a couple new toys

we decided to splurge this christmas and treat our family to a new camera.  we wanted quality photos for our family books, and i was very interested in portraiture without having to pay a studio price.  to date, david has read lots of the manuals we got, and experimented more than i have, and he's very familiar with the terminology and parts of the camera, and what apperture and iso and all the technical stuff does...me?...i'm more afraid of the camera than anything.  so on a nice day a few weeks ago, i decided to at least take it outside and push the buttons to see what would happen.  we'll get there, i guess!  we're looking forward to getting some cute newborn shots with the baby!

we also got a double stroller!  we are so excited about this model--mainly me, i guess.  i wish we'd seen it before we had pace, this would have definitely been the only stroller we had invested in.  this model can be a double or single stroller, and it has all-terrain wheels, so it can be a jogging stroller, or for just around town.  i love that it's compact vs. side-by-side, and that it converts into a double stroller in a couple of different ways.  we tried it out on a walk down on the trail next to utah lake.  it was so easy to handle, whether on the paved trail, or "off-roading" on the gravel/sand.  

so one way to have the double stroller is to attach the seat below the main carriage, as shown in the photo below.  the older child sits in the main carriage, as pace is demonstrating, and the baby (recommended 6+ months) is in the lower attachable chair.  another way to have it be a double stroller is to lay the main carriage all the way down (for newborn/small infant), and attach the seat above, where the handle bar is right now in the photo.   another way (i love options!) is to have our car seat, which is compatible with this model, attach in place of the main carriage (i still have to figure this one out) and have the older child sit in the seat below, positioned where it is in the photo.  pace loves this new stroller, and i'm excited to take everyone out for a jog!

yesterday afternoon

hey mama, what'chya doin?

pace, do a few tricks for mama.  where's your tongue?

show mama your teeth...

can you say "please"?

how about "more"?

how do you pray?

mama--i'm done with tricks!  i'm not a monkey!*

*no child was harmed during this photo shoot.  pace pulls this face out of his back pocket, and puts it right back in lickadeesplit...

what did we do in january?

my mom came for an almost 2-week visit in january, so pace got lots of babishka time.  i got the flu for one of the weeks, so it was sooo nice to have my mom there--i literally spent two days in bed, and didn't worry about pace at all.  

we gave this little guy his first hair cut.  well, just a trim, really.  i just cut across the front and back, and that was enough for me!  that made my little boy grown up enough!

before shots:

during:

after (he looks so much like david to me in this photo):

we had our first snow of the season.  it was really just a dusting, but it was enough to get pace to exclaim, "oooooooo!"  as soon as he woke up we went outside to touch the snow.  it was pretty much all melted by the afternoon, but on the way back from church, pace would stop at every little 4x4" splotch of snow, point, and emphatically say, "oooooo!"  

baby#2 continues to grow.  hello.  much bigger, much faster the second time around.  i am 21 weeks in this photo, and i am pretty sure i look like how i did when i was 30-34 weeks along with pace.

i had the big ultrasound appointment at the dr's.  i see a group of 7-8 docs, and happened to see one that loves it when the parents don't want to know the gender.  he was more than happy to oblige us by not recording the baby's gender on the dvd they made for us, and told us when to look away from the screen.  my mom came with us to the appt, and that was very fun, too.  pace does not like doctors in any way, shape, or form, whether they are for him or me.  he was very upset when i sat up on the table for the ultrasound.  thanks, mom, for helping him calm down.  

this baby is a very gentle baby, like pace was, but much more active.  it was so fun to see baby move in real time (pace must have been fast asleep when we got the ultrasound done with him)--waving, kicking, and even "jabbering"!    

a little foot--upper middle (so cool to see the foot that just kicked me!)

baby is waving hello!

