Final Christmas post!

Perhaps this should have been the first Christmas post, but instead it's the last.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful holiday season! And happy new year, if we don't get a Jasper post in before midnight tomorrow night! (Or even if we do!)

Opening some presents

The silent type, the talkative type

Okay, finally sifting through a boatload of Christmas videos to see which ones are best for posting. Bear with us!

Disclaimer: The Santa outfit is a hand-me-down, just like the Halloween outfit was a gift from someone at Daddy's work. Just so you don't think we'd buy outfits like these to dress our son up. Then again, if it's been given to you ... that's a different story. Seems like a waste not to use it, right?

Here's one with Jasper's typical reaction when the camera is on him ...




... but sometimes, you can keep the camera hidden juuust enough to coax him into allowing the true, talkative Jasper we know and love to be recorded for posterity!

Greetings from Jasper Claus!

We've got a lot from Jasper's first Christmas, but it'll take awhile to get it organized, so we may space it out over the course of the next few days. For now, greetings from Jasper Claus!

We can just hear you singing now ... "Santa baby ..."

Christmas Eve!

It's already Christmas in Australia, and nearly Christmas in the states!

So, to one and all, Merry Christmas ... from Jasper and family. :-)

Decorating the tree

Dancing cheek to cheek

So much for having time for more posts!

Maybe we'll just throw up one quick tree-decorating video, with more promised later?

Look, Jasper! Trees!

Whew! Now that we have all the presents finally shipped, time for more Jasper blog updates!

Nearly a week ago we picked up our tree! Here's a little bit of that experience ...

But first, we must define our terms. What is a "Bot," exactly? Well, naturally, that's short for "Shazbot," which is our nickname for Jasper. The origins of the word are the TV show Mork and Mindy -- "shazbot" being Mork's favored expletive. However, the reason we call Jasper "Shazbot" is because Daddy kind of thinks that's what it sounds like when Mummy says "Jasper" with her accent. Hey, there are stranger ways to get a nickname.

Okay, no further ado ... videos!

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

... Christmas!

And so we'd like to introduce a series of videos we'll start posting related to Christmas in the Frost-Armstrong home ... Jasper's first Christmas! This one doesn't have much to do with Christmas per se ... just the familiar tune in Mummy and Daddy's impromptu singing.

More Kelanie

Aunt and nephew

Aunt Melanie uses her effective (and inimitable) lip-trilling method. Jasper seems to approve.

Welcome Aunt Melanie and Uncle Ken!

Jasper's aunt and uncle on his father's side came into town Monday night, but didn't get to meet him until yesterday because the little guy was sleeping when they arrived. Each side took to the other pretty quickly ... even if we could only capture Melanie and Ken's grins on camera. :-)

The power of TV

Why we're trying to limit Jasper's exposure to the seductive moving images of the television ...

Big-boy bed!

Well, not really. We should probably save this post until he starts sleeping in a twin bed shaped like a race car in 2-3 years.

But Jasper is about to graduate to his crib, set to leave the basinet behind in a couple weeks. We set it up over the weekend and have been setting him down in it for a few minutes at a time. He seems very pleasantly distracted by the wind-up mobile hanging over the side.

We couldn't decide which "Jasper in the crib with the mobile" video to post, so we decided to post both! Enjoy.

Jasper's first toy

Mummy introduced a new little creature into Jasper's world -- a stuffed blue dog -- and it has quickly become a favorite. Just look at how he both sleeps and um ... wakes with it.

More Jasper noises

Just a cute video we thought we'd like to share.

Highlights from a Jasper Thanksgiving

For Jasper's three-month birthday and first Thanksgiving, we went up to our friends PJ & Elena's house in Northridge (see original video here) to celebrate with the usual crew, and some new faces as well. There were 11 adults and 8 children all told, though our photo-taking happened to be pretty Jasper-centric, not surprisingly. Here are some of the highlights.


Dan carefully descends the turkey into the deep fryer as Loretta looks on. (Jasper not pictured.)


Here he is. Happy little boy enjoying an unfamiliar play mat belonging to Donovan Donnelly (not pictured).


Uncle Dimo has a soothing influence on the little guy.


Scott and Loretta enjoy a sweet moment with Jasper ...


... until he says something extremely ribald and cracks everybody up. That little wiseguy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving from Jasper!

Also, happy three-month "birthday"!

An awareness of elephants

Jasper seems to be reaching out and making contact with some toy-like things. He can be occupied for pretty long periods of time in his bouncy chair now, and he seems to be enjoying himself. That's two elephants, one giraffe and one mouse-like thing, if you're keeping track.

