The other day I wasn’t feeling very well when I pick Jace up from daycare. We came home, played for a little, then I made him dinner. As he sat at the table eating, I curled up on the couch to take a nap. Once Jace was done eating dinner he came in to the living room to see what I was doing. After finding me napping, he ran into his bedroom and got his stuffed bear. He brought it over to me, gave it to me, then ran off to get his monkey and puppy. Once he was sure I had enough friends to cuddle with, he patted my head and told me “Mommy sleep”. What a sweet little boy he can been when he wants to be!
Well technically it is the same bed with a different side but that doesn’t sounds nearly as exciting. A couple of weeks ago his cousin was here to stay and we set up an airbed on the floor for her. She left on Friday night but we didn’t deflate it right away because Jace was enjoying playing on it. On that Saturday he asked if he could nap on it. Being an agreeable guy, Steve said sure, so long as he (Jace) stayed on the airbed but didn’t jump on it. No problem. He had a great nap. I guess that shouldn’t be that surprising since he naps on a mat at daycare but he just never has at home. The airbed got cleaned up and nothing more happened until Sunday when Jace asked if he could nap on his mattress on the floor. Again it was a success so I decided that perhaps he was ready to transition out of the crib into a toddler bed.
When we bought his crib, we opted to pay the extra $50 to get a toddler rail that attaches where the drop rail usually goes. A few minutes of construction and Jace is the proud owner of a toddler bed. So far we have had no issues. He climbs in without a fuss and doesn’t try to get out and run around. I guess the real test will be this weekend for nap if he isn’t in the mood to lie down. We keep his door shut and he has no clue how to open it so he is essentially trapped even if he climbs out of bed. Perhaps that will be enough of a deterrent for now. I do have to say it is great not having to lift all 34lbs of him in and out of the crib!
Jace has clearly entered another phase of childhood where he is showing his (sometimes too) active imagination. At daycare he takes a nap on a mat and after nap he is supposed to put the mat away in the pile. April asked him one day during snack if he had put his mat away. “Yes, put mat on porch” “On porch, in rain”. Now the porch is outside and it was sunny out but in Jace’s imagination that clearly wasn’t the case.
The other night he woke me up crying hysterically. When I asked him what was wrong he said there was a dragon in his bed as he pointed towards the corner of his crib where his blanket was hanging. The blanket is fleece which is tied with little knots all around the perimeter. I guess the tufts looked like dragon scales or something in his half awake state. I slayed that dragon and Jace returned to sleep.
I have also told monsters to leave the closet on several occasions and looked for bears in the closet too. How much is Jace just trying to get attention and how much he believes I cannot tell, but when he asks me to make the robot go away, I am sure going to try.
My computer is fixed, we have all finally shaken the endless end of summer cold and Jace is asleep so there are no more excuses. I have updated the pictures in the photo album finally. Check out Jace from his 2 year party on. In celebration of the big day we threw him a monkey party for all his little friends. Everyone got matching monkey shirts and we had a great time outside playing. Both sets of grandparents even made it here for the celebration.
At Jace’s two year doctor’s appointment he weighed in at 32lbs 5 oz (clothed) and 36″ tall. He even graduated to being measured standing up instead of baby length. Still 90% for height and weight he is a big but proportional kid. He is in 2T clothing but if he grows much this winter we will be buying some new stuff soon. Jace still loves fruit more than anything but he has discovered his carnivorous roots. Sausage is frequently requested. He has definitely developed his own opinions about things to the point of obstinacy at times. This is particularly challenging since he still can’t always explain what it is that he wants, only that what you are currently offering isn’t it. We have certainly entered the terrible twos although generally he is a sweet little kid.
Today I received my first homemade gift from Jace. A keychain. He picked out the color of beads, arranged them (in a nice uniform order by color, just like I would) and helped put them on the string. I immediately attached it to my keys. I’m sure I will receive many more gifts over the years but this one will always be special.
September 19, 2009 1:28 pm Posted by: Steve Leibman
On Thursday afternoons, Heather picks Jace up from daycare, and I typically arrive home from work a little while later. On this particular Thursday, when I pulled into the driveway, they hadn’t yet appeared, so I decided to go for a walk and intercept them on their way home.
