Happy Easter!

Carmen and I put the kids in a cage and relaxed on the couch for a few hours!

Just kidding...  The kids were in the "cage," but we created this for Dakota's protection, and right now anything I bring out for Dakota, Jayden wants a part of.  So when Jayden wanted to go into the gate to play with his sister, we certainly weren't going to say "no."

This year has just been never-ending with Carmen's work.  Over the last 12 days, he has been home for bedtime 5 of those days.  And he'll be gone tomorrow to Wednesday.  Then home next weekend, but he's gone every Monday from now until Von gets eliminated from Dancing With The Stars.  So if you're into that show, feel free to watch and vote for anybody but Von!  :)

I've been in survival mode.  There have been some ugly times.  Friday the 18th is a day I'd like to erase from memory.  From about 7 am Friday until about 5 am Saturday, I'd like to erase all of it.  Jayden and I were fighting Friday morning, and from the time I left the house with the kids until a little later that morning, I was fighting off tears.  Sometimes more successfully than others.  And then of course, Dakota was up all night.  I went to bed at 11, then she woke up at 12.  I was up with her until 12:30.  Then she woke up at 2. And I walked with her until 4:15.  And she just wouldn't sleep.  I finally gave up and couldn't do it anymore.  Out of desperation, I laid her in her crib, and let her cry.  I had the monitor on silent and was just watching her scream from my bed, shedding a few tears myself.  I had planned to go in after 20 or 30 minutes.  After 20 minutes, she started to only cry every few minutes, she rolled on to her stomach, and she put her head down.  At 25 minutes, she passed out.  I sat and stared at her for another 15-20 minutes, but she was passed out.  And we all slept until 7.  So Saturday night, She woke up at 11.  I went in to pick her up and held her for a bit (maybe 20 minutes?) and then laid her down on her stomach.  She cried, but only for 20 minutes and then she passed out.  Sunday she woke up at 10.  I did the same thing as the night before.  This time she cried for 3 minutes and then passed out.  The next night she didn't wake up at all, she slept from 8 pm or so until 7 am when I woke her up.  And every night since then, she has gone down without a peep, sometimes even awake, and slept until I wake her up (usually) around 7 or 7:15.  Tonight she cried for about 30 minutes, which was unusual, and is now asleep sideways in her crib.  But the important part is that she's asleep.  We'll see how the night goes.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the last 12 days:

Playing with paper airplanes (Jayden makes at least one a day at preschool, I think) wearing his "Von Miller MVP" shirt that Daddy brought him.  It's a little too big, but he loves it so who cares.

Dakota ready for the Duke game (this was the first Thursday of the tournament, so a game Duke actually won!)

Jayden discovered the "cartoon" feature on my phone's camera, so we took a whoooole bunch of cartoon photos.  There are only a few here.

Ready for the Duke game on Saturday - we were all decked out in our Duke gear - and another Duke win!  Duke winning meant that they were coming to Anaheim the following week, which meant we all were going to go to the game.  Jayden was super excited - he couldn't wait for his first Duke game.

Jayden ready for swim class.  His intention was to ride in the car like this, with swim trunks, goggles, socks and shoes.  He forgot, and accidentally wore his shirt.  Oh well.  He's still a little cutie.

Jayden has been super into art projects recently, so after swim class we stopped at Michael's and bought beads and string and pipe cleaners.  And we made "fishing poles" and bracelets and necklaces and all kinds of cool stuff.
Preschool is having a really positive effect on him, and it's opening his eyes to all kinds of different things.  One of the best things is art projects.  And a little focus on his fine motor skills.
I was telling Carmen tonight, as we were admiring Dakota's fine motor skills, that I remember that Jayden's fine motor skills were really good when he was a baby, and then his focus became on his gross motor skills (like, I don't know, running everywhere!).  

More Duke gear, because she is just too cute.

On Sunday, Jayden really wanted to ride the ferris wheel at the Irvine Spectrum.  I am not a huge fan of heights, but I agreed because, after Friday, my motto had become "whatever works, so long as we survive."  So, when Jayden said he wanted to ride the ferris wheel, I said "okay!"
And it was actually fun.  I could barely turn my head to see everything, but I tried my best to hide my fear!

Dakota clearly enjoyed herself.  She wasn't allowed to ride on my lap, which was probably better anyway, so she and I were seat-belted in together.