Beyond cooing

In the last week Jasper has started really testing out the sounds he can produce with his mouth, from high-pitched delighted squeals to the kind of vocal playing you see here. The first few noises are Daddy trying to imitate the sounds Jasper made, to get him to make them again. But you'll be able to tell when Jasper himself takes over. This video was such a joy to record ... it was one of those "jackpot!" moments when you know you're getting the exact footage you were trying to get. Hooray!

How we're all feeling right now

Sleepy, and with a need to bundle up! It's supposed to be a wet and blustery weekend, and Jasper's gotten a head start ...

Welcome Uncle Alan!

This past weekend Jasper received a visit from his Uncle Alan, who married his Mum and Dad. (To be clear, Alan is not a blood relative, but as Daddy's oldest friend, he might as well be.) So we're doing our best to confuse the boy -- he's got two grandfathers named Alan or Allen, and now an uncle as well! A fun weekend was had by all, in a quick and action-packed 48-hour visit. Thanks so much for making the trip, Alan ...

Sleep-laughing

One of Jasper's cutest new habits is smiling and laughing in his sleep. Of course, whenever a little sleep-smiling and sleep-laughing is cute enough for you to pull out the video camera, you've missed the best part. But the parts we did get are pretty good.




But even babies can have a sixth sense when someone's watching:

Catching up with Momo

Got a little behind on my updating this week, so we'll catch up now with some great photos from Momo's visit, which ended on Tuesday night. Thanks for the wonderful visit, Lucy!


Out cold!


Our only non-video from going to Paradise Cove.


Possibly funniest expression I've ever seen Jasper make -- it doesn't even really look like him!


Three generations ...

Momo arrives!

Lucy, Clea's mum, arrived in town on Friday night. Having just been on a trip through the "Stans" in Europe, she was struck with inspiration by the grandmother name "Momo," which is a Lithuanian term of endearment for grandmothers. Jasper took to her right away!

And we took a trip right away on Saturday to Paradise Cove in Malibu, where we had lunch and did some sight-seeing ... whether the sights were open to the public to be seen, or not.

Bath-time fun

Jasper goofing around in the bath, with some help from us of course.

Elusive signs of happiness!

In case you were wondering whether our little guy has his jolly moments -- they've been a bit fleeting this past week -- here are not one, but two examples of his happy demeanor for your enjoyment!

(And to answer Grandmommy Armstrong's question -- we tried the Nuk pacifier and he does not seem interested in it.)



And here!

Daddy tries to elicit coos

In vain, unfortunately.

Looking and kicking

One of the most recent phases in Jasper's development is that he loves what we refer to as "looking and kicking time." This activity got its name for obvious reasons: It involves Jasper looking around and kicking his legs. And it tends to be located on the left-most cushion of our couch. He can remain occupied with it for relatively long periods of time. And by that we mean up to and including ten minutes.

As seen here:

Jaspy Halloween!

Mummy and baby

Love this new pic of Jasper and his mum!

Local family

In between visits from out-of-town family -- Lucy Frost arrives next week! -- we shouldn't forget about another recent visit from family that actually lives in town. A couple weekends ago, Jasper met his first cousin once removed (checked wikipedia to be sure about that one!), Robin, and her husband Adam, who live only a couple miles away. Robin is Clea's cousin, so I think the once removed designation is correct ... right?

Adam gets credit with a special achievement -- extracting from Jasper what we informally consider to be his first real smile! Here are Robin, Adam and Jasper, moments after returning from a lovely brunch a couple weekends ago.

Two months old!

(These photos actually from a card Jasper made for his daddy last week, with possibly assistance from his mummy.)

At his two-month checkup today, we discovered that Jasper has grown three inches and gained four pounds in the last five weeks! That's right, he's now weighing in double digits, at exactly 10 pounds. No wonder we're starting to notice some changes in him!

A couple more

Before we say goodbye to the visit from the Armstrongs, here are a couple more cute photos that just had to find their way onto the blog:

Photo shoot

Jasper's paparazzo grandfather takes some shots while Jasper strikes a pose. Then again, he doesn't really have that many poses, and striking them occurs somewhat passively.




Thanks for a great visit, "Grandpa" (for now) and Didi!

Placid Jasper

We've had nothing but rain since the elder Armstrongs arrived in town, so most of our photography and video has taken place indoors. But that doesn't mean we haven't gotten some good stuff. Here's Jasper under the spell of his grandfather:

More grandparents to meet!

Jasper meets [Grandfather name to be determined] and Didi. They arrived Friday night and spent the day with us yesterday, here until Thursday!