Actual Birthday Day

For months Jayden has been asking to go on water slides. Once I realized his birthday was on a Monday, I figured I'd just take the day off and take him to a water park. Which was a great idea, in theory. I looked up water parks, found one relatively close that looked like it would work and would be open on Monday. Sunday night I checked and it was closed! So I frantically searched and found Great Wolf Lodge, which is in Garden Grove, about 15 minutes from our house (which is awesome!). The downside is that the only way you can go to the water park is if you stay at the hotel. I get it - it allows them to keep the water park not so crowded, and probably makes them more money. So, Sunday night, in desperation, I booked a hotel room for Monday night. I knew we wouldn't sleep there Monday night, so in that sense it was a waste of money. But Jayden and I spent all day there, went and got Dakota and came back (and then Carmen joined us), so ultimately all four of us got to go - AND we could change in our hotel room and rest there if we needed. So it didn't end up being terrible.

The hotel and the water park are awesome. We will definitely go back. Jayden is such a giant (in the 99.91% for height!) that he could go on every single ride in the park. The limit was 48" and he's an inch or so above that. One of Carmen's co-workers has an eight year old, and he is not yet 48" - and so when he went to the water park, he couldn't go on every ride! I felt so bad for him.

In any case, Jayden and I dropped Dakota off at daycare and drove over to the hotel. We played monster trucks/cars in the hotel room for about 30 minutes until the water park opened. And then we played in the water from 10 am until about 3 pm. I was exhausted. Still am, sort of! Jayden was a trooper. I told him that since it was his birthday he could decide what we did, and I would just follow him. My only rules were that we had to eat lunch and we had to leave to go get his sister at some point. And he was so super cooperative. It's the longest I've been able to spend with just him since Dakota was born, and it was great.

In the hotel room with our wolf ears, before the water park opened.

He was so brave. He went on a couple of rides that some people might consider scary - all by himself. And at the bottom had a huge grin on his face, so clearly he was fine. I was just so proud and happy and all of that.

The coolest thing is that for his birthday, Auntie Ellen bought him a waterproof camera. So we opened that present Sunday and took it with us Monday. It was so cool! The pictures are a little off since we were learning how to use it, but hopefully we captured some of the fun we had!

Fort Mackenzie. He was actually too tall for a couple of these slides. Poor little giant five year old.

He had his five year check up on Wednesday. He is in the 99.91 percentile for height. Which is ridiculous. But we all know he is ridiculous. His weight has gone up too - he's in the 87th percentile for weight. But his BMI is 14.23, which all of us adults can just dream about! I don't think he will ever be at risk of obesity.
Jayden had some hearing issues, but he has a cold so he is going back to get it checked again once he is feeling better. I have thought in the past that he has hearing issues, but I chalked it up to being five and only hearing what he wants to hear. But now of course I am worried. I am going to continue to chalk it up to his cold - I have one too and my hearing is totally off. But I'll feel better once he is retested.

This was one of my favorite moments of the day. He and I waited in line together and watched some kids do this in the meantime. The kids had to cross these floating pads - one set looked like logs and the other set looked like lily pads. They were attached to the pool floor, but floated around, so the kids had to hold on to the rope ladder above them to get across. Jayden used such concentration and strategy to get across; I was just in awe. Plus I didn't have to do it, which was also a bonus!

Just happiness.

Going down the innertube water slide by himself. I was WAY more nervous than he was. I imagined him getting halfway down and screaming for me and there being nothing I could do about it. But I went down after him and he was grinning when I got out, so I think he was just fine. This was the slide that two older kids, probably ten years old, told me was too scary for them. But not my brave little five year old. Seriously, best time ever.

We surfed! This water was crazy strong - when it brought us back to the top, it threw us against the (padded) wall. Jayden was so brave to try it more than once. And he did pretty good for being five years old and not even 50 pounds. I was able to stabilize myself for a minute. But I also got swept away a bunch of times. It was hard!

More happiness. This time in the lazy river.

THIS is what it looks like when you spend five hours in a water park and have no nap on your fifth birthday. Serious exhaustion. I stopped at home and he didn't even know. He almost didn't wake up when I stopped at preschool to get Dakota either. He recovered well, though.