Ahead and to the right, the squeal of kids at the playground.
Ahead and to the left, the rumble of diesel engines at the construction site.
So… which direction should I go? Towards the construction site, obviously. And sure enough, there’s Jace up on Heather’s shoulders, with what is now his usual stream of conversation, “ooh the blue cherry picker mommy. Where the crane? Where’d the yellow crane go? Can’t see the nail gun. Can’t see the nail gun Mommeeee!”
That’s pretty much what he’s into these days. Instead of taking him to daycare, we should just get him a job operating a forklift.
This weekend we went to George’s Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands, for my company outing. Jace had a fabulous time running around the fort and playing with the other toddlers and a soccer ball. Unfortunately there was a lot of goose poop on the grass area where we were. When we pointed it out to Jace and told him what it was and that he should avoid it, he retorted “geese [should] poop in potty, mommy”.
No, Jace hasn’t learned to add yet but he is definitely connecting things together. Friday night I was singing him a lullaby to try to get him to calm down and go to sleep after an overstimulating birthday party for his daycare friend. The lullaby is based on the one about the mockingbird but since I can’t remember the lyrics I have made up my own version involving brick houses, porcupines, and teddy bears. After I was done singing Jace asked me what a porcupine was. I explained it was an animal that had prickly spines. His response “blueberry [his term for my black raspberry canes] is prickly”. I was very impressed that he could connect two very unrelated items.
He is using more and more words everyday and we are barraged by a constant stream of “what’s that?” At least we aren’t in the “why” phase yet since at this point a simple “its a ….” satisfies his curiosity although we try to say what it does as well. However, this does not mean that everything he says is intelligible by any stretch of the imagination. The other night he was asking for a book to read in his crib. No matter how many times he said the name I couldn’t figure out which book he was referring to. So I asked him what was in the book. “Baa Moo Cockadoo” was his reply which, for those of you have have it, clearly means “Barnyard Dance” [with a baa and a moo and a cockadoodledoo].
Jace is also starting to recognize different colors. A couple of weeks ago, everything was “yellow” but yesterday morning he told us that he had a yellow straw, daddy’s was blue and mine was pink. Pink may seem abstract for 2 year old but he loved my pink toenails after I got a manicure and still asks for me give him pink toes after my manicure is long gone.
On a random note, for those of you looking for new pictures of Jace, I am afraid you will have to wait a while. My computer seems to be having technical issues and my IT support is busy working on the upstairs apartment trying to get it ready for a new tenant. Perhaps in August?
As you all know, Jace rather enjoys food (well, most food. anything resembling a vegetable is taboo). He has been known to eat other people’s snacks at daycare when April isn’t looking and has made off with William’s sippy cup of milk on more than one occasion. Yesterday he apparently took some of David’s snack (April’s oldest son who is going into 2nd grade next year). Problem is that David had walnuts for snack and apparently Jace had a bit of a reaction to them. After snack they all went into the other room to read stories. April glanced over at Jace and noticed that one of his cheeks was kind of red. Well, he frequently has chapped cheeks, I think from drooling in his sleep, so she didn’t think much of it. A couple of pages later she glanced over and his other cheek was red. Next look his entire face was red and he was getting itchy. A quick call to dad and some children’s benedryl and Jace recovered none the worse for the experience. Looks like we might have a walnut allergy on our hands (or in our kid!).
He had vegi burgers with walnuts last summer and got a rash on his face but it was at the same time that he had hand foot mouth disease so I wasn’t really sure what the cause was. So as not to endure another blood draw 2 months after our traumatic 1 year appointment, our pediatrican recommended just avoiding nuts and doing a screening at 2 when he needed bloodwork anyways. I can’t say we (read this as STEVE) were entirely sucessful at this since apparently we (STEVE) forgot that the leftover hazelnut sage risoto contained nuts etc etc but there were no future reactions until yesterday. Good thing Jace’s 2 month appointment is on thursday. Hopefully the allergy is limited to just walnuts.
