Indoor

I am helping coach LCU's girls soccer team this year and am really enjoying it. We have a good routine now where Jayce comes to practice with me and Chris picks him up about a half hour later, where Jayce has typically been having the time of his life! (more on that later)

We've only been practicing for a few weeks now, and I am usually really busy at the start of practice fielding questions, catching up with the other coach, taping ankles, etc. Jayce is really busy pretending that he's a part of the guy's team and following them around, unpacking the ball bags, trying to drink out of everyone's water bottles, running around the fields and kicking the balls. Unfortunately, since I just started coaching, I have been hesitant to bring my camera and let everyone see that I'm one of those crazy camera moms just yet. But this is driving me crazy because I have been missing the cutest and funniest shots!! Therefore, in order to appease myself, I came to practice early one day last week with my camera in tow, and let Jayce run around and play on the indoor field for a bit.

He loved having such a big space to run around on and I was cracking up at him, especially in the action shots! I was a part of a few different indoor teams throughout and after college, so I've been debating on a good Schleigh name for him (my college team), or one of those highly intimidating names where you change the "er" ending to an "a" to up the intimidation factor, such as "destroya" or "crusha." I haven't decided on anything yet, but I'll let you know.

The lighting wasn't great in the gym and the walls were really dirty and scuffed up, which I thought kind of lent to this grungy looking, high-contrast, low color editing. What do you think?

Move in Day

Last Saturday was move in day at LCU, so Jayce and I went up to campus to participate in some of the festivities. We ate lunch with Chris and some of the students, and then walked around visiting and just enjoying the perfect weather. It was great for Jayce because he just wanted to run around and there was plenty of space to do so, and it was great for me because all of that running around ensured that he would take a great nap once we got home.
There was one area of campus that really caught his attention, a little rock garden that was between a few of the buildings. I had been trying to coerce him on but eventually just sat down and let him play. He was so happy to just pick up the rocks one at a time and throw them and he completely lost interest in exploring the campus any further.
We stayed in the rock garden for about 10 minutes or so, but there were lots of families walking by who seemed to be kind of annoyed by us being there, so I eventually picked Jayce up and moved on. No one was being outwardly rude to us, but there was a lack of the usual friendliness and smiles that come from strangers when you're out with your cute little kid. Instead they were giving us kind of cold looks, which I didn't really think we deserved. I mean, he was concentrating so hard on picking out just the right rock to throw and they were only landing about a foot away from him at the most. Plus he was wearing a little red hat that said "Rookie" on it. That's worth a little smile at least!

This what I was thinking at the time anyway. As I started typing this post and thinking about the looks we were receiving, I realized that maybe what I was interpreting as stern looks were actually just a bit glum. I guess I still have that "new mom" mindset, and forget that those moms were dropping off their own babies at college. My guess is that a few of them were not annoyed, but perhaps thinking about how quickly their own children moved from the rock-throwing stage to the college-starting stage, something I can barely fathom right now. Slow down, next 17 years!

Busy Boy

To continue on my discussion of the things that keep Jayce busy, that have little or nothing to do with his actual toys, I give you...stuff under the couch.
This is the most common way to find Jayce in the living room these days. With a multitude of toys that both can and do roll under the furniture, he keeps very busy. Sometimes he actually does reach an object, but he always is reaching for something or another. As soon as he does retrieve a ball or block from under the couch, he immediately throws it back on the hard floor where it bounces and rolls to a new destination.

We've had a lot of company in the last several weeks, and I've felt bad because Jayce has tricked most of them into getting down on their hands and knees to get whatever toy is just out of his reach. He is particularly convincing because he makes that grunting noise that you make when you are straining to reach something. I realized that he picked that up from me last week when I was legitimately getting something from under the furniture, and was carrying on in that highly animated way that you do when you have a little kid. (Oh look! There's your basketball! Let's see if I can get it...rrrrrrrrr...here it is!!) He promptly laid down to retrieve some blocks, complete with straining noises, and has continued to ever since.

He also made a mess of the laundry,

but then helped me dust mop the floors.

I thought this behind the back move was pretty impressive!

He has been climbing in these old laundry bags, and running around with them over his head, crawling around in them and then rolling around on the floor. This has really been cracking all 3 of us up!

The below picture does have to do with his toys, but was too sweet to not post. It is from this morning when Jayce was starting to wind down before nap time. He went and grabbed his pacifier and bear, and then climbed into his dump truck despite it being half full of blocks. He just sat in there and watched Handy Manny, periodically pulling out a block from underneath him to pitch out the side. I decided to rescue him shortly after and dropped him off in his crib, which seemed to be a much more comfortable spot to wind down and drift off to sleep.

