Jumping!

Ace is rapidly approaching two years old - but he's still a growing and developing boy - so we still are getting new and firsts for him. This past weekend Ace learned to jump! He's been doing a 'hop' sort of thing for a while now, but this is the first time he's been able to get air with both feet from a standing position. He's so excited he can jump now. He's been jumping all over the place.

Flashback Friday

One year ago tomorrow this video was captured. Ace had been crawling for a few weeks at this point and was exploring his surroundings. The end of the video is cute with his squealing. I love to watch him smile over at me. And yes aren't the gates lovely? We had a full on extra-large baby prison going on in what is now the play room. It's weird to think that those gates were bought just a little over a year ago and now only half are in use - and I'm contemplating the need of another 4-part panel at all (in front of bookcases) so we'd be down to only a set of gates in front of the tv downstairs and that's mostly for my sanity sake so he doesn't touch the buttons :) and the one that keeps in pinned in the playroom, we'll see! And yes he is quite stubborn on trying to go THROUGH the swing and not around it - but he seemed content just doing it his own way and that still holds true today.

Another great height....

The other day I found him on top of his changing table. I wasn't sure HOW he got there. So I asked him to do it. He hesitated suspicious of my motivations. Knowing that his route would be compromised if he gave it away. He eventually obliged because I told him we could go play outside if he got on his changing table. :) Smart boy! I haven't even rearranged yet.... but I will be very shortly.

Going vertical

Yes that's right - remember back oh 5 months ago when I said Ace was 'climbing' haha Oh naive mommy! I knew then that he would climb greater heights but sheesh we now officially have a 'climber' no doubt about it now. See for yourself. There have been other heights scaled that were a tad more precarious and required removal rather than photographic documentation. ;-)

Ace Antics

I've been after Ace in recent days to not climb on chairs and thus most of our furniture is tucked in under the tables. So it was a bit of a surprise when I heard Ace mildly fussing from the kitchen as if he was stuck. I thought he had tried to climb under the chairs in an army-crawl method, yet again - he usually bonks his head - but nope he had tried something else. When I started to film this I didn't think I'd get much more than just the visual of him encased in the chairs... but my son did not disappoint. He proceeded to have an entire conversation with his momma on how 'yes' he was stuck and 'yes' he was allowed to be up there. I love that he kept saying 'stuck' after he got down. Oh how I love my little climber and my heart melts for his kisses.

Shoes!

Yes, Ace has been introduced to shoes. Now that he's mobile and wanting to walk everywhere, I thought it was important to get him walking in shoes as well. Especially on public floors and even more importantly on hot sidewalks (ouchie!) we obtained a pair of the soft sole Stride Rites, specifically these pictured to the left. Both my husband and I were advocates of no shoes until necessary and even now Ace only wears his shoes when outside or in public places. Research shows that arch development and foot health in general is better when kids do not have their ever growing toes crammed into a pointless shoe all the time. Although don't get me wrong I am a huge fan of the cute factor.

So I was super excited to get Ace in his first pair of shoes when he started walking. However, when he first started to really gain speed when we put a pair on him (ones given to him at his baby shower) he would just crawl feeling his little toe gripping feet had been handicapped and thus preventing him from being mobile in the upright fashion. A few more weeks of confidence building and we tried again ... although by then he had outgrown the gifted pair. :) So to the store we did go and purchased ourselves these slightly spendy pair of 4.5 Stride Rite shoes (bought a half size "too big" so he can grow into them and not waste $$$ by outgrowing them in less than a month.) They are the soft soles and he walked pretty darn well around the store in them, so they came home with us. His first shoes!

We had also been gifted a pair of hard sole shoes from one of his cousin's. Stephanie's son Hudson is a few months older and had outgrown this pair of adorable blue shoes and so it was great to have two pairs around the house/diaper bag. Ace is so adorable with the shoes. He brings them to us now to have us put them on him. He sits STILL in our lap while we put on his shoes and then he takes off running around in them. He gets excited to have his shoes on, I just think that joy can only be found in little ones. Excited and happy about the smallest things. It's adorable! So our little guy is a shoe man. Although I don't expect him to care too much about style and quantity as his mommy does. We still try to keep them off of him most of the time we're at home, but he loves them and loves to go outside in them.

Look how happy he is!

Climbing

Yes, we've reached the next phase in mobility and independence (and gray hairs for mommy) with the new skill of climbing. Yes, Ace is learning every day that the art of pushing with his knees and feet will get him to higher places. He still hasn't yet attempted to get onto the couches, but we're only days away, as he's more than capable of doing so. At the moment he hasn't used his new found skill to get into any additional mischief. The barriers and gates are holding strong against our mini-terror, but time is fleeting in this household and we'll be requiring red alert levels of baby proofing in a few weeks days time.

We're so proud. And so is he, below is a video and picture of him at a cafe I didn't get the climbing up onto the bus, but I did get the excited face in the picture and the great enjoyment of his height conquer. Oh and check out his cute little shoes :) he's doing so well walking in his shoes now!

Walking - Phase Three

I should have posted a phase three of walking a long time ago. Ace has been cruising around the house and parks on his own for weeks now. But I just took a fresh video today to show his speed he's picking up and the slight jog he's even attempting. We had a good weekend, lots of outdoor time for Ace, who is now sporting a farmers tan!

Walking - Phase Two

My son is walking. Two and a half weeks ago I was reporting that he was up to 4 independent steps and post this video. Since then he has surpassed the need for counting. Last count was 25 steps; now we don't even bother counting them. He's walking. All over the place. I'm so proud of my little man. He started to take steps in this 9th month of life and before he turns 10 months he's going to perfect the art of bipedalism!

