What's Jayden Been Up To?

Here's Jayden at a Pool Playdate! Clearly, he's having a fabulous time. Not. I don't understand him sometimes. I wish I would have been on cool playdates when I was little. Oh well.

This is one of Jayden's favorite things to do. He got this mower for his birthday and he loves to use it. Of course, I picked it because we are tight on indoor space so I figured that he could have an outdoor toy. He does use it inside, but he intentionally hurts Rio with it. He chases Rio around the table with it and sometimes rams it into Rio. Jayden is lucky that Rio is an easy going dog.

I often catch Jayden in Maya's crib. Here he is climbing up to get a better look at Maya. I wonder if I will catch him in the crib with Maya when I transition her to her crib at night?

This is my prize shot. This is the exact look on Jayden's face when he's either about to do somthing he shouldn't do on purpose or when he's just done something he knows he shouldn't do. I can't even believe that I managed to capture it on this shot, but as you can see he was holding Maya for this shot and purposely let go of his left arm and she slipped and banged into the crib rail. I snapped the picture and then realized what he'd done. I said, "Jayden!" and he smiled. Very nice!

Comparison Shots

Just for the sake of comparison, here is Maya at one month old.

Here is Maya at two months old.

Well, can you see much difference in her?

Maya Turns Two Months Old!

Today, Maya turned two months old. I don’t know where the time goes. Maya is so pretty and getting so big. She’s already starting to outgrow some of her clothes and sadly, she has some items with the tags still on them. Nursing is going well. I did have a scare a couple of days ago when I noticed that my milk supply was dwindling. I started to drink more water and pump more frequently and now my milk is back up again. Thank goodness. I love to nurse Maya and I know it’s so great for her. Maya still wakes to nurse in the middle of the night, but once in a blue moon, she’ll sleep for several hours and give me much needed rest. But she’s such a good baby. Occasionally, I’ll give her a bottle and she takes it very well. She also uses a pacifier. She’ll latch onto anything. When I try to kiss her, she’ll turn towards me and try to latch onto my face.

Maya has had an exciting month. She got a heat rash which took weeks to heal. It started looking like patches of dry skin and then it started to blister. Then it turned into what looked like severe acne all over her face, scalp, ears, and shoulders. Once the blisters started to heal, she got better. It’s all but gone now, but she has some scarring around her neck. Around the same time that the rash started to heal, she started to get a bit of cradle cap. Jayden had it too, but with Jayden it went away much faster. I am having a harder time with Maya, but I’m not worried. I’m sure she’ll be just fine in no time. Maya had another unfortunate milestone, I have to admit. On Mother’s Day, I turned my back on her and Jayden for just a moment and Jayden attempted to carry her. You can probably guess what happened next. She fell onto the floor. Luckily, he did a good job of trying to hold onto her and the floor was carpeted so there were no major injuries!

Maya now coos and communicates with me all the time. I love to hear her little sounds. She also smiles when we play with her and responds to Jayden’s sweet kisses. Maya spends quite a bit of time awake and interacting with Mommy. And Daddy is spending more time with her as well. In fact, Daddy got a dose of alone time with Jayden and Maya while I ran over to a dental appointment the other day. He did very well. Maya loves her swing, but doesn’t like her bassinet all that much. She sleeps in it at night, but she won’t tolerate it during the day. I try her in her crib every now and again, but she usually spits up there. I’d like to put her in the play yard, but terrified of what Jayden might conjure up. I’ll wait a while for that.

My maternity leave is almost over. I can’t believe my time with Maya is running out. One more month to go and then it’s back to work. I’m not sure what I am going to do. I don’t think my sitter wants to take charge of a baby. I’ll have to discuss that with her. I am thinking of going back to work 2 days a week instead of 3 so that she doesn’t have to go to daycare just yet, but I’ll have to discuss that with my boss. Oh well, time enough for that later! For now, I am just enjoying my time with the kids!

Weekend Getaway

After three long years, we finally went on a holiday getaway. I was so excited, even if it was just a couple of days. The weather was supposed to be nice, but since the forecast kept changing, I looked for rainy day alternatives, just in case. We made our hotel reservation, packed up the kids and went on our merry way. We wanted to go to Clearwater Beach, but we couldn’t find hotel availability so we settled for Tampa and stayed at Harbour Island. Since, we got there before check in time, we headed straight for the beach.

