Daily Surprises

Last year we did an advent calendar for Jayden, and I'm going to continue that tradition this year.  He understands it much better this year, and often wants to check his calendar two or three times a day!  It's very hard to explain to him that he really truly honestly only gets one little treat a day.  He's been getting very little things - and I'm going to try to keep it that way.  One of my friends posted a picture of a present from her daughter's advent calendar and it was a Barbie electric toothbrush and a bag of goodies from a surf store in SoCal.  He never needs that many toys, so I'm going to have to get creative as he gets older.  He also has a much better understanding of Santa Claus, so we talk about how Santa comes to the houses where kids are and fills stockings and leaves presents for people.  His stocking is also going to be hopefully not too huge - so far Carmen and I have been pretty good!

The week itself was decent.  Carmen's tire wasn't fixed until Thursday, so I was on drop off and pick up duty pretty much all week long.  That was a little frustrating to me, but not the end of the world.

Last Sunday we went to soccer, which was the start of the new session.  Jayden was one of two kids in the class!  There was supposed to be a third kid there, but s/he didn't show up.  It turned out to be okay, although the other kid is 5 and much more coordinated than Jayden, with fewer kids Jayden gets less distracted and can actually participate better.
Above he is kicking the ball with small kicks through all those cones from one goal to the other goal.

Doing an obstacle course.  Hopefully you can see how his coordination has improved!

Clearly an outfit is not complete until you have your super fast shoes, your Jordan shorts, your running shirt and your sparkly jacket.  A-1 style.

Swim class today.  Surfing in from the deep end to the shallow end.

Getting a cannon ball toss from Ms. Stacy.
He had a hard time focusing today, and he's really got to work on breathing just with his head, not with his whole body.  Every time he picks his head up to breathe, everything else below his shoulders drops.  I have a feeling it's one of those things that suddenly he'll just figure it out and we'll forget he one say struggled with it.

 

We also ran some errands at the mall quickly before lunch.  We saw the GIANT Christmas tree.  Jayden was mesmerized.  And there was a woman singing on our way out and so we sat and listed to some Christmas music for a bit.  It was a lot of fun, especially since she sang some songs that we all knew.

 It was a rainy week in Southern California, but it was much needed and pretty much just made me happy.  We don't live anywhere near any mudslides or flooding, so our only negative consequences are having to turn our heater on at nighttime and having to avoid some flooded streets on the way to work.  Oh, and getting drenched when we (read: Carmen) walk(s) Jasmine in the mornings.  We're supposedly getting more rain this week, which although bad for mudslide areas, will be really good for California and the drought problems.

And now for some random photos:

One of the best dishes I've made with leftover turkey: stacked enchiladas!  With refried beans with chipotle peppers (for me and Carmen only, not Jayden), cotija cheese, cheddar cheese, mild enchilada sauce (also for Jayden - Carmen and I added Tapatio) and a fried egg on top of course!  Except for the mildness, channeling my Granddad!
In years where you have six cups of leftover turkey like I did this year, I highly recommend stacked enchiladas as a way to use up leftovers.

The wonderful part of rain is that we get beautiful sky scapes during and after.

The sky on our drive down to San Diego today to see Von and his family.  The Broncos play the Chargers tomorrow, so we made the long trek to SD and back for dinner.  Maybe not totally worth it, but the 1,800 churros we brought home made it allllll better!