We survived the holidays and Jasper is unstoppable!!

Hello and Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Ours was extra special this year. From putting up the Christmas tree to visiting plenty family, Jasper enjoyed every bit! It's actually pretty cool watching him react to new things like Christmas lights. In fact, we've noticed that in the past month he has really started catching on. He discovered Callie about a month ago. He now smiles and laughs at her all the time, especially when she licks him in the face.

He has grown a lot! At his last appointment in December he was 26.5 inches long. He's now jumping in his bouncer like a kangaroo! He loves that thing. He has good control over his head now, and he's slowly starting to sit on his own. He hunches over a lot and tends to fall over like he's drunk, but he's getting there. He has also discovered his feet. In fact, just the other day, I watched him suck his foot, pull off his sock in the process, and proceed to chew on his sock. I'm telling you, the kid is a child sensation.

At four months and four weeks, the websites talk about how baby is beginning to catch on to what we're saying when we talk to him. His verbal and cognitive skills are developing and he likes games like peek-a-boo. His hearing and vision are developing well too. He definitely knows his name and turns when we say it. The sites also mention the beginnings of separation anxiety. In other words, when baby goes to someone other than Mom or Dad, he cries. Well let's just say that this is not an issue for Jasper! He loves everyone equally and is more than happy to go to anyone willing to play with him, ESPECIALLY grandparents. He's a social butterfly, just like Mom and Dad. And you can bet, based on how much he already "talks," he's going to be coming home from school in a few years with notes from his teacher for talking too much.

Let's see ... what else? Oh, Jasper has started solid foods. Now this may not be all that exciting to you, but let me just tell you, it's really fun to watch him eat. He cries in between giving him the food and getting more onto the spoon. Yup, he likes food that much. I experimented with making my own baby food, and it's going really well. I estimated the amount of money I save by doing this (with sweet potatoes), and it's basically saving me 40 cents per ounce! Umm, in case you're not catching on, that's A LOT!!! I bet Grandpa is smiling right now as he reads this... Anyway, the baby food thing is going really well. Most of it goes in his mouth and stays there. And as long as we have wipes nearby, things don't get too messy. And when they do, we have Callie to clean up after him.

Overall, this parenting thing is pretty awesome. We were blessed with an easy baby that sleeps about eleven hours a night. He's generally very happy and it doesn't hurt that he's really cute too.

As for Jeremy and me, we've been keeping busy. For Christmas, Granny paid for us to both attend our exercise boot camp, Camp Sweat. Our first class together was last night and we came home sweaty and exhausted. We hope to both be about 30 lbs. lighter by the Summer. We're going on a cruise, though, in February. So I'm thinking we'll need to starve ourselves this month if we don't want to embarass ourselves in bathing suits! Too bad we're both OBSESSED with food. I better change the subject. This is making me hungry...

My job hasn't been the same since I got back from maternity leave. My resposibilites changed and it has not been going well. But I recently put in for a departmental transfer after talking with the Engineering Director. It turns out he wants me to go work for him, so I'm really hoping that works out. Who'd have thought, former Party Planner working in the Engineering Department?? I guess I'll just go with it. I really like the company anyway, so it would be great if things worked out.

Well, I think I've caught you up on most "Jasper happenings," along with some lagniappe. Looking forward to Jasper's first Mardi Gras. Too bad he's too small for one of those kids' ladders. I know Jeremy will be ready to use him as a means of catching more beads at the P-rades.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Have a great January! We love you!



Bathtime


First attempts at baby food


Christmas Eve with Cece


Just hanging out, waiting for the sheets to dry...


Dad and Jasper


Mom and Jasper


First Christmas

A few new firsts for Jasper

Well, HELLO! It's been a while! Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a great December, and "HOW BOUT DEM TIGAHS!?!"