I love the beach! I have always loved the beach. I see it as such a relaxing getaway. It’s a place where I forget all my problems and re-charge my batteries. I quickly realized that from now on, the beach would be fun for the kids and that I would have to find my fun through them. Since it was a bit late in the day, I didn’t change into my suit. Besides, I would be looking after Maya. I changed Jayden and gave him his beach toys. He had fun digging into the sand and dumping the sand onto the beach blanket.
He quickly discovered that the water was cold and as much as Daddy tried to lure him to the shore, Jayden wasn’t going for it. Smart boy! Then he discovered the sea gulls. He went straight for them. I had to think of Rio chasing the squirrels. Did they really think they would catch them? They have fun trying though.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel. We got lost. Twice. How frustrating is that. First, Esteban got off on the wrong exit and before you knew it we were on a whole new highway, a toll road at that. Then when we finally got back on track, we figured out the directions were wrong. We really wanted to just give up and go back home, but hung in there. After we got there and got settled, we headed out for dinner. It felt extremely odd to be going out at the time that I normally put Jayden down for bed, but isn’t that what vacations are for? That’s what I thought.
We got a ride from the bellman to Channelside Bay Plaza and had a fun dinner at Hooters. Jayden was loud and carried on, but no worries. We fit in just fine. As for Maya, she slept through dinner. It was great. Afterwards, we decided to walk back to the hotel, since it was just a mile away. It was a beautiful night and the walk did us good. The view was incredible too. Too bad, I didn’t think to take a picture of the bay.

The next day, we began our day by going out to look for breakfast. We decided to take a trolley ride and with Rachel Ray in mind on $40 a Day, I did what she always says. Ask the locals. The trolley driver told us to visit Hyde Park and dropped us off by the convention center where we could catch a connecting trolley. Only thing was that we waited and waited and trolley #98 never came. We later found out that it didn’t start running until 11:30a.m. So we boarded trolley #96 again and asked the driver. He dropped us off in Downtown Tampa and we walked for a long while, unable to find a breakfast joint. Finally, I work up the nerve to ask the locals yet again and the lady assured me there were tons of places including one behind the CVS. When we got there, it was a deli and you could barely call what they served breakfast but with no other alternatives, we decided to go for it and then ride #96 back to the hotel.

Here's Jayden getting ready for breakfast:




Here's Maya all dressed up and no place to go:

Here's an odd picture of us:

Here's Jayden patiently waiting for the trolley:

Finally, we are aboard the trolley!

The weather was very cloudy and it was starting to drizzle. It was already close to 11am and too late to go to the aquarium, which was my original rainy day plan. I remembered when we checked in, they said the pool was on the third floor. Maybe we lucked out and it was an indoor pool. We took the elevator to the third floor and followed the signs which led us to another elevator which took us to the pool which was outdoors and was not heated. We headed back to our room with long faces to change for the pool, but decided no sense in staying just cause. Let’s just go home. So we got an early check out, packed up the kids and left.

We made last minute alternate plans and ended up in Saint Augustine, visiting my cousin Cathy. We got there fairly early and had a great drive despite the rainy weather. We had dinner, socialized, and even caught a movie. Unfortunately, Jayden woke up startled and cried for a good hour. I finally got him settled and went to bed myself. The following morning, we had breakfast and hit the road. It took a bit longer to get home, having to stop a couple of times for Maya, but on the way home I told Esteban, “It turned out to be a good weekend after all.”

Progress? Could it be?

Life has been so hectic since Maya joined us. I have often felt like I was running ragged trying to keep it together. Nursing was taking its toll on me. There were nights I thought for sure it was God who had rocked Maya to sleep. Figuring out what to do with Jayden to help him adjust to being a big brother was making my life impossible. I was having more temper tantrums than he was. Poor thing must have thought I was losing it. Time was flying by, but the situation was getting worse and to top it all off I was supposed to figure out how to manage my home and be a good wife too? End my misery please.

Well, time continued to march on until even I noticed that I wasn’t hearing myself complain as much. All of a sudden when Esteban called home to check in on us, I wasn’t bitter and angry that he’d left me one more time to do it all alone. All of a sudden, I wasn’t going on and on about how terribly Jayden was behaving. And yesterday, it hit me. Life with Jayden and Maya was getting easier. Could it be?

