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. :)
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