Nana will be very happy to know that I've updated Jasper's stats on his growth chart on the right hand side. I've also added how old they were at each appointment to make it easier to compare the two of them at their appointments. Obviously Jasper was much bigger than Harper was at birth and the early months, but she caught up to be average right around the age he is now, so it will be interesting to see how they compare from here on out.
To compare them at 6 months, Jasper weights only 1lb, 1oz more than Harper did, but is 1 3/4 inches taller than she was!
At his 4 month appointment, Jasper was 15lbs, 4oz and was in the 50th % for weight. He was 25 3/4 inches and in the 75th % for height.
At his 6 month appointment, he was 17lbs, 7oz and was in the upper end of 50th% for weight. He was 27 1/4 inches and in the upper end of 75th% for height.
Harper
Jasper
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Meeting Barney
A few weeks ago we went to Stonebriar Mall in Frisco. The Sprout Network was doing a mall tour with two of their most popular characters: Barney and Chica. When Harper used to be home with Daddy a couple days a week, they would watch the Sprout Network (aka PBS kids) and Harper fell in love with Chica, the chicken puppet who co-hosts the show (along with one of three rotating human hosts). Much to my dismay, she also fell in love with Barney, the lovable (to most) purple dinosaur. I am not a Barney fan. He has always annoyed me and I had hoped that I could manage to avoid him while my kids were growing up. Unfortunately Daddy discovered that Barney was a great distraction for Harper while he was trying to get things done... and sometimes Daddy would watch too. ;)
When we heard about the mall tour, we decided we would try to go, but not get our hopes up about what it might be like, or if the crowds were too big to really do anything. After we participated in a work gathering early in the morning in downtown Dallas, we headed up to Frisco and went to the mall to try and figure out where this thing was happening. When we finally got there, Harper saw the cardboard signs with Barney and Chica and was very excited to see their pictures. Little did she know what was ahead! We saw the line, decided it was do-able and proceeded to wait to meet the Big Purple Guy. We were very fortunate to get there when we did since the line quickly stretched past many, many storefronts. I videotaped Harper's reaction upon first seeing Barney. She still hadn't known exactly what we were doing there, and it has given me a glimpse into what our future might look like when the Justin Bieber of her time comes around. oy. Sheer excitement.
As we got closer, the line kind of wound around in a funny way and the last little leg actually led us away from Barney before we turned around and got to him. Explaining this to a 2 year old is very challenging, but eventually we worked our way closer, and she was so excited, she actually tried to break the barriers a few times to run up to him before it was her turn. We managed to keep her held back, fixed her hair, and got her all ready for her big moment. They gave each kid a "backstage pass" which had a barcode that they scanned to identify each child as they took their picture. The parents could then download the official Sprout picture a couple days later.
We had actually joked that it would be funny if Harper was terrified of him. But "nah - she's way too excited to get scared". Ha!! Well, we shouldn't have been surprised. She is wary of new situations and people. The following series of pictures tells the whole story. She was terrified from the moment it was her turn. She didn't walk up by herself, so Daddy had to carry her up there. She then wouldn't be put down for a picture, but instead held on for dear life.
After the Barney fiasco, we wisely decided not to wait in line for Chica. Though I think Jon would have not minded if we had. The human host there at Stonebriar was Kelly, who is Jon's favorite. :)
The excitement wore her out, and she was crashed out on the way home.
Despite my lack of adoration for Barney, I'm glad we went and it was so fun to see her get so excited. And it's yet another thing we will be able to talk about to her friends (and boyfriends!)
When we heard about the mall tour, we decided we would try to go, but not get our hopes up about what it might be like, or if the crowds were too big to really do anything. After we participated in a work gathering early in the morning in downtown Dallas, we headed up to Frisco and went to the mall to try and figure out where this thing was happening. When we finally got there, Harper saw the cardboard signs with Barney and Chica and was very excited to see their pictures. Little did she know what was ahead! We saw the line, decided it was do-able and proceeded to wait to meet the Big Purple Guy. We were very fortunate to get there when we did since the line quickly stretched past many, many storefronts. I videotaped Harper's reaction upon first seeing Barney. She still hadn't known exactly what we were doing there, and it has given me a glimpse into what our future might look like when the Justin Bieber of her time comes around. oy. Sheer excitement.
Jasper was a little less excited than Harper was.
As we got closer, the line kind of wound around in a funny way and the last little leg actually led us away from Barney before we turned around and got to him. Explaining this to a 2 year old is very challenging, but eventually we worked our way closer, and she was so excited, she actually tried to break the barriers a few times to run up to him before it was her turn. We managed to keep her held back, fixed her hair, and got her all ready for her big moment. They gave each kid a "backstage pass" which had a barcode that they scanned to identify each child as they took their picture. The parents could then download the official Sprout picture a couple days later.
