In which we reveal what Baby #2 will be...

Being pregnant the second time around is both different and fun. I enjoy that the pregnancy goes a lot faster and you don't focus on the aches as much because there's already one out that you have to take care of. Of course, being pregnant the second time around means you feel a lot of those aches sooner, which is not as fun. Sometimes comparing the two pregnancies is fun because as you compare the way the baby is acting, you feel like you get a glimpse of their personality before you even meet them.
For example, this baby is a lot more active than Jace was when he was in utero. We started feeling this baby move around 15 weeks, and the first movements we felt were very strong kicks, strong enough for Rod to feel, even though the baby was so little. Actually considering how little the baby would have been at that point, it was more likely the baby had catapulted itself across the uterus to the front in order for us to feel the baby that strongly. It felt very clear that the baby wanted us to know that it was there and ready to meet the family.
 Then of course, there is the ultrasound. That was a lot more fun this time around than the first time. We were able to understand what we were seeing and the ultrasound tech was a lot more skilled than the first one. The baby looks really healthy, and we got some great photos of the profile. Then, when it was time to reveal the gender, this baby was very cooperative. He had no problem flashing his manhood on the screen--over and over again! For a few minutes, that's all we could get shots of. He's a little exhibitionist!

His legs are crossed here.

After he decided that we had been convinced that he was a boy, he then allowed us to continue the ultrasound, checking to see that his legs were properly formed. These too, he showed us without any shame. As we watched, he gave us very good images of his legs and then crossed them. Then searching for the arms, we discovered he had put them behind his head and stretched out full length, as though to show us how comfortable he was in there. Hopefully he stays comfortably in there for another 20 weeks too!
  It was so fun to watch as this child hammed up the ultrasound. He seems very happy to be here and very comfortable with who he is!Now that we know which one he is, we can call him by name, Ander. I am so excited to meet him, even though he can easily wear all of his brother's hand me downs, I picked up a couple of outfits just for him. I can't get over how little those newborn outfits are! I can't wait to put him in them!!
  We found out Ander's gender the day before Thanksgiving, so then, in my excitement, I had to make a stocking for him to hang when we decorated the day after Thanksgiving. His is the red one on the end :) I'm so excited to have him as another member of the family.

 I'll admit, I was surprised it was a boy, because I was convinced that this baby was a girl. But we had such fun with the ultrasound, I have been mostly just really excited for this child to join our family. If I have any shock or disappointment, it's more that I'm shocked I'm going to be the momma of a group of boys! I did not see that in my future! :)

The truth about getting pregnant

First the happy news (since I haven't posted it here, but you probably already know from facebook anyway):  We're pregnant! We're expecting baby number two in April 2014! We're so excited! We love being Jace's parents and we can't wait to add to the family. We're fourteen weeks along right now, so we don't know the gender yet. We're hoping for a girl, just to change things up, but ultimately, we're just hoping for another little bundle of joy to hold and cuddle!

14 weeks, and there's already a significant belly this time around!

With this exciting news in mind, I wanted to share with you something I have learned: getting pregnant isn't easy.  Even when you're both fertile and doing everything right, it still isn't easy.

    In school, we spend a lot of time learning how not to get pregnant. Contraceptives, abstinence, I feel like the majority of sex education in our teenage years are spent learning about how not to conceive. Understandably, this is because we don't really want pregnant teenagers. Unfortunately, it also results in under-educated adults. Coming from the LDS culture, we also spend these years focusing on not thinking about it, let alone not doing it. So even if you got the birds and the bees talk--which unfortunately, there are those who don't--you can still go into marriage clueless. You know the basics--insert part A into part B, the technical definition-- although this easily overlooks details that are necessary for conceiving. As a woman, you understand your menstrual cycle and how that plays into fertility.
   As an LDS woman, I always expected, and looked forward to, the time in my life when I got married and began having children. My family is a large family, and my parents come from large families, and most of my aunts and uncles have large families. So I always assumed that I would have no problem with fertility.  I thought I was a "fertile myrtle." When I heard stories about people joking that they winked at their wife and accidentally got her pregnant, I'd smile thinking that was going to be my life story. And when I heard stories of women getting pregnant after one-night stands or rape, then I figured, it must be pretty easy. Follow the book and nine months later, baby.
  So this is what I assumed when going into marriage. There were actually a lot of details that I didn't know, and therefore took us a while to figure out in order to conceive. I also undermined the importance of tracking ovulation so that you know the timing. There are more details than I originally thought necessary that go into play here.
  Well, people getting pregnant the first try is actually unusual. That level of fertility(or luck) is not the norm. I cried and cried for 5 months as we tried to get pregnant with Jace. The first two, I thought I was accidentally pregnant until my period arrived, since we weren't planning on starting quite yet. The last three we were actually trying to get pregnant. After two months of trying (or was it one? I can't remember) we actually visited a doctor because we thought we were infertile. The doctor didn't tell us anything except to recommend a specialist. He didn't bother to tell us that this is completely normal.
   Did you know that the chances of getting pregnant the first month are 25-30%? I had no idea. And even getting pregnant within the first three months, for two completely fertile people, is still only a 59% chance. I didn't know this the first or second time we tried. The first time it took us three months of trying and crying. The second time, we thought we had it all figured out this time, so we should get it the first or second try, no problem. Instead, it also took three months of trying, plus a few days of crying.
   And ours is by far not the worst case scenario. It's even a little above the norm, but I only ever heard stories of the extremes before trying. Either you get pregnant within the first month, or there must be fertility issues, and then the long and trying road of fertility options and perhaps adoption.  But the truth about getting pregnant is that those are the extreme cases, not the only options. Most people have to try a few months before getting pregnant, and they have to work to get pregnant for every child.
   I feel like I need to share my normal story for others to hear, so that perhaps you'll not be so disheartened when you fail after one, two or three months. 85% of couples get pregnant after one year, not because they're doing anything wrong up to that point, but because that is what the average chances are. If you haven't had success yet, keep trying. You haven't failed if you've only tried a few times. If you haven't started trying, I hope you'll go into it with a more realistic expectation than I did.   Don't be disheartened if you don't succeed right away, you are right on track.

