Time for a haircut

Wednesday Jasper will be getting his hair cut by cousin Allison Smith. I tried to get a couple of quick photos of his curls, or mullet, Sunday before the big day.

The other photos is just an extreme close-up.

Wet 'n wild

Or ... not so much.

We blew up Jasper's new mini-pool Sunday evening while I washed the car. He sat in it for a few minutes but found better things to do, like push his bubble mower, drive his 4-wheeler and climb on the motorcycle.

Maybe next time.

Either way, I got a few cute photos.

Motorcycles. Hell yes.

Us men went on our first motorcycle ride together tonight. I, as I always do, had a good time on two wheels. J, on the other hand, had a GREAT time on his first ride!!!

I fired up the bike in the garage and sat with J on the tank for a few minutes to make sure he wasn't scared. He wasn't.

I started to inch forward. Scared? Not a chance.

But his mother was.

Nat didn't think it was a good idea for us to hit the road, but I promised we'd be safe and move slowly, so she moved out of the way and we puttered up and down Jefferson and Larnard a few times. I tried to keep my left arm around J's belly to make sure he didn't lean one way or the other, but he wouldn't have it. He was pushing it away just like Grandpa Paul said he did when they went on their last 4-wheeler ride. He sat tight, enjoying the ride.

J insisted on wearing the shades, so I went without. And he loved honking the Yamaha's puny horn. We 'beep-beep-beeped' at Nat and waved as we drove by (she watched from the front stoop), and made sure to wave at everyone and everything (including the neighbor dogs) as we passed.

J hated to get off; he was so upset he cried straight through his bath and through part of his bottle. I'm sure he's dreaming of motorcycles now, so he and I will have to make nightly rides a tradition.

Sleepy heads

J is a VERY good sleeper. He normally goes down at 7:45 or 8 every night and will sleep until around 7 the next morning. He'll make a few noises at night, but it's been a LOOONG time since he work up in the middle of the night and kept us up. (Yep. We're lucky.)

We're always amazed how much of his crib he takes up. He's not really that big, is he?

The other photo is of Nat and the Coz sleeping LITERALLY as I write this now. They're sleepy, too.

Keep your eyes on the road

We borrowed Grandpa Paul and Grandma Debbie's truck to help get all our stuff home after our anniversary weekend. I didn't have time to get gramp's oil changed, but I did take a few minutes to give it a cleaning Sunday morning before giving it back.

J came out wearing his jammies to play around for a bit in the big truck ('Whoa!' as he'd say.)

Here, he's trying to steer the great ship while trying to figure out why we were taking photos. 'Just drivin'," I'm sure he thought.

Using a spoon!

A week or so ago Natalie emailed me at work with a story from that morning's breakfast.

"Jasper wouldn't let me feed him this morning," she said.

Every time she would try to put a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth, J would grab the spoon. He's a big boy now, I guess, and wants to use the spoon himself.

So, every morning since we give him a chance to feed himself. Some days he's more interested in using the spoon than others. On the day of this photo, he ate the whole bowl of oatmeal (with peaches!) on his own.

He doesn't have it mastered yet, but he's not doing too bad. we definitely started using the bib again.

As you can see, he was pretty pleased with himself. And so were we.

Fun in the yard!

Sunday after we got home the yard needed mowed, so it was time for Jasper and I to break out the new mower. He likes to help, although we don't turn the mower on yet. That, I'm sure, will some day be one of his chores, but not quite yet.

Before mowing, though, we played a little bit. J rode the electric 4-wheeler and wrestled me in the grass. (That's him STANDING on the 4-wheeler and that's him closing in on me for a form tackle.)