After the ferris wheel came the train.  Like I said, I was in survival mode, so pretty much I just said "yes."  I really wanted to eat at one restaurant for lunch, but Jayden wanted pasta (and the restaurant I wanted to go to definitely didn't have pasta), so we went to Jayden's restaurant.  And it was all okay.

Carmen landed just in time to make it to the second half of Jayden's soccer  class.  When he showed up, Jayden stopped what he was doing, pointed at Carmen and said "Mommy, look!"  And when he sat down, Dakota "hugged" him.

Dakota is trying her best to move.  She is trying to pull herself up, and she's trying to crawl.  She can't quite do it, but she's trying, and she's getting there.  It's very cute.  She definitely knows how to move herself around, just not by crawling - sort of by a scoot in circles,  but making the circles bigger and bigger.

Jayden and I made awesome hair bows.

And a silly cartoon picture!

And another cartoon picture, this time with matching penguin hats.  Our kids are so cute.

At the Duke game Thursday night.  We went for part of the first game, and all of the Duke game.  It was a looooong night, and I was so ready to not have any kid touching me or anyone saying "mom" for a really long time.  Of course that lasted until about 7 am the next day.  Oh well.

The kiddos cheering on their daddy's team.  

Amazingly, Dakota fell asleep and stayed asleep for a good portion of the game.  She only woke up when I bumped her leg when I stood up to take Jayden to the bathroom.  Babies are amazing.  And so are baby carriers!

This is what your morning looks like if you're 4-1/2 and your parents let you stay up until 10 pm the night before.  It was a rough morning for poor little baby Jayden.  But we survived, and Friday night wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be (especially, since, of course, Carmen wasn't home and didn't get home until about 4 am).

Thursday and Friday were Parent Appreciation Days at the preschool.  The Room 8 kids made a footprint poster for us.  Dakota's feet are the yellow ones in the upper right.

Jayden's room, Room 3, made a huge collage for us.  They also talked about why they love/appreciate their parents.  But of course Jayden "couldn't remember" what he said about us.

We dyed eggs on Saturday night.  I had a crayon thingy that let us write on the eggs and then have the pattern show up when we dyed them.  

Our egg dying set up.  Jayden had a pretty good time - we dyed 15 eggs!  Now I will be making egg salad for days....

Easter morning.  The Easter bunny hid all kinds of eggs filled with runts, malted chocolate eggs and stickers.  And Jayden found every last one of them.  And we spent the afternoon re-hiding the eggs.  What was fun was that Jayden took a turn hiding them too, making Carmen go find them.  Awesome.

Since I am not a religious person, I get my "religion" from running.  I don't listen to music anymore, I let my mind roam and just enjoy the outdoors and clearing my head.  I only get to run outdoors every one or two weeks with Carmen's current travel schedule.  But when I do, it really makes me feel good.  I ran about 3-1/2 miles this morning.  I am definitely out of shape, but I am slowly going to work myself back into shape.
Actually, I am looking at getting one of those workout programs - I was thinking about Beach Body, which has 25 minute high intensity daily workouts.  If any of you have tried one of these, let me know.  

Dakota in her cute little dress.  She wears a dress maybe once every two months.  So I try to remember to put a dress on her when I can.  But honestly, at preschool they're just not convenient.  And as she gets older, she's going to be covered in dirt, paint, etc., so they will be even less practical.  She's going to be wearing a lot of leggings and t-shirts, I think.

Actually, a quick note about clothes:
Jayden is wearing a 6-7, but he's got pretty much all the clothes he needs in that size.  He "dresses up" maybe once a year.  Maybe.  Most of the rest of the time I can get away with putting him in jeans and a collared shirt.  Right now, he's got 15 pairs of shorts, 6 pairs of pants and probably 30 t-shirts.  Which is pretty much the perfect wardrobe for a four year old, just a few too many items.  :)
Dakota is wearing 6-9 month clothing.  She's long but tiny, just like Jayden was.  She has more than enough 12 month clothes.  I have all of Jayden's clothes up until about 2, plus people have been buying and buying clothes.  So she really doesn't need clothes at all - but if there's something you can't say no to, I guess the lowest size to get would be a 2.  I don't have a ton of storage space (and it is quickly running out with two kids!), but I will put it in storage for a year from now.  

