Blue Eyes

Drew's been trying for weeks to get photos of Jasper's eyes to show what color they are. The funny thing about blue eyes is that they turn red when photographed ... and yes, if we had time we'd make the digital correction and get them all pretty. But I don't have time for that. However, he's taken a couple lately that don't make Jasper (or me) look possessed.

Big Boy

Time flies when you're having fun, and Jasper certainly is a fun little - or rather big - boy. He's getting big and heavy, and he continues to surprise us with what he likes and doesn't like. Turns out, he's a homebody and doesn't really like going out in his car seat or sometimes even on walks in his stroller. We've been taking him on many errands lately to try to get him used to being out and about before we head to Utah (March 2-5). So far, he still doesn't like it.

Jasper at 9weeks.

Here is his outfit for his first trip to church. We just went to the worship service on Feb 3rd, but he was a trooper and did well even though he was awake the whole time. This past Sunday we went to both the worship service and Sunday school. He was awake for the service and slept right through Sunday school. He was a good boy!

Jasper is big. His belly is round, and he loves to kick his legs. He wakes up in the morning in his crib and hangs out for a while just kicking his legs like crazy. :)

Jasper at 10weeks. This is Jasper's favorite position when he gets on his changing table. I don't know why ... but it makes it easy for us to do bicycles, which he also enjoys.

Out and About

Yesterday, fresh off his first round of vaccinations, we took Jasper to M3 to meet Drew's coworkers. They've been wondering when he'd make an appearance, and they gave him a warm welcome. Debbie, the office manager and receptionist, was the first person we met, and she just about ate him up. She loves kids and is the resident baby caretaker when there are business functions to which family members are invited. It's good if the little kids can be comfortable with her, since they'll be spending guaranteed time with her. :) Jasper got to meet Terry & Joan, Rob, Casey, Melissa, Paul and Jen Kramer, Paul Parks, Ron, Russel, Walt, Kim, Steve, David and of course Mike Hankins. He had a good time and even stayed awake through it all. Considering he was still recovering from his shots, he did really well! Here he is sitting at daddy's desk.

This morning, Drew took Jasper and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast so I could get a little more sleep. Just when it was time for me to pull myself out of bed, Drew got a text message to meet some guys at Rudy's and I encouraged him to go. I ate the super waffles he had made, and Jasper slept in his bouncy seat. I don't know how he's comfortable in this position, but somehow he was ... for about 10-15min.

We love to read Big Red Barn. It isn't always a sure bet to calm him down, but I think the lyrical text is really appealing to him. It's one of my favorites to read. Perhaps my mother's love of farms imprinted itself on my DNA too. :)

Giggleman

Jasper is starting to smile and coo more and more. We can't quite seem to catch his vocalization on a video very much. I suppose it's because most of the time it happens during the day when I am home alone with him and not always johnny on the spot with the camera. However .... here are some photos of him smiling that are pretty cute. Enjoy.

2 months!

Jasper is growing strong and big. We've had to move the straps up on his car seat, and this allowed for more room for strap covers and new friends Gio Giraffe and Larry Lion. (Gio is short for Giovanni.)

We took this photo (above) after our visit to the doctor's office this morning. As indicated previously, we thought his weight was around 14lbs. Our home scale as an accuracy of +/- 0.5lbs, but today we got the official weigh-in at his 2-month appointment.

Jasper now:

• weighs 14lbs, 10oz ... 97th percentile.


• is 23.5" long ... 75th percentile. (his girth outstrips his height - but that's ok for now.)


• has a head circumference of 42.4cm ... 95th percentile.

If you recall photos of him sitting in the corner of the couch from the beginning of January (with the football), we took a photo of him tonight (teddy bear outfit) ... Look how he's changed.

For one, he is much more alert these days. He has more control over his arm and leg movements, too. The teddy bear outfit he has on tonight is actually a 6mo outfit. He's fitting into it now with little room to spare. His torso especially is quite long. We don't really have any clothes that are baggy on him anymore. He's keeping me guessing with what still fits him. :)

We rounded out the doctor visit this morning with three vaccine shots. He really didn't like them, but he recovered faster than I expected. Daddy held him tightly and calmed him down pretty quickly. He hasn't shown any signs of fever since the shots, so that's good news! Our next round of shots will be in 2 more months. For now, we'll start heading out into public a little more and hope he doesn't get sick.

Future Cyclist

Here is Jaspet getting an early start to his cycling career!

Random Shots, 6-8wks

We haven't taken as many photos over the last couple weeks. We're not sure why. But here are a few random ones.

