Master chef in the making

or not at all.

This was Jayden's concoction tonight.  He'd already eaten a full dinner and I undercooked the pasta so I was happy for it to be an art/science experiment for him.

He later was grabbing handfulls of the mixture, which for those of you who are wondering, is pasta, alfredo sauce and milk and squeezing it and making the squishy, wet pasta slurpy sound and saying "I skeeze!"  He was having such a good time.

Tonight was one of the few nights that he was actually in a good mood almost the entire time I was with him.  This whole week he's been getting fussy and clingy almost the minute I walk in the door.  But today he was happy the whole time, playing with me, "helping" me make dinner and generally just being cheerful. The only thing that has changed is bathtime.  He hates it.  He screams when we put him in, he won't sit down and tries to climb out the entire time he's in there.  When it's a one-on-one situation I basically just have to hold him with one hand and pray that I generally wipe the rest of him with the washcloth to get the majority of the dirt off.  I don't know what caused that, since he's always loved the bathtub, but Ms. Stacy said he's acting more fearful in the water too, so maybe he's developing some kind of fear or going through a water phase or something.  I can't think of anything that happened that scared him, but maybe something did.

In other news, in case you didn't know, Jayden is also one of the sweetest little boys ever.  Obviously he's very attached to his mama, but he's cute to everyone else too.  ;)

Blowing a kiss to Daddy (who's in Atlanta) before bedtime.

He is very concerned, and very observant.  If he hears me make any kind of noise that might indicate that I'm injured ("ow," "oh man!" "oof," etc.), he says "mommy, you ok?!?" with serious concern in his voice.  Since it's usually just that I've stubbed a toe, bumped my hip on a corner, closed my finger in a cabinet, etc., my answer is always "yes, I'm fine."  But it's so cute that he understands the concept of an injury and that he checks in to see if I'm okay.

I got an email recently about toddler development that said that by now your child should be able to put two words together to form a phrase, like "mommy eat" or "doggie go" or something like that.  For once it actually didn't cause me concern but reassured me, since Jayden regularly strings together 4 and 5 words to say things: "Jaff-mine and Daddy go downstairs?" "I-I-I, I no crying any-mo.  I happy."  "whehr my taxi car?  I no can see it!?!"

More evidence of his observance-ability.  Since we drive so much down here he has noticed the color of stoplights.  So when we stop on the drive home he says "red wight?"  And when I start driving again he says "gween wight? go!  we go fast!"  I have taught him that red light means stop and green light means go, but he brought it up first and it has stuck with him.  It is impressive.

In any case, this week has been incredibly rough.  And just when I think I should give up, quit my job and never leave the house again, we have a good night like tonight and I think, hmm, maybe I really can do this after all.  Oh parenthood.

Yup, another one

I wasn't going to post again tonight, but I actually accomplished something today and I wanted to share.

So today started out okay. Jayden got up a little early, but nothing terrible and he was pretty cheerful.  By the time we got downstairs he was a hot mess.  He cried, more or less, for about 30 minutes straight.  He refused to eat.  He refused to walk.  He didn't want to sit in the stroller.  He wanted me to pick him up.  But if I picked him up, he wanted me to put him down.  He didn't want to sit in his chair.  He didn't want to sit in my chair.  He didn't want to sit.  He didn't want to stand.  He didn't want to put his jacket on.  He asked for oatmeal and then refused to eat it.  He didn't want water.  He didn't want yogurt.  When we did walk (he was in the stroller), he got mad at me when I put the sunshade up.  He got mad when the sun was in his eyes.  Literally anything I did was wrong.  Finally he sat down in his chair.  And ate his oatmeal in about 42.7 seconds.  Like I guessed, he was hungry.  He finally calmed down.  As we were getting in the car to go to my office, he looked at me and said "Mommy, I no crying anymore.  I-I-I happy."  And I replied "really?  are you sure?!?"  A few minutes later, as we were driving and looking out the window at buses and motorcycles, he said "Mommy, I, I a big boy."  I think Juju tells him to be a big boy and that big boys don't cry.  I kind of hate that message, because I don't want Jayden to think he shouldn't cry.  But at the same time, I'm sure he'll hear that message everywhere and it's just up to me to counteract it.

