be? Regardless, I was not expecting it to be a problem, and to be honest I'm just guessing that grass was the allergen trigger. I don't really know. Of course, my confidence in this allergy test is all thrown into suspicion by the following comment from the pediatric dermatologist, "Don't believe the tests. Believe your eyes." great!!!!!

Anywho, this little roll down the hill triggered Jasper's eczema and caused a major flare-up. His arm and leg creases were soon on fire, and in two days his face was scaly and rosy. His whole body itched, including his scalp. He was so obviously in discomfort it was hard to watch and hard to help him not itch. We just had hydocortisone increased strength ointment to put on along with lotion. If there was a lapse in the antihistamine he was taking, he would awake from a dead sleep and cry because he itched. Poor thing! And then (murphy's law) when we finally saw the dermatologist, almost all of his symptoms had abated. Since the first flare-up, there have been two more. One started just after our visit to the dermatologist and the other started yesterday.

Eczema cannot be eliminated; it can only be managed. We're still working on figuring out how to properly manage it for him. He's gotten really good at giving us time to get him "lotioned-up." I'd love it if he did not need to be on an antihistamine long-term, but we'll see. I've been a little lax about it lately, and I wonder if that has prompted this recent flare-up. We'll see.