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!