Today, Jasper is two months old and the frog series is really starting to take shape! Click the photo sequence to view it larger.

He's still wearing the second blue shirt, size 0-3 months (the 5-day-old shirt is newborn size), but we'll have to move up a size next month. Like many of his 0-3 month shirts, this one is suddenly very tight!

Here are more outtakes from today's photo shoot:

He's slouching a bit because when I pushed his bum all the way back into the chair, his top half sloooooowly started to tip over. He thought it was quite humorous!

I can't believe Jasper is already objecting to having his picture taken. His actions speak loudly. "I'm tired..."

"I'm bored..."

Tough, Kid. Get used to it!

On Sunday, we celebrated Jeff's third Father's Day and first as a daddy of two. I always love a great excuse to take photos of all my guys together!

Another brother shot with the same result: startled Jasper with crazy crooked-smiling Gavin!

I've been asked often whether Jasper looks like Gavin at this age. Here they are both around 7 weeks old wearing the same outfit (which Jasper has already nearly outgrown!)...

Infant Gavin always had a Pavlov reaction to my camera since I took photos of him every day. He always smiled instantly the second I put it to my eye!

I don't think they look very similar although they clearly have the same nose and mouth when you see photos side-by-side. Their hair patterns are very different - Gavin always had a baby mullet while Jasper's hair is full up to his forehead. Occasionally, I'll catch a glimpse of Jasper and he'll look exactly like Gavin from a certain angle. Other times, I don't see any resemblance at all! It will be fun to watch him grow and see if he looks more or less like his brother!

Gavin decided not to nap ... again. He actually has napped two or three times this month, but decided to read every book on the bottom shelf during naptime today instead.

Mommy tried to get another photo of the boys together. Gavin was more interested in the train on Jasper's shirt. Note to self: Don't dress Jasper in a shirt with an image of any type of wheeled vehicle.

Jasper wondered why Mommy keeps forcing him to sit on his brother's lap while she hides behind a clicking black box.

Gavin smartly escaped the reaches of Mommy's camera viewfinder, but immobile Jasper was not so lucky...

Mommy finally got a decent shot of a real Jasper smile, if only he hadn't stumbled into bad lighting. I'll keep trying!

Gavin likes cutting my hair. Traci told me to get some video. I made a silent film.

Lately, I've been hoarding pictures that I've taken of the brothers together, still searching for that perfect shot to place on the mantle where they are both looking at the camera with angelic faces. I don't know why I thought I wanted a shot like that because it goes against my basic photography philosophy. I just like to capture their true personalities and a boring "perfect" shot definitely does not show their personalities. So, giving up on that "perfect shot," here are a few of my attempts from the past few weeks.

I prefer natural shots instead of posed portraits but since Jasper is still immobile, the only way to get a photo of the brothers together is to plan a shot in some way. A photo shoot typically begins by placing the boys together and getting a picture like this:

Then, fidgety Jasper starts kicking his feet and waving his arms which tickles Gavin who proceeds to escape...

We smoosh them back together and try another shot but end up with Jasper giving his Elvis impression and Gavin already looking doubtful...

So, we totally give up and try any other pose that puts them both in the same frame!

This was a result of telling Gavin, "Put your arm around Jasper." I guess we shouldn't give up on teaching Gavin prepositions yet!

They're already plotting and scheming a way to avoid Mommy's camera...

Where have I seen the devilish grin of a toddler like this...

... and the terrified face of an infant like this before?

Oh, yes! Now I remember! (one of my favorite pictures of me and Kristen together!)

Have I mentioned before how much Gavin loves his little brother?

Well, he does...

... a lot!

Jasper is smiling more these days. He recognizes Mommy and Daddy, and sometimes gives us a sweet social smile. Overall, he's a bit fussy and wants a lot of attention so the fleeting smiles are wonderful gift!

He is easily over-stimulated and can get really cranky when he's tired but there's too much commotion to fall asleep. He's also quite particular about his sleeping location. Sometimes Jasper wants to sleep in his bouncer and other times he wants to be held, and he lets us know very loudly when we try the wrong location! He never fights sleeping in his crib at night, though.

