The Picker Family: June 2020

The end as come to our entire family being home together during the pandemic. Brent started back to work in the office the last full week of June. We're all adjusting to not having him around throughout the day when he could pop out of the office for a break. It's strange to think of the fall when we could potentially all be going our separate ways every week day again. We'll see what happens! By then we'll also have a 2 year old Jace!

Jace continues to be very chatty and putting more words together into phrases. A new one this past month was "oh my gosh". He still does A LOT of talking that we cannot decipher. Yesterday, Nora decided to create a language between her and Jace. She talked jibber jabber back to him and it sounded like they were having a discussion in the back seat. It was very cute:) Jace has also mastered asking "help please" when he needs something and telling us when he's "all done" eating his meal. We're still working on him asking for a pacifier instead of just whining.

Jace has mastered walking up and down the stairs on his feet while holding the railing or wall. If there is nothing to hold on to, he will still use his hands/knees for support. Brent started a new rule for him that he cannot take his pacifier outside. He now knows that leaving his pacifier on the mudroom bench is part of the process for going to play outside.

Jace's new fascination has been the pool! Thankfully the Stewartville pool opened at 50% capacity on June 15. I've brought him a few times and man is it a work out! I cannot take my eye off him for a moment or he will fall face first into the water, run away toward the slides that are too big for him, or jump off the edge into the pool. Our pool has a zero-depth entry area for younger kids, a slide that is just his size, and a few areas that shower water down into the pool. Jace loves them all! He and I are starting swimming lessons tonight, but I believe that will be in the deeper pool so we'll see how well he does letting me hold him during class. He's very independent! I don't want this to sound like I'm complaining about his energy. It's just very different than my bigger kids...and I'm older:) I am honestly very grateful he's comfortable in the water and I hope he stays that way as he grows! Jace also got to experience Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo for the first time and enjoyed seeing all of the animals up close. He was very excited to watch the otters swim, the wolves pace around, and the bear roll around on his back. I think the animal that made noise at him got his attention most though: the huge turkey! It was funny to watch his expression each time it gobbled loudly:)

Jace continues to eat better and eats the same food we're eating for meals. He's working on his spoon-to-mouth skills and especially loves getting a cup of yogurt all to himself. He's still working on getting his 2 year molars pushed through. As of last week, he had 3 broken through his gums. Hopefully he'll get these all through by his birthday and we can work on making the pacifier for bedtime only (he's currently quite addicted).

Other than the pool, I'd say Jace's biggest adventure this month was a little escape trick he pulled on Brent. They were in the garage and Brent was working one something when his phone rang. He turned his back on Jace while talking and when he turned back Jace was gone. Brent came into the house, where I was making dinner, asking if Jace had come in. He had not, so we took to the yard to search for him. We found him on the far side of our neighbor's house (where we couldn't see him from our yard) where he had climbed up the ladder and onto their giant trampoline. He was quietly toddling around on the trampoline with no one around (the neighbors were not outside). Whew! We all breathed a sign of relief to find him! He's a quick and quiet one when he wants to be!

Some family pictures from June on Shutterfly.

June Adventures with Jace: