Happy Happy New Year!

So many exciting things happening this year.  It's hard to believe it's already "this year."  Craziness.

First, Jayden and I had a good trip to Seattle.  It's hard leaving the day after Christmas, because Jayden is so excited about his new toys and just about everything in general.  And Carmen was expecting to work over the weekend, but then didn't have to.  Although he did get some quality time in, by himself and with a couple of his buddies, so it wasn't a total loss.  Luckily Jayden was very excited to see Gramma, Grampa and Auntie, so he wasn't too sad about leaving home.  He did however miss his daddy quite a bit.  He reverted back to not wanting to talk to him on the phone.

The flight up was good - Jayden watched Planes Fire & Rescue, which Santa brought for him.  He liked the movie quite a bit and wasn't scared much at all, which surprised me.  He managed to not nap at all the entire day, which blew my mind. He has never done that before in his life.  The time he would have napped was on the ferry boat and there were too many exciting things.  And then, by the time we got to Bainbridge, it was too close to bedtime for me to even try to put him down.

Beautiful view of Mt Rainier from the plane.

Luckily the excitement, new surroundings and new people kept Jayden in good spirits  If it had just been me it would have been disastrous.

Saturday we laid low, hanging around the house and generally relaxing.  Oh, and of course playing marbles, all. day. long.  I got a run in Saturday morning - despite the hill, it is absolutely my favorite place to run.  The 40 degree weather didn't even feel that cold, and I felt like I could run forever, which is not how I feel when I run in California!

The Seattle-Bremerton ferry boat.

Puget Sound.

The hill I conquered.  I went a whole lot slower than normal, but I made it the whole way! 

He passed out hard at naptime.
For anyone with kids, I highly recommend the inflatable toddler beds (thanks Kelly!).  They are amazing.  This one is by the Shrunks.  He didn't fall out of it once and loved having his own bed.  He also slept in the room with me, which totally made his year as far as I could tell. 

Sunday was Seahawks Sunday, of course.  The Wrights (looong time family friends) came over to watch the game and we had a party.  So much fun!

In his Seahawks colors.  We decided his shirt is a "beast" as in BEAST MODE!
Also, he does this awesome thing when I ask him to take a picture to show someone something, he lifts his foot and bends hi knee, posing for the picture.  I think it's so adorable.

Playing on the dock with Auntie before the game.  

Selfie with Mama.

He didn't want to be in the picture, but of course that meant he really sort of wanted to be in the picture.  You can't see it, but I promise Mom is wearing a Seahawks shirt under that jacket!

Proof that the whole family was decked out in Seahawks gear.  Even Carmen was rooting for them from California! (he has decided he likes one of his clients on the team more than he originally thought and actually wants him to win - but probably not the Super Bowl, that he probably still wants it to go to the Broncos)

Jayden was great, and even joined in the wrapping paper battle fun after presents were opened.  He got pretty good at pelting Michael in the face with balled up wrapping paper.

Monday we made our trek into Seattle.  Ellen had some returns/exchanges to make (and has no Nordstrom in NYC) and we wanted to see Aunt Terri.  I knew it was going to be a little tough with no stroller, and of course Jayden passed out in my arms in line for food at the Nordstrom Cafe.  At least he got some rest, even if it was laying on my lap and another chair, since we couldn't get a booth.  I dream about sleeping as well as he does in awkward situations.

Reflections.  Checking out the view from the ferry boat.

12s everywhere!

The city at night.

Jayden powered through, again, despite being carted all over the place.  He got mad at me when we passed a pretty bad car accident on the freeway and I covered his eyes because I thought there might be things he shouldn't see.  I was wrong - they'd put everyone in the ambulances already - but it was a brutal accident.  We had a good dinner with Aunt Terri and Molly, and Jayden and Molly rekindled their friendship, as expected!  I only feel bad that I didn't arrange for him to sit next to her.  I think that would have been better than the corner he ended up in.  :)

And then Tuesday it was time to head back to the airport and take off again.

Saying goodbyes to Gramma.  But only for a few weeks - she'll be down to visit us at the end of January during Carmen's marathon travel from mid-January to early February.

Bainbridge Island from the plane!  The bottom of the photo is Bainbridge, and Gramma and Grampa's house is somewhere on the water there, I just can't tell exactly where.

Jayden passed out before we even took off on the flight home.  He was exhausted.  He slept about an hour and a half or so.  He woke up with just enough time to color in the Disney coloring book the flight attendant gave us and say, as we were flying over the water, "I hope the plane doesn't go into the water!"  I tried to quiet him down - you never know what kind of paranoid people are on the plane nearby!  Before he passed out, he was the star of the airplane.  As we were getting on, there were multiple people staring at him and trying to talk to him.  One lady told him he had beautiful eyes.  And then spent the next few seconds looking from me to him and back again, probably trying to figure out where those beautiful eyes came from (I told them they came from Daddy).  A flight attendant asked where he was going, and Jayden said "Santa Ana."  She laughed and asked if it was home or vacation and he said "home."  I asked him who he was going to see when he got home and his eyes lit up and he said "DA-DA!"  So when we were leaving the plane, she said "have fun with da-da!"  It was very cute.

We were home by 4 pm, which was wonderful.  Carmen had gotten home a couple hours earlier and had already picked up Jasmine.  Jayden was SO excited to see his daddy, as you might have already guessed.  I warned Carmen that when he gets back from his traveling in January/February, no matter how tired he is, he's going to have to suck it up and give Jayden some quality (phone-free) time.  He is becoming more and more important to Jayden and more frequently he wants Daddy to do things for him instead of me (finally!!!).