Jasper celebrated his first Halloween by dressing up as a Sweet Potato flavored Hubig's Pie. In fact, the entire family dressed up, even Callie! Our neighborhood had a big block party on Halloween night and Jasper won his first costume contest. Only three months old and already a winner! As Jeremy would say, "That's my boy!" Grandpa, CeCe, Grammie, and even my good friend George (from work) all came over for Jasper's first Halloween, and it was a lot of fun.



Let's see, what else has been going on?... Since the Christening, LSU has defeated Auburn, Alabama, Western Kentucky, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Georgia. Jeremy and I were fortunate enough to get Carol and Debbie's tickets for the Western Kentucky game and the Munstereifels' tickets for the Arkansas game. Man, it is so much fun watching LSU win! Thanks to our families again for the tickets!


Granny, Carol and Debbie just got back from three (very long) weeks in Italy. Jasper missed them so much! We took pictures of him just about every day and sent them by text so that Granny could get her "Jasper fix." From what I understand, she basically confiscated Aunt Debbie's phone, showing off her grandson to everyone on the bus, along with complete strangers just walking by. Needless to say, she missed us a lot. I think that's the longest I've ever gone not talking to Mom. It was torture!


I started one of those exercise boot camps the first week of November. It's called Camp Sweat and it's owned by a girl that I went to high school with. I've lost about 7 lbs. so far, and about two inches in my waist. Once I can really see a difference, I'll have to put up some before and after pictures. Only 40 more lbs. to go! Ugh, just shoot me.

Jasper went to his first Poboy Festival. I have a new understanding of strollers. All those years, I'd get so mad at people with their stinking baby strollers as they'd come up behind me and hit me in the back of the ankles. I am now one of those people. I made Jeremy walk in front of the stroller as we forced our way thru the crowd, so that I didn't hit too many people. Instead, I managed to hit the back of Jeremy's ankles, only about 37 times. I'm sure he appreciated that. Have I mentioned that he's an AWESOME dad?!? Anyway, we have a friend that works on Oak St., so we spent about four hours just sitting on the front porch people watching. Jasper loved it. No poboys for Jasper this year, but next year, it's on!


We spent Turkey Day visiting with Grandpa and CeCe first, then Nanny and family in Mandeville, and finally Grammie and PawPaw, Justin, Ruth and Granny that night, at Morning Call. Jasper had some powdered sugar for the first time and he loved it. EVERYONE took turns holding Jasper throughout the day. Thank goodness he likes people, because we basically played "Pass the Baby" all day. On Sunday, we had a second Thanksgiving, with the Starr family at our house. I cooked and cooked and cooked, and fortunately, everything turned out pretty well! Well, I had to make two batches of pralines and I burned my finger, but at least a few pralines in the second batch came out good. It's all sugar anyway! I just licked up the whole first batch when they wouldn't harden. Yes, all of it. Don't judge! Anyway, it was a very nice day. Thanks to PawPaw for bringing the turkey and Granny for bringing the ham. Even Nanan and Uncle Timmy came in from Baton Rouge to be with us. We were so happy to visit with them!







Last weekend, Jeremy, Jasper and I met up with Nanny-Kira, Cindy, Peyton and Makenzie at Chapelle's Breakfast with Santa. Jasper took his first pictures with Santa. He didn't smile, but at least he didn't cry, which is more than I can say for Makenzie. I won't go into detail, but as you can see below, Santa is not Makenzie's favorite person. Either way, we love being with the Gervais/Mares group. They're always a good time!




And here we are, already into the second week of December. Jasper is going to be four months old on the 12th. I'll send updates of height and weight once we visit the doctor on the 14th. He is still sleeping really well, allowing Mom and Dad to get plenty rest. And he's such a happy baby. It's so easy to make him smile and laugh. We're really looking forward to celebrating his first Christmas with as many of you as possible. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to all of you. We love you.

Jasper's Christening

**Jeremy informed me that I was wrong about the percentile stuff in my last post, so if you want to check out his edits, feel free! Now back to the christening...

