Sunday, March 30, 2014
And also this
Especially #25. Although I honestly agree with pretty much every number, picking your battles (but having to win), toys everywhere, trucks trucks and more trucks, and of course, the cuteness.
Now I know my ABCs...
I've sung the ABC song with Jayden a few times, and Ms. Stacy sing sit with him at swim lessons when she's trying to get Jayden to relax and float on his back (which he does amazingly well now, by the way). But I've never heard Jayden try to sing it himself until tonight. So funny. We were finishing dinner and he just started singing it and added the "BONK!" at the end.
I made him do it about 25 more times so I could get the best clip for you guys. Luckily he enjoyed it and thought the "BONK!" was hilarious so it kept him going.
There are a lot more As in the alphabet than I remember, but whatever works.
Yesterday was business as usual for this time of year: swim lessons and basketball. Jayden was a splash monster, as usual, in the swimming pool:
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| Getting ready to jump while Ms. Stacy works with the other little girl in the background. |
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| Mostly what we saw of Jayden - a blur! |
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| I adore this picture. He and I would each climb a ladder and then race to see who got to the slide first. He is super fast and won most of the time (but not all!). When he'd win he'd fly down the slide and then look up to see when I was coming down. So I purposely delayed and caught this picture. Best smile ever (at least in my completely biased opinion). |
It was a nice relaxing weekend, and lucky for me tomorrow is a California state holiday so I have the day off. Of course I have a meeting to go to, with people who do not have the day off, but that's in the morning and will be over by lunchtime so not a big deal. I'll spend as much time as I can getting ready for our trip to Delaware on Thursday, trying to pack the least amount of stuff without forgetting anything. We'll see how that goes. Traveling with a toddler is never easy, especially on a cross-country flight, but as usual we'll knock on wood and bring and iPad and one of the two or three Disney movies he can watch.
Monday, March 24, 2014
More updates and funnies
Before I forget:
Tonight we were eating dinner, all three of us together and were generally having conversations around the table. Jayden has been recently saying things to us like "no daddy, I talking to mommy," or "no mommy, I talking to daddy." But tonight Carmen said something to him, and he said "no daddy, don't talk to me. I busy. I too busy doing stuff." Carmen and I nearly died, it was hilarious. He was so serious and probably could not figure out why we were laughing so much. And we probably shouldn't have laughed so much, but it was just too hard to hold it in.
Jayden and I had a good few days together. Two of them were work days so I only got so much time with him, but we still had fun. We missed Daddy, but we tried to keep our minds on fun to avoid being sad. :)
Saturday we had swim lessons so we spent the morning at home trying to keep Jayden awake and fed. He was a superstar in the lessons itself, it was pretty impressive:
The later lesson is definitely difficult. For the first time ever Jayden refused to get in the swimming pool. I had to hand him to Ms. Stacy. But as soon as he got in the water and went off with Ms. Stacy he was fine.
We came home, he passed out about twenty feet from the house and stayed asleep while I carried him upstairs. He slept for a bit, then we woke up and drove cars through his tunnel. I'd decided I'd had enough cooking for the week so we went out for the most unhealthy thing I could think of - cheeseburgers and corn dogs. Terrible, I know, but sometimes you just have to do it.
We got home with a little bit of time to play before bedtime, so we drove some more cars down the tunnel and watched a little NCAA basketball. In honor of Gwampa, we watched some Wisconsin Badgers!
Daddy came home Saturday night in time to see Jayden before bedtime. Lucky for Jayden, but not so lucky for Daddy. Jayden was in a mood and had spent most of the time getting ready for bed screaming. He was clearly overly tired but this was special, even for him. He at least slept through the night, which was a blessing.
Sunday we watched a lot more basketball (as would be expected in a house where Carmen lives) and played around the house. I made tacos for dinner and Jayden devoured his taco too! I was so happy. I was telling Carmen tonight I'm finally making breakthroughs on Jayden's dinners. For a while he wouldn't eat anything, which was driving me nuts. But recently I've made a few choices that have worked out well: "lasagna pasta" is a big hit, tacos were a winner, I made barbecue chicken sandwiches that were devoured, beef stew that was slurped up, butternut squash "orange" soup that he "helped" me make and a few other things too. I'm sure as soon as I start to get confident he'll up and switch it up on me and only eat green vegetables or something. But whatever. I'm just grateful something is working and I feel like I'm providing some kind of nourishment to the kid. :)
Tonight we were eating dinner, all three of us together and were generally having conversations around the table. Jayden has been recently saying things to us like "no daddy, I talking to mommy," or "no mommy, I talking to daddy." But tonight Carmen said something to him, and he said "no daddy, don't talk to me. I busy. I too busy doing stuff." Carmen and I nearly died, it was hilarious. He was so serious and probably could not figure out why we were laughing so much. And we probably shouldn't have laughed so much, but it was just too hard to hold it in.
Jayden and I had a good few days together. Two of them were work days so I only got so much time with him, but we still had fun. We missed Daddy, but we tried to keep our minds on fun to avoid being sad. :)
Saturday we had swim lessons so we spent the morning at home trying to keep Jayden awake and fed. He was a superstar in the lessons itself, it was pretty impressive:
The camera managed to not capture the beginning of the video somehow. What he does is sit on the top step, but his arms out in front of him, put his head down and slowly push off and float with his head down. Stacy is trying to convince him to start pushing his arms backwards but he's not quite ready. Although once on Saturday he pushed off and then actually pushed his arms twice and propelled himself through the water. It was so awesome to see that happen. And just as cool to see how proud he was of himself throughout the whole lesson.
