Bath time fun, inspired by Daddy

Carmen is in Chicago tonight so it was just me and the kids at the house.  Jayden was asking where Daddy was so I told him we could send him some pictures.  I asked him to smile and got a big fat "no."  So then I asked if he could blow kisses and he said "yeah."

This is what blowing kisses looks like on Jayden's face:

Right after this face came the kissy sound.  So Daddy, whenever you look at this, that one was for you.

So I kept trying to get him to smile, but he said no.  I managed to catch him in one tiny smile:

He wanted to see every picture I took, and he liked this one okay, but he had bigger and better ideas in his head.

And this was his demand:

Yep, that's right.  He wanted to send Daddy a picture with his tongue out.  And this was his favorite.

After he looked at the pictures of him, he then demanded to see pictures of Daddy.  So we stayed up an extra 10 minutes or so checking out pictures of Daddy.  Thank goodness for Facebook pages that group pictures of the same person all in one.  I was able to scroll through a bunch of pictures and we saw pictures of Auntie (who he thought was Mommy for a second), Gamma, Daddy's friend Kenny, me, baby Jayden and a few other people.  He loooves himself some pictures.  "I see it!"  "Who is dat?"  He even asked me who a random person behind me and Carmen in a picture was.  I had to explain "another person," and he said 'noth-uh peh-son."  So funny.

And when we went to bed, we said "night night Daddy," "wuv oo Daddy," "night night Gamma," "wuv oo Gamma."  And I even got a "wuv oo Mommy," which I don't normally get at bedtime.  So everyone should be super happy tonight!

One more funny

I forgot I took this video also.  Just before this he was walking around saying "I fah-ted.  Mommy, I fah-ted."  It was hilarious.  I don't know where he learned that term; I was trying to use a different one.  But maybe daycare or Carmen or someone taught him, who knows.  But of course, once the camera got on him he got all kinds of quiet, at least about that.

The video does let you see how he's putting words together and how bossy he is!

Visit with Gramma Gigi

I know it has been a few days since I last posted.  Enid has been visiting and we've been busy!!

First of all, Jayden got a couple of new birthday presents about which he is super excited!

Thanks Ella, Kelly and Mike!  The place mat is a fixture in front of the high chair now!  And we talk about the color of the airplanes and the fact that they "fwy" just about every meal.

The lego choo-choo twain is awesome.  We count with the numbers, sort of (and usually in Spanish - uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco!).  Gracias Gabby y Jackie!

Enid arrived Tuesday.  Jayden and Enid got to stay home together Thursday while Carmen and I went to work.  It was difficult to tell who got more tired, Jayden or Enid!  But it seems like they had a great time.  It was so awesome to see Jayden not be as reserved with Gamma Gigi.  I think he understands what the word "Grandma" means and he understands that people with that name are safe.  It's so fun to see him having such a good time with his Gamma.

Friday all of us went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  It was Jayden's first trip to an aquarium and considering his obsession with Nemo, it was good timing.  It took him a few minutes to warm up, but once he did, he had a great time.  He was fascinated by the sharks.  The penguins and otters weren't so interesting to him.  But just about every orange fish that he saw was exciting.  Oh, and the sea lions, because they'd climb out of the water and bark and "make noise."

Agua!

The captain of the boat.

SHARK!

What I did on my summer vacation
A shark ate my ear.  

The coolest place to hang out.  This was in the penguin exhibit - the penguins would swim overhead and in front of the window and it was perfectly tall enough for Jayden.  Of course, Jayden didn't care at all.  He just sat in the corner for about 10 minutes.  Some older kids came and boxed him in and he just sat there.  Watching.  Sometimes he can be so serious.

Jayden didn't care a lick about the otters.  But I loved them.  There were baby otters in the back of the exhibit too - so fuzzy and cute!

Nemo fish!!!  We expected him to be here for hours.  But after maybe a minute or two he was over it and on to the next tank.

Saturday I had to work in the morning, so Carmen and Enid took Jayden to swim lessons.  As expected, he was a great student - splashing and even actually swimming, sort of, from Carmen to the wall.  Enid got the "blue buoy swim school grandparent" t-shirt, so she had a good time.

Saturday afternoon we had a bunch of people over to the house.  Enid made her famous fried chicken and macaroni and cheese and we had a whole bunch of other snacks and people just relaxed and swam and chased children.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

The dads and the kids in the pool.  Our pool heater managed to not work, so the pool was rather chilly.  All of the kids were shivering within 20 minutes of getting in.

Bardis and Jody's youngest, Seena.  She and Jayden have the same hair!

Right after Bard managed to knock bricks off of the wall.  Ooooops.

Seena getting a ride from big brother.  And Jayden "supervising."

