New Do! Oh no...

So I’m going back to work in a few days and I wanted to have a new look. I made an appointment for a haircut with the woman who has been styling my hair for years. I have been letting my hair grow out since last September and it’s grown quite a bit, but waiting sucks. Anyway, I went in for a trim, and when I got there I asked about possibly coloring my hair. I really trust her opinion. She suggested doing some highlights. I was really excited and went for it. Well, when they took that towel off of my head and I looked in the mirror, I almost keeled over. My highlights were red. Literally, they were red. When she said red, I assumed she meant a natural hair color with a red base. I didn’t know she meant crayola red. I immediately looked at Esteban who said he liked it. He said I just wasn’t used to it. I couldn’t be sure if Esteban was saying it looked nice because he really thought so or just to be nice. Maybe I would feel differently in the morning. Maybe the color wouldn’t look as intense after the first wash. I don’t know. I immediately went to see my girlfriend Maria. She always keeps it real. Wow! It looks nice. That was her reaction. My 7th grade English teacher once said, “Nice is the word you use when you don’t have anything nice to say.”

I definitely can’t keep this look for work. It will never work. I work where we hire business professionals and preach the professional appearance policy to all the candidates. I keep looking at it and wondering what to do next. I look at myself over and over again in the mirror and I don’t know who I am looking at. I feel like the new look makes me look like an older woman trying to look young. Maybe this look is in now, as the hairdresser said, but I feel like I’m too old to pull off this trend. Only one thing to do now. I’ve made an appointment to go back to re-do my new look. New pictures to follow…

Jayden got his haircut too. I love his new cut. This time, it came out really well. I am thrilled. Not only that, he was so well behaved and sat pretty still. He tolerated the cape and he even sat still during the buzz portion of the cut. Here’s my little prince.

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!