Crazy Kid

My daughter is a nut case. I can't get her to eat anything right now. Her teeth are bothering her (I think?), and she won't have much to do with food. However, today I managed to get 3/4 of a yogurt down her. The last bite she didn't take too well and it got all over face. I decided I would finish eating my lunch before I cleaned her up. Apparently it was time for the clown to come out because she started to play a weird version of peek-a-boo while she rubbed food in her hair. Crazy kid. In the pictures, you can sort of see her tooth. Notice it is tooth, not teeth. She only has one. She is working on two more right now. As cranky as she has been, you would think she is working on all of them, including the second set you get when you turn 6 or so. The video has a close up shot of "the tooth".

Easter

Jacie enjoyed her second easter much more than her first. last easter, Aunt Janet was here with us, and we loved it, but she could have cared less about her easter basket. This year, she enjoyed the basket...and the eggs.
I have no idea why she felt she needed to stretch out to get to her easter treats, but she did. The night before, I was doing some retail therapy, and I found this easter basket for $5. It was the last one. I showed it to Jacie to see if she would like it. Of course, she liked it. In fact, I think she loved it. I was just going to use her Peeps basket from last year, but couldn't resist this one. She will use it for years to come.
Of course, the chocolate bunny. This chocolate bunny is green, though.
Her eggs have a picture of Elmo on them, and I filled half with Goldfish crackers and half with Hershey's Kisses (which I ate).

Why is it that she needs to dump everything onto the floor?

Not a great picture of the Mama, but a great picture of the Easter Peanut. She hated her dress. The minute we put it on her, she tried to pull it off. She doesn't like fluffy dresses--they get in the way of playing! After church, we went to our friends (the Noels) house to enjoy a nice easter dinner. It was so yummy, and fun. They did an easter egg hunt, but Jace was asleep when that took place, so maybe next year!

Birthday Dinner

As promised, here are the pictures from Jacie's birthday dinner!

Happy Birthday, Jacie!!

Jacie did it! She turned 1! And she will still be rear facing until she is 5! She has yet to reach the 20 pound requirement to turn her around, and the pediatrician suggested keeping her rear facing for as long as possible to protect the head and neck. Ugh! It would be so much easier to have her facing forward, but I gotta keep that sweet head safe. She had her 1 year check up today and is 19 pounds (20th percentile), 29 1/4 inches (55th percentile), and her head is in the 70th percentile. What does this mean? It means that she has a big head and no butt! She is a great, healthy, happy, though shot-stricken little peanut. I think she might have a nut allergy (swear words). I gave her a bite of my cereal without thinking yesterday, and it had almonds in it. She broke out in a rash on her torso. I wonder if that is what its from. Speaking of a bite of cereal, my daughter is a scrounge. So, if any of you come to visit, and you feel little hands on your leg while you are eating, its because she wants what you have, no matter if she just ate an entire bowl of mac and cheese, or 2 pounds of oatmeal. If you have food, she must have some of it, too. You know how when you are an adult, and you hear "it will go straight to my thighs"? Well, with Jace, we know it will just go straight to her cheeks--not the butt cheeks, but the face cheeks. Chubby cheeks, and thats about all that is chubby on her.

She had a wonderful birthday. We gave her a little Disney Princess chair, and she loves it! She sits in it tapping her feet, swinging her legs, and smilin'. When she gets out, she puts LaLa into it and looks at her for a minute, then throws her out. Too funny to watch. I set her chair next to Ryan's Lazy Boy and they looked like two peas in a pod.

(Can you see her pointing to the Princesses?? She loves Princesses)

After the shots, and the chair, we went to dinner with friends from work and Jacie had a grand time. Her first free birthday dinner! When I get the pictures from that, I will post them. A very fun--and full-day for us!

First Birthday Party-Whew!! (very long post)

Jacie did it! She had her very first birthday party. Yep, she will be 1 on March 19, and on March 15, we had a party for her. 43 (YIKES!!) of her closest friends joined us for pizza, salad, soda, cake, and ice cream. Oh, and we had a few games thrown in for the kids. And goody bags for the kids. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work! Ryan and I didn't get to sit and visit nearly as much as we would have liked, but it was awesome to see so many of our friends in one place. Jacie could have cared less. I think she was a bit overwhelmed. However, she sure looked cute in her little "birthday girl" shirt, and jeans. The theme was Cinderella (could it be anything else??), and the girls loved it. The boys didn't seem to mind, either. In fact, there were more boys there than girls. I guess you just have to throw some food at them and they will be happy. We had two 5 foot tall Cinderella's hanging on the wall, and of course her wonderful castle. I sure hope BJ doesn't expect to one day LIVE in a castle. We will have to draw the line somwhere. For now, I think she is pretty satisfied with all of her birthday gifts, especially the tinkerbell cell phone she carries around the house. She must think she is someone important (we know she is, right?). Maybe she is, with as much as it rings! She gets more calls on that phone in a day than I do in a month! When the party was all over, the car loaded and the clubhouse cleaned, I loaded the Precious Princess into the car and she was asleep instantly. Poor kid, we wore her out!