What a wonderful day! Despite the accident on I-10 that slowed down all of our Kenner, Luling and Destrehan friends, Jasper's christening was a beautiful and fun experience. Deacon Capaci was a hit with the family too! Unfortunately, Jasper cried 90% of the time. I think he was upset about having to wear a dress, especially on gameday. We thought about putting on his LSU sneakers under the dress, but ultimately decided against it. The ceremony was very sweet and the deacon made it both special and memorable. He had us all laughing on several occasions. Thanks to all who came out and to those that couldn't make it, we missed you but we know you're thinking of us! Here are some pictures from the day...

Two Months and Too Cute!

Hello all! We’ve made it to month two and Jasper is doing great! He’s a whopping 12 lbs., 9 oz and he’s grown 1 ¾ inches since last month, which makes him 24 inches long. Jeremy took the time to chart his growth to see what percentiles he’s in. I think I’m starting to understand it, so here goes with our findings… First, for those of you that don’t know, percentile tells how your child measures up against other children (based on the World Health Organization data) in height, weight, and head size. As I mentioned, Jasper is 12 lbs, 9 oz, which means that he weighs more than 50-75% of babies. At 24 inches long, he’s taller than 85-95% of babies. Finally, his head’s circumference is 16 in., which means that his head is larger than 90% of babies his age. I hope this makes sense. This took me a while to grasp for some reason… So for those of us that would like to just know the basics: he’s a little bigger and a good bit taller than most babies his age. And his head is larger than those of most babies his age. Another interesting (and kind of disturbing) fact about the circumference… Jasper’s head was 14 ¼ in. in circumference when he was born, meaning his head was larger than 90% of newborn babies. And if you know what happened with the epidural the day he was born, you’ll know what that means. OUCH!!

We’ve been adjusting very well to parenthood, mostly because Jasper is a super easy baby. He only cries when something’s wrong. He sleeps 6 ½ to 8 hours per night. He smiles and laughs a lot in the mornings, and even in the evenings too. We are SO LUCKY AND GRATEFUL! Oh, and he's even starting to talk, well, "baby" talk. But just the other day, he told me how wonderful, smart and good-looking I am! I swear that's what he said! Well, maybe not in those exact words...

His grandparents love spending time with him. Mrs. Joy won’t put him down and Mom pushes me out the way to get to him! His eyes are definitely going to be brown, like his daddy. In fact, he looks EXACTLY like his daddy. The nose, the lips, the smile… totally Jeremy. He has my big forehead and my pointy chin, but that’s about it. Oh and he has my dad’s skinny legs!

So far, Jasper has only peed on us a few times. It happens to Jeremy more than me, which is nice. In fact, just the other day, Jeremy went to work with a new scent… let’s call it, “Eau do PeePee.” Hopefully, no one noticed.

He’s getting better and better at holding up his head and just yesterday, we found him on his tummy in his crib… he rolled over all by himself! Wow, reread the last sentence I just typed. Can you believe this is what I talk about these days!? It’s amazing what babies do to new parents. It’s amazing how excited we are about him. I never knew someone could have such an effect on me so instantaneously.

We’ll be christening Jasper this weekend at St. Dominic Church in Lakeview and we’re really excited about it. Kira and Neil are Jasper’s godparents; he’s so lucky! He’ll be christened in the same gown that Jeremy was christened in. While looking for the gown, Mrs. Joy came across Jeremy’s baby outfits and toys. (Sorry Mrs. Joy, but) I went through the bag, got rid of the 80’s “short” shorts and ugly sweaters, and saved all the LSU clothes for Jasper. He’ll be going for that “vintage” look with the “old school” Mike the Tiger!


As always, thanks for reading and being involved in our lives. Our new family is doing very well and we appreciate all you do for us.

We survived the first month!

Hello all! Jasper is one month old and cute as ever. Our check-up went great today. He now weighs 10 lbs., 3 oz. and he's 22 and 1/4 inches long. His head is 15 and 1/2 inches in circumference. Yes, that's big, but it just means he has A LOT of brains!

