It's hot!

Or at least it was on Monday -- 113 degrees was recorded in downtown Los Angeles.

So any amount of clothing was the rule of the day. (And yes, even though Derek's hand is strategically placed in one of these photos, Jasper is wearing a diaper in both.)

Stroll(er)ing the canals

Our final activity during Grandmommy's visit was a Friday stroll(er) along the canals in Venice. No, not Venice Italy -- our very own Venice California, which boasts an idyllic area where man-made canals amount to a residential neighborhood for some truly spectacular homes. Daddy and Grandmommy followed a route that passed in front of each of the homes, lasting about 90 minutes, on a beautiful Friday afternoon.




And here's Jasper going over one of the bridges, blissfully ignorant as usual.




Thanks for a great visit, Grandmommy! Now back to our less eventful, regularly scheduled programming of generically cute Jasper pictures.

Jasper consumes some culture

Thursday brought us to the Getty Villa in Malibu, which was envisioned by J. Paul Getty to be a recreated Roman Villa. And my was it impressive. To the adults, that is. Jasper just didn't grasp the complexities of the antiquities he saw. And here we thought he was advanced.




Daddy also got to experience what it's like to be a responsible parent by taking his crying baby away from the tour multiple times. (Mummy did the same.) For those of you who think that Jasper never fusses, here's some evidence to the contrary.




Conspicuously absent here are the dozens of still photos Daddy took of the Getty, which have yet to be downloaded from Mummy's camera.

Catching up ...

So Derek's busy schedule has inadvertently robbed you of Jasper updates for a couple days. We'll pick up where we left off -- this is a Tuesday trip to Manhattan Beach, which involved a visit to the aquarium at the end of the Manhattan Beach pier.




But eels weren't the only fishy attraction at the aquarium ...




And here's the pier itself. Please ignore Grandmommy's inopportune comment about her medical maintenance ...




And finally, a trip to the area wouldn't be complete without taking in the beautiful homes along The Strand, which is the pedestrian walkway between the bike path and the porches of the homes themselves.

Jasper outage!

Sorry for the temporary Jasper outage, everyone! Been very busy the last few days, and plan to be back with new updates tomorrow!

A fan of commotion

We took Jasper for possibly his busiest outing yet on Sunday, to a local farmer's market. And we noticed that the number of people present seemed to be inversely proportional to his fidgeting level. In fact, his fidgeting level was pretty much zero.




We also managed to get in a couple cute photos of Mummy and Daddy doing what they always imagined they'd do when they became parents: join the hordes of other parents who bring strollers to the farmer's market.

Photographic evidence ...?

Of Jasper's first smile?

Probably not -- it shouldn't come for a couple more weeks or possibly months -- but it sure looks like it here. He seems to take very well to his grandmother, at least!

Grandmother and grandson

Jasper goes for coffee

Okay, it was actually his father and grandmother who "went for coffee," but only his father actually had coffee. Here's a little video narrative of Jasper's Friday afternoon excursion to Intelligentsia coffee on Abbot Kinney:




And he stayed quiet at the coffee shop. Just marvel at how he sleeps through reasonably loud indie rock music:




But even when he's not asleep, he still isn't fussing:




Until after Daddy and Grandmommy finish their Scrabble game, at which point, fussing finally becomes inevitable:

Three generations

Three generations craning to get into this one photo, as Derek holds his blackberry up above his head to take pictures in a Trader Joe's. This was the best of about six. Welcome to California, Grandmommy!

Jasper's first bath

That pesky umbilical cord fell off a couple days ago, so we gave Jasper his first bath tonight, in preparation for meeting Grandmommy. As you can see, Jasper and bath water are a good mix.

Pleased to make your acquaintance

Jasper has met a lot of new friends ...


... but his most exciting new introduction to date will be tomorrow, when he meets his paternal grandmother for the first time!

Dark but cute

If you squint, you can see a little Jasper thrashing around in the darkness in his vibrating chair.

And -- wait for it -- a sneeze!

Jasper's big day out

Jasper got to meet a dozen or so of Mommy and Daddy's friends on Saturday as part of a birthday celebration for two-year-old Haven Donnelly, whose younger brother Donovan was born about three weeks before Jasper. Here's a little of the fun ...

Mummy and Jasper

Look ma, no hands!

A little sleeping egg on my chest.

A quiet moment in a busy hospital

Purring

Someone oil that baby, he sounds like a squeaky rocking chair!

Jasper comes home

Jumping around in time again, as we are accustomed to doing on this blog ...

Here's a little video of us bringing Jasper home for the first time. He doesn't offer much in this video, but it's a funny example of his parents' concern -- check out the nervous little laugh we both give off when Derek sets down the car seat, and it makes a little adjustment. We don't want our little guy to be in even a moment's danger!

Chatty little guy

Jasper likes to talk -- just like his old man.

Two weeks old!

But Jasper spent the day wholly oblivious to that fact, as seen below.


As a side note, this is the same cradle that Derek and Melanie used when they were this size. Grandfather Allen (official grandparent name to be determined by Jasper) fixed it up and sent it out in time for Jasper's arrival, and Jasper has spent about 6-10 hours of daytime sleep in it every day!

It don't mean a thing ...

... if it ain't got that SWING!

Our friend Nicole loaned us a new soothing mechanism for Jasper -- which means our house is now, officially, filled to the brim with them.

You've seen Jasper in his more serene moments, but he's capable of opening his eyes into little saucers of concern, as seen here.

Sleepy sunbather

We'll probably continue to post "old" stuff from the hospital until we run out ...

Jasper's first stop after birth was under this warming lamp, where they bring the babies' temperatures up, if necessary. I like how calm he was only about five minutes into his life ...

Nose to nose

Random cute sleepy video from the hospital

The official weigh-in

Look at this little guy, so new to the world! So confused! "What's happening??"

Now I understand why they sometimes called his weight 5 pounds, 6 ounces and sometimes called it 5 pounds, 5 ounces. It appears he was actually 5 pounds and 5.5 ounces, which we all know rounds up to 6 ounces. Just like his daddy, who always rounds 6 foot 3 and-a-half inches up to 6'4." :-)

Brunch!

Jasper's cute enough to eat, but it's against California law. We could eat a yummy brunch at one of our favorite neighborhood cafes, Wood. Jasper was very sweet by letting us enjoy our whole meal without fussing. He only "sprung a leak" (Daddy's term for when he shows signs of starting to cry) right before we got back home. Thanks J!

Perspective

He really is only wee ...

Our little hiccuper

One little thing about Jasper -- and it's very common among babies -- is that he has the hiccups at least a half-dozen times a day. They only last about five minutes and they don't seem to cause him any particular agony. Instead, they serve as an endless source of cuteness to his parents. Here's one of the first hiccuping videos we took in the hospital.

Hot off the presses

Jasper was very well behaved during his first shopping excursion, completed within the last hour. (And yes, Grandmommy Armstrong, it's safe to have him up on the shopping cart like that -- the car seats are actually designed to clip into the cart so it's totally sturdy.)

Jasper loves the car seat. He always sleeps whenever he's strapped into it.

"He's only wee!"