Jayden showing me where he bumped his knee.  And holding on tight to his new "tractor" (which is really a monster truck).

Chilling in the truck.  Jayden actually did a really good job of sharing his toys, including his balls, his truck, his water/sand table (good timing, Mom - it was a hit with all of the kids, ages 18 months to 11 years!) and his sand toys.  He didn't throw a fit at all and gave people turns without complaining.  So impressive.

Slam dunk!  (he actually made this)

A little blurry, but cookie eating in the doorway.

I realize now that all the pictures are of the three toddlers.  There were actually other people at the party, including Stacy and Kamal, Cathy, Cuong (Stacy's friend), Mark (Carmen's co-worker) and Laura and their kids, Bard and Jody.  Like I said already, it was a really fun, relaxed afternoon.  There was definitely some clean-up to be done after, but Enid was so generous and cleaned the kitchen - more than I would have!

Today Jayden and I went to the park.  He's been asking to go to the "pahk" for the past week and I've been telling him we'll go on Sunday, so I didn't want to break my promise.  We went to a different park, and it was fun - but I'd probably go back to our regular park in the future.

Running up the hill.  This park was on a huge hill, so we spent the first little bit running up and down the hills.  The awesome part of this was that I had run about 5-1/2 miles that morning, entirely up and down hills.  So my legs/quads were killing me.  So of course Jayden wanted to run up and down hills some more.  Of course.

We made "cupcakes" in our buckets and "ate" bites out of the shovels.  They were yummy!

Running on the playground.  There were two little girls there riding their bicycles and we also spent some time watching them and running in the same circle that they were riding.  I had to teach him to jump on to the grass when the bicycle came by so that they didn't crash.  So then he spent the next few minutes telling me "I no crash!"  Which was true, he didn't.  

Jayden was exhausted by the time we left, even though he swore he didn't want to leave.  He was passed out about 30 seconds after I drove away from the park.  I was going to take him to lunch, so instead I carried him into the restaurant, thinking he'd wake up once we got inside.  Nope.  He slept in my arms the entire time I ordered, paid, got our drinks and carried our food back out to the car.  He woke up for a minute when I plopped him into his car seat (31+ pounds of dead weight was killing my arm) and then passed out again and slept another hour or so once we got home.  We spent the afternoon playing in the swimming pool, playing with cars on the couch and generally hanging out.  Jayden is just such a sweet boy.  Anytime I sneeze he says "bwess you mommy."  And today he was sitting on me (not the sweetest thing, but okay) and looks at me and says "kiss mommy."  He then leaned over and goes "mm-wah" and kissed me.  Just melts my heart.

I was explaining to my friend Stacy yesterday that motherhood is by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.  But that he makes me the happiest I've been - not that I am the happiest I've ever been in life, but he makes me the happiest, if that makes sense.  But he is also the primary, maybe only, thing I get sappy about.  I just am in awe of him almost every day.  And even though he exhausts me, I love seeing what he will learn next.  I just think he's so cool!

For instance, he has stopped saying "si" and now says "yeah" whenever he wants to say "yes."  That started within the last week; I'm interested to see if he switches back to Spanish when he starts going back to Juju's tomorrow.  He does still count in Spanish, so maybe it's just another phase.

He also told me how old he was once this weekend.  The rest of the time he wouldn't say it or he'd get all goofy and say "noooo!" or something.  I think we're close to getting him to say it regularly.  It's just so clear he's not a performer.  As soon as the camera (or the ipad or the phone or whatever) is on him, he clams up.  Although one evening last week I was talking to Ellen on the phone and he said to me "I talk!" and grabbed the phone.  He held the phone up to his ear and said "hi!"  That was the beginning, middle and end of the conversation, but it was super cute.  And today when I was talking to Ellen he looked at the phone and said "Auntie!" without me even prompting him.  So he's getting bolder in some ways, at some times, with some people.

And now it's a new week.  Carmen leaves tomorrow for about a 34 hour trip.  Then we all leave Friday for Minnesota for my cousin's wedding.  It is going to be hectic, but hopefully fun at the same time.  And Jayden is very excited to be on an "aihplane" so that's positive, I think.  Here's hoping!

Weekend adventures

And we have hit the beginning of our super hectic 4 weeks or so.

Yesterday we went to swimming, as usual, and had a great time.  Jayden is really trying to move underwater and Stacy showed us how we can basically push him or just direct him by poking him, but not actually support him, to get him to really start swimming.  It was pretty awesome to see.  And he's so comfortable in the water, it's just great.  I can't wait to see how he continues to progress.

After swimming Jayden and I went to a birthday party for a little girl we used to hang out with all the time.  I know her mom from work (she used to volunteer with me before we both went on maternity leave).  I haven't seen her much since I went back to full-time, but we've kept in touch on and off.  In any case, it was so fun to see Shreya (the little girl) and to see how much she has grown.

