Lakeview Living: June 2013

Wow, so much to catch up on since Mardi Gras! Jasper continues to amaze AND challenge us in everything he does. From climbing out of his crib, to embarrassing us in most restaurants, to skydiving off of the sofa, there's never a dull moment. He's now 22 months.

Over the past few months, he's feeding himself more and more. Well, he's trying at least. Food usually ends up all over the seat, his shirt, his face, his hair, even sometimes in his diaper. But at least he's trying. The kid never gives up! We're still working on "please" and "thank you." We're finally getting some thank you's, and please sounds more like "PEEZ!" He said his first sentence in early May. We were out by the lake getting his pictures taken and he said, "I see a boat!" He's also started saying "Bless you Mama" and "Bless you Dada" whenever we sneeze. So stinkin' cute. He has more and more teeth coming in. Not sure how many, but between the extra teeth and hair, he's looking less and less like PawPaw Sam. We've switched out the front piece of the crib to the toddler rail. It's just safer than him hopping in and out of the crib, which he did like a pro. But now, he hops out of his crib whenever he wants. I mentioned restaurants. It's no secret that we are always going out to eat with family and friends. Well folks, it's just hit and miss. One day, he's happy as can be playing with his cars and eating french fries in his highchair. The next day, it's squirmy-wormy-meets-screaming-terror. French fries, bananas, red beans, strawberries or peaches usually calm him down. He's pretty weird with food. Except for the few foods I just mentioned, he seems to forget what every food tastes like. So we basically have to force/shove the first bite in. When out in public, this makes us look like the fantastic parents we are. We turned his car seat around to face forward, which allows us more opportunities to look at him (at stop lights). We get him to shake and boogie with us to the music. He can see so much more too, pointing out ALL trucks, buses and motorcycles. He even points at the canal and says, “water.” What a genius. He’s switched from saying ma-ma and da-da to mommy and daddy, which we thought was pretty awesome. We asks, "What's that?" about 10 times a day. Slowly but surely, he's learning his colors and numbers. He made me look really good the other night in the car with Jessica and Trey. I told them he wasn't quite ready to count and when I started with #1, he went all the way to #10! Oh, and the grandmas may not like hearing this, since he has yet to say anything sounding remotely like “Granny” or “Grammie,” but Uncle George stopped by a while back. As soon as George picked him up, Jasper said, “Hi George!” Then, when leaving Aunt Ruth's house, he said, "Bye bye Ruth!" In the meantime, Granny is considering going by “Basketball” and Grammie is considering being called “Banana.” Either way, we’ll keep working at it… Other than the Granny/Grammie issue, he's practically a parrot, repeating everything we say. I guess now's the time to definitely start watching what I say!

Speaking of "working at it," we have some news to share. Jeremy, Jasper, Callie and I are expecting our newest addition to the Starr clan the day after Thanksgiving, more importantly the day of the LSU /Arkansas game, November 29th. We found out a week before Easter, and waited to tell family til my birthday, which was torture. More on that later. I spent my first trimester dealing with the usual: queeziness, being hungry all the time, gaining weight from being so hungry, losing my breath when walking upstairs, wanting to fall asleep at my desk, and my favorite so far, leaving my wallet at the checkout line. Thank God I'm so unorganized that all of my valuable cards (i.e. license and credit cards) were at the bottom of my purse and not even in the wallet.

Easter was nice. Jasper received almost as many presents as he did at Christmas! We enjoyed plenty of crawfish with the family. And he spent the day tormenting, umm, I mean “playing” with Mason. Thanks to everyone for all the adorable clothes and special gifts. As always, Jasper is making good use of everything!

We took an unexpected visit to the ER on April 4th. I specifically remember the date because that was the day that my best friend from Tigerband, Laura was coming to visit. Talk about great timing. I was having a lot of shortness of breath and chest soreness, and being newly pregnant, I didn't want to take any chances. It turned out to be nothing, just a weird viral infection, but there was definitely drama behind the scenes. Every time a new nurse or doctor came in, we had to find a way to quickly and quietly tell them to make sure not to spill the beans about the pregnancy. Because of course, Mom being Mom, she came straight to the hospital and sat with us the entire day! By the time we got out of there, I had to hear all about how terrible that hospital is, how they wouldn't x-ray me, how they didn't give me any medicines to take, and how the doctor kicked Mom and Jeremy out the room and closed the curtain to talk to me (while he pressed on my belly and we talked about how far along I was). Haha, what an interesting day it was. And the best part about it, we got out just in time to pick up Laura at the airport!

The next few weeks crept on by as we waited and waited to tell the family our big news. Finally, on the 17th, we invited the usual suspects over to enjoy BBQ and Doberge cake (of course), and when it came time to sing Happy Birthday, I made sure to put Jasper in the spotlight. After he helped me blow out my candles, Jeremy said, "Jasper, give Mommy a kiss!" He gave me a big kiss, making the MUAH! sound. Then, Jeremy said, "Jasper, give the BABY a kiss!" Jasper bent over and kissed my belly. There was probably 3 seconds of silence that felt like 3 minutes. Finally people (Joy) started screaming and (everyone else) laughing. Mom cried. It was a great night and a fun surprise.

We've begun cleaning the junk room. We plan to move Jasper over into his own room and put baby #2 in the nursery. Meanwhile, our dining room is a huge mess as we reorganize. The other night, Jasper got to my sewing machine and pulled thread from the dining room, through the foyer and well into the living room before Jeremy finally yelled, "Stop!" I corrected him, and as I walked back, He said, "Mama, I sorry." Umm, cutest thing I've ever heard! I'm sure this will be the first of many "sorrys" that I hear... "Sorry I wrecked the car Mom" or "Sorry I broke the light fixture playing ball in the house Mom." But in the meantime, no harm no foul.

Being an only child, we hear a lot of the word, "mine." Well, earlier this month was no different. Jeremy was sitting in his usual spot on the couch. Evidently, Jasper wanted the same spot. He used his entire body, trying to push Jeremy over, repeatedly saying, "My spot!" Ha, little does he know, things will be changing very soon, and in about five more months, not much will be "his." I just hope it's a smooth adjustment.

Thanks as always for reading and catching up with us. I've attached some of my favorite pictures from the last few months. Enjoy!!