The later lesson is definitely difficult. For the first time ever Jayden refused to get in the swimming pool. I had to hand him to Ms. Stacy. But as soon as he got in the water and went off with Ms. Stacy he was fine.
We came home, he passed out about twenty feet from the house and stayed asleep while I carried him upstairs. He slept for a bit, then we woke up and drove cars through his tunnel. I'd decided I'd had enough cooking for the week so we went out for the most unhealthy thing I could think of - cheeseburgers and corn dogs. Terrible, I know, but sometimes you just have to do it.
This is what you get when you ask Jayden to "smile," or at least this is what I got on Saturday. So charming. He also is a monster. He downed his food, meant for kids 12 and under, in a matter of minutes. And ate his applesauce pouch quickly too. Ridiculous.
We got home with a little bit of time to play before bedtime, so we drove some more cars down the tunnel and watched a little NCAA basketball. In honor of Gwampa, we watched some Wisconsin Badgers!
Daddy came home Saturday night in time to see Jayden before bedtime. Lucky for Jayden, but not so lucky for Daddy. Jayden was in a mood and had spent most of the time getting ready for bed screaming. He was clearly overly tired but this was special, even for him. He at least slept through the night, which was a blessing.
Sunday we watched a lot more basketball (as would be expected in a house where Carmen lives) and played around the house. I made tacos for dinner and Jayden devoured his taco too! I was so happy. I was telling Carmen tonight I'm finally making breakthroughs on Jayden's dinners. For a while he wouldn't eat anything, which was driving me nuts. But recently I've made a few choices that have worked out well: "lasagna pasta" is a big hit, tacos were a winner, I made barbecue chicken sandwiches that were devoured, beef stew that was slurped up, butternut squash "orange" soup that he "helped" me make and a few other things too. I'm sure as soon as I start to get confident he'll up and switch it up on me and only eat green vegetables or something. But whatever. I'm just grateful something is working and I feel like I'm providing some kind of nourishment to the kid. :)
Monday, March 17, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Run, Run, Run
Lately Carmen and I spend a lot of our time "playing" with Jayden running. Jayden literally spends his life running I think. If not in real life then in his head. Kind of like when Jasmine dreams while in a deep sleep and her legs move as if she's running. Jayden does the same thing.
Recently Carmen has had the opportunity to spend more time alone with Jayden: I had to work early on Friday (big court victory - yay!) and I had to work a community fair yesterday for 6 hours. Carmen also was home a little earlier a couple days last week which means Jayden got to see him more. In any case, it means a little bit more of a break for me. For instance, this morning I got to sit on the bed and watch this take place:
Carmen and Jayden were playing cars, going "shhhhhhoooooo, shhhooooooooo," as the cars flew through the air. And then it became running, as it usually does. So I sat on the bed and watched. It was awesome.
The time change has been not so much fun. Jayden has actually been sleeping in, probably primarily because it stays dark later in the morning. But I haven't been able to sleep at all. It's been terrible; I've been staying up way too late and just being generally tired. I can't believe I'm the one affected by the time change and nobody else.
The good thing is that when we get home it's still light outside and sometimes we have a little time to play.
On Thursday we were driving home from Juju's and I asked him what he did that day, what he played with Lucas ("wu-cas"), what he learned in class, etc. I try to not just ask him "how was your day," but ask him what he and Lucas did that was really fun, or what Kennedy did that made him happy or something like that. I read once that you can get stuck in a rut by asking "how was your day," and answering "fine" and moving on, without actually having a conversation. So I'm practicing with my two year old. :) In any case, on Thursday when I asked him what he learned, he said "I wearned the number K!!!!" He was so proud of himself. I didn't dare correct him. Instead I asked him what words started with K, what K sounded like, etc. He got all of it wrong, but he does recognize the letter. Today he was looking at a book and saw a "K" and pointed it out and exclaimed "K!" He usually knows "W" too, for "Waw-wace"
Since Jasmine always gets left out, I figured I'd give her a shout-out. She's incredibly patient with Jayden and may be starting to see the benefits of having a little brother. Definitely the running is good. But so is being outside. And Jayden is getting better at throwing her toys for her. Although Carmen and I still duck anytime he throws one of her toys, no matter whether we're behind, next to or in front of him. His release point is not consistent and those toys fly every which way when he lets them go.
OH! And Jayden finally got a haircut on Friday. He was looking all kinds of handsome. And suspicious of the photographer (daddy). ;)
I wish I could record more of our conversations. Jayden can have conversations and sometimes ask questions. He very often has his own train of thought going on so that whatever I'm asking goes in one ear and out the other, or maybe straight past his head. But sometimes he and I are able to have relatively long conversations about funny things. We were driving home the other day and drove past a store. Jayden said "Mom, Mom, see that over there? see that store?" I said, "yes, what kind of store is it?" He said: "it's our store!" I said, "oh really, what do we get there?" He exclaimed "shoes! and gwasses!" I said "wow, oh really?" (in my head I'm thinking goodness, he really is Carmen's and my kid if he wants to go shopping for shoes and glasses). I asked him "what color of shoes are we going to get?" He said "gween shoes! and gween gwasses too!" I said "okay, that sounds exciting. when should we go to the store to get the shoes and glasses? should we go tomorrow?" He said "no, not now. When I biggewwr." I said "oh, okay, what about in a week? should we go to the store in a week? will you be bigger in a week?" He said "yeah, a week. I biggewwr in a week."