This little girl is amazing.  Give her finger food, and she'll eat anything.  She had salmon, broccoli and rice for dinner tonight.  And I just steamed the salmon and the broccoli and she ate it like it was nothing.  Amazing.  I get so proud when she eats so well.  And so healthy!

And now it's Sunday night and it's back to work tomorrow.  Luckily for me I have Thursday off (Cesar Chavez Day - a California holiday), and then preschool is closed Friday, so I took the day off and the kids and I will find something to do.  So I'll end up with a four day weekend, which will be nice.  Although I'm sure I'll end up more behind than ever at work.  I just can't seem to catch up at work, which is so frustrating.  I'm sure I'll make it.  I always do, right?!??

In any case, Happy Easter; whether you went to church or just celebrated the fun traditions (dying eggs, Easter bunny, etc.) or just had Mexican food for lunch (I'm looking at you Mama and Poppa!), I hope you had a good day.

Silly faces and Peek-a-boo

A quick update because I am avoiding doing work.  We're surviving.  When I picked up the kids today, both of their teachers told me they had fevers of 100 degrees.  Seeeeriously.  I'm so over it.  I am strongly considering locking the two of them in the house from December to April and not allowing anyone to come over.  Or clearing out the house and power washing everything because there must be germs and other things hidden everywhere for all of us to be constantly sick for two months straight.  I don't know.  But it's killing me.

And, the other reason both kids are sick at the same time is because Carmen is in L.A. all day tomorrow (until well past bedtime) and then leaves for Vegas Thursday morning and is gone until Sunday.  And of course I have a court hearing on Thursday afternoon.  So I have to figure out how to manage all of this.  And that might mean making an emergency call for backup to Gramma Barb.  She's on standby and we're making the final call tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed for no fever and a little more energy.

Dakota has turned into a complete ham.  She loves music, as I've posted about before.  She also has figured out how to make a silly face and crack everybody up.  And she plays peek-a-boo with me.  I don't have a picture, but her peek-a-boo usually means her hands covering her forehead and her eyes peeking out from underneath them, watching me.  It's pretty awesome.  And she'll do it about 25 times in a row.  Luckily it never gets old...

Dakota's favorite silly face.  LOVE.  LOVE. LOVE.

Daddy and Jayden during our dance party.  Since Dakota loves music so much and Jayden has started taking a dance class (oh yeah - Jayden is taking a dance class - offered at his preschool once a week.  He's in it with mostly younger kids, but he seems to really enjoy it, so I'm not worried about it at this point) we have been having more and more dance parties.  It's quite a bit of fun.

More dance party.  Did you catch the Duke theme?!?

With some crazy funny poses too.  Jayden is turning into his own version of a ham.  

Dakota danced in my arms, so it was harder to get a picture of her "posing."  This is pretty standard for her, especially when in my arms, looking at herself on my phone.  :)

These are not great pictures.  But this is what happens when you leave your phone on the breakfast table and go get Dakota's bottles and food ready for the day.  Your four-year-old picks up the phone, finds the camera and starts taking pictures of Dakota (and our yogurt containers).  Please enjoy Jayden's artistry:

This one actually wasn't so bad, if you zoom in on Dakota and crop out the table.  :)

So we're deeper into a survival mode this week.  We'll make it.  It'll be a juggling/balancing act.  But we'll make it.  Jayden has been super tired (I blamed daylight savings time until he came down with the fever - but who knows), but he has still been decently cheerful.  And Dakota has been mostly cheerful too.  And both of them are cute, which helps too.  Dakota has been sleeping much better - to bed between 7:45 and 8:30, sometimes waking up once before midnight, and then sleeping until 7 am the next day.  Jayden, of course, has been waking up once or twice a night, around 10:30 pm and again around 3:30 or 4:00 am.  And he's been having accidents at night too, which is pretty unusual.  I think he's going through something, and I think we're just going to have to weather the storm.  In the meantime, I'm seeking out nighttime pull-ups that hold more and fit bigger kids so hopefully we have fewer nighttime bed sheet changes!

Oh, and twice this week (so far) Dakota has peed after her bath, before I can get her diaper on her.  So I am currently doing a load of laundry that solely involves clothes that have been peed on.  Luckily none of my clothes are in that load!

Life with kids is always fun...

Nine months - and Four and a half!

