MIlestones

Of the official kind!  The Wallaces now have a FOUR year old and a THREE month old, as of yesterday.  So crazy.  Obviously the big celebration was for the four year old, and he loved it.  His actual birthday was yesterday, so I arranged a small family celebration Friday night, since I assumed Saturday would be lost to party and party preparation and party clean up.

We've been opening a few presents a day all weekend.  It has worked much better than opening everything all at once.  So Friday he got to open three presents.

A roller coaster Brio set that was a huge hit, not just with Jayden but with all the kids at the birthday party too!

An orange waterproof watch that really works!  Every time I asked Carmen what time it was, Jayden would yell "NO! I want to tell her!" and then he'd read off the numbers: "6 - 3 - 9 - 4 - 9" (the watch tells the seconds too).  It was very cute.

A giant present from Auntie that turned out to be new, bigger soccer goals for the backyard.  So awesome!

The cake I bought at the last minute.
I've been trying to go to yoga every Friday, and right next to the place where yoga is, there's a great bakery.  I've been splurging every once in a while and buying cupcakes or mini cupcakes.  I decided to see if they had small cakes, and they did, and they're called "celebration" cakes, which is white cake with colorful sprinkles inside - pretty much Jayden's ideal cake.  If only the frosting was purple....

He blew the candles out before I could take a picture!  

Saturday morning was relatively normal, except that Dakota slept in, so Jayden and Carmen went downstairs and I got a little extra sleep - totally necessary since I had been up with Dakota from midnight to 2, in Jayden's room from 2:40 to 4 and then finally back to my room to sleep until 6, when I woke up to pump.  AND I had stayed up until 11 or 11:30 decorating and getting ready for the party.  So I got to sleep until about 8:30, thank goodness.

We had swim lessons with Maxwell as usual, and then back home for lunch and party prep. Swimming was hilarious:

As usual, his swim trunks are a little loose around the waist.  Luckily plumber's butt on a four year old is a whole lot cuter than it is on a grown man.

"Diving."
Probably one of my favorite pictures ever.  Jayden had his arms in "dive" position, and then jumped in feet first.  Hilarious.

Balancing on the surfboard on the ride in.  

 I did a pretty good job planning, so there wasn't a whole lot to do Saturday morning/early afternoon.  We had to get the outside ready, cleaning off furniture, getting drinks set up, etc., and set the food out inside, but we were pretty much ready to go by 2, and the party didn't officially start until 2:30.  It was perfect.

The Paw Patrol happy birthday sign and the table full of food.
(of course football was on in the background)

A little table celebrating Jayden - his one year photo, his baby book, and a picture of him and Dakota - and his 4 year old crown!

The outdoors, with Paw Patrol decorations hanging from the umbrella.  He wanted a "Paw Patrol" birthday, and I mostly complied.  I went cheap on a couple of things and just got paw print items so I didn't have to pay for the branding.  And he didn't notice the difference, which was great.  :)

Dakota relaxing with Katrina (sort of - she never really "relaxed" apparently)

Jayden swimming with Mia, his best friend from Juju's.  He was so excited to see her, and wouldn't leave her side for the first hour or so of the party.  

Fun in the pool.  Notice the only adults in the pool are male.  All the women managed to stay on the sidelines.  :)

Blowing out the candle - this time he waited long enough for me to get a picture!

Jayden, Mia and Molly digging in to their cupcakes together.
Thank goodness kids don't care one bit whether their cupcake frosting is melted.  I can't seem to frost cupcakes to save my life.  The chocolate frosting was mostly okay.  The vanilla frosting was a disaster and had melted and dripped all over everywhere before I could even get it on the cupcake.  And I frosted them Friday, the day after I made them, indoors in the air conditioning.  There is no reason at all for the frosting to be melted.  Oh well.

Jayden, Ollie and Maxwell playing with the tunnel.  The boys were hilarious.

Babies and mommies.  Stella is sleeping on Joyce, not nursing, in case anyone is concerned about me violating Joyce's privacy.  :)
I had everything set up for the babies and the parents - nursing pillows, diapers, wipes, changing pad, play mats, baby toys, etc.  Joyce and Lili were laughing as they took their babies from station to station in our family room.  It made life a little easier for these mamas, so it was totally worth it!

It was a good party.  And while it was a little hectic at times, and I kept having to cut off conversations with people, I actually did not feel terribly frazzled.  The kids all ran around together and had a great time.  At one point Jayden was giving a tour of the house: "And this is the bathroom.  This wall is purple.  This wall is white.  And this is the tile behind the sink."  His friend wasn't all that interested in the details, but he hung around anyway.  Jayden was also introducing his friends: "Mia, this is Maxwell.  We're in swim class together.  This is Mia, we used to go to Juju's together."  It was so cute.

We opened the rest of his presents this morning.  He got a Hot Wheels color shifter mini track with cars.  They are seriously amazing.  You dip the cars in ice cold water and they change color.  You dip them in warm water and they change back:

The cars on the top are the same as the cars on the bottom.  Carmen and I were as impressed as Jayden, I think.  Maybe even a little more impressed.  

I have lots more to tell - nothing terribly exciting, just more photos, etc. from the week past and thoughts about the week ahead - but I don't want to leave little Dakota out in this one.  She is officially three months.

We get lots and lots of giggles and smiles, especially with tongues sticking out.  Definitely helps us get through the more difficult times.

Checking herself out in the mirror in Jayden's room.  She definitely sees herself in the mirror now.  Depending on her mood, she'll look at herself for a while, or just for a short time.  Or if she's really tired and over all of us, like she was this evening at bedtime, she'll look at herself in the mirror and scream bloody murder.  But most of the time it's a positive experience for her.

Little Miss Dakota.  I love this little outfit, but I think I waited too long to put her in it.  The blue dress barely fits over her big ol' head.  

Her sleep patterns have been odd recently.  She goes to bed like normal, around 8 pm.  She'll wake up sometime between midnight and 2 am.  She'll be awake for 1 to 2 hours (brutal - I need her to go back to the barely awake moments), but then she goes back to sleep and usually sleeps until 8 or 9 am.  A couple times she has woken up at around 4 am, but is usually only awake for maybe 45 minutes or an hour and then passes back out again.  Last night she went to bed late because of the party, so probably around 9 pm.  She slept until 2:30.  Was awake until about 4:30.  Was back up at 6:15, only until about 7, and then slept until 10:30 am.  I'm a little worried, if she's going to do this 12 hour thing, that we need to get her to bed earlier, like at 6:30 or 7.  But if we do that, Carmen will barely see her at all, and even I won't see her much.  Plus it's so much easier to put her to bed after Jayden.  I'm not sure how I'd get her to bed first and then put him to bed.  I might try it once to see what happens.  But maybe not.  :)

I'll try to get back on tomorrow or Tuesday to finish up stories and thoughts.  But for now, Happy Grandparents Day Gramma, Grampa, Gigi, Pop-Pop and Grandpa William!  I fully intended to do something to honor the day, until I realized it was today and there was just no way I was going to get anything done.  I hope you all enjoyed your weekends!