So apparently next weekend, while Carmen is partying it up in Vegas, Jayden and I will be buying green shoes and glasses at Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse. I'll let you know how it goes.
Recently Carmen has had the opportunity to spend more time alone with Jayden: I had to work early on Friday (big court victory - yay!) and I had to work a community fair yesterday for 6 hours. Carmen also was home a little earlier a couple days last week which means Jayden got to see him more. In any case, it means a little bit more of a break for me. For instance, this morning I got to sit on the bed and watch this take place:
Carmen and Jayden were playing cars, going "shhhhhhoooooo, shhhooooooooo," as the cars flew through the air. And then it became running, as it usually does. So I sat on the bed and watched. It was awesome.
The time change has been not so much fun. Jayden has actually been sleeping in, probably primarily because it stays dark later in the morning. But I haven't been able to sleep at all. It's been terrible; I've been staying up way too late and just being generally tired. I can't believe I'm the one affected by the time change and nobody else.
The good thing is that when we get home it's still light outside and sometimes we have a little time to play.
His shoe came off so he ran around like a crazy person with one shoe and one sock, waving his shoe in the air. It was random and hilarious.
BUT, then he put his shoe back on all by himself. Kind of amazing - first time he's done that!
I read a weekly update about Jayden's age and they mentioned that kids should be able to put on and take off clothes at this point. Jayden can sometimes work his shirt and kind of knows his pants but never offers to do it himself. I told Carmen I'd try to let Jayden do it himself once in a while but Jayden has absolutely no interest. Oh well.
On Thursday we were driving home from Juju's and I asked him what he did that day, what he played with Lucas ("wu-cas"), what he learned in class, etc. I try to not just ask him "how was your day," but ask him what he and Lucas did that was really fun, or what Kennedy did that made him happy or something like that. I read once that you can get stuck in a rut by asking "how was your day," and answering "fine" and moving on, without actually having a conversation. So I'm practicing with my two year old. :) In any case, on Thursday when I asked him what he learned, he said "I wearned the number K!!!!" He was so proud of himself. I didn't dare correct him. Instead I asked him what words started with K, what K sounded like, etc. He got all of it wrong, but he does recognize the letter. Today he was looking at a book and saw a "K" and pointed it out and exclaimed "K!" He usually knows "W" too, for "Waw-wace"
Since Jasmine always gets left out, I figured I'd give her a shout-out. She's incredibly patient with Jayden and may be starting to see the benefits of having a little brother. Definitely the running is good. But so is being outside. And Jayden is getting better at throwing her toys for her. Although Carmen and I still duck anytime he throws one of her toys, no matter whether we're behind, next to or in front of him. His release point is not consistent and those toys fly every which way when he lets them go.
OH! And Jayden finally got a haircut on Friday. He was looking all kinds of handsome. And suspicious of the photographer (daddy). ;)
And wearing his Cameron Crazies shirt - GO DUKE!
Jayden does regularly yell "GO DUKE," but not always during the game. It was a tough game this morning, but we all recovered. And we're now just looking forward to next weekend - love tourney time!
I wish I could record more of our conversations. Jayden can have conversations and sometimes ask questions. He very often has his own train of thought going on so that whatever I'm asking goes in one ear and out the other, or maybe straight past his head. But sometimes he and I are able to have relatively long conversations about funny things. We were driving home the other day and drove past a store. Jayden said "Mom, Mom, see that over there? see that store?" I said, "yes, what kind of store is it?" He said: "it's our store!" I said, "oh really, what do we get there?" He exclaimed "shoes! and gwasses!" I said "wow, oh really?" (in my head I'm thinking goodness, he really is Carmen's and my kid if he wants to go shopping for shoes and glasses). I asked him "what color of shoes are we going to get?" He said "gween shoes! and gween gwasses too!" I said "okay, that sounds exciting. when should we go to the store to get the shoes and glasses? should we go tomorrow?" He said "no, not now. When I biggewwr." I said "oh, okay, what about in a week? should we go to the store in a week? will you be bigger in a week?" He said "yeah, a week. I biggewwr in a week."
So apparently next weekend, while Carmen is partying it up in Vegas, Jayden and I will be buying green shoes and glasses at Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Weekend away
This past weekend was Athletes First's annual charity gala. It's always a fun event at a wonderful hotel about 30 minutes south of us. Unfortunately for Carmen it means he is "working" most of the weekend, but at least he's doing it in a pretty great place with many of his clients (who he actually likes) and usually in the sunshine.
Friday night, for the first time, Athletes First had a party at their office for clients and their families. It was casual, but as always, an adventure for me to get there. It started at 5 pm, so I left my office at 3:45 pm to drive home to let Jasmine out and feed her, then drive to Juju's to get Jayden and then drive down to the office. I think I hit every. single. red. light. possible. It took me two hours to do all of that! Jayden and I finally got to Carmen's office a little after 5:30 pm. We arrived at the same time as of Carmen's co-workers, who has a son about four months older than Jayden. At first the two boys wouldn't look at each other, but I sat them on the couch next to each other and told them to have a conversation. I went away for a few minutes and when I came back they were bouncing on the couches together. The other boy was a little insane and jumped on Jayden's head a few times. Jayden wasn't bothered but his parents were! Jayden ran around like crazy, ate a pound and a half of pasta and generally was charming. We got home late (and Carmen said something about him falling asleep in the car so of course he did not). Luckily he went down pretty easily.
The next day, most importantly, was my little sister's birthday!!!
