baby love

This picture is perfectly Jasper. Messy hair, smile with chipped tooth, bright blue eyes, mischievous look… I am burning this image and this boy into my brain so I never forget this stage. Ornery, happy, chilled out.

We met a friend for lunch yesterday and as we left (before anyone else said anything), Jasper said to the waitress by the door “Thank you!”. He surprises people daily by his use of thank you, please, excuse me.

The other night at dinner with my parents, Jasper had us laughing non-stop. Once he gets going he just keeps coming up with crazy things to say and do. Finally we were all quiet and he looked up seriously and said, “What the heck!?”. Oh my gosh. Try telling your kid not to use that word while you’re laughing hysterically.

I’m going to have to try and video one of his stories. In the mornings he’ll wake me up by saying, “Mommy, I need to tell you a story!”. Then he goes on and on about dragons, crocodiles, friends, Superman… It’s always intense and the sound effects…wow.

I feel like not that long ago he was so exhausting. I couldn’t keep up with him, he was into everything. Now I feel like he entertains himself so well, he communicates what he needs easily, he helps me, he makes me laugh… Honestly he’s kind of an easy kid. And for that, I feel lucky and very thankful.

So yeah, yesterday it got up to 54 degrees. In January. In Illinois. My boys and I went on a little adventure to a park with a swinging bridge. It was a perfect opportunity for me to find my picture of the day and for all of us to get outside. It was a good day.

Some of my favorite Jasper pictures from the year….

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Oh my goodness, Christmas was just so much fun. This is the first year that Jasper really understood what was going on and could be excited. The excitement level in my house on Christmas eve was crazy high (from all of us!). We watched Charlie Brown Christmas together all snuggled on the couch. After a quick bath, we set out cookies for Santa. We also had to set out cereal (Kix) and milk for the reindeer because that is what they eat apparently.

We read Twas the Night Before Christmas down by the tree and fireplace. Jasper made sure the fireplace was off before going to bed because he was concerned about Santa coming down the chimney. We put him to bed at 8:30 and then the fun began. Every single time I would think he was asleep, he would start singing, or talking, or getting up… He had to pee, he was hungry, he needed a drink, his blanket was messed up. Josh and I mostly just laughed because you could tell he was just so incredibly excited. Finally at nearly 10:30pm he was asleep. Whew.

And then the moment Josh and I have been waiting for all month. All Jasper wanted from Santa was a “big, huge robot”. After hours of searching online I found the perfect one that of course, wasn’t easy to get anymore. I’m not usually a big fan of Ebay but this time it came through. We got an amazing deal on this guy. As we had hoped…it was an enormous hit.

We had such a good time watching Jasper open presents. I seriously could have just cried. He was so excited for everything. He yelled out after the first gift, “Thanks, Santa!”. After our presents we headed to my parents house. Jasper was so patient watching everyone open gifts and waiting for his turn. At one point he told my mom that his heart was “going fast, like boom boom boom”. His heart was racing!

Anyway, it was such an incredible experience seeing Christmas through the eyes of a three year old. I loved having the opportunity to really play up the magic of Christmas. I already can’t wait for next year. Hope you all had a magical Christmas as well!

Our local zoo put on a cool thing the other night called Wild Lights. Twelve hundred luminaries and Christmas lights lit up the zoo. It was so fun to walk around the zoo after dark! Jasper, of course, loved it. (And so did Josh and I.) The animals all kind of looked at us curiously, like “what are you still doing here?”. It was a fun little winter evening activity.

I had another string of lights go out. Luckily it was just half of a string and it’s all in the back of the tree. I’m totally not going to fix it. I seriously cannot tell you how many lights I have replaced this year. I should have kept track.

So I got my Christmas wish…well at least halfway. Josh’s working weekends will now be days. Yes! He’ll still work nights during the week but every other weekend will be during the day! This is kind of enormous for us. Hopefully soon he’ll be days all the time. For now I’m going to appreciate being on the same sleep schedule as him for a few more days a month.

Josh and I are ridiculously excited for Christmas. Jasper’s gifts are wrapped and tucked away in the crawl space. (Side note: I would be lying if I said I haven’t been checking our sump pump numerous times a day out of paranoia.) I think he’s going to flip out when he sees what he got. Not only that, Josh has an entire week off around Christmas. One whole week on the same schedule! Just us, Christmas movies, coffee, games to play… It sounds like heaven.

Jasper and I hosted a little Christmas party for some of his friends. I met all of the moms because of this blog. How cool is that? There were four boys under the age of 3 1/2 which is kind of crazy. (There was one girl there but at 9 months old she mostly just rolled around.) They all did really great. We played a game, made some crafts, ate a lot of cookies and donuts. It was a blast. And by the looks of the playroom, I believe they all had fun too.

It was an epic battle between good and evil. All for control of the bowl of Kix cereal…

Big stuff going on in Jasper’s life these days.

He went to his first movie. (We saw The Muppets and all loved it.)
We volunteered to ring the bell at a Salvation Army bucket.
He had his three year check-up with the pediatrician. (Doctor gave him a clean bill of health and commented numerous times about how bright he was.)
He sat on Santa’s lap for the first time. Jasper informed him that he would like a “big, huge robot”.
He has started major story telling. Josh and I sat for at least five minutes the other day listening to a very dramatic story about a crocodile getting Jasper.
We decorated sugar cookies.
Jasper and I went to a Christmas light parade.
He welcomed the elf, Franklin, to our house.

This age is so freakin’ fun. We are having the best conversations. The imagination he has is just incredible. He’s really into sound effects right now so his stories are hilarious. He is also a great little friend. I enjoy shopping with him and hanging out. Maybe that sounds weird to feel like a three year old could be a good friend but he totally is. And when he asks me, “You happy, Mommy?”… I always have to say, “I am because I’m with you”.

Thank you everyone for the emails/messages. It’s nice to feel missed. I think I’ll be back next week. Until then, here’s my kid.

Josh decided to get in on the Halloween action this year. He dressed as Doc Brown and Jasper as Marty McFly. Jasper thought it was pretty cool that Josh dressed up with him. We went to a few houses this year and Jasper was totally into it. He definitely understood the trick or treating thing. Josh and I had fun taking him around and getting him to say Back to the Future quotes all night. The only bad part was that I bought two bags of suckers thinking we’d be home for a bit but weren’t at all. So now we have 150 suckers that Jasper thinks are all his!

I think it’s fun to come up with costume ideas that are at least a little bit original. I already have an idea for next year but we’ll see what happens. Here was last year and the year before.