Just a note

I realized that when I don't post for a couple of weeks, I forget to throw in some of the hilarious excerpts from life with a three year old.  

A lot of Jayden's stories these days revolve around baby sisters, oddly enough.  I'm trying to make sure he's involved.  Today we went to a baby store to check out a stroller (we found the one we want, and it comes in purple - wa-hooo!, as Jayden would say).  While there we bought a few other things for the baby.  Jayden helped pick them out, but as we were getting close to check-out, I realized he had just helped us pick out three or four things for the little girl, and nothing else.  And he couldn't even see the purple stroller, since they don't sell that color in the store.  He found some foam numbers/letters that go in the bathtub and stick to the side of the tub.  I could tell he felt like he shouldn't ask for them, so I asked him if he wanted them, and he said yes.  They were $7, so I said sure.  And it made him suuuuper excited to get into the bath tonight.  We put all the numbers up in order, we spelled everyone's names, it was awesome.  A totally minor thing, but it brought the focus back to him, which was nice.

And then.  The other day we were having a meal - breakfast or dinner, I can't remember which.  He turned to me and asked me a question, beginning with "Mommy?"  Carmen answered.  He turned to Carmen and said, with a completely straight face: "Is your name Mommy?!?"  Carmen and I cracked up and couldn't stop laughing.  Such an attitude.

He also regularly tells me "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to Daddy," or vice versa.  So.  I was talking to Julia last week and learned that both of those things come straight from her.  Apparently she says some of those things to the kids - not in a mean way, just in a way to get an answer from the child to whom she's talking - but it is apparently rubbing off.  This would be reason number one why sometimes you wonder whether you should quit your job and be a full-time parent.

This weekend has been exhausting.  In a good way, but exhausting nonetheless.

In the train bounce house at the first birthday party.  This party was for a one-year-old, but the parents have lots of friends with kids of all ages, so they went all out.  There was this (huge) bounce house, a train that went up and down the street in front of their house, toy trains on the tables, party favors with engineer hats and bandanas and lots of train-related decorations.  Jayden had a blast, and found a boy there who was almost exactly two weeks older than him.  They were two peas in a pod - both sensitive boys, not comfortable with character in costumes, etc.  But they had a great time running around the bounce house and riding the train together.  Of course, I didn't get a picture of the two of them on the train together, but there was a photographer there who did get a picture, so hopefully I get one eventually!

Part way through the party, I was sitting at a table and suddenly I see Jayden wandering down the path, holding his shoes (they were off since he was in the bounce house) and sobbing.  Unlike him, except that he was tired.  I ran over, thinking he'd hurt himself something bad, or something else rather terrible had happened.  I pick him up to figure it out, and the explanation was: I missed the train ride.  I'm guessing his buddy went on the train and he couldn't get his shoes on in time to go with him.  So he was sobbing  I calmed him down, and he says to me "Mommy, I don't wanna go on the train, I don't like it when it goes fast."  So yeah.  Totally worth it to have a meltdown over not getting to do something you don't want to do.  My new favorite explanation.  

The next party was a five year old's birthday party - Ollie, the son of one of my work friends.  This was at a place called Pump It Up, which was two rooms of nothing but bounce houses.  Jayden loves the slides, and they were really fast!  I could not get a non-blurry picture to save my life, so the above is the best I could get.

A group shot of all of the kids.  Jayden even smiled!

The birthday boy is the boy sitting in the inflatable thrown.  It was a Star Wars-themed party.  Which was fine, until Ollie's dad (Josh) came out dressed as Darth Vader.  All the kids had pool noodle light sabers and it looked like Jayden was having a fine time.  And then all of a sudden, he's standing by himself sobbing.  I run over to find out what happened (thinking another kid hit him in the head or something else not terrible), and it turns out he's freaked out by Darth Vader.  We told him over and over again it was a costume (like Halloween!) and that it was pretend.  And Josh even came over to him and lifted his mask to show him, but it was all bad.  Jayden wouldn't be in this picture because Josh was there in his costume.
It took him about an hour to go to bed last night; he couldn't stop talking about Ollie's party, about why his dad wore that costume, and on and on and on.  Amazingly he slept the entire night, which I wasn't expecting.  He'd only napped about 30 minutes because of the timing of the parties, so I think he was just that exhausted.

Jayden being hilarious after we got home.  Despite his two meltdowns, he was in a surprisingly good mood when we got home.  And so silliness ensues, obviously.

We thought he might sleep in today, but not so much.  He "slept in" until about 7 am.  We went to the baby store, then went to soccer class.  I then thought he'd nap like crazy, and instead slept for barely an hour.
At soccer class he managed to split his lip open.  Again, he was sobbing in the middle of the soccer field, which, except for this weekend, was unlike him.  Carmen somehow saw the blood and ran over.  This time he really was hurt.  He had snapped his head forward and rammed his upper lip directly into the cones he was picking up.  Blood was everywhere.  Carmen and I couldn't tell if he'd hit a tooth, a lip, some combination of the two or something else entirely.  We grabbed some towels and cleaned him up and luckily he had just split his upper lip.  Jayden was pretty freaked out, but we cleaned him up pretty quickly and he was able to go back to class.  We offered to take him home, but that made him more upset, of course; he hates missing class.  He was not his normal self at first (I think partly because the other kids made a big deal over his injury and I think it made him uncomfortable!), but was just fine in a bit.
And it gave me an excuse to let him have a popsicle - his first one! - when we got home.  He had no clue how to eat them at first, but Carmen taught him a technique and the end result is clear - cherry red lips and a smile, sort of.  :)

And now it's almost Monday.  I want more weekend days!