Halloween!

So tonight is real Halloween.  Since I was incredibly lame last year, I wanted to make sure I planned something this year.  I left work early, stopped at home to let Jasmine out and feed her and then picked up Jayden.  We met Carmen at a local outdoor mall where they were having trick or treating at the stores.  It didn't start off well in that when I tried to put on Jayden's orange pants at daycare he threw a huge fit and wouldn't do it.  Sooo he became a beige Nemo, as Julia said!

When we got to the mall I was able to get the sweatshirt and scales on, so at least he looked like he was dressed as something.  We went to the place that had the bags and in that store at the time was a storm trooper from Star Wars.  Jayden jumped, ran the opposite direction and tried to hide his face and everything else in the metal chair he ran into.  Apparently he is not a fan of large adults in white robot-looking costumes (or whatever you'd describe a Storm Trooper as - Carmen would probably shoot me for my description).  So for the next 4-5 stores, Jayden had to be carried.  Finally he realized how fun it was to grab candy out of a bucket and put it into his bag so he got excited about going to the rest of the stores and even ran a bit.

We met an awesome balloon artist guy - he was super talented and also super friendly, and not in a creepy way which is usually what happens with super friendly kid-related people.  We ate dinner at Carmen's favorite place, Capriotti's, hit up a few more stores and Jayden and I came home while Carmen drove up to the airport.

It was fun, and it was fun to see Jayden enjoy himself so much (and get so mesmerized by the large TVs in the mall that he nearly ran into people, planters, signs, chairs, basically anything that was immobile or mobile that was within a five foot radius of him.  And even though he wouldn't wear his hood, most people guessed he was a fish, except the guy in Five Guys who actually guessed Nemo!

And here is the evening in pictures:

My first lame joke of the day: A fish out of water!

A close up.

Me (as a cat) with the amazing orange dog created by the balloon artist.

Fish face.  And a lollipop!

My boys.  And their dimples.

Jayden and Mama.  Of course he didn't look at the camera for our picture.  Oh well.

Heading home with a bag full o' candy that Mama gets to eat.
(except the lollipops, I'll save the lollipops for Jayden)

Jayden and Daddy walking into the "sunset."

And now Jayden is asleep, I'm having a glass of wine, reviewing my appeal brief and trying not to pass out on the couch (my sleep last night was slightly interrupted by my two year old claiming "I-I-I I not tired....").  And tomorrow is Friday.  Yay!  Happy end of the week everyone!

It's HUMP Day!

This week has been long already, and there are still two long days left!

Monday night I had to work late and starting off the week with an almost 12 hour day is just not cool.

Jayden has been pretty tired and has actually had a good appetite too, which has made everyone's life easier.  Tonight Carmen didn't make it home in time for dinner and he leaves tomorrow night for a few nights, so Jayden won't see a lot of him in the next few days.  He'll start having Daddy withdrawal and I'll have to explain that he's on an airplane to North Carolina, which I'm sure will become "'lina."  :)

In any case, enough complaining and on to the fun stuff.

Jayden has been a lot more interested in artsy stuff, especially drawing, recently.  He makes us draw things, mostly hearts and stars and then he "draws" them.  But tonight he actually did it and drew something resembling a heart!  I pointed it out to him and watching the smile grow on his face as he realized he did it was just so awesome.

I took a video, but of course missed the shining moment.  The video itself might be kind of boring, but it does show, sort of, how much better he is with a pen.  It literally used to be uncontrollable and now he can actually make shapes, sort of.

It's been chilly here recently, at least for Californians.  At night it actually gets pretty cold in the house and we've been worried about Jayden since he can't keep a blanket on himself to save his life.  So I've been trying to tuck a blanket around him.  But this morning he came into our room around 5:30 am and his feet were blocks of ice.  I don't know that he woke up because of his cold feet, but I definitely think it's possible.  To make a long story short, it gave me an excuse to put him into these adorable pajamas:

The funniest part was that after I put them on he looked down and said "where my feet???" with some serious concern.  He kept saying "take off," "where my toes?" and "I cant see 'em."  It was hilarious.  I had to convince him that they were attached to the pajamas, that it would keep his feet warm and that he didn't want to take the doggie off, did he?  (the animal on his pajamas is a dog)  Finally, after I turned out the light, he crashed hard and I'm hoping he can make it through the night without him freaking out about where his toes are.