Here she is with her cute pass (before I had fixed her hair)
Here is Harper waiting (patiently) for her turn.
We had actually joked that it would be funny if Harper was terrified of him. But "nah - she's way too excited to get scared". Ha!! Well, we shouldn't have been surprised. She is wary of new situations and people. The following series of pictures tells the whole story. She was terrified from the moment it was her turn. She didn't walk up by herself, so Daddy had to carry her up there. She then wouldn't be put down for a picture, but instead held on for dear life.
As you can see, the official Sprout picture turned out a little less than stellar! Here she is a few minutes later when we walked around the other side of where Barney was to see Chica. She was much happier. 1 - to see Chica, and 2 - to have a safe distance between she and the puppet!
After the Barney fiasco, we wisely decided not to wait in line for Chica. Though I think Jon would have not minded if we had. The human host there at Stonebriar was Kelly, who is Jon's favorite. :)
Harper waving bye bye to Chica.
The excitement wore her out, and she was crashed out on the way home.
Despite my lack of adoration for Barney, I'm glad we went and it was so fun to see her get so excited. And it's yet another thing we will be able to talk about to her friends (and boyfriends!)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
My 6 Month Old Boy
I haven't done a lot of detailed posts about what each kid is doing, and I really need to be better about that. Here's a bit of catch up on Jasper. He turned 6 months old two weeks ago!
We started him on solids the week he turned 6 months old and we're introducing a new food each week. So far he's had sweet potatoes and carrots, and he by far prefers the sweet potatoes. Next I think will be butternut squash, then comes the green veggies. He's a very messy eater at times, and since he usually hops in the bath right after, I don't really clean him up much which makes for great pictures. Currently he's only getting dinner as a solid meal.
I'm still exclusively breastfeeding. Well, in addition to the solids obviously. I pump three times a day and nurse at night and all weekend long. Pumping doesn't seem like as much of a chore this time around, probably because I'm enjoying it while it lasts, knowing it will be over all too soon as he gets older. I'm really glad nursing is still going great, and so far he's not showing any signs of being done with it yet. Harper gave up nursing at 11 months, so it will be interesting to see how long he lasts. He tends to get really distracted while wanting to watch what Harper's doing. But times like tonight when he becomes totally inconsolable in the middle of eating his carrots, and I can comfort him by nursing his carrot-covered body (and getting carrot-covered myself!) it makes me happy to still be doing it.
Jasper is completely in love with his sister. No one can make him laugh like she does, and she brings the biggest smiles to his face. The feeling is quite mutual, and Harper really enjoys "mothering" him all the time. He's her own real live baby doll! At times I think she forgets he's not a doll and can be a little too rough. But most times she loves to tickle him, read to him, or wipe away his slobber with a cloth diaper -- just like Mommy. Oh, and come Jasper's feeding time, Harper loves to feed her baby the same way Mommy feeds him, which I happen to think is adorable.
Jasper is an extremely sweet and happy baby. He sleeps really well and never complains unless he is tired. He falls asleep without much fanfare, and I usually can put him down awake and he will put himself to sleep. In fact, in a completely opposite fashion than his sister, we can take him out to restaurants and he will put himself to sleep in his car seat very easily and never complains. He likes to suck his first and middle fingers when he's sleepy and loves to cuddle a blankie or something in his arms and against his face.
He still really loves bathtime, and always laughs when I put his lotion on. He used to be really stinky as a newborn, and thank goodness he has finally outgrown that. He's got a nice batch of peach fuzz for hair, and it is actually growing over his ear a tiny bit. He grabs at absolutely everything he sees and is usually successful at getting it.
I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings!
He has started to become much more vocal making raspberries and screeching. He is sitting up better and better each day and has started really scooting all over. He gets up on all fours and is really trying to crawl, but we have a little ways until that day (I hope!). He absolutely loves to stand, but isn't holding himself up yet.
Jasper is an extremely sweet and happy baby. He sleeps really well and never complains unless he is tired. He falls asleep without much fanfare, and I usually can put him down awake and he will put himself to sleep. In fact, in a completely opposite fashion than his sister, we can take him out to restaurants and he will put himself to sleep in his car seat very easily and never complains. He likes to suck his first and middle fingers when he's sleepy and loves to cuddle a blankie or something in his arms and against his face.