Carmen was off to pick up people from the airport and get to the hotel. I had errands and swimming lessons. Jayden and I made it to the alterations place, the dry cleaner, the mall and the bank between 10:15 and 11:45 - talk about efficient! We drove to the swimming pool and had a picnic in the car - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oranges and chips. He got to sit in the front passenger seat to eat so he thought it was pretty cool.
This weekend was the first week of Jayden's semi-private swim lessons, which is why the time changed. The lessons are now at 12:20 pm. I'm not a huge fan of the time, but it's all they had and it was important to me to get into the semi-private lessons. We're on a wait list for an earlier time. It's also weird because we've been at 9:20 am for almost a year and kind of got used to the people we saw. Now we're going to see a whole different crowd of people. Oh well. The lessons are still with Ms. Stacy, which was important to me since Jayden is so reserved around new people. Even with Ms. Stacy on Saturday he told her he wanted to go down to the shallow end closer to where I was. He's the only one in the semi-private lesson right now so he got a private lesson this Saturday. It was probably nice for him to get that for his first time. He still seemed to have fun; we'll see how it goes from here.
After swim lessons we rinsed off and got in the car to race down to the hotel. Jayden passed out in the car but unfortunately, after only half an hour, he woke up. I knew that would spell disaster for later but there was nothing I could do about it. We ran around the hotel hallways for a while and then went to the grass and played with a soccer ball.
Carmen and I had to be ready by 5:00 pm so we had Katrina meet us between 4:30 and 5. By this point Jayden was a hot mess so I walked him around in the stroller, trying to get him to sleep. No chance. So when we met Katrina, I told her it was probably a good idea to keep walking. She did and said he fell asleep shortly. He woke up, they waited 1-1/2 hours for their room service, he ate his entire meal plus half the snacks I had brought (apparently he was hungry) and then was asleep again by 8:00 pm.
It was a good night. Purposely much more mellow for me, and I think for Carmen too, than in years past. I was in bed by 12:30 and Carmen was only a little bit behind me. It was a fun event, but tiring. I am disappointed I didn't get a single picture of Carmen and me from Saturday. Oh well.
Sunday, after the lovely "spring ahead," we got up, had breakfast and went down to the golf course where the golf tournament was being held. Carmen was busy with work so Jayden and I went walking.
Jayden and I ate lunch and then took off for home.
Amazingly, Jayden slept for an hour in the car ride home, slept through the transfer to his bed and slept for another hour and fifteen minutes at home. It let me sleep for a few minutes too, which was much needed. Bedtime was a challenge - whether it was exhaustion, the time change, whatever, it wasn't pretty. And I was on my own, which makes it that much more difficult. He was whimpering, which was very unusual. He finally got somewhat settled by 8:30 or so. I had a hard time falling asleep and was still awake at 11:30 when I heard him crying through the wall "I need my mommy, mommmmmmy, mommmmmy!" I went in, gave him a hug and laid down outside his room. He rolled around, continuing to whimper, for a while. Finally around 12:30 or so he fell asleep. I then fell asleep. I woke up around 3:30 and went back to my bed. At 4:15 am I woke up again to him sitting in his bed crying for his mommy. He couldn't settle down. I gave him medicine because he said his neck hurt (internally I was convinced he had strep throat and my day the next day was ruined), I laid down outside, I turned on his stars - twice, I tried everything. Finally, around 5:30 am, I gathered him and two blankets and went into the guest room. He threw a fit, but once I rocked with him for a few minutes he started to calm down. We laid down in the guest bed and fell asleep until 7:30 am. Luckily I had taken the day off, so I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, other than dropping Jayden off at Julia's. Also luckily, Jayden was in a great mood when he woke up. Carmen had already left to do airport drop-offs, so I got Jayden ready, walked the dog and got Jayden to Julia's. I learned later he took a three hour nap at Julia's that day! Three hours for him is unheard of, but thank goodness he did. He went to bed early last night (by 7:30 pm at the latest) and didn't wake up until about 7:15 am this morning. He was in a great mood today and even cooperated this evening with dinner, with bathtime, with bedtime, with everything. Which was good because I was on my own again due to free agency starting today.
A funny story:
On Sunday we were in the hotel lobby while Carmen was talking to some co-workers. Jayden and I were playing around the couches. Another little girl and her parents came in. Jayden and the little girl were looking at each other but not really interacting, other than identifying each other as "baby." I asked how old the little girl was and was told 20 months. The funny story was that this little girl barely came up to Jayden's chest. He's only 10 months older than her but he was probably close to a foot taller! Insane.
He was wearing his Superman shirt and one of the parents commented on it. I asked him what was on the back of his shirt. He tried to grab his shirt and pull it to the front. Didn't work. Then he tried to turn his head and look and ended up just turning in circles. Like a dog chasing its tail. It was hilarious. I finally took a picture of the back of his shirt so that he could see.
One last cute story:
After bath tonight I pulled out the nail clippers. I was nervous because that's usually cause for tantrums. But tonight I said "I need to cut your nails," and he picked up his foot and said "Mommy, these first." I nearly fell over because usually clipping his toenails is the fight of the century. However, he happily let me trim his toenails and then move on to his fingers. He said "because they shark?" ("shark" in Jayden-ese means "sharp") "and because I can hurt Mommy and Daddy and Jasmine?" I said, "yes, and sometimes yourself too. Sometimes you hurt Jayden too." He said "Jayden perfect. I not bad." I told him "of course not, you're good. You try so hard, you are good." He said "yeah, I good. I no bad." It was awesome. So in case you were wondering, Jayden perfect.
