Ace's Latest Antics

It's been a bit of time since I've blogged about what Ace is doing and saying.  It's been quite an adventure let me tell you!   The threes truly are his time to shine and challenge and while we are loving this new chapter in Ace's life - it certainly has presented the biggest challenges as well.   

Things that Ace currently loves:  PUZZLES!  And he's good at them too!!   We have a few floor puzzles and they are 48 piece puzzles that he will do entirely on his own. He prefers help and company, but he's capable and we're so proud.   I also have a few smaller table-top puzzles that are roughly 25-30 pieces and he loves to just do it over and over and over - so one day his father presented him with a different challenge - do it upside down and he did...and does.  :)

He loves to wave goodbye when his dad leaves for work, and is very disappointed when he is unable to. He wants to call his dad to say hi "all day long" and recently asked for a real cell phone for Christmas next year, so that he could call people and talk to them.  

I find Ace to be a lovingly typical boy who loves guns, sticks, fighting monsters, and shooting and sword fighting!   Lots of great things flow from his imagination.  Ace enjoys wearing his Halloween costume regularly and protecting his identity!!  He also loves to be silly!  He makes the greatest faces!

He still is sticking with the future job of 'nothing' - he just wants to be an adult when he grows up.  We try to impart on him the fact he'll need to make money to support his wife and kids - but he doesn't seem terribly interested in that right now.   Which is fine - although I'd love for him to want to explore his options!  So far his job list has included:  nothing,  paleontologist (for a brief aspiring few weeks this past summer) and we are currently back to 'nothing'.     Well ok then...
Ace has started to eat a lot more these days, but still during meal times often takes fooooreeeevver or requires a lot of reminding, prodding, timers... etc to get him to eat the food.  He's currently on this kick of wanting to graze all day long - and wanting 'snacks' rather than actual meals at meal times.   It's a work in progress, but gone are the days I worry too much about calorie intake with him.

Humor has really started to sink in around here with him.   He occasionally will tell jokes and his biggest kick right now is to say "Hi Bob" and you are required (and if you don't - corrected) to respond "Hi Larry"  -  Yes Veggie Tales are a big hit in our house currently.  :)   He'll also switch it up and say "Hi Larry"  prompting you to say "Hi Bob"  and he'll go back and forth and try to trip you up.   It's amusing 75% of the time.     In a similar twist all in his own making he's taken on an alternative "bag" and "baggage claim"  - I have no idea where he got it or why - but the game typically involves saying "Hi bag" and/or "Hi baggage claim"  most of the time he's baggage claim and he has the bag (even though I am the bag?? I don't know...)  but then he asks me to ask for something in his bag.   He's had (imaginary) tuna, pickles, diapers, towels, my kindle... all sorts of things have come out of these "bags" that he has.  Often we play this game while driving in the car.   It's silly and time consuming but it really makes him excited - so we play.
Ace has also really started to memorize a lot of things - I've been practicing with him Bible verses - but the other morning he came in and surprised us with his knowledge and memorization of a flip book about Moses.   Now when he 'read' it to us he had it 100% correct.  When I had him do it again for the camera there were a few flubs - but still CRAZY impressive!   The Moses book is not one that we typically read a lot, recently certainly, but it's not like Cuddle was every night for months on end.  We are still a ways off from officially reading, but he's doing great memorizing things!

He loves his sister - but she is starting to wear on his patience some.  There is a lot of gritted teeth "NO SISTER!!!"   He still tries his best, but she is a little sister and really wants to be anywhere and everywhere that her brother is and because of this she is a follower, a snatcher, and a loving pest.  :)  We're trying our best to help Ace find better ways to help redirect the negative and embrace the positive and their loving moments still far outweigh their fighting ones. 

I made them a car to sit in to watch a movie

Sleep? He's sleeping through the night - bed time is frustrating - it involves a lot of stalling, bathroom breaks, water requests, etc... on the litmus test of toddlers - he's right on track.  :-/   We're hopeful that bedtime can be less stalling and more sleeping in the near future.   However, we are really not complaining on his sleep once he IS asleep!   We began potty training the Monday after he turned three and for some time now - he has been fully day time potty trained.    We haven't had an accident in the day in about a month.   At night he also is getting up and going potty in the middle of the night if he needs to and as a result of that we will cease the use of pull ups at night when we are at home.   If we are traveling or staying the night else where for a few more months we'll still use the pull up.  He's a bit nervous about that, but I'm amping him up to be excited about it.  :)

Overall, Ace is doing great - he's a month away from his half birthday - 3.5 when on earth did that happen?   I just can't believe it.  He's loving school,  goes to Sunday School without fuss (although still met with an initial anxiety and protest in the car on the way there)  and he's just overall a great kid!   Can't wait to see what the near future holds for him!

