10 Months, Take 2

After a nap, lunch and bath, I was able to get some successful pictures of Jace in his chair (oh, and Tigger helped too).

He actually sat still and smiled for me!

Jace has recently adopted this Tigger as his favorite toy. He drags Tigger by the tail all over the house.

Doing a one handed, “So big!”

And then Tigger’s tail made its way into Jace’s mouth.

And then Jace decided he was done having his picture taken.

And then he had a bottle and went down for another nap.

In other news, our little guy is now 31 inches long! This kiddo just keeps growing. He’s pulling himself up to stand at everything, tries to mimic our sounds, and just entertains us right and left.

10 Months Old!

Jace turned 10 months on Friday. He was in jammies all day because we were having a Family Movie Night at church that night and watching “Polar Express.” All the kids were invited to come in pj’s, which meant Jace had to too! Plus, we like jammies days in this house (or at least Jace and I do, and Nolan was working, so yay for jammies!). All that to say, this month’s pictures are in the cute, new, Christmas jammies my friend Mary bought Jace.

Oh, and they’re blurry.

I think God gave this kid an extra dose of personality.

Did I say personality? This child is crazy!

He loves to make random noises and move in funny ways that he thinks are hilarious. We’re not sure what made him start to do these things, but he thinks they’re especially funny in his highchair or in Daddy’s lap when he should be getting sleepy.

And he’s realized just how fun it is to climb on things and stand up.

He knows what he wants, and he’d better get it or else we get to hear quite the squeal.

Tonight, while I was in the kitchen, he made up his mind that it was time to eat. So he’d look at me and make loud fussing noises. Then he’d look at Nolan and smile or laugh. Then back to me to fuss. He also has mastered the scowl.

He never stops moving.

He’s always exploring.

But, seriously, such a happy child.

He just refuses to sit still for his monthly pictures in the chair.

And it makes me wonder, how in the world did my sister-in-law ever get her kids to sit nice and still for their pictures?

(This last picture was of his third attempt to just dive off the chair, thus ending our photo session. Maybe we can try again when he’s sleepy? Or Daddy’s around? Or maybe if I tied him to the chair and we just didn’t expect a smile?)

Thank You Grandma!

This may be a video only a grandma can enjoy... Jace says, "Thanks for the ornament and doggy, Grandma!"

Jace Opening His Ornament from Grandma from Nolan Nelson on Vimeo.

A Family Tree Hunt

The day after Thanksgiving has become our traditional tree hunting day and we were so excited to have Jace outside of me this year! We invited Nolan’s parents down to join us for the day. We started out by going out to breakfast at Elmer’s (I would go out for breakfast every day if I could). Jace enjoyed his graham crackers.

Nolan’s parents, Jack and Becky

I love this guy!

On the wagon ride out to the tree lot. Jace was tired, a little cold, and not so sure about what to think.

He enjoyed riding in the backpack on my back

We were happy it only lightly sprinkled on us!

Nolan starting to cut down the tree. I’m glad I snapped this picture when I did, because right after taking it, I walked back a ways to get a tree wagon. By the time I got back, Nolan and Jack had the tree down and in the pathway waiting for me!

It was great having Jack there to help Nolan. He’s much stronger than I am! Plus it’s fun for them to have father-son time.

Nolan hauling the tree out.

Jace LOVED the cows! He makes this awkward noise when he gets excited to see our pets, and he made the same noise, plus some squeals, for the cows.

Hanging out with Grandma in the greenhouse, looking at a model train, while waiting for the tree to be shaken and tied to the car.

Back at home Jace was more interested in the lights than the tree.

Happily letting Grandpa hold him (quite the contrast from the day before).

Family picture in front of the tree!

A little fall recap

I can’t believe we’re already in the Christmas mindset! The house is decorated (although I have some craft projects in mind for extra décor to add), the tree’s up, and several gifts are already purchased! But November is not yet over, so I thought I’d share a few of our final fall moments.

