Jace Update

Our little Jace Man is 6 months old tomorrow!  He is such a sweet, sweet baby.  He puts up with a lot of crazy antics from his sister and waits patiently when all attention is on her!  He loves playing on the floor and he loves when people play with him and talk to him.  He smiles and giggles like crazy which is so different from how Ruby was at his age.  Ruby was a great baby too but much more serious and we had to work quite a bit harder for her smiles.

Jace slept in a little bouncy seat in the living room of our old house for the first two months of his life.  (Ruby took back the "nursery" b/c she just wasn't ready for a big girl bed in a room in the basement.  After 5 weeks of horrible nights, I gave up on her and stuck her back in the crib, and we got our good sleeper back!)  Jace then slept in a pack-n-play in the living room until we moved.  He started sleeping through the night around 3 months.  He goes down between 8 and 9 and sleeps until at least 6, but sometimes as late as 8 or 9.  He now has his own room in the new house and after just a few short weeks of living here, Ruby decided she was ready for the big girl bed and decided to give her crib to Jace!  Jace has made each transition very easy on us and doesn't seem to matter where he sleeps!  He isn't much of a snuggler (completely opposite of his sissy), but he loves sleeping with his diaper rag near his face or sometimes completely covering his face.  He usually takes 4 naps a day and naps frequently on the floor, ottoman, or carseat when we are traveling to all of Ruby's activities and play dates.

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

At two months, Jace weighed 12 pounds, 6 ounces (69%) and was 23 inches long (66%).  At four months, he weighed 16 pounds, 7 ounces (82%) and was 26 inches long (86%).  Growing boy!  At times I think he looks a lot like his big sissy, but there is one significant difference!  Ruby definitely has Paul's long, thinner face and Jace has my rounder face, which has been proven by his head circumference measurements.  At 4 months, his head circumference was in the 73rd percentile.  Ruby's head size was always somewhere in the 20th percentile.

Jace first rolled over around 3 months.  It then took him several weeks to do it again.  Ruby was very excited for him to get this trick down and would often be caught "helping" him.  Around 5 months, Jace definitely had the rolling down and now can't seem to stay on his back when playing on the floor.  He can roll both ways and knows how to spin himself in circles.  He likes to play under his play mat, although he frequently pulls the whole thing over.  But don't fear... he doesn't seem to mind!  In fact, pictured below is a time when he fell asleep under it while I was making supper.  :)

He occasionally gets his butt up in the air like he's trying to push himself up but I think it will be awhile before the crawling stage.  He can tripod sit for just a little bit, but it doesn't take long for his little face to be on the ground.  He has also recently been introduced to the bumbo seat, exercauser, and jumperoo.  I think he enjoys them all!

We started rice cereal around 5 and 1/2 months.  We didn't think he was ready until we started seeing him grab at everything we were eating.  The first couple days he seemed to love it.  But after those initial days, he doesn't seem to care for it at all.  We have also tried green beans and squash but he didn't seem to care for them either.  So we are taking a little time off as he seems to be satisfied with his milk only diet for now.

 Jace also got two teeth right around 5 months.  One came in and then two weeks later the second one popped through.  We could definitely tell they were on the way due to the amount of drool we saw every day!  And before the second one popped, he sure wasn't too happy about it!  Every time I left the room, he cried.  I literally had to sneak out of the room a couple times!  Luckily, the tooth popped pretty quickly and he went back to being his content, happy self.

 Whew...I feel better now!  Poor Jace has to endure the affects on being the second child.  Apparently I'm still trying to figure out life with two and some things, like keeping monthly updates, and doing a monthly photo shoot with a cute little sign have gone by the way side.  Hopefully I update on my cute little Jacer before another 6 months pass us by!  To end on a more positive note, I absolutely LOVE having a little boy.  He just lights up the room and I can't get enough of his cute little smiles.

MOH Duties

My little sister gets married in 2 weeks!  I am honored to be her Matron of Honor and have had fun performing my MOH duties.  A few weeks ago, I packed up the kids and headed back to Sibley for a jam-packed weekend!  We had two showers for her, along with a bachelorette party.  Now to think of a good MOH speech for the reception...   ;)

Transition Weeks

We had to be out of our house in Sioux Falls on May 30th, but we didn't gain possession of our new house in Coralville until June 4th.  We also had to stick around Sioux Falls for the movers in case they needed us and to sign paperwork when they were through loading our things.  We also wanted to be in Sioux Falls that Saturday, because my parents were coming to town to help my sister with some wedding plans, and they were gracious enough to help us clean our house as well.  So we spent two nights in Sioux Falls at a hotel.  The kids and I found plenty of things to keep us busy including swimming at the hotel, visiting friends one more time, and of course, another zoo trip, while Paul worked those two days.  When the moving company no longer needed us to stick around and the house was clean, the kids and I headed to my parents while Paul stayed with his brother Joel in Sioux Falls for a couple days as he had shifts to work.

On Monday the 3rd, I took the kids to a park and somehow I managed to lose my phone.  I'm thinking it had to have popped out of the stroller as I was folding it up to put back in the van before heading home.  Of course, I didn't realize it was missing until after Ruby was in the middle of her nap.  So I ended up waking her, loaded the kids back in the van, and went to look for it.  I couldn't find it anywhere and assuming the worse, I think someone probably took it.  :(  That evening, Paul drove to my parents and picked us up and we drove the rest of the way to Iowa City (with no phone for me).  We drove by the new house around midnight and saw the carpet cleaners still hard at work before we took possession the next morning.  Better late than never!!  We stayed with Jon and Stef that night and closed on our house the following morning.  The movers were able to deliver our stuff that same day so we got to work unpacking quite quickly.  We spent one night in our new house and then headed back to my parents for a week because Paul had to go back to Sioux Falls for another round of shifts.

We had a great week in Sibley and my parents thoroughly enjoyed having us around...I think!  Ha!  They kept Ruby quite busy with lots of fun outdoor activities, like feeding the birds and pulling weeds in the garden!

We also visited my grandparents, known as Grandpa and Grandma Great, while we were in Sibley.

We also made a couple trips to Sioux Falls, one for Jace's 4 month appointment and a new phone for me...and one to visit Brandon after his knee surgery.  We also got to meet up with Daddy for both of those trips!

Then we headed back to Coralville to the new house!  I'm sure Ruby and Jace were wondering if we were going to live out of suitcases forever!  ;)  We got a ton of work done on the new house in just the first few days.  Gary, Ruth, Jon, and Stef were huge helpers in watching our kiddos while we unpacked and got settled.  

We also got to see our good friends Jen and Evan and their cute kids before they moved to Denver.  Had they stayed, we would have lived on the same street.  We overlapped on Dempster Drive for only a week, but at least we got to see them before they left.

After four days, Paul had to make one more final trip to Sioux Falls to do his last week of shifts at Avera.  I stayed in Coralville this time with the kids but since we were mostly unpacked and settled I didn't have to worry about that while Paul was gone!  My parents also visited the weekend that Paul was gone so it was nice to have some company.  

It was wonderful having Paul back for good after a week away.  We sure did miss him.  Paul started at the University on July 1st and that has also been going very well.  Although we miss seeing my family on a somewhat regular basis, we are enjoying our new home and seeing the majority of Paul's family quite frequently.  And I think it's safe to say that we can call this place... HOME.  ;)

Grandma LaDonn

After 33 years as the business manager at Sibley-Ocheyedan Schools, my mom (Grandma LaDonn) decided to take the same position at a neighboring school in the district.  Although this means driving about 20 miles there and back each day...19 and a half more miles than what she's been used to!.... she was very much looking forward to the change.  Before her new job started, a group of her friends decided to get a party bus and celebrate her new adventure.  The girls had a night out on my cousin Mark's bus and we had a wonderful time making good memories!