Our Little Driver

Nolan's mom has become quite the garage sale shopper and is amazing at finding great deals! She stopped by a sale the other day, saw a fun little car-exersaucer in wonderful condition and asked the lady how much. "$5" was all that they were asking. What makes this deal so amazing is knowing that the same thing would be listed for at least $40 on Craigslist... probably more because it's in such good shape and it makes lots of fun noises and lights up. So now we have an exersaucer for upstairs and downstairs, which makes me very happy. Until a week or two ago, Jace was still content to hang out in his bouncer while I got ready in the mornings, but then it became too boring (and he's probably too big, too). So the exersaucer went upstairs, and we started missing it downstairs (but were too lazy, or perhaps smart, to carry it up and down the stairs as needed).

Jace LOVES this little car! While playing in it last night, he discovered the mirror and that he could see himself. Nolan and I were laughing so hard at his reaction to it. Each time he'd notice himself, he'd quickly grab it with both hands and lean in until his nose touched it. We finally thought to grab the camera. While this shows his interest in himself, it's not quite as funny as before. But still cute, so enjoy!

Jace playing in his new car from Nolan Nelson on Vimeo.

Getting A Little Crafty

I’ve been having a lot of fun getting crafty lately, and usually it involves my sewing machine. I follow a ton of creative blogs and I love using them to inspire me to come up with something new. These blogs also have fun contests where you showcase what you’ve been working on. In order to not clutter this blog up with all my projects, I started one just for the things I make. You can check it out here.

A few of the projects I’ve done lately…

A cute, ruffle shirt for a friend’s one-year-old daughter. [I had to have Jace model it to make sure it turned out ok, even though it’s too big… oh, and pink.] 

Ruffle flowers on the front of the shirt.

A dress I made to wear to a wedding.

A diaper bag and changing pad for a friend.

Little Milestones

Jace is living up the life of a six month old. He had his regular check up and vaccines on Monday and he did so well. He only had to have 2 shots this time—one in each leg. For the first one he just jumped and made a fussy noise, and then for the second one only let out a loud squeal, and then calmed down once he realized the pain was over. He’s such a tough little boy. He weighed in at 17 pounds 3 ounces, which puts him in the 46th percentile for his age. He is 28.5 inches long, which is in the 96th percentile. So he’s long and lean!

Has has also had a lot of new experiences lately!

We went swimming with Anna and the kids while my mom was here. It was Jace’s first time in a pool, but I knew he’d love it considering how much he enjoys baths. And I was right! This kid loved splashing and splashing and splashing (and chewing on his thumb the whole time as well). Every time his cousins came near he giggled, and if they happened to splash him it was even better! He stayed in the pool for an hour and a half before getting fussy, and then quickly fell asleep on me. We’ll have to take Nolan with us back to the pool soon.

Jace got to ride on Daddy’s shoulders for the first time. He wasn’t so sure what to think of Nolan’s hair, but really didn’t mind the experience despite the look on his face. He now smiles and giggles when Nolan does this with him.

At Josiah’s birthday party Uncle Mike put his cap on Jace and it was too cute!

Snuggling with Josiah after the party. Jace loves his cousins!

First time in the backpack. Nolan took Jace and Toby for a walk and all three loved the experience.

Jace is so good at sitting up on his own now! I can put him down and he’ll just sit there and play for a while. He is getting really good at correcting his balance. Our dear, sweet friend Mary who loves to watch Jace for me every chance she gets ordered Jace some new books. He had a lot of fun looking through them!

Jace loves books!

Jace loves to hold anything that comes near his mouth, but he has a hard time holding his bottle and figuring out how to tip it enough to drink from it. So, I thought we could start working on learning to drink with a sippy cup. It only took a few times of me helping him grab the handles for him to be able to hold it himself. He also got to have apple juice for the first time and loved it. He just needs to improve on swallowing after sucking a bit. Oh, and he’s not afraid to express his irritation at finishing the juice.

Six Months Old!

Happy Half Birthday, Jace! I can’t believe our little guy is already so old. But he’s also so cute, so fun, so entertaining, so crazy, so stinky, so silly, so lovable, so busy, so, so, so… Every day I fall more and more in love with my baby boy, and every day I find it harder and harder to stop playing with him and put him to bed at night. Jace charms everyone he comes in contact with—whether it’s by smiling at the person behind us in line at the grocery story, being happy regardless of who is holding him, or talking up a storm to anyone who will listen.

Beyond having a great personality (and being cute too), he’s reaching new milestones each day. He can sit up on his own for quite a while and can even adjust himself to keep his balance. While he learned to roll over a long time ago, he’d rather just stay on his back or his belly—and when he’s on his belly, he tries to crawl. Unfortunately, his attempts at crawling are pushing his knees under himself while plowing his face into the ground, and then he wonders why he didn’t get anywhere. He loves, loves, loves to eat—so far he’s had green beans, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, pears, apples, peaches and apricots. Pears are his absolute favorite.

He’s been taking reflux medicine for the past month and we’ve seen so much improvement because of it! He still spits up here and there, but a bib is no longer a necessary accessory and he doesn’t act like he’s starving all the time. In fact, we’re now able to go four hours between each feeding, and he sleeps for 11-12 hours straight each night!

I LOVE THIS BABY!