Captivated

We celebrated on Tuesday with the kiddos for the big inauguration day! It was really cute and wonderful to hear Finn say "President Barack Obama!"

Here is President Barack Obama telling Jasper to eat his peas.


Jasper and his buddy Max in their matching zoot suits! Max turns 1 this weekend- happy birthday Max!


Leif, Jasper, Anja and Finn play together at the Inauguration Party!


My dad's cousin Carole painted this stool for Jasper. How amazing is that? With Bear Dog on there and everything! Thank you Carole!

a boy and his dog, a dog and his boy

Bear and Jasper have discovered a new love for each other. They like to play chase in the evenings... this one is best with the volume turned up...

And then, just tonight, Jasper discovered that he is really good at walking with his wagon! He didn't want to stop, just walk and walk. We were totally amazed! He hadn't ever taken more than about three steps before tonight!

Jasper's Clean!

Jasper spends Mondays at Grandma and Grandpa Filby's house! One of their favorite activites (aside from chasing around their dog Kodi, who actually lets Jasper catch her and pull her tail) is bathtime! These are pictures from Grandpa's camera.

Rubber duckie, you're the one...


Happy in the tub!


Jasper, post-bath, with his favorite new toy, his toothbrush!


What good dental hygiene!


It was so cold yesterday- Jasper and I went for a visit to the lake. Jasper is very into pointing these days...

Happy Boy

Jasper is so much better. He is finally gaining back all the weight he lost when he was sick and is finding his chubby little cheeks once again! And Jim and I have regained our sanity as well. The weather has been wonderful here- snowy and not too cold. We've been out skiing and playing outside as much as we can.

Here's Jasper digging into his Christmas presents that arrived from Maryland! Thank you to Nana, Pop, Grand Aunt Nancy Ann, Dot, and Jane for the presents! He had a great time opening them.



His favorite present was his new drum and assorted percussion instruments. The kid really likes to drum...


Here's Jasper and his new friend Tae. They are just three days apart in age and were very interested in each other! My friend Margaret and her husband Hansi just adopted Tae over Christmas from Korea- what a wonderful thing. Welcome Tae!


Margaret, Tae, Jasper and I went on a hike in Jay Cooke State Park. I learned the Korean word for when your baby is riding on your back... "ah-boo-bah" (that'd be the phonetic spelling).


Here's Jasper talking to his Nana on the phone. Jasper really likes the phone.


Did I mention...drumming?... (note that he is using both a drum stick and a maraca- now that's impressive)

Back to our adventures...

I really do have some fun photos and stories to post, but the good news is that we've been having too much fun to stop and do that! So, in the meantime, you can check out Tae's blog (click on the link) to see some of what we were up to this past weekend! They were so cute together!

and then the good news...

Guess who slept through the night last night? 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Yep, that's right, the whole family. Even Bear had a spring in his step this morning. Ahhhhh....

Getting Better...

So I generally sugarcoat my blogs fairly strongly (for example, if you read the blog for Jasper's first few months after he was born, you'd think we were having an easy time of parenting, which was anything but the truth). So I'm not going to do it this time. The past few weeks (well and last month really) have been really challenging. Jasper has been really sick (and therefore cranky), which is hard enough, but combined with him not sleeping for more than two hours at a time during the night, they have been pure crazy-making. He finally finished with his stomach virus late last week. He then went to the doc for his double ear infections and this terrible cough that hasn't gone away for over a month. He had to start a nebulizer treatment for his cough, which makes him hyper, and adds to the challenge of sleeping. And another antibiotic for his ears. It's been rough. As a result of all of the above, we also had to cancel a trip to see Jim's family over New Years which was very disappointing. Jasper misses his Nana, Pop, and GANA!


Luckily, he seems to be doing better. In fact, last night, he only got up twice during the night, which was a HUGE accomplishment. Both Jim and I felt like we had slept for days. His ears also seem to be doing better and his cough is subsiding a bit. So I HOPE we are over the hump and onto healthier days in 2009.


Jim and I actually got out for a ski yesterday afternoon in the beautiful snow and we both felt much better afterwards too. And today we were finally able to celebrate Christmas with my family after this virus. So things are looking up...


Here's Jasper with his new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa


Mom and Jasper and his new Curious George


Papa and Jasper opening his new Smartwoolies from Auntie Andrea and Uncle E


Jasper, Jim, and Jasper's Great Grandma June (we had Christmas dinner today with my grandma at her nursing home)

Jasper has taken a few steps behind his walker wagon just this weekend. He is very comfortable standing and cruising- he's going to be walking in no time!

This is Jasper getting his nebulizer. He has to sit with the mask on for about 10 minutes at a time during which I literally sing and dance to try to entertain him. Ahhh... parenting.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009!