He seems to be going through a growth spurt. Juju thought he had lost weight, but he still weighs around 36 pounds, which is about what he's weighed for the past couple of months. It does appear that he's growing, because his little legs are all kinds of skinny. But I haven't measured him recently so I don't know that for sure. His appetite isn't slowing down, so I doubt if he's losing any weight.
And in case anyone is keeping track, it's officially 2-1/2 years tomorrow! Happy half birthday to my little munchkin man. He is the best thing in my life and the most challenging, but also the person who has taught me the most about life, about myself and about remembering to stop and look at the piece of trash on the floor. Because you never know, you might get lucky and it might be a cheerio to snack on. :)
Friday night, for the first time, Athletes First had a party at their office for clients and their families. It was casual, but as always, an adventure for me to get there. It started at 5 pm, so I left my office at 3:45 pm to drive home to let Jasmine out and feed her, then drive to Juju's to get Jayden and then drive down to the office. I think I hit every. single. red. light. possible. It took me two hours to do all of that! Jayden and I finally got to Carmen's office a little after 5:30 pm. We arrived at the same time as of Carmen's co-workers, who has a son about four months older than Jayden. At first the two boys wouldn't look at each other, but I sat them on the couch next to each other and told them to have a conversation. I went away for a few minutes and when I came back they were bouncing on the couches together. The other boy was a little insane and jumped on Jayden's head a few times. Jayden wasn't bothered but his parents were! Jayden ran around like crazy, ate a pound and a half of pasta and generally was charming. We got home late (and Carmen said something about him falling asleep in the car so of course he did not). Luckily he went down pretty easily.
The next day, most importantly, was my little sister's birthday!!!
Every year in honor of my sister's birthday, I buy donuts for work, take a picture and send it to my sister. This has been an ongoing tradition since . . . last year. So not exactly a tradition. But it's slowly but surely becoming one.
Carmen was off to pick up people from the airport and get to the hotel. I had errands and swimming lessons. Jayden and I made it to the alterations place, the dry cleaner, the mall and the bank between 10:15 and 11:45 - talk about efficient! We drove to the swimming pool and had a picnic in the car - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oranges and chips. He got to sit in the front passenger seat to eat so he thought it was pretty cool.
This weekend was the first week of Jayden's semi-private swim lessons, which is why the time changed. The lessons are now at 12:20 pm. I'm not a huge fan of the time, but it's all they had and it was important to me to get into the semi-private lessons. We're on a wait list for an earlier time. It's also weird because we've been at 9:20 am for almost a year and kind of got used to the people we saw. Now we're going to see a whole different crowd of people. Oh well. The lessons are still with Ms. Stacy, which was important to me since Jayden is so reserved around new people. Even with Ms. Stacy on Saturday he told her he wanted to go down to the shallow end closer to where I was. He's the only one in the semi-private lesson right now so he got a private lesson this Saturday. It was probably nice for him to get that for his first time. He still seemed to have fun; we'll see how it goes from here.
Ms. Stacy put goggles on him. I told him he looked like a bug. He said "I not a bug!" I said, "oh really, what are you?" He said "I people!"
Getting ready to be a "rocket" in the water. Ms. Stacy was teaching him to put his arms out, holding onto a small noodle and push forward like a rocket.
Floating! He's gotten so much more comfortable in the water. He lets his body just float in the water. The good thing is that he stays horizontal. The bad thing is that he doesn't move his arms or legs as much because he's so comfortable floating!
After swim lessons we rinsed off and got in the car to race down to the hotel. Jayden passed out in the car but unfortunately, after only half an hour, he woke up. I knew that would spell disaster for later but there was nothing I could do about it. We ran around the hotel hallways for a while and then went to the grass and played with a soccer ball.
Carmen and I had to be ready by 5:00 pm so we had Katrina meet us between 4:30 and 5. By this point Jayden was a hot mess so I walked him around in the stroller, trying to get him to sleep. No chance. So when we met Katrina, I told her it was probably a good idea to keep walking. She did and said he fell asleep shortly. He woke up, they waited 1-1/2 hours for their room service, he ate his entire meal plus half the snacks I had brought (apparently he was hungry) and then was asleep again by 8:00 pm.
It was a good night. Purposely much more mellow for me, and I think for Carmen too, than in years past. I was in bed by 12:30 and Carmen was only a little bit behind me. It was a fun event, but tiring. I am disappointed I didn't get a single picture of Carmen and me from Saturday. Oh well.
Sunday, after the lovely "spring ahead," we got up, had breakfast and went down to the golf course where the golf tournament was being held. Carmen was busy with work so Jayden and I went walking.
Our little Superman in a A1 hat. He kept it on for about 3.7 seconds.
Running through a tunnel. It was an exciting adventure. We ran under a bridge, on a bridge, through a tunnel, back through the tunnel, back over the bridge and back under the bridge. When we were going back under the bridge a golf cart went over the bridge. It was a wooden bridge and the cart made a lot of noise. Jayden literally jumped and said "OH! that scawwe me!"
Jayden and I ate lunch and then took off for home.
My lunch date. And a beautiful view.
