Toddler problems

After our weekend of highs we hit a new low.  Jayden woke up Monday morning and was burning up.  He had a fever of somewhere around 102 or 103 (my thermometer broke of course so I couldn't take his thermometer until 9:30 or 10:00 am).  He definitely was tired, so I decided to keep him home for the day. I had one meeting, which I took him to, and then we spent the rest of the day resting at home.  I gave him medicine throughout the day and the fever would go down but it would just spike back up again a little later.  We put him to bed and he still was burning up.  He had woken up two or three times Sunday night and Monday night was no different.  I spent a lot of time sleeping on the floor outside his room and eventually just took him into the guest room and slept with him on the guest bed.  I wasn't feeling good either, so the lack of sleep wasn't particularly helpful, but that's motherhood I guess.  On a side note, he fell asleep with his fingers in my eyes.  Tuesday he woke up and wasn't much better, so he came to work with me in the morning and were home by lunchtime.  He took a short nap but spent most of the day complaining about a stomachache and generally not feeling well.

Walking from my office to the car.  It was "bwight" so we needed to wear our sunglasses.

Sad on Mommy's lap later in the afternoon.

At some point during the day, I suddenly had a thought: he'd had an accident at daycare on Friday (poo-poo) and hadn't had a bowel movement since then.  I did some quick google research and google diagnosed him with constipation.  Apparently a lot of kids have these issues during potty training because of the pressure and stress put on them.  So Carmen and I realized we were constantly bugging him, especially about poo-poo, so we vowed to lay off a little bit.  He clearly was in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable, and he woke up twice (including once at 10 pm, before I'd even gone to bed!) and after the second time I moved into the guest room again.  It just wasn't worth it.  He didn't sleep well, which meant I didn't sleep well.  By the morning he was sleeping with his feet in my hair.

Wednesday I took him to Juju's, because I decided he could actually use the interaction with other kids and she somehow has a way of getting him to do things that I can't seem to figure out.  It worked; he felt a whole lot better by the end of the day.  BUT he was still warm.  Carmen went to dinner with a friend on Wednesday, so I did the best I could on my own.

We played with glitter stickers that Gramma sent.  Those stickers are fun - there is glitter everywhere on the couch.

He was definitely better; his temperature didn't get about 100 or 101, but it wasn't gone.  I got him to bed as soon as I could, but he woke up at 10 pm again.  He was drenched.  His hair was damp, his clothes were damp, but his body felt like a normal temperature, finally!  He wanted me to lay down outside his bedroom, so I told him I had to go downstairs to clean up my work (I'd been finishing up a few things for work since I've already missed so much work this week) and turn off the television, etc. but that I'd be right back.  By the time I got back upstairs he'd fallen asleep.  He slept the rest of the night, thank goodness.  This morning it took us about 15 minutes to wake him up at 7:20 am and he was not happy with us when we finally did get him up.

I had scheduled him for swim lessons this morning, thinking his fever was going to be a typical 24-hour fever.  By the time I figured he wasn't going to be better it was too late to cancel.  It turned out to not be so bad.  He got to swim in the big pool, and the other kid he swam with was a little more advanced than him.  It actually was better for Jayden, in a way.  He swam across the pool by himself with flippers, goggles and a noodle.  He swam down to touch the lines on the bottom of the pool (with assistance), he practiced pushing the water with his arms ("making a pizza" according to the teacher), and he held onto a rubber rope thingy and got pulled across the pool as if he were boogie boarding.  I thought he was going to freak out a little with that because the water was all in his face, but when the waves died down he had a smile on his face.

Not the best picture, but that's the back of his head, swimming across the pool by himself with his flippers, goggles and noodle.  

After swim lessons he was in a great mood and we talked about all the cool things he did in swim lessons.  I was feeling so much better.

When I picked him up from Juju's she told me he'd felt warm again after his nap.  He did feel warm, and when I took his temperature at home it was a little over 100.  So not really a fever, but not normal either.  We gave him some more medicine before bedtime and we're now hoping for the best.

