ONE YEAR OLD!

Happy 12 months to our Jasper boy! Believe it or not, the milestone has come and gone without a major meltdown from the mama of his turning a whole number.  This has been the best year.  And I am genuinely enjoying each new stage, watching him grow and learn new tricks.  He is so much fun, can't seem to mourn for infancy when tot-hood is so darling.  Or at least not yet . . .

Best buddies. Jake loves being a dad and he is so, so good at it.  Like it was born in him.  He and Jasper LOVE to play wild and crazy, and it is so much fun to watch.  Jasper lights up when he sees his daddy.  

Watching Yo Gabba Gabba.  Lifetime fans at this house.

This picture!!  Two of Jasper's favorite things: Daddy and the soccer ball.  He loves to play with that soccer ball.

We were so lucky to have a lot of family visit this month.  It's been a harder time for our family the past few months, and having family visit seems to make it all better.  It's so nice to be reminded of what's really important, and for me, that's nearly always the wonderful people in my life.

Grammy Moffat visited.

I think they like each other.

(I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!)

Cousin Boston visited, and Jasper wanted to do everything he was doing.  Boston could've maybe done with a little space, but Jasper would NOT give it to him.  ilovemycuzsomuch!!

We got to visit Mindy and Eldon in San Diego over Memorial Day with Rob, Parker and Peg, and Meg, Chris, and Boston.  It was SO nice to see all of them.

And they were so good at playing with the babies.

AGH!!!

Jasper does not like crawling on grass, so he does this awesome bear crawl so his knees don't touch.  He's so funny--dirt and sand he's all over, but grass is not his thing.

This was so awesome. So Jake will often put the baby down for a nap when he's available, and Jake's a bigger softy than I am and can't stand to hear the baby cry, like, ever.  And Jasper has never been a good napper--the going down for and waking from naps has nearly always involved crying.  So I peeked in one afternoon after it had been quiet for a while, thinking Jake had gotten caught holding a sleeping baby, and this is how I found them.

Per-fec-tion.

And this was how they looked when they woke up.  Wonder where Jasper gets his nap time crankiness. ;)

Playtime!  There has certainly been a LOT of this.  Oh to have the world as your playground. 

Mr. Teeth!  He didn't get any til he was 9 months old, and by 12 months he has seven.  That's a lot of teething, folks, in a short amount of time.  

I put in this picture because of the foot.  That tiny, tiny gorgeous foot.

King Louis pose.  A Jasper classic.  This variation includes a "Hey, what's up?" wave.

Still loves his blocks and his wooden blocks box.  His latest fixation is putting things inside of bigger things and taking/dumping them out again.  We have to check the trash nowadays before we take it out in case he's snuck anything important in there when we weren't looking!  Sneaky, that one!

"

Jasper as a pirate.  I say "yea."

Cupboard trouble.  This kid knows how to make a mess, doesn't he?  

How he LOVES toilet paper.  He does this right in front of me, too.  And you know, sometimes, it's worth the extra few minutes in the day to get ready.

We are also working on food-throwing.  He's taking to our counsel so well, as you can see.

Curly!  Look at that darling hair!  Of course this is the back view. He has at least 3 or 4 times more hair in the back than in the front, but at least what's there is super cute!

Mommy and me.  Guys, I love having a kid.  It's awesome.  Life is so much better with him in it.  It's hard sometimes, definitely, but so worth it. Those of you that have them know, those of you that will have them, will know then.  Can't even begin to say how wonderful it is, and how much joy it brings.

My favorite pictures of me are looking at him.  Sounds like a line, but it's true.  He makes EVERYTHING better.

My sister came to visit this last week for Jasper's birthday and we went to the beach!  Beach trips take a lot of planning and effort, but they are always so fun, and I'm always glad when we do them.

King Louie on the sand.

See our little guy struttin' on the beach?  That's right, folks.  Jasper started walking on Sunday, June 10 and hasn't looked back!  We were at church, and I think with the nice open space in the foyer he just decided it was time.  He'd been army-crawling for 4 or 5 months, hands and knees crawling for a few weeks to a month, bear-crawling intermittently, and then after he started walking, there was a brief, lopsided one-knee, one-foot crawl.  I think he wanted to try everything.

More walking proof.  Sentimental mommy taking pictures of his tiny footprints in the sand.

All four of the Dalton grand babies: Devlin, Jasper, Eve, and Iris.  Aren't they a sight!

Mommy laughing at Jasper's mouthful of sand.  I tried. There's only so much you can do to keep your kids from putting stuff in their mouths they shouldn't. Now things that are alive, or used to be, that straight up ain't happening, kid!

I love his hugs.  He gives them back, now.  And I'll hold out my arms and he'll walk into them and give me a hug.  Just so awesome.

On to the big day!!

On Japser's birthday, we went to The Grove for a kids concert and a Wetzel's Pretzel's lunch and rode the trolley.  I love trolleys.  And I think Jasper enjoyed it, too.

Tuckered out on the way home. I always feel victorious when he sleeps.  Why is that?

After nap we had a little cousins birthday party for him. I made a practice cake for his upcoming party and we sang "happy birthday," the whole bit.

Devlin, Eve, and Iris were so good to play with Jasper all week.  They are SUCH good friends to him.  

"Mom, stop kissing me, you're blocking the cake."

First cake ever.

Was a hit!

Rachel saved her favorite baby toys from when her kids were little and brought them up for Jasper for his birthday. We must have quadrupled his toy loot over the last week!  So much fun!

Then if that was not enough, we went to the park, too.  Jasper loves to swing, so I wanted him to get to do it on his special day.

Hard to tell who's more excited. 

Oh our dear Jasper, we love you so much!  Happy, happy first birthday!  We love having you in our family and getting to celebrate the day you became a part of it!  Thank you for the wonderful, busy, happy, wild, noisy, energetic, outgoing, music-loving boy that you are!  We love you with all our hearts!