Boo at the Zoo and other fun

This weekend we started our Halloween celebration with Jayden.  But FIRST, Carmen and I actually had a date night.  It's the first night we've spent just the two of us since the anniversary dinner we had in New York City in August.  And before that, I think it might have been May.  We're not very good at it.  But we did pick a great event on Friday night to check out.

Left to Right: Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington.
This is actually what the stage looked like; it was a beautiful stage and
a great venue overall.

I got an email about a jazz trio at a local theater - it was for a group called ACS, which consists of three women, Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Spalding and Esperanza Spalding.  The music was amazing and it was a relaxing evening.

After the show.

Since this is really about Jayden, here's some updates from the week:
Jayden is growing so fast; he outgrew his rear-facing seat, so I turned both car seats around this week.  He thinks he now gets to "ride" like Daddy in Mama's car and like Mama in Daddy's car.  He's pretty happy about it, and he can see quite a bit more out the window.

"I wride!"

I spent two of the nights making Jayden's halloween costume.  It actually turned out better than I thought.

The question was whether or not he was actually going to wear it.  He is not so good at trying new things and I was really worried (for myself) that we would refuse to put it on.

On Friday, I got home early enough to get ready and feed him dinner before Katrina arrived.  He came upstairs while I was getting ready, and helped me decide what necklace to wear:

He was a screaming, sobbing hot mess when we left, saying "I go with mommy."  So we just exited as fast as we could.  Katrina said they went upstairs soon after and he just laid down on the floor, practically falling asleep.  We knew he was tired, so she should put him to bed.  And then he slept until 8:20 the next day, and we could barely wake him up at that time.  He slept for something like 13 hours and probably could have slept for more!

Swimming was really fun: Stacy took him underwater and they almost touched the bottom of the pool!  It took Jayden a little by surprise, but it's cool that he can do that now.  I keep wondering at what point we should put him into semi-private lessons, so that it would just be him and one other kid.  I don't know that he swims quite well enough for that; but I also think that he could learn a lot more a lot faster if he was more of the focus of the lesson.

We ran some errands and then came home for naptime.  Afterwards we got up and started putting on the costume for "Boo at the Zoo."  He was telling me that he "no like it" (the costume) and that he "no want tail."  And I was getting sad (again, all about me, which I do recognize).  When we got to the zoo, he was so mesmerized by all of the other kids and costumes that I don't know if he even realized he had a costume on.  He even wore the hood for the first 10 minutes or so!

In the parking lot, after we got him costumed up.
I may have slightly overestimated his height - the tail was supposed to hit closer to his hips.  Oh well - I made it loose enough that he could still run just fine.

Staring at the other costumes on the way to the entrance.

Jayden, still distracted, with Daddy at a photo op near the entrance.

Running Jayden-Nemo fish!

Watching story time.  We tried dancing too.  I have a funny video, but it's mostly just me dancing and "sadly" we can't get it from Carmen's phone to my computer.  Darn.
Jayden enjoyed it when I moved him in the motions - it was a Halloween version of the Hokey Pokey. But he wouldn't actually make the movements himself.

Sitting on the stairs after storytime.  We stayed pretty late, so it was dark outside by the time we left.

But nothing would stop this little boy from being in a good mood.  This is him playing around in the booth at the sushi restaurant where we ate dinner.  He actually ate a piece of our sushi!  We were so proud.  :)

Everyone was exhausted last night; we all slept well until about 7:15 when Jayden invaded our bedroom.  Today I got to run, then Jayden and I spent about two hours at the park.  There were three other little boys there, between the ages of 2-1/2 and 3+, and the four of them had a whole bunch of fun.  Funny enough, Jayden was about the same size as all of them, despite being at least 6 months, sometimes a year, younger than them.  He tried his best to keep up, but he had a great time even when he was behind.  One of the little boys called him PJ for some reason.  At one point the little boy said "PJ, come up here, come on!"  Jayden turned to him and said "Okay.  I comin'!"  It was so cool to see him play with these other kids, understand what they were talking about and respond.

Jayden and his friend at the end of the slide.  What happens next is that Jayden jumps off the end, just before the little boy reaches him and Jayden does a few more jumps and shouts "Got me!"  

