TTFN

Yipee! Mommy, Daddy and I are going on vacation today. We are going to be up in the Berkshires for two weeks and I can't wait. I know that Mommy and Daddy are very excited to go away, especially Daddy since he's been working so hard lately since Mommy just hangs out at home with me now. They can't wait to show me one of their favorite places. It will be lots of fun to go for walks in the woods, visit museums and enjoy the peace and quiet outside of New York City. I'll get to attend my first jazz concert at Tanglewood too!

Since I don't know what internet access will be like once we're there, this may be my last post for two weeks. I would have done a proper post today but Mommy's too busy packing and getting everything ready. I will do my best to keep you updated on our adventures in the Berkshires. Until then, TTFN

Ah-Boo/Ngah-Boo

This week, Ah-Boo came for a visit. I still can't figure out if it's spelled Ah-Boo or Ngah-Boo. I'm going with Ah-Boo since it's a little bit easier for me to spell. I was very excited to see Ah-Boo and she was excited to see me. She hasn't seen me in three months and was quite surprised to see how much I've grown. I've gotten so big that I'm growing out of all my clothes!

Today, we took a big trip on the subway to go clothes shopping in Herald Square. Here I am with Ah-Boo across the street from Macy's. There were so many people out walking in the street! People weren't as stroller friendly as in Park Slope. But we fought our way to H&M (for some stylish street clothes) and Baby Gap (for some classic threads).

Here I am modeling some of my new clothes. Do you like my new jacket? I think that it might be a little big...Mommy wanted to make sure that I could wear it more than once before I grew out of it but this is a little ridiculous.

What about my new baseball hat? It matches my outfit. I liked my hat so much that I decided to do a little celebratory jig/contemporary dance move. What do you think? Could I be America's favorite dancer?

After a hard day of shopping, Ah-Boo and I hung out on the floor for a little play time. I challenged her to a race to Freddie the Fireflly. I won.

Bon Voyage Auntie Tracy!

On Sunday, I went to a farewell lunch for Auntie Tracy at Shun Lee Palace. She is moving to Milwaukee next week. I'm very sad because I like playing with Auntie Tracy (even though I sometimes tease her by crying uncontrollably when she comes to babysit). I got to enjoy a yummy Chinese banquet, even if it was a bit off diet for me. First I started off with some tea to cleanse my palate...

Then I had some fish and vegetables...

And finally some lobster and noodles. I washed everything down with a slice of cake from Cupcake Cafe. It was all very yummy.

Since I was finished eating, I was getting a bit impatient for everyone else to finish their meals. Grandma Jo was nice enough to take me outside to explore a bit. Here we are sneaking up on Mommy. She had no idea I was coming.

I fell into a bit of a food coma and got very very sleepy. But at the same time, I didn't want to miss out on anything! Finally Mommy had to take me to a corner in the restaurant so I could get some shut eye. She doesn't look too thrilled that I made her step away from the party. She looks quite bored in fact. Oh well, at least I got some rest and could enjoy the rest of the festivities. Goodbye and good luck Auntie Tracy! Come back and visit us soon!!

DJ Rerun

Just about every day, Mommy and I listen to music and dance together. It's a fun way to hang out and to blow off some steam. I think that she thinks that if I start listening to music at a young age, I'll be smart or something. So far, my favorites are Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, Gwen Stefani, Bon Jovi - some of Mommy's favorites too - and Social Distortion (Daddy's favorite band). I like to mix up my music, combining the new with the unexpected and playing around with the beat. Even my cheeks like to listen to music sometimes

Here I am trying out some new dance moves. I think that I get my precocious dancing ability from my Coufou. But I think I still need to work on this a bit.

Last week, Auntie Tracy came over to play. She introduced me to the latest Rap and Hip Hop artists. Here we are just chilling...Yeah, this is why I'm hot...Diddy's got nothing on me.

I want to be like Daddy!

Daddy came back from another business trip late last night... I was already asleep. I didn't get to see him until this morning. He came into my room right when I woke up first thing in the morning. I was very happy to see him. We played for a while, laughed and caught up on the events of the last couple of days. Then, when he wasn't paying attention, I stole his eyeglasses right off his face! I wanted to see what the world looked like through his eyes. But I couldn't really see that much. It was all blurry!! He must have bad eyesight.

What do you think? Do I look like Daddy?

I POOPED!!

I normally don't blog more than once a day but today is really a special day and I'm so proud of myself. I POOPED! Now, I know most of you don't really think much about this mundane task and are thinking, "What's the big deal?" Well, I haven't quite got down the whole "regular" thing. I've been thinking about pooping for the last 2 weeks but haven't much felt like it. Mommy was starting to get a little bit worried. She even had to give me some prune juice to encourage me but that just tasted gross. I knew that she was about to take the next step (suppository!!!) so I finally decided to poop. Ahhhh....much better.

Here are a couple of self-portraits that I call "Relief."

Jasper as the Artist

I apologize for not blogging yesterday. I know that some of you were expecting a new post from me but Mommy was a little upset with me. I was a bit of a pest on Tuesday night. I thought that reverting to being a newborn would be kind of fun. So I decided to wake up every hour between 11pm and 6am. Needless to say, Mommy wasn't happy with me. And since she's my scribe for my blog, she wasn't up for it yesterday. But I made up for it last night, sleeping from 7pm to 7:30am this morning. Yes, Mommy was very happy.

