Survival - and celebrations!

Wow.  So I (we) made it through the week.  There were days (particularly last Monday, which wasn't great), that I wasn't sure we were all going to make it.  But we did.  I was productive and as efficient as I could be.  And I spent more money than I should, but those extra dollars made my overall life easier, so I went with it.  I could sleep for days.  But instead it's Sunday night, and there will be no sleeping for days!

Jayden and I actually had a pretty good week last week.  The biggest bummer was the 5:30 am wakeup on Monday morning (I actually was going to wake up that early anyway to get a run in, but Jayden beat me to the punch because Carmen woke him up on his way to catch his airplane).  So Monday was hard.  But things actually did get (mostly) better from there.  Work is still a crapshoot, but Jayden is great.  We get along fine; I tried really hard to give him some time - although I swear I felt like I was rushing him everywhere during the week, which really sucked.  Of course I would rather sit down and play cars for 20 minutes - even 3 minutes! - but that just couldn't be done when I was trying to be full-time mom and full-time lawyer doing 1-1/2 jobs all. by. myself.

Wednesday night I wrapped all of his presents - of course we bought too much, but they were varied enough that I think they'll all end up being enjoyed.

I planned out everything I needed to do to get ready for Saturday - I had Friday afternoon off, so I had my errands for the afternoon, then picked Jayden up early since it was his actual birthday and went home so we could open presents.  It took Carmen longer than he planned to get home, so we really only got to open one or two presents before dinner.  We went to Lazy Dog Cafe for dinner, which is a typical American restaurant, but with a dog theme.  The food is pretty good and it's a cute atmosphere.  But it was Friday night and we were later than we planned, so we had to wait quite a while for a table.  Which made everything else later.  Jayden was still great, but it was clear he was starting to fade.  And it turns out they don't have cake for birthdays!  They brought out a scoop of ice cream with a candle, which I actually think was better since Jayden only thinks he's a huge fan of cake but doesn't actually enjoy eating it all that much.

The first time I tried to take a picture of him in his birthday shirt.
"Mom, did you take a picture of my shoes?  why?"

A little smile.  He demanded to wear his pajama pants all day long.  Whatever makes the birthday boy happy!

The big haul.  We seriously only "opened" two or three presents.  And only one of those was wrapped.  The other things he grabbed were things that weren't wrapped at all.

Ice kweam!

Saturday morning started off earlier than Carmen and I expected, but not really unreasonably early.  And it turns out, it's a good thing it wasn't later.  We went for a longer walk, which maybe I shouldn't have done either, but we made it eventually.  We ran to the grocery store to pick up the food I ordered, ice, and a few other last minute items.  And of course the store didn't have my order.  Luckily they were able to make it for me quickly, but it threw off my plan!  Oh well.  The thing is, Jayden is three and wouldn't know whether I forgot something or didn't put something out, so I decided it would all be fine.

We did manage to open the rest of the presents Saturday morning.  This is an airplane that Auntie Ellen gave him that he could take apart and put back together with his drill.  So awesome!  Not only did he love it, but many of the parents at the party loved it too.

We went to swim lessons as usual, where Jayden was unusually talkative to Ms. Stacy, including telling her it was his birthday and how old he was.  He passed out on the way home, slept for a bit while Carmen and I madly ran around finishing up last minute items (icing cupcakes, putting tables together, putting ice and drinks in coolers/buckets, etc.).

And then it was party time!  And I completely forgot to take pictures - except one:

Eating cupcakes!  They were too full to eat more dinner, but were not too full for cupcakes.  Funny how that works.
The girl on the left is Glory, she's about 2-1/2 and is the daughter of the woman who has done my hair for the past 7 years who just recently told me she's not coming back to work anymore.  So sad!  But it was so great that she was able to come to the party - her family is lovely.  Ollie is the one in the orange shirt.  Jayden spent the first hour of the party asking when Ollie was going to be there.

