11 Months already?!?

     I seriously can't believe that little Jace boy is 11 months old already. Its so fun to see his little personality taking shape. For 11 months I will try so hard to come up with 11 fun things to share about Jace.

    Eating

Jace is usually pretty good about eating, but he did go through a rather picky eater phase. He is slowly starting to come out of it. But we have learned that if it is something sticky, squishy, or weirdly textured, you have to put it in a bowl on Jace's tray or else it goes on the floor before he ever puts it in his mouth. 

    Milk

Jace just kind of doesn't really like milk very much. He is still breastfeeding, but that is the only milk I can get him to drink. I have tried mixing whole milk with breast milk and he will sip-sip it here and there. But he doesn't particularly care for it. I have tried giving him just whole milk. He gives me weird looks. I have tried giving him mixtures of breast milk and formula, formula and whole milk, and even trying to just seriously dilute milk or formula so its super watery, (because Jace LOVES water). but nothing works. He is too smart. I hope that I can figure out how to get him how to drink milk. I don't want to breast feed him forever!

Bottles

Jace hates bottles! I can't get him to take a bottle to save his life! He used to drink out of them all the time, no problem. Now he absolutely refuses to take a bottle. He throws them on the floor, or if he is sitting on the floor with a bottle he pushes it as far away from him as he can and gives me dirty looks. Even putting juice in them hasn't worked to get him to try and drink from one. He is really good at using a sippy cup, but I was hoping to keep milk in a bottle and water in a sippy. Good thing I am flexible.

Binkies

Jace loves his bink. He can fall asleep with out it, but he is not very happy about it at all. I don't like him to have his binky in all day so I take it away from him once he wakes up. But he has taken a liking to his old binkies that he hated before and uses them during the day when he doesn't get his nap time binky. Its funny to see him switch between 3 different kinds of binkies throughout the day while he plays with his toys.

Cars

Jace has taken a liking to cars this past month. He could play with them before, but now he is even making car noises. He pushes them around the floor and grunts, (that how is makes car sounds). I have showed him how to make nrrrr noises, but they still come out like grunts. Its so cute!

Singing

Jace has started singing. When there is a song on, or when we sing a hymn in church, Jace starts to babble out loud, but he also changes the pitch of his voice to sound like he is singing. Paul is musically talented so I can't say I am surprised, but I hope that as much as Jace likes singing, he will like sports too.

Dancing

Jace used to dance to music before, but he has gotten much better at it over the past month. Before he would just wave his hands in the air to the beat of the music. Now he moves his body and sways to the music as well as waving his hands.

Walking

Jace is still not walking. He is so fast at crawling that I think he doesn't feel the need try and walk. He is so fast at walking along the edge of furniture, or pushing the laundry basket across the floor, but when it comes to him standing on his own, he sits right down on his bum and gets mad. His younger cousin has already started walking, and I am hoping that she will be a good influence on him, and at least get him to try and stand on his own.

Sign Language/Talking

Jace is still using sign language. We don't have a massively huge vocabulary, but he is pretty good at the ones we have practices. Just a few days ago he started nodding his head yes. I think it means yes, but I am not quite positive. No actual words I don't think. He does say something that sounds so much like the word "more" and he usually says it while he signs more, but I can't decide if it really means more or not. Jace LOVES to give kisses. He can't blow kisses yet, but if you say kisses, he walks up to you and puts his whole mouth over your lips! Its actually kind of cute. He hasn't figured out how to pucker his lips yet, so every kiss is a slobbery one. Sometimes he will actually initiate the kiss himself. I just love it when he walks up to me and plants a wet one all over my face. It makes my day for sure.

Books

Jace still just loves his books. He has a basket of books that I let him play with every day, and we have a bookshelf that we pick a book from every day and read it. He is starting to learn what all of the books say, I think. Of course, I have all of his board books memorized basically word for word since I read them so much, so I will start to say the words to one of his books and he actually goes and pulls that specific book out of his basket and looks at the pictures! He is almost to the point where he will sit through almost an entire book and listen to it.

Dirt!
Jace loves dirt. I can't say I am surprised, but he has already eaten way to much of it in his short life. I don't get why he thinks dirt tastes better than green beans, but thats his call I suppose. With the weather having been so warm, we go outside and play in the grass occasionally. At first he wasn't quite sure what to think about grass, but now he crawls through it like its nothing. He has been trying so hard to climb up the boulders we have in the rock garden, but hasn't quite figured it out yet. I guess its a good thing he isn't walking because if he was I am sure he would be in the flower beds and everything!

     It really is so crazy to think that Jace is almost a year old. When he was born he had blue eyes. I have been keeping and eye on them for the past 11 months secretly hoping he would get green eyes like me. I can't tell for sure, but I think he might actually end up with green eyes. I haven't gotten a super good look at them, because usually I remember to look when he is in a grumpy mood, but I hope that it won't disappoint next time I get a really good look.

Jace was practicing wearing his baseball hat. He used to love hats. But now he is always pulling off what ever is on his head. I have found that if I can get him to leave the hat alone, and distract him for about 2 minutes, he forgets its on his head and leaves it there. So every once in a while we practice. 

Our awesome friends from Cedar City made these blocks for Jace. They have been in the closet until now. I feel like he is finally old enough to enjoy them. He had a lot of fun eating them and throwing them all over the floor. 

Can't get this kid to eat green beans, but he will eat dirt no problem. I turned my back for just 10 seconds, and he had a huge mouthful from outside. I just love this picture. He totally is giving the camera the stink eye!! 

We don't have one of those walker toys, that is something I should probably invest in, but since I don't have one yet,  Jace is finding all sorts of objects to help him get around. Today it was the 5 gallon bucket. 

The bucket started to be more than a walker as Jace started to collect things in it. If only I could get him to pick up the trash of the floor... Actually he was putting his toys in there. So thats not bad I guess. He picks them up off the floor and puts them in a bucket, then I just have to dump the bucket in his toy bin. Not a bad set up I suppose. 

I stole his football to try and get a picture of his face. It didn't work out quite as well has I had hoped. 

Nana Susan has this blue plastic purse that she found in her car. Jace absolutely loves to play with it. I will look over and he will have the little handle of this purse sticking out of his mouth. He has never tried to eat it thankfully. It just sits there in his mouth with the handle sticking out. Silly kid!

Bath time = fun time. Jace loves baths. And I just love how cute his little eye lashes look when they are all wet. 

He is attached to that crab. Any time he is in the tub, that crab is either in his hand, in his mouth, or sitting on the side of the tub right where he can reach it.