8 Months Old!

8 months old? I seriously don't get how quickly time can go by!

Jade is getting good at balancing herself on her 2 tiny, chubby legs. She uses couches, chairs and tables to walk herself to different locations. She learned how to clap this month, which is fun. We used to always make her hand bounce off her mouth to make a funny "bahbahbahbah" sound....and now Jade just does it on her own, which is hilarious.

What else, what else? Hmmm....well she had her first ever sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen this week. Which means it was MY first night away from her. Even though I knew Jade was going to be just fine, I still worried and missed her like crazy! Jade had a blast. She got a cute new outfit and visited her Grandpa at work.

Oh yeah, and I just thought I'd add...to anyone who read my "crying it out" post....this blog is not meant to be a parenting blog or anything. So I didn't feel it necessary to add every tedious detail about our method for "crying it out". Just so you all don't think I am super mean, or that I do things without researching first....no we didn't just place Jade in her crib and leave her there until she fell asleep. We checked on her periodically (ok, mostly Lance), patted her on the back/tummy, etc, and no, I wasn't being serious when I said I'd given up. Sometimes, for the sake of just trying to tell a story, you leave out some things and exaggerate others. ;)

Pictures!!

learning to drink out of a cup

playing with tupperware

eating oats and applesauce

modeling the leg warmers Lance made
 for her out of his old batman socks

our valentine

she figured out how to pull out the wipes

visiting Gpa N at work

going somewhere

trying to escape from the high chair

watching tv

8 months old

Crying it Out

Jade does not sleep through the night and she sleeps in our bed. After getting lots of opinions and advice, we finally decided to try the "crying it out" idea. We already have a bedtime routine established, so on the first night of trying this we put her in her crib and, yep, let her cry it out.

She cried for a straight hour. 

Jade's crib is in our bedroom, so she just stood up in her crib the entire time, stared at us and bawled. I tried hiding under the covers so she couldn't see me. I felt like such a horrible person. I finally left the room and now Lance had two crying girls in the apartment. 

So after the longest hour of my life, Jade fell asleep. 

The next night we tried it again. This time she only cried for 20 minutes and then fell asleep. I thought, "okay, I think this is working."

The third night? Nope. Utter hysterics for over an hour. I finally just picked her up because I felt so bad. Now anytime we even get near the crib, she starts to freak out and cry. Before we tried "crying it out" we could lay Jade on our bed and she'd just fall asleep on her own. But now? Jade is afraid to fall asleep. I think she thinks we're going to abandon her, or worse....put her in her crib. haha. So yeah...I am not sure what to do, but I am not a fan of "crying it out"...and I'm pretty sure it back fired on us. 

But besides that...I love this little girl!! She is the cutest and is the happiest baby during the day! :) 

Cirque de la Mer Auditions

On the 15th of January we drove to Las Vegas for the Cirque de la Mer auditions.

What is Cirque de la Mer? It is a summer show that Sea World does that has Chinese pole, trampoline wall, aerialists, clowns, etc, etc.

So anyways, we drove down and spent the night with my grandparents. On Wednesday morning we showed up to Gym Cats in Henderson, where the auditions would take place. This would be the last of 4 auditions around the U.S. for this show.

Jade and I got to watch the auditions, which was really entertaining. First, the acrobats demonstrated their strength and flexibility by doing things like the splits, pushups, pull ups, rope climb, etc. They also had to do some tumbling across the floor. Then there were some cuts and everyone left had to do some tricks on a trampoline and then learn a dance. (I think maybe 20 acrobats started and they cut it down to maybe 10?....not sure.) These last two items in the audition were the BEST EVER to watch. hahaha. Some people flew off the trampoline-which was awesome and watching everyone dance was just fantastic. :) Then everyone was interviewed and were told they'd hear back at the end of the month.

After the auditions, we visited some friends of ours that we used to know when we lived in China. I used to baby sit their little girl while her parents performed in the circus. The dad is now performing flying trapeze in Zarkana at the Aria. (go check it out!) We weren't able to see the show on this trip, but we definitely will be seeing it next time we are in Vegas. It was so fun to visit with their family and to show off Jade. :)

We drove home on Thursday and really weren't expecting to hear back from the audition people very soon. However, on Friday Lance got a call and he was offered the job!! Yay!

