Happy Halloween

 

From our little monster to yours!

He was a little afraid of the pumpkin.

9 Months

Holy Smokes, Batman! Where did my little baby go? I know I say the time is racing in literally every post, but honestly, this month was the fastest yet. I think it's because so many things have happened developmentally that make JJ seem so much older. This weekend, we hit up the pumpkin patch for a second time (because why not?) and snapped a couple of pictures before church, so I decided to use those photos instead of snapping a bunch of new ones today. Don't stress, Mimi and Grammy-he looks the same today as he did this weekend. ;) At nine months, our sweet, smiley, social butterfly of a JJ is...




-Clapping his hands! So cute
-Saying "mamama" when he cries, reaches for me, or pulls on my legs. He only says this to me, so I'm counting it as an intentional first word. I'm the Mama! -Crawling, standing (while holding onto something) and bear-walking like crazy. He follows us everywhere...even to the bathroom. A couple minutes of privacy? Not on JJ's watch!
-Feeding himself. He's been eating solids for awhile, but I spoon-feed him the soft stuff, like applesauce, and the foods we put in front of him never seemed to motivate him enough to feed himself. That is, until we cut up some cheese pizza from Costco and let him loose. He went to town and never looked back. He also loves brie cheese, naan, any Mexican food, eggs and potato hash, and green smoothies. And he loves drinking from the same cups Colt and I use.
-Working on his game-he loves to catch his little basketball when I toss it to him. He rolls and pushes it around the living room, chases after it, picks it up, and holds it above his head like a champ.
-A huge fan of the vacuum. Whenever we pull it out, he squeals with delight and stares at it until we turn it on. Then he follows us all over the apartment screaming joyfully at it. He does the same thing when we turn on the blender. Weirdo.
-Playing "hide-and-seek" and "tag." He loves to chase and be chased (although, when we're chasing him, he stops and turns around every couple of crawls forward to make sure we're still coming), and he loves to find me when I hide.
-Picking up quirky habits, like doing these short, barking, little laughs. He puts his entire body into it. Sometimes he stares at me while he does it, like he's trying to make me laugh, but other times, out of nowhere, I'll hear "HA! HA!" from the backseat while we're driving somewhere. Cracks me up.
-"Dancing." He grooves to LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem by shaking his head and shoulders from side to side. He's a bit of a Fleet Foxes fan. Also, he will sometimes sing (i.e. yell) along with me when I'm singing or have the music turned up loud.
-Very interested in his books. He loves to be read to, and he's started crawling over to where we keep his books, pulling a couple onto his lap, and trying to open them and turn the pages by himself. The bookworm inside me weeps happy tears whenever this happens.
-Making friends wherever he goes. He LOVES to smile at anyone and everyone, and he turns his whole body around in the grocery cart to watch for people coming from the other direction. He's just recently started to express interest in other babies. When he hears a baby cry or yell, he looks around and calls back to them. And at church yesterday, he spent the entire third hour following another little baby around, trying to touch her dress and pat her face. It's so fun to watch, but I honestly have no idea where this little extrovert came from. Colt and I have both always been more on the reserved side, since we were tiny things.  Jace is a bit of a hop-out-of kin, but I love it. 

Creepy-Crawly

Jace has been super close to crawling for a couple of weeks now, able to move his hands and knees forward once or twice before collapsing onto his tummy. But as of today, he's officially got it figured out. He won't really crawl to Colt or to me; if we hold out our arms and encourage him to "come to mama," he acts like he's forgotten how to crawl and just lays on his tummy and whines for us to pick him up. Ha! But if we slide our phones several feet in front of him...you better believe he'll scurry on over there quick as a cricket to pick it up and stick it in his mouth. He's also super motivated by the lap-top we use to stream Netflix onto our TV. That's where he's headed in this clip. Despite our best efforts, he's become a tech-baby. *sigh* But we've got ourselves a little creepy-crawly, just in time for Halloween!

