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.