Jace somehow got ahold of a transfer tag off a suitcase and it became a favorite toy before it was finally thrown away. I think I was asking him to do a trick for me, and he showed me his tag instead (reminds me of his cousin, Josiah, with “tickets”).

We got a light dusting of snow Thanksgiving week. Toby LOVED running around in it, and Jace loves watching Toby.

My contribution to the Thanksgiving feast was stuffing and two chocolate cream pies (a holiday staple in my family growing up). My crusts weren’t super pretty this year, but they tasted good!

I embellished a onesie for Jace for Thanksgiving. I appliqued a turkey on the shirt and stitched “little” above it. He was proud to show off mommy’s latest creation.

Jace with his Great Aunt Lenay. He loved having her tickle his toes!

Smiles from Jace were a little less frequent on Thanksgiving. Poor little guy had an ear infection in both ears. I think he’s had it for a little while—he had a cold a few weeks ago and would occasionally grab his left ear. It wasn’t frequent enough, nor accompanied by crying or a fever, so I didn’t want to take him in incase he just likes holding his ear. Then, on Wednesday, he was at his baby sitter’s and twice randomly grabbed his ears and screamed. And on Thanksgiving every time he was overwhelmed or nervous, he’d grab his ear and just scream. It wasn’t usual behavior for him. But once we got him back home, he hardly touched his ear at all. He woke up during the night on Thursday and Friday nights, though, screaming, so we took him in on Saturday. I guess this child can just ignore pain as long as he’s happy!

I can’t believe this child is almost 10 months old!

Jace Speaks

Jace said his first words yesterday! Before, "Dadadadadada" expressed happiness. Last night, he saw Nolan and said, "Dada," and has repeated it to Nolan again and again this evening. "Buhbuhbuh" was just a babbling sound before, but last night he said "Buh-buh" after we said it, while waving his hands. AND, I happened to capture it on video!

Jace Speaks from Nolan Nelson on Vimeo.

Some Rainy Day Cuteness

How does Jace spend a rainy morning? In his jammies…

…by the backdoor playing with the vertical blinds…

…and hitting the window with his measuring cup.

Nine Months Old!

Jace turned nine months old last week, but he was sick that day. And then I got sick. And then we were busy. And then he needed a bath. So we finally took his pictures today. But he wasn’t too interested in sitting still. And I didn’t realize that the flash was turned off. I was tempted to just give up and wait for another time. But you know what? This captures Jace’s life at nine months old!

Here’s the best picture of the group:

So what’s up with Jace these days? He' has very quickly become a very quick crawler. He finally figured out how to get himself to move forward on October 17, and then really took off with it on the 20th. He now spends his days exploring the house and chasing down the pets. His absolute favorite toys are the snot sucker and a measuring cup. Don’t you dare try and take them away from him! He hasn’t really grown in the past month. If anything, he’s lost some weight now that he’s take up crawling. He is completely done nursing. The day we switched to all formula, the spitting up pretty much stopped! He might spit up a few times a week now, but it’s normal baby spit up. He’s been off his medicine for a few weeks and doing great! It’s crazy to have a need for clean clothes rather than a need for more burp cloths driving me to do laundry. He thinks he’s hilarious. He’ll be playing and just start laughing at himself. He also loves to make us laugh, and loves it when we make him laugh. We are blessed by this child!

And, now for the rest of our photo shoot today:

Trying to crawl off the chair…

I was a second too late in capturing him licking the chair.

Trying to get off the chair again, and again. I finally gave in and stopped trying to make him sit still.

Playing with Daddy.

My back was having problems this evening, and Jace really wanted attention, so Nolan was amazing and held Jace while doing the dishes. Jace liked helping his daddy.

Nolan then cooked me dinner. He’s such a great husband. On Friday, I’d felt sick all day. He picked up dinner on his way home from work, took care of Jace all evening, and then spent the day on Saturday playing with Jace and cleaning house while I spent some time sewing. What a wonderful man I have!