Amazingly, Jayden slept for an hour in the car ride home, slept through the transfer to his bed and slept for another hour and fifteen minutes at home. It let me sleep for a few minutes too, which was much needed. Bedtime was a challenge - whether it was exhaustion, the time change, whatever, it wasn't pretty. And I was on my own, which makes it that much more difficult. He was whimpering, which was very unusual. He finally got somewhat settled by 8:30 or so. I had a hard time falling asleep and was still awake at 11:30 when I heard him crying through the wall "I need my mommy, mommmmmmy, mommmmmy!" I went in, gave him a hug and laid down outside his room. He rolled around, continuing to whimper, for a while. Finally around 12:30 or so he fell asleep. I then fell asleep. I woke up around 3:30 and went back to my bed. At 4:15 am I woke up again to him sitting in his bed crying for his mommy. He couldn't settle down. I gave him medicine because he said his neck hurt (internally I was convinced he had strep throat and my day the next day was ruined), I laid down outside, I turned on his stars - twice, I tried everything. Finally, around 5:30 am, I gathered him and two blankets and went into the guest room. He threw a fit, but once I rocked with him for a few minutes he started to calm down. We laid down in the guest bed and fell asleep until 7:30 am. Luckily I had taken the day off, so I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, other than dropping Jayden off at Julia's. Also luckily, Jayden was in a great mood when he woke up. Carmen had already left to do airport drop-offs, so I got Jayden ready, walked the dog and got Jayden to Julia's. I learned later he took a three hour nap at Julia's that day! Three hours for him is unheard of, but thank goodness he did. He went to bed early last night (by 7:30 pm at the latest) and didn't wake up until about 7:15 am this morning. He was in a great mood today and even cooperated this evening with dinner, with bathtime, with bedtime, with everything. Which was good because I was on my own again due to free agency starting today.
A funny story:
On Sunday we were in the hotel lobby while Carmen was talking to some co-workers. Jayden and I were playing around the couches. Another little girl and her parents came in. Jayden and the little girl were looking at each other but not really interacting, other than identifying each other as "baby." I asked how old the little girl was and was told 20 months. The funny story was that this little girl barely came up to Jayden's chest. He's only 10 months older than her but he was probably close to a foot taller! Insane.
He was wearing his Superman shirt and one of the parents commented on it. I asked him what was on the back of his shirt. He tried to grab his shirt and pull it to the front. Didn't work. Then he tried to turn his head and look and ended up just turning in circles. Like a dog chasing its tail. It was hilarious. I finally took a picture of the back of his shirt so that he could see.
Wait. The back of his shirt is the back of Superman?!? Shocking.
Once I took a picture of the back of his shirt I then had to take a picture of the front of his shirt. So got a picture I love - this is him laying down on one of the couches.
One last cute story:
After bath tonight I pulled out the nail clippers. I was nervous because that's usually cause for tantrums. But tonight I said "I need to cut your nails," and he picked up his foot and said "Mommy, these first." I nearly fell over because usually clipping his toenails is the fight of the century. However, he happily let me trim his toenails and then move on to his fingers. He said "because they shark?" ("shark" in Jayden-ese means "sharp") "and because I can hurt Mommy and Daddy and Jasmine?" I said, "yes, and sometimes yourself too. Sometimes you hurt Jayden too." He said "Jayden perfect. I not bad." I told him "of course not, you're good. You try so hard, you are good." He said "yeah, I good. I no bad." It was awesome. So in case you were wondering, Jayden perfect.
He seems to be going through a growth spurt. Juju thought he had lost weight, but he still weighs around 36 pounds, which is about what he's weighed for the past couple of months. It does appear that he's growing, because his little legs are all kinds of skinny. But I haven't measured him recently so I don't know that for sure. His appetite isn't slowing down, so I doubt if he's losing any weight.
And in case anyone is keeping track, it's officially 2-1/2 years tomorrow! Happy half birthday to my little munchkin man. He is the best thing in my life and the most challenging, but also the person who has taught me the most about life, about myself and about remembering to stop and look at the piece of trash on the floor. Because you never know, you might get lucky and it might be a cheerio to snack on. :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Oh my gosh it's March
So the title is because I really can't believe it's March (and almost the "official" 2-1/2 year mark!) but also because Jayden says "oh my goooosh" or "oh my goodness" all the time. I'm sure it's because I probably say it all the time. But now I say it even more because he says it and I find it so adorable.
Sooo, what to tell you. It's been an eventful and at the same time uneventful couple of weeks. Carmen was gone for almost a week, which turned out to actually not be as bad as I thought it might be. I was definitely exhausted; it's not like life was that different than normal, but I basically had no downtime, where as usually I get at least a little bit, especially on the weekends. But Jayden and I had fun. As I'm writing this I'm realizing that the last time I posted was while Carmen was gone, I think Saturday night. So. On Sunday we hung around the house in the morning, playing outside and inside and everywheres (as he says - everybodys, everywheres, everythings has an "s" on it!).
In the afternoon, after his nap, we went to have cupcakes for snack!
Monday and Tuesday was back to work for me. Thank goodness work is slowing down for me, somewhat. If I'd had the same madness as the last few weeks I might not have made it through last week. I took the picture below when we were driving to or from Juju's. I love the sun streaming through the window just lighting up his face.
Tuesday night I had Katrina come over so I could go to a painting class with a friend. I was torn on whether or not I should go, but in the end I decided it made sense to do something for me. I hate my painting, but I had a great time. I haven't really done anything artistic without a purpose since college and I think I miss it!