Creative Lunching

Aside from when he was a baby with his insatiable appetite for milk - my son has always eaten like a bird.   There are days every so often that he does what we've coined "dump trucking" where he inexplicably eats more food than Loving Husband or myself could even manage in one sitting.   And the infamous phrase "where does he put it?"  gets pulled out.   Those times are rare though -and in fact in addition to eating like a bird he eats soooooo sloooooooow!  I mean seriously - LH and I both will have completed our dinners and 20 minutes beyond he's still needing to be reminded or timed with a cut off to finish his dinner.  

What about lunch?  Well I won't lie - there are days where I load the kids in the car and we drive thru - in a confined space where he can't be too distracted he often can pound through a 6 piece nugget meal on our 5-7 mile loop of a drive through the area.   He's not incapable of eating quickly if he wants to.     However, on most days when we're home and it becomes lunch time I want him to gain some independence with his food - and so he sits at his table and he is to eat his lunch.    It was proving to be a nightmare for success...  until after coming across a few blogs and the concept of 'bento boxes' did I decide to finally give that a try.

I have always been wary about using cookie cutters for sandwiches - because 1) my son DOES eat the crust, 2) there is a lot of nutrition in the crust,  and 3) it's wasteful.   However, the idea of the fun shapes and making the meal exciting in the end won out for a trial to see if this would speed up the lunch eating process.    After looking through a lot of fun websites on food - stuff found of Pinterest, This Lunch Rox and finding great ideas for bento boxes here.  The world of bento is overwhelmingly expansive and detailed and so while it's interesting I'm merely dabbling into a whole world of food art.

I did purchase some supplies for this venture:   I decided on some boxes that were inexpensive Ziplock divided boxes, I obtained some sandwich stampers, along with a dinosaur sandwich stamper that I got at Walmart for $2, and some silicone square muffin cups.   I found a place for all the 'lunch supplies' (which I will greatly miss upon our return to the NW! Although I look forward to the return to the many cookie cutter options I have waiting for me) and away we go with some fun creativity. 

I think my unique take on this "bento" thing is a way to deal with the extra bread.  Like I said I don't like to waste the crust and so I find ways to incorporate them into the meal.   Whether I make it into a palm tree or the 'train tracks' that the train sits on or chop it up into a medley with the cheese bits - it is all consumed.   It's not totally intricate or elaborate - but I am a mother of two under three, so time doesn't allow for such detail.

So how is Ace enjoying his new fun foods?  He loves them!  He also is honestly eating them faster and more concentrated.    Success! 

Plus I won't lie - it's kind of fun.  :)

Twenty Months Old

 Ace is twenty months old today. He is an extremely happy boy, who likes to jump on his bed, point out airpeens (airplanes), and who surprises us daily with new words that he's learned.

Ace's vocabulary continues to surprise us on an almost daily basis. Words that he used to say with his own 'spin' to them like 'Booma' are almost completely formed now into 'bana' (banana.) In fact I technically missed that transformation. Yes, for the first time since Ace was born - I left the state - without him. He stayed with his dad for the weekend, while I went to Cali to surprise a friend for her baby shower. He did great and while I was missed, it was not a tragedy that I was gone. Also this past month he got to have his first sleepover at Gran and PopPop's house! We were all a bit unsure how he'd handle it - but he did great! He's growing up!

He has definitely started to eat better this month, but actual packing on the pounds seems to still elude him. Not sure if it cause for concern just yet, but we're watching him. He still seems healthy, happy and overly full of energy so we're not worried. :) But he's eating full force now and averages about 1000 calories a day - which is SO much better than he was doing. Some days we even near 1300, but those days are more rare. He loves bananas! And he also loves oatmeal. He's gotten so excited about oatmeal, it is often his first word when he awakens. One morning he got out of our bed, scampered downstairs and the husband and I listened as he opened the pantry door, slid the chair over to the pantry, got down the box of oatmeal and brought a packet upstairs to us - all the while chanting 'oatmeal' - apparently he wanted to eat some. ;-) He also is a HUGE fan of yogurt - and we buy the fattest that we can find.

Ace also weened from breastfeeding shortly after he turned 19 months old. It was a struggle for about a week - but afterwards he caught on that there was no more mama milk and now it doesn't even cross his mind... and I still feel loved - so I feel that we are successfully weened.

Sleep continues to improve bit by bit. He now consistently is sleeping at least 5 hours a night before waking and coming into our room - and has one other time slept through the night (9.25 hours) so he's doing better and I think is getting more comfortable sleeping in his own bed.

His canine teeth are nearly ready to come in and so that has been bothering him the last few weeks. One of them has broken through the surface and the other three aren't far behind.

