Merry Christmas to All!

We're relaxing in Michigan right now, having a great time with Stasia's family.

Here's Grandpa Paul, reading T'was the Night Before Christmas to Jasper.

 He's the Little Saint Nick...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

8 Months Old

Wow, another month has passed already. Yesterday Jasper tuned 8 months old. I felt lucky to have some sunshine coming through the front window and we took advantage with a little photo shoot.

It looks like this little guy will be crawling before long.

A few highlights from Thanksgiving. Hanging out with cousin Debbi.

Jasper has peas, butternut squash, and of course, Cherrios for his Thanksgiving dinner.

Today Jasper and his dad are heading to a Casper Babypants concert. We are all big fans and I can't wait to hear how it goes. He'll be joined by his buddy Brecken and her parents. I'm going to get some knitting time in with Grandma Karen and her friend.

Here is one of our favorite Casper Babypants songs:

Jasper turned 7 months old!

We are posting a little late, but these pictures were taken on Jasper's 7 month Birthday.
 

 

Jasper is sitting on a super soft blanket his crafty Great Aunt Laura made for him. He loves it! She also knitted an adorable hat with ear flaps. It has started to fit just in time for the cold weather that has come our way.

 

Ready for a walk in the stroller.

And we have some highlights from the grandparents' visit. Grandma B introduced Jasper to Cheerios. Every time she fed Jasper she rolled up his little sleeves - that had never occurred to me. I try to remember that at feeding time now. It's the little things. 

Here are Grandma and Jasper at a restaurant.

More Cheerio eating. This kid is a pro.

Thanks for the puffy photo album! Nom, nom, nom.

 

We Hope Everyone had a...

Happy Halloween!
Jasper made it to three houses before he was too tired to continue. It was a good first Halloween.

This next picture is blurry, but I think it makes it so cute...

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting and Jasper loves having more fans around. (Look closely at the upper left section of this photo, I think our house might be haunted!)

Jasper at a local Harvest Festival

Jasper at 6 Months

We can't believe it's been six months already!

"Don't forget to get in between the toes, Dad. Thanks."

Watching a football game with Dad.

Like Father, Like Son?

Jasper at about five months old...

Jasper at about four months old (with Grandma Kris!)...

And Daddy Jack at about five months old...

In Which Jasper Learns of the Existence of Bacon

Bacon!

A Difficult Anniversary, an Inspiring Story...

I just read the CNN article; "Remembering 9/11: A warrior's unexpected gift to America". It made me feel very proud of the opportunities our country can offer someone with so little. More importantly, I feel comforted and touched by a gesture made by a Kenyan tribe thousands of miles away. I hope this story brings comfort to others on this day.   
-Anastasia

Jasper Turns 5 Months Old

 

Last Friday I snapped these photos of Jasper on his 5 month birthday.

 

 Wait a minute...

 

What's this? 

 

Annabelle! Jasper loves Annabelle.

 

I thought I should add Jasper's official 4 month picture. I ended up taking it on the 9th, the day after we returned from Michigan. Here he is with his trendy Sophie giraffe. He's a little more coordinated these days and gnaws on her all the time. I love his hair-do.

Simple Touch

If you're interested, or in the market yourself, this is why I chose the Nook Simple Touch for my e-reading adventures.

Michigan Trip and a Four Month Birthday

I can't believe it's been a month since we have posted pictures of Jasper. Perhaps it's the adjustment to working part time from home. I put in a few weeks and then WHOOSH, we found ourselves in Michigan for a summer vacation. We have been introducing our baby to many friends and family. Here are some highlights:

Smiling with Grandma B

About to go on an adventure with Grandpa B

First time at a beach with dad. Jasper was not sure about Lake Huron, or sand for that matter. He hopes to give it another chance next summer.

Meeting Great Grandma B and her friend Tony

And Jasper is now four months old! I forgot to pack the official sticker, so here he is bare chested. I'll have to take a picture as soon as we get home. 

Housecleaning on the Intertubes and Jasper's First "Hike"

Good morning citizens!

I thought I'd update you on some current changes to our online photo and video sharing.