I think I sat down for a total of about 45 minutes today, besides the hour I laid down while Jayden napped.  I'm rather exhausted.  Sundays are hard since it's football all day for Carmen and I have so many things to get done.  But it was a good weekend and we still have Thursday trick or treating to look forward to!

As always, I feel like there are so many other stories that I've forgotten to tell you.  Here are a few:
While I was making eighteen different things for dinner this week (really just three, but still - it was a lot of cooking), Carmen and Jayden were playing with blocks on the floor.  Carmen did something for Jayden, or stacked the blocks properly, or something, and Jayden said "Good job Daddy."  He was very complimentary.

After our trip to the grocery store today he was climbing into his carseat.  He saw a picture on the side of the carseat that shows how to properly install the child.  He said "baby!"  And I said, yes, just like you.  He looks at me and says "I-I-I, I no baby."  I asked him what he was then, and he said "I big boy!"

At the zoo last night there was a bunch of music playing at different parts.  Towards the end of the night, we found one of those places and there were three kids dancing to the music - these kids were really enthusiastic, jumping around and dancing.  Jayden stopped to watch for a bit, and then started running in circles nearby, but not getting too close.  Finally he ventured over near the kids and started jumping around and "dancing."  It was very cute.  I tried to get a video, but it was really dark and very difficult to get good video.  So you'll just have to imagine the tiny orange fish jumping up and down to some music.

After the grocery store we ran into a beauty supply store to pick something up quickly.  There was nail polish nearby and I decided (as I so often do) to just grab one.  Recently Jayden has noticed my painted toes and has told me he wants painted toes too.  I've tried to put him off, saying he should wait until he's three.  But today he picked out a color and sat down in the middle of the store and tried to take his shoes off.  I stopped that from happening, but did buy him his color.  Which happens to be a pale pink/lavender color.  I don't know if I'll end up having to paint his toes, but I warned Carmen that when he gets back next Sunday, Jayden's toes might be pink....

Some thoughts

So, I don't have pictures to share, just thoughts and anecdotes.

First off, this: http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/tell-a-friend-you-are-a-good-mama/

I think it's so important to be supportive of other moms and to expect support (as opposed to criticism) in return.  I am going to try to tell people this, particularly strangers.  Sometime this summer, now I have no idea when, I was running on a Saturday or Sunday with Jayden (30 lbs) in the stroller (25-30 lbs) on a path near our house.  I was tired, running down a hill, knowing I was having to go right back up that same hill.  I passed another female runner and she looked at me and said something along the lines of "nice job mama."  I'm not going to lie, I ran a little faster back up that hill because of the encouragement.

Just think of how much better everyone could feel if we recognized everyone's effort, big or small, to just be a good mama, whether that means taking care of your child, your spouse, yourself, your work, your house, whatever it is that matters.

So now on to the anecdotes.  Every time I finish a post I think of all the things I forgot to mention.

Like the fact that Jayden calls me "mom" now.  He's two! And he says "hey mom" and "get it mom."  I still get the mama and mommy sometimes, but probably a third of the time it's mom.  He better revert back to mama at some point before he turns 10.

And that he's obsessed with hopping and jumping, particularly on one foot.  He can do it in the swimming pool but can't do it on the ground very well.  Although it's pretty cute to watch him try.

And that if I do something for him, like hand him his toothbrush with toothpaste on it, he says "oh, thank you."  And that he says "bless you mommy" every time I sneeze.  Or cough.  Or make any kind of noise that might be mistaken for a sneeze or a cough.  And then says it over and over again.

That he reminds me to get his jacket when we leave Juju's and that we have to talk about everyone's car as we drive out of Juju's neighborhood.  "Owen's car?" "Kenn-dee's car?" "Niko's car?" (and Niko doesn't even go to Juju's anymore).  And then sometimes we talk about Daddy's car and how the color is black and then we look for all the black cars on the way home, even though we know Daddy is at work or at home or in between the two or wherever he is.

And how this morning, he came into my room at 6:15 am (which is too early, in case anyone is keeping track) and looked at the other side of the bed and said "Daddy on trip?"  And then said "in 'apolis." ("'apolis = Indianapolis.  He skips the first syllable or two of most long words).  Because he remembered all of this from what I told him the night before.  So even though he's been a pain in the bottom about sleeping, I'm so proud of him for being so super smart.

