Happy Father's Day

To my sweetheart, Mike.

I made him a Father's Day card with this photo on it, and the text, "Lead Me, Guide Me, Walk Beside Me". Mike is a great Dad to Jasper and I am so grateful for him. I love you sweetheart!

Mike & I have a family tradition to make homemade cards for our birthdays, Valentine's Day, our anniversary, Father's Day and Mother's Day. It is a lot of fun. Mike says that he has, "limited craft skills", but he still seems to come up with some creative ideas. My anniversary card was super cute -- I will have to post a photo soon.

Mike & I were talking before church about some of our favorite memories of Mike being a dad for the past 9 1/2 months. I told him that one of mine is when I was delivering Jasper. Mike was SO EXCITED when Jasper came out. He was the most excited I have ever seen him. He was doing a bounce/jump up and down action, and had to be with Jasper at all as the nurses attended to Jasper in different areas of the delivery room. I remember that Mike went to church 11 hours after Jasper was born so that he could bear his testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting about how grateful he was for Jasper.

One of my other favorite things about Mikes is a tradition that he & Jasper have that we call the "Male Mail Team". Mike puts Jasper in the Kelty pack and they go get the mail every night. Jasper LOVES spending time with Mike. Jasper gets really excited when he sees the backpack because he knows it is time for the mail male team to ride! This photo is from their maiden voyage in December.
I am also grateful for my Dad. He is a loving father who has always worked so hard for our family. He recently came to visit and had a great time with Jasper in our backyard in the teeny tiny pool. I love you Dad!

This NEVER happens at our house

Jasper is 9 1/2 months old, and he has NEVER slept on the floor, on the couch, in the pack-n-play, etc. for more than 15 minutes. Before you think that I have not read every sleep book out there or tried everything, you have to remember that Jasper has really bad reflux for the first 8 1/2 months of his life. Since he was 6 weeks old he slept in a Tucker Sling in his crib or his swing. He now sleeps in his crib and takes the first half of his naps in his crib, but has has never been able to just crash out on the floor and fall asleep -- EVER! Whenever I go visiting teaching the other babies are just zonked out on the floor, and I think -- how would it be? Now I know, and I love it. The main reason this happened is because Jasper would not fall asleep for his afternoon nap, and he just pooped himself right out. And of course this happened right when we were supposed to leave to go out to dinner for Father's Day. :> But I am just going to enjoy watching him sleep.
p.s. He just woke up! But I will take the 40 minutes and call it a win!

Swimming with Daddy

Mike went to the office at 6AM this morning to get some work done. We convinced him to call it a day after 4 hours or so and hit the pool with us! Jasper and I have been swimming every day and we were excited to show Mike some of our fun games and tricks. Mike showed us a game or two of his own. Jasper got all tuckered out after all of the fun and excitement!

What is Heaven like?

When you live in Las Vegas, Heaven is REAL grass, lots of tall trees and a cool pool to swim in. Today was playgroup with the mom's and kids in our Ward (church congregation). We went over to one of the mom's homes that has a beautiful BIG backyard. I kept telling Jasper -- for me, today, this is Heaven! The pool has a great big step for the little ones to play on and a big slide. In the photo on the step Jasper is splashing so hard I had to close my eyes (click on the photo to enlarge it and see the drops of water). I pushed him around in this pool float (which you can see in the background of the same photo) for 15 laps or so today. I figured that I might as well try to get a little work out in, and Jasper loves me to swim him around. His favorite game is when I go under the water and pop up for a peek-a-boo.

I owe Mike a big THANK YOU today. I locked my keys in the van when we arrived at the party today. Mike came up to rescue us on his lunch break. I love to tell Mike how hard my life is with all the chores, errands, TRYING to keep up with Jasper, etc. Well, let's just say that when Mike arrived at the pool party in the Heaven of a backyard, suddenly my life didn't seem so hard. There we were splashing, playing and eating Cheeto Puffs. Hard life. :>

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Splash in the pool!