Jasper already has very strong legs and can practically support his own weight when I'm burping him by bouncing him on my knee and he stiffens his body in anger ("I want to drink, not burp!"). Gavin likes to help burp his brother by gently patting his back along with me. Jasper has very good neck control now and we hardly have to support him while he's being burped in a sitting position (we have a half dozen burping positions - anything to get those bubbles out!).

Jasper has settled into a convenient schedule all on his own. He eats on the multiples of three, waking up at 6:00 AM and then eating again around 9:00 AM, noon, 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and 9:00 PM. He is usually awake the entire time between the 6:00 and 9:00 PM bottles and then sleeps for the night. He still wakes up at 3:00 AM, but skips the midnight feeding and gives us a good six-hour stretch from 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM.

I'm on maternity leave for one more week, so we shifted our daily schedule back to both waking and going to sleep earlier so I'll be ready to start work on time! Jeff covers the one remaining middle-of-the-night 3:00 AM feeding and then I wake up for the day with Jasper for his 6:00 AM feeding. We head downstairs so that Jeff can keep sleeping and we gaze out the front window as the day breaks. It's quite refreshing and a wonderful way to start the day! Jasper has been going right back to sleep after he finishes this bottle so I eat my breakfast and have some quiet time until I fetch Gavin at 7:30.

I've been checking off my list of activities to complete before returning back to work and high on that list was bringing Gavin to the Marbles Kids Museum, a hands-on kids educational play place that is really busy on the weekends so I've been wanting to visit on a weekday. We asked Gmummy to come along with us today while Daddy stayed home with Jasper. Daddy will definitely have to bring Gavin again ... and again ... and again! This place is so much more fun that I imagined! There are so many different activities and things to do.

The very first activity definitely got Gavin's attention ... a bus!

Gavin did his best Kramer impression, "Now, I'm drivin' the bus!" (you know the Seinfeld episode where Kramer recounts the story of saving Toby's pinky toe?)

Each exhibit included apparel for the kids to wear while playing and completing the activities. The fire truck was next...

Gavin wore scrubs while driving the ambulance. Hospital funding must be low when your driver is also your doctor!

A fish tank is always an attention-grabber!

Gavin tried on safety goggles in the submarine...

Gavin worked up quite an appetite from driving so many vehicles and working on submarine experiments so we headed upstairs to make some fabric pizza!

After assembling the pizza pie, Gavin carefully placed it in the oven...

... and collected money from his customers.

Next, Gavin found the dance floor and spun tunes on the giant iPod.

Dance, Baby! Dance!

All three of us!

As if all that dancing (jumping) wasn't tiring enough, Gavin hit the waves next on the surfboard wobble boards.

I was so pleased when Gavin walked right up to this coloring table and listened to the nice lady. He's really coming out of his shell these days! Of course, he's always had a thing for blondes!

Gavin quickly lost interest in coloring when he realized there were no garnet or gold pencils to color his sports team spirit picture...

Phew! The morning was jam-packed with activity and we returned downstairs for one last ride in the cars before leaving...

Gavin is currently on strike. He hasn't napped in a week. Occasionally, he has skipped naps due to an irregular schedule on a particular day and for the past few months, he hasn't napped about one day a week. On those days, we left him in his room for his afternoon nap and he just played in the dark for two hours. He used to hide his tracks by running over to his bed and stuffing his pacifier back in his mouth when we opened the door. Sometimes, he would eventually fall asleep after playing for the first hour, but he left evidence of earlier playtime by leaving books on the floor or the nightlight on.

However, for the past week, Gavin resists all aspects of napping. He insists he doesn't want to nap, he's angry when we leave him in his room, and he doesn't try to hide the fact that he's not sleeping. He turns on the lights now (by "lights", I mean all three lamps in the room, the toy fish tank, and his turtle nightlight - blue, of course) and plays the entire time. We hear all sorts of thumps and babbling emanating from his room for two hours.

When "naptime" was over today, I opened his door and saw this:

Gavin had pulled two toy bins off the shelves and emptied them onto the floor. Another day, he had pulled nearly all of his books off the shelves. This isn't an act of defiance, though. He just wanted to play with the toys and look at his books! He sure knows how to make a mess, though!

Fortunately, missing his nap doesn't mean that Gavin is fussier in the evening so perhaps he's just grown out of naps entirely very early!

