Black Friday

Esteban offered to stay home with the kids so I can go shopping for Black Friday, an event I look forward to every year. I didn’t like the idea at first because we always go together, but I knew he wasn’t really interested and I knew the kids would slow us down quite a bit so I took him up on his offer. I nursed Maya at 5:30am, got ready and left. When I got to Target, the line was around the block so I met up with Maria at McDonalds and had breakfast instead. Afterwards we headed over to Target. I got everything I wanted, including 4 new sets of sheets for our bed, Jayden’s Christmas present, and a new broom vac. Then we hit the mall. I got Esteban’s Christmas present and scored a new cutlery set, which I’ve been dying for. I also got Maya’s Christmas present and her Christmas ornament.

I came home very excited and since Esteban was home I started to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It was terrific. While I worked in the kitchen, Esteban worked on the exterior lights. Then we had our dinner. This year I went with a turkey breast, which was just a expensive as a large bird, just as much work and left very little in the leftover department. I also made arroz con gandules, which was very yummy. Esteban made a green salad and I made a sweet potato casserole. I make one every year, but this one didn’t make me as happy. Never try a new recipe on a holiday. For dessert, we had leftover pumpkin pie because the yummy pumpkin cheesecake I made two nights before stayed behind at my aunt’s house.

After dinner, we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, which I had DVRed and put up the tree. I must say, it was the first Christmas ever that we put up the tree without arguing. I usually get upset because Esteban doesn’t want to help so this year, I put it up without bringing up the subject for fear of ruining an otherwise perfect day and what do you know! He started to help all by himself! Son of a gun! The lights had to get trashed because they were barely working as usual. This is a source of stress for me. Why can’t Christmas lights last more than a year? Anyway, we started to decorate the tree and for the first time ever I had help. Jayden was so excited. He grabbed the beads and wore them around his neck and had a ball dragging them around the house. When I got him to understand that the beads were going on the tree and staying there, we got to work on the bows. Jayden started to hand them to me one by one but when I wasn’t fastening them fast enough, he started to shove them into the tree into any gap he could find. It was so cute.

Then we got to work on the ornaments. For the second year in a row, I’ve left my glass ornaments in storage, but I guess that didn’t make the others safe. Two ornaments ended up being retired. I was ok with that, but Esteban was hysterical. Well, he was as hysterical as he gets (He's very low key.) He kept going on and on about the ornaments and Jayden breaking them and I shouldn't let him play with the ornaments etc. But there was no way I was getting mad at Jayden because I always dreamed of Christmas decorating being a family affair and it was finally happening. Jayden was helping mommy and I was on cloud nine. I’m sorry Pinocchio and Aladdin broke, but I’m ok with that because it was a perfect day!

Thanksgiving

This year was a Thanksgiving Day unlike any I’ve had in the past. Traditionally I get up early and start cooking. I pop my bird into the stove. Then I watch the Thanksgiving Day parade, while I decorate the tree. Not this year. This year, I woke up early and hit CVS for their Thanksgiving Day sale. I came home with tons of goodies, including a new digital camera that I ended up paying $35 for out of pocket. This year, Esteban had to work. Instead of trying to squeeze in a full day of cooking into a morning, I decided to skip it. Besides, Esteban would be going to work soon and he’s never really cared for the traditional thanksgiving meal items so I loaded the kids up into the car and headed to my aunt’s house in Melbourne for the day. It was a pretty large family gathering, which included three aunts, an uncle, and lots of cousins. We had a wonderful time.

Jayden is Two and a Half!

Jayden is now 2 and ½ years old. Wow, he has changed so much in the last 6 months. It’s amazing. I have all but lost a handle on all of his new words so this will be the last update I make. He’s like a sponge. He’s repeating everything he hears. He goes to bed with his electronic toys and repeats everything the toys say. He’s just now starting to use his baby leap pad and repeats the letters and numbers until he falls asleep. And he repeats things he hears on his favorite shows. He loves Curious George and Elmo. He’s still got very little interest in potty training. He adores Maya and I wonder what he’s going to do when he has to go to big boy school. We are on a waiting list for Head Start and hope a spot opens up soon. These days, Jayden is a picky eater. If it were up to him, he'd eat snacks all day. I try not to stress about it. I know he won't starve. I just try to make sure he gets all his essential vitamins and minerals, but he just makes it near impossible. Where did my good little eater go?

Some of my favorite things that Jayden does:

At night when I put Jayden down for the night, he will often call me repeatedly. I will answer the first few times, but after a while, I stop. One night, I was in my room waiting for him to fall asleep. Everything was pretty quiet and all of a sudden I hear him singing, “Mama, where are you? Mama, where are you?” I started to crack up. I got up and looked outside my door and I see him standing by his baby gate and he’s actually shrugging his shoulders as he’s singing “Where are yooooooou?” Of course, I had to go running over there to give him a hug and a kiss and then I firmly told him to go to bed!

