CherJoy Blog - Page 45

Jace

A boy and his blanket + a video

Recently, Jace has been more and more protective of his blankie. It’s like a drug to him. Don’t try taking it away from him. He’ll scream at you. If he sees it and you don’t give it to him, he’ll give you a death stare. He is obsessed. Attached. And this blanket is usually covered in drool, food, snot, dirt . . . it’s always filthy. It smells. We have to sneak it away to wash it, then it magically appears again, fresh & clean. After talking about needing to get a back-up of it somehow, somewhere online, (and then not actually doing it, ha), my friend Heather went to work on Amazon to find the exact match of his monkey, fleece blankie. She found it and bought him two. TWO! The night we opened the box, Jace was a crazy happy boy. He didn’t know what to do with so many monkey blankies! He started flagging the new blankets around .. rubbing them on his face, biting them, dragging them. He was in blankie heaven. His little face was so blissful. Thank you Heather, for going the extra mile for Jace. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have two back-ups of his favorite blankie.

April 16, 2015 by cherjoy

Music class at the MIM

Now that Jace is getting harder and harder to entertain, I’ve been trying to up my parenting by planning more engaging activities for him. The girls at my new office were raving about the MIM, the Musical Instrument Museum so I quickly looked into it. It’s the only one in the country, so it’s quite the outing! It’s actually been voted as Phoenix’s #1 attraction. And even more, they have music classes for kids of all ages, called MIMKids. I immediately registered us for The MIM Music Makers — 30 minutes of song, instruments and dance from around the world with baby and toddlers. It was ridiculously fun!! Jace didn’t know what to think at first, but once all the babies started giggling and pounding on the drums he jumped right in. He was mesmerized by the instructor’s beautiful voice; she sang songs from countries from all over the world. We danced, we played with scarves, we rattled. We sang hello to everyone and at the end we sang goodbye. And Jace kept his hands to himself and didn’t aggressively hug anyone so it was a total win. The rest of the day he kept banging on things like a drum, and swaying back and forth to any little bit of music. What a cutie. Rob and I would love to book a babysitter and go back for the full MIM experience. I know Rob would have loved to go through the Beyond the Beat exhibit; me, too! No matter what, I’m definitely going to plan more music classes for Mr. Jace. He loved it!

April 14, 2015 by cherjoy

Holidays

Easter Sunday

This Easter we took our time waking up. We gave Jace his little basket, had breakfast and then got the bikes out to go downtown for a 2nd breakfast at Lolo’s. Little boy was more interested in the paper grass than his little goodies. He had so much fun on the bike ride that he fell asleep sitting up on the way back, ha. We saved the rest of the day for meeting up with family. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It’s such a special day and we took many moments to think of God and the rising of his son.

April 13, 2015 by cherjoy

California, Petaluma

A trip to Lagunitas in Petaluma

Way back in January, before we had even made the decision to move back to Arizona, we took a little road trip up to Petaluma for the weekend. We had been wanting to check out the Lagunitas Brewery for quite some time and desperately wanted to get away for a couple days. Away from the dogs and weekend chores. Clear our heads, get a hotel and relax a little bit as a family. To my surprise, Lagunitas was jam packed when we got there. Somehow we snagged a parking spot, as we waved goodbye to the tour buses that were pulling out to venture off to the next brewery tasting. We intended to stay as long as possible, to get the full experience. Even though we didn’t have the energy for the tour, you definitely should do it! I was so glad they had a nice lawn for us to play on with Jace, because almost every table was taken. Mr. Rob was treated like a King, with his name dropping and distributor partnership. What a fun day.

A lady bug on the head is good luck, right? ;)

After our day at the brewery, we checked into our hotel in Santa Rosa and then went on to have an AMAZING, italian dinner at LoCoco’s in downtown Santa Rosa, which was just a walk away. It was the best night. We ate so much food, and even ordered the limoncello. This weekend together was just what we needed. From the brew to the hotel to the italian to the easy drive. It was the perfect getaway.

April 13, 2015 by cherjoy

Family, Friends, Jace, Projects

Jace’s california pineapple birthday party

Jace’s first birthday was an absolute hit. I planned a very colorful and fruity birthday for our little pineapple. Even the weather felt tropical with the rain and warm temperatures. I’ll let the pictures say the rest! A big thanks to all of our friends and family for celebrating this special day with us. Such a blast. And Mr. Jace was the happiest, cake-eating, attention-loving little 1 year old ever. Such a ham. I must say, I had so much fun planning this party; more fun than any other. Especially the little goodie bags for the kids. We love you Jace. You’re the light in our life.

A HUGE thanks to Heather for taking all of these pictures and for the beautiful album to put all of our mini polaroids in. Isn’t her handwriting and sketching skills absolutely amazing?!! She is seriously the coolest person.