More pictures of Keira

I know that many of you have been patiently waiting to see more pictures of Keira. But where are they? Since Coufou has been delinquent in sharing pictures with the rest of us, I have taken it upon myself, with a little help from Yee-Ma, to post new pictures of my cousin. Isn't she cute? She's so little! Was I really that little once too??

The Best Christmas Present Ever

I must say, I'm still winding down from all the excitement of Christmas and all the attention lavished on me. Even with all my new toys and clothes and gifts, the best Christmas present ever is my new cousin Keira! She was born on Christmas Eve in San Francisco. Congratulations Coufou and Couma!

Welcome to the world!! It's a fun place to be. I'm so excited to have a little cousin to boss around, I mean, play with.

Bye Bye Yee-Ma!

I had so much fun playing with my Yee-Ma this week. We're good friends now - like two little pigs in a blanket. We even wear matching pajamas and vests! But her vest doesn't have cute little duckies on it.

Here's a video to show how much fun I had playing with Yee-Ma. She's silly and made me laugh a lot. Too bad she had to leave to go home today. I wanted to crawl into her suitcase and go home with her (but I guess that would mean that I would know how to crawl...) but I didn't fit. She has too many presents to bring home. Bye bye Yee-Ma! Thank you for coming and visiting me and spending Christmas with me!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! After all the days of preparation and all the talk of traditions, it's finally Christmas day! Mommy, Daddy and I drove down to Babcia and Dzadek's house in New Jersey while Yee-Ma went to celebrate Christmas with Auntie Tracy, Auntie Alison, Josephine Pau Pau and Desmond Kung Kung. I could hardly sleep last night that I fell fast asleep as soon as we got into the car.

Once we got there, Mommy and Daddy dressed me up in a special Christmas outfit. I even got to wear a special blue corduroy vest! Do you notice anything else different about me? Do you like my antlers?

So then I got my reindeer and we put all the presents under the tree.

Here are a couple of other pictures from my very first Christmas.

Presents!

It's not even Christmas yet, and already I know it's going to be my favorite holiday. How do I know, you ask? Because, it turns out, Christmas is the holiday when little boys like me get lots and lots of gifts!

I first found out about this phenomena when 4 Yee-Pau, 5 Yee-Pau and 6 Yee-Pau and their families came over for dinner to our house a few days ago. Like always, I was the center of everyone's attention, which I enjoy very much...

But I also noticed that the pile of things wrapped in colorful paper under our Christmas tree got bigger after they came... I soon learned that these wrapped things were gifts - for me!


Look at them all - so colorful and fun!

Then, last night, I learned about another Christmas tradition - Christmas Dinner with Aunties Tracy and Alison, who have been been going to a special Christmas Dinner for many years to exchange gifts with Mommy and Yee-Ma (and a few years ago, Daddy started to join them.)

Even though I'm not old enough to eat some of the food everyone was having, like prosciutto, that was OK - because, yep, you guessed it, I got more presents! Here I am opening one up while everyone else eats -


Finally, since we are going to visit Babcia and Dziadek in New Jersey for Christmas tomorrow, I got to open my presents from under the Christmas tree tonight, on Christmas Eve. With all the presents I've been receiving, I've gotten very good at unwrapping gifts. And now I loooooooove opening presents - sometimes I'm not even sure whether I like the actual presents or the wrapping more...


Here's some of the great stuff I got:

But the best part was not all the wrapping or presents at all, but knowing that there are so many people who love me and remember me at Christmas - I'm a very lucky little boy. Thank you everyone!! If I could, I would wrap up and send my love to all of you too (though maybe without the gift-opening-induced drool...)

Cookies!

Yesterday, I was introduced me to a new Christmas tradition - baking holiday cookies! Every year, Mommy, Yee-Ma, Auntie Alison and Auntie Tracy bake lots of holiday cookies and spend a whole day decorating them together.

It was so much fun making cookies, but also so much work! I helped as much as I could...

...but I'm so little and there were so many cookies to make, so lots of people were here to help.

Like Auntie Alison and Auntie Tracy...