A funny story or two:
On the rides home we have the funniest conversations.  He gives me all kinds of reasons about why things can or cannot be done.  Today we saw someone riding a scooter.  He's seen the kids across the street riding scooters and has said things about wanting one for himself but that he has to wait until he's "bigger."  So we saw this kid riding a scooter and we talked about maybe him getting one for his birthday, like the kids across the street.  He said "NO!  We can't get a scooter yet!  We have to wait 'til the bicycle tells us i's ok."  I asked him "um, what?  the bicycle will tell you when it's okay for you to get a scooter?"  And he said "yes.  the bicycle can tell us when it's okay.  And sooo.  When the bicycle says yes, then we can buy the scooter."  I told him to let me know.  I have no idea where he came up with this idea, but it's fine with me.  I'm trying to cut back on the "big" gifts that he gets because he is definitely starting to expect things, and I think I need to throw a little more appreciation in there.

I unfortunately can't think of the other conversations we've had.  I really might get a recording device to keep in the car so that I can record the conversations and either play them or at least transcribe them onto the blog.  It's just too funny.

I'm nervous about the weekend: tomorrow we have a work party for my office, then Saturday we drive to San Diego for a birthday party and a wedding and we won't be back until Monday.  Jayden never sleeps as well in a hotel as he does at home so I'm worried about bringing an already exhausted kid to a place where he's likely to get more exhausted.  I guess the good news is that the two following weeks Carmen and I will be home with him more often than not so hopefully he'll get some good rest during those two weeks.  We'll see.

For now I'm just grateful tomorrow is Friday.

Easy California livin'

I started this post last night but couldn't get it finished.  So now you get two days in one, which is better for everyone anyway!

Yesterday was one of those easy, laid back days that made me realize how spoiled we all are living here.  We didn't do anything but errands, swim lessons, naptime and more swimming (with a little frisbee mixed in), but it was a good day.  First off, we only had ONE accident!  Of course, the accident was on the kitchen counter (it's a long story as to how that occurred, just let the logistics part of it go), but whatever.  It was one.  And that includes during and after naptime.  And he didn't wear a pull-up all day, so that was no accidents while wearing underwear.

Just another day in Paradise.

Jayden doesn't even look like himself in this picture.  But this is Jayden and me trying to warm up in the sunshine while Carmen gets a few more minutes in the pool in the background.

And giggles:

Today we took the long trek to Costa Mesa (in reality about 15 minutes down the road) to go to the Orange County Fair.  We've gone in the past, but not regularly.  The last time we went was with our friends Kelly and Mike when they still lived here - so that must have been at least five years ago, maybe more.  In any case, we didn't have high expectations, but it turned out even the few expectations we had were too much!

It took longer than we thought to park, to walk to the entrance, to buy tickets, to get in through the entrance, etc.  We had planned to be in by 10 am, but it was probably 10:30 or 10:45 when we finally walked through the entrance.  Luckily for us, the first thing we found to the left was the petting zoo.  We naturally assumed Jayden would be a disaster and wouldn't touch anything.  But we were happily surprised; he went around petting every animal he could get his hands on.  He even stepped on the llama at one point (by accident).  We saw goats, sheep, donkeys, llamas, pigs, a chicken - even a kangaroo.

Hanging out with the goats.

Checking out the goat on top of the pile of hay.

Checking out the goats.

We ate lunch and then went in search of "wides."  All Jayden wanted was to go on the "swide" and the "wolla coasta."  We finally found the kid section, and we checked out all kinds of fun rides!

One of my favorites: we went on the both, the one on the right and the one on the left.  After the first one, he sort of was happy but after the second one he jumped up and down a little.  These were our first two rides, which I think was a good way for him to get warmed up.  

At the bottom.  He was tall enough to ride the rides, but on many of them he needed to be accompanied.  For primarily size reasons I was the chosen one today.

BUT he did ride a ride by himself, and he had a great time.  It was a flat track, but he had two steering wheels and two buttons to press, and went in a wavy circle four times.  It was a pretty lame ride, but it was pretty awesome that he did it by himself and actually had fun (we think).