Carmen got home Tuesday night so our lives were back to normal-ish on Wednesday. The "Winter Storm of 2014" hit Southern California on Wednesday/Thursday and we had lots o' rain. Our version of a "storm" is 2"-3" of rain in one day. Yeah. I fully admit that we don't know what we're doing down here. However, the issue is that we never have rain, so when it does rain the roads are all oily and slick and people are idiots and don't drive safely. People either drive 35 on the freeway for no reason or zip around corners not taking into account the possible slicks on the road. Luckily neither of us ran into any problems. We made it through the end of the week and to the weekend! Yay!
Saturday was fine; we ran some errands and had some cheeseburgers for lunch. Saturday night we went out to dinner at a pizza place near us and all went to bed early (or at least Jayden and I did - Carmen stayed up late playing video games, as is so often the case!). Sunday morning Jayden woke up early, like 6:00 am, and Carmen got up with him since I'd woken up with him in the middle of the night. Jayden was fine, playing and having fun. By the time we got ourselves together and Jayden and I were headed out to the grocery store, Jayden was getting fussy. On the way home he passed out and slept for a couple of hours. He woke up and was burning up. We took his temperature and it was almost 103 degrees! It's the highest fever he's ever had (which is actually pretty good, considering how frequently little kids get fevers), so it scared me. We medicated him and watched all kinds of movies and episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog.
He fell asleep laying on me during Happy Feet 2 for a little bit. He barely ate anything all day after breakfast - maybe some applesauce and not much else. And after he ate he curled up in a ball as if his stomach was cramping or something. Carmen and I spent about 20 minutes debating whether or not we should go to urgent care and finally decided to let him try to sleep it off. We dosed him up with medicine again and set him to bed. He slept through the night, and at about 5:45 am came bursting into our room. I had already called him out of daycare and was going to call in sick so I wasn't worried about getting ready in time to get to work. He actually passed out in our bed, which almost never happens and the two of us woke up around 7:30 am finally. He still felt super warm, but I took his temperature and it read about 99 degrees, which is not feverish at all. I knew it. Jayden does this all the time; he gets a fever, makes it seem like it's the end of the world and then pops up the next morning like nothing happened!
Don't get me wrong, I was grateful that he was better Monday. And he wasn't really completely better. He fell asleep around 10:15 again, only to be woken up 10 minutes later by my phone ringing super loudly. I was so bummed. We were in the car and I debated driving around for another 30 minutes to get him to go back to sleep but decided I'd go for it. I ended up having work phone calls and email to respond to and of course he only slept 45 minutes. I tried to keep him low-key for the afternoon, but we all know that doesn't really work. Carmen came home early, and Jayden and I ran around in the backyard, throwing the ball and chasing lemons while Carmen dealt with some work issues. We had a good dinner and got Jayden to bed as early as we could. Of course he woke up in the middle of the night so I spent three hours sleeping in the hall outside his room (I'm going to need a chiropractor so badly when we're done with the kid thing). I got up at 6 am to get back to my bed only to get up 30 minutes later. Awesome.
The good news is that he woke up this morning and was quite cheerful and seemed perfectly healthy. Juju claimed she could tell he had been sick, but I don't know if I completely believe her. She said he had a great appetite and was just fine all day. Thank goodness.
Jayden has turned into quite a singer. He sings everything. He takes after his father and makes up songs about everything. He has sung the "Mama come over here" song, which is him saying "Maaaa-maaaa cooommmme OOOverrrrrr heeeerrrrreeeeee!" over and over again. He has also sung the "be ready in a minute," the "riding in the stroller," and the "time to go" song. Give him a phrase and he can turn it into a song. We, as a family, are also obsessed with Pharell's song "Happy." We regularly have "Happy" dance parties during and after dinner time. Last night we sang "I believe I can fly" by R.Kelly. I'm not happy with the artist, but the song was awesome. Jayden had no idea what the words were but he listened and picked a few of them up pretty quickly. And he also acted out the song, spreading his arms out as "wings" when we sang about flying and spreading his wings and flying. And then the Space Jam DVD showed up today! (Carmen had ordered it a few days ago, not realizing we'd be singing along to the soundtrack on Monday night). Perfect timing. I love how much he loves singing, and I love that he doesn't mind my singing. I will not sing in front of anyone. Except Jayden because he can't tell (yet) that I have no singing talent whatsoever, besides my shower and alone-in-the-car singing. Kids are the best when it comes to being completely non-judgmental and accepting of you. Especially when you're their parents and you feed them and clothe them and generally make sure they're alive.
Sooo, what to tell you. It's been an eventful and at the same time uneventful couple of weeks. Carmen was gone for almost a week, which turned out to actually not be as bad as I thought it might be. I was definitely exhausted; it's not like life was that different than normal, but I basically had no downtime, where as usually I get at least a little bit, especially on the weekends. But Jayden and I had fun. As I'm writing this I'm realizing that the last time I posted was while Carmen was gone, I think Saturday night. So. On Sunday we hung around the house in the morning, playing outside and inside and everywheres (as he says - everybodys, everywheres, everythings has an "s" on it!).
In the afternoon, after his nap, we went to have cupcakes for snack!
 |
| A boy after his mom's heart, he loved the cake part of the cupcake more than the frosting. And he liked the cinnamon sugar cupcake more than he liked the chocolate cupcake. So funny. |
Tuesday night I had Katrina come over so I could go to a painting class with a friend. I was torn on whether or not I should go, but in the end I decided it made sense to do something for me. I hate my painting, but I had a great time. I haven't really done anything artistic without a purpose since college and I think I miss it!
My friend and I with our paintings. They were supposed to be Van Gogh sunflowers but mine definitely turned out to be a giant yellow blob. Oh well...