Now comes the tricky part....finding housing! And getting rid of all our crap. ugh.

I expect everyone to come visit us and see the show this summer! (Tyce and Mary are in the show too!)

the acrobats' audition

Lance and Jade at the audition

tumbling

the 5 aerialists that auditioned doing their pushup exercises
the 3 ladies in the middle are from Utah!

7 months old!!

Jade is 7 months old. :)

Jade's favorite thing this month? standing!

When Jade first pulled herself up into a standing position, she was in her crib and Lance and I freaked out! We thought she was going to tip right over the edge of the crib. Since then, we have lowered the crib bed so the sides are much higher!

Jade can crawl, but she definitely prefers to stand. My parents said when I was a baby I preferred walking to crawling...so maybe she'll be like me?

Jade weighs 16 lbs 2 oz and is almost 27 inches long. She mostly wears 9 month outfits. She likes to eat mushed bananas and sweet potatoes and applesauce. She likes to "talk" and when she is grumpy we often feel as though we are being chewed out, due to her tone of voice.

We are still struggling getting Jade to sleep through the night. She wakes up about every 2 or 3 hours and she doesn't like to sleep in her crib. For awhile, it seemed she was still on Korean time because she'd stay up until about 3 am and then want to sleep until past noon!

she often has messy hair

with Gma and Gpa Robinson in Korea

standing in her crib (I put tons of pillows and
blankets down to cushion her tipping over)

not so sure about that baby food she just tasted

baby's first Christmas

so happy to be standing!
look at that hair...haha!

Jade's not so sure about my silliness

7 months old
she is so wiggly!

mmm measuring spoons!

I love it that she is the same size as my violin.

I thought I loved Jade A LOT when she was born....but every day I just love her more and more! Being a mom has been so good for me and I love it!

note to baby

Dear Baby Jade,

Thank you for waking me up at 3 am and wanting to play. If we hadn't started our day so early, we might have missed our Christmas phone call from your Uncle Dan, who is serving a mission in Cape Verde.

And thanks for deciding to go back to sleep just now. Please feel free to sleep until noon.

Love,
the mommy

highlights from China

While we were in Korea, Lance zipped over to China and spent about a week there. Here are some highlights from his trip.

• visiting friends from the circus and church
• having the staff at a favorite restaurant of ours recognize him and give him a free loaf of bread
• jumping the fence to watch the circus TWICE and without getting caught (naughty Lance)
• watching the circus
• eating super cheap food (the same amount of food that would have cost me at least $5 here only cost him $1)
• going to church at the Guangzhou Branch and playing Santa for their Christmas Party (he was staying at the home of the Branch President...so naturally they put him to work!)
• having people remember him as the guy that had blue hair. . . 
• almost not being let back into Korea: Lance had been wearing shorts and a t-shirt in China (much nicer weather where he was) when he got to customs in Korea, the customs guy made him put more clothes on before he'd let him through! 

Chimelong International Circus

an unexpected date & basically an awesome day

Today was a great day!

We got pulled over on our way to meet up with some friends because our car isn't registered yet. . .but since we were on our way to get it registered, the policeman let us go!!

We met up with some friends at Village Inn for a yummy breakfast and some fun catching up.

After breakfast, we took our car over to a Firestone to get its safety and emissions test done. The guy said it would take about an hour and a half to almost 2 hours to get done . . . so we walked over to a nearby movie theater and just happened to get there 2 minutes before The Hobbit would begin!

We happened to have a gift card, so our movie was free!

The Firestone guy called us right before the previews even ended and told us our car was already done!

Jade slept through half of the movie and was content for the rest of it! (I thought I was going to spend half the movie in the hallway.)

Lance had a free Jamba Juice on his Jamba Juice points card thingy so we got one!

We spent time at the Nielsen household, which is always a blast.

We went to Lowe's Extreme Air Sports and filmed some trampoline stuff for Lance's new audition video. He busted out a couple of new, and super awesome, tricks.

Yep, today was a great day!