"We should have named him Polly..."

  Jace is getting so big so fast. Every time I write it's all about new developments. He's so close to crawling, up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth a lot of the time now. He's still figuring it out, but I'm sure he'll get there soon.
  One of the best parts of him getting bigger is the more fun he is to interact with! Here are fun stories from just today:
    Jace is fascinated by toothbrushes. We've started brushing his teeth (two of them!) every morning and night. Whenever we set him on the bathroom counter, all he wants to do is grab the toothbrushes. Well, this afternoon, I set him on the counter to clean up a very messy banana covered baby. The whole time I had to distract him from the toothbrushes. I said, "Did you want to brush your teeth too?" and the squeal that came out of his mouth sounded a lot like this: "Yeah!"
I know he can't talk yet, but he is awful darn cute, especially when he's excited.
   Later I was working on changing his diaper, which turned into a complete wardrobe change thanks to bananas. Anyone who's changed the diaper of an 8 month old can probably guess the battle that ensued. Every diaper change becomes a rodeo event, the dust only settling when Jace is successfully on his hands and knees working on crawling practice. (at least it's a good angle for getting the poop!) Unfortunately, this position does not work well for dressing. So after several minutes of wrestling, I finally trapped his hips between my knees so he couldn't twist. Then I proceeded to successfully dress him as he sat and blew raspberries at me. Point one for mommy!
   Jace is old enough to begin enjoying trips to the park. He sits in the swing and can go down the slide in mommy's lap. That's it for now, but it makes for a nice outing. Daddy came with us today and we got some cute photos :)

Word to the wise: a grown woman's hips do not fit well down a twisty slide...

Jace may have enjoyed the view from the top of the slide more than the actual ride down the slide. 

 After we got home and had a nap, Jace enjoyed his rice cracker snack. He was cranky after waking up but once we gave him his crackers, he cheered right up.

Then, because we are low on groceries, we went to Brick Oven for dinner tonight using a gift card from Christmas. Jace thought this was the coolest experience ever. There were so many people to see and a new place to be. We'd been into resturants before with him, but he was a lot younger so it just made him cranky. This time he could sit in the high chair and the waitress gave us some crackers for him. So he got extra crackers today and it made him the happiest boy you've ever seen. Hence the title of this post, as spoken by Rod. And later, after charming several waitresses, he got a balloon, which was great fun and cause for much excitement. With a little practice, he figured out how to hold onto it by the knot at the bottom and wave it around, usually hitting himself in the head in the process... :)

All in all, a great day was had by all.

Snake, Lion, Rhinoceros or Boy?

Jace has been growing and discovering like crazy the last few weeks. He is starting to get his legs up under him, so crawling can't be far off.He is figuring out how to move forward, and anywhere else he wants to go, although it's no type of crawl I've ever seen. The closest thing I can resemble this to is a snake, but even snakes don't move like this. Maybe it's an inchworm. Something like a roll and reach method.
Then he's been growling every morning. He growls often, and this isn't that new, but lately he reminds me an awful lot of a lion. Last night I put him in lion pajamas, and he was growling again this morning. It was very fitting.... :)

Then, his hair has been growing, a lot. It's very funky, kinda  reminds me of Harry Potter. His hair in the back is really short, his hair on top is long and sticks up, his hair on the sides is long and then he has a random patch of hair in the middle of his head that wants to curl upwards, no matter what we do. Rod suggested that we should put him in rhinoceros pajamas next, because that's what he looks like with this little tuft of hair. Can you see it?

 Of course, he's neither rhinoceros nor lion nor snake, but our lovable little boy, who sometimes matches daddy!