He still really loves bathtime, and always laughs when I put his lotion on. He used to be really stinky as a newborn, and thank goodness he has finally outgrown that. He's got a nice batch of peach fuzz for hair, and it is actually growing over his ear a tiny bit. He grabs at absolutely everything he sees and is usually successful at getting it.
I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings!
Duck Duck Goose
MVI_0064, originally uploaded by holly hanes.
On Labor Day, we had a great day together as a family. We didn't have too much of an agenda, we just really wanted to hang together and have fun. I had been wanting to take Harper to go feed the ducks at the local park all summer, but it's pretty miserable to hang outside for too long during the summer in Texas, so since the weather was finally a little cooler, we grabbed some of the older bread in the fridge and off we went! We first went to where the huge geese hang out.
Now, I am not a fan of birds anyway, and geese just plain freak me out. They are so big and can be so aggressive when it comes to food, I was worried about them taking a bite out of my little girl.
Here is a video of the huge geese. You'll notice how far back I am standing while I shoot the video. I really don't like them. You'll also notice me scream when it looked like a goose was about to get her and the panic in my voice about the whole situation.
Soon after, Daddy and Harper moved over to where there were more ducks and no geese. Unfortunately it was way past Jasper's time to eat so I missed the feeding of the ducks while I sat in the car and fed him, though I got to enjoy watching Daddy and daughter have fun together!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Catching Up
I am so far behind!! There are so many things to update on. I am going to pack in a bunch of stuff in the next few posts.
At the start of the summer I purchased two passes for the price of one (plus free soft drinks) to the local water park. I had been looking forward to taking Harper all summer long and we finally went a few weekends before Labor Day, when the park shuts down for the fall. Nana and Papa graciously watched Jasper for a couple hours so we could focus all our attention on having fun with our little girl. And oh my goodness, did she have fun!! It's a great place because it is friendly towards smaller kids with TONS of things to do. She went down countless slides, played with tons of splashing puddles, went in the wave pool, floated down the lazy river, and even went down a couple big slides with Daddy. We only stayed a couple hours because Daddy had to go to work, but it turned out to be plenty of time and completely wore her out.
One casualty from the day was our camera. It drowned, but ironically the drowning had nothing to do with the water park. It was in our bag with the big mug of water we brought in, and as I picked up the bag to leave, the mug tipped over and spilled all over the bag and its contents, including the camera. I didn't realize it had tipped over until water was leaking out of the bag and everything had already been soaked. *sigh* I went without a camera for a week and it was a week too long so we bit the bullet and picked up the newer model of our old camera. I still haven't played with all the bells and whistles but I'm just relieved to have it! These are the last pictures taken on the camera -- thankfully I was able to rescue the battery and photo card!
At the start of the summer I purchased two passes for the price of one (plus free soft drinks) to the local water park. I had been looking forward to taking Harper all summer long and we finally went a few weekends before Labor Day, when the park shuts down for the fall. Nana and Papa graciously watched Jasper for a couple hours so we could focus all our attention on having fun with our little girl. And oh my goodness, did she have fun!! It's a great place because it is friendly towards smaller kids with TONS of things to do. She went down countless slides, played with tons of splashing puddles, went in the wave pool, floated down the lazy river, and even went down a couple big slides with Daddy. We only stayed a couple hours because Daddy had to go to work, but it turned out to be plenty of time and completely wore her out.
One casualty from the day was our camera. It drowned, but ironically the drowning had nothing to do with the water park. It was in our bag with the big mug of water we brought in, and as I picked up the bag to leave, the mug tipped over and spilled all over the bag and its contents, including the camera. I didn't realize it had tipped over until water was leaking out of the bag and everything had already been soaked. *sigh* I went without a camera for a week and it was a week too long so we bit the bullet and picked up the newer model of our old camera. I still haven't played with all the bells and whistles but I'm just relieved to have it! These are the last pictures taken on the camera -- thankfully I was able to rescue the battery and photo card!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
A Different View of Things
Yesterday was Labor Day and Jasper decided to celebrate the holiday by accomplishing a big milestone: sitting up! We have hardwood floors, so I decided to see if he could do it and surrounded him with pillows to help break his fall. Much to my surprise, he did great and only took a couple tries to find his balance. He's not a pro at it yet, but it was such a great start, we are so proud of him!
And an aerial shot just to prove he wasn't propped up by a pillow from behind. :)
Harper had fun cheering him on, but was much happier to use my leg as her personal foot stool while I practiced with Jasper.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
No More Monkeys!
September 2010 009, originally uploaded by holly hanes.
Harper's favorite song of the week. She is very adamant about the whole monkey thing.
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