If we don't hit the community pool or go swim at a friend's house, we have fun in our teeny tiny pool in the backyard every day. Jasper can sit and splash for a good 30 minutes. Today we got together with 10 or so mom's from church and their kids at our community pool and Jasper and I stayed in for an hour straight. He loves the water! In our tiny backyard pool he likes to try and climb out of the pool and touch the fake grass or pick up a rock or two to bring into the pool. Yesterday he stood up in the middle of the pool all by himself a few times. I just know he is going to be walking soon. Today in the big pool I drug him around on a fun noodle for most of the time and he had a grand time. It was pretty noisy and with a lot of splashing going on with the big kids, but he did just fine. He has this funny little choking type noise that he does when he likes something and gets excited that he was doing for a while, as we swam around to say hi to different moms and kids at the pool. I asked Mike if he thought this meant that Jasper is going to have a speech problem or something. Mike thinks that Jasper has figured out how to make a new noise and is just having fun with it.

We have been working on a lot of chores around the house the last two days, and Jasper just follows me wherever I go and plays at my feet. I feel like I am on my mission and have a companion with me wherever I go. He really likes the fridge and freezer. When I open either of them he makes a beeline to get inside and get a hold of a shelf before I close the door. He also LOVES it when I open the pots and pans cupboard. Yesterday he entertained himself with a wok pan for 15 minutes. He tries to pull the silverware out of the cutlery tray of the dishwasher and LOVES to pull the folded clothes back out of the laundry basket.

I started feeding him watermelon yesterday and he seems to really like it. Nothing like cold watermelon on a hot day!

9 months and counting

Last Friday I took Jasper to see Dr. LaMotte for his 9 month check-up. Mike was scheduled to come, as he has done for every other well check. Mike had a client meeting come up a few days before the appointment, and I told Mike not to worry -- we would go alone. Besides -- this check-up did NOT involve shots. Of course we got there only to find out today was a blood draw AND they were going to give Jasper one of the shots they were out of last time. :>

Jasper is not really a big kid. When he was 3 months old he was a chunk-o, but he seems to have really thinned out. And now that is constantly on the go, I am sure he will stay long and lean. Mike and I always joke that pound for pound he is the most fit member of our family. :>

Here's Jasper's stats at 9 months plus 1 week:
27 1/ 2 inches long (10 - 25 percentile)
18 lbs 12 oz (10 - 25 percentile)
45 1/2 cm head circumference (50 - 75 percentile)

One thing that is nice about not being a BRAND NEW mom is that I have learned to not worry so much about things, including statistics. If you want to know how bad I was....I remember when the story came out about the 41 lb baby who was only 8 months old in China. This was right at the time when Jasper was a little double-chinned pork chop. So of course I wondered if Jasper was headed down the 41 lb. path. Silly new mom me!

Climb every stair

Jasper just turned 9 months old on June 1st, and he is BUSY! He's got the quickest crawl in the West. He made it out the front door onto the porch twice today. Two days ago he climbed up 2 stairs on our staircase. We oohed and aahhed and thought it was amazing. Today I thought he was just going to climb his regular 2 stairs, but no -- he went up all 12. There is no stopping this kid! He was VERY proud of himself when he made it to the top. To show my support and encouragement I sang him the theme song from "The Jefferson's" TV show, "Movin' on Up". When Mike got home Jasper climbed the stairs again for him in effort to showcase his new skills.

Jasper and I ran a lot of errands today. Our favortie by far was meeting Mike at Firehouse Subs for a yummy lunch. Mike has left for work before 7 AM the last few days, so he doesn't get to see Jasper at all in the morning. So it was extra fun for Mike to have lunch with us so he could spend a little time with Jasper.

Jasper is just an angel we go out. Out to eat, out to shop, etc. He just charms everyone from his high chair and shopping cart and really seems to enjoy meeting people. Today at Bath and Body Works one of the sales clerks asked if she could take Jasper to her Prom. I guess we'll count that for the first time he was asked out on a date.

We went over to Mandy's today so she could fix Jasper's hair that I ATTEMPTED to trim last night. After BUTCHERING Mike's hair soon after we were married you would think that I would have learned that I can't cut hair!

Up and running

FINALLY -- I am committing to regular blog posts. I want to keep our family and close friends up to speed on our adventures, and I just have to start journaling. Time is flying by and I know that I can't get it back. I know that I will not remember everything that I truly think I will remember!