So in lieu of blogging yesterday, I decided to explore a new medium - self portraiture. I call my first series "I'm watching you" and captures my love for a good staring contest.

Crawling?

So after hanging out with all these older kids who can crawl, stand and walk around on their own, I've become more determined to move around on my own. No more being carried around for me. I'm making the most use of my tummy time. Instead of lying on my belly for 5 seconds before screaming for Mom or Dad to flip me over, I'm exercising my upper body, neck and legs with some baby push-ups and kicks. I even like to pretend like I'm swimming sometimes.

I'm trying my best to figure out how this whole crawling thing works. Everyone else makes it look so simple. Why is it so difficult for me? Is it because my belly gets in the way? Are my cheeks weighing me down?

Now I'm just getting frustrated.

Okay, I'm getting a little better. I like the view from here but quickly I get tired and I just want to chew on Freddy the Firefly and rest.

One more attempt in my crib. Here we go. I'm kicking my legs and moving my arms. Kicking my legs and moving my arms. But I'm not moving anywhere!! I feel like I'm trapped in a cage. Will I ever get the hang of this? Will I ever be able to lift myself up off my belly?

My Dad Likes to Take Extreme Close-Up Pictures...

So I've started to realize that my Dad likes to take extreme close-up pictures of me. He started doing this when I was first born but I've just started to become more aware of this habit of his. He has become much more zealous about his picture taking since he bought himself a new digital SLR camera. Yes, amazing that he would go and spend the money on this new piece of equipment but this allows him to get much better close-ups of my fine features without the pictures becoming blurry as they often did with Mom's old "piece of crap camera," as Dad likes to say. I like to think that he just likes to capture me in all my cuteness. Luckily, Mom also received a new camera as a birthday gift so no more fuzzy pictures of me! Here's an assortment of close-ups for your enjoyment.

Pooped on the activity mat.

Aw Man! Here we go with the camera and flash again...

Are we done yet?

Doing my best impersonation of Elvis. Thank you. Thank you very much...

Diapers and Sushi

Believe it or not, I'm out of diapers again! It seems like I'm going through so many diapers these days. I figured that the best thing to do was to buy in bulk so we went to Costco. They had diapers galore. All different shapes and sizes. I didn't know which one to choose! I decided to go with the Kirkland brand diapers because they were the best value - only 17 cents per diaper! You can't beat that.

I also wanted to get some fruits, vegetables and cheese. There are so many different varieties of cheese. I love cheese but I couldn't decide what to get. Then I remembered that I'm not allowed to have cheese just yet. Oh well.

After our long shopping trip, I enjoyed a nice sushi dinner. Delicious salmon sushi, toro, kampachi, spicy tuna rolls and eel avocado rolls. I washed it all down with an ice cold Sapporo and topped it off with some green tea and red bean mochi ice cream. Mommy doesn't ever let me have ice cream, except once in a while. It was yummy yummy in my tummy. I think that I'm starting to show an interest in solid food...

Yummy!! Mochi Ice Cream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Think She Likes Me...

The other day, Mom and I went over to a Beatrice's house for some lemonade and cookies and to have a play date with some friends in the neighborhood. Here I am with Amira, Beatrice, Silvia and Micah. Micah and I really lucked out to be surrounded by such cute girls.

The girls seemed to have fun playing with each other and catching up on gossip. But really, I only had eyes for Beatrice.

She's also half Chinese and two weeks younger than me. Mommy and Beatrice's Mom thought it would be funny to get us together. But she's learning to speak Mandarin and I'm learning to speak Polish and Cantonese. I wonder how we'll communicate?

She's super cute, especially in her little heart onesie. I tried to get a little closer to her. At first, it didn't seem like she noticed my advances. So I leaned a little closer and I think that she was taken aback by my forwardness. I hope I didn't offend her. I hope that I get to see her again real soon.

Hazy, Hot and Humid

I woke up this morning a bit groggy. I was still a little tired and drained from my exciting day in Manhattan yesterday. Then, last night, there was a crazy thunder and lightening storm. It woke me up a couple of times. I didn't know what was going on. I just kept hearing crashing sounds and seeing flashes of light. So when I finally woke up, it took me a while to get my bearings. While Dad sat me on the dining table, I took a quick peek at the newspaper, I saw that Barry Bonds had broken Hank Aaron's home run record last night. I was so curious that I had to read more about it right away.

Since it was such a hot and humid day outside, I didn't feel like going outside for too long. So I had to find new things to do around the house to keep me entertained. I wanted to practice standing on my own two feet but I was bored of practicing on the carpet. I thought that it would be much more fun to try standing on the dining table. The glass felt nice and cool under my feet.

After I had enough of standing around on the table, I had another play date. Samuel and Natasha stopped by for a visit. Samuel is four months older than me but we look about the same size, huh?

I like hanging out with older boys. I get to see what I'm going to be able to do in the coming months. Samuel can crawl, sit independently and pull up to stand. I think that he's itching to walk too. He really gives me something to strive for.