The Plessmans Go Pumpkin Patchin'

'Tis the season! We met up with our friends Rusty, Jennica, and Henry at a fun little pumpkin farm today. We came at a great time: just after the early afternooners, and right before most people were home from work.  It wasn't overcrowded, and since we decided to go before October 25th this year, there were plenty of non-rotten pumpkins left in the patch! You know what they say: the early bird gets the gourd (or something to that effect). We caught the last hay-ride of the day, took a peek at the petting zoo, and scoured the fields in search of the perfect pumpkins. I love picking out pumpkins and Christmas trees; I'm very particular, and very weird. But eventually, we found a few worthy candidates to take home with us. Mission accomplished! It was kind of windy, so try to ignore my crazy hair and goobery bangs. 

I adore the fall. I always have, even before I owned a pair of Uggs. And I don't even drink pumpkin-spice lattes, so you know the love is real.

8 Months

Jace turns 8 months tomorrow. These last couple of weeks have brought out all the stops: tons of new tricks, a big boy haircut, increased fussiness and night wakings, and possibly some teething (I can never tell). This little fellow is growing right on up! At 8 months, Jace...

-Is up on all fours, rocking back and forth, scooting backwards, but has yet to crawl forward. He does a little inchworm to grab something out of reach, but I can't call it a crawl. He's so close! I think this is part of why he's been a bit of a fussy pants these days; he just wants to move but hasn't quite figured out the most efficient method yet.

-Had his first haircut! He was looking a little shaggy, and a few people asked me how old "she" was, so we decided it was time. He cried through the entire process, but after it was over he smiled at his reflection like he was quite pleased with the results. As he should be! He is the handsomest baby on the block, in my humble and entirely un-biased opinion.  

-Smiles when we say his name, looks at Colt when I say "Where's Dada?" and looks at me when Colts says "Where's Mama?" Smart cookie.

-Growls. He growls All. The. Time. He thinks it's hilarious (it is).

-Loves to be "in on it." When Colt or I laugh, Jace looks over and smiles and laughs with us. When we cheer (like when Tanner Mangum threw his first Hail Mary), he looks us right in the eye and squeals and screams over and over again. He wants so badly to be right in the middle of things. Even when Colt gives me a kiss, he stares at us and gives us the biggest, gummiest grin. It's a little bit intrusive, but we love him anyways.

-Can pull himself to a stand. However, he is always choosing the most inopportune times to practice, like when he's in the tub. We've had a few slips and slides lately, and bath time has become quite the workout as we're busy trying save him from himself.
-Doesn't do so well being away from mom and dad. 

-Babbles "mamama" and "dadada." It's not intentional yet, but it's fun to hear him say those sounds.

-Gets a kick out of bath time. When we start running the bath water and carry him over to put him in, he squeals with joy and does the running man in mid-air. He's always throwing himself forward onto his tummy so he can "swim," and he maneuvers himself around in there pretty well when he's on his belly. He also enjoys drinking his bathwater. Yum.
-Pushes his arms through his shirt sleeves when we are getting him dressed. It's made putting his clothes on a much less traumatic experiences.

-Constantly pulls his socks off. We've lost so many socks in the grocery store because he yanks them off and drops them when I'm distracted. 
-Loves his books, especially his book of colors. He turns each page, I name the color or the animal or what-have-you, he jabbers away at the pictures, repeat.

-Loves "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." He stops crying immediately when I sing it to him, and always starts up again as soon as I start the line "and dried up all the rain" because he knows the song is ending soon. If I start to sing it from the beginning he stops crying again.
-Recognizes the entrance to our apartment building, and becomes super excited when he sees it after I take him out on walks and such. He knows he's home!

-Thoroughly enjoys the carrots and potatoes from our Sunday pork roast, applesauce, Cheerios, and the oatmeal I eat for breakfast. Actually, he's super interested in anything I eat. He could care less what's on Colt's plate-it's always my food he's eyeballing.

-Plays "tickies." We tickle him, and he sometimes tries to tickle us back. We pretend to laugh, and he gets a major kick out of it.

