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!

"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!

The most disgusting moment of my life...

 Warning: This is a gross story, if you don't want to hear about a parenting poop story, you are free to stop here.
This morning, Rod and I were preparing Jace for his bath. Rod was changing his diaper while I filled the tub. I finished and came into the bedroom. Rod and I had a little exchange over who was going to give him the bath.
"You can do it if you don't have homework."
"You have the towel, are you going to do it?"
"No, you can do it."
I got to give him the bath, so Rod went to do his homework while I picked up the naked baby and carried him into the bathroom. Jace was looking all around, smiling and happy, excited for the bath, I think. I patted his cute little bum and noticed it was sticky. Better clean that, I thought. I shifted him to put him in the tub and as the baby left my arm, I discovered a poop stuck to my arm and watch sticking straight up! He left the poop behind!
"Rod! Augh! ROOOD!"
Rod came into the room.
"You missed some!"
Rod burst out laughing at my predicament. I handed the baby off to Rod so Rod could give him the bath while I cleaned off. Rod insisted that Jace must have pooped on me, Rod hadn't missed any. But I saw the poop roll underneath Jace while Rod was changing his diaper, Rod may have missed it. Jace was not straining to have a poop while I was holding him. So, I insist that Rod missed a poop, Rod insists Jace must have pooped on me. The only one who really knows is Jace, and he's not talking. Oh, the joys of parenthood. (Fortunately, Rod and I were both laughing so hard we were crying during this whole experience.)

In which Jace makes much progress with using his mouth.

So, I think we can now comfortably say that Jace can sit up on his own. He can sit for an hour at a time, or sit and play with toys without supporting himself with his arms, and the other day, he sat in the grocery cart on his own. For the most part. He was good so long as we were in a state of inertia. When I turned too quickly or stopped and started too quickly he lost his balance, but I had a hand on him to support him.
  But for the big news! His first tooth came through! Rod and I weren't aware he was teething. He had a day where his whole front was covered in drool all day, and he's been prone to chewing on things, but we weren't sure if he was teething or not until yesterday I looked in his mouth and there was definitely a tooth there that had broken through. I hope all of his teeth come in as uneventfully as that!
  He's also made progress with his verbalizations. On Monday, most of his conversations went like this:

But this morning, this is all we heard from him:

I had been concerned about his lack of vowel-consonant combinations since the doctor asked if he'd started making any at the six month appointment. So on Monday, I began making some to him while he was watching (mamamama, dadadada, babababa, etc) and by yesterday evening, this is what we were hearing. He's pretty much discovered that if he moves his jaw up and down while sticking his tongue out and vocalizing, he can make a whole assortment of new sounds. I figure, at this rate, he'll have spoken his first word in another 6 months!

6 months and counting

As of today, Jace has been alive for half a year. And Rod and I have been parents for half a year. We're not only surviving, but actually thriving! I'd say that's pretty good! In the past 6 months, Jace has gone from a little helpless newborn to a rolling, into everything active child. As I am writing this, he is entertaining himself rolling around on the floor and playing with an old plugger he found. He started life strictly nursing, now he is an avid eater, enjoying carrots, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas (kind of), rice cereal, pears, apples, and broccoli so far.

    He began unable to perform even the simplest of bodily functions, now, he can go to sleep on his own when he's tired. Sometimes he cries just wanting me to put him in the crib so he can go to sleep, he'd rather I didn't try to help him sleep.

  It was an accomplishment for him to hold his head up for a few seconds, now he can roll wherever he wants, stand with support and sit for a few minutes. Yesterday, I even saw him do two push ups!

    In the beginning, it was pretty easy to put him down and let him be content to sleep or just watch what was going on. Now he is much more interactive. He is a lot of fun to play with and get a smile out of, sometimes even giggles. I love tickling him to get a rise out of him. The other morning, I was making breakfast while holding him, and he was grabbing everything within reach. He grabbed the paper towels and worked on shredding those, he grabbed the bag of english muffins and was playing with those. This morning I took the toothpaste away from him while he was sitting on the bathroom counter and moved him off the counter only to discover he'd grabbed a washcloth and was sucking on it.

  Those first months, we mostly heard cries and some grunts out of him. Now he is quiet a lot less. He shrieks and screams and gurgles and cries and grunts and giggles and blows an assortment of raspberries and coos. He is very vocal now. He loves to be talked to and often talks while you're talking.
  He's undergone the most changes, but so have we as parents. I can get by on remarkably little sleep. I have gone from crying with helplessness when he cries to understanding what he wants to occasionally letting him cry when there's no choice. I can do a lot of things with one hand now. I have gained a lot of upper body strength. What an adventure! We've kept him well so far, I look forward to the next six months and accomplishing one full year of parenting. I think I just have one goal for the next 6 months--to get him sleeping through the night. We must be close, he slept from 2:30 to 7 last night!