Now I need a real weekend

It's been nice to not go to work, but man alive, Carmen and I need a real vacation, I think.

Our jobs have both been very demanding recently and Jayden is going through whatever it is he's going through, besides just the transition to his toddler bed.  He won't sleep at all, ever.

Friday night was good, I got him to sleep pretty quickly, and painlessly, as I reported.  We had been at my work party that afternoon, so I think I tired him out pretty well.  He had fun, I think, at the party, even his meal consisted of tortilla chips, ice cream and a bite of brownie.

In my co-worker's back yard, playing with a ball.

Heading towards the stairs, which he knew was not allowed, with the ball...

Carmen got home late Friday night and it was off to swimming as usual yesterday.  We're trying to see if he'll nap downstairs in a pack n play, since he already hates napping and I know there's no way he'll nap in the toddler bed.  And I'd really like it if he'd nap someplace other than the car or the stroller.  Yesterday it worked eventually.  Today (right now), it's not going as well.

Last night was a disaster.  He finally fell asleep around 9:00 pm, after screaming for 1-1/2 hours, with Carmen on the floor of his room.  He woke up an hour or so later, screaming again, and wouldn't go back to sleep.  So I got myself ready for bed and laid down on the floor of his room with him in his bed.  He decided he couldn't sleep in his bed, so he moved to the floor and finally passed out on the floor next to me.  I slept there until about 3:30 am, when I moved him back to his bed and I went to mine.  This morning he was awake again around 6:45 am.  Hence his temper tantrum now that it's naptime.

The positives:
We are FINALLY able to enjoy our backyard, and it is wonderful.

Playing with the basketball and the truck!

An "action" shot of Jayden falling to the ground! (he was fine - this is a regular occurrence and his shorts are long enough to cover his knees)

We came back inside for lunch and Jayden sat on his stool and said "Mama.  Lap."  And patted his lap.  So I went and sat on his lap.  Hilarious.

And now we'll spend the afternoon running errands and trying to control the two year old.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Success! (Sort of)

He still cried for 45 minutes,  or maybe a little less, but he finally crawled into his own bed and passed out. Now if we can just eliminate the hysterics and if only the bed rail would arrive early...

Hopefully you can see the image. It looks a little like an ultrasound, but it's Jayden laying diagonally across his bed, his feet hanging off the side of the bed.

The dreaded toddler bed

Here is the bedtime set up for Jayden. Let's really hope he sleeps tonight!

Changes, changes

Last week Jayden did not want to go to bed, so he tried to climb out.  And succeeded.  I had just closed his door and started to walk downstairs when I heard this huge thud. Over the past few weeks I'd seen him trying to put his leg over the crib rail, but not usually getting that far.  Welllll, this time he made it.  I ran in and he was flat on his back, his head towards the crib, looking at me.  Well that scared me half to death (and him too, I think).  So I vowed that we would transform his crib into a toddler bed as soon as we got back from our trip.  and I did.  30 hours later, it may have been a mistake.

I don't know if it's because he slept with me/us for two nights in Oregon or if it's switching to the toddler bed or if it's some combination of the two, but the last two nights have been disastrous.  Last night I had to go to a work meeting so Carmen had bedtime duty solo.  When I got home at 9:00 pm, Carmen was just barely coming downstairs after laying there holding Jayden's hand for twenty minutes while he passed out.  Tonight was my turn; he passed out twice in the hallway, and finally he's almost sleeping at 9:30 pm.  He's going to be an unhappy kid tomorrow - although he did take a three hour nap at Juju's today.

Carmen is gone for the next three nights, so we'll see how it goes for me.  I have a feeling it won't be pretty.  But I'll eat dinner with him and just make the best of it.  If I get less sleep, then that's just the way it is.

I've also ordered a crib rail - because it turns out those things aren't just regularly available.  They make rails that you can attach to beds, but not to convertible cribs.  And if we bought our crib now, then we'd get a crib rail with it, but since ours is two years old not only did it not come with a crib rail, but we can't get one that works with this model.  Awesome.  So one was just shipped to me and I'm praying UPS is fast and gets it here sooner rather than later.

These are just two random pictures from the past week that I haven't had the time to share:

One morning last week he decided he wanted to wear his winter jacket.  Nevermind that it was eighty degrees that day.  By the time we got in the car to go to Juju's he'd gotten over it, luckily.  He also didn't want to sit in his highchair to eat breakfast that day.  Eventually he got over that too, luckily.

He also got a new pair of shoes.  They are one size too big - his feet are growing ridiculously fast - but he wanted to wear them that day.  And I think we were getting ready for the shower so we were working on undressing.  But then the shoes.  And it's just such a funny picture!

The funniest thing about this switching to a toddler bed is I'm still worried about him falling out.  I put pillows next to the bed, so if he does roll out, he'll at least land on something soft.  Last night I barely slept, waiting for a thud and a wail.  Well, I woke up around 1 or 2 am and grabbed the monitor.  I thought I saw him curled up in the corner, so I just watched for a bit and waited for him to move.  I soon realized that the thing in the corner was a stuffed animal, and that he was sleeping on his stomach in the middle of the floor of his room.  I dozed for a bit, woke up and he had moved a few feet towards the basket of stuffed animals on his floor.  A little later, he had moved a few more feet towards his chair and the closet.  Later in the morning, he actually crawled back into bed and laid down for a bit.  This whole time, he was asleep or relatively asleep.  He made no noises, no cries, no nothing.  It's not completely safe, but it's rather hilarious.  I'm sure I'll keep at least half an ear on him all night tonight too, but until I get that rail I think that's how it's going to be.  I'm going to need to sleep twelve hours by the time the weekend rolls around.  But so will he, so maybe it'll work out!

Oregon wedding adventure

We're back from our whirlwind trip to Oregon.  It was a lot of fun, but it involved some mishaps as well.  Getting there was fine - we made it to the airport, we didn't forget anything, the plane was on time, Jayden napped for 1-1/2 hours of the flight, it all worked out well.  

Again, using baba as a pacifier during take-off allowed him to pass right out once we got up in the air.  He did the same thing on the flight home, only he slept for almost the entire 2 hour flight.

Once we landed in Oregon, however, things got interesting.  The main highway that we needed to take was closed, meaning we had to find a detour, adding an extra 20 minutes or so to our already long drive.  Once we finally got on the road and figured out where we were going, Alaska Airlines called me and asked if I'd forgotten an item at the airport.  I thought, "no, of course not."  Then the lady said something about a pack n play, and it dawned on me - we had checked a pack n play, and lo and behold, it was not in our car.  Hmph.  So back to the airport we went.  It did give me time to find a better alternate route to get across town, but Carmen and I were both frustrated at this point.  We finally get to where we're going (the Nike employee store where we spent too much money) and get on the road to the hotel.  We were supposed to get to the hotel, where my friend and her son were staying, around 6:30 or so.  Due to the detours and delays, we ended up stopping for dinner on the way and not getting to the hotel until around 8:30.  We go to check in and they tell us our reservation is for the next day and they are completely booked and there's nothing they can do.  By this point it is waaay past Jayden's bedtime and Carmen and I are both exhausted.  I go to say hello to my friend, tell her the drama and then let her try to finagle her two year old into bed.  We drive half an hour back the way we came to one of the few hotels anywhere nearby with a room for the night, unpack and pass out (Jayden in the bed with me, because of course he won't sleep in the pack n play, which we might as well have left at the airport).

The next morning we drive back to the the town where the hotel is to meet my friend and her son at the park.  This is when the trip started to get good.  My friend's son is about 25 or 26 months old  - only a few months older than Jayden.  They're about the same size, and my friend has been telling her son (Reid) about Jayden for the past few days.  So when he finally meets him, he goes "Jay-den!"  They become fast friends, following each other around the playground and grass, with Reid doing most of the leading and Jayden most of the following.  Jayden even got on the swing because Reid wanted to get on the swing - and Jayden usually hates the swing!

On the tire swing - Reid's "smile"!

"hanging" out

Hey - look at the camera!  Good job, Reid.  Now, Jayden?

1, 2, 3, swing!  Good job Reid.  Jayden?

Great job Jayden - now Reid - ohhh.  Neither Carissa nor I could them to both swing and look at the camera at the same time.  Oh well.  I absolutely adore the series, so it was worth it anyway.

On the sailboat.  Reid had the idea that to "sail" you had to hold on to the handle on both sides and wrap your body around the end of the sail.  It was pretty awesome.

Jayden ran through a mud puddle multiple times and got his shoes dirty.  He does not like to have his shoes dirty.  This is him pointing out his dirty shoes to me.  Soooo, he went barefoot.  And when Jayden went barefoot, Reid wanted to go barefoot too.  Even though Carissa said he usually hates it; once Jayden did it, he wanted to do it too.  

The five of us ate lunch together and then Carissa and Reid left to walk back to the hotel and hopefully get Reid to pass out.  As soon as they left, Jayden became very anxious and started pointing and saying "Ree? Ree?"  It was cute - they really became good friends in a matter of minutes.

The wedding was that night and it was beautiful.  There were huge grassy fields for the kids to run around in and they definitely got their moneys' worth.  Carissa, Carmen and I didn't get to participate much in the festivities - we were mostly chasing kids, breaking up fights over cars, supervising them as they tried to chase the duck around the pond, etc.  In fact, we were both so busy that neither Carissa nor I really got any pictures of anything!

Phil and her husband!  It was the first time I'd met him.  She is just so happy, and he seems like a cool guy.  They're off to Scotland to honeymoon right now, lucky them!

Carissa and her baby (who's not so much a baby really).

Carmen and I and our baby.  Who is totally still a baby.  :)

The kids did great and stayed up until 8:30 or so when we all decided it was time to head home and save ourselves the pain of another 10 pm night.  Turns out we got a 10 pm night because Carmen thought it would be good to stuff Jayden's stomach full of cupcake at about 8:00 pm.  Since it was apparently my job to get him to sleep, we tossed and turned for a while until he finally passed out.

Our trip home was uneventful.  Like I said, Jayden slept wonderfully and people afterwards commented how he'd barely made a peep and how well he did.  When kids are passed out they rarely make noises, so I guess that's the key.  I just don't know what we're going to do when we get on a flight that's more than 2 hours; it's going to be rough.  But we're back, and we're back to work and Juju's and all of that.

Showder

Kind of like chowder, but with less clam and more water.

That's Jayden's obsession.  He looooooves to shower.  Ever since we let him shower in Colorado, he wants to shower any time he sees one of us get in the shower.  We literally have to restrain him pulling off his clothes and getting in with us.  The good thing is that it has given us something new to tempt him with in the evenings.  "Soccer" is no longer so interesting, but showering, that's another story.

He might kill me for this later on in life, but I tried to protect his dignity as best I could!

When I picked him up today, Julia told me a great story: she was asking Tyman, the older boy at Jayden's daycare, what he wanted for snack, if he wanted applesauce (salsa de manzana).  Before Tyman could answer, Jayden piped up "si!"  He's never one to turn down food and if it's possible to get more, he'll jump at the opportunity.  Hilarious.

Jayden and I had dinner together tonight, which consisted of us sitting side by side at the table eating tortellini and marinara sauce.  Once he finished his bowl, he proceeded to finish off my bowl too.  Luckily there was ice cream in the freezer, just so I didn't go hungry.

My mom sent me this short book recently about parenting a toddler (a kid really, but I've only read the toddler stuff so far) and it did a good job of explaining some of the stages they go through.  A lot of Jayden's "NOs" and other defiance is his way of separating from Carmen and me, and his way of showing his independence - two different ideas, in a way, but also very similar.  It makes me proud that he is such an independent strong-willed kid, but sometimes it makes me want to hit my head against a wall.  But a soft wall, because I definitely want to see this kid grow up.

22 months!

Sadly I missed the actual day, and got a pretty lame picture today, but Jayden is officially 22 months.  I do know that he's not two yet, but he seems so old.  He's so funny.  He gets jokes - and even if he doesn't, he laughs anyway if other people are laughing.  We turned on music today and he was dancing all over the living room.  For 25 seconds, until it was time to play "choo-choo-tain" on the "cow-ch."

He was a master in the swimming pool today.  He probably spent half his lesson underwater.  Stacy was telling us she is so impressed with his progress.  When he flops into the water, he lets his back legs float up and he actually sort of floats.  He also understands that when he jumps in, he can let himself float to the top of the water.  He's still really stiff and struggles to move his arms or kick his legs, but at least he's comfortable in the water.  That means he'll get the whole movement thing soon enough.  Stacy said fighting the fear of sinking is the hardest thing, so we're already doing great.  Yay.  One of these Saturdays I'll have to sit out so I can take some pictures and/or video.  He pretty much always has a smile during swim lessons, except when Stacy is looking at him, of course.  He just loves the water.  After swim lessons we let him shower and we had to fight him to get out of the shower.  He watches what we do in the shower and tries to do the same thing, turning in circles, rubbing his head, etc.   We'll practice again tomorrow, so maybe I'll get some pictures/video then.

In the meantime, here's what I got today:

Passed OUT in the car.  We knew it would happen and instead of being good parents and getting him to sleep in his bed, we totally took advantage of it and had a nice calm lunch together while he slept in his stroller.  Oh well.  We'll figure out the sleep in the crib thing one of these days!

Helloooooo!

So, as always, it's been busy.

Jayden has had his moments recently, but overall he's been a great kid.  He stopped eating dinner, and really most meals besides breakfast, for a few days.  But now we're back on track.  He ate two bowls of oatmeal and most of my yogurt this morning and then had cheese tortellini and marinara sauce for dinner.  It makes such a difference in my life when I don't spend half the time I get with Jayden each day battling him over food.  No matter how many times I tell myself it's not a big deal, it still bothers me and stresses me out.  I'd like to think it makes a difference in his life, but who knows.  He can be crying one second and cracking up laughing a second later.

Checking out the waterfall with Daddy.  The picture looks effortless, but Carmen was having to tread water and hold on to the 30 pound child who can't swim with one arm.  It was an impressive feat on Carmen's part.

Gazing into Daddy's eyes while they swim back to safety, aka the shallow end.  

Jayden would have played in the pool for hours if we had let him.  But he was also exhausted and could barely hold his head up.  Here he's resting for a moment before heading back to the stairs to "jumm" (aka "jump") into the water.

I told him to "smile" and he did!  So exciting.  And only a little blurry.

"Driving" to Juju's this morning.  Until, of course, we stuck him into his carseat in Daddy's car.  

We are all looking forward to the weekend.  We have no plans, other than swim lessons, which is fantastic.  I wish all of you a relaxing and enjoyable (and for those of you on the east coast, a not humid!) weekend!

Aaand Happy Fourth!

This will be short.  We had a very relaxing Fourth of July.  Jayden slept for 2-1/2 hours, after throwing a temper tantrum and screaming for about 45 minutes.  I passed out with him, which actually turned out to be much-needed.  We went to lunch and to the store and then played in our pool (which is SO close to being done we can almost taste it).  If it weren't for the fireworks Carmen and I watched on TV, it would have been any old weekend day.

I had to work today, but I left by 12:30 pm and met Carmen and Jayden for lunch.  About three minutes before I walked in to the restaurant, Jayden passed out in Carmen's arms.  I brought in a blanket and my sweater and we let him sleep on the bench while we ate lunch.  He woke up right at the end to eat his lunch - it was just about perfect timing.

We also had a little bit of a dance party.  Jayden was really getting into - this was to Heavy D & the Boys, "Now That We Found Love."  Hitch was on TV while we were playing and at the end they do a line with everyone dancing to that song.  Jayden was watching and was trying to imitate what some of the people were doing.  Hilarious, and oh so cute!

At the end of the video, Jayden says "all gone?" because the screen went black.  So we rewound the movie and watched it again.  I think we finally cut it off at three times.  Carmen and I love that movie (and especially the scene at the end) as much as the next person, but even we were ready to move on to something else.  Again, sorry for the bumpy camera work - I need to remember to set the camera down and then dance with him.  I'll work on it.  :)

We've got a potentially busy weekend - Carmen's friend Alex is in town, my friend is having a going away party in L.A. tomorrow night, my cousin is in town and we have a bbq to attend on Sunday.  We'll see how much of that gets done, but we're going to do our best.  And because our life is super exciting, it's now my bedtime (at 11 pm on a Friday) so that we can get up at 7 am and start all over again!

This is going to be long

There's just no way around it.  I only had maybe 40 pictures from the vacation, but between my mom and my sister I have over 300 to sort through.  So I think I'm going to let the pictures tell the story - to save space more than anything.  I'll throw in a few sentences here and there to keep things clear.  :)

Thursday we left Santa Ana around 10 am.  We had purchased this cart that his carseat straps on to so that we could wheel the carseat through the airport and then he could sit in the carseat on the airplane.  It turns out it was a brilliant idea - he loved being able to ride in his carseat, on the car and in the airplane.  He did pretty well on the plane - just got nervous on the descent into Denver due to the turbulence when flying over the Rockies.  But as soon as we got off and he was set free, he was great.

After finding Auntie in the airport, we got to ride a bus to go get our rental car - so exciting!

Playing with one of the toys "Gamma" had hidden around the room.  I had very strict instructions as to where I was supposed to lay.

Auntie was just excited he was holding her hand.  :)

Goofing off at dinner.  One thing I learned on this vacation is that I get about 15 minutes of him in a chair and then we're off.  It makes eating out a whole lot more difficult.

Friday was Happy Birthday to me - but quiet happy birthday because we were celebrating the 95th birthday of my great uncle (two weeks earlier) and the first birthday of my cousin's son (first cousin?  second cousin?  technically she's my dad's cousin's daughter - but in our heads we're all just cousins).

They actually let us feed the giraffes!  Jayden was brave and actually put the lettuce in the giraffe's mouth.  Their tongues are super creepy so he only did it once - but this is his expression right after he did it.

Well, helloooo Mr. Giraffe!

There were cool structures all over the zoo for Jayden to walk into and crawl out of.  He probably would have stayed here all day if there weren't so many cool animals.

Crawling out of a tunnel.

Checking out the tiger with Gamma.

An "eff-e-fant."

Jayden with Gamma and Gamma (until the end of the trip Jayden could only say "gamma," so my dad was "gamma" too.  Oh well.  Now he can say "gam-pop," sort of.

We stopped by the pool after the zoo and it turns out to Jayden that means play in the fountain in your regular clothes since Mama wasn't smart enough to change him into his swim trunks.  And then a thunderstorm came and we all got wet running back to the room.  Oh well.

Playing cornhole at the dinner bbq with Gamma.

Cousins and cousins!  Amazing that both kids had their fingers in their mouths and are basically mirror images of each other.  Jayden is 21-1/2 months and Teddy is the one who turned one on June 25th.  He has beautiful eyes and is just an amazingly happy baby.  It helps that his parents are pretty awesome people too.  

Swimming!  This pool was not as warm as the swimming lessons pool and Jayden was not as into it.  But at least we got him underwater a little bit.

Passed out on the couch in the cabana.  

Crawling through the tunnel at the playground.

Playing bocce ball.

Family photo - all dressed up for dinner!

Gamma does not like deer because they eat the flowers in her garden at home.  So apparently that means she hates all deer.  Which means she teaches her two year old grandson to tell the deer "No.  No!" whenever they come near the flowers and try to eat them.  Neither Gamma nor Jayden were very effective.

Hugs on the balcony before dinner.

Jayden decided to have a five minute makeout session with me. He came at me with an open mouth and kept rubbing his hands in my hair and just attacking me with his kisses.  It was cute but a little overwhelming!

Still awake for the bus ride home at 10:30 pm.  I cannot believe the kid made it all night, and relatively cheerfully, too.

Sunday was our last day, and was pretty low-key.  Most of the rest of the family had left already, so it was mostly just the Ferrins and Wallaces.

We went for a boat ride!  So fun.

Being on the agua was pretty exciting, even if his life vest did go up to his ears.

Checking out the view.

And checking out the entertainment from Gamma and Auntie.  Not totally sure Jayden doesn't think they're crazy, but he certainly was entertained while we used up our hour of boat rental.

We really were staying in a beautiful place.  And that's Grandpa on the bridge - he was walking his laps while we were boating and Jayden would look for him every time we went under the bridge.  About five minutes later, after Grandpa was already walking away, Jayden would point and say "gamma" - this is when he was still on "gamma" for all grandparents.

Proof that Jayden let Auntie hold him, and willingly!  No temper tantrums or anything.

Family dinner.   And birthday cake afterwards - yay!

Finally, we were on our way home on Monday.  Another adventure certainly, but a quick flight made all the difference in the world.  I'm scared to fly cross country with our incredibly active two year old.  Even on the two hour flight, Jayden asked to get "ou-tt" about fifteen times.  Anything longer is going to be tough.

Saying bye-bye to Gamma.  Both were pretty sad when we were driving away.

Apparently Jayden reverts to his pacifier use when he is on an airplane with turbulence.  He wasn't sucking so much as just having it in his mouth for comfort, I think.  And if he had been sucking, I'd be okay with that too if it helped protect his ears.  It was rough for him taking off - with the turbulence over the Rockies again - but after that he was incredibly well-behaved.  And luckily there was a kid in front of him so it wasn't as bad as it could have been as far as him kicking the seat.  

All in all, it was a good trip.  It was a real vacation for me - I didn't look at work email after Friday morning and Carmen only had a few work emails/texts to deal with.  As I mentioned before, Jayden was fussier than normal and wouldn't eat a lot, but those things were minor in the grand scheme of things.  I'm now really looking forward to the five trips we have in the next three months - except for the fact that every one of those trips involves a plane flight!