And finally baby sister gets to play too!

Water slides in the little kid area. Jayden was able to go on the slides, but only by about three inches. Thank goodness, because otherwise it would have been a tough evening with the whole family! Jayden and I went on two big water slides, just to "show Daddy" how he could do it.

Trying to get Dakota to have fun - except that was a lot more challenging than I expected. She was shivering, and just not sure of me letting her go. Oh well. She did love seeing Jayden come down the slide toward us.

Here comes brother!

Serious #modellife right?!?

The last blurry photo of Jayden in the water park as we were walking out. Probably one of the best days so far. Aaaand, we'll probably be back, although hopefully when I have a little more time to plan and to find a better deal. Or when the grandmas want to come and host us! ;)

After the water slides, we had dinner at the hotel and they had a dance party in the lobby for the kids. Of course they played our jam and of course Jayden had to go dance along. So cute.

Except that of course, right when he went to dance is when the restaurant brought his birthday cupcake. So I had to run to get him and run him back. He stayed long enough for them to sing to him and then when they finished he said "mommy, can I go dance some more?" Clearly the answer was "yes." 

And just a few other pictures, because why not:

This is just one of my favorite photos ever. I love her outfit, I love her attitude, I love her.

And Mama, do you recognize the shoes?!? They are way too big for her, but she loves them. And if you're not my mama, these were my shoes when I was little!

To report on her stats - Dakota is still not twenty pounds! But she is in the 23rd percentile for weight, so nothing to be worried at this point. She is 31" tall, putting her in the 66th percentile for height. So, she's flying up the charts also - and of course her head circumference is in the 91st percentile - and that's even with flattening her hair. Her BMI is 14.2, again, something we could all dream about!

And speaking of shoes, are her feet not the cutest? I bought her flip flops because she needed shoes to wear to get wet since that is basically her favorite thing ever. But also, her feet!

And now we're recovering from the birthday extravaganza. Jayden is still working on the whole understanding of being grateful for all that he has. But he is such a sweet boy, that I think we'll be okay. Today at school, one of the other moms came up to me and asked if we'd want to do a playdate with her son. She said her son comes home and says he doesn't have any friends and is sad about it. She got emotional and my heart hurt for her. I get it. I have always been the person who doesn't have a lot of friends, and I get the feeling of not understanding where you belong (even now!). So of course I said "yes." And then, on the way home, I asked Jayden if he'd want to have a play date with Jackson and he said "sure." And it made me realize that his heart is so good, and that's what I want. There's a picture going around that says something about how instead of wishing out children to be outstanding academically, we should wish our children to be the ones who sit next to the kid sitting along at lunch. Of course I don't say it as eloquently as the facebook post - ha! that sentence makes me laugh - but that is what I want for Jayden. I want him to be the kindest, but also the strongest child I know. From one of my favorite bloggers:

"Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.

Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.

Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won’t step in right away. That’s okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team – we are on your whole class’ team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell me, baby. We will make a plan to help together."

And that's what I have. That's my update for the week, and for the birthday extravaganza. I'm exhausted and still fighting off a cold. Here's hoping we get to relax this weekend and just enjoy some time before Carmen's work gets crazy and the holidays hit. Because seriously, how is it almost the holidays?!? It's too much!

Par-TAY!

Jayden's birthday party was Saturday, September 10. It was at BounceU, which is a bounce house place. It's a pretty popular place for kid birthday parties, and it's so awesome! They do everything for you. I had to show up with the cake, a few decorations and favors. And they did everything else. I loved it. The place has two rooms - the kids get a quick intro and then bounce in one room for about 30-40 minutes, and then in the second room for 30-40 minutes. Then it's in to the party room for lunch and cake. So much fun!

The excitement for the day was overwhelming! But seriously, isn't this the best smile ever?!?

Pre-bouncing Happy Birthday wishes!
(it is SO clear that Jayden does not like being the center of attention. The minute it was over he tried to sit back down and our hostess had to call him back up to the front!)

Dakota tried out the slide a few times, but mostly spent her time in my arms. I almost couldn't straighten my left arm by the end of the party.

Fun on the slides. Apparently they had just waxed the slides, so they were really fast. The kids were flying down them, often right onto the carpet at the bottom. They all loved it.