And Auntie Chris - here we both are showing off our teeth (Auntie Chris has a head start growing her teeth, but I'm catching up fast...)

Uncle Andy came over to help, too, but he got tuckered out from all the hard work making cookies and needed a little R&R, so I kept him busy and entertained with my toys so he wouldn't get cranky before all the cookies were done...

And it worked - look at all the colorful cookies we made! They sure do get creative with their cookie decorations, no? I especially like the cookies in honor of Derek Jeter, like the Derek Jeter stocking (top left) and the Yankees snow globe (bottom right).

Here are three of my favorites - can you tell what they are?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Vests!!!

If you thought that the other vests were stylish, wait until you see these! Yee-Ma came to visit and she brought me lots of gifts from Ah-Boo. Ah-Boo saw that I'm starting to outgrow my vests so when she was in Hong Kong she bought me some new ones.

I'll stay all nice and warm all winter.

I was so excited to get new vests! I love my new vests. It takes my breath away.

New Friends

I've been practicing my social skills and making lots of new friends lately. While I'm becoming a little skeptical of strangers, it's actually pretty easy to make friends. I just bat my eyelashes or entice people to play with my toys - Freddy the Firefly is always a hit. Or else, people just can't resist my cheeks. Even if they don't like babies or try to deny my cuteness, they just have to come a little closer to have a look at my cheeks. Sometimes they even rub my little Buddha belly. This week, I got to practice on Auntie Erin and Auntie Jess - Mommy's friends from high school. I've heard so much about them so it was nice to meet them in person. We became fast friends.

Today, I had my 9-month check-up (even though I'm really 9.4 months). I'm officially 21 pounds and 29.5 inches long. While I'm in the 81% for height, I'm only in the 53% for weight! Can you believe it? There are babies that are shorter and fatter than me!

Presents!

I got another present in the mail! Coufou and Couma sent me a very special box. I thought that I would have to wait until Christmas to open it but Mommy said that I could open it now. When I opened the box, it was filled with lots of colorful, crinklely tissue paper. While the paper was fun to squish, it didn't taste so good. I rummaged through the box to find my present but all I could find was more tissue paper! Is this a joke? Where's my gift???



Also, when we went to visit Santa last weekend, he asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him, "Santa, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Guess what? Santa brought me an early Christmas present too!

More Holiday Traditions

Is it Christmas yet? Over the last week or so, we keep doing things to get us into the Christmas spirit - Christmas tree, holiday cards, Santa Claus, holiday decorations. But it's never actually Christmas. When is this "Christmas" thing anyway? And then today, more Christmas! Mommy and Daddy dragged me into the city to walk around and battle the crowds of tourists. At least this time, I got to ride on Mommy's back.

First, we went to go see the big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Boy, that sure is bigger than the tree in our house.

There were lots of people there walking around, taking pictures and ice skating. Then we came across the "Penny Harvest Field." It's an exhibition featuring an estimated 100 million pennies that were collected by elementary and middle school students. When the exhibit is finished, the pennies will be returned to the schools from which they came and the students, with the help of their teachers, will study community problems and determine which charities could best use their donations. Pretty neat, huh?

Next, we went into St. Patrick's Cathedral, right across the street. The church was decorated with lots of wreaths and there was a big nativity scene on one side of the church. I blend right in, don't I?

Our final stop was Grand Central Station to see the Kaleidoscope light show.
Riding around on Mommy's back was lots of fun and I got a whole new perspective on the world! As you can see from the pictures, I liked to lean to one side so that I could see around her shoulder. I also liked to crane my neck backwards so that I could see the tall buildings and the blue sky.

A Visitor from Seattle

Yesterday, I got a very special visit. My Uncle Ken came all the way from Seattle to see me! Mommy told me that Seattle is on the other side of the country. Geez, that's a long way to travel. It was so nice of him to come visit even though it was snowing and sleeting outside. At first, I was a little suspicious of him.

But then we were good friends. He brought me presents and taught me how to unwrap them all by myself. He told me all about my cousins Katie, Jessica and Sydney. I can't wait to meet them some day. He even built a tower of cups for me! We had fun knocking them down together.