At the moment he's about 50/50 - it is still a full body experience as he walks - he keeps his shoulders up high around his neck and toddles along, eventually establishing that crawling is by far quicker - but he can walk if he wants. Where is the video? Yah I'm working on that - I have several videos with a few steps, but he's doing so well and walking across ROOMS that I wanted to get more than just a few steps on film. He's been less than compliant. It's as if he knows what I'm after and refuses to give it to me. In fact I'm convinced this same mental game is true with the word "mama" I'll save that gem for another blog.

Ace is walking and he's not even 10 months old.

Walking - Phase One

Ace is on the go. He took two steps last Thursday, last night he took four more independent steps. But with the aid of a push toy Ace is taking charge of bipedalism!

Crawling & Snoozing

Yep that's right everyone, Ace is mobile! He has been ooching along in his own means of crawling for a few weeks now, but this week he finally figured out to get his knees up and under him. This video was taken on the first day he figured it all out, since then he gotten much faster and the gates have gone up! Our basement level of the house looks like a giant zoo - with many gates creating a giant pin for him to roam around in. The mid-level of the house looks mostly the same with the exception of the coffee table being moved to the corner and the fireplace has been padded to soften any blows.
In other exciting news! Ace slept through the night last night!!! Woohoo! He also slept in his own bed - which might have contributed to his slumbering for so long, but he's slept in his own bed before. Granted it took him TWO hours from bath time to sleep.... but that was all worth it for a night of uninterrupted sleep. Tonight we started around 8:30 with bath time and Ace slept at 9:45... so yes, we have a little boy that likes to fight the process of sleep... but I'm hoping he stays asleep for the second night in what would be the start of a beautiful trend.
Next up, talking and walking!

Rolling over and over....

So we've had the blog about rolling from tummy to back (left and right), from back to tummy, so how could I leave out a blog of him rolling all around?! Ace has learned to roll to get to things that he deems worthy of his grasp. Yep that's correct my boy is mobile! So far he's still pretty contained, but my days are numbered I know. You will notice near the end of this video he gets his knees up under himself... any time now he'll be on the go.

Enjoy the video!

From back to front

Another milestone for Mr. Ace! Yep that's right - Ace has now conquered rolling from his back to his tummy. He accomplished such a feat yesterday - only a week shy of his 5 month birthday. :)

He's rolled over again!

Last time he rolled over he was 6 weeks old. Today is 12.5 weeks old and rolled the other direction. The video is from my cell phone so not that fabulous - but still gives you the idea. It was far less jarring for him so he continued to do it over and over again - until he finally just wanted to rest on his back and play with the toys dangling down. Lately everything he can get a hold of and hang onto has gone into his mouth - the most frequented to his mouth has been blankets :)
This week we have been watching him closlely to see if he has an ear infection - a few times now he's pulled on his ear when he was extremely fussy - but for the most part he's been super happy and agreeable. Also this week we have procured a few more swings for our household. Currently we have 4! We don't need 4 so I'll be selling one on Craigslist (we probably don't need 3 but oh well.) I certainly have become the expert in cradle swings! I purchased the Ocean Wonders Cradle swing a few weeks back, in the hopes of having a more reclind swing for the boy... it was more than our original swing, but still not terribly reclined. So I went on the hunt for a further reclined swing. I came across two: the Fisher Price Rainforest Cradle Swing and the Boppy travel cradle swing. I found both for SUPER cheap on Craigslist. And so since one is a travel swing and very portable, we got that one - but it runs on batteries and the Rainforest one has the ability to be plugged in but it isn't portable.... so I was able to get both of them for under $80 which is less than the price of the Rainforest one by a lot - so I went ahead and got them both ! Now that we have the portable one - I'm able to shower when the boy is awake! Yay! So we now have a swing for every level of the house and even for on the go! It's the ever famous "whatever works" for keeping the babies happy and content - because this boy at least once a day gets sick of being held and so it's a happy place to be for him. He's super cute in all of them. :)
We continue to enjoy his new developments and his adorable smile. We hope you do too!

Rolling Over!

The average age a baby rolls over is three months. Today, Ace is 41 days old, a solid 6 weeks old and he rolled over from front to back. :) Yep, he’s already ahead of the curve in many ways, and now we’ve got it on film! Loving Husband was adjusting the snaps on his outfit while he laid on this tummy and Ace just flipped right over. I missed it and so LH propped him back on his tummy and Ace did it again… and the third time is the video you can see. Ace also is eager to walk. If you hold him under his arms he will put one foot in front of the other and walk toward you. We only have video of one step though at the moment because he became fussy – when we have more steps, that video will be posted as well.

Other events in the last two weeks include discovering Ace’s affinity toward the color orange. He is infatuated with it – and when you take it out of his eyesight he becomes instantly fussy. This began a week or so ago with a pumpkin. I was at QFC with the stroller and picked up a small round pumpkin and stuck it on the tray. Ace was zoned in on it the entire time it was on the cart… followed it through checkout and as soon as it disappeared into the bag, began to cry. I put it back on the stroller and he was a happy guy again. I thought it was a fluke or simply a bright color… not particularly orange. He’s less than 2 months old why would he already have a favorite color? But it was solidified for me when out to lunch with Vanessa at the mall we were in the Disney store and Ace was looking all around and when we got to Nemo he followed it as I pushed the stroller on by and was craning his neck to see him. I put him in his stroller and he stared at him intently. Needless to say that little $5 Nemo came home with us. So it’s the perfect time of year for my boy who loves the color orange.

Loving Husband’s now fully back into the swing of things with work and is quite happy when he is home and gets to hug his family. Yesterday, Ace had his 6 week pictures and they turned out great! They will be ready on the 18th and I can’t wait for them to be here. Stay tuned for more updates as Ace continues to bust through all those averages and smoke all the other babies in his age group. :)