A quick rundown of the day. Jayden was pretty good - after the office we ran a bunch of errands and had lunch.

Carrying the doggie bags that he picked out.  Turns out giving him a responsibility - a purpose in life - makes him a whole lot happier.

My last stop was at the grocery store.  I wasn't going to go, because it was close to naptime, but Jayden had been wide awake in the car so I decided I'd run in to get it out of the way.  Once again, he wouldn't run, he wouldn't walk, he wouldn't ride, etc.  Finally I got him in the cart and almost immediately he started passing out.  His head kept falling forward or sideways and once or twice he might have hit his head on the shopping cart handle.  Poor kid.  I practically ran through the grocery store, checked out as fast as possible and drove reasonably fast home.  We got home a little before 2 and Jayden slept until 4:30 pm!  So that explains a lot of the disaster this morning and throughout the day.  Thank goodness he had the chance to sleep this afternoon, then.

He still hadn't eaten a full meal with me so I was not looking forward to dinner.  I was making risotto and he wanted to help, so it dawned on me that maybe if he helped me make dinner then he'd be invested in it and he'd actually eat it.  So he brought his stool in, grabbed a second wooden spoon and helped me stir the risotto.

For anyone who might be worried, I was extremely careful and warned him repeatedly about how hot the stove was and that he should only touch the end of the spoon so that he didn't come close to the pan.  I know some people would say I shouldn't let him within five feet of a hot stove.  But how else is he going to learn?  And how awesome is it that he helped me make dinner?!?

...and it worked!!!!!  I was so happy.  I called my mom, even though I'd already talked to her twice today.  Finally, something worked!  And it almost sort of helped me too!  He ate a bowl of the risotto and even had a little bit more.  So that was my accomplishment today.  If I got nothing else done, I got Jayden to eat dinner.  Ah, motherhood.

But then after dinner we had some more time, so we goofed off a bit:

Smiley, fuzzy hair!

He specifically told me that he wanted to take a picture for Gramma, and this is the smile that I got.  Not bad.

And, finally, bubble funnies in the bathtub.  When I didn't take a video, he ended the whole thing saying "oh my gosh."  But of course whenever I turned the camera on he wouldn't say it.  Oh well.  You can imagine him finishing his giggling (and honestly, is there anything better than his giggling?!?) and then saying, almost under his breath, "oh . . my . . gosh."

Home again

I had a good trip to DC, but it was equally hard and nice to be away from the family.  I appreciated having less responsibility - or at least being responsible only for me.  But I missed the hugs, the "bwess you mommy," the hopping and jumping and everything else that comes along with having a two year old.  I did get to go for two runs and I also got to see a few friends, which was really nice.  Oh, and the whole reason I went there, the consumer law conference, but also pretty great.  If I can figure out how I can find the time to implement some things, I got some great ideas.

One of the highlights was Friday at lunch, when we had a guest speaker:

Not the greatest picture, all I had was my phone.  And I wouldn't have recognized her anyway, since I'm so bad at recognizing people.  But this is Senator Elizabeth Warren who is a total rockstar in the consumer law world.  The place was packed and I think she got something like 867 standing ovations.  She was very inspiring.

I got one picture from Carmen to hold me over:

From Thursday morning breakfast.  

In case it makes any of you feel any better, he doesn't speak to me on the telephone either.  I only got to talk to him a couple of times, but both times he would whisper answers, but never loud enough for me to hear.  Carmen had to repeat the "hi mommy" and "wuv you mommy" and "yeah" so that I knew what he said.  It made me sad.  But I did get to hear him talk to Carmen a little bit, so at least I got his voice!

