Yay!

Totally and completely selfishly, I am SO glad that today has come and gone.  It means I am on vacation for about 10 days.  And that maybe, just maybe, I can catch a break.  I swear, over the last few weeks things have gone wrong, have gone backwards, have just gone awry generally.  And I am ready, more than ever, for some time off.

Some exciting things that have happened recently:
Jayden's arm is healing just right and he got his cast off!

Monday when I picked Jayden up from daycare, Tayla came running up to me asking if she could sign Jayden's cast.  I of course said yes.  Apparently Juju had told her nobody could sign it unless I said yes.  So the minute I said yes Tayla grabbed a pen and began writing.  Tayla signed her name and Mia's name and Tymen signed his name and Owen's name.  Lucas and Kennedy weren't there, so they were out of luck.
For the next 24 hours, until we got the cast off, Jayden would "read" the names on the cast to me.  And he actually got them right.  I'm guessing he must have memorized the locations, or the shape or something.  Otherwise I'm not really sure how he would know whose name was whose.  But he got it right every time so there's got to be some explanation.

No cast!!!
Jayden was amazing.  I sat him in my lap when the tech brought out the cast saw, expecting to have to restrain him.  But he sat there completely silent and still the entire time.  And then when it was off he looked at it, looked at me, looked at his wrist and started wriggling his wrist and shaking it.  I think he was more ready to get that thing off his arm than I realized.
We had to go get x-rays next, to make sure it was healing properly, which I was also worried about.  As we were walking in to the room, I heard the tech whisper to the x-ray tech "he's a really good kid."  It's a little thing, but I was kinda proud.  He IS a good kid.  But it's cool when total strangers recognize it.

Carmen left Thursday morning.  His company Holiday party was Thursday night.  We didn't know he was leaving until recently so I'd already scheduled Katrina to come babysit.  Instead of cancelling, I decided to keep her and I went out by myself.  Jayden was completely hysterical when I left, screaming and crying and telling me to get his jacket (so he could come with me).  I told him "it's okay, I'm coming back."  So he started hysterically sobbing "don't come back.  doooonnnnn't coooommmme baaaaack!"  So then I was just confused.  Katrina said he settled down after 20 minutes or so, which means he probably settled down just in time to go to bed.  Oh well.  One of these days maybe he'll actually get to play with Katrina.  I think we maybe should leave them during the daytime some time so that she actually has the opportunity to play with him and he has the opportunity to have fun with her.  We'll work on it.

I've baked 23,455 different kinds of cookies this week.  Really it's just three.  But it feels like more.  On Wednesday night I made some cookie dough while I was making dinner.  Jayden was of course intrigued by the beaters, so he "helped" me mix the dough.  We gave some of those cookies to Juju today with her card and present and so then Jayden decided he wanted one.  As we were getting in the car we were talking about having a cookie when we got home.  He looks at me and says "mommy, you have cookie."  I told him that sounds great, I think I would have a cookie.  He says "No, Mommy, you have one cookie."  So I asked him how many cookies he could have and he said "I have twooooooo, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!"  I just started laughing.  He's hilarious.

Thursday morning his face was a mess from oatmeal and yogurt.  I told him so and he said "I see it."  So I took a picture.  And this is what it looked like.  Cute picture, even though he's a mess.

Messy face.

I see it!

He's a funny kid.

Yesterday we got a delivery of about eight boxes, including the treadmill that Carmen bought me for Christmas.  Turns out that treadmill weighs 197 pounds, literally.  And I had to figure out how to maneuver that gigantic box through the front door by myself since Carmen is out of town.  I was pushing and pulling and lifting and sliding and the whole time Jayden was helping me.  I was pulling from the front end and he'd go around the back and push and go "ooohhhhhffff" along with me.  It was awesome.  Clearly he did nothing to help me.  But I love the fact that he just started helping.  I didn't ask him to do it, he just jumped in.  It made my arms sting a little less when I finally got the monstrous thing in the door.

If anyone knows any magical spells I can put on Jayden to get him to sleep 11 hours a night, please send them over ASAP.  He has been sleeping terribly for the past few weeks.  Only once, maybe twice a week does he sleep through the night.  And he rarely sleeps past 6:00 am.  Today he was awake at 4:45 am.  And when I say "awake" I mean AWAKE.   There was no convincing the kid that it was still pitch black outside and still the middle of the night.  I'd tell him so and he'd say "Mommy, I need turtle."  "Mommy, it dark outside?!?"  "Mommy, Daddy in Fworda?"  "Mommy, I go Jujus?"  "Mommy, my advent cawendar?"  So yeah, not exactly in the mood for sleeping.  But I'm open to any and all ideas, short of doing something that will get me in trouble with Child Protective Services.