That we went for a "run" yesterday.  I was planning to jog with Jayden in the stroller and holding on to Jasmine, but Jayden wanted to walk.  So.  I pushed the stroller, held on to Jasmine and either held on to Jayden, had Jayden hold on to Jasmine's leash or made sure he was within arm's reach for the mile or so that we went.  Eventually I convinced Jayden to ride so that I could actually do some jogging.  But it was pretty fun to "go for a run" with Jayden.

And I know there are a million more things I could mention.  But that's what I can remember for now.  And the things I want to make sure I don't forget.  I'll have to do one of these every once in a while so I can print them out and show them to Jayden later in life. That way he'll know how awesome slash what a terror he was when he was two.

A weekend at home

Finally, for everyone but Carmen, we got to have a weekend at home.  We were out and about doing things, of course, but Jayden, Jasmine and I aren't traveling or being boarded, so that's great.  Poor Carmen was back on an airplane this morning, but he's going to two big football games, so I don't feel all that bad for him.  :)

On Thursday Carmen took Jayden to get a haircut.  I had an evening event for work and honestly, it probably went better with me not being there.  It makes me sad, but Jayden just reacts so differently to me - so much more clingy and emotional than when he is with just Carmen.  And he needed a haircut desperately - only the third of his lifetime - kind of crazy to think about.

So serious.  Carmen said he was "sad at first."  But then he just sat there.  As long as it got done, we're all happy.  Even Jayden, whether he realizes it or not, because now his hair won't get in his eyes in the swimming pool.

Apparently afterwards he kept saying "I got haircut!" which probably came out something like "I-I-I-I-I gawt haiwcut!"  I swear he looks like he's 5 years old, not 2.  

On Saturday we went to swim lessons with Ms. Stacy and then got some pictures taken in the afternoon (hence the haircut two days earlier).  Of course Jayden wouldn't smile to save his life and would barely sit still, but eventually I think we got some good pictures.  Carmen and I expended a lot of effort to get those smiles, but of course Jayden is the one that got the lollipop.

Checking out a petting zoo (from outside the fence since we weren't willing to pay to get in five minutes before closing).  

And this morning, Carmen left for a quick trip across the country.  Jayden and I ran some errands and had lunch out.  I recently joined Instagram and have posted about eight pictures.  I like this picture better with the filter, so decided to share the "filtered" version here.  For those of you not on Instagram, it's basically a photo sharing website where you can apply different filters to your photos to get different effects.  It's fun, but basically just another social media site.

Lunch date and a new car.  And a smile!
And also, I have so many wrinkles in this picture!  So sad. 

When we were shopping I saw these:

I was about to buy one because I thought they'd be fun to have at the house and I thought they'd drive Jasmine nuts, which would be funny.  And then I looked at the price tag.  Almost $400!!!!!  Insanity.  So I settled for a picture of the cute stuffed reindeer instead.

After we got home, Jayden took a solid nap (he was exhausted - he was close to falling asleep on the way to the store, but I kept singing loudly and talking to him to keep him awake).  When he woke up, we played cars, we played blocks, we tried to see Daddy on the sidelines in Indy (but did not) and then I made dinner.  While I was making dinner, Jayden was "helping" me clean up.

I was talking to him about one day helping me cook by getting a stool and helping me stir things.  So he ran to the bathroom downstairs, grabbed the stool he uses to brush his teeth and brought it to the sink in the kitchen.  I had non-breakable items in the sink so he played with them (aka "washed") in the sink while I cooked.
This is also proof that saggy bottom sweatpants don't look good on anyone, even cute toddlers.

 At one point I turned around and he was on the other side of the counter, mixing Jasmine's food into her water bowl with two of my tablespoons.  And I later discovered that he had left one of his tablespoons in her water bowl, which probably prevented her from drinking for at least half an hour.  Poor little doggy.

After me spending probably 45 minutes or so making spaghetti and meatballs, Jayden's dinner consisted of bread, carrots, peanut butter crackers and a pouch.  Oh well.  I tried, I guess.  And I didn't think the spaghetti and meatballs was all that great anyway, so maybe Jayden was just saving the calories?

