car load of cousins

The whole gang in the back of Grandma and Papa's van on the way to dinner. They are ready to watch 10 minutes of movie and then enjoy some Mexican food.

dinner and a show

Last night I was craving pizza. I talked Joel into helping make Grandma Courtney's homemade pizza, partly because it is the best and partly because I rationalized that it would be more diet friendly than take out because I could control the ingredients. We invited Aaron over to help eat the huge amount of pizza that one recipe makes. From the moment Aaron arrived, Jace was in performance mode. He loves having company. He always gets very excited when "A-Reen" comes over. Last night, he made faces and yelled. He showed Aaron his toys and ran all over the house. My favorite moment was the reenactment of his afternoon injury. He had gone on a walk with Grandma Elaine, fallen and scraped his hand. Jace was done eating but the rest of us were still sitting at the table. I started asking him about what happened.
Me: "Were you running and fell down?"
Jace: "Run"
Me: "And you fell down and go boom?"
Jace: "Down. Boom." (throws himself on the floor to illustrate "Boom")
Me: "And then what happened? Did you get hurt?"
Jace: "Hurt" (he looks at his hand and holds it up for us to see)
Me: "Did you cry?"
Jace: (he scrunches up his face in a great fake cry) "Whaaaaaaaa"
(the three adults at the table laugh)
Jace: "Whaaaaaaaaaa" (still fake crying) Then his face got serious. "Baby."
Joel: (trying not to laugh too hard) "You cried like a baby?"
Jace: (again, fake crying) "Whaaa, baby"
It was quiet a performance. Joel and I were amazed and amused. What do we have ahead of us?

taste of winter

Today was the warmest it has been in a while. Jace got to play outside for a whole 20 minutes. He stomped a little trail around the back yard, tasting snow from several different areas. He took a few swings at the T-ball equipment, filled a small bucket with snow, tried to break the ice off the downspout and then climbed back into the house with his backside completely covered with snow.

before & after dinner

Jace is a different kid before and after dinner. Before, he is tired, hungry, and cranky. If he is expected to wait for dinner to be prepared he demands "Abu" which means that he wants to watch Aladdin for the 337th time (I'm guessing on the number but it feels like a lot). Tonight he curled up in the big chair to watch his movie.

Food always perks Jace up. Also during dinner he announced "Daddy, poop" so that had to make him feel better too. I almost choked laughing.

After dinner Jace is ready to play. Tonight, he climbed up to the table and used the salad tongs to move the food from one bowl to the next. I love this because I know how great it is for his hand strength and the added bonus is that he also tastes the salad while he plays with it.

We are all tired tonight. I spent the morning observing at Meadow Point and then spent the afternoon trying to catch up on all the documentation that I have to do for the observation hours. I am soooooo glad I just have this one class this semester. It takes so much time and tons of writing. Joel and his Dad are busy this week getting ready for a ski show at the convention center next week. We are also trying to plan for our upcoming trip to visit Dan and Becky in Orlando. How do you plan for a trip with a toddler? He is a different kid from moment to moment. Joel and I are just hoping that the little mellow guy in the big chair is the one that shows up for the four hour flight.

the ups and downs of Saturday

Joel and I both expected today to be a little more relaxing than it was. Things started out pretty normal but by mid morning Jace was whining and temperamental. I think the weather may be partly to blame. It's grey, cold and snowy. It has been forever since we have really been able to play outside for any length of time. We dance and run around the house. We go on short outings. Today we did a little shopping.
After our brief outing this morning Jace and I were super hungry. Lunch turned into a total fiasco. Jace stuffed a whole meatball in his mouth at once (even though we cut into nice little bite sized pieces). Then he screamed when Joel wouldn't give him another one until he tried some bites of the other food on his plate. He eventually did get more meatball but then he decided to throw his milk cup across the room for no apparent reason (right after he dipped it in his soup). The frustration level was pretty high. Then Joel tried to choke on his sandwich. Once he was OK and back at the table Jace started frantically pointing at Joel's PB&J sandwich and saying "please! please!". So Joel went to the kitchen to make Jace a sandwich with the almond butter. Meanwhile Jace turned to me and whispered that he was all done (he says all done like "allaaallaaallaaaall"). I told him NO that Daddy was making him a sandwich. When lunch was finally over we were relieved to move Jace upstairs for his nap.
Jace had other plans and refused to settle down and go to sleep. Joel put him in the crib and we listened while he played in the bed for a while. This is pretty normal so we figured eventually he would fall asleep. Instead we heard a huge BONK and then crying. Joel and I were both in his room in a instant. We have worried about him falling out of the crib since the day he first stood up in it but today he finally toppled out. We checked him all over and calmed him down. He was scared but otherwise fine.
Much later and after a very short nap Jace was more himself. He was playful at snack time gobbling up a whole container of coconut yogurt and then asking for a "tookie". This evening he was carrying around the remote control, trying to get us to turn on a movie for him. He absentmindedly put the remote in his mouth and when I took it away from him he did an amazing Macaulay Culkin impression, wide eyed, open mouthed yell slapping his hands to his cheeks. I fell over laughing it was so hilarious.
In the bath tonight Jace kept trying to drink the bath water. I got him a sippy cup of cool, drinking water. He thought it was a great game to dribble the cold water on his head, scream, laugh and shiver. When the cup was empty Joel refilled it with bath water since Jace seemed more interested in playing with the water than drinking it. Jace immediately took a big swig of the bath water from the cup. Aauugh. Joel filled the cup again, this time with clean water that was about the same temperature as the bath water. Jace took one sip, looked at us and said "warm" then spit the water out. What is up with that?

An "up" moment in our day: dancing on the bed with no pants on.

finger paint?

The cold weather has kept us inside a lot lately. I've started a collection of toddler crafts including finger paints. This was the second time Jace played with the paints. As an impulse buy at the counter I picked up an assortment of paint brushes. Good thing. Jace has no interest in sticking his fingers in the bright colored, cold, gel paints. Instead I ended up giving him a brush. That kept him busy for a little while.

give that kid a stick

Jace choosing his equipment.

Our Saturday got off to a great start. We joined the Marsik family at Jayden's elementary school for a game of floor hockey. Jace loved running all over, swinging the hockey stick and throwing the ball. He never really figured out what the stick was for. When we arrived at the school there were just a few of us so Jace could run everywhere. As Jayden's scout group showed up for the hockey game Jace had to move off the floor. However, he refused to be out of the game. Joel had to play one handed while carrying Jace so that he could be part of the action. Joel carried Jace in his arm and later on his shoulders with Jace holding on to Joel's hair. It was crazy but I think both boys had a great time. I had some great laughs. Can't wait to do it again.

I love this picture. Too bad I didn't notice until later that some very small greasy fingers had touched the camera lens.

Daddy Birpee

No matter how much we practiced today, Jace pronounced Birthday as "Birpee".

Happy Birpee Daddy.

The picture is from our Monday night celebration at the Palmer's. Today was pretty mellow. The only celebrating we did was going out to lunch together.