1 Year Old!!!

We made it to one year with this little cutie pie! We had a fun day. Jace opened up a package from his Tamanaha family and got a Chase-me Kitty and a toy phone. Now Jace has a phone smarter than his parents' phones!

You should see the way he giggles chasing that silly kitty and his little victory dance when he catches it!  He played with those during the day while mommy cooked, and cooked and cooked! I made him spagetti and meatballs for dinner with home made bread and a dairy free, egg free cake for dessert, which we had with some coconut ice cream. Rod's one rule of thumb for this birthday celebration was that there was nothing new so Jace wouldn't have an allergic reaction on his birthday. Well, mommy forgot to check the spagetti sauce, so Jace had a reaction to the spagetti... We thought we'd discovered a new allergy until we looked at the spagetti sauce label and discovered there was cheese in the sauce. Failed on that one! Then we pulled out the cake and ice cream. I made a little cupcake for Jace so he could dig in and Rod and I just had slices of cake.

What am I supposed to do with this?

I could try eating it...

After getting blinded with the flash too many times, this was Jace's trained response to seeing the camera last night!

This must be the neatest first birthday cake eating I've ever seen! I think he takes after his father...

The proper way to hold your cupcake: stick a finger in it!

MMMmmm, Ice cream!

So, to those of you wondering how good an egg free, dairy free cake might be, it could have been quite good. It seems the recipe was good, but I didn't mix it enough so it had that baking soda flavor all throughout. Not very good at all. We threw it away. Jace munched on it a little bit, but not more than what you see in these pictures. The dairy free ice cream was delicious though! Definitely worth it!
And then we opened presents. Jace seemed to have a better grasp on what to do with wrapping paper at Christmas than he did with his birthday... he wasn't sure what to do at all!

Mommy had to help him unwrap everything (may I just say, I look a lot better for this birthday than his actual birth day?)

His first gift was a ball from mommy and daddy. He lost interest in the other presents after opening that one... 

Books from Grandma and Grandpa Haehnel! This one's on fire trucks, Jace should be well versed in types of trucks now!

Daddy modeling Jace's new hat!

Jace got a tractor from mommy and daddy, and it didn't take him long to figure out how to crawl around with it making "brrrrrr" noises! 

All in all, I think it was a pretty happy day for Jace! It was a crazy party evening for mommy and daddy! I just can't beleive I've been a parent of this sweet little one for an entire year already! I can't beleive the way he's gone from a tiny little baby to a still small, almost toddler.

We had no idea what we were going into, how much crying we'd endure, and how much joy we'd have in the course of this next year just cause this little one joined our family! 

Can you see how helpless and little he was? All curled up on himself, now he sleeps all sprawled out! And in these pictures, not mobile at all, and now we chase him around the house! What a difference a year makes in the life of a child! In the life of a baby! It's such a fun, crazy adventure, we're loving it and looking forward to many more years to come.

The Pinning Mommy

So, my little Jace is getting older, and he's less content to just play with the toys I throw in his way. He needs to explore and discover everything! So, in an attempt to entertain him better while giving him chances to discover new things, I've been trying some of the activities suggested by pinterest. These ideas claim to be "great for littles" "even my youngest can enjoy this activity" and so forth. The truth of these statements is now being tested. My critera for activities is something I can make with materials around the house, contained mess, and most importantly, does it entertain the little one?

First attempt: bag of goo
This is usually labeled as "sensory activity." I feel like that's a buzz word for little children right now. If we go merely by sensory... I'm pretty sure food coloring in a bath doesn't count as sensory stimulation. But I digress. Basically, you stick a bunch of goo, like hair gel, in a bag and some small items (probably items that would otherwise be choking hazards) and seal it up, then let them play. Well, I used some old aloe vera gel we had hanging around the house and some sparkly letters left over from scrapbooking. Jace's reaction: squish, squish, here mommy, you have it. No interest whatsoever, no matter how cool looking I thought it was. Admittedly, I have noticed that my child lacks interest in anything he's supposed to touch and marvel at the difference in textures. He doesn't really care about textures.
I'd say pinterest fail, my child had no interest. But, it was a contained mess and I could make it with items around the house.