On the world's tiniest log ride.  It's not officially called that, but it involved one circle with one hill, one five foot drop and a puddle of dirty water inside the log and that's about it.   

One of my favorite moments of the day.  He rode the bumper cars by himself!  The funniest thing was that he spent a lot of time watching other kids.  And when someone bumped him from behind he'd turn around and give them the evil eye.  And eventually, once he figured out how to press the button that made him go forward with his foot, he accelerated straight into a corner and was stuck there the remainder of the ride.  He came out and said "Mommy, I cwashed!  Into dat wall!"  It was hilarious.  

And finally, he discovered a funhouse type "ride."  He, of course, had to be accompanied so I had to climb a rope ladder, scoot down a rubber tube, cross two suspension bridges and slide down a long slide.  I personally vote for never doing that again until Jayden can do it by himself.  

Running off the slide at the end onto the bouncy cushion.  His favorite part, by far.  It also demonstrated some excellent balance on his part when he bounced on the cushion and then it bounced him on the ground and he stayed on his feet.

Dancing outside the funhouse ride - he was really excited after this one.  And even more excited after the second time we went through it.

We ran out of tickets finally - probably by 1 pm and headed to the exit.  Carmen and I had a grand plan to grab funnel cake on the way out, but we got derailed by the livestock.

We saw real livestock too, but it was easier to take pictures on these versions!  We saw tens or hundreds of goats and bunnies, and the largest cow (bull? oxen?) I've ever seen.

We did finally get our funnel cake, and then headed out the gates.  Jayden was asleep in my arms before we even got to the car.  And he slept another hour or more when we got home.  It was a hot day and all of us were worn out by the time we got home.  I think Carmen slept the same amount of time that Jayden did.  I stayed awake to be up when Jayden woke up so that we could run straight to the potty.  And we made it!  The entire time at the fair, and all day once we got home, not a single accident.  In underwear the entire time.  So amazingly cool.  And he's clearly so proud of himself, which is also so awesome.

One last picture, a collage of a few of the ones above:

Now we're back to normal tomorrow, which will be interesting after such a fun weekend.  We have a busy weekend next weekend so we'll see if we can rest up in preparation!

Too much fun

As always, we've been busy.  Sometimes it feels like we do nothing, but then I look at our calendar and realize we're pretty much constantly busy.  Last Friday night my office went to the Mariners game (in Anaheim - the Mariners happened to be playing the Angels that night - my office did not fly us to Seattle, unfortunately).  It was pretty fun, although Jayden was slightly traumatized by the loud noise the fireworks made.

We got there a little early to check out the field and grab a hot dog, of course!

My friend and co-worker Lili, her son Ollie and Jayden.  Blurry, but fun.

The family.  Carmen is not terribly amused by baseball games, especially when they're with my work friends...

Mommies and sons.  

Saturday morning I woke up and for some reason, I have no idea why, I decided potty training would be a good idea.  So we did that.  I cleaned up more urine on Saturday than I care to remember.  BUT I did not have to clean up any poo-poo and for that I am eternally grateful.

Naked bike riding

After the morning and the multiple accidents, we spent the afternoon either with no bottoms or just with underwear.  That made a huge difference.

We also did a little half-naked dancing, of course:

(and by we, I mean Jayden.  Carmen and I were fully clothed)

Sunday went much better.  We only had to clean up one accident, and that was right after naptime.  Both Saturday and Sunday he made it out of his bed, but just barely to the door before he couldn't hold it anymore.  I'm afraid he just needed the encouragement to get all the way to the toilet.  But still, one accident in a day is not so bad.  Sunday afternoon we went swimming and then Sunday evening we went to a concert at the zoo.  It was a lot of fun, with even more dancing!

Chillin' out with a picnic at the zoo.

We didn't brave the underwear at the zoo - which was a good idea since we would have had to deal with accidents at the zoo and that would have been no fun at all.  Carmen and Jayden took a trip to see the monkeys and play on the playground for a little bit.  We got home late, but it was totally worth it!

