Zoo Park fun

Today we went to swim lessons as normal and Ms. Stacy was back so Jayden was happy.  Towards the end she suggested we consider a semi-private or private lesson for Jayden, which was exactly what Carmen and I had talked about last week.  He's just so close to swimming and he's floating on his own, and Ms. Stacy said she thought he'd benefit so much more from more attention.  So I'll look into it this week.  It's going to be nearly impossible to stay with Ms. Stacy, because it would probably have to be during the week if it's with her.  But I'm going to see what I can figure out and try to make it work. 

After swimming, we took off to the zoo.  The zoo is approximately 10 minutes from the swimming pool and with our membership, entrance is free.  Really probably the greatest choice we made to become members of the zoo.  We spent the first 30 minutes or more playing on the playground, which is what we always do when we get to the zoo.  The pull of the "swides" is just too much.

 I adore this picture.  He maybe looks a little more angelic than he is in real life, but it's such an expression of hope.  Makes me smile.

 

 

After the playground, we ran around seeing monkeys.  And I do mean literally ran around.  He took off and I kept up within 20 feet or so to make sure I knew where he was generally!  At one point some lady came up to me and said "I think your son is over there - red tennis shoes?" maybe a little bit alarmed.  And I said, "yeah, thank you.  I'm okay."  I basically know that Jayden won't ever really run off without me, so I'm okay with him running a little bit farther from me than normal.  So long as we're not near a street or something else dangerous like that.  In any case.  We saw a few animals.  Then we rode the choo-choo!  It was very exciting. 

 

 

He of course wouldn't look directly at me and wouldn't smile.   I asked him where he wanted to sit while we were waiting in line and he said "the back!"  I said okay.  When they opened the gate for us to get on, he made a beeline towards the front car.  Oh well.   

The ride was actually pretty cool.  We rode around the farm section of the zoo and saw bunny rabbits, geese, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, owls, a possum, and a horse.  And then we rode around the "tierra de las pampas" section and saw the ostrich-like birds, rheas, I think, and some gazelle-type animals, guanacas or something like that.  And the train "engineer" honked the horn and rang the bell a lot. 

 

We got home from the zoo and I had to convince him sleeping was a good idea.  He kept telling me "I not tie-erwd," "I no go sweep."  But we sat in the chair, I told him two stories and he was out.  He slept for a bit, then we woke up and ran around outside, chased a lemon, played basketball, walked around the pool, blew bubbles, balanced on the wall, jumped off the wall, and jumped off a ledge near the pool.  It was pretty exciting.  The rest of the day was pretty typical.  But since I had my phone upstairs, I used the opportunity to snap a picture of the cutest brown bear you've ever seen:

 



Thanks Becky and Michael!

 



Bedtime sing along

So when Gramma was here recently, she left a lovely book of nursery rhymes.  Turns out the majority of the tales in the book involve mice tails being cut off, people being thrown down stairs, noses being pecked off by four and twenty blackbirds, children being whipped soundly, etc.  Not exactly soothing bedtime stories.  BUT.  The book does have one of my favorite rhymes/songs.

Tonight was the first time he sang along with me and he even willingly did it for the camera.  Yay!

Another fun story:
This morning Jayden, Jasmine and I were walking.  About 2/3 of the way through the walk Jayden decided he wanted to actually walk as opposed to ride in his stroller.  Of course he picks this morning to do that, since it's the morning I'm rushing to get out the door to get him to Juju's and get me to work in time for my 9:00 am clinic.  I'm pretty efficient; I can get him ready, me ready, both of us fed and the dog walked in about 1-1/2 hours.  That's really not bad.  But when Jayden walks it takes an extra 15-20 minutes.  Soooo, I agreed this morning, since we were so close to home.  Of course I spent the next ten minutes saying "okay, Jayden, we're going to walk forwards, not backwards," "I'm really sorry honey, but Mama's in a hurry and we have to keep moving," "Nope, no cars are coming right now, I promise.  I'll tell you when one is coming so you can see it then," etc.  We had finally rounded the second to last corner and he was walking in the grass with his hands in his pocket.  All of a sudden he tripped and he face-planted into the grass.  I was worried at first; since his hands were in his pockets, he had no buffer and he literally face planted in the grass.  He didn't even cry and when I realized he was fine, I just started cracking up.  He had almost fallen in slow motion; first his lower half hit the grass, then his torso and then his face hit the grass and bounced up with a spray of water droplets everywhere, as if he was in a cartoon.  He stood up and there was water dripping from everywhere - his knees, his shorts, his jacket, his arms, his face.  Literally everywhere.  No scrapes or bruises or cuts or anything, just wet.  And what was he most concerned about?  "Mama, my shoes dirrrty!"