Second attempt: magnets
You can find lots of cutesy ideas for magnet boards on pinterest; I just used the good old fridge. And hey, it worked great! I think the flat magnets for advertising wouldn't work very well here, and I was too cheap to buy letter magnets, but we have a set of round cute magnets on our fridge, so I put them within his reach and let him have at it. He loved it!

He has enjoyed this activity so much, we repeat it often. Plus we can show him fun things like flipping magnets and attracting magnets from afar. Super simple but super entertaining!

Third attempt: "painting" with colored ice cubes

This is also fairly simple, but takes some advanced planning. You fill an ice cube tray with water and add some food coloring to each cube. The next day, I pulled them out and stuck Jace in the tub with several cubes. (I didn't use them all figuring I could save the activity for another day if he really liked it) Note: make sure you take clothes off before putting him in the tub. Also make sure the diaper is clean. You could probably leave the baby in the diaper to play with them. I figured Jace would like this one because he keeps stealing my ice packs I've been using lately for a bad sunburn on my back. He loves the ice packs, so I thought ice cubes would be pretty fun. Plus, colors! What's not to like? Well, apparently ice cubes are awfully cold. Jace did not like playing with cold ice cubes. As for painting, he wasn't interested so much in making colors on the bath tub.  There may also have been some disappointment that he wasn't actually taking a bath. 

This is what it ended up looking like. Mostly trying to eat the ice cubes, that and asking to come out.

You know what happens when you combine random colors? They all become one gross color.

This was an ok activity. Not particularly interesting to Jace, he mostly wanted to come out of the tub. He got very messy. If you do this, plan on giving your child a bath afterwards. His legs were still slightly stained green the next day.

Fourth Attempt: Pulling objects out of tissue box

I saw this for a couple of things, putting balls in box, and pulling strips of fabric out. Since I don't have either right now (we'll try strips of fabric when we get back to Utah), I just put some of Jace's toys in there. Plus a plugger, because he likes those. That's extra motivation to pull things out of the box. Super simple and he really likes it. We've entertained him with this one several times already. He'll pull out and put things in a few times throughout the day.

Fifth attempt: Moon Sand

This is one of those weird texture things, (sensory activity!) like gack, flubber, and so forth. It's pretty simple, eight parts flour to one part baby oil. I did 2 cups flour and 1/4 cup baby oil, because I don't have eight cups of flour to waste on a toy. It comes out really soft but moldable like wet sand. It also advertised being easy to clean up. Well... it was fairly easy to clean up, but it gets very messy first. Like sand, it gets everywhere easily. Washes off of skin, scoops off of smooth surfaces, but whatever clothes he was wearing are going straight in the laundry after this activity. He liked it, played with it much like a baby plays with regular sand, tries to eat it, destroys anything you make with it, and pulls it all out of the container. Bonus though, it makes your hands super soft after playing with it... It would probably be a better activity for an older child; in the end Jace was more interested in the scoop I gave him to use than the sand itself. It was good enough to be worth saving to play with on another day.

One other activity we've been doing with Jace lately is bubble blowing. He loves that too. It's not on pinterest, so I didn't label it as an attempt, it's just an old classic. The activites he likes more have to be put away so that they don't get boring, he's already getting kinda tired with the tissue box, so I think I'll put that away and pull it out again in a while. There you go, there's one mommy's review. Any suggestions from other mommies who have tried activities like these for entertaining their one-year-old?

Exploring the World!

      As Rod and I have been exploring here in Seattle, our little Jace has been busy exploring and discovering the world too. The other day, Jace and I went to the aquarium, and Jace loved to watch the fish swim around. He is learning to stand and will stand on anything that holds still long enough, which makes our role as parents change into more of a spotter role.