Shutterfly, Anyone?

I received this offer last week but just thought I'd pass it on in case anyone else can make good use of it. Shutterfly is giving away a free 8 x 8 photo book if you make a book and place your order by August 26th. You just use the code SUMMERBOOK when you check out, and you only will have to pay shipping and handling.

I used to use Shutterfly a lot when we were in Scotland to share pictures with our family, but haven't been keeping up with it since we started the blog. I just periodically use it when I get deals like this. I have already done Jayce's first year scrapbook, so I used this offer to make a book of his first birthday. I'm still working on the finishing touches but it has been pretty easy to use so far-I've gotten most of it finished in a single nap time!

Anyway the offer is for a 20 page book, so there is plenty of space for whatever you would like to do. Good luck!

Somewhere Between Sweet and Sour

As Jayce is getting older we are starting to see more of his personality, and are more aware of his ability to be incredibly sweet or incredibly rotten.

Jayce has had a few super sweet moments recently, and we are revelling in them now before he realizes that he can use these tricks to his advantage.

Last week Chris was rocking with Jayce in his nursery before bed. All of the sudden, Jayce looked up at Chris, pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and gave Chris a kiss. He then put his pacifier back in his mouth and his laid his head back on Chris' shoulder. Awww!

He also has started hugging us, like, actually hugging. It is unsolicited at the moment, he doesn't necessarily give hugs when we ask for them, but occasionally when we are holding him he will put his head down on our shoulder and give a good long squeeze around the neck and shoulders.

On to the sour, we have been experiencing daily tantrums these last few weeks. At the moment they are laughable, though obviously we are trying not to laugh in front of him, but we recognize that they will become really trying in the not too distant future. In the last few weeks, upon hearing the word no, there has been instancecs of crying and smacking the wall, grabbing nearby toys and flinging them on the floor, knocking over his little stool, and following us around while crying to make sure that we can see just how miserable he is.

I'm wondering how soon we should start trying to get him to do something to say sorry, give hugs or whatever. For right now we're trying to just ignore him when he has these little fits since they last for less than a minute, but I'm guessing we should probably be trying to correct this in some form. At least we have that "first time parents, ignorance is bliss" thing going on right now, right?

Goodbye Curls

We had another little milestone last week. Jayce's perfect round curls had finally turned against him, and he looked like a unruly little mess. I had to trim him up and that meant the curls had to go. I saved a few for the baby book, but I as happy as I was with the result, it was still sad.

Chris was NOT happy about this, and was borderline really mad at me. I've said before just how proud he is of Jayce's curls, so we're hoping that they will grow back and weren't just the ones that most babies have at first.

Games

Jayce keeps me pretty entertained on a daily basis. I am always intrigued with whatever new game he has come up with that has absolutely nothing to do with any of his actual toys. Yesterday he was all wrapped up in one of these games. He discovered that one of Chris' drawers was open a bit and decided to empty the contents completely into a nearby basket.
After all of the clothes were piled up in the basket, he pulled out Chris' swim trunks and decided to drag them around the house by the string. For about 15 minutes, Jayce did nothing but walk circles around the house, dragging the shorts behind him. He was so fully engrossed in this, that I unloaded the dishwasher, sorted and put a few loads of laundry in, fixed myself something to eat and of course snuck a few pictures. I hope that you can appreciate just how long 15 minutes is for a 1 year old to do just one thing. You would have thought that dragging those shorts around was the most important job in the world-he never wavered when he walked by any of his toys and he wouldn't even look at me.

On one of the later laps, he got tangled in the string when he was changing directions and tripped. He picked the shorts up by the waistband, and from that point on, every lap was made while holding the shorts straight out at shoulder height. This must have worn him out more than the dragging, because he wrapped up pretty quickly after this, and returned the shorts to the basket.

All in a day's work.

Feeding Myself, Part 2

This morning I decided to see how well Jayce could feed himself with a spoon when given the opportunity. He really surprised me by doing great! I imagine that we should have tried this a while ago, but since he hasn't been able to keep anything solid on the spoon before, I think I assumed that the same would happen with yogurt. But he did great at keeping the food on the spoon and bringing it to his mouth. I need to give this kid more credit, I guess!

This is probably not an exciting video for anyone other than the grandparents, but I was excited this morning!

Wise Like an Owl?

I know that I have recently posted about how impressed we are with Jayce being such a little smarty pants. It really surprises me when he seems to learn things on his own, since I am used to being the one who teaches him different things while we're home during the day. I should be getting used to this by now, but unfortunately, I am not.