And a p.p.s.  Auntie Ellen, the doggie that he got for Valentines Day?  He falls asleep with his arm around it every night and he told me tonight that he named it "Jasmine."  Very creative, don't you think?!?

Unofficial pajama day

Somehow this post didn't get published a few weeks ago.  So here it is.  For fun.

 

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Today was unofficial pajama day at daycare because Jayden decided he wanted to wear his car pajamas to Juju's. Last night as I was putting him to bed we were talking about how cool his new pajamas were because they have stripes and a car on the front, AND blue and orange. We decided we could do a car pajama dance in the morning when he woke up. So this morning, he came into my room and we did the car pajama dance. Really I did the dance and he laughed at me. Since I was the only one dancing there is no video but next time I see people I'm happy to show you in person.

Because the dance was so fun he did not want to take off the pajamas, so off we went to Juju's in our car pajamas. :)

Am I more than "Jayden's mom"?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/29/living/more-than-a-mom-irpt/?c=&page=3

I relate to this in many ways. My career goals have changed in the past couple of years, but for the better. I want to do what makes me the most happy, which often means what is best for my family, as opposed to whatever it was I wanted 2-1/2 years ago.  Advancement, recognition, power, all are a lot less important now. What I really want is something where I can use my brain and my skills to make a difference in this world but still go home at the end of the day and enjoy my son and husband.

The differences for me are 1. I didn't "dream" about being a mom, I guess I just stupidly assumed I would be one and 2. there are very few times when my son is not on my mind, even when I'm running, working, relaxing (haha, yeah right), whatever.

But I do appreciate the quandary of identity that comes with being a mom, particularly when you have strong goals and interests outside of being a mom. And I understand the concern with wondering what my mom friends would think if I quit my job, if I don't quit my job, if I work more, if I work less, etc.

I think my new tagline is "ohhh motherhood."

Happy Valentines / Sunday funday / Presidents Day weekend!

It sounds lame, but I was so grateful to have a three day weekend.  Lame, because it's not like my life has exactly been terrible lately.  But it has been busy and it was nice to be home for a long weekend. 

We had swim lessons as usual on Saturday morning.  Jayden was his usual happy self, even though we had a substitute teacher.  She did not push him as hard as Stacy does, so Carmen and I kept tossing him in the water and encouraging him to kick his feet and move his arms.  We think we might look into semi-private lessons so that Jayden can get a little more attention.  It all depends on the schedule and the cost.  It would also mean Carmen and I wouldn't necessarily have to get in the pool every weekend - but that's just a side benefit, not our true motivation, I promise.  :)

We ended up getting a babysitter twice.  We had thought we'd have things to do for Carmen's work both nights, but one got cancelled so it turns out we got Saturday night to ourselves.  Carmen splurged and bought us tickets to the Book of Mormon.  We loved it.  It is highly controversial and highly offensive, if you want to take it that way.  But it is also highly hilarious, especially if you're not Mormon.

The set before the show.  We saw it at the Pantages in L.A.  It is a really beautiful theater.

During intermission.  Kinda dark, but it was the best I could do.

Sunday we did a whole lot of nothing.  We ran some errands, played in the backyard, watched the NBA All-Star game. 

 Trying to ride on Daddy's shoulders, but not exactly getting the concept.

 

 Rolling on the floor.  For some random reason he decided to roll from the door to the backyard to the steps to the entry way.  Weird kid.

And then he posed at the end.  Hilarious.

Today Carmen had to go to the office, but not me, thank goodness!  Jayden and I played at the house for a bit and then went to the park, to lunch and to the store. 

 Running up the grassy hill at the park.

 

 Running up the dirt hill at the park.  Apparently I did not need to go running this morning, because we spent a large part of our time at the park running on the paths.  We ran up this rather ridiculously large hill.  We did go down the slide and up the ladder and all of that. But we spent more time running than anything else.

 

When we got to the top of the hill, I made him stop to take a picture with me.  The view was so pretty!