Finally, and maybe most exciting (to me), I actually got Jayden to go poo-poo in his potty seat today.  I learned a few things.  First, Jayden is starting to recognize when he thinks he has to go.  Second, when he does recognize that he has to go, you have approximately 2.8 seconds to get him somewhere safe (in this case from the bathtub to the potty seat, luckily).  Third, Jayden is fascinated by the toilet and flushing and whatnot, so I probably really should potty train him.  Fourth, and last, it is a pain in the rear end to clean poo-poo out of the potty seat.  I mean, it's not really that bad.  But it's amazing how useful the water in the toilet bowl is.  Hopefully none of you are reading this just before or just after eating.  But these are the milestones in a toddler's life and it is Jayden's world after all.

And now it's back to work.  And a crazy few weeks.  Carmen gets home late Tuesday, I have an event Wednesday.  We'll be home next weekend, hopefully doing at least one, maybe three, Halloween celebration things.  I then have an event Monday night and then leave the following week for the East Coast.  Either the day I get home or the next day, Carmen leaves for Denver.  And I don't think Carmen is traveling at any time during the next few weeks, but I don't really know.  And he probably doesn't really know either.  But such is life.  In an effort to find more positives on a daily basis, I am grateful for the things I do have, number one being a pretty awesome kid who mostly listens and only sometimes requires time outs.  ;)

Oh My Gosh!

And then the follow up.  He's so bossy!

thank goodness

for many, many things.

For being done with traveling with our two year old for at least a month (not done traveling entirely, but Carmen and I will be traveling separately, which is a heck of a lot easier);

For having a pretty awesome kid that makes it not so terribly awful to travel with a two year old;

For having a supportive family; nearly everyone showed up for my grandmother's memorial service held on what would have been her 85th birthday and the one person who did not make it was out of the country;

For having a sweet dog who doesn't hate us when we leave her and is always excited to see us, even if we have been neglecting her for the past two-ish years;

For having great friends who are still my friends even if I don't see them hardly ever and don't even always talk to them all that often;

And for lots more that I can't think of off the top of my head at the moment.  But I figure this is a good start.  Back to the first two, though.  We had a good trip to Texas and even got Jayden into cowboy boots!  He didn't start off all that excited, but warmed up once we got him in his boots at home.

In the store while Auntie and I checked out boots for him.  He was not convinced we were on his side.

We ended up getting boots that are two sizes too big.  But it didn't seem to bother him at all.  He's in his swim shirt, his shorts and his boots.  And at this point he was yelling at me "no pictures mama!"

The boots are so big his knees are in his armpits!
We went to swim lessons this morning and he demanded to wear his boots.  Once we took them off at the pool I hid them in the bag so he wouldn't try to put them on after the lesson.  I'm totally fine with him wearing them, but since they're two sizes too big I didn't want him running around in them at Juju's.  It would likely give her a heart attack.  

Friday we left pretty early and got into Austin in the early afternoon.  Once again, Jayden was great on the flight; slept for a little over an hour and played quietly with me the rest of the time.  The worst part of the flight was the mother who was traveling with her two kids behind us.  Her voice was louder and more obnoxious than any of the kids on the plane.

We got into Austin and prepared for the solid two hour drive to Kerrville.  It was a bit of an adventure and we were exhausted when we got there, but we got to see everyone at my granddad's house, which was really nice.  Jayden slept in the hotel crib that night, even though it was about four inches too short for him.  But it had been a long day and he might have slept in a bathtub if we'd put him in one with a blanket.

The next day was the memorial service.  Jayden was not so great.  He couldn't sit still and definitely couldn't stay quiet.  He bit me at one point.  So I spent much of the service out in the hallway watching through a door while Jayden ran up and down the hallway.

In the hallway during the memorial service.  Thank goodness the church had TVs and sound in the hallway so I didn't miss too much.

Hanging out at lunch after the services.  For Jayden, lunch was fruit snacks and a snack bar, even though I'd ordered him a pretty yummy cheese enchilada with rice and beans.

Climbing a ladder with Daddy at Granddad's house.

Sunday we went bowling, which was a blast.  Almost everyone went, and they had this cool contraption that allowed Jayden to bowl too!  He was running around like a crazy man, but I think he had a great time.  We'll have to take him bowling again whenever we actually have time again.

After breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Carmen was in heaven - it was in walking distance from our hotel.

At bowling with Gramma.  Turns out, since I was the one bowling with him most of the time, I didn't get many pictures of the actual bowling.  In fact, this was the only one.  I'm really hoping my mom and/or my sister got some of the actual bowling event itself.  

Passed out after bowling on the floor in Granddad's study.

Playing on the bed with cousin Molly and Auntie Ellen.  By Sunday night Jayden was actually being friendly and I bribed him into giving about 10 people hugs - by tossing him up in the air.  For every toss he passed out one or two (or more) hugs.  It was a little bribery, but it was totally worth it for the family to get hugs from the two-year-old.  

Monday we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel, headed to Granddad's for one last goodbye and then the two hour drive back to Austin.  We thought we were giving ourselves plenty of time, but it turns out that by the time we got to the airport, we had just enough time to return the rental car, check our bags, get through security, eat a rather rushed lunch with Gramma and board the plane about twenty minutes before it took off.  Jayden didn't nap at all on the ride home, but again was quite pleasant.  Which reminds me of another thing I'm thankful for: IPADS!  Seriously, don't know what we'd do without them.  I mean, I'm sure we'd come up with something, maybe books, I guess.  But the ipad has so many options and is so easy to carry, it really is convenient.  And actually teaches Jayden something - he got pretty good at the matching game which involved finding pairs of trucks and at the train puzzles.  It's fun to watch his brain work at those things.

On the plane home to Long Beach.  As we were boarding, one of the flight attendants was passing out wings to the kids.  As he handed one to Jayden, I took it, assuming Jayden wouldn't even look at the guy.  Instead, Jayden reached for it and said "whas dat?" (his new favorite phrase and my newest challenge).  I explained they were wings, just like the pilots of the airplane wear.  And he said "wings!"  And I asked him if he was going to fly the plane like the pilots and he said "yeah!"  I told him not to tell the other passengers that.  As we were walking down the aisle in the middle of a bunch of passengers.  I thought it was funny but only one other person smiled at me.  Oh well.

Along the "whas dat?" lines: He'll ask "whas dat?" for everything.  Including people, things, places, etc.  So I've had to explain what various people do, as they're standing right next to me.  And what various things are that are incredibly difficult to explain to a two year old.  Yesterday he asked me "whas dat?" for something that was difficult to explain.  I started to explain anyway, because even if he doesn't totally get the words, I think it helps his vocabulary - this kid is way too old for baby talk.  I got about five words into the explanation and realized it was so beyond my ability to explain that it was better to give up.  So I did.  On Monday at breakfast he kept saying "whas dat?" every time the waitress came by our table.  So I had to explain that the waitress is the person who helps us get our food.  In front of the waitress.  Luckily our waitress had a sense of humor.  And luckily Jayden is generally pretty charming, so long as you don't totally hate kids.

One thing I regret from the weekend is not being better about taking pictures.  My granddad was super busy and I think rather emotionally and physically exhausted.  But I never got a picture of Jayden with him.  Once again, I'm really hoping my mom or sister managed to pull that off.  But it would make me pretty sad if I missed that opportunity.

And now we're back to reality and back to life as we more or less know it.  Carmen travels again on Sunday and I've got three evening events in the next two weeks and then I travel in the beginning of November, but at least Jayden will get to stay in place and stick to his schedule, more or less.

I have a few pictures that I forgot to upload earlier.  Here they are:

I cwime in!  He loves "cwiming" and often gets rather angry when we place or hop him in instead of letting him climb in.  And he's pretty good at it, in terms of both strength and balance.  

Backpack!
He was super excited when he first saw this and wanted to wear it all over the house.  As soon as I put stuff in it for him to take on the play it was "too 'eavy" and I had to carry it.  It turns out to still be very convenient to have a backpack for him and a backpack for me.  But it will be really nice when he can carry his own load someday.  A girl can dream, I guess.

'Sota

Aka Minnesota, which is where we were this past weekend.  Jayden has a tendency to leave off the beginning of words.  For instance, whenever we leave Juju's, we say "hasta manana."  And Jayden's version is "manya." So it's no surprise that I when I told him we were going to Minnesota, that clearly became "s-oh-ta."