I flew home ridiculously early this morning.  I woke up at 1:15 am pacific time.  I slept on the plane, more or less, but it's not exactly sleep the way it would be in a bed.  I landed by 8:30 and was home by 9:30 am.  When I got home I got about the best welcome a mama could ask for: Jayden came in from the backyard and began jumping up and down for about a minute saying "mommy, mommy, mommy!" It was very sweet that he was so excited; made me feel missed. It was nice to get the whole day, but because it was Sunday football day, Jayden and I were back out the door by 10:10 am.  I had big plans to take us to this kids science center place, but as we were on our way there Jayden said "go pahk!"  So I exited the freeway to find a park and lo and behold, there was one exactly off the exit.  And it was a great park.  So we hung out there for an hour or so.  It was rather warm and Jayden was getting really flushed so we left to get lunch a little earlier than normal.

This is one of those bouncy-type toys that is on a spring and rocks back and forth.  In the past Jayden has been too scared to ride these, but today he was having a great time on the "moto-cycle."

He took his nap, shorter than normal of course, and woke up in a terrible mood.  He only wanted me to stand up and hold him or go in mommy's car.  So we went in mommy's car.  He ate his snack while I drove for about 15 minutes, when he finally said, somewhat cheerfully, "go pahk!" again.  So off we went to another park.  This time we went to a park that is really more of a wildlife preserve.  We walked/ran up and down some trails for 45 minutes or so, talked about holes in the ground where animals live, learned about logs on the ground and why they're actually not scary and watched a bunch of people bicycling on the trails.  It cheered him up until I had to put him in the car to go home.  Of course.

But by the time we got home he was still cheerful (luckily) and we went out to the backyard to throw the ball around, ride in the car and generally run around.

Checking out the drain in our patio and learning that animals do not live in that hole in the ground.

This is the reaction I get when I ask him to smile for the camera.  Not exactly the opposite, but certainly not compliance either.

I am happy to be home, but it is an adjustment, especially when you're thrown back into mommy-ing.  The only meal he ate today was breakfast, which was before I got home.  Every other meal, including snacks, was a fight.  It is so exhausting to beg, offer, promise, cajole, convince, trade, etc. just to get a kid to eat two bites of bread that he has drenched in applesauce.

Luckily tomorrow I have the day off - but so does Juju!  I have a lot of work to do, so we're probably going to go into my office for a little bit and then go to the grocery store and some other errands.  Then maybe the park again in the afternoon, depending on how demanding he is.  Because I can already imagine my action-packed day tomorrow I am about to head to bed even though it's not even 8:30 pm!

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  And I hope everyone can take a minute tomorrow to remember and thank our veterans who have given so much for our country.  Coming from a family filled with former and current military members, I am eternally respectful and grateful for all that they do.

Fun in the Sun, in Pictures

At brunch on Saturday with Mama and some friends.  Jayden made friends with the 20 month old who was there by (1) picking up the various things Baby Henry dropped and (2) blowing spit bubbles while standing about a foot away from Baby Henry, for about 10 minutes straight, which then caused Baby Henry to blow spit bubbles, which made his parents all kinds of happy.  You shouldn't let your kids hang out with older kids, apparently.

Coming out of the tunnel at the playground on Sunday morning.  I remember when he couldn't get up the tunnel on his own.  He's so grown up.  As he says when you ask him if he's a kid, he says "no, I big boy."

Looking a regular athlete with his Jordan pants and his water bottle.  He was running all over the place.  And we caught up with his friend Colby, and met a new friend who was 10 days younger and a whole head shorter.

Checking out a bug I saw on the way back to the car.

Jayden was super excited to touch the bug, and he was super gentle which was impressive.  I think the bug was injured because it didn't even run away when we got this close to it.  But Jayden thought it was pretty cool to see a bug this close.  Luckily I'm not too weirded out by bugs.  :)
Although, being my crazy self, I recently watched a Criminal Minds episode where the serial killer posed his victims like praying mantis' because he felt like he'd been chewed up and spit out by a high school girlfriend who recently announced she was getting married.  There are a lot more creepy details to the story; if you're interested, check out the first and second episodes of Criminal Minds from this season.

