The Name

Jadyn's name was picked long before she came, but the boy was much harder. We finally settled on calling him "Fred" while in my belly and then we would wait till we could get a good look at him. Just days before, we went through our list again and thought of what the middle name would be if we named him Jaxon. Jace was named after his uncle, James Clyde. He passed away in a river rafting accident when he was just my age. No one ever called him James. His initials "JC" became "Jacey". Hence, Jace was named after what his uncle was really known as.

Both of us aren't too keen on the idea of having two people with the same name in the house, so junior was never really an option. But Jaxon Clyde honored both Jace and his uncle. So I suppose it does mean we have two Jacey's in the house now.

Easter.

 It went something like this...

 

...and ended with this.

25.

Jace turned 25 this year. That's a quarter of a century! The middle of the middle of a life! It's some sort of important anniversary! (Golden?)

I really wanted it to be special. But special seemed quite the farfetched thought considering the day his birthday was on. He would go to work around 6:30 and then straight to school until 10...not much time to give him attention. So I thought and thought about what Jace really wanted that could carry on throughout the day. Time is always a gift I wish I could give him. He has none. But the next thing would be memories. In his "old age" Jace's memory continue to fade more and more. I have to tell him our story now, remind him of friend's names, important dates...it's only a matter of time before I will have to wear a name tag. This completely crushes him that he has seemingly lost a great deal of his past.

So one quick trip to Pinterest got my wheels turning. I thought of giving him 25 memories I had...but I have only known him 7 out of 25 years of his life. So I went to Facebook. Curse social networking all you want, but it certainly has its charms. I got nearly 25 memories from his friends and family. I added some of mine to complete the number. And this is what came about...

To put it simply: I nailed it. This is the first gift I've given Jace that made him cry. I thought maybe he could take a stack to work with him and read them throughout the day, but he couldn't help but read every single one that morning.

As a bonus, it really was a gift for me to be able to read these memories of a Jace before I ever knew him. Even as a wayward teenager, he had the same beautiful countenance he has now. He did things as a child that most grown men wouldn't be willing to do. He has always been incredible.

 

Jadyn and I surprised him later at work with an ice cream cake. 

He came home late that night to his favorite dinner: Shepard's Pie (doesn't take much to please him).

I love his birthday almost as much as mine. It allows me to reflect on just how darn lucky I am!

These are a few of our Favorite things.

#1 Breakfast.

For as long as I can remember in my childhood, my mother got up in the morning and made each of us a beautiful, full breakfast. I carried the tradition through college, making myself an omelet virtually every morning. When I lived with my parents again, my mom went right back to making me breakfast every morning (I pitched in). And now, Jadyn and I enjoy a smoothie and eggs every morning. Breakfast is a long, relaxing ritual with us. We think of every breakfast food we can fill ourselves up with and savor it for about an hour. Only then can we start our day. Breakfast is a definite favorite.

 

# 2: The Car.

Anyone's really. It doesn't matter...she thinks she owns them all. This must be a toddler thing. She claims ownership over everything by screaming "Mine!" Oh child, if only it were that simple. She can

spend hours in the car, fully entertained. Her ultimate favorite is Daddy's car (I wonder why).

 

 

#3 Breath of Fresh Air.

 

 

I didn't have even the slightest clue how intensely I could feel cabin fever until I was cooped up with a toddler all day. Every morning we would look out the window and hope for sun. I am so happy it has been showing its bright face lately. Jace had his spring break from school two weeks ago. Every evening he came home from work, we scarfed down some dinner and played outside till the sun went down. It was such a blast. There's a golf course right across the street from our house, so hitting a bucket of balls was an obvious activity one night. Jadyn LOVED it...of course.

 

Impressive form.

 

But alas, a fail.

 

Oh ya, I'm so preggo...and grungy this day. I didn't even try to hide my ridiculous belly button.

 

 I'm 32 weeks here. Gettin Close!

Taking an interest

If there's one sure thing that everyone learns when they get married, it's that boys and girls are different. Very different. And it's supposed to be that way.

...but lately I have noticed that although Jace is a boy and I am a girl, he manages to take an interest in my more womanly interests. I just didn't notice before because I was not such a skilled translator. Examples:

*Last night, we were watching our new favorite Sit Com "How I Met Your Mother". Seriously, get past the first couple episodes and you will not stop laughing. Anyways, as we were watching Jace announced "Hey! She does that dark eye thing like Melissa (a woman who he built a blog for a while back) I guess blondes do that." What he was seeing was this...

