Jace - 16 months

I can't believe my baby is already 16 months old!  Last Friday, after hearing that my friend Ashley had her first baby, I started having flash backs of those first few hours I had with Jace. I remember so vividly hearing his first cry while Tate yelled, "It's a boy!" through his own tears.  That first moment when the nurses set him on my chest and I was completely speechless.  (Just ask Tate, I think he was a bit worried that I wasn't saying anything... hehe)  In those first few hours with him it was just such a flood of emotions, and I can honestly say I had no idea the kind of joy he would bring to my life.  It makes looking back on that moment so much more meaningful now.  I can't believe that that little precious "blob" (for lack of a better word) of a person transforms so quickly into a child with his own personality and sense of humor.  I wish I would have blogged back when Jace was first born so I could look back and see what I was thinking about at the time, and remember every detail of those first fleeting months.  One thing I do still remember very clearly is his birth story... so maybe I'll have to write that one out at some point before it starts to slip out of my memory bank too.

Anyways... back to Jace at 16 months old.  At last measure Jace was 24 pounds, 33 inches.  He looks much more "boy" than "baby" these days... and he smells much more boy than baby too!  Must be all that playing outside in the heat.  He still hasn't had his first real haircut (aside from some very minor trims) and his hair is starting to lighten up from the sun to a honey brown tone.  Most days it looks like he uses a curling iron to flip the back and sides up but the top of his hair is completely straight.  His skin is still pretty sensitive to the elements and is pretty fair.  His will randomly get a patch of excema behind his knees or in his elbow pits if he's been out in the heat alot.  It's nothing compared to when he had food allergies though and his whole body would flair up. 

He has 11 teeth, 7 teeth in front (4 on top, 3 on bottom... I'm still wondering if the 4th bottom one is missing or something) and he has all four of his molars.  I think he's cutting a few more top teeth right now, so soon he's going to have a complete set!  Most days you can find Jace wearing cargo shorts in 18 month size and a polo or t-shirt in 18-24 month size with sandals (size 5).  He's pretty low maitanence with clothes and for the most part wears hand-me-downs.  He just bumped up to size 5 diapers, big boy! 

Speaking of diapers, we recently bought him a potty chair.  He adores it.  He thinks it's a hat.  He thinks it's a toy.  He thinks it's his friend.  Thankfully, he also likes to sit on it.  Only thing is that's about all he does.  Sit.  So far we haven't started any potty training, but instead are just trying to get him familiar with having his own potty in the bathroom across from his room.  I think it's a bit too early for him to understand the concept of potty training because he isn't able to communicate when he's about to go to the bathroom yet.

At 16 months he can still be a bit of a picky eater, but not with the typical things you would think.  He likes spicy foods and sour foods... but has issues with certain textures.  For the most part he only like vegetables if they're really mushy and only likes chicken if it's really greasy  "juicy".  I try not to get too frustrated with his picky eating and instead just keep trying.  I've started with-holding milk from him until after he's finished at least half of his meal, and that's been working alot better at getting him to eat.  He's really good at eating all breakfast foods thankfully, and that tends to be his biggest meal of the day.  He loves bananas, strawberries, grapes, oatmeal, waffles, pancakes and cereal so I really can't go wrong with breakfast.  For lunch or dinner he has his select meals that he'll always eat without fuss like spaghetti, burittos, chicken nuggets, cheesy noodles, tater tot hotdish, PB&Js, ravioli, green beans... basically any carb filled food like bread or noodles he's all over.  Sometimes he surprises me though and will eat something totally unexpected like salad.

He mostly drinks soy milk but is getting 1-2 cups of whole milk in place of some of the soy.  Hopefully we'll have a smooth transition and he'll be completely off soy within a month or so.  I'm just taking it slow...  As for other beverages, he drinks one "juice" per day thats really about 2 ounces of 100% veg/fruit juice mixed with 6 ounces of water... but he's none the wiser and thinks it's amazing.  He won't drink much plain water unless he's really thirsty and then he'll only drink enough to take the thirst away, so by mixing in a little juice it helps me make sure he's staying hydrated in the heat.

He's very vocal and very active when he's the only kid around, but does tend to sit back and observe when he's around other children his age or older.  I think he just likes to pay attention to what they're doing and learn from them.  He's almost always the youngest whenever we're around other kids, so I think sometimes he's just in awe of the "big kids".

He hasn't said many new words lately.  He speaks his own language for the most part that consists of saying things like thank you, your welcome, night night, bu-bye, doggie, ball, book, etc.  He will randomly say something out of the blue that surprises us like the other day I told him he had a "boogie" and he pointed at his nose and laughed and after I wiped it he said "boogie!" and looked really proud of himself.  (hmm... I'm starting to get an idea of what types of embarassing things he's going to start saying in public once he does start talking...)

Even though he's not verbalizing much with words, he can understand almost everything I say.  He'll run and grab his shoes or sandals if I ask him to and then sit on my lap to help me put them on.  He'll wait for me on the front step while I unlock or lock the door when I ask him to wait.  He'll get a book if I say it's storytime or he'll turn on the TV and plop on his couch if I ask him if he'd like to watch a "show".  If I ask him how his diaper is he'll tap on it if it's full.  When I tell him to clean up his mess from lunch he'll pick up any food that he dropped on the floor and throw it in the garbage all by himself.  When I ask him to bring me something he does... (muhahaha... now I never have to get off the couch!!)

He has become a littles less easy going in some ways, but is still a pretty even mannered kid.  The thing I've had the most problems with is his whine.  I don't know how to make it stop.  I've asked him to stop, I tell him to use his words... it doesn't work.  He whines whenever he wants something he can't reach or whenever he's doing something he doesn't want to be, like being a prisoner of the shopping cart for example.  He used to be so easy to take to the grocery store or running errands and he'd actually have fun talking to me while we shopped.  Those. Days. Are. Gone.  He now has about a 3 minute time limit on shopping cart fun.  After that it's constant whining.  If he can reach anything in the cart he'll grab it and throw it on the ground.  I've tried occupying him with toys or books or snacks, anything.  But, he'll just throw those things on the floor and whine louder.  Since our form of punishment is time-outs, and those are pretty much impossible in the middle of a store, I'm usually left feeling like the mom who can't control her toddler.  Ok, maybe I'm making it sound worse than it is, but it's pretty embarassing when he starts throwing a fit and doesn't listen to a word I say about behaving.  We're working on it... any suggestions are more than welcome.

On the flip side Jace loves to take baths, go on walks in the stroller, run around the yard, play in the water fountain (still haven't found a second hand water/sand table yet...), play with sand toys at the beach, go down slides, swing on tire swings, pet/chase doggies, share cookies with mommy, drink out of a straw, sit on his couch, smoosh his face against the screen door and yell to people walking by, read books by himself (his favorite right now is the Animal Sounds book by A. Battaglia), oink like a pig, share giggles with mommy and daddy over inside jokes, stomp his feet, scream just to hear himself, do circus acrobats on top of his toys, climb onto anything and everything within reach, sneak into "no-no" places and hide... the list could go on forever.