Jace wanting to be held

Jace discovered stairs at church and is now eager to try his hand at any set of stairs he sees. Fortunately, there aren't many around where we live! Jace discovered asphalt the other day, and has little scrapes on his lip to show for it as he dove headfirst off the sidewalk. He is also beginning to communicate with us with body language. If he comes up to us and sits back on his knees with his arms reaching up to us, we know he wants to be picked up. He reaches for things or people he wants.
        He is also learning the cadence of language. If you talk to him, he will talk back at appropriate pauses in conversation, and he even makes inflections in his voice that are similar to common phrases we say. The other day, as we were out on a hike, I was talking to Jace saying, "your mommy is so nice. You are so thankful she does nice things for you like that, aren't you?" He responded with something that sounded very much like "Thank you!" Rod and I cracked up at this! This morning as we were getting ready for the day, I stuck my tongue out at Jace and he made a sound much like "Oh my gosh!" and promptly turned around and showed me his butt... I guess I was a little too insulting. :)
      He's also trying lots of new foods. We've finally introduced him to meat, and he's liking it. Fortunately, so is his waistline. He finally seems to be gaining and maintaining a good weight. We went out for a walk yesterday and the black berries are just coming into season. The roads here are lined with blackberry bushes; it's so prevalent it's a weed. So I picked some that were just ripe. Admittedly, since they're just coming into season, some of these were a little under ripe, not quite fall off the bush ripe. Rod and I enjoyed eating some, even despite a little bit of tartness. Jace, seeing we were eating without him, really wanted some. So I gave him one. He bit in eagerly then stopped. "eugh," he said making a really funny face. He finished it, looking doubtfully at Rod and I as I laughed at his face. We decided not to give him another because we didn't want to give him what he didn't like, but he insisted he needed another because we were eating them. So I gave him a second one. He bit into it then made a shuddering laugh. Also too tart. He wasn't so sure if he trusted Mom anymore. Later I offered him a third one. He opened his mouth just the littlest bit to take it, then first took a bite to taste it while it was still on his lip, grimaced, and took it out, giving it back to me. Admittedly, that one was REALLY tart. Strike three, I had lost his trust for blackberries.... Until Rod and I gathered another handful. These ones must have been better, because even though he occasionally puckered his face, he kept eating and asking for more. He decided he loved the tart blackberries. He ate until they were all gone and he sadly searched around for more.

Practicing riding with Daddy!

Playing with his all-time favorite blankie

    

100 Names of Christ

I once studied various world religions and learned that the Muslims have 99 names for God, or Allah as they call Him. They beleive that if they know these names, they will enter paradise. At the time, I thought 99 names was a bit excessive, but recently, I've been noticing the names that we use for Christ. There are a lot. Just think of Christmas songs alone, and there are probably a few you cannot list without singing them (ex, Wonderful Counselor).
 So, as an activity for Family Home Evening last night, I decided to see if we could list a name or title of Christ for each letter of the alphabet. It started out like that, but as we were enjoying the activity and trying to find names for the hard letters, we ended up with a list of 100 names. And that wasn't listing all of the names listed in the Bible Dictionary. Here's our list:

1. Advocate
2. Atoning One
3. Almighty God
4. Anointed One
5. Author of our Salvation
6. Author and Finisher of our Faith
7. Alpha and Omega
8. Bright and Morning star
9. Eldest Brother
10. Bridegroom
11. Bread of Life
12. Branch
13. Beloved Son of God
14. Chosen of God
15. Consolation of Israel
16. Christ
17. Creator
18. Cornerstone
19. Captain of our Salvation
20. Carpenter
21. Deliverer
22. Divine Redeemer
23. Everlasting Father
24. Emmanuel
25. Father
26. Fountain of Living Waters
27. Fountain of Everlasting Life
28. Foreordained
29. Firstborn
30. Governor
31. Great Jehovah
32. Good Shepard
33. God of the whole Earth
34. Heir
35. Head of the Church
36. Holy Infant
37. Most high Priest
38. Holy One
39. Hope of Glory
40. I am
41. Jesus of Nazareth
42. Jesus Christ
43. Jesus of Galilee
44. The Just one
45. Judge
46. Jehovah
47. Jew
48. King of Kings
49. King of the Jews
50. Lord
51. Lord of hosts
52. Lord of the Saboath
53. Lord of Lords
54. Living bread
55. Lamb of God
56. Light of the World
57. Messenger of the Covenant
58. Messiah
59. Mediator
60. Master
61. Meek and Lowly
62. Nazarene
63. Newborn King
64. Only-Begotten Son
65. Prince of Peace
66. Prophet
67. Judge of the Quick and the Dead
68. Redeemer
69. Rabboni
70. Rabbi
71. Rock
72. Ressurection and the Life
73. Savior
74. Shepard
75. Son of God
76. Son of Man
77. Son of Abraham
78. Son of Mary
79. Son of David
80. Seed of the woman
81. Shiloh
82. Stem of Jesse
83. Wondrous Stranger
84. Servant
85. Teacher
86. Undefiled
87. Lord of the Vineyard
88. One true Vine
89. Wonderful Counselor
90. Word
91. the Way, the Truth and the Life
92. Exemplar
93. the same Yesterday, Today and Forever
94. Yaweh
95. King of Zion
96. Light
97. Seed of Abraham 
98. Seed of David
99. Counselor
100. Holy Anointed One

It was really interesting to look at this list and see how much He has done, is doing and will do for us. And how broad the scope, from humble Carpenter to Creator of the world. From Holy Infant to Redeemer. It's really amazing, and something worth pondering. I'm thinking of making this into a quiet book for my kids to use during Sacrament meeting. Can you think of any more names we missed?

Growing, growing, growing!