We can't believe how much sleep we've been getting. He's a great baby, usually only crying when he's hungry, wet, sleepy or gassy. However, lately, he's been VERY gassy. Like father, like son, HAHA!!! (Jeremy is gonna love this post.) All jokes aside, we have a wonderful, and perfect little baby and we couldn't be more happy. And Daddy couldn't be more proud. Jeremy loves entertaining Jasper, talking to him, singing to him... The only song we know all the words to is "Hey Fightin' Tigers," so Jasper will know that one before he even starts crawling I'm sure. When he's fussy, we literally sing it OVER and OVER and OVER...

We kept very busy this past month during my maternity leave, visiting plenty of family and friends. Jasper went on his first road trip to Dallas to visit our good friends, the Eggert's. Because the LSU game was in Dallas that weekend, we also visited some Tigerband friends, which is always a good time. Anyway, we stayed with Martin, Kathryn, Audrey, Hammond and Oliver (the dogs) for the long Labor Day weekend, and Jasper made fast friends with their daughter, Audrey. If Audrey ever moves down to NOLA, it will be to marry Jasper. Yup, Kathryn and I are ALREADY planning the wedding.

Mom and I took Jasper to work the other day to visit my coworkers. Patti-Rae bought him A TON of LSU stuff: onesies, books, a frame, even little LSU sneakers. SO CUTE!! Jeremy already read one of the books to Jasper. He can't wait to take Jasper to his first LSU game! And aren't those the cutest freaking shoes you've ever seen!?!

This past weekend, we took a cruise ride on the Natchez. I'm sure that if Jasper would have opened his eyes even once, he would have loved the ride. Good thing babies ride for free.

Thanks to everyone for all of the adorable baby clothes. I'm pretty sure we won't need to buy him any more outfits until he's 21. Just kidding, more like 2. Oh, and we took newborn pictures a couple of weeks ago. We're just waiting for the photographer to send them to us. As soon as we have them, we'll be sure to share our favorites. Until then, here's the one "teaser" she sent me. Hope you're all having a great week! OMG, I can't believe we're parents...

It's a BOY!!

We have a beautiful baby boy! Jasper John Starr was born Friday, August 12th at 11:56 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long at birth. He's already one week old! And I don't mean to brag, but he is perfect. And after that delivery, he had better be! Let's just say that it wasn't easy and it didn't exactly go as planned. Ever heard of "hot spots?" That's when the epidural doesn't work in one specific area. Mine just so happened to be in my bottom. I felt things I never felt before and NEVER hope to feel again! But all the pain was worth it. And it didn't take too long. The major labor pains were only for about five hours. And Jeremy was there, helping me through it the entire time. Speaking of Jeremy, let me give my rendition of what happened during the birth. As Jasper was born, and we saw that he was a "he," Jeremy jumped in the air and yelled, "YES!!" (I'd hate to see what would have happened if we had a girl!) My immediate response was, "No ball in the house." And he replied, "Oh yeah, ball in the house!" He had a great time teasing the family and finally telling them the news.

There are some other fun stories, but they're probably not appropriate for the internet, so we'll share those with you in person. I still get baby updates from my babycenter.com site. It mentioned that newborns can see, but that vision is a little fuzzy. They're basically nearsighted and can see best between 8 and 15 inches away.

So far, we've lucked out and had only one rough night with Jasper. He's been very kind, letting us sleep for 4-5 hours at a time! Today, he woke us up at 7:45! We have him sleeping in his crib already, and it seems to be working very well. We're hoping to get him on a good schedule as soon as possible. As for me, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm recovering from the usual delivery woes, but I've been up and moving since we came home on Sunday. Jeremy is already a great dad. He changes plenty of diapers and gives plenty of kisses. His first diaper change was a bit of "an experience," but since then, he's become a pro. In the hospital, I remember hearing, "EWW POOP!! Don't put your foot in it Jasper!!" He said some other things, again, not necessarily for the internet... Thanks again to Kira for her help during that "ordeal."