Terrible Twos and the pushing of independent boundaries are in full force around here. While he seems to have mostly moved on from bashing his forehead into the ground when he's tantruming - he's gone a new route in order to seek trouble and that is destruction. Yes, yesterday he was in rare (thank the Lord!) form when he made several messes, and destroyed a strand of pearls. Nothing that's irreparably damaged but still it made for one icky morning yesterday.

Ace is doing really well playing with others and still loves his friend 'Bria' (Sabria) - they play well together - and Ace also loves to hug his new friend 'Bebe' (Kyler, Sabria's brother.) It's really cute to watch them all interact together. Ace also really likes kitchen things. He loves to cook, and help us cook. I found a good Craigslist find of the Little Tikes BBQ - and he's been having a blast with that (no worries, pictures to come soon!)

He continues to enjoy swim lessons, those started back up this week. He's graduated into the next class level - and once again is the only boy. Although this session he's one of the youngest rather than being one of the older kids. He's still having a blast! He also enjoys his trips to the library, and now that he's a little older, we might even try Toddler Reading Time. Regardless though, he really loves the computer that is there for him to play with.

We are all looking forward to the sun being out more and allowing Ace some good outside run around time. He's going to be a very busy boy this summer.

A Mess

It began with silence. Mommy upstairs, Ace on the midlevel. I called for him. Nothing, not even feet scurrying... that's when you know something is really going on. No noise and no movement. Bad combo. So I ventured downstairs and I found this....

... for a split second I thought it was lots and lots of vomit and utter dread washed over me. I am sick of vomit! I would have demanded new carpet rather than cleaning it up. What it actually was became clear after that sheer moment of panic: a half of a box of granola. Good stuff too, I was kind of sad it was all over the floor. Upon my arrival (prior to grabbing the camera) in the midst of the sea of granola sat my son with his cheeks stuffed to the brim and we had the following conversation:

Me: Ace what are you doing?
A: (as bits fly out of his overly stuffed mouth) Eatum, Mom
Me: (chocking back laughter) Oh, I see. Do you realize you made quite of a mess?
A: (looking and pointing at his created sea) Mess! Messy! Piggy!
Me: (nearly dying from not laughing) It's not nice to throw food on the floor that is why we use a bowl.
A: (looks at me, looks at the mess, gets up scampers off to his toy pile, rummages, finds a bowl, goes back to the sea of granola) BOWL!

Ace then starts putting the granola into his bowl and I go to find my camera, I'm laughing hysterically because really it's just a little half of a bag of granola. The vacuum will get it. As you can see he had been pretty busy already with terrorizing the midlevel. There was stuff EVERYWHERE. So he got to help clean up so that the vacuum could even find the floor. Everything worked out fine, and then we got Ace something else to eat... because clearly he was hungry.

1 year 7 months and 3 days

We are officially weaned. The morning of Saturday, March 27th was the last of the mama milk for Ace. It has now been ten days since then and Ace is doing pretty well. The first couple of nights were the roughest. Which seemed odd to me at first since the morning feeding was the last one to be cut - but I guess he just knew that he wasn't going to get it then so he was generally upset the entire time. He has had some separation anxiety and isn't sleeping as well as he had been (which I think is a combination of his illness and weaning.)

Ace and I have been weaning now actively for about a month now. Naturally, he's been having less and less for several months now - but he certainly was an often comfort nurser - so it was only since March that we really made a 'strict' schedule for when he was allowed to nurse. And aside for a time or two during his flu - we stuck to it pretty well.

When the schedule was introduced it was: 7am, nap time, and part of the nighttime routine. Surprising to me, the nighttime feeding was the first to go - he was content enough to rock with me and read a story and then he asked for his cup of milk or water. (We also ceased the use of the bottle at about the same time and are exclusively a sippy cup household now.) I was a little sad to lose the nighttime feeding first, but it truly made the nighttime routine more simplified and more uniform between parents.

The next mama milk to be removed was the nap time feeding. Ultimately, in hindsight this was a poor choice. The nap time feeding should have been the last one to go. I'll know better for future weaning purposes. The reason I believe it to be a mistake is that by keeping the morning feeding (which was done in our bed after 7am) was that there is no 'distracting' at 7am (or earlier) it's just a matter of holding him off until 7am and then he got the milk. So when I removed the nap time feeding second (which for three days was NOT met with acceptance by any means and resulted in a nap only ON me after sheer exhaustion) that left only the 7am feeding for last.