Wow, look at that baby go! He is growing so much lately and so quickly, it's turning our world upside down a little bit. So, he figured out how to crawl at the end of last week, now he enjoys crawling all over the place. Sometimes following me around the house, sometimes off to explore new places, always away from a diaper change. We have discovered Jace does not like his diaper to be changed. Last night, Rod pulled out the wipes and a new diaper to change Jace's diaper. Jace saw this and took off crawling in the opposite direction. He hid behind the door frame in the bathroom. This was so funny, I decided to join in on the action and watched him crawl to the door frame. He saw me and peeked out behind the frame. When he saw who it was, he started crawling back towards me. He was almost to me when he saw daddy just behind me. Then he abruptly changed direction and went back to the bathroom. He knew what daddy was up to and he was having none of it! Unfortunately, he got distracted by us laughing so hard that he never made it back to the bathroom, and made it quite easy for us to catch him to change the diaper.
 Of course, sometimes this is funny, othertimes, like when you have a naked baby, it's a little more of a rodeo. Jace's morning routine goes something like this. Take the baby out of the bath, all wrapped up in his towel. Place him down on the floor and go grab a new diaper and the lotion. Come back, baby's gone. Go catch the baby. Put him back on the floor and begin to put the diaper on. Check that, wrestle the diaper on as he tries to twist away to get to books. Now it's a race, can I get him back on his back and the book in his hands before he can roll over again to start crawling towards it? He wins about half the time. The other half of the time, I get his diaper, lotion and clothes on. But not all at the same time. With breaks between lotioning every limb to catch the baby and put him back on his back. The most efficient way to do this is have one person holding him standing up while the other diapers, lotions and clothes him, but being only one person, it's more of a rodeo. Oh, the adventures!
 Then he discovered how to pull himself up to standing today. While in the tub, which of course meant that at one point he lost his footing and hit his chin on the tub. Fortunately, he has a harder head than he lets on, so there was no harm done. He was more frustrated about not standing anymore than he was about hitting his chin. Crawling and standing within the same week, oh boy! He took his time about crawling, but I'm thinking he'll be moving on to walking as soon as he can get it all figured out!
  He's also figured out how to say mama, which he usually does when he wants food, and dada is for when he wants his parents. At least, that's what the pattern seems to be so far. Hopefully someday he'll discover I'm good for more than just food!He's been saying dada for a while, so it's fun to see him say that, but mama is really cute because he has to bring his lips all the way together so that his cheeks look really huge.
   His diet has changed too, since he's getting older. Aside from still nursing at every meal and between meals to make sure he's getting enough, our skinny boy, he eats cereal with coconut milk for breakfast, an avocado sandwich for lunch with some fruit and crackers, and we try to give him something similar to what we're eating for dinner when we can. So far this has meant pasta with spaghetti sauce, which he loves wearing as much as he likes eating it!
  What a big boy already. A little, emotional part of me wants to cry when I see him crawl away from me to go explore his books... he's already grown up enough to want to go do his own thing without mama, and he can get there without me too!

So sweet when he's sleeping! He always sleeps on his side now. Of course, the way he is about cameras, he woke up right after this picture was taken so he could pose for the camera.

Hulk baby likes his avocados SMASHED!

Our future missionary loves when Daddy reads the scriptures. He loves to take them from Daddy and not let go!

Mommy Bragging!

I know I just wrote yesterday, but I just need to take a minute to brag about my little boy!

He's still not crawling yet, but this is what he is doing:
  He can move from his belly to sitting and back again, as well as any position in between that he cares to take. He can pull himself up to kneeling. He can catch himself when he is falling, and not just with his head! He can sit in the grocery cart without falling when we move quickly or turn sharply. He can wave to people, although he's not a performer, so mostly he just does it to Rod and I. He reaches for one parent or the other. He can sleep through the night, from 7:30 to 6 ish, though he may not do this every night.
  At nine months he has already started to learn some rules. The first was "not in the mouth", usually used referring to my phone. He usually needs a reminder or two when I give him the phone, but otherwise he's pretty good about not putting it in his mouth. We've also taught him no biting, at least when it comes to nursing. I hear that he may go through a biting phase later, but we'll deal with that when we come to it. We're working on not scratching, which he mostly does when he's really excited, so it's hard to be angry at him for that. But, we don't want him scratching people so, we're working on it.
  Rod discovered that Jace can give you something if you ask for it. We usually have Jace hand us his toothbrush when he's done with it, and he does really well. Because of this and because he is capable of taking things out and putting them into containers, we decided to start teaching him to put away his own toys. Today we had the first attempt. I asked him to give me a toy, and he'd hand it to me with my hand over they toy box. Then I'd drop it in the toy box and ask for the next one. Rod would hand him another toy to put away and I'd ask for it to put in the box. We'd have to move on to the next one quickly or he'd get distracted by the toy now in the box and he'd want to take it out again and put it back in. But in the end, put away all of his toys!
 I love this kid! It is so much fun to raise him and watch him grow! He is such a goofy kid, grinning and babbling loudly when he's excited, which is a lot of the time. He is such a happy child!

Off to new places!

  We take a break in our regular stories of Jace to share our adventures of this past week, specifically, our move to Washington. Wow, what a week it has been! After spending all of last week packing, with a brief break to celebrate our anniversary, we were all loaded up and ready to go Friday evening.