Today we hit two milestones - nine months for Dakota and Four and a half years for Jayden!

But on to the update: last weekend was the Athletes First Classic, so we spent the weekend (after swim class) at the St Regis Hotel in Dana Point.  It's always a fun weekend, but also always a little stressful because Carmen is working all weekend.  Carmen actually got to come to swim class on Saturday, and then he dropped Jasmine off afterwards.  I drove the kids down just after, and we all met at the hotel.  We hung out in the green room with Carmen's clients and co-workers for a bit, and then headed down to the rooms (we had two connecting rooms) to nap.  Amazingly both kids napped at the same time, which meant I got to close my eyes for half a second too.  Dakota was napping on a bed, so I stayed in the room with her.  Which was a good idea, until . . . Jayden woke up from his nap and instead of coming through the connecting door, he went into the hall.  So, a hotel employee rings my doorbell and I see little Jayden standing in the hallway looking flushed from his nap and a little confused.  He told me "I told the guy I was lost."  He was two feet from our room.  But he was apparently lost.  So yeah.

There wasn't much opportunity for Jayden to run, so he decided we should go on "walks."  That meant that we left our hotel room, we took the elevator to the first floor, we walked outside, around a corner, past a fountain, up some stairs, up some more stairs and then down a hallway.

I chose not to get a babysitter this year, so I took Jayden and Dakota to the silent auction for about 45 minutes and then Jayden, Dakota and I went back to the room, ordered room service for dinner and watched Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue.  The movie was great.  Dinner took longer than we wanted, which made for a late night, but I told Jayden it was a special night and we'd just go with the flow.  Amazingly both kids slept pretty well in the hotel room - Dakota woke up once around 1 am, but I walked with her for maybe 30 minutes and put her back down in the pack-n-play and she slept until the morning.  So I was actually somewhat rested, which was a miracle.  

On one of our walks, Jayden was at the bottom of the stairs in an entryway.  I love this picture. One of the few times Jayden still looks small.

Reggie living vicariously through us.  He really loves kids, but he's got three of his own and he's good.  So he makes adorably cute faces at our baby, which is totally cool with me.  

Breakfast in bed!  And the coolest pancakes ever!  

Even Dakota got in on the fun and ate some of Jayden's scrambled eggs.  

One of the nicest views ever.  I took this while nursing Dakota on the nineteenth hole on Sunday.   Carmen and Jayden were playing on the 

Jayden really wanted to ride a golf cart, and luckily one of Carmen's co-workers had errands to run.  Ever since then, Jayden has said he loves riding in golf carts, but he's only going to do it with Nicole.  Which is pretty much all Nicole has been wanting, because she's been trying to be Jayden's best friend for a while now.  It was super cute.

Dark picture, I know.  But on Monday night Carmen was out of town.  Oh - the best part about this past weekend - we were at the hotel until Sunday around noon, when I took the kids home.  Carmen had to stay down there to meet with clients and generally be a responsible A1 employee.  And then he had to drive to LAX to get on a redeye to Minnesota for one of his client's pro days the following day.  So yeah.  I had the kids in the hotel room Saturday, and then was flying solo the next two nights.  And of course Monday night I had a board meeting that I had to attend, and give a presentation.  For the last three years I've had to bring my kid(s) to this board meeting because Carmen is always unavailable for some reason.
So yeah.  I went to work, ran to get the kids, stopped at home to grab dinner, took them to the office to feed them (and bribed Jayden with cake and Paw Patrol DVDs), and then gave my presentation (during which Jayden giggled loudly and Dakota started to fuss - thank goodness for my mommy co-workers) and then ran home as fast as I could. Dakota was so tired, she passed out in the car on the way home, and stayed asleep as I got her out of her carseat and then laid her on Jayden's bed.  It actually allowed me to get Jayden completely ready for bed, and then quickly quickly get her pajamas on before reading to Jayden and getting them both to bed.  She did not move once, though after I laid her down.  If I hadn't needed to change her diaper, I might have just put her to bed in her clothes.  

And then this is what I woke up to Tuesday morning.  She is pretty cute.

It's a constant battle: I love waking up to her cute stuff, but part of me dreads it a little because it's another day of challenges and of feeling inadequate.  I know those feelings are silly, but they are what they are. 