Jayden sitting on the couch outside after his nap, telling me to go inside and get a bag to clean up Jasmine's poo.  Awesome.  

Another view of Jayden telling me what to do.
After he finished bossing me around, had a snack and got into a better mood, we had a whoooole bunch of fun.  We "played basketball," which means we run around on the pavement, sometimes throwing the ball in the direction of the hoop, sometimes throwing it up in the air and sometimes not even playing with the ball at all.
Jayden was driving his truck on a trip (waving at me and saying "bye bye" as he drove away), and drove it straight into the brick wall.  He hit the wall so hard that his head lurched forward and hit the steering wheel.  Apparently these plastic trucks are not equipped with airbags.  Jayden had to come inside to tell Daddy that he "bump head" and "ran in wall."  Since he was fine, it was funny.
And after he finished driving, we began running.  For probably 20 minutes, we ran from the wall to the grass and back again, sometimes running in circles in the grass, usually ending with a "crash" into the grass.  But after we both fell down, Jayden would get up and say "we fine," start running again and say "mommy come on."  When Carmen came outside after the football games were over he found the two of us laying on our backs in the grass with our arms up in the air.  

And now it's Monday.  And Jayden is asleep, I'm barely awake and Carmen is finishing up watching MNF, where he saw his 86th client this year get hurt or suspended.  Don't tell anyone, but it's not good to be an Athletes First client this year.

Party like a ROCKSTAR!

And then get to bed by 9 pm, if you're a two year old rockstar.

Tonight Jayden and I ran a 5k.  In the dark.  With glowsticks.  It was hilarious.  And actually a whole lot of fun.  Going into it I had no idea if Jayden was going to be a disaster and totally freaked out by the music and lights and nonsense or if he was going to love it.  Turns out it was somewhere in between, but closer to love than freaked out, so that was awesome.  Once or twice we got a little too close to a speaker and he cowered in the opposite side of the stroller.  But he also got to jump around with bubbles, dance to some rave music, wave around some multi-colored glowsticks, run through the tunnel at the finish line, and more!  The whole time we were on our way to the car, he kept saying "no mommy's car."  But he couldn't tell me what else he did want to do, which is clue #1 that he's dead tired and has no ability to make any kind of decision.  Poor kid.  I kept him out way too late.  But we have no plans tomorrow or Saturday, so we'll try to lay low and rest up a bit.  If I can convince a two year old to "lay low."

Here is our night in pictures:

Probably one of my favorite pictures ever, even though it's a little odd.
This was before the race - he was having a great time running in small circles, watching all the people with their lights and glowsticks and running in little circles between my legs.

The starting point!

Eating "dinner" while we wait for them to let us run.

The lit arches that we ran through.  They changed color as we ran through them.

Someone offered to take our picture.  So nice, even though Jayden was in the middle of eating a fruit snack.

Bubbles!

Running with the bubbles.  I love this picture too - the blurry color in the background contrasted with Jayden in the foreground is just cool.

Electric Run!
I just missed it, but just before I took this picture a shadow of a mom running with a stroller went across the sign.  It was kinda cool.  I was happily surprised with the number of parents who brought their kids (and strollers) out to the race.  It was fun to see so many kids loving the lights.

Another attraction.  Reflective items suspended above us, with lights flashing on them.

My view of Jayden, checking out the lit up 'brellas hanging from the ceiling above us.

Dancing at the after party.  I tried really hard to get video of him dancing, because he was getting down, but the lighting was so bad I couldn't get it.  I'm a little afraid we're going to have a little raver on our hands.  :)
Jayden kept trying to move the stroller closer to the mob of people in front of the stage and I kept having to convince him it was better for him to have space to run in his circles.  As it was he ran into one of the volunteers and fell smack on his bottom.  He did get us a handful of glowsticks out of it - which is what he was dancing with in this picture.  

Mama and Jayden after the race.  He was not so happy about being in the picture since it stopped him from dancing and running - this was as clear a picture as was possible.