Wednesday Carmen had to work for a few hours.  Jayden and I ran a few errands, including opening a bank account for him.  If anyone wants to donate to his savings account at birthdays and Christmas, you can actually make checks out to him, and as his custodian (and pursuant to my fiduciary duty as custodian) I will dutifully deposit those checks into his account.  :)  He had a nice long nap, mostly because I told him Carmen and I wanted to show him something on television when he woke up.  Netflix had a special with King Julien from Madagascar where they counted down to the New Year.  It was only three minutes long, but it let us count down with him at 6:45 so we could still get him to bed relatively close to on time.

Partying hard.  Chugging the apple-cranberry sparkling cider.  And sharing with his mommy, while his daddy drank the real stuff.  ;)

And then it was 2015.  Yesterday we didn't do a whole lot, but we did ride bikes and we did dance.  And one of my friends from law school was having people over so we went.  There were a whole bunch of kids, between the ages of 3 months and 6 years.  Jayden picked his people to follow, two girls, one 3-1/2 and one 6.  The 3-1/2 year old hit him in the face with a plastic toy so she quickly lost his favor.  But the six year old was really nice to and patient with him.  He wasn't all that much shorter than her either!  It was a really nice relaxing afternoon.  I haven't done a great job of keeping in touch with my friend, but she had a baby last year and we've reconnected since she's become a mommy.  Hopefully we'll stay in touch because Carmen likes the husband and we both liked the group of friends at the party.

Obviously there was bicycle riding.  He looooves his bicycle and is really getting so good.  We're going to have to take him to a bigger flat space to ride soon, since our little concrete pad is going to get too small pretty quickly.

There was also some pretty awesome dancing.  Make sure your volume is up (and you're not in a library) to get the full effect of the awesomeness.  Thanks to Carmen for the soundtrack, as always.

Today Carmen took Jayden to work for a couple hours in the morning.  I was supposed to rest and get stuff done, but inevitably I ran out of time and got nearly nothing done.  Oh well.  We met for lunch and then I took him home to nap while Carmen finished working.  Jayden and I also got to go to the park and ride bicycles again, of course!

Top of the slide.

Bottom of the slide.  Love these smiles.

Bicycle riding at sunset, waiting for Daddy to get home.
Jayden has been expressing many of his emotions, especially those about missing his daddy, through Jasmine.  He'll look at Jasmine, then turn to me and say "Jasmine reallly misses her Daddy.  She really wishes he was home."  And I just nod and say "uh-huh.  I think maybe you miss your daddy a little bit too!"  And he usually agrees.  :)

And it was hair washing night, which is usually a disaster, but tonight it went smoothly.  And we even threw in a little mohawk, which usually helps things along.

I'm so grateful I have two more days before returning to work, but I could really use another week.  There's so much organizing to do at the house, especially with all of the new toys (really, people - it was way too much.  Next year there's going to be a four gift per grandma limit - he doesn't even know where to start with all the new toys!).

I am feeling much better, although I am really starting to feel pregnant even though I don't really look it.  I am 16 weeks as of today.  I have a doctor appointment Monday morning, just a check up, but it'll tell me when my next ultrasound is, which is likely when we'll get to find out the gender.  Of course the ultrasound is likely to be during Carmen's marathon travels, so if so we'll do the same thing as last time and put the pictures in sealed envelopes, I'll Fedex the envelope to him and we'll open them at the same time over the phone.  That's fun too, it just takes a lot of discipline on my part.

The kid is about the size of an avocado, or 4-1/2 inches long, and weighs about 3-1/2 ounces.

The fruit/vegetable comparison is always a tough one.  At my grocery store, some avocados are huge, some are small, and some apples a huge, some are small.  So I guess you have to imagine the most average fruit/vegetable and just go with that.

In the next few weeks the kid should double in weight and add inches to the length, which is why a lot of people start showing a whole lot more by 20 weeks.  We'll see what happens.

The kid is continuing to develop, with the eyes and ears moving closer to their correct position and the head becoming more erect.  The legs are continuing to develop as well, and toenails are growing!  The baby's heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood a day.

I swear up and down I've felt the kid move.  It's very light, and feels like little flutters more than anything, but it's not gas, so it's gotta be the kid.  :)  I don't feel it all the time, but if I lay down for a while, particularly on my side, I start to feel little movements.  I felt it quite a bit either yesterday or the day before.  I haven't felt it as much today.  It's pretty awesome.  I don't remember feeling Jayden move until at least 20 weeks, maybe even 22.  I know that's pretty common, but it's crazy I'm feeling this one move at 15 or 16 weeks.  I can't wait for Carmen and Jayden to be able to feel it from the outside of my belly - that's not quite possible yet, but hopefully soon if the kid really does double in weight in the next few weeks!

I'm feeling quite a bit better, although I still have occasional nausea and I still feel quite tired.  Some of the exhaustion may come from the fact that I didn't sleep that great in Seattle since I was sharing my room with a three year old and I'm typically a light sleeper, and from the fact that since we've been home Jayden has not been sleeping well.  Last night I was up at 3:15 am with him, and spent some time, I don't even know how long, half asleep sitting outside his room.  I can't lay on my stomach or back, so my hips/sides get really sore, particularly on the floor.  So I decided sitting up was the better plan.  It probably was, but just not comfortable for my neck/back.

Hope everyone has had a fabulous start to 2015.  Here's hoping this is one of the best years yet!