Videos: I recently realized Flickr has a 1 minute 30 second limit on videos uploaded to their site, so unbeknownst to us, Flickr has been clipping anything after the 1:30 mark. Unfortunately, I found this out long after we'd uploaded a whopping 40 videos.

We now have a YouTube channel where we'll be uploading videos from here on out.You'll notice there is now a link over there on the right.

Visit our channel to see Jasper's First "Walk" in the Woods.

Photos: All you really need to know is that we're moving all of our online photos from Flickr to Picasa (soon to be known simply as Google Photos). The link to the right has been updated to navigate to the correct site. Note: It will take me some time to fully migrate all of our photo albums over.

Why the switch? Many reasons, really, but it all started with Google+ (G+) showing up on the scene. For those who don't already know, G+ is Google's latest attempt at getting into the social networking scene and this time it appears as though it's going to work out quite well for them. In a nutshell, G+ is a lot like Facebook, but seems to be a better tool for the individual (sorry folks, no Farmville). Oh, and if you have a G+ profile all photo uploads under 2048 x 2048 pixels are free. We've been paying $25 per year on Flickr.

Since I already have my email, calendars, this blog, and my web reader on Google, and since YouTube is now owned by Google, it only made sense to move my photos under the Google umbrella. And with the Picasa photo editor and organizer, I can easily and automatically sync our photos between our computer, our online albums, and my G+ profile. Voila!

Late Father's Day Post and Jasper is 3 Months Old

I have been meaning to post about Father's Day, but I have not quite had the chance. Jasper and I went and had professional photos taken for Jack's gift. I'll include a few at the end of this post. Jack had wanted to see the filmed production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. It was only playing for two more days once we had heard of it, so we attended the Father's Day performance. Karen and Molly we nice enough to babysit for us.

Here are a few pictures of Jasper and his dad.

We can carry him facing forward now, yay!

Jasper looks like he is doing a Mickey Mouse impression in the next picture. We had met Jack on his walk home from the bus. Jack carried Jasper home with his earphones still around his neck. 

 

And now for the professional pictures...

 

Grumpy face!

Jasper is now three months old!

 

Confessions and Dancing and Singing

I plan to write my own "confessions" and musings on fatherhood from time to time, especially once Jasper nears one year old. For now, this was a really enjoyable read:

8 Confessions of a New Dad.

I especially connected with the part about time alone with the baby being "surprisingly profound." There are moments when I am playing with Jasper and he is staring up at me, smiling, cooing, letting out little laughs and squeals, that I am completely charmed and captivated by him.

Last night Anastasia had a hair appointment so I had some time alone with Jasper. He had been napping when she left, but (naturally) woke up two minutes after she drove off. He was in a good mood at first, but then got very fussy. I threw on the Baby Bjorn, strapped him in facing outward, and queued up some music on our laptop computer.

In little circles around the kitchen, we danced while I sang along to tunes by The Head and the Heart and The Drive-By Truckers. I fought back tears while singing along to DBT's "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife." That song chokes me up every time. I almost can't listen to it anymore now that we have a child.

And he held each of my index fingers in a tight grip and seemed to be having a good time. Speaking for myself, it was the highlight of my day.

A Walk Around Greenlake

The weather is getting better here in Seattle. Jack, Jasper, Annabelle, and I took a walk around Greenlake. I think all of us were glad to get out of the house. Annabelle is always ready to go.

Jack caught sight of some turtles and grabbed his camera.
PHOTO BOMB! 

"Young males in the early summer may be quite small and easily overlooked..."

...Sounds like my early teens.

After some intense research (two and a half minutes on Google), I found out that the spider in the post below is called misumena vatia, a kind of crab spider, otherwise known as a flower crab spider or a goldenrod crab spider, because it can change its color from white to yellow to hunt in the sprays of yellow goldenrod flowers common in North America in the autumn.

Neat!

Jasper is Two Months Old!

At friends Andrew & Cortney's BBQ.

This makes me smile so much.

Feeding the little guy a bottle.

Belly button!

And here's an awesome spider that was hanging out in our backyard the other day: