Visit with Gramma Gigi

I know it has been a few days since I last posted.  Enid has been visiting and we've been busy!!

First of all, Jayden got a couple of new birthday presents about which he is super excited!

Thanks Ella, Kelly and Mike!  The place mat is a fixture in front of the high chair now!  And we talk about the color of the airplanes and the fact that they "fwy" just about every meal.

The lego choo-choo twain is awesome.  We count with the numbers, sort of (and usually in Spanish - uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco!).  Gracias Gabby y Jackie!

Enid arrived Tuesday.  Jayden and Enid got to stay home together Thursday while Carmen and I went to work.  It was difficult to tell who got more tired, Jayden or Enid!  But it seems like they had a great time.  It was so awesome to see Jayden not be as reserved with Gamma Gigi.  I think he understands what the word "Grandma" means and he understands that people with that name are safe.  It's so fun to see him having such a good time with his Gamma.

Friday all of us went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  It was Jayden's first trip to an aquarium and considering his obsession with Nemo, it was good timing.  It took him a few minutes to warm up, but once he did, he had a great time.  He was fascinated by the sharks.  The penguins and otters weren't so interesting to him.  But just about every orange fish that he saw was exciting.  Oh, and the sea lions, because they'd climb out of the water and bark and "make noise."

Agua!

The captain of the boat.

SHARK!

What I did on my summer vacation
A shark ate my ear.  

The coolest place to hang out.  This was in the penguin exhibit - the penguins would swim overhead and in front of the window and it was perfectly tall enough for Jayden.  Of course, Jayden didn't care at all.  He just sat in the corner for about 10 minutes.  Some older kids came and boxed him in and he just sat there.  Watching.  Sometimes he can be so serious.

Jayden didn't care a lick about the otters.  But I loved them.  There were baby otters in the back of the exhibit too - so fuzzy and cute!

Nemo fish!!!  We expected him to be here for hours.  But after maybe a minute or two he was over it and on to the next tank.

Saturday I had to work in the morning, so Carmen and Enid took Jayden to swim lessons.  As expected, he was a great student - splashing and even actually swimming, sort of, from Carmen to the wall.  Enid got the "blue buoy swim school grandparent" t-shirt, so she had a good time.

Saturday afternoon we had a bunch of people over to the house.  Enid made her famous fried chicken and macaroni and cheese and we had a whole bunch of other snacks and people just relaxed and swam and chased children.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

The dads and the kids in the pool.  Our pool heater managed to not work, so the pool was rather chilly.  All of the kids were shivering within 20 minutes of getting in.

Bardis and Jody's youngest, Seena.  She and Jayden have the same hair!

Right after Bard managed to knock bricks off of the wall.  Ooooops.

Seena getting a ride from big brother.  And Jayden "supervising."

Jayden showing me where he bumped his knee.  And holding on tight to his new "tractor" (which is really a monster truck).

Chilling in the truck.  Jayden actually did a really good job of sharing his toys, including his balls, his truck, his water/sand table (good timing, Mom - it was a hit with all of the kids, ages 18 months to 11 years!) and his sand toys.  He didn't throw a fit at all and gave people turns without complaining.  So impressive.

Slam dunk!  (he actually made this)

A little blurry, but cookie eating in the doorway.

I realize now that all the pictures are of the three toddlers.  There were actually other people at the party, including Stacy and Kamal, Cathy, Cuong (Stacy's friend), Mark (Carmen's co-worker) and Laura and their kids, Bard and Jody.  Like I said already, it was a really fun, relaxed afternoon.  There was definitely some clean-up to be done after, but Enid was so generous and cleaned the kitchen - more than I would have!

Today Jayden and I went to the park.  He's been asking to go to the "pahk" for the past week and I've been telling him we'll go on Sunday, so I didn't want to break my promise.  We went to a different park, and it was fun - but I'd probably go back to our regular park in the future.

Running up the hill.  This park was on a huge hill, so we spent the first little bit running up and down the hills.  The awesome part of this was that I had run about 5-1/2 miles that morning, entirely up and down hills.  So my legs/quads were killing me.  So of course Jayden wanted to run up and down hills some more.  Of course.

We made "cupcakes" in our buckets and "ate" bites out of the shovels.  They were yummy!

Running on the playground.  There were two little girls there riding their bicycles and we also spent some time watching them and running in the same circle that they were riding.  I had to teach him to jump on to the grass when the bicycle came by so that they didn't crash.  So then he spent the next few minutes telling me "I no crash!"  Which was true, he didn't.  

Jayden was exhausted by the time we left, even though he swore he didn't want to leave.  He was passed out about 30 seconds after I drove away from the park.  I was going to take him to lunch, so instead I carried him into the restaurant, thinking he'd wake up once we got inside.  Nope.  He slept in my arms the entire time I ordered, paid, got our drinks and carried our food back out to the car.  He woke up for a minute when I plopped him into his car seat (31+ pounds of dead weight was killing my arm) and then passed out again and slept another hour or so once we got home.  We spent the afternoon playing in the swimming pool, playing with cars on the couch and generally hanging out.  Jayden is just such a sweet boy.  Anytime I sneeze he says "bwess you mommy."  And today he was sitting on me (not the sweetest thing, but okay) and looks at me and says "kiss mommy."  He then leaned over and goes "mm-wah" and kissed me.  Just melts my heart.

I was explaining to my friend Stacy yesterday that motherhood is by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.  But that he makes me the happiest I've been - not that I am the happiest I've ever been in life, but he makes me the happiest, if that makes sense.  But he is also the primary, maybe only, thing I get sappy about.  I just am in awe of him almost every day.  And even though he exhausts me, I love seeing what he will learn next.  I just think he's so cool!

For instance, he has stopped saying "si" and now says "yeah" whenever he wants to say "yes."  That started within the last week; I'm interested to see if he switches back to Spanish when he starts going back to Juju's tomorrow.  He does still count in Spanish, so maybe it's just another phase.

He also told me how old he was once this weekend.  The rest of the time he wouldn't say it or he'd get all goofy and say "noooo!" or something.  I think we're close to getting him to say it regularly.  It's just so clear he's not a performer.  As soon as the camera (or the ipad or the phone or whatever) is on him, he clams up.  Although one evening last week I was talking to Ellen on the phone and he said to me "I talk!" and grabbed the phone.  He held the phone up to his ear and said "hi!"  That was the beginning, middle and end of the conversation, but it was super cute.  And today when I was talking to Ellen he looked at the phone and said "Auntie!" without me even prompting him.  So he's getting bolder in some ways, at some times, with some people.

And now it's a new week.  Carmen leaves tomorrow for about a 34 hour trip.  Then we all leave Friday for Minnesota for my cousin's wedding.  It is going to be hectic, but hopefully fun at the same time.  And Jayden is very excited to be on an "aihplane" so that's positive, I think.  Here's hoping!