  We left just at Jace's bedtime, so hopefully he'd sleep all the way through. I started driving and drove until almost midnight into Idaho.  We gained very interesting impressions of the states we drove through as we passed through places we'd never been in the dark. Idaho was very flat, although we went through a few hilly sections. There was also a section with a high wind and dust storm warning. I'd never thought of Idaho as a dusty place before that. I did decide though, as we were driving through the majority of Idaho, that the people who are convinced that we suffer from an overpopulation problem have never driven through places like that. There was noone around! We'd see billboards advertising the next gas station 100 miles off. This was definitely a night not to break down. If we did, walking to the nearest gas station wasn't really an option, and there weren't good chances for cell phone coverage either. Thank goodness we did not have that problem.

   By midnight, most of our fellow drivers were truckers. I gained a new respect for that profession as we drove. Then I got too drowsy to drive anymore and we switched drivers. I'll admit, leaving Utah made me a little sad, but I was more eager to get the night of driving over with so I didn't think about it much. Rod took over and I slept for a couple of hours. Jace had been sleeping the whole time, but he woke and fussed a little bit every hour, so really no one slept well that night. By time I woke up, we were in Oregon. 

    My first impression of Oregon was that it was a little like Vermont on steroids. Lots of plant life, but the mountains were much bigger. Being dark, it also seemed like there were several instances where the side of the road dropped off. The scary part was not knowing if it dropped off to a cliff, or just a gentle slope.... overall our best option was to just stay on the road. About an hour after I woke up, Rod was drowsy and it was time for me to take over again. Unfortunately,  with so little civilization around, it was hard to find anywhere to switch places. I worked to keep Rod awake while we searched for a rest stop. We were happy to discover that even in the middle of the night, things were getting warmer than they were in Utah. We also needed to get gas, but we weren't sure when the next gas station was, so we decided to switch first to take care of Rod. Of course, shortly thereafter, we found a gas station. Did you know that in Oregon it is a law that the gas attendant must pump your gas? I didn't. I'm not sure if this shows that Oregon is more chivalrous than the rest of us, or just more paranoid... So I got hit on by a teenager who thought I was headed off to college until I told him about my sleeping baby and husband in the car. 

  Of course, since we stopped the car, Jace woke up. I thought he was gonna just fall asleep again after a little bit like he'd been doing all night, so we got back on the road and started driving. Jace did not fall asleep, he was awake and very hungry. So for the next half hour, I was trying to find an exit where I could pull off and nurse Jace and my husband could finally get some sleep. We finally found an overlook exit. Man, let me tell you, the view was beautiful on these overlooks. It was black, and behind that was more black slightly framed by blackish tree shapes... Finally, Jace was fed and asleep as was my husband and we could get on our way. By now it was about 4 am and we'd already done most of the driving. The part I'd feared the most was pretty much over. 

  As I drove again, dawn came and we passed into Washington. The section of WA we first saw was mostly covered in fields. I'd heard that the eastern side of Washington was really dry, but it didn't look dry to me, not coming from Utah. It looked like farmland. Now that I've seen the western side, I can see why it's described as dry, but it's not really dry from what I saw. The more I saw of Washington, the more I liked it. There were rivers that we passed frequently and lakes too. There is so much water here, and much more greenery. It's really beautiful. Shortly after we got to Washington, Jace and Rod woke, which was good, because I was getting dangerously sleepy. 

  Unfortunately, we were in the middle of no man's land so we couldn't find anywere to stop to switch. Again we were hunting for an exit to switch while driving to the sounds of Jace's yelling in the back. Jace was tired of being cooped up in the car and just tired from not sleeping well. Just as Jace was finally falling asleep again, I found an exit. We needed to switch, but I didn't want to stop and wake Jace up again. Our solution? A chinese fire drill. I'd stop at the stop sign right off the exit ramp, we'd switch and then drive straight onto the on ramp again. I've always wanted to try a chinese fire drill. 

   Well, since I was so unexperienced in doing this, I forgot one minor detail. You have to make sure the car is stopped while you run around it. I stopped at the stop sign, and then we both proceeded to get out. As we were getting out, the car kept going without us. Rod says he thought the street was moving for some reason until he realized that someone needed to step on the brake again. I was already out and a little slower on figuring out the situation, so when I turned around to get back in so the car didn't leave without me, Rod was already in the car, sprawled across the passenger and driver's side seats, reaching to push the brake pedal. I hurried to get in and accidentally sat on Rod's head. (the only thought going through my head as I realized what I was doing was, "thank goodness I'm not gassy!") Then with him holding the brake, I put the car into park. Now we both got out and switched places, taking longer than we had originally planned so Jace did wake up, but fortunately he fell asleep again pretty quickly once we got rolling again. After Rod and I stopped laughing, I settled down again for some sleep.

  During this time, Rod tells me, he was driving alongside another vehicle and all of a sudden a police car turns his lights on right behind Rod. Rod panicked, he was only going a couple of miles too fast but relaxed again as the police car proceeded to pull over the other vehicle. Fortunately, we also avoided any run ins with the police on our trip.