Slam DUNK!

Lorenzo, Maxwell and Jayden.
Not sure why Jayden's teeth look so ridiculously white in this picture - maybe the flash?

Jayden and his buddy Alexander. They were both at Children's Village until a couple weeks ago when Alexander left for another school. Jayden was pretty bummed about it - he, Alexander and Noah were the "three musketeers" in their classroom. Next year will be an interesting transition. Hopefully we can keep in touch with some of the kids.

Jasmine - her and her brother love the Ninja turtles, so this party was right up their alley and they came dressed for it!

The whole crew - friends and siblings.

Marti and Jasmine's brother (I don't remember his name) are in the circles. In the back row: Jasmine, Emma, Desmond, Nayely, Jayden. In the front row: Kian, Ryan, Lorenzo, Greyson, Bennett, Maxwell, Grant, Alexander, Jackson, Noah, Seena

Missing are Dakota (she screamed if I even tried to put her down) and Emma's little brother who was passed out!

The Ninja Turtle birthday cake. Just from our local grocery store, but it was AWESOME! And it tasted good too, which was a total benefit.

Blowing out the candle!

Greyson wearing a boxing glove as big as he is!

Kian and Seena (and Bard and Jody) drove all the way from Encinitas to celebrate. We tried to get them to come over and play after, but the kids needed to get home. They are true friends.

The table set up. TMNT everywhere!

Donatello, obviously!

The party got a thumbs up - I think that's a win!

It was a really fun party. The only kids who really cried were the littles. The big kids were all awesome, all played together and all wore themselves out. I love having people over, but the amount of work it takes is so much more than having a party somewhere else. I'm hoping I can convince Jayden to have his party off-site for the next few years - just not at Chuck E. Cheese if I can help it! I loved BounceU because it was just Jayden's party in the rooms, so all the kids got to play together for two hours straight. And there was no leaving people out, because everyone was just running around, sliding and being crazy. I also really like Jayden's friends - they are such great kids, and so funny. Some of them even get my sarcasm, which is really just a bonus.

Also, just a quick point - just because it was somewhere else doesn't mean I didn't have any work. Friday afternoon I was running around like crazy, picking up 25+ balloons (of which I lost 4-5 of them trying to get them in the back of my car - oh well!)

I apparently looked so desperate some random woman stopped in the parking lot to see if she could help my stuff balloons in to my car. And when I mumbled something along the lines of "uh - I'm okay," she quietly picked up my sunglasses that I had dropped in the parking lot and went on her way. Yep, that's how "good" it was.

Jayden got a ridiculous amount of presents. He is a very lucky kid. Carmen and I had originally bought a couple more presents, but cut them out because he just didn't need that much stuff. At least Christmas is soon - it means a few less things for me to worry about for him! I actually have two boxes in my closet - one for Jayden and one for Dakota - of presents that they have been given or that I have bought for them, but that have just been too much. I slowly empty the boxes out over the course of the year, but it pretty much always gets filled back up again.

After the party, Carmen said to me that we really need to work on teaching Jayden to be grateful. I have been working on that with him. But he's five. Right now he's materialistic. That doesn't mean we can't try, and I do. I talk to him about how lucky he is, about how all some kids want are socks, or a shirt that fits them, or pajamas - or food! And that sort of blew his mind. I am definitely going to institute a thank you note rule. I think it's actually going to be harder on me than on him, because I will be writing the notes and I'll just make him sign them. But I think it's necessary. What I liked is that Jayden enjoyed the experiences as much as anything, and that's mostly what I want. I want him to understand how important it is to get to have these amazing fun times - and that it would be amazing and fun whether or not presents came afterwards.

And this was just celebration number one. There are 17 more to come! (not actually 17 - but a few more at least!)

Screaming, screaming and SCREAMING!

That's the phase we're in right now with Dakota. She is still figuring out words, so if she doesn't like something, if she does like something, if she wants to do something or doesn't want to do something, she screams. Sometimes it's a quiet-ish scream and sometimes it's an all-out shriek. She's screaming right now. I love her. I really really do. But I just want to be able to go an hour without a scream. She is also exhausted right now, so the screaming is a whole bunch worse.