He got me earlier this week while we were playing and I had my camera out. I've said before that Jayce usually, upon discovering my camera lense cap, will promptly bring it over to me, and more recently, try to put it on the camera. But this week, he walked by my lense cap laying on the table, and grabbed it, walked over to my camera bag and dropped it in. I know that this seems simple, but I was really surprised by this because I never keep the cap in the bag. The bag stays in generally the same place, but I keep the cap nearby where ever I am taking pictures so that I can put it back on promptly. (I am a little crazy about this.) But Jayce knows that the lense cap goes on the camera, and the camera in the bag, therefore figured that the lense cap alone goes in the bag, really caught me off guard. I thought he was a little young for deductive reasoning, but apparently not.

Also, he is already figuring out ways to do what we ask without actually doing what we ask. We have been working on sign language with him for months and he just keeps refusing. We have been working on "please" the most, and he is utterly resistant, scrunching up his face and turning his head whenever we ask him to say please.

The last few weeks we have been trying to toughen up and make him do the sign, and have been going back to stage one with the teaching, where we first show him how to do the sign on ourselves (one of us rubs our hand on our chest), and then take his hand and make him rub his own chest. Now, when prompted to say please, Jayce first refuses, and then miserably obliges, not by signing please, but by doing what Chris does when making Jayce sign please. That is, Jayce will either reach over and rub Chris' chest, or grab Chris' hand and make Chris help him say please on himself. It is both hilarious and incredibly irritating that he seems to have found a loophole.

My List: On Food

To continue on my list making extravaganza this week, here are a few of my food favorites.

Being one of those people that neither enjoys cooking nor is incredibly good at it, I typically do only as much cooking as absolutely necessary, and no more. Meaning, we enjoy a lot of pizza at our house. However, there are a few dishes that get me by, and a few others that never disappoint when cooking for others.

A Few Good Recipes: I Call Dibs on These for the Potluck

1.) Scotcheroos. These are my go-to dessert, the first thing that I bring to any get together where I have the option, and are often requested by friends who have had them before. Kids love them because basically they are rice crispie treats with chocolate on top, and adults love them because basically they are rice crispie treats with chocolate on top. It is a perfect chocolatey peanut buttery combination, and never disappoints!

Ingredients: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, 1 cup peanut butter, 6 cups rice crispies, half bag semi-sweet chocolate morsels, half bag butterscotch morsels

Heat sugar and corn syrup on medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, followed by rice crispies. Press into greased pan. Melt chocolate and butterscotch morsels and spread on top. Cut into squares and prepare to be blown away.

2.) Green Bean Bundles. These make a great presentation, both fancy and delicious-looking. I mean, green beans wrapped in bacon?! Could they be any better? The sauce that you drizzle over them is sweet and buttery, and combined with the bacon it makes for the perfect sweet and salty combination. Plus it's a serving of vegetables!

Ingredients: 2 cans whole green beans, 1/2 lb bacon, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 stick butter, 1 tsp garlic salt, syrup

Melt butter, stir in sugar and garlic salt to make sauce. Use 6-8 beans to make a bundle. Wrap the bundle with 1/2 slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place bundles in baking pan, drizzle with sauce, and cover with foil. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove cover, drizzle lightly with syrup and bake uncovered for 15 minutes until bacon is cooked through. Remove toothpicks before serving.

My List: On the Internet

As far as the internet is concerned, there are almost too many websites out there to even try to narrow a few down for a list of favorites. Therefore, I won't deal with email, social networking, or anything to do with being productive online. Instead, I give you a few online guilty pleasures, which will only assist you in productivity if you are drinking your coffee while browsing.

Online Guilty Pleasures

1.) Prime Time in No Time. This is a 5 minute video series that Chris introduced me to, and is updated every Monday-Friday morning. It's a bit like the show The Soup, except only deals with last night's tv shows, and as I said, is only 5-ish minutes long. Basically it is like listening to the funniest person you know recap the best of last night's tv shows, with clips of the best parts. It is particularly entertaining in the fall when the good shows are on, and a quick way to see what crazy thing happened last night on So You Think You Can Dance, The Bachelor, American Idol, etc. without actually watching them. http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com/

2.) GOOP. A website started and written/facilitated by Gwyneth Paltrow. This perhaps should have been stated last, if you, like me, aren't necessarily a huge fan, and are wondering why she should have her own website. But if you think about it, she's a rich and famous actress, who is married to a rich and famous musician, so it makes perfect sense that she would have access to rich and famous stylists, chefs, writers, musicians, etc. who can share their tips on her website. And they do. The sections are poetically named Make, Go, Get, Do, Be and See instead of Food, Travel, Shopping, etc. but try not to let the hippy-ish vibe scare you away if that's not your thing. It is surprisingly interesting, charming, funny, and a bit intriguing. There is no reason why I should have spent 7 minutes watching a YouTube video of Gwyneth making chicken in her kitchen, or discussing why she uses maple syrup in her salad dressing, but I did. http://www.goop.com/

I'll stop there. I have 3 others that I'm debating about for 3rd place, but I don't want to choose between them and I don't have time to make a 5 point list today. I will leave you with an honorable mention though.