  When I woke up, we decided to find some breakfast. We were going to go to McDonalds and get something quick and cheap, but all we could find was an IHOP. So, since Jace was waking up anyway, we stopped there for breakfast. It turned out to be a good thing because it gave us all time for breakfast and plenty of wiggle time for Jace before getting in the car again. Rod and I both got to freshen up a little bit to be more awake, and then we began our final leg. Only two hours left.

  As we drove, the area became more mountainous and there were more and more trees. There are so many trees here. I quickly have come to love western Washington. It is very beautiful, and even though we're in a city, you'd never know it through pictures because there are so many trees! After coming from Utah where it's so bare you can see for miles, it's annoying to have all these trees in the way so you can't see where you're going! It's also pretty hilly. It's like home in a lot of ways, but there are more mountains. The mountains are like Utah, but they're covered in trees. 

 It's really beautiful. I love Washington. It is very humid here. We've gone from cold and dry to warm and humid, and we're roasting all the time! Or perhaps I should say steaming... The city and the people are more intimidating. I've only ever lived in home, where I was familiar with everything, and in the Utah bubble. Here, every time we open the window, someone's smoking habit wafts in through the window. Fortunately Rod will be home for the next several days and we can orient ourselves to the place before Rod starts his internship full time. 

Here's Jace in our new bedroom, stripped down to his onesie all the time because he is so hot otherwise! We found him with sweat beads across his nose yesterday afternoon for the first time!

Our favorite little banana eater! Breakfast is always a good time!

Here's the view from our balcony. We can hear the cars, but  can't see them because it looks like we're in the middle of the woods. We hear the birds more than cars. It reminds me of Birchwood Heights. Oh, and that's my new dress Rod got me for mother's day! :)

Life with Sneezy, the cutest dwarf

     We should have seen this coming. Since he was a newborn, Rod and I have always said "bless you!" whenever Jace would sneeze. Since he was a baby, and considering the cuteness of these little sneezes, this was always said very enthusiastically. After a couple of months, we noticed that he had interpreted this to be a good thing. It became clear that he believed sneezing was a good thing to do, since it always seemed that he was getting praised for doing so. Well, as he's gotten older, this idea has perpetuated until now, he's figured out how to fake sneeze. If you catch him doing it, he acts quite proud of himself, since he's doing something so good. His fake sneezes involve a gasp of air followed by something like a cough although his tongue sticks out so he blows a quick raspberry which sounds a lot like an actual sneeze. Because of the whole blowing raspberry bit, this activity is even more fun to do while, say, eating bananas.... :P He will happily sit there making several fake sneezes in quick succession. It works as an attention getter too, since a parent hearing their child sneeze several times will quickly  assume an oncoming cold, he can often get some attention from this too. Definitely a new favorite activity, and it's awfully hard not to laugh when you catch him doing it, he's so darn cute! I wonder if this will result in the firm belief that sneezing is good for you...
    The other talent he's developed recently is related to eating. It's something we call chipmunking. When Jace has decided he's done eating or that he doesn't like what you're giving him, he will continue to put it in his mouth but refuse to swallow. This results in pockets of peas, or olives, or whatever else he doesn't want, being stored in his cheeks. Because he has chubby baby cheeks, it's not always easy to tell when he's doing this, until his mouth gets really full and he's forced to swallow. Then he'll just swallow until he's comfortable again. Not necessarily until all of the food is gone. He's become so proficient at this that one day, after feeding him peas, I fed him an entire banana which he ate without swallowing the peas. Those came out later, after I put him down to play. I found 8-10 peas on the floor where he was playing. Yesterday he was chipmunking while Rod fed him olives. Once Jace smiled, Rod caught him at it, seeing a mouth full of black olives. Rod showed me and Jace, funnily, looked guilty for getting caught. Today, he was doing it, which I discovered when I took him out of his high chair and held him up over me to play with him... instead I got a carrot shower as he grinned. :)

  Life continues to get more fun and interesting as Jace becomes more capable :)
 
 

Our little ham!

The last month or so for Jace has been rough. He hit a growth spurt and then had two teeth come in at the same time. So he's been grumpy. He was grumpy for so long that Rod started to think that we were wrong about our initial impression of Jace's personality, Jace wasn't the happy baby we thought, just a moody baby.  Well, the growth spurt is over and his teeth have come through. He's almost sleeping through the night and he takes great naps during the day. He has a huge appetite, but that's ok. The best part is, he is a very happy baby again! My family was in town this last week, which meant lots of pictures, and we got to see him interact with family members, be silly, and mostly ham it up in front of the camera. Every time we pulled out a camera, he'd start grinning. He knows what to do with a camera...

Found the camera!

This was while I was trying to take a picture of him quietly playing on his own with his little feet sticking up. But he saw the camera!

