Monday night update

Jayden and I had a nice surprise this weekend - Carmen came home Friday instead of Sunday!  So it meant an extra two days with him.  Good for him to get to be home and good for us to have him here - although he did spend the majority of the time either on his phone or his computer (or both!) because of all the craziness that's going on with his work right now. 

Carmen leaves again tomorrow, super early, to fly to Indianapolis until next Monday.  I am anxious again, but we survived last week, so we can probably survive this week too.  I'm not sure how this happened, and I don't want to jinx us, but Jayden decided last week that he'd return to a more normal sleep schedule.  He really only woke up once or twice every night.  And by Thursday he didn't need to be picked up, he just needed to have a pacifier put in his mouth to soothe him back to sleep.  Which meant about five minutes in his room instead of the typical 30 or so.  It made a huge difference for me and my sleep - and made it significantly easier to pump in the middle of the night too. 

Jayden has continued to get stronger and to express his preferences more and more strongly!  When he is upset, he definitely lets you know: he arches his back, straightens all arms and legs and generally wails.  It means we have to be incredibly careful about leaving him anywhere - as soon as he arches his back, he can slide right out of bouncers, swings, etc.  He has gotten better about rolling over too.  He's still not a huge fan of tummy time, so sometimes he goes straight into frustrated mode.  But if we catch him at the right time, he's figured out how to tuck his arms properly and get himself on to his back.  He's also starting to figure out how to move himself around - but mostly in circles while on his back.  This morning he was in his crib and (I guess) discovered the side of the crib and wanted to touch it.  So, he scooted himself close enough to the side of the crib so that he could touch it:

WARNING: Super lame/cheesy photo caption on this next photo:

Jayden digs the chicks! 
(for those of you from Bainbridge, you get the importance of this shirt.  I adore it and it looks so good on him, I think)

Jayden continues to "talk."  Some lady in the grocery store stopped me today because she heard him cooing and babbling while I was in the candy aisle looking for gummy bears for Carmen.  She leaned in as if to touch him, but I kept her at a safe distance (you just never know with strangers)!  He is also smiling, especially at Mama and Daddy, more and more and giggling when we do funny things.  It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun too.