Here's a good smile from our little guy. I think he looks like a someone from biblical times when he has the towel over his head like that. I think of baby Moses when I see him like this actually. He generally loves bathtime each night, but he doesn't like hanging out for the massage afterward. Lately he's gotten pretty fussy if we don't dry him off right away and get him dressed for bed so he can eat and hit the sack. Of course, he doesn't settle down for bed right away ... In fact, last night was the first night in about a week that he didn't fuss after his late night feeding. We're hoping that keeps up, but tonight things don't look real positive.

Drew LOVES this hat, and Jasper doesn't mind it. We're getting him ready for the snow of Utah. :)

Jasper and Drew have some quality time reading the Big Red Barn.

He wasn't jumping for joy to be in this seat (last night), but look at how well he's holding up his head.

Last night Drew also suffered through the worst diaper blow-out to date. It soaked through two onesies and Jasper's pants to mess up Drew's shirt and pants (and the cover of his bouncy seat). Drew was seriously close to cutting off the onesie before he figured out how to get it off Jasper without messing up his face, etc. It was a tense episode while I was out at Target, but they both made it through. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but listening to Jasper cry through that episode is something Drew wishes he didn't have to live through.

Overalls in the house!

We dressed Jasper in his overalls today, and it produced some fun images. A big thank you goes out to the Kyle family who gave Jasper the overalls as a gift. We think you will agree that Jasper is getting pretty big!

Erica and Jasper enjoying some quality time.

He is getting stronger all the time!

I love this picture, but don't miss the hair!

Erica is looking fabulous as usual!

That is all for now. The next update will include a video of our future cyclist!

Smiling Jasper Video

Jasper is smiling more often, and we wanted to share this with you.

Weigh-In

Tonight I bought a scale to see how big our little guy is getting. Drew and I both stepped on the scale with and without Jasper, and the consistent difference in weight was ..... 14.5lbs! Good grief! I knew he was feeling heavy, but this was beyond what I imagined. Of course, I also just bought a mega pack of size 1 diapers for babies 10-14lbs. What are the odds! He doesn't look too big for the diapers, amazing, so we'll see these through - but I anticipate we'll be moving on to size 2 with our next purchase.

Play Date

I'm a little behind in posting ... on Sunday night Jasper had his first play date. The three of us were invited to Azalea's (and Ame and Ryan's) house for dinner. The two got along great. Actually, Jasper wasn't really very alert, but Azalea was wide-eyed and smitten with both Jasper and Drew. :) She is a beautiful little girl and will be a hot mama prom date, should all of us still be in Austin some 17-18yrs from now.

Video of Snow in Austin with Jasper

Jasper's First View of Snow!

We thought our trip to Utah would be Jasper's first view of snow, but it turns out he experienced some snow in our own front yard!






I've been working from home due to the traffic hazards traveling in Austin. They don't have the equipment to deal with this type of storm. I'll send more pictures later as the snow continues to fall here. It is a crazy day!

So Big

Jasper continues to grow ... and grow out of his clothes. For the most part we've moved on to 3-6 month clothing, and even some of those are too small. I couldn't tell you how much he weighs right now, but we'd guess somewhere around 12 lbs.

Here he is in the outfit from Auntie Brittany and cousins Linnea and Karin. It has a little extra room in it, so we'll get repeat wear out of it - but I don't think it will last until he's 6 months, not at this rate of growth. :)

This outfit was from Auntie Lindsay. It has some extra room for Jasper to keep on growing! This outfit Drew & I bought on a whim as we raced through Target one afternoon between Christmas and New Years. It's super cute with a dump truck on the front. It's a 3M outfit (since he was growing out of & running out of newborn sleep & play outfits), but it's already too short! Jasper's feet are squished into the enclosed legs, so we opened up the legs and gave him a little room to stretch out. We put socks on him since it's chilly today (around 30 degrees - not that we've been outside). So ... this sleep & play outfit is being retired already.

I've been reading about developmental milestones today, checking off the ones he can do already. He's started smiling at us, as of the end of last week. It's a trip! He even gets out little partial laughs. They are the beginning of what will become full laughs later. I can't wait for that day. In addition, his neck is growing stronger each day. He can hold his head better, so we tried the wonder seat tonight. I don't know what it's called generically, but these nifty seats (a gift from Drew's Aunt Shelley, Uncle Pat and cousins Patrick & Lance) allow kids to sit upright before they're able to on their own. He just has to develop full neck control before he can use it. We're not quite there yet.