We went out to dinner on Friday night and she shrieked a few times because I wasn't feeding her fast enough, because she wanted to get out, because because because. And the people at the table next to us turned around to look at us a few times. I wanted to say "I'm honestly doing everything I can; the shrieking is just part of who she is at this point in her life." It was clear they didn't have kids. But they were also at a very kid-friendly pizza restaurant at 5:15 pm on a Friday night. So they should have expected kids!

In any case, just too much screaming. I want to scream. I really really do. But if people turn around when Dakota shrieks, imagine what they'd do if I started screaming too. Being a grown up is hard sometimes!

Cute kiddos in the pool. Amazingly Dakota neither pinched nor bit during this float.

Fun at the splash pad.

Look at this grown up girl. Also, look at this girl trying to escape the garage and run into the street. The first one is cute, the second one is a handful.

And you can't leave silly big brother out.

Best discovery of the past couple of weeks is Amazon Fresh. You order groceries and they are delivered to your house! The downside is you can't get everything you want. The upside is I can place an order at noon and schedule a delivery for between 5 and 6 pm, and they show up on our front porch in these awesome refrigerated totes. So incredible.

Eyes. Just big brown eyes.

Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? I can't see a problem with a four year pushing his one year old sister at high rates of speed in a wooden cart around our family room. Totally safe.
(amazingly, nothing really did go wrong. not sure how we made it through that one, but we did)

Friends at school: Greyson, Jayden, Alexander and Noah. As you can see Jayden is literally head and shoulders above all of his friends. Sadly Alexander just left for another school so we don't get to see him anymore. But we will see him Saturday for Jayden's birthday party!

A new hairstyle. :) The barrettes don't stay in her hair very well - for as much hair as she has, it's actually kind of fine, like mine, at least for now. I imagine as she gets older it will get coarser, like Jayden's did.

This portrait was in honor of national dog day, because obviously. The grey is really coming through in our old girl (and first baby), but she still tries to keep up with the kids!

There is nothing wrong with a weeknight dance party. In fact, sometimes it is the only way to get through the weeknight!!!

Just before I caught this photo, she was laying on the couch like this with her legs crossed. Of course I missed that moment, but this one isn't so bad. She has such a personality.

At another splash pad for Alexander's birthday party. This one was pretty awesome too, but was not as little kid friendly.

This was about as far away from us as Dakota got. She spent most of her time getting relatively wet and then running to me for a hug. So awesome.

More buddies: Noah, Alexander and Jayden.

Star Wars birthday cake with all the friends!

We had quite a Sunday: after the birthday party we went to a restaurant/bar in Newport Beach to see Landon's dad's music school perform. It was a tribute to Prince and to David Bowie, and it was pretty great. Jayden and Dakota were both rocking out to the music.

Dakota loves being closed in our glass showers. She then presses her face against the glass and generally giggles until she decides it's enough and wants out.
On this morning, she also decided clothes were optional and decided her silver shoes would be sufficient. At least I got a diaper on her.

One of my favorite outfits ever. I love these little Nikes, and I just love Dakota in little sporty outfits. I'm so much more a sporty mama than a girly mama. It's going to be very hard for me to put her in frilly dresses - or really anything other than cotton dresses, because why?!? These kind of clothes are just so cute. And she loves this football. It cracks me up, considering it's about half her size.

More sportiness, with some adorable face as well.

The almost-five-year-old. He can't look directly at a camera to save his life, but at least he smiles.

We have been playing a lot of basketball and being outside generally in the evenings. It's nice, and lets the kids get their energy out. Dakota has decided it is really fun to randomly lay down on the concrete and put her hands up until I come lift her up and toss her into the air. It's pretty cute, except when she does it in the middle of Jayden's basketball game. It keeps me on my toes - trying to play defense on Jayden and preventing Dakota from being stepped on at the same time.

Kissy face. :)

Although I did pick her shirt and pants, Dakota picked everything else. Nothing wrong with some goggles, a backpack and two different shoes as your accessories. She clearly takes after her brother when it comes to fashion.

Hugs for Jazzy.