Translation? Look at that. Both of these women wear eyeliner on their bottom lid. It must be a good look to make your eyes  pop. 

*Every Sunday he picks my shoes for me. These days, there are not many choices. It's really between the brown or black and then the black and other black. But I am always amazed that he not only gives me a choice, but a valid reason behind his choice. Such as "You should go with those brown shoes because your skirt is more of an orange-brown that a grey-brown, ya know?" That's what I get for marrying a graphic designer I suppose.

*"Hey babe, what how do you think I should do my hair today?" His options are:

•     "Flippity flip" a.k.a curly
•     "Smooth" a.k.a straight
•     "Like my hair" a.k.a scrunched

* As I was straightening my hair, Jace stood behind me staring.
"So, how do you get your hair so silky? What are you doing that I'm not doing?"
This took a great deal of analyzing, but ended in me showing Jace how to use a diffuser...and then showing him again the next day...and the next day...and the next.


So you see, the hubs does pretty dang good at keeping up with the girly stuff. In all honesty, he's probably better than me. 

*Jace: "Hey Lindsey. Check out this new app that I built. So first I started with a fhjkaghkah slider..afhjkhfjkhag...created...dahfkjaghlka....ajdfklhjgjhjagklf.... (and it goes on with me picking out a few words here and there. Very much like when I listen to someone speaking in Spanish)

Lindsey: "Oh Jacey, It looks so pretty. I just LOVE the colors."

No translation needed. It's clear I have no idea what he's talking about.

More Daddy

A couple of days ago, the three of us were sitting on the couch. Jace was working from home for the day and took a short break to say "hi". Jadyn started signing *more* so we asked her what she wanted more of. She pointed to Jace. I asked "More Daddy?" because I thought maybe she was just confused, but then she continued to say "More Daddy, More Daddy!"

Goodness, does that girl know how to break my heart! At not even two, she understands that she needs her daddy. The role of Dad is so much more complicated than Mom, at least in our situation. Dad is the provider that goes to work and is Mr. Graphic Designer most of the day, but then he is also expected to shift to Super Dad when he gets home. Me? I'm just Mom. Something I have learned to accept and love because of all the roles that branch from it.

Jace works some pretty long hours and on top of it, he goes to school downtown. She gets an average of 2 hours a day with him, which is more than others get I'm sure. Mondays and Thursdays he doesn't get home until long after she is in bed.

I have battled with the inner complaints of it being his fault that he isn't here more, but the truth is, he is doing the best he can and maybe a little more. And the only reason Jadyn and I beg for more Daddy is because that man knows how to fill a room. I don't think I will ever stop getting butterflies when I hear his car pull in the garage.

To all you Daddy's out there that are working your tails off, you rock.

There will never be enough Daddy.

Brain dump.

I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I think of this second baby I'm having in less than 4 months I get really scared. I have been reading quite a few articles about first-child mommies and I realize that I am at least not alone in my anxieties. One is hard. Every new stage brings you back below the learning curve. You worry if they're eating the right things, if they are learning enough, interacting enough with other people. It is me that is holding her back from potty training, because for Pete's sake, I haven't read enough about it! So now I'm going to have two?

It's scary, yet oddly comforting. I notice children that have siblings a lot more now. The younger siblings are more laid back and confident to leave mommy's side longer than 5 minutes. The older siblings are more willing to let things go and they are so helpful! And if THAT isn't enough to ease my worries, this certainly is...

 

There's also a little bit of me that is mourning the loss of my first baby. She's going to grow up whether we like it or not. And though I really don't want to juggle two babies at once, I want her to need me still. 

P.S. We're still debating baby boy's name. Any suggestions you're willing to gift me?

Our Snow Day

 We had a massive blizzard on Friday. Jace worked from home. Too bad I had already chosen to be a slacker the day before and stayed in my pj's. I believe I at least showered before slipping on the exact same pj's for day two. Our snow day mostly revolved around the tent. We had a day-long camp out in the family room. We read books in the tent, ate snacks in the tent, even had arguments about why mommy's very pregnant belly would not fit down the tunnel.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.