Ace had one week of the 7am feedings exclusively. The 7am feeding was introduced a few months back when we noticed the correlation with excessive night wakings and nursing. Once we cut out nursing in the 'middle of the night' I set the time for when he would be able to nurse in the morning. 7am worked because at that time it was when the first light was showing up. He still spent from 5am-7am waking seeking the AM feeding hoping it would be 7am, so it still wasn't ideal - but it was better. The cut off date was the 27th. Ace caught the flu on the night of the 22nd, and so he did get an extra feeding twice during that week aside from his AM feeding. But, by the end of the week he was nearly back to normal and so we stuck with the preplanned weaning process.

The morning of the 27th was the last feeding for Ace and I. It was a sweet time for us. The remainder of the day he did ok not being given any mama milk. I let him know that the mama milk was empty and that it was all gone. However, I could give him a cup of milk and a hug and that mommy never runs out of hugs. He accepted this for the most part all day on Saturday. The next three nights however were pretty much not much sleep for anyone. Ace was having full on tantrums seeking to nurse and when being denied was throwing a full on semi-conscious fit. It wasn't pretty. Ten days later, he still occasionally asks for it, still fusses mildly in the morning, when he says 'milk' and I respond 'I have water' (usually denying it.) But he's doing better.

Lessons learned? Knowing what I know now I will leave the nap time milk in play the longest. It is far easier to distract from 'no milk' during the day than in bed while everyone would prefer to still be sleeping. I don't think it would have been nearly as traumatic in the night those first few nights if the routine of him not getting it in the morning but still getting it eventually during the day had been an option. We'll see how things go in future weaning endeavors.

Regardless of the weaning those 580 days were a wonderful bonding time for me and my son. I was blessed not to have too many issues with nursing. I had an abundance of a milk supply, which resulted in three bouts of mastitis, lots of leaking, and a full year of a B/D chest - but all of that was worth that eye contact, his little hands resting on my breast, and hugging my son close while he nursed. It is a time that I will miss and not forget.

Flashback Friday

One year ago today Ace enjoyed his first solid food. You would think that after a year of consuming food - he'd be a pro at it - not so much. Now don't get me wrong he's ventured out of eating rice cereal and breast milk, but getting to eat in general is still equally as laborious. He is asking to 'eat' more and to be fair he is eating a lot more than in the past months he had been - but eating does not come plentiful for this boy. He tries his best and I am sure he eats what makes him satisfied - he obviously isn't starving. But I didn't think eating would be a chore and it on many days is. That's ok - he's still as adorable as the first day we gave him "solid" food.

Sick Mommy

This is a phrase that should never be uttered and clearly babies believe never should be true. Starting on Tuesday I started to feel bad. On Tuesday night I was running a fever, that broke sometime early Wednesday morning.. I was in a pool of sweat. Wednesday although feverless was certainly not much better and including still feeling achy and rundown, Ace was having none of it - he was fussy and irritable as if he knew something was wrong and was reacting oh and he was teething. Delightful. Today has been better but I'm still feeling bleh but today was a much better day with the boy. He was super happy and smiley, it was wonderful.

In other news Ace has enjoyed his first rash and his first taste of green beans. Interesting combo, but not related. Ace got a rash on his tummy from a shirt - I *oops* didn't wash it before putting it on him and it was a bit more abrasive of a fabric than he typically wears - but it seems to be better today so nothing too extreme After the rash (as to imply not the cause of it) Ace enjoyed a tiny bit of "Green Beans & Rice" mixed into his rice cereal. He really enjoyed those bites, but mostly ate the rice cereal. Tonight however I broke out the same jar of green beans (and rice) and he ate it all! He might have kept eating if there was more to have, but the jar was done and I was worried about a fountain of green revisiting us in the most unpleasant manner so that was all he consumed. Success! No returns on his part and no poor side effects either - green beans seem to have gotten the Ace Stamp of Approval. Excellent!

Excellent! It's so great that solid food has been going so well. So far we're only eating "dinner" as our solid food time of the day - we'll implement a second feeding soon but I'm waiting until after he hits that six month mark. Not too much longer from now which is so hard to believe!

Ok the boys asleep... in his OWN bed (next to me) ... so I should head to sleep myself.

First Solid Foods!

Wow what a beginning to Ace's sixth month of life! At the beginning of this week he had himself a haircut and now he has entered the world of solid food! Yep my boy is growing up! SLOW DOWN! After a wonderful visit to California we are back and home in the NW.

After several weeks of Ace reaching for our food and trying his darnest to drink out a big boy cup (a post for another day!) we finally decided to try him on solid foods after returning from vacation. So today Ace and I ventured to the store to get ourselves from organic rice cereal, yum! Mixing it with breastmilk and sitting him in his high chair and this boy was ready to go! Ace took to it instantly and seemed to enjoy it. He had a little twitch after each bite which was accompanied by a smile. I apologize for my arm being in the way for much of the video, I'm a lefty what can I say. Next time I video I'll put Ace on the other side of the table.