Honorable Mention.) If you can laugh at yourself, Stuff Christians Like. It is a blog that, thus far, appears to be steadily well-written, often satirical, with occasional outright thoughtfulness. If you have spent any amount of time in the Christian Culture, then you will probably see yourself in some of these posts. I would recommend checking out Being A Christian Culture Snob for a taste. If you find it more amusing than offensive, read on. I have only been introduced to this website this week, so I am a bit hesitant to throw my full support behind it, thus the honorable mention. http://www.stuffchristianslike.net/

Enjoy. Yours?

My List: On Hair

I occasionally come across a friend's blog post that is dedicated in some form to listing out things that they like, love, or can't live without. I love when people do this. Particularly if the list is generically "things," as opposed to "things in my kitchen" or whatever, because you know that whatever makes it onto the list will be really good.

Anyway, I was reading an article on the elliptical the other day (more on that in a minute), and afterwards decided that I'm going to write my own list of things, and post a different one for each day of the week. I have a few ideas but I'm not sure if I have 7 days worth, so I reserve the right to redefine the terms of week to let myself off the hook, such as the work week, or the calendar week, etc.

Back to the elliptical, I was reading an article that recommended some things that can help a mom on the go to look her best. There was nothing earth-shattering there, multi-purpose products like moisturizer/foundation, quality concealer, etc. One item that did catch my eye, however, was a dry shampoo. Apparently, dry shampoo gives you the opportunity to "de-grease your do" without washing it. You simply shake some of the powder formula into your greasy roots, allow it to soak up the grease, rake your fingers through and voila! You have just extended the life of your previous shampoo!

Is it just me, or does idea seem vaguely familiar? Like, perhaps, that powder that janitors use in grade school to clean puke up from the floor? They simply shake it over the mess on the hallway floor, sweep it up with a broom and dustpan, and voila! No more puke!

I haven't used this product so I can't really speak about how I like it, but I do think that if my hair is dirty and greasy, then a good option is to wash it. With actual shampoo, not dry shampoo. I also think that if it's greasy enough to contemplate putting absorbant powder in it, than perhaps the "life of my previous shampoo" is already over.

Anyway, reading this ridiculous suggestion made me think about how I do use a few shortcuts now that my personal time is more limited, and I wish the article would have interviewed some women on this topic as opposed to simply endorsing various products. That said, here are a few of my own shortcuts. Take them or leave them, but maybe one will be more help to you than dry shampoo.


Shortcuts for Presentable Hair: No Dry Shampoo Necessary

1.) My best shortcut thus far, which more than halves my time with the flat iron in the morning, is the night shower. I shower and blow dry my hair before bed, pin up my bangs, and sleep on it. It flattens out the sides well enough that I only need to straighten the ends in the morning, and removes the need to section hair and straighten each section to get that flat-ish look. I still have some fullness at the top since it's been clipped up, and just straighten out the bobby pins marks or reshape it and keep it pinned up.

2.) The headband. Most people already know about this, but I have only discovered it post-pregnancy. It's classic, not too fancy, and a thick band or cute pattern can cover a multitude of evils.

3.) The messy ponytail. I almost didn't list this because 1.)it has been a fave since high school (I know!), 2.)I am afraid people don't actually wear their hair like this anymore and 3.)I have fallen into a category of people who won't give up their high school do, alongside mullet-ers and bang teasers. Oh well. I still think a messy ponytail beats a regular ponytail, especially if you pull out some bangs, and when paired with a night shower and headband, can actually pass for having taken the time to do your hair. Or so my 18 year old self thinks.

My Little Gentleman

Jayce has really taken to carrying around these two bunches of daisies. I'm not sure what is so interesting about them, other than the ends are pretty good to chew on, apparently. But my favorite thing is when I ask him if I can have the flowers, and he turns towards me and holds the bunch high up over his head for me to take. I couldn't quite get a picture of it, as he is really tiring of performing for me and my camera, but it makes me feel like he's giving me flowers. What age does that start?