The Kids . . .

Sleeping Maya...
Sleeping Jayden. He's such an angel when he's asleep.

Here's Maya smiling at Daddy's funny faces.

Pretty smiles.

Big brown eyes.

Daddy and Jayden stand triumphantly, as Jayden finally wears a baseball cap without taking it off his head.

Here he is with his tiger cap.

Jayden and Rio at our cookout.

A Day in the Sun

Esteban took an extra day off today so that we could hang out together. I was so happy because my time at home is almost up and nothing makes me happier than spending time with my family. We were going to go to Little Lake Bryan, but I remembered a local pool from one of the mommy clubs so I looked up the place and directions and we left. The recreation center wasn’t too far and it was so nice. We had a wonderful day at the pool. Finally, Jayden reacted how I thought he would. He was so excited and tried to go in straightaway. We took a detour to find a spot first and since we were there early, we had first choice. We picked a table with an umbrella for Maya and immediately changed, lotioned up and headed for the water.

This place was awesome. This pool had a great set-up for toddlers. It was a zero entry pool and was clearly marked. We spent most of the time in the one through three foot section and that’s where they had tons of water sprays and tubes for the kids. Jayden loved it. The water was cool, but comfortable and the weather was great! Esteban and I took turns with Jayden and Maya and everyone had a great time. We were there for a little over three hours. It was a half day trip, but it felt so great to go. We really needed that!

Here's Maya hanging out in her suit by the table.
Here's me and Jayden by giant mushroom water sprayer. Jayden was giving me a big wet one.

Here's Jayden and Daddy in the water. They were having such a great time.

Oh, no! A New Sitter!

What a blow! After finding such a great sitter and having a wonderful relationship with her for so long, we had to find a new sitter. What a bummer. Jena has had Jayden for over a year. I think she’s great and Jayden just adores her. I was so happy that Maya would have such a great sitter. With Jayden, we bounced around between sitters for quite a while until we found Jena and I didn’t want to go through that again with Maya. While I was carrying Maya, Jena never asked about my daycare plans and I never bothered to bring it up either. With my maternity leave coming to an end, I thought I would call her to make sure it was ok for Maya to go there and to my surprise, the answer was no.

Jena explained that with her current load of toddlers between the ages of two and three, she wouldn’t be able to commit to taking an infant. I was surprised because we only go to daycare once a week and Maya will be 3 months by then. All she does now for most of the day is sleep anyway. But I have to respect her decision. I explained to Jena that I didn’t want to have Jayden at one place and Maya at another. First of all, I want them to be together and second of all, I don’t want to be driving around to drop off at two different places. So now, we will start at a new place.

I have two weeks left of leave. When I go back to work, Jayden and Maya will go to their new sitter. It’s still home daycare and located in the same area as my previous sitter, but about a mile closer. They are a husband and wife team and have a great set up. There’s a large fenced in outdoor space with swings, toys, and little tykes equipment. Inside, everything is clean and organized. There are a lot more kids at this place, but I think Jayden will enjoy it. They don’t have a structured schedule, but teach the basics as well as right from wrong in a Christian setting. We have been over twice with Jayden and he seems to be comfortable so hopefully it won’t be too traumatic for him. Let’s hope, right?

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.”