Monday I had a flex day.  Carmen took Jayden to Juju's as usual so I could get a yoga class in.  I nearly died in the yoga class (hot yoga with weights - called "sculpt"), but as soon as I was done and cleaned up I picked up Jayden.  We were driving to the grocery store when we passed a playground.  He started talking "I wish we could go to dat pahk, but we cannnnnn't."  I said "oh, we can't?  why not?"  He said "beeee-caaaaauuuuuse, we have to go to da stohe and then home."  I asked if he really wanted to go to the park, and he said "yes."  So I made a left turn, a right turn, a u-turn, another left turn, another right turn, and two more right turns and we were at the park.  It was a great park.  There were about six slides, a bridge, some climbing structures and a bunch of other cool things for him to play on.  

Climbing the "mountain."

Checking out the loud noise on the road nearby from the bridge.

Mommy/Jayden day off!  

We went out to lunch and then to the grocery store before we went home.  He was exhausted by the time he got home and went almost right to sleep.  He was a little confused and kept saying he "jus' wanned to go to bed!"  He took a short nap, then woke up with a dry pull-up, went straight to the toilet and went potty!  It was awesome.  He spent the rest of the day in underwear, which was awesome because there wasn't a single accident.  I had to go to a board meeting, so Carmen came home, was nice enough to say "yes" to Jayden's requests to go swimming and had a rare daddy/son evening with Jayden.  When Jayden woke up Tuesday morning he said "Mommy!  Mommy, you came home while I was 'sweep!  I went to bed wif' Daddy and I woke up and you came home!"  It was very cute.  Carmen had to leave for work early so Jayden, Jasmine and I had a walk together and then I dropped him off at Juju's.  He told me he wanted me to pick him up "wate."  I told him I'd see what would happen.  It turns out I got to pick him up early and we ran a few errands.  We only needed to go to the pet store to get dog food and to the gas station to get gas, but there was a bicycle store next to the pet store, so we went inside to check out helmets.  The one I bought him at Target a few months ago was already a little small.  So I found a bigger one at the store.

Shockingly, I know, it was orange.
And he wore it out of the bicycle store and into the pet store, which was awesome.

After the gas station we headed to the grocery store for a couple things (including Thomas toothpaste, much to my chagrin).  And we still got home by about 5:30.  It was great.  I grilled up some pretty ridiculously yummy turkey burgers and roasted cauliflower "steaks."  The cauliflower could have been better but the turkey burgers were just good.  

And Jayden has continued to be awesome.  He's been going to the bathroom regularly, at home and at Juju's and is so proud of himself.  He loves wearing underwear, which is just so cute.  I know we're not done with accidents, particularly middle of the night accidents, but it's so cool how quickly he's picking this up.  My goal is to be done by his third birthday (and/or to not have to place another diaper order!).  I think it's possible.  I am forever optimistic.  

Jayden continues to be charming and wonderful.  I wish I could record everything amazing, hilarious and smart that he says and just let it play on a loop over and over again.  It would make my work day so much better.  I'll have to think about that.

Superman, Karate Kid or something similar

I put this picture up before, but I zoomed in to get a better look and it just looks so cool.  He loves looking at this picture.  :)

Failure . . . and redemption

I have to start off by saying I don't mean complete failure.  But I had a mommy failure moment Tuesday morning and it made me sad.  I just lost my patience.  I am usually incredibly patient.  Jayden learns much more from me being patient rather than me just yelling.  Yelling does nothing for anyone, but particularly Jayden who is very sensitive to that.  (on a side note, our friend Jody just wrote about this book on her blog, The Highly Sensitive Child that discusses children - and people - who are slightly more sensitive than the rest of us.  i promptly bought the book.  i actually don't think jayden is highly sensitive, but i do think he has certain sensitivities that need to be recognized and cared for rather than brushed off and passed over).  But Tuesday I couldn't hang anymore.  And it wasn't even 9:00 am.