Carmen got home Tuesday night so our lives were back to normal-ish on Wednesday. The "Winter Storm of 2014" hit Southern California on Wednesday/Thursday and we had lots o' rain. Our version of a "storm" is 2"-3" of rain in one day. Yeah. I fully admit that we don't know what we're doing down here. However, the issue is that we never have rain, so when it does rain the roads are all oily and slick and people are idiots and don't drive safely. People either drive 35 on the freeway for no reason or zip around corners not taking into account the possible slicks on the road. Luckily neither of us ran into any problems. We made it through the end of the week and to the weekend! Yay!
Carmen and I were wearing hats/hoods Thursday morning so Jayden decided he needed to run upstairs and grab his hat. The hat he picked wasn't exactly useful as far as the rain was concerned, but it made him happy.
When he and Carmen got to Juju's he refused to take it into her house so he had to leave it in Carmen's car. He really follows the rules of not taking anything in to Juju's very seriously.
What our winter storm did give us is a beautiful rainbow. This is from outside Juju's house. Unfortunately by the time I got outside with Jayden the rainbow was gone. But I showed him the picture. He was not as impressed. But that's okay. There'll be more rainbows in his life.
At swim lessons on Saturday. I didn't get in the water so I got to take pictures.
Jayden on the turtle. That's Ms. Stacy in the background. I still haven't called, but I am going to try to get him into a semi-private lesson this month. He'll be swimming the butterfly stroke in no time!
Saturday was fine; we ran some errands and had some cheeseburgers for lunch. Saturday night we went out to dinner at a pizza place near us and all went to bed early (or at least Jayden and I did - Carmen stayed up late playing video games, as is so often the case!). Sunday morning Jayden woke up early, like 6:00 am, and Carmen got up with him since I'd woken up with him in the middle of the night. Jayden was fine, playing and having fun. By the time we got ourselves together and Jayden and I were headed out to the grocery store, Jayden was getting fussy. On the way home he passed out and slept for a couple of hours. He woke up and was burning up. We took his temperature and it was almost 103 degrees! It's the highest fever he's ever had (which is actually pretty good, considering how frequently little kids get fevers), so it scared me. We medicated him and watched all kinds of movies and episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Relaxing on Mommy, with his feet up on Daddy, holding on to his baba. Oh the life of a toddler.
He fell asleep laying on me during Happy Feet 2 for a little bit. He barely ate anything all day after breakfast - maybe some applesauce and not much else. And after he ate he curled up in a ball as if his stomach was cramping or something. Carmen and I spent about 20 minutes debating whether or not we should go to urgent care and finally decided to let him try to sleep it off. We dosed him up with medicine again and set him to bed. He slept through the night, and at about 5:45 am came bursting into our room. I had already called him out of daycare and was going to call in sick so I wasn't worried about getting ready in time to get to work. He actually passed out in our bed, which almost never happens and the two of us woke up around 7:30 am finally. He still felt super warm, but I took his temperature and it read about 99 degrees, which is not feverish at all. I knew it. Jayden does this all the time; he gets a fever, makes it seem like it's the end of the world and then pops up the next morning like nothing happened!
Don't get me wrong, I was grateful that he was better Monday. And he wasn't really completely better. He fell asleep around 10:15 again, only to be woken up 10 minutes later by my phone ringing super loudly. I was so bummed. We were in the car and I debated driving around for another 30 minutes to get him to go back to sleep but decided I'd go for it. I ended up having work phone calls and email to respond to and of course he only slept 45 minutes. I tried to keep him low-key for the afternoon, but we all know that doesn't really work. Carmen came home early, and Jayden and I ran around in the backyard, throwing the ball and chasing lemons while Carmen dealt with some work issues. We had a good dinner and got Jayden to bed as early as we could. Of course he woke up in the middle of the night so I spent three hours sleeping in the hall outside his room (I'm going to need a chiropractor so badly when we're done with the kid thing). I got up at 6 am to get back to my bed only to get up 30 minutes later. Awesome.
The good news is that he woke up this morning and was quite cheerful and seemed perfectly healthy. Juju claimed she could tell he had been sick, but I don't know if I completely believe her. She said he had a great appetite and was just fine all day. Thank goodness.
Jayden has turned into quite a singer. He sings everything. He takes after his father and makes up songs about everything. He has sung the "Mama come over here" song, which is him saying "Maaaa-maaaa cooommmme OOOverrrrrr heeeerrrrreeeeee!" over and over again. He has also sung the "be ready in a minute," the "riding in the stroller," and the "time to go" song. Give him a phrase and he can turn it into a song. We, as a family, are also obsessed with Pharell's song "Happy." We regularly have "Happy" dance parties during and after dinner time. Last night we sang "I believe I can fly" by R.Kelly. I'm not happy with the artist, but the song was awesome. Jayden had no idea what the words were but he listened and picked a few of them up pretty quickly. And he also acted out the song, spreading his arms out as "wings" when we sang about flying and spreading his wings and flying. And then the Space Jam DVD showed up today! (Carmen had ordered it a few days ago, not realizing we'd be singing along to the soundtrack on Monday night). Perfect timing. I love how much he loves singing, and I love that he doesn't mind my singing. I will not sing in front of anyone. Except Jayden because he can't tell (yet) that I have no singing talent whatsoever, besides my shower and alone-in-the-car singing. Kids are the best when it comes to being completely non-judgmental and accepting of you. Especially when you're their parents and you feed them and clothe them and generally make sure they're alive.
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