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 :)