The party was a lot of fun.  A lot of Jayden's daycare friends came, which was great.  Juju came, and Katrina came too.  And Carmen's friend Alex, my friend Lili and her family (Ollie and Josh) and Carmen's friend Mark and his son Emmett.  I was expecting 30 people and I think it ended up being more like 25, but it was great.  It has been ridiculously hot here, and it was ridiculously hot yesterday, probably close to 100.  Having the party at 3 pm definitely helped, but people were still sweating everywhere.  Lots of people swam, nobody was afraid of dogs, the kids all got along, everyone seemed to really have fun.  And most importantly, Jayden was loving it  And I didn't feel crazy stressed.  The cupcake frosting started to melt off the cupcakes inside the air conditioned house - that's how hot it was.  That stressed me out for a minute, but I rearranged the fridge by throwing yogurts in any open space and fit the giant cupcake bins in the fridge, thank goodness.  Everyone left by 8:30 or 9:00 pm - I put Jayden to bed around 8:30 - and I cleaned up for a bit and then couldn't keep my eyes open past 10 pm.

Today we thought (again) we might get a later wake up, but no such luck.  Unless 6:40 is "sleeping in" to anyone.  We got up and came straight downstairs to the race track.  Which, by the way, is the coolest thing ever.  If you have a toddler, you should get this - girls, boys, two year olds, four year olds, they all love it:

It really is so fun.  All the grown ups that play with it love it too!

We had soccer class today, or "baseball" as Jayden calls it.  Alex spent the night at our house and was going to relax on the couch while we were gone, but Jayden requested he come to soccer with him, and ran over in the middle of class and gave him a giant hug.  It was adorable.

Agility training - obstacle course!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAL!

He passed out on the way home again, slept for a while and then woke up and had lunch.  He and I watched an episode of Little Einsteins, talked to Auntie for a bit, played bat and ball, fell all over each other upstairs and finally went swimming.  It was a fun day, but tiring, as always.

Since I took no pictures yesterday, I took a few today of what was left of the party to make up for it.

First, we reenacted blowing out the candle.  He did have a "3" candle yesterday, but this is close enough.  Plus I have extra cupcakes so people have to eat them!

Blowing out the candle!  He never lets us finish the song - he always blows it out as we're about to say "happy birthday dear jayden..."

I asked Jayden if he would take a picture of the poster.  So he grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture.  I meant for him to be in the picture, but he did not see it that way, so we figured it was worth letting him try.  His second try was a picture of the chair directly to his right.  I have no idea how he thought he was taking a picture of us.

Daddy and Jayden next to the giant Dusty poster.  "Cheese!"

The banner that I ordered from Etsy.  Etsy is full of people who have creative ideas like I do, but who actually have the talent and take the time to make them come to life.  I love Etsy.

Some dot, stamp and roller ink drawings.  Thanks Gramma and Auntie (and Mama and Daddy)!

Since we'd had such a wild weekend, tonight was a night to disinfect him in the bathtub.  Washing hair is better now because we can make a "mohawk" with the shampoo:

He says "cheese" a lot, he just doesn't smile at the same time.  We need to start making him say "pasta with the stuff inside" or something equally appealing to him.  But it's a pretty good shot of the mohawk!

And now it's about to be Monday.  I luckily took the day off work, but because my life is crazy, I'm one of the speakers at a training tomorrow night and I've got a bunch of stuff to do in the afternoon.  We'll see if I get it all done.  I almost never do because I always think something will take 20 minutes and it takes 40.  Or, like tomorrow, I'll have to stop at the bank and the gas station and the grocery store, etc.  It'll all work out.  That's my motto these days.  It'll all work out.  Because it has to.

It was a great weekend.  Explaining to Jayden that he has to wait another year for his next birthday is going to be brutal.  We were talking about it tonight and we still have 7 more months until Carmen's birthday, and he's the next birthday in our little family.  Hopefully the bunch of new toys and books (and the leftover cupcakes) will keep him occupied long enough that he'll slowly forget...we'll see.