View the Video

I'm certain that he knows the difference between the numbers one through five, his biggest problem (other than a 2-year-old's attention span) is that he hasn't got his hand trained to make the numbers yet.

View the Video

Traci lays on the nauseating baby talk while stretching and tickling Jasper. Alas, no discernable smiles. Gavin does give one of his frequent "uh-oh"s for the camera.

We never visited our community's pool last summer. In fact, we only went swimming two times all season. That is going to change this summer. The only way we're going to survive the summer heat ("we" meaning me and the boys; Jeff doesn't mind the heat at all) is if we go to the pool ... a lot! Gavin is starting swim lessons in just over a week so we went to our community pool yesterday for the first time to make sure he's used to the water before his first class. We had so much fun and will have to go several more times before his lessons begin!

Gavin was timid in the water at first, but not for long...

He loved being tossed into the air...

Throwing water-soaked Gavin into the air a dozen times in a row is the best workout!

Gavin did not want to leave the pool when we told him it was time to go. He settled for a water break after making a scene with crying and tears!

Gavin's expression in the photo above is the same as this photo from last July, back when the rash guard fit him much better!

Gavin's swim trunks from last summer still fit him. He's 29 months old and still wears size 12-18 month shorts! The rash guard, on the other hand, won't see the water again. His belly was hanging out all afternoon and the long sleeves are now three-quarter sleeves on Gavin!

Jasper was a spectator while his brother swam. We took him out of his car seat carrier and laid him on an umbrella-shaded table so the breeze would keep him cool.

See that little curly-q over his left ear? He has no other curls, not even above his right ear. It's just another Jasper-ism that is so cute!

Back at home, I was tired from all the Gavin-tossing, heat, and chlorine so I napped with Jasper. Gavin, of course, wasn't the least bit tired and crawled up for a story.

Red, white, and blue for Memorial Day earlier this week

Jasper visited the pediatrician for his one-month wellness exam this morning, his five week birthday. I'm sure we arrived at Gavin's one-month appointment with a list of questions and we really had none for Jasper! We just wanted to make sure that his belly button has healed completely so we can start giving him baths in the tub instead of sponge baths (we can). Other than that, we've been through all of this before and nothing else has been a concern to us! The doctor confirmed that he's perfect so far. Here are Jasper's updated numbers:

• 22 ½ inches (75th percentile)
• 11 pounds, 3 ounces (80th percentile)
• 40 cm head circumference (80th percentile)
  

He's smaller than Gavin at this age, but still a big boy! Gavin's one-month check-up was also at five weeks old. He was over an inch longer and more than one pound heavier than Jasper.

We gave Jasper his first big boy bath in the tub this evening. He really didn't like sponge baths we'd been giving him for the past month because we couldn't keep him warm enough. He enjoyed being doused with warm water in the tub so much more!

Gavin is now pacifier-less. Cold turkey. For over a year, he has only used a pacifier for sleeping - naps and overnight. He even takes it out himself and leaves it on his bed when he gets up because he knows it's only for sleeping. We finally decided enough is enough. Last night was his first without a pacifier and aside from a little teary protest as we kissed him goodnight, he had no trouble falling asleep or staying asleep until his usual wake-up time. Naps are more difficult, but we figure he will be used to pacifier-less naps in a few more days.

We often tell Gavin he needs to "fill his belly" or that his food will be going into his belly. Gavin always corrects us and points to his mouth instead as if to say, "No, Daddy. The food goes in my mouth, not my belly!" We all deliberately tell him food is going to his belly at least once a day because we think his correction is so darn adorable!

Gavin beeps whenever he sees a vehicle backing up or is in a car that is backing up because he learned about backup alarms in his construction machine book. He also makes a siren sound whenever he sees a firetruck or police car - real ones, toys, or pictures in a book.

Gavin says a ponderous "hmm" whenever anyone is looking for a lost object or appears to not know why something happened. It cracks us up that he picked up on that non-word phrase and uses it in very appropriate situations.

Gavin has been saying "Daddy" as "Dah-ah." He still has no interest in saying "Mommy." We are giving him one more month to make some progress in the speech department before we seek out some intervention.