Thanks for visiting Uncle Ken! Next time please bring Auntie Brenda and the girls too!

Lucky Boy

I sure do have a lot of toys...

O Christmas Tree

Continuing in the spirit of Christmas, we put up our Advent calendar (about a week late) and went to get a Christmas tree. I was a little bit confused when I saw Daddy lugging home a tree. Trees are supposed to live outside, not inside of the house silly. But he went ahead and set it up right in our living room.

Mommy and Daddy have been teaching me about different Christmas traditions. They told me that every December, we get a tree to celebrate Christmas and to help get us in the Christmas spirit. It's a tradition. We decorate it with pretty lights and ornaments. I thought it would be nice to decorate the tree with my stacking cups. What do you think? But then Mommy and Daddy showed me the real ornaments. Many of the ornaments are from when Mommy was young or have sentimental value; they were either made by friends or purchased on a special trip. Mommy said that each year, I'll get my own special ornament for the tree and we'll decorate the tree together. Here I am putting the first ornament on the tree! In case you're wondering, that's a Yoda ornament.

But then I told them that "I know what Christmas is really all about." I've been watching a lot of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and listening carefully to what Linus has to say.

Lights please...

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Now I just have to memorize it.

Santa Claus

Mommy and Daddy had a special treat for me today - we went to visit Santa Claus! We went to visit him at his workshop in the North Pole called ABC Home & Carpet. It was filled with pretty colorful, sparkling and shiny presents and toys. I didn't realize that the North Pole was only about 30 minutes from our house in Brooklyn. For some reason, I thought it would be farther away and farther North too.

Santa seemed like a very nice man and had a jolly old laugh. He let me sit on his lap and jingled his bells for me. He also asked me what I wanted for Christmas. "Christmas? What's that?" I asked and he told me all about the wonderful holiday that was coming up in a couple of weeks to celebrate Jesus' birthday. "Jesus? Who's that?" I asked. That's when he told me I had to move along and let the other kids have a turn.

After we left his workshop, Mommy and Daddy wanted to share some other Christmas traditions with me. We walked up to Macy's to see the Christmas window displays and the toy trains they have running through the store.

Isn't the window pretty? There sure were a lot of people walking around and shopping. I almost got lost in the crowd!

The best part of the day was that I got some early Christmas presents! Here I am chewing on a yummy wooden pretzel that Auntie Chris got for me. She was nice enough to come visit me and take me for a walk while we were at the North Pole. She showed me all around Santa's workshop.

And here I am with another new toy that Daddy got for me. Kind of looks like a doggie chew toy, no? But it's pretty cool because each of the little nubs has a different texture on it AND the orange and purple parts twist. It's fun.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I was reminded that I know how to blog too! How could I have forgotten that one! Some of you have asked about my latest vital stats. I'm somewhere between 21 and 22 pounds and between 27 and 28 inches long (I think). I have a doctors visit in a couple of weeks so will know for sure then. Have a good weekend everyone!

9 months old!

Today is a very big day - it's my 9 month birthday! Can you believe it? I've been outside in the real world as long as I was cooking inside Mommy's tummy. Okay, so technically, it's still another 2 days before my time outside Mommy's tummy exactly equals my time inside Mommy's tummy since I was born at 37 weeks and 2 days.

So you must be wondering to yourselves, "Jasper Henry, just what are you able to do these days?" Well, let me tell you. I can:

• Roll like a log;
• Eat like a little piggy;
• Eat Cheerios on my own;
  
• Babble up a storm - my favorite word these days is Dada;
  
• Sit up by myself and get myself back onto the ground from a seated position (sometimes without bonking my head);
• Push myself backwards along the hardwood floor (as evidenced in yesterday's video);
• Practically stand on my own (just a little support from Mommy, Daddy or the couch needed);
• Pull myself up to stand (well, almost by myself, only some help from Mommy or Daddy required);
• Swim underwater;
• Understand English, Polish AND Chinese;
• Recognize different moods - I often get upset if I see that someone else is upset; and
• Most importantly, get what I want :-)
  

Not bad for a 9 month old, no? And those are only the highlights!