All of a sudden, I’m not screaming like a madwoman. I’m rarely spanking Jayden. I’m hardly needing to use time outs. Esteban calls to ask how I am doing and I respond fine. What’s Jayden doing? Playing. Where’s Maya? Sleeping. What’s this? All of a sudden, I am finding pockets of time to get things done around the house and even check emails. Heck, Esteban and I are finding time to be husband and wife. What’s happening? I’m not sure if it's because nursing is getting a bit easier or if it's because I'm including Jayden as much as I can in my nursing sessions. Maybe time-outs are working or maybe Jayden is getting used to having a fourth family member. It could just be the combination of time, practice and patience. Whatever it is, I am thankful.

Finally, I am working towards establishing a routine that works for our family. I thank God because I know he sent his angels to help me out. I needed that. The house feels more peaceful. I am getting more rest and Jayden appears to be happier. Maya is more calm now that the noise/activity level is down. And even Esteban is finding ways to spend more time with us and sometimes even coming up with family outings on his own. I feel like I’m on my way to being the mother I know I could become.

Jayden's Latest Words

At the age of two, Jayden has 21 words. Those are:

* Mama
* Dada or Daddy
* Ni-ni (Night-Night)
* Gracias
* 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)
* Titi (auntie in spanish)
* Baby
* Sowee (sorry)
* Hello

Jayden Turns Two!

Happy Birthday to Jayden! I can’t believe it. Where does the time go? Two years ago, I was blessed with this wonderful little boy that now keeps me on my toes and warms my heart. Today, he woke up at 7am. He came running to our room as usual and jumped in bed with Daddy. I was feeding Maya and Daddy sang Happy Birthday to Jayden. After a quick breakfast, we began to prepare for the big day. Maya was giving me a hard time with breastfeeding and I was starting to worry that I would never be able to put her down and prepare for the party. Finally, I got her to sleep and Jayden went with Daddy to get some last minute things. I pinned a Birthday Boy ribbon on his clothes and sent him on his way.

I began to work put together the food platters and get things in order. When Esteban came home, he gave Jayden his bath and put him to bed. Then he helped me with decorations. Before I knew it, we had everything put together and ready to go. Both Maya and Jayden were still sleeping so I showered and even got to take a 30 minute cat nap myself. The guests arrived around 3:30 and Jayden was still napping so we welcomed guests and invited them to help themselves in the kitchen while I got Jayden dressed and ready. He looked so cute in his birthday outfit. He was a little surprised to see this many people all at once, but he handled it well. He went straight for the gifts and began to open them. This was so much fun. All the kids wanted to help him and they carefully made sure that the cards were separated and that Jayden got to each and every gift. Daddy missed this part because he was picking up the cake. Sorry Dad.

When Esteban got back from the store, he got started on the grille and the time seemed to go by so quickly. Before I knew it, people were starting to leave. We decided to cut the cake before anyone else left. We got the kids organized around the table and Jayden wasn’t really sure what to make of it. It took some convincing to get him to stay in place, but because he kids were all there, he stayed put. When we sang happy birthday and he heard his name, I could tell that he was happy and excited for all the attention he was getting. He was glowing and his eyes were shining. Of course, he couldn’t blow out the candles. I told him, sopla (Spanish for blow). Unfortunately, this is also the word I use when I’m trying to get him to blow his nose so he was confused. Finally, all the kids helped him get the candles blown out and we cut the cake. From there, we moved to the front lawn for the piñata!

Last year, I made a piñata for Jayden when he turned one. We didn’t have a party for him, but it was a lot of work so I saved the piñata. It was round in shape and in the form of Mickey Mouse’s head. I loaded it with candy and party favors. (Overloaded it was more like it.) We tied it to the tree out front and since the kids were so young, we didn’t blindfold them. We let Jayden take the first swing and he knocked the piñata right onto the lawn. We couldn’t figure out how to re-hang it so the kids took turns beating it with the stick. Of course, Jayden was hysterical because he wanted to be the only one to hit it. But they finally got it open and dived into the collection of goodies. They were so cute. I ran in for the goody bags and handed them out so they could put their candies in it.

After the party, we began to clean up and talk about how well the party went and how happy we were. Most of the food we put out was gone and I was happy not to have to worry about how to fit leftovers into the fridge. Having the toys out in the living room worked well. The kids played with them, plus all the birthday presents and I had a Baby Einstein DVD playing in the background for the younger tots. Even the older kids made their way into the living room to see and play with the toys. The cutting of the cake was fun and of course, ending he party with the piñata was a blast. I was happy we had decided to keep things simple. I can’t wait to plan the next one.