Jayden being casual big brother while I got ready this morning.  The kids slept in until 7ish, so I did too.  After I got them ready and fed them breakfast, I got myself ready.  Poor Jazzy suffered in that she got no walk today, but I let her out in the backyard about 854 times, so hopefully she'll survive.  

Dakota's 9 month picture.
She's not moving, really - although she is really good at turning in circles while she's sitting, and in sort of moving herself backwards when she's on her tummy, but she does NOT like to sit still in our laps for more than a few minutes.  I managed to catch her at the beginning of Jayden's swim lesson in a calm moment.  But about two minutes later, I spread Jayden's towel out on the ground with a few toys and she and I hung out on the ground for the swim lesson.  It was so much better.

This was at home, not from last weekend, but I think from last week.  Just an example of her scooting to get things.  She's close, but I'm find with her taking her time to figure it out.  :)

Jayden and Maxwell floating with Mr. Ian.  He was being very patient with the boys today (and always really).  Luckily the boys complied for most of the lesson.  They just are at an age where they have their own ideas and want to act on them.  And then feed off each other.  

And now we start the Dakota series.  This is eating lunch.  She was just being cute.  And she's growing a tooth and I was trying to capture it.  I missed it in this picture, but got a pretty good smile.

Best. Face. Ever.  She makes this face quite a bit, including at daycare when she's done with her bottle apparently.  But it provides an excellent view of her tooth, and of her second one soon to be popping through, I think.  I really do love her, no matter how challenging she is.  Her personality is something else.

One more, better exhibiting the food all. over. her. face.  But that's meal time with a nine month old.  If she can get her hands in the spoon, and then all over her face and in her hair, then she will do it.

Jayden teaching Dakota how to play the "piano."  It was pretty cute.  Dakota really didn't get it.  But Jayden worked with her and was super patient and eventually Dakota got it!

Our art project for the day.  The High Five magazine he got recently had this art project in it and he's old enough to understand that.  So after swim class today we stopped at Michael's to gather supplies and then after nap we put it all together.  It was a fake "stained glass" project.  It didn't turn out exactly how the magazine intended, but it was pretty cool.  And Jayden really enjoyed it, which is really what matters.  

The finished product.  Basically it's Elmer's glue with food coloring on clear cd cases!  I'll put a "frame" with patterned tape and a hanging string on tomorrow so we can hang it in the window.  I pretty much love it.
I told him if it worked well we could do it at preschool and he said "no, I don't want to share it."  So yeah.  I keep trying to come up with something I could share at preschool, since they value parent involvement and lawyering skills isn't really something easily shareable with 4 year olds (their parents definitely don't want me sharing "how to argue" with them...).  So i keep thinking maybe I'll come up with an art project I can share one day.  And this seemed like a cool one.  But Jayden vetoed me.  Oh well!  Turns out it takes too long for the glue to dry anyway.  But I'm still on the lookout!

We had fun with my phone later - using the "cartoon" effect button.  He's such a grown up!

Dakota loves putting her hands on my face.
For those of you who watched Friends, it always makes me think of when Joey and the other soap opera star talk about kissing each other and putting their hands over the other person's face to hide them from the camera and bring the focus on to them.  So in my mind, Dakota is all about her, trying to hide my face!

And in reality, I think she's going to be a funny little girl.  She loves music.  Like really seriously loves it.  Tries to sing along, stops doing whatever she is doing when music comes on, but especially when Jayden, Carmen or I are singing.  She loves clapping.

She also has figured out copying.  The other day I was playing with her and dropped a ball on the floor and it bounced.  She, almost immediately, picked up a ball and dropped it and let it bounce also.  It was pretty cool.  She does it with noises, but more when we copy her than her copying us.   

And so now we have Carmen home for four days, sort of.  He'll be in L.A. probably for at least one of those days.  And then he'll be home four days later, and then home for two-three nights and then gone for another few nights.  It has helped me in that I can tell my work I can't do evening events (which I told them already, at least until June but they keep asking), but it also means my work days are shorter and I'm struggling so much more to get everything done.  Over and over again, I don't get how single moms do it if they don't have support.  It's just impossible to do anything without support.

I think the moral of the last week or two is that time flies, in the slowest motion way possible.  So yes, it has been nine months.  But it has taken five years to get through those nine months.  Except months three and five, which passed by in four days.  At least that's how it feels.  Time is flying and crawling.  In the best way and the worst way.