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!