Jayden likes to open the fridge door and stand there. Of course, I don’t like him doing that but I can’t help but laugh at him because he’ll stand there and say “Hmmm.” It’s like he’s contemplating what he’s going to have next. This always leads to a fight because lately he’s being a picky eater and I won’t allow snacks and sweets unless he’s eaten a proper meal.
Sometimes, Jayden is mean to me and it makes me sad. I put on my sad face and pretend to cry and Jayden will say, “What’s wrong mama? Don’t cry.” This is so darn cute! He climbs into my lap and tries to move my hands from my face and then I laugh and he does too.
I’m not too happy about this one. One day, I dropped Jayden off to the sitter and when I picked him up, I was no longer mommy. It’s mom now. I liked Mommy or even Mama, but no. It’s mom.

Traditionally, when Daddy and I sit down for our meals together, we give thanks to the Lord for our meal. We often hold hands and pray. I believe he prays at the sitters too because now, he’s started to fold his hands. Now if Daddy and I forget, he calls out our names and folds his hands at us. Now we pray several times throughout the meal, ‘cause he likes it so much. Amen to that!

Words
Mama, Mommy, Mom
Dada or Daddy
Ni-ni (Night-Night) or Night Time
Yes
No
Yeah!
Ok.
Bye-bye
Uh-oh
Ca-ca
Hi
Oh wow.
Oh no.
Ten-coo (thank you)
Bess-u (bless you)
Lub - u (love you)
Baby
Sowee (sorry)
Hello
Pees (please)
This
See ya
Cooz - ee (excuse me)
Car (he pronounces this as if he were from Boston.)
Home
Help (when he climbs into the crib, but can't get out)
Morning
Sit (sounds like s*it)
Eat (he commands Rio to eat)
Rio (sounds like ee-oo)
Go.
Ow.
Maya
Sleeping
Easy
Juice
Ball
Nice
Tight (when his shoes are tight)
Alright
Coming
Potty
Pee-Pee
Open
Close
Y'Welcome
Outside
Cold
Off
Look
Bus
Trucks (tucks)
Jayden (Ja-Jen)
Boo-boo
Awesome
Cheese
Crying
Up
Sun
Banana
Phone
Tree
Circle
Nose
Cute
Moon
Stars
Snacks
Hmmm.
Book
Spoon
Bird
Apple
Woof - Woof
Movie
Wait
Doggie
Hot
Bee
Move
Cool
Plane
Working

Spanish
Gracias
Si
No
Titi
Avion
Bobo
Amor
Agua
Caliente (he says tente)
Frio
Zapatos (he says papos)
Cayo
Sana
Casa
Luz
Cinco
Sucio
Aqui
Salud

Phrases
See ya soon
Bye Guys
I dunno (he actually shrugs his shoulders when he says this)
I know
Here I am or here they are or here it is.
Want more
Oh man.
Bye Home
Stop it (pop-it)
Come on.
I'm ready
Sit down mommy (when he wants me to read a book)
Where are you?
She's cute
Here you go.
Cars coming.
Daddy's coming or Mommy's coming
Don't cry
What's wrong?
It's fun
She's sleeping or Daddy's sleeping
She's crying
Got it
Night Time
All done
Move Rio (This is totally my fault)
Go outside.
Hey Guys!

An Early Thanksgiving

Esteban was on his way home from work after his shift on Saturday and no more than five minutes from home, he was in a terrible accident. I’ll spare you all the details. I can tell you that he called me around 1am and instantly I knew something was wrong. I could hear it in his voice. I wanted to go to him so badly, but it was so cold out and the kids were sleeping. I didn’t know how long it would be before the police arrived so instead I waited at home for him to call me back.

Jayden was in bed with me, because he was giving me an especially hard time at his bedtime and all I could do was hug on him and pray. I just started to give thanks to God. Thanks for saving my husband. Thanks for not leaving me alone. Thanks for not making me a widow. Thanks for not making me a single parent of two kids. Thanks for not taking my children’s father away. Thanks for sparing me from having to explain to Jayden that Daddy wasn’t coming home because he was in heaven. It’s bad enough when Jayden asks me a zillion times a day “Where’s daddy?” and I reply each time with “Daddy’s working”. He just doesn’t get it.

The officer was kind enough to bring him home since the car was un-drivable. He slowly crept in and crawled into bed. Neither of us could sleep. I knew he was wide awake. No snoring. I actually need to hear the sound of his snore to sleep. I just held on to him tight. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I was just Thankful that he had made it home safe and with minor injuries.

We made it through the night and got up to go get our personal belongings from the car which had been towed. What a sorry sight! I had to choke back tears. First and foremost, the car was a complete wreck. Totaled! It was scary to think that he had been in it at the time of impact. It was a miracle he walked out of there with just a few burns and bruises from the airbags. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t gotten more cuts since the windshield and the passenger window had busted.

Then my thoughts turned to the material. The fact of the matter is that now we are down one car and we live in an area with no public transportation. What are we going to do? Esteban doesn’t know how to drive my car. It’s a stick. Both our cars were paid off. Now, we would have to get another car and get into a car payment all over again. Esteban’s car was in such great condition. It would have lasted him another few years. And then, it’s a holiday week. I’m exhausted just tossing it all around in my head and yet there’s no sense in doing so. We’ve done all we could. We reported the incident and are waiting to hear back from the adjuster. We are sharing my car for now and I guess we’ll have to squeeze in car shopping on Black Friday!