I apparently kept him out too long because he then threw a fit and a half, maybe two, when I was trying to put him down for a nap.  He'd struggled this weekend when I put him down, but he eventually went down and almost willingly.  But not today.  Finally he crawled into my bed, on my chest and passed out for two hours or so.  I was glad he slept, but it meant I was held hostage.  I had intended to make dinner, get some work done and do all kinds of stuff while he slept.  Instead I slept a little, played too many lame games on my phone and ipad, did a little online shopping (not for me, I promise) and just laid there.  It was relaxing, I guess.  When he woke up he was not in the best of moods, so we played a little music and watched a little Wild Kratts and Dinosaur Train while I cooked dinner.  He refused to eat most of what I cooked, which has been his trend for the past week. 

Jayden has been particularly interested in the toilet, wearing pull-ups and all of that kind of stuff.  We've been using pull-ups, and Juju said it was fine to use them at daycare too.  But this weekend, since it was a three day weekend, I figured I could try throwing some underwear on him and see what happens.  Welllll, what happened was not pretty.  We did okay in the morning; I took him to the potty a few times.  Nothing happened, but at least I was putting it in my head.  Then 9:40 rolled around.  I took the fastest shower possible but right as I was getting out, Jayden ran into my bathroom and said "Mommy I pottied on the floor!"  I said, "what?!?"  But sure enough, potty all over the carpet in my closet.  And all over Jayden's underwear, shorts and socks.  And then I pulled down his underwear and out feel some poo-poo.  I texted this to Carmen: "The great underwear experiment of Feb 2014 has been aborted.  Results?  Defffffinitely not ready, as evidenced by the 940 am pooping in the underwear and peeing on the floor of mommy's closet.  Back to diapers it it."  His response: "That sounds terrible."  My response: "It's not really that bad.  It could have been worse." 

And then that's exactly where it went.  We did switch to diapers immediately; Jayden didn't want to switch to pull-ups, so diapers it was.  We went to the park and to lunch.  We were on our way in to the store when Jayden started acting all kinds of funny.  He was grabbing his "pee-pee" and saying "Oooh! Potty!  It tickles!  It tiiiiickles!"  He was being really weird, but I figured he was just being funny, so I let it go.  I told him we'd change him in a few minutes, as soon as we got to the restrooms in the store.  We were finishing up in the produce department and he's walking a few feet ahead of me and around the corner.  He turns around and comes around the corner; "mommy, I pottied on the floor!"  I said, "WHAT?!?"  I ran around the corner and sure enough, there was a puddle of potty on the floor.  I then noticed that half of his diaper was hanging out the bottom of his shorts.  Thank goodness I had the diaper bag with me.  I grabbed a handful of wipes, cleaned up the floor of the grocery store and ran him to the bathroom.  The diaper wasn't even full, so I have absolutely no idea how it came off.  If it was going to happen, today was the day for it to happen, though.  Thank goodness the grocery store wasn't crowded so as far as I know, nobody saw.

Tomorrow it's back to business as usual, except for, as usual, it's a crazy week.  I will be on the way to, or in meetings from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.  Wednesday  I have two clinics.  Thursday Carmen leaves seriously early and won't be home until late Tuesday.  Monday I have a late meeting that Jayden may get to attend with me.  I'm planning to lay low over the weekend, although we'll see how stir crazy I feel by that time!  I told Jayden we might go to the zoo, since it's free and so close to our house.  That may be the extent of it. 

I hope those of you on the east coast are thawing out and getting power back if you lost it.  Nobody over there wants to know what Southern California has been like.  We are certainly spoiled.  In any case, we wish you all the best. 

Fun times tonight

Smiling for Mommy.

Cracking up at basically nothing.  Turns out Mommy can be funny.

Last month in his 20s

So insane.  Today Jayden is 29 months old.  He's such a kid now and so not a baby.  To remind you, this is what he looked like in September 2012:

And this is what he looked like a year ago today, February 12, 2013:

And this is him today, February 12, 2014:

We were all excited for the Duke-Carolina game.  But the Pax winter storm had other ideas.   Oh well, we'll be ready  for next Thursday.

He has de-chubbified like nobody's business.  His face looks like a kid's face, not like a baby face.  It makes me excited and sad at the same time.