The birthday girl with her new car!  It was a really cool car, it can be controlled by remote control or locally.  So, until Shreya gets old enough to control it herself, she can just ride and think that she's steering and driving.  It's a toy for the kids and the parents!

The party was a lot of fun - but it did confirm my decision not to have a party for Jayden.  Shilpa had coordinated with the park, rented tables and chairs, decorated, made goodie bags for the kids, ordered pizzas, made rice, salad and mac n cheese, had cupcakes and cake, had a pinata, arranged a visit from Curious George and had all kinds of little kids activities.  I'm tired just thinking about it.  Jayden was his usual reserved self.  He was super interested in the car, but every time I tried to pick him up to let him ride he freaked out and started screaming "no."  And he spent a lot of time with me and making sure he could see me.

Jayden enjoyed the cupcake, although he mostly ate the icing and then handed me the cake part.

One of the few times he was outside of arms reach of me - he found a tunnel!

Typical Jayden: after the pinata was broken all the kids ran to the candy to gather what they could.  Not only had Jayden no interest in trying to break the pinata (he was playing with markers and stickers at the table with me), but instead of going after the candy he grabbed two little buckets of popcorn and sat in the grass about four feet from the pile of candy.  And looked thoughtful.  That's our son.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was finding the Nemo bubble-making machine.  We spent a good 15 minutes holding on to the trigger and waiting for the bubbles to appear.  It took us an extra half hour to get home because of his obsession with the Nemo bubbles.

After the party we came home (and Jayden passed out in the car of course).  Carmen grilled chicken and corn for dinner and Jayden was a big fan of the corn.  All I'd done was put butter and salt on it.  But he couldn't get enough. And he ate his first corn off the cob.  :)

Chowing down on the corn, with a little help from Mama.

Today Jayden and I went to the zoo for the morning while Carmen watched the football games.  We had a good time, but spent the majority of our time on the playground.  Thank goodness I joined the zoo.  It meant entry was free and it made me care a whole lot less that we saw very little of the zoo itself.  We did see some pretty cool monkeys though, including a couple of them who were swinging their way around their cages.  Jayden seemed particularly concerned about whether or not the monkeys could get out of the cages, but did manage to enjoy the swinging at least a little bit.

One of the monkeys.  His roommate was swinging, not him.  But it was easier to take a picture of him.

Checking out the pictures on mama's phone.

Crawling around on the playground.

Going down the slide on his stomach.  I was all for him experimenting until he went down on his back, slid right off the bottom and bumped his head on the slide.  To his credit he cried about 20 seconds and then climbed up the stairs and slid down again (this time on his bottom).  He's such a resilient kid, it makes me proud.

As expected, he fell asleep in the car ride home.  We ate lunch together at the zoo, and we ate approximately the same amount of food - a corn dog, some fries, and he had some orange slices as well.  In addition to the majority of his carton of milk.  It was pretty impressive.  It definitely helped with his nap later on.  He plays so hard during the day, constantly on the go, that I'm always amazed he makes it to 7:00 pm as easily as he does.

He did get some quiet time watching Nemo while I prepared dinner tonight.

We should all be so lucky to have this as our Sunday afternoon, even if for only 20 minutes.

Tonight he was relatively back to normal, falling asleep on his own, without getting up and wandering into the hallway.  Although that makes me think he's likely to wake up in the middle of the night.  I'm on my way to bed already, just in case I end up on the floor of his room at 3 am.

And tomorrow it's back to work.  I've been telling Jayden that Gigi (aka Grandma Enid) is coming for the past few days, to try to get him to understand what that means and to maybe be a little less reserved when she gets here.  Although I have a feeling no amount of preparation will save him - it's something he's just going to have to grow into.  Oh well.  I truly don't mind him being reserved; it is absolutely like me and Carmen and is endearing, in my mind.  At times like the party on Saturday I just feel bad because I think he misses out on fun stuff because he is so cautious.

Cuteness

I'm exhausted.  And apparently Jayden has decided today is the day to test me.  It's 10 minutes to 9 pm and he's standing in the hallway upstairs saying "mommy" over and over again.  I've got work to do (yes, I know it's Friday night but there's just that much to do) and instead I'm posting to the blog and doing things that don't involve me getting involved, since I know I'll be back upstairs laying on the floor in a few minutes.

In any case, this was earlier, when he was being cute.  And he is super cute.  But hopefully it shows his ability to put multiple words together and his physical capabilities as well.

We are super excited to have a weekend at home with relatively few duties since starting this week our life gets crazy for at least a month, maybe more.  Hope everyone else is doing well also!