We were on our walk and he was being stubborn and throwing a fit.  I literally had to convince him to take every single step, and his steps were small so it was hard work.  And a woman with a dog was following us so I needed to keep moving to keep Jasmine away from the other dog.  And it was already late, and I was on drop-off duty so I was going to be really late to work.  And. And. And.  So I lost my patience.  He withdrew immediately, but once I got some of it out of me, I composed myself and got him moving again.  The walk still took forever and a day, but we made it around the block and back home again without further incident.  And then to Juju's.  I was only 45 minutes late to work, which was a miracle.

Even before this happened I had planned to get home early that day.  On Monday Jayden told me he wanted to paint,  but we didn't have time Monday evening so I promised I would pick him up early so we could paint before dinner.  And I followed through! (finally)  We were home by 4:45 and painting a few minutes later.  At first the painting consisted of me painting and Jayden bossing me around: "now paint daddy."  "no mommy!  not blue, puh-pel!!!"  "no mommy, put jazzy oveh theh!"  In any case, we painted a few paintings (Jayden finally participated), we splashed our feet in the hot tub/waterfall and we threw frisbees.

Tossing the frisbee.  He learned really quickly and has a lot of fun doing it.  I did learn that we should always stand on the same side because catching is in no way his strong suit.  He's more likely to get in the feet or the head (both of which happened) than catch or even just knock it down!

"Wook Mommy!  Take a pit-cher!"  "Of your back, Jayden?!?" "Yeah!"  "Allright, sure."

So our evening ended up being lovely.  He tried to throw a fit again at bedtime, but it was averted.  In part by allowing him to sleep with two of his books, which I caught him "reading" to himself while he was waiting for his light to turn green this morning.  So cute.

I also had the scare of my life on Sunday.  We were at the park (just Jayden and me - Carmen was having lunch with Alex and working), and I told him I was going to get something from the bag.  I looked down and when I looked up he was gone.  I ran in circles for a half a second, then grabbed the bag and made a judgment call and sprinted for the parking lot.  I came over the hill and saw him running towards me, thank goodness.  I was so freaked out, my adrenaline was going and my heart was pounding, but I soon realized he was scared too.  So we both told each other how scared we were and went back to the park for a bit.  I guess he didn't realize where I had put the bag, so he thought I'd gone to the car, so he ran to the car to find me.  It kills me that there was a whole birthday party going on with a gazillion parents and not one of them noticed the toddler running by himself towards the cars.  But I got lucky this time.  Seriously, the worst feeling in the world.

Before the scare I got a picture of this beautiful boy.

The last few days have been rough, besides the two specific incidents above.  I'm struggling at work, so I think my patience is already thin and Jayden has taken to screaming at me, sometimes words and sometimes just shrill noises, as a show of defiance.  If he wants to do something and I say "no," he screams "I doooooo" and then adds a few more noises, "ahhhhh!" and "oooooo!" or whatever else he comes up with.  At first I'd respond, but now I'm trying ignoring.  I've only tried it for a couple of hours now but it seems to be more effective - no attention, positive or negative, when he speaks to me like that.  We'll see.  I'll have to get Carmen to go along with me.  Since he usually has less patience than me, that could be a challenge, but we'll see.  Speaking of Carmen, the other reason for the rough couple of days is that I have been a single mom this week.  Carmen dropped off Monday morning but everything else has been on me.  I honestly don't mind a few days to myself, but there's so little time to get everything done that I just feel like I'm rushing everything and timing everything with Jayden.  I'd love to be able to just play until we're tired.  But instead I have to give him "three more minutes" here and "two more minutes" there.  Having Carmen home wouldn't do much to fix that, but it sometimes makes a small difference because two things can be happening at once (i.e., Carmen can get Jayden's socks and shoes on in the morning while I wash the breakfast dishes).

Today was another challenge.  I had to walk away a couple times, but we made it.  And we even had a little bit of fun.

This is a picture I promise I'll never post in a public place (no Instagram, no Facebook, etc.).  He demanded to wear his underwear (he wanted to wear them to bed but I had to win that fight - I just wasn't ready to do the 3 am soaked in urine bed change) and bring his bike upstairs.  I texted the picture to Carmen who labeled this "the orange jet."