So.  Since it's been a whirlwind few weeks and I've barely been functioning, at work or at home, I have a lot of updates.  And I'm going to remember none of them.

Jayden and Gramma had a great time, as was expected.

Outside with Gramma on Friday.

Kicking his heels up in the backyard.

On the swide at the pahk.

Watching the game.

Burying cars in the sand.

 And meanwhile, while he was doing all of that fun stuff, I was doing this:

Kickoff.  Super Bowl XLVIII.

It was all but decided at this point - SEA - HAWKS!!!  Super Bowl Champs!!!
(you can see the Denver fans in the background were not so happy)

Since we got home, we've kept busy.  My job has been one thing after another and Carmen has been busy as well.  We're all incredibly grateful to be home.  We got to spend all of last weekend at home, with very few responsibilities.  Jayden actually came down with a crazy fever on Sunday and was lethargic so the three of us pretty much spent the day on the couch watching movies.  I was worried for Jayden, but it was actually kind of wonderful to be so lazy.  Jayden kicked his fever Sunday night and was perfectly healthy on Monday, thank goodness.  His body seems to do this when he gets exhausted - when he really just needs to sleep his body gets a 16-24  hour fever, as if it's telling him to shut down.  Smart.

We went to a dinner at Carmen's boss' house with the rookie clients.  Jayden gave a few people high fives but spent the rest of the time running around the pool and generally being silly with me and Carmen.

And climbing into this chair so he could be "taw-wer" (taller).  

Friday morning Jayden wanted me to take his picture at breakfast to show him how much yogurt he had on his face.  It actually wasn't that much, compared to normal.  But if Jayden requests a picture be taken, you might as well take advantage of the opportunity.

(after posting, I realized I'd already posted this picture.  Sorry for the repetition.)

Saturday we were back to swim lessons.

There was a lot of splashing.  I had managed to come down with a nasty cold so I sat this one out. Carmen and Jayden had a good time, and one of the other dads was mentioning how much fun he had the weekend before with Gramma in the swimming pool.  :) 

And then we ran some errands at the mall and rode the carousel!

He actually rode on the horse and enjoyed it for the first half.  It was a little too long for his taste and by the second half of the ride he was grabbing at me trying to get off.  He made it the whole ride on the horse, though - it was pretty cool!

Sunday was our low-key day and I didn't feel right forcing pictures on him.  Today I had the day off (thank goodness for my office taking all state court holidays).  I slept a little extra after Carmen and Jayden left, went for a run and did some work for a few hours.  I picked Jayden up early so we were home by a little after 5.  It meant we got to run around in the backyard for a bit, which was wonderful.

Showing me his watch.  Juju found a box of stuff that her daughter had given her that she was done with and Juju gave Jayden a few items.  One was this watch.  It's a Lightning McQueen watch.  Couldn't be more perfect.  Until two minutes after this picture, when the watch was "hurrting" him.  Oh well.

Mommy.  Seriously.  Another picture?

He refused to stand still.  "I wunning Mama!"

Gramma you'll be happy to know that he now sets up his own obstacle courses and makes me run them with him until I get almost sick from dizziness.  It's awesome.  But it is really cute how he sets everything up and tells me exactly what we're supposed to do - "wun awound the chaiw," "jump ovew the bat, mama," "pat the caw and then wun back on the gwass," etc.

Two more days of work and then a three day weekend!  And the only plans this weekend are evening plans for Carmen and me - Katrina is coming to hang out with Jayden.  I'm sure it will be a disaster, but I'm hoping we can give them some time to play together so Jayden can learn to like her.  We'll see how it goes.

Jayden tells me all kinds of things now, which is wonderful.  But it is unclear how much of it is real.  Today at dinner he told me and Carmen that there was a snake at Juju's today. I asked if it was green.  He said no.  I asked if it was yellow.  He said no.  I asked if it was purple with pink polka dots.  He looked at me and said "YYYESSSSSS!!!!" with a sly smile on his face.  And Carmen and I burst out laughing.  He says so many funny things like that, I need to get a voice recorder so that I can record these crazy conversations we have and then relay them to all of you.

I'll work on that.  I'm sure I can do it with my phone if I take the time to figure it out.  I hope everyone is having a good week.  And hopefully I'm back on track with my posting.  :)

It's time to eat Mom

It's not time to play.  Eat Mom.

He's so strict!