Jace - 14 months

Jace turned 14 months this week.  It's crazy to think how fast time is going now that he's a year.  I feel like I'm going to blink and it will already be his second birthday!  He is still an amazingly sweet, well natured boy but he's started to pick up a few toddler behaviors.  This month he's started doing this wheezy whine when he sees something that he really wants.  We have been telling him no and to "use his words" but it hasn't completely stopped yet.  I think he's just stuck at that age where he knows what he wants, but doesn't quite now how to verbalize it yet.  He whines like this alot whenever we pass Goldfish crackers at the grocery store.  He also starts his wheezy whine (almost like he's sucking in air because he can't take it anymore without ____) whenever I pull his milk out of the fridge and start to pour it, as if I'm going to drink it instead of giving it to him. 

He also struggles a bit with listening when he's told no.  I think he understands the meaning of "no" but he doesn't understand that what was no 3 seconds ago is still no now.  For example, while I was unpacking the other day Jace kept going over to his diaper pail and trying to open it, I continually told him a firm "no!" and he stopped for a few seconds and then tried to dive in to it again.  Finally he fished out a disgustingly dirty diaper and when I said "no" he threw the diaper in my direction and it landed on the carpet.  Then he ran away laughing, thinking we were playing a game.  I scooped him up (and washed both of our hands) and put him in his crib for a time out.  It was his first time out, and it only lasted just over a minute, but it felt long!  He cried and cried, and when I went in I explained to him why he was in a time out and then gave him a hug.  I don't know if it really worked or not, but he hasn't tried to dig out any diapers since.  I think I will have to start using time outs in the future in similar situations.  I've heard time outs are ok to start once kids are 1, as long as you keep them short, about a minute per year of age is a good rule of thumb.

Other than that, he's truely an amazing little boy.  He is always happy and smiling.  He loves to play silly games with us and laugh his head off.  One of his new favorite games is to shut the door on us to "lock us out".  In his new bedroom he has a little walk in closet, so everytime I go in it to grab a diaper or clothes or something he shuts the door behind me so that I'm "trapped" in there and then he laughs his head off like he's being sneaky.  He also really likes to hide and be really quite when we call for him and ask where he is, he's usually standing right around the corner with a smile on his face and as soon as we see him he bursts into laughter again as if he's been holding it in as hard as he can trying to be quiet.

Since our move Jace has regressed a little bit on sleeping, which is to be expected.  His schedule got out of whack with all of the traveling and waiting for his crib to arrive.  He's doing pretty well at sleeping through the night now that we're more settled, but he'll randomly wake up and cry for a few minutes during the night, usually not long after falling asleep.  It has been really helpful having his white noise machine unpacked and set up, we were without it for a few days and he sleeps significantly better with it set to the sound of the rain.  As soon as we click the machine on he starts rubbing his eyes and laying his head down.  I wish we would have discovered the powers of the sound machine during his first 6+ months of life, when he never slept more than three hours at a time!

Jace has been making a lot more sounds lately, but is not speaking phrases yet or anything like that.  He rarely even says real words anymore, instead he speaks in made up sentances.  I'm not sure if this is just his way of practicing conversation or what.  I'm hoping someday soon he'll all of a sudden just throw a sentance together and shock us.  He still rarely says mama, if anything he'll say "mom" and only when he really wants something, but he loves to say daddy.  All day long he says daddy.  (He hears the front door opening... "daddy daddy!", he knocks on Tate's office door... "dadddddy?")   Oh, and he says "bye bye" and waves alot more now, and not in a baby way like he did months ago.  Now he says bubye and does his best impression of a parade wave everytime we say bye to someone.  He also likes to say bubye to us as he shuts us out of his room, or when he's going down to sleep.  One of his favorite toys, his singamajig, will say "bye bye" if he doesn't squeeze it for a certain amount of time, so then he'll always say bye bye back and usually give it a goodbye hug.

We still have Jace in a rear facing position in the car, per his doctors recommendation.  We're lucky that he loves to ride facing backwards and usually falls asleep within 2 minutes of being in the car.  If he's not asleep he likes to "talk" to us from the backseat.  One of his favorite things to shout from the back is "geeee! geee!", I have no idea what this is supposed to mean, but he always sounds really happy when he says it.  Maybe he's trying to say "weee!" like he's on a fun ride? haha... who knows!

Jace's favorite things to do right now are: play with his singamajig, microphone, and alphabet train; read lots and lots of books (he prefers to "read" them by himself now); take long baths with toys; share food with mommy and daddy; talk on the phone (he loves to hold the phone to his ear and babble into it and laugh); ride on his zebra bounce and spin toy (he likes to straddle it to get on and off over and over and over...); and "help" us with whatever we're doing, whether it be assembling a lamp (like today) or unpacking and putting away bathroom supplies (like yesterday).

Jace's room was the first room I focused on unpacking and setting up in our new place.  I wanted him to feel at home right away, and it's seemed to work pretty well.  He doesn't seem to notice that this is a new home, I think he just assumes anywhere that Tate and I are is home.  His new room is still painted pink from the previous tenants, we planned on painting it right away, but then we got sick and I didn't want to wait to get it set up.  We'll paint it soon, I just haven't decided on a color yet and we have to go through the process of getting the color approved by the owner once we pick it out.  I really don't care what color it ends up, just not pink would be good!  I only set up his crib and his 9-cube shelf in his bedroom so that he has lots of room to play and have toys out.  Since has a walk in closet I put his dresser and other items in there to keep them out of the way.  He hasn't had a changing table set up for a while either so it's nice to have that extra space, especially since his room isn't very big.  He really likes taking baths at our new place because one of our tubs is oversized and it feels more like a kiddie pool when it's filled with water.  I really like it too, because I've stopped worrying as much that he'll slip and hit his head on the side because the tub is too wide for that now.

I'm sure he's up to alot more than I've mentioned here, but I'm tired so I'm not thinking that clearly right now!  I've taken a couple of pictures of him in the last week, not very many though.  I posted a few of them below!

This pretty much sums up Jace at 14 months!

Do you like my pink bedroom?

I love hanging out on my couch!

I also love my train!  The blocks are fun :)

He learned this lounging position from daddy, so funny!

Rub-a-dub-dub!