dinosaur at the mall

there's a dinosaur play area at the mall, and if pace and i go see david at work, we'll stop by to look at the dino.  it's usually filled with running, screaming kids, which freaks pace out.  he's such a timid and sensitive boy--anything too loud or raucous is too much for him to handle  (we've tried weaning him into nursery at church--i don't see him willingly going into that room without david or me just because he's turned 18 months old.  one of us will go with him and play the second hour of church, and then bring him with us to the third hour.  he's getting better, but nursery kids that fight, scream, or cry freak him out, and he starts crying).  

we've tried playing on the dino with other kids there, and the best he's done is stood at my side for 45 minutes with his mouth gaping open and eyes blinking, watching the kids screaming around him, trying to figure out how to enter the arena.  he eventually did start playing, but he went up the stairs so slowly i was afraid the other kids would push him off like a fly on the wall, and then he held up the line at the slide, a vice grip on my fingers and his body frozen, realizing the only way down was down...  we went there early one saturday morning before the place filled up, and pace had a blast running around.

he's always very happy when he finds a chair just his size!

braving the slide.  i was on the other side watching him go up the stairs, and pace was showing me where he was headed.

approaching the slide feet first, just like the stairs at home.

not quite sure he wants to go down--vice grip on my fingers.

what?--i'm alive?!  that wasn't too bad!

stacking 101

pace has turned into the expert stacker.  stacking is not limited to blocks--this kid thinks "outside the block"--any thing he can put on top of another thing, he'll try.  chairs on a box?--why not!  binkies on the side of his crib?--brilliant!  pieces of his sandwich or banana?--even better!  pace gets frustrated very quickly if things don't stack as he'd like them to, or if they fall over prematurely to his completion of the job.  he'll start to whine and look at me for help.  i just look back and say, "uh-oh, it fell down.  try again!"  he's caught on and now says "uh-oh" when things fall, and claps with satisfaction when things go according to plan.

a few other fun pace-isms: 

consistently signs on his own: please, more, help, all done, prayer, blows a kiss, airplane.  often pace will sign "more" and then wait for me to say, "more what?"  and then he'll do his next sign, or point to what he wants more of.  the two cutest are when he asks for "more music", pointing at the cd player in his room, and "more prayer" over a meal, or when david is ready to leave for work in the morning--pace will run over to the carpet and sit down, folding his arms.  he gives a very satisfied nod and grin when you get the right answer.

verbal communication: says "bau" for ball, "buh" for bird, "bau-ooo" for balloon (hasn't gotten the "l" down yet), "mmmen" after prayer, "bowers" for flowers, "up" while pointing up, "nnn" while pointing down (he also uses the vocal intonations with up/down, which is really cute), mama, and david swears he said "airplane" one morning, but he hasn't said it since (i also think i've heard him say a version of spider a couple of times while singing itsy bitsy spider).  he also does a few animal noises: "nay-nay" for horse, "mmmm" for cow, sticks his tongue out and pants for dog, "aarrrrr" for dinosaur.  we got him a dinosaur bath towel the other day--it has a hood and little claw pockets for his hands.  the hood completely covers his face, going down to his chin, but he put it on and walked all around the house saying "aaarrr" over and over--cutest. thing. on. earth.  

he has a huge non-verbal vocabulary of 50-100 words at least, if not more, understands double commands (ex: go get the ball and bring it to mama), and has turned into quite the little mama's helper.  he loves, loves, loves to help me do laundry (he picks up the clothes from the floor and puts them into the washing machine, or helps me move the loads from the washing machine to the dryer), cook dinner (he sits on the counter while i'm prepping ingredients, and mostly plays with the fruit bowl, taking out all the fruit and then putting them all back in again), and put away clean dishes from the dishwasher--he comes running from another room if he hears me open the dishwasher (he loves to hand me the silverware, and pulls out all his forks and spoons for his drawer, then hands me whatever else is on the bottom rack to put away--this means i don't have to bend over anymore, which is sooo nice with my growing belly!  he loves to close the dishwasher door, too.  we're still trying to teach him the difference between clean and dirty dishes, as every time he sees the dishwasher open he wants to put away the silverware!).

"reading":  it's really more word recognition than reading, but pace has quite the reading vocabulary.  when we write the word down, he either points to the item, or does the sign.  pointing: hat, head, hair (points to head for all of these), ear, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, eyes, arm, shoulder, elbow, toes, shoes, spoon, ball, yawn (he makes the noise).  signing: wave, arms up, arms down, clap.  he also enjoys drawing and knows a few shapes--you draw them and ask him to point them out, he'll point to the correct requested sign every time--triangle, square, circle. 

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.