-Likes to play with everything he sees us use. His favorite toys are a spare toothbrush, keys, and my water bottle. He'd chew on my phone all day, but that's a no-go. Sorry little man. You still spit up too much to be trusted.

Evergreen State Fair

We made it to the last day of the Evergreen State Fair. We are on a budget, so we just walked around and explored the grounds. We showed Jace all the animals (he was much more interested in watching all of the people), smelled all the delicious fair food, and marveled at the bravery of those reckless souls standing in line to ride the carnival rides. I've never trusted portable roller coasters. If it wasn't standing there a few weeks ago, I won't ride it. But it made us excited to take JJ to Disneyland next year with all of his cousins. Everything is that much more exciting and novel when you get to experience it with a little one. Colt has never been, and he's a bit cynical about how much he will enjoy it. But I think he's in for a treat. 

7 Months

Oh my little Jace-Man,

You are seven months old today. Everyone says big changes are just around the corner, and I am already getting glimpses as you hold onto my fingers and pull yourself up to a stand all by yourself, or when you reach for something and lean so far over that you're almost on your hands and knees. Soon the era of "immobile baby" will be a thing of the past, and I'll have a curious little mover. I'm so excited for those changes, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'm ready. You're growing up so fast, and based on how hard and fast you kick those chubby little legs when we pick you up, I think you're going to be pretty swift of foot. 

You are doing so many new things. You can pull yourself to a stand, and are so close to realizing that you can support yourself on all fours, although you immediately push your knees out straight when Dad or I let go of you. You know your name and love to play "Where's Jace?" and "Peek-a-Boo." It's been so neat to see you learn who you are and start to purposefully play games with us. You connect your roll-overs and can cover a respectable amount of surface area in a short period of time, but only when you're in the mood. Most of the time you're perfectly content to stay where you are. You've become a side/tummy sleeper, and we had to take your lovey away, because you liked to bury your face into it during the night. You play pass with your tiny basketball, and hate having your face and hands wiped. It's quite the crisis. You've also started to reach a little for me when I come to pick you up, and monkey and pig noises never fail to make you laugh.

You have funny little quirks, like crossing your ankles when you eat, and making "The Grudge" noise when you are super relaxed and trying to soothe yourself to sleep. You also love to practice putting your own bink in your mouth while you're trying to take a nap, but your aim is a bit off so you usually fall asleep while chewing on the outside of the paci. You stick your tongue out all the time, and you've started to give lovely (and slobbery) open-mouth kisses. That might be my favorite trick of yours to date. 

You are a blast to hang out with. Sure, sometimes you're a bit of a fussy-pants, but there's usually a reason, even though it can take a minute before Dad and I identify that reason (sorry about that). But you are my little buddy, and we go everywhere together. You love to dance with me, and you love acoustic guitar. You smile at strangers and make new friends wherever we go. When you laugh hard, you start to snort, which basically means we were meant for each other. You are obsessed with watching me drink soda, and seize every opportunity to grab the bottle and try and take a swig or two yourself. One day, son. But not today. 

As much as I look forward to bedtime and a couple hours to myself, I look forward just as much to when you wake up at 6:00 am and I get to come get you and bring you back to bed to snuggle for an hour or two before we're fully awake for the day. You love an adventure, and are completely content in your pack when we go hiking. We took you inside Cabela's last weekend, and you had the biggest smile on your face from the moment we walked inside to our eventual exit. You grinned at every person who walked by, even if they didn't pay you the slightest bit of attention. You loved it in there, and we loved taking you. It's so fun to show you new things, and figure out what makes you happy.

You've made Dad and I more adventurous, more willing to take certain risks and less inclined to take others (no more 100 mph rides on that motorcycle, right Colt?). You bring laughter and smiles, silly voices and piggy faces, sloppy kisses and early mornings, and endless amounts of joy to our hearts and to our home. It's never easy, but it's worth it.

 You won't be my baby forever, but I hope you are always curious, always adventurous, that you remain sweet and friendly and strong and observant and determined and wonderful. We love you, little man.

Love, Mama