Carmen and I had a night out at a wedding for one of Carmen's friends last Saturday. It was at a beautiful venue in Laguna Beach and was a very sweet wedding. 

The groom on the left and the bride on the right. They had some very cool Vietnamese touches in the wedding, to honor the bride's culture. And seriously, she is one of the most gorgeous people I have met, both inside and out.

On Sunday I took the kids to see my friend Stacy. Dakota was freaked out by the four month old pug puppy that was there so she spent a lot of time in my arms - or Stacy's arms. She was quiet in Stacy's arms, but she didn't fuss, which was awesome. 

Jayden, on the other hand, thought the puppy was pretty fantastic. He'd lay down on the floor and just let the puppy lick all over him. And Jayden was just giggling the whole time. 

Sunday afternoon Jayden's friend Maxwell came over to play. Maxwell's mom had a migraine and his dad was sick, so I figured if I could at least get the five year old out of the house they could focus on the two year old and maybe get some actual rest. Maxwell and Jayden swam, played with remote control cars, had dinner and raced through the hallway upstairs with Dakota. It was a lot of fun. I'm so grateful Maxwell's parents trusted us to take care of him and feed him - even if we didn't pick the healthiest food!
This photo was when we were expecting Maxwell to arrive - we sat on the front step eagerly awaiting his arrival.

I inflated the Orca whale pool toy for the boys and it was hilarious watching them try to get on, and then stay on, the whale together.

The boys also created their own game where they danced their way to the deep end and then jumped. Hilarious!

They had this funny song they came up with, now I can't remember what it was, but something like "chee chee chee, ooh ooh ooh, chee ollie chee ollie . . ." Great imaginations.

Coming up with another scheme. Luckily they're too little to come up with anything too crazy or too troublesome.

And clearly Dakota had to get in on the silliness.

One of the things I love the most was watching Dakota try to keep up with the boys, and, sometimes, the boys letting Dakota participate,even if it was just sitting next to them while they played. It made her feel part of the group and was so cute. 

And now it's Wednesday evening, feels like it should be Thursday, even though I've only been to work two days this week! I woke up this morning with a sore throat and feeling generally awful, and have gotten progressively worse over the course of the day. Which is awesome, since we're having a weekend of birthday celebrations and my husband can do nothing. For instance, I realized I'm going to have to figure out how to get balloons, cake, fruit platter, everything on Saturday morning, get Jayden to swim class and still get to the party on time. I will have to do some of it Friday afternoon, which means leaving work early, since Carmen can't do pick up and I can't leave him alone with the kids. It's always an adventure.

I've gone through a lot of ups and downs over the last few weeks. I'm definitely in a "down" at the moment. I'm trying to be okay with it and understand that life is that. But there are so many times where I feel helpless, where I have no control over anything, where I pretty much feel like I'm failing at everything (work, marriage, motherhood, friendship, etc. - and not necessarily in that order) that it just gets overwhelming. Being a parent is no joke. It is by far the most rewarding, most awful thing I've ever done.

And when people get tired it gets "better." Tonight I was bathing the kids (Carmen was busy doing work stuff, so bedtime was pretty much just me - I can do it, it just involves a lot of juggling and chasing and preparation on my part) and Dakota stood up to reach for a toy, like she does so many times. Well, this time her foot slipped and she hit her face on the side of the bathtub. She hit her front top teeth and blood just started coming out of her mouth. I cleaned her up, dried her off, gave her some water to clean out her mouth and she seemed fine by the time she went to bed. I'm sure she was sore, but no more blood, at least, and no loose teeth as far as I could tell.

THEN, because this is how it happens, we were putting Jayden to bed and he jumped from the end of his bed to where his pillows are. Well, he misjudged and smacked his head into the headboard SO loud. I thought he had cracked the headboard, honestly. I made him tell me how many fingers I was holding up. And we put some ice on it. I didn't even see a bump, though. But his speech was a little confused, which of course freaked me out more. I will probably try to wake him up a bit when I take him to the bathroom later to make sure I haven't ruined him forever.

Also, if I were more savvy in life, but particularly with blogs and the internet, I'd figure out how to use emojis in the blog. It would really add something, I think. Oh well, something I can ask Jayden to help me figure out next year, when his technology skills already will surpass mine!