Since Jasper's arrival, Gavin's sleep and nap times have shifted a bit. I used to wake up around 7:00 to eat breakfast and then get Gavin up at 7:30. Now, I sleep until 8:00 every day and get Gavin before heading downstairs. He eats and then plays with his cars while I have breakfast. For naps, he used to sleep for 2-3 hours beginning somewhere between noon and 1:00 PM. Now, he doesn't go down for his nap until 2:00-3:00 and he sleeps until 4:00-5:00. Several days a week he doesn't sleep at all, but he stays in his dark room playing for two hours. Fortunately, he hasn't figured out yet that he can open his own door (he can open knobbed doors, after all) so the quiet time alone usually produces the same result as a nap - a less-fussy Gavin! With his later wake-up call and nap, his bedtime is also later now. Our pre-Jasper evening schedule was 7:00 PM bath, 7:30 books and milk, and then lights out around 7:45. Now, he doesn't venture upstairs to begin the nighttime routine until after 8:00 PM and the lights are usually out closer to 9:00. 

showing off his muscles after a shower (that's a hand towel around his waist!)

Gavin still doesn't like complete strangers talking to him like store cashiers who have the nerve to say, "hi," to him. However, he has warmed up to other kids. This is most noticeable at Tiny Tumblers which, sadly, is now on hiatus for the summer until September. When he started going to Tiny Tumblers last fall, he was too shy to be around other kids. If one started playing near him, he'd immediately move away. Now, he could care less that he's surrounded by other toddlers. When I took him to the gym last week, he was jumping on the tumble track beside another boy who kept jumping right next to Gavin and even knocked him over a few times. It didn't phase Gavin at all; he just got up and started jumping again. The Gavin who started Tiny Tumblers would have wimpered and immediately left the tumble track to find a kid-free apparatus to play on! We're so, so proud of his progress with social interaction!

Gavin's favorite color is blue. Among other acts of blue favoritism, he always turns his turtle nightlight to blue before going to bed. This turtle shines stars on the ceiling in three colors - gold, green, and blue. He always presses the buttons until the light turns blue. When dressing for our hike the other day, we let Gavin choose a long-sleeved t-shirt and he chose blue.

While shopping at Harris Teeter over the weekend, Gavin found the container of blueberries in the cart while I had my back turned ordering at the deli and accidentally dropped it on the floor sending blueberries rolling all over the waiting area. He then proceeded to giggle at me the entire time I picked them up (he thinks it's funny when he is "taller" than us). In hindsight, I should have made him do it! This isn't a developmental update; just a reminder to not let the kid hold a blueberry container!

Gavin is an excellent big brother. Most of the time, he doesn't pay much attention to Jasper because he simply doesn't do much yet! I'm sure he will show much more interest in him in another month or two when Jasper is more responsive. When we specifically ask Gavin to interact with Jasper in some way (give a high five, put his pacifier back in his mouth, etc.), he immediately obliges with a smile. He doesn't even mind the usual crying which is a relief. The only time Jasper's crying upsets Gavin is when they're both in the back seat of the car and Jasper really starts wailing! He always runs to my side when I tell him I need to go upstairs to change Jasper's diaper and fetches a new shirt if one is needed. He loves Jasper most when Jasper wears a shirt with a car, tricycle, train, or anything with wheels on it!

Today, we packed up some food and headed to Blue Jay Point for a picnic lunch and playground time. Gavin was excited to eat in the woods...

So was Jasper...

So, Ma. When are you going to put down the camera and give me some food?

Seriously, Mom. Put down the camera.

After lunch, Gavin played at the playground. He had the tot lot all to himself.

I was able to persuade Gavin to slide down an enclosed tube slide for the first time.

Mostly, he just enjoyed walking along the bridges high above the ground...

We ventured into the woods a bit but quickly decided it was too hot and we needed some refreshment.

Next stop: Goodberry's! There's nothing like frozen custard on a hot almost-summer day (or any other day, for that matter)!

Next time, Gavin gets his own bowl. I have no idea where he got his chocolate sweet tooth from...

Jasper was still excited...

View the Video

The typical one-month-old, Jasper isn't awake often. When he is awake, he's often complaining about an empty belly or a full diaper. He usually only has one pleasant period of alertness each day, so we try to take full advantage of it, giving him interesting experiences and, of course, taking his picture.