in other fun pace news, this boy can dance!  we got him an abc magnet set for the fridge--when you put a letter into the main abc receptacle, it sings a little song about every letter making a sound, and there's also a button to push for the entire abc song.  pace love this toy (well, anything with music, really)--he pushes a button and throws out his arms, rocks his hips to and fro, walks around in circles--watching him dance is really, really hilarious.  so now, whenever i say to him, "pace, want to do your abc's?"  eh immediately starts dancing.

pace is also "reading".  it's more word recognition than actual reading, but it's still a cool trick!  david's parents got pace the "your baby can read!" program for his first christmas.  there are four 15-20 minute dvds and a bunch of flashcards.  he's been watching the dvds since he was 4 or 5 months old (i'd put it in for him while i was taking a shower), and he just loves them.  fun music and kids dancing, lights, colors, pictures, etc.  we pull out the flashcards when he expresses interest.  a month or so ago, we were doing the flashcards, and he holds up the flashcard saying "wave", and he started waving at me!  so we went through all the cards to pick out the words he knew.  he recognizes arms up, wave, drum, clap, hat, head, ears, chin, and sometimes mouth.  so, for example, when i write out the phrase "arms up", he'll throw his arms up in the air.  when he sees "drum", he pats his tummy.

my little brother sent pace a dvd for christmas called "baby babble".  it was put together by two pediatric speech pathologists to encourage verbalization.  believe me, this little video is no blockbuster, but pace L-O-V-E-S it.  i never did any signing with him, but this video includes 5-6 signs, and pace immediately started implementing them.  examples:  he did the sign for more right away--applied to both food and playing with toys (stack more blocks on top, etc); please he signs with both hands along his ribs, like  monkey--very cute, especially as the sign is just one hand making a circle over the heart.  very fun to watch how pace interprets the signs.

pace's christmas

let's face it--christmas this year was all about pace!  this post has 24 new photos of pace, so it's kind of for the grandmas and grandpas.  we got to skype with everyone this year, which was fun, but it isn't the same as being in person. 

we are liking the annual get a photo of pace with the santa hat tradition.  it'll be fun to do this with two:

whenever we got a present in the mail, we'd just put it under the tree to open on christmas.  we spent all december telling pace to not touch the presents, that when the morning finally came to rip off the wrapping paper, he was very hesitant.  we'd start opening the present for him, and then tell him to keep opening it; every time pace ripped the wrapping paper, he'd look up at us with a worried look, as if saying, "is this ok to do?"  but once the presents were out of the wrapping paper, he had eyes for nothing else!

pace was very determined to get his activity box (which is all wood and quite heavy) from the library to the living area near the kitchen.  i was doing dishes and david was cleaning up from presents, and i heard this scraping noise.  david came running in to get the camera.  i thought pace was helping david get boxes put in the trashcan, but when i turned the corner to take a look, pace was really working hard to get his little play center into the living area.  i love the look on his face!--working so hard!

a few very adorable shots in his booster seat.  pace is very proficient at feeding himself with a little fork, he is very proud of himself and will only occasionally let me help feed him.  he is turning into a very independent little boy!

this is the classic "oh!" face.  pace is picking up on verbal cues and starting to become very vocally interactive, which is super fun.  we are excited to hear actual words come out of his mouth instead of jibberish, but we'll get there.  he's picking up on "uh-oh", but only says the "oh" last part of it, and says it as a very determined exclamation.  this face says it all:

pahpah sent (of course) a redskin-themed present (...every. single. present. he. has. ever. sent...), and pace loved cuddling his little hog-pillow.

and his new, favorite toy: a school bus.  this little number was on clearance at kohls, and i had $10 of kohls cash, so we spent just over $5 for a load of fun for pace a few days after christmas.  i'm trying to teach him how to peddle his little feet to get himself moving on it, and david throws him on the bus and runs him down the hallway.  guess which one pace loves doing better?  i'll give you a hint:  he hollers with glee as the wind rushes through his long locks while he's being bussed down the hallway...he's also content to get behind it and push it up and down the hallway on his own.  it has two little music buttons he loves dancing to.