I don't know if you can see this picture - it's really dark.  But Jayden wanted to take a picture with Jazzy, me, his bike and him.  So we got everything in the picture, somehow or another.

Carmen should be home tomorrow (we'll see - initially he was going to be home tonight but that changed), and then we have a fun weekend planned, including a Mariners game on Friday night!  I'm hoping the number of outbursts (by any of us) and times I lose my patience decreases significantly.  It's so demoralizing.

I also realized I didn't get to put up some pictures that my sister sent me from the Fourth of July weekend:

Aaand we're back at it.

The worst part of the trip was having to go to work on Tuesday.  And even Jayden felt it.  When we woke up Tuesday we told him we were taking him to Juju's and his question was "why???"  Every time he gets to spend an extended amount of time with us he gets confused as to why he has to go back to Juju's, but I know he also misses the kids.  Unfortunately another kid left Juju's - the other boy who was friends with him.  So now it's just him and a little girl who is about a month older than him. They get along pretty well, but she only goes three days a week.  Other than that, there's an almost two year old girl who is about a foot shorter than Jayden, an 18 month old boy, and two babies.  I worry a little about continuing to send him there, and have considered looking into preschools, but haven't taken too many actual steps towards doing anything.  Sometime in the next few months I'll visit a few of the preschools around here and start thinking about when we'd send him.  Initially I was tending towards not going to preschool - but now I'm considering it mostly for the social interaction.  Which means I'd be looking for a preschool that has some structure but also quite a bit of unstructured play and socialization time.  I'm sure I can find it, it's a matter of at what cost!

So even though our vacation was over, we still have had some fun in the past five days.

First, Carmen got to use some of Von's Adidas money and Jayden got Shell Tops (aka Superstars).  These are my favorite shoes ever, and have been since I was in high school.  Jayden got some sweet Superstars with velcro ("straps" as he calls them) and LOVES them.  He got them Tuesday night when Carmen got home from work.  Wednesday I was on drop off duty because Carmen had to get to L.A. early for a commercial shoot and he walked into Juju's held up both of his feet and told Juju "my daddy gave dees shoes to me, wast night!"  He was so proud.  And he's worn them every day since then.  It's really adorable.  And for some reason I feel like they make him look more grown up.  Which I don't like.  But I suppose it's inevitable.

Since I've started going to yoga, Jayden has discovered my yoga mat.  So our new "exercise" is to run in four or five circles around the family room, then do a pose on the yoga mat, then run some more, then do another pose, etc.  On Wednesday we came home and he said "Mommy?  Mommy?  Wets do downwahd dog."  So we ran a few times, and then practiced downward dog.  I also taught him tree pose, pigeon pose, upward dog and cobra.  I tried to pick poses that had good names that he'd recognize.
He really wants to go to a class with me, but I can't find any place that offers parent and kid yoga.  I found mommy and baby yoga, and places that offer yoga for kids.  And obviously the grown up yoga classes.  But when I tell him I'm going to yoga, he asks me if I've found a class for us to go to together. So then I feel horrible.  In my next life I'm going to open a yoga studio that offers classes for moms and kids (of all ages).

Friday night we had a date night.  I know the picture is a little dark, but it was the best I could do.  We went to one of those movie theaters that serves real food, wine, beer and ice cream.  It was great.  Rather expensive, even for a movie, but great.  We had chipotle chicken paninis, popcorn and pinot noir.
Mom, we decided if one of these came to Bainbridge it would increase the chances that Poppa might go to a movie.  The chances might still be slim, but they'd be a eensy weensy bit better if he could order wine (and actually pretty decent wine too) at the movie theater.
You can order a glass at the beginning and then order a refill to be delivered at a certain point during the movie, say 45 minutes in, or one hour in, or whatever.  It was such an interesting idea.  In any case, we enjoyed the experience AND we enjoyed the movie.  If you have the chance to see Begin Again, with Keira Knightley and a bunch of other people, you should definitely go see it.  It was a great story and really well acted.  It felt more like a documentary than a movie, which I really liked.