This was the longest flight we've been on since he learned to walk, so needless to say I was nervous.  But Jayden was great.  He only slept for one hour of the three plus hour flight on the way out there, but between the ipad, books and a few snacks (and one bathroom trip), he was great.  He got to have his first lollipop, which was a huge hit.

I had to explain "no bite!"  But for now I think I'm going to limit lollipops to the airplane (just like the ipad) to make the flights something for him to look forward to.

Rockin out with mama's headphones to Wheels on the Bus on the ipad.  He was singing along - going "roun' an' roun'" and "up - down, up - down," etc.

Once we landed in the airport we waited for my parents, who were supposed to land minutes after us.  Luckily there was a play area and Jayden actually climbed into the helicopter and was "flying" the helicopter.  We burned a good 30, 40 minutes in the play area until Gamma and Gran-pa arrived and we went to get out "renn-uhl car."

Saturday we had a few hours before the wedding, so we of course went to the Mall of America.  We were going to go to the park, but it was pretty gray and rainy so an indoors activity made more sense.  That mall is insane.  We were there a couple of hours and we probably saw less than 1/3 of it.  I was definitely more intrigued by the activities than by the stores.  And so was Jayden (although he was also pretty happy with the escalators).

This would be the Nickelodeon amusement park in the middle of the mall.  And my camera couldn't even capture the magnitude of the park.  If we'd had more time, we definitely would have had some fun with this.  Maybe the next trip to 'sota?

Jayden was mesmerized by the roller coaster.  "'Nother one!" he kept saying.  Finally I had to get Gamma to start walking so that he would have something else to distract him.

Trying on hats in Nordstrom.  I thought it was hilarious.  I don't know if everyone else around us thought it was so funny.  Whatever, he was entertained and happy.  

The wedding itself was gorgeous.  I think my mom and sister got better pictures (and the wedding photographers too, of course) but the venue was just beautiful.  And Jayden was actually an amazing little boy.  The Minneapolis airport wasn't too far away and you could see airplanes landing behind the venue, and at one point during the ceremony he did shout out "aih-plane!" but other than that he actually whispered to me and stayed super calm.  I was such a proud mama.

To keep him occupied, we took a lot of pictures of lots of things.  Thank GOODNESS for digital cameras.  I must have deleted 20+ photos from this particular shoot.

Jayden's shoes!

Daddy!

Jayden!  (and a little bit of mama)

My sister's photo.  Since I'm in so few pictures, I figured I'd throw one up there of me.  :)
This particular pose is what saved the day.  Allowing him to be tall enough to see what was going on (and to see the aih-planes!) made all the difference.  I'll have to remember that.   

Jayden was a superstar during the wedding also.  He tried to copy all the older kids, passed out in the middle of it for a while, woke up and was off and running again.  He was hilarious.  Until he ran into a guy and both he and the guy ended up on the ground. I felt really bad about it, until my mom and sister explained that the guy was drunk and basically caused himself to fall.  And Jayden was fine - he got up right away and would have kept on running if we would have let him.

Looking at the window during cocktail hour.

Passed out in mama's lap during the end of cocktail hour.

Passed out under the table at dinner.  Until the waitress stepped on him and then acted surprised when she came by the next time and he was awake.  Of course he's awake.  She stepped on his hand!  He was fine, her reaction was just so odd.  

Jayden hung with us until later than normal and then slept great (around 10-11 hours) that night.  The one thing I will say about us traveling so much is that he's really getting used to airplanes, hotel rooms, hotel cribs, etc.  He did refuse to take a bath, but in the grand scheme of things, I figure that's not the worst thing in the world.

The next day we ate brunch with Gamma, Gran-pa and the bride and groom.  And then it was off the airport to catch the airplane home.  Again, Jayden slept for an hour and a half or so and then played with the ipad, books and other toys until we landed.

Asleep before takeoff.

The lineup of airplanes behind us in Minneapolis.  Such beautiful weather!  ;)

We made it back to Santa Ana - from 50 degrees in Minneapolis to 90 degrees in Santa Ana.  Not the change I was looking for.  And apparently our power had been out due to the high velocity winds on Friday night.

Luckily I took today off - I am exhausted and trying to get ready for the next trip on Friday.  Oof.  In the meantime, here's to a work week of fun!