Today, Rod got a cute daddy moment. Jace woke up early this morning, so his naps have been earlier today. Well, he's been so happy lately that it's a little hard to tell when he's ready for a nap. You really have to watch for the early signs, cause he'll yawn or rub his eyes and then continue giggling and playing. So, after lunch, I thought he needed a nap, but he was still happy playing so I decided to go for a walk up to campus with Rod and give him a nap when we got home.
 Well, Jace fell asleep on the way up but woke up when we got there, so I knew I'd have to get him to bed soon, or I was going to have to take an extra long walk to make sure he got a good nap in. I distracted Jace while Rod was doing schoolwork, but on the way home, even giving him treats wasn't enough anymore. (I thought he might be hungry, I hadn't realized he was cranky because he was exhausted) Finally, he refused to  take any more treats and just turned his head to the side like he does when he decides to put himself to sleep. He was out quickly, but by this point we were on our way home and I didn't want him to get a snippet of a nap and then be cranky and unable to fall asleep when we got home. So, I took him out of the stroller and let Rod hold him, thinking the effort of holding himself up would make it impossible to sleep, even if he was mad at us all the way home. Instead, Rod's walking lulled him right to sleep as he was sitting in Rod's arms. It was so cute to see him nodding off while sitting up. I tried to give him another cracker to distract him, and finally managed to get it in his mouth. This woke him up for a couple of seconds and then we watched him close his eyes and the chewing slow down, down, down until it stopped and he slumped against Rod's chest, completely asleep. It was so cute I didn't have the heart to wake him up anymore :) (fortunately, it was short enough that we came home and were able to put him down for his nap just fine.) I love this cute kid!

Weekend Worriers...

       Man, the last two Saturdays have been pretty miserable for Jace. Funny thing is, both days were his happiest days of the week. Last Saturday, Jace had some short naps, which made for a bad morning. But after he got up from his early afternoon nap, he was pretty happy. He was a content boy, particularly enjoying eating his crackers and stealing pretzels from Aunt Mary, who had come for a visit. That was pretty funny to see! Unfortunately, he ate too many pretzels, and the saltiness of those pretzels was a little too much for this little baby. I'd given them to him before and he'd been fine, but as mommy and Aunt Mary were talking, mommy lost track of how much he'd eaten. So when we decided to go out for a walk later, Jace cancelled that walk by throwing up everything he'd eaten, peas, crackers, pretzels. It was our first experience with throw-up from him, and caused a little panic from his parents. He had been a little fussy before this, so I thought the walk would cheer us all up. That got canceled. It turned out he was fussy because his little tummy hurt. Once he threw up, he actually cheered right up.
       He was downright chipper as he played in the grass with us and later tried out some graham crackers that I had made. Which he then had an allergic reaction to. Note to self: even when a food has milk in it, it still counts as being not edible until after the year mark. Even if it's only two tablespoons. But he was quite happy as hives appeared all over his neck and abdomen. Only mommy and daddy were panicking. He was very content. What a trooper. I love that little guy. We put him down to bed, and I continued to worry, but the next morning, he was completely fine.
      This weekend was almost a repeat of last weekend. He had a decent morning nap, but his afternoon nap was not good, he was still tired. So we put him down again, unsuccessfully thanks to a fire truck going by. So after 40 minutes of crying, we knew he wasn't going down and we went to rescue him. Only to find that at some point during this "nap" he had thrown up. My guess, he finally managed to make himself throw up after hitting his gag reflex so many times. I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything he ate, because he'd been ok with everything he'd eaten that morning. First time changing the bedding due to throw up (or any bodily fluid).  He'd also lain in the throw up, so he had it all in his hair. Time for a little strip down in the bathroom. I had unsuccessfully washed his tub this morning, so we couldn't do that. First time in the big tub was decidedly pretty cool. The fact that he got two baths in one day, definitely a bonus in his book. He was grinning just about the whole time.
    After that mess got cleaned up, it was time for dinner. I made dinner as Jace snacked. I decided to introduce him to pineapple, and gave him the juice from the pineapple I was preparing for dinner. He loved the juice. He's always a big fan of juice and he was quite mad when I took it away because he had hives on his arm. Big allergic reaction to that one. He had hives on his arm and chest at first and this time they were really itchy. In the past, the hives haven't bothered him, but they were driving him crazy because the were so itchy this time. After letting him be for a little while, thinking it would pass, I decided to try and help him out with the itchiness. But at this point, I had dished up dinner for myself and had handled pineapples. So as I stripped him down and wiped his chest with a cool washcloth, I was spreading the hives by touching him with pineapple juice on my hands. Of course he thought the idea of a third washing in one day was not bad. Lots of opportunity for fun splashing as I dipped his hands in the cool water to help with the hives. Once we stripped him down, he seemed to feel a lot better, so after wiping him down with cool water for a little while, I set him on the floor to play while I finished dinner and the hives went away. He played with an ice cube quite happily.

Such a happy baby despite unhappy happenings!
The hives went down and he went to bed just fine, even though at the slightest cry, mommy went into a sympathy panic because man, life is just rough for this little guy sometimes! At moments like these, I feel like I am definitely underqualified for this position as parent!