Piñata!!! We had a tiara piñata that I was sure nobody was going to be able to break. It was pretty darn sturdy. Why in the world would you make a kid's piñata out of cardboard?

Birthday Princess really did not like swinging the stick to break it. She was not happy! She only took three swings before the screaming started. Oops! Maybe when she is older and wiser and figures out that there is stuff in there, she will like it.



Ryan was so brave to be the piñata holder. I thought for sure he would get whacked a time or two, but NOPE! It was a close call a few times with the boys hitting one of the girls, though. Come to think of it, this is a pretty violent little game...what was I thinking??For some reason, kids love to run circles around other kids. This isn't the first time I have seen this happening. The two little blurs you see are Talmage and Violet. They kept running and running in circles around Jace and she just watched and watched. She seemed to enjoy it, so why stop it? Jacie is taking a breather from the action with Greg, her Michigan Grandpa. I think Greg was just as overwhelmed at the party as Jacie was. Its been a long time since his kids were this little!Ahhh.....the cake! I was going to make cakes, but saw this one at Sam's Club and thought it would be awesome! It says "Happy 1st Birthday Jacie and has her picture wearing a tiara on it. Every kid at the aprty wanted to eat the face of Jacie. What kinda crazy cannibal kids are we friends with?! Speaking of the Tiara, Jacie loves playing with it now. She wasn't so fond of it at first, but loves to put it on, then have Mama or Daddy put it on. She just laughs and laughs.Pin the slipper on Cinderella was not such a big hit. Kids got bored, and we did too! This cute little boy is the same age as Jacie, minus one week. His name is Ogden, brother to Talmage. Cute, eh? The eating of the cake was Jacie's most favorite part of the day. She has never eaten so much or so fast in her short little life. I finally took it away from her after a good chunk of it was eaten and when I pulled her away, she kept reaching for more and started to whine. So cute!!

Not too messy, was she? She did a really good job!Present time!! This part was a littl hard for her because she didn't understand why everyone was standing around her, but everyone wanted to help just a little bit with opening the presents.
It sure looks like Ryan is the most excited over the tea pot set (which is all cloth, and the cutest thing you hav ever seen).Just a few of the hot Mama's at the party. By the time we got around to pictures like this, a lot of them already left. From left: Rebecca (Jacies sitter last semester), Erin (the party was at her neighborhood clubhouse), Me, Sydney (from Detroit area), Jaymie (one of her sitters this semester) and front row is Griselda holding Jeydan. We were pregnant together and it was awesome. The kids are three weeks apart!Boring picture, but this is the door leading into the party. It has the castle, and Cinderella in die cuts that someone got for me. They were so cute!!

Sorry for the choppiness of the cake eating videos, but we had issues. Enjoy! They are mostly short, but fun to watch her shovel it in her mouth. There is one video where she shoves a huge piece into her mouth and eats it, and the others, she is just eating it as fast as she can.

Pat-A-Cake

Jacie is getting down the pat-a-cake thing. She loves it! Its so funny to see her sitting there and randomly start rolling her arms. We know that she wants to play when we see the rolling arms.

Peculiar Behavior

You may be wondering why I am posting yet another picture of Butterbean eating. She really doesn't eat that much. It might seem that way, but she really doesn't. I post this because this child keeps me in stitches. Without her, my day would be very dull! For a snack during the day or in the evening before bed, I give her a few Goldfish crackers, some cheese, and some raisins. Tonight, I noticed a pattern. She takes her food, sets it on these little circles on the outside of her tray, then eats in from there. She doesn't do it for every piece, just a few. I wonder if they taste better from way out there. She picks up each one and puts in into her mouth like she has done it her whole life and it is the most normal thing in the world. Kids are great... Tonight, she kept her cup on her tray and would sip on it between snacks. Generally, she will drink a lot, then toss it on the floor.
In the picture below, you can see the small circle she puts her food on. Its not the big circle at the left, but the little small circle on the bottom. Her little arm barely reaches the small little circle, but she still needs to put her food out there! Strange, isn't she??
Oh, yes! How could I forget this little tidbit? She is just like Ryan in too many ways. I've already mentioned that they share a very similar sense of humor, right? Well, get a load of this. When she was done eating, I pulled out the tray and saw a few stray crackers, raisins and cheese chunks on her lap. I picked them up and sat them back on her tray within reach to see if she wanted a few more. Keep in mind she WATCHED me pick these up off of her lap. She picked up a raisin with two tiny little fingers and set it back on her lap. I said, "silly girl!" and picked it back up and set it on the tray. I was moving my arms to pick her up when she moved her arms to sweep the food still on the tray onto her lap! I swear, if I knew I was going to have a Ryan junior....How will I ever live to see my old age with two if them in the house??

Tiara

Jacie's birthday cake is coming from Sams Club, and it will have Cinderella on it (of course, would it be anything else??). It has a spot for a personal picture, so Ryan nabbed her this little Tiara. I can't believe she left it on long enough for me to get out the camera and take some pictures!!