Jeremy goes back to work Monday, and I'm on maternity leave til late September. I'm sure I'll have plenty help from Granny, Grandpa, and Grammie and PawPaw while Jeremy is at work, which is nice and much appreciated. Even Callie has been helping out, giving Jasper big, wet kisses when he's in his swing.

OK, time to share some of our favorite pictures with you all. Thanks for all of the visits, balloons, boy clothes, phone calls, e-mails and texts. We're a very happy family, with a lot more hours of sleep than we ever anticipated.

You know you've been pregnant for too long when...

Well, here we are! August 4th and still no bambino! I'm officially 40 weeks pregnant today and I have a feeling Baby Starr is perfectly content staying in there, and continuing to kick the heck out of me. We've scheduled the induction for Friday, August 12th. I'll go in Thursday night (8/11) to get started on fluids and they'll induce the following morning.

In the meantime, since all the baby updates I've been getting only say "Congratulations!" and that the baby is the size of a pumpkin, I thought it would be entertaining to poke a little fun at all of those crazy situations that happen at the end of pregnancy. I recently posted a thread on babycenter.com titled, "You know you've been pregnant for too long when..." and since Tuesday, it's gotten over 200 comments. Here are some of my absolute favorites:

You know you've been pregnant for too long when...

-Even your biggest maternity shirts are too tight, but you wear them anyway because you just don't care anymore.
-At least ten people at work say to you "You're STILL here?"
-Someone asks you if you are having twins.
-You can't get out of bed without grunting (Ask Jeremy about this one!).
-You fall asleep on the toilet during your nightly potty breaks.
-You notice you haven't been able to see certain body parts in months.
-You have mastered putting on bottoms by dangling them (OMG, this one is so true!).
-You left the light on in the bathroom but don't bother going back to turn it off because you know you'll be back in a half hour.
-You welcome contractions.
-You sit and watch the dog sleep and all you can think is "lucky bitch!" (No offense Callie.)
-You TRY to hit potholes on purpose hoping the bumps will induce labor.
-Your ankles look like Princess Fiona's from Shrek (Hilarious!).
-You have to stand on the scale at the doctor's office backwards because your belly is just too big to face forward.
-Your due date comes and goes.
-You're sleeping naked with no blanket and your husband is bundled up like it is the second ice age.
-Shaving your legs becomes another form of yoga.
-Your wedding ring hasn't fit in months.
-You stand at the bottom of the stairs and just stare up at them. (This has been going on for a few weeks at work.)
-You stop asking your husband if you look OK when you get dressed in the morning because you know at this point he would just be lying if he said yes.
-You lay in bed and contemplate what would take more effort, getting up to go to the bathroom or cleaning up when you pee your pants.
-You have worse gas than your husband and don't even care anymore.
-You wear a shirt two days in a row and it's a small miracle because you didn't get any food stains on it the day before!
-You feel like you need some sort of construction equipment to roll you over in bed at night because it's so much effort to do it yourself! (OMG, so, so true!! I call Jeremy my crane.)
-You go for a walk to try to induce labor and have to turn around after 5 minutes because you have to pee again (This happened to me last night people!)
-You spit like a llama while brushing your teeth because you can't reach the sink bowl.
-You have developed a 'system' for turning over in bed.
-You honestly consider sleeping naked with air mattresses for pillows in your bathtub just so you can pee 20 times a night without having to get up. (Loved this one!)
-Moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer is a chore that requires sitting down for a rest afterward.
-You can balance a plate of food on your belly.
-Baby's squirming hurts so much it feels like he's going to break right out, like an alien.
-You no longer fit in a standard booth at a restuarant.
-You lean forward to eat your dinner and find it doesn't help...there is no way you are going to avoid spilling food from your mouth! And it lands on your big belly again.
-Your legs and feet look like big sausages and your toes look like cocktail weenies. (This one's from me. This issue began two days ago and has not stopped.)



I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. Baby Starr said to tell you all, "See ya in a week!"

Thanks for the many phone calls, texts and facebook comments. We love y'all.