And then today it was back to swimming lessons with Ms. Stacy.  She took them immediately into the big pool, which obviously made Jayden's day.  He's so comfortable in the water, it's really just amazing.

Hanging out by himself with his noodle.  The other girl in his class was really nervous today - for whatever reason - so Jayden was a little more on his own.  But that didn't bother him.  While Ms. Stacy worked with the other girl in the shallow end, Jayden swam along side, diving his head underwater and kicking his feet.  And while they were heading out to the deeper end with their noodles, Jayden kicked along next to Ms. Stacy and the little girl, completely unconcerned that Ms. Stacy didn't have her hand on him or wasn't helping him. 

And at the end of the lesson Jayden practically ran to the block at the deep end of the pool.

And hesitated about half a second before taking flight.

Swam straight to the surfboard and climbed up by himself and got pushed in by Ms. Stacy (with the little girl on her back).

Waved to us while surfing, and then splashed straight into the pool.
Ms. Stacy said his breathing is better, but he needs to practice blowing his bubbles.  Right now he holds his breath when he goes underwater for a long time, which means he gasps and chokes when he comes up.  So we need to practice blowing bubbles and exhaling while underwater so he can inhale when he comes up.
It's just amazing how much progress he has made, particularly in the past couple of months.  He truly loves the water and has very strong opinions but very little fear, which is both good and bad.

And along those lines, we got home, went down for a nap, and when he woke up, he was ready to swim again.  The pool was ridiculously warm (and if I'm saying that then it really was warm because I'm a total wimp when it comes to pool temperature, just ask Carmen).

Floating in the pool.  At first he hated this thing, but once we plopped him in and he floated around he learned just how cool it was.  You stay in the water, but you also get to float without any work.  Best of both worlds!

My favorite thing about today was the one tiny curl that was hanging down in the back of Jayden's head.  Don't know if you can see it here, but I hope so.  It was awesome.

My boys in their turtle floaties.

Uncle Alex came over for dinner - we grilled salmon and I made a roasted sweet potato, cranberry and pepitas salad (which I highly recommend if any of you are interested).  And then Carmen and Alex left to go be nerds and play backgammon and Jayden and I had bath time and bed time together.

I bought him a pillow this week, thinking he might like it, and he does.  He loves it.  I've been talking to him about switching to a new bed, because he's quickly outgrowing his crib.  I'm thinking we might pick one out with him for his birthday.  There's no way he'll sleep in it if he doesn't pick it out, so I'm not even going to try that.  But he's only got a few more inches in the crib before he's as long as the crib is, so there's only so many more months!  Anyway, I figured a toddler pillow is the first step to transitioning to a real bed. Tonight I put him to bed with the pillow and three hours later he's still sleeping on it.  We'll see.  Everything is an adventure when it comes to kids. that's for sure.

Last night while we were gone, Katrina said they were playing and he turned to her and said "so, my mommy and daddy are coming home after I go to sweep?!?"  And Katrina said "yesss..." And he said "and then you weave (leave)?"  And Katrina said "yesss..." And Jayden said, "okay, then I go sweep now."  It was so sad, but also so funny!  And then when they were climbing the stairs he turned to her and said "you wiv' wif uvver gwown ups?"  Katrina said "yes, I do."  And he said "oh, okay."  Funniest conversations ever.  And while they were a little sad, it is also nice that he actually talks to Katrina now.  Because he didn't used to talk to her.

He's started saying "sure" and "no pwobwem" when we ask him things.  I'll say "Jayden, do you want a boost to get on to the couch?" and he'll stop for a minute and think, and then say "sure."  And if I say "thanks Jayden, that's awesome that you're willing to help me stir the salad," he'll say "no pwobwem mommy."  It's just so cute.

I'll think of more stories soon and will post them as I remember.  Thanks for being patient in my long absence - it always takes a bit to recover from getting home from vacation!