Bath Time

Bath time is a nightly ritual in our house. Drew loves giving Jasper a bath, and Jasper loves taking a bath. Nice, huh? We'll take a video sometime to show you how content he is, but for right now you can check out his big belly and his baby rolls. ~~ One thing I think is totally impressive is that he has found this toy with his foot and plays with it while he's in the tub.

After his bath Jasper goes down for the night, and for the last four nights he's slept at least 6 hours. Last night he slept from 10:30pm til 6:45am. Wow! We're not expecting this to keep up as his normal pattern henceforth, but it sure would be nice!

Yes, believe it or not - Jasper is comfortable in this position.

Football!

I'm ready for the game tonight. Go Buckeyes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tummy Time

Here is a video of Jasper during tummy time. Enjoy!

An Afternoon Walk and Panera in Austin!

While my parents were in town, we had one very nice day on Friday. I was able to take the day off from work, and we went for a walk with Jasper on the Town Lake Hike and Bike trail in downtown Austin. It was almost 80 degrees and the setting sun was beautiful.

We started our adventure from the Whole Foods parking deck. Jasper started out in his jogging stroller, but he quickly decided that it wasn't comfortable. Eventually, Erica transitioned Jasper to the Baby Bjorn. Jasper took to that a little better, but we eventually transitioned Jasper back to his stroller.

One the way back to the car, I took a curb drop a little too hard, and Jasper started to cry from the jostling. That made the last couple of blocks a little long. Once we got back to the car, Erica fed Jasper, and we then enjoyed dinner at Whole Foods. We will keep taking Jasper out on short walks. We want to expose him to the outside world as conditions permit.

My parents left on Saturday after spending a week here with Jasper. We enjoyed having them here. On Saturday night, we confirmed that Austin has its first Panera Bread restaurant. A co-worker of mine said he saw it on the SW side of town, and Erica confirmed it on Panera's website. Of course, we went there for dinner, and even Jasper enjoyed it (he had milk courtesy of Erica).

I'm hoping to take Jasper out for walk today. The sun is shining, and the temp is in the 60's. I'll post pictures if we are able to get out.

1 Month Old

On Monday Jasper turned 1 month old. I cannot tell you where the last 31 days have gone, but in the blink of an eye they are gone. He is growing in leaps and bounds, outgrowing his clothes and filling out his stature every day. One day shy of three weeks old, he weighed in at 10 lbs, 4.4oz at the doctor's office. Needless to say, he is feeding well. Drew walked around the house that afternoon saying "10-4 good buddy!" We've already retired some of his new clothes, and one outfit he wore yesterday was for the first and last time.

Jasper on his 1 month birthday. This onesie was retired after one wearing.

In addition, we are making the transition to feeding him when he wants it not just every two-three hours. He can (but doesn't always) go up to 5 hours between feedings once each day, but we've only been lucky to have that one long stretch overnight once. I'm still getting up at least once each night to feed him, and sometimes I find myself up more than once and stumbling through the day on about 3 hours of sleep.

Tummy time is no match for my son. He does not dread it, and even sometimes falls asleep while we're trying to get him to be active. He has a super strong neck and back and can lift his head to look directly at your face if you're holding him up against your chest. He can also lift his legs and head at the same time during tummy time and can lift then turn his head from one side to the other. Pretty good stuff! He reminds me of his cousin Linnea who didn't like the feel of grass as a baby and would sit in the grass lifting her leg (alternately) in the air so she wouldn't feel the prickly grass blades on her leg. For being little fragile things, some babies have amazing ab muscles. :)

Right now, as I type, Drew is bonding with his son. He's asleep on the couch (lying on his back) with Jasper lying on his chest. He loves this position. They're pretty cute together.

Over the holidays we've had lots of visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Jasper were here for an unusually quiet Christmas Eve and Day. It was relaxed in anticipation of the rest of the family. Grandma Jasper has been a lifesaver this first month. She's been with us the most and has helped us get through some of the more challenging nights of fussiness. Even she was shocked to see how much Jasper had grown in the 10 days since she was last with us. Good friends Rachel & Bret Horton as well as Joel & Stacy Hock came to meet the little guy. Then on Dec 27th, my sisters arrived with ther husbands and Jasper's cousins, Linnea and Karin. Oh wow did that crew have a blast with Jasper. His aunties loved on him as much as they could, and his cousins just doted on him. They didn't like how much baby Jasper slept because they couldn't play with him as much as they wanted to - but they each got to hold him, and Linnea spent time with Grandma Jasper feeding and changing him. On Dec 31st the last of that crew departed, and Drew's parents arrived. They'll be with us until the end of this week, and they are having a great time bonding with Jasper.

Cousins Linnea and Karin Shively with baby Jasper