Granny and Grampa

The rest of Mom and Dad's visit was pretty quiet. I think they were glad to see me return to work for the second week of their visit..... they got lots of quality time alone with Jaydan. They all got to be pretty good buddies. Jaydan was like Grampa's shadow and got into the habit of following both of them around to the point that he would stand outside and pound on the bathroom door, calling their names while they showered!! They played OUTSIDE a lot at Jaydan's insistence and they all enjoyed that!!! Grampa did lots of odd jobs around the house for us and I'm sure the baby was lots of help. Granny cleaned while I was at work and was there for the hugs and kisses side of things. There is something pretty precious about seeing your child interact with your parents and I feel blessed that we got such a long visit this time!! We always miss them when the time comes for us to part ways, but the fact that J got so close to both of them this visit will make it harder for all of us. Up until now, I don't think he was cognitive enough to express that he misses them but I'm sure he'll be looking for them when he wakes from his nap this morning. Granny and Grampa, thank you for coming to see us (and everything you did while you were here). We will miss you lots until May!

Christmas!!

I was so looking forward to Christmas this year.... I thought "Jaydan will have sooo much fun with all of the presents and lights and pretty decorations". YEAH..... let's suffice it to say that the reality was more grim. Jaydan has always been prone to over stimulation, every since he was tiny. So imagine the impact all of the noise, lights, excitement and variance from normal routine on a kid like that...... and that is more like what Christmas was like at our house.
We went to our church's Christmas Eve Candle Light service, which was very nice. We thought it would be nice to keep him with us and have a very family vibe. That lasted about 5 minutes, until the Teddy Grahams ran out, at which point Daddy made a dash with him for the nursery. Before the service we drove around looking at Christmas lights, which once we found some, was great. Jaydan DID seem to enjoy that.....there was lots of oooohing and aaaaahing and he cracked us up by yelling "Bye" (with a VERY southern drawl) at each house as we drove away.
I would go as far as saying that Christmas morning was very nearly a total disaster. He was fussy and ill, and when we could manage to make him interested he would scream "NO" and "MINE" in varying different combinations. At one point, as I was almost in tears I looked at Jeff, who was dripping in sweat and thought, "What went wrong here?" Eventually we all calmed down, had a nice breakfast and coffee (everyone but Jaydan) and got ourselves together. We went over to Nana and Pop's for Christmas dinner and presents with them that afternoon and that went better. The food and company were wonderful as always! The weather was perfect and we spend most of the day on the dock on the lake and I even sunburned my nose!
Next year we will do some things differently. I think we will do Santa gifts ONLY before breakfast..... this will keep us closer to our normal morning routine AND let us sort of "wade into" the excitement. If we have to do part of the gifts in the morning and part later (or another day) then so be it. I guess the lesson is to just go with the flow. You can't force a square peg (i.e. Jaydan) into..... well, anything really. This is one of the MAJOR lessons I've learned as a parent..... you can have an idea in your head of how something is going to go BUT your kiddo may have other ideas completely and all you're really going to do is make everyone miserable if you don't learn to adapt!!
Despite all of this (it probably wasn't as bad as it seemed) it WAS Christmas and it was spent with loved ones and was therefore wonderful. I am grateful that our families have blended so well that we are able to share a holiday with both sides!!! Maybe things will go more smoothly next year!!

Georgia Aquarium

The world's largest aquarium made its home in Atlanta several years ago and brings in visitors from all over the world. I made a point to wait until an age where I though Jaydan would be able to at least take part in the experience....... last time I went, I was about 5 months pregnant with him!! So, I planned a trip while Granny and Grampa are here as sort of a "thank you" for staying longer than they'd planned to help with Jaydan when I had to return to work. It was worth the wait..... Jaydan LOST HIS MIND!!! He would run up to the glass windows and yell "WOW" at the top of his little lungs. It is pretty wondrous and it is so cool to watch your kids experience something like that. And I'm so glad that Granny and Grampa were here to experience it with him. We ate lunch at The Varsity (check out the website @ www.thevarsity.com), a fun, local Atlanta car-hop style burger joint that is sure to give you a tummy ache and made a quick stop at my work to deliver Christmas goody bags. Another fun, fun day!

Baptism

I am just going to start at the beginning and start going through our activities of the past few weeks in chronological order...... I'll write now and add pics as I get time to upload them, so if you are reading this and there are no pictures, check back in a few days. We are blessed and delighted to have my parents here for the holidays this year. They flew into ATL on December 20, just a 1/2 hour late or so, despite weather-related weirdness spanning MOST of the country. We were all praying for that between freakish storms and holiday crowds and considered it a blessing that there were no real issues in their trip. They had a bit of a stressful connection in Denver, where my usually calm Dad nearly had a freak out from the sounds of things.....despite his telling my Mom to relax and just go where the wind blew them all day! And then NATURALLY their bags did not make it on the same flight they did. They were delivered the next day to our house, so all in all not too bad.
We were sort of tentatively planning to get Jaydan baptized while Granny and Grampa were here, pending Jeff's schedule with his new job. It all ended up working out for us to be able to proceed on the 21st. My parents and Jeff's were able to attend, which was important to us. Jaydan did not disappoint...... as the Pastor went to sprinkle the water on his head he screamed, "NO, NO, NO". And the church we recently joined has a tradition of carrying the child around the congregation while they sing a sweet little song to the baby. Of course, he screamed the whole time only stopping to check out a very cute little redhead in the crowd!!! This blog may NOT have pics b/c we were so stressed out by his "performance" that we simply didn't think to get any!

New pictures are up!!

I know, I know......

I've been terrible about blogging these past few weeks...... we've just been so darn busy!!!! We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Rashell.... it went way too fast, as usual. The next weekend we loaded up and headed to Florida to spend and early "Thanksgiving" with Jeff's grandparents and extended family. That was lots of fun and Jaydan got to meet his new baby cousin, who he liked just fine...... unless his Mama was holding him! MawMaw and Grandaddy's house is always lots of fun and Jaydan has a truly special relationship with both of them and Jeff's Aunt Gayle. I got some fun pics but haven't had time to upload them, so you'll have to stay tuned for the visual aids.
For "real" Thanksgiving we went to Jeff's parents. They only live about 20 minutes or so from us, which is great and they have a beautiful home on a beautiful lake, which is even better. His sister's couldn't make this trip, so it was just us. It was much quieter than usual and we missed them a lot and can't wait to see them at Christmas! It was a very relaxing long weekend. Jaydan and I packed up and headed home Saturday after the football game (GO Gators!!!) and I was up late that night and busy all day on Sunday putting up the Christmas decorations. Its a lot of fun having a toddler for the holidays........ it kind of reminds you how magical it all is. He was a lot of "help", as you can imagine. I bought a box of shatterproof ornaments and he carried them from the box to the tree, where he proceeded to stuff about 17 balls into one little space in the tree. It kept him busy and he was quick to tell anyone who would listen that it's "HIS" tree and that he was making it "pitty". He's picking up new works like crazy right now.... some of the latest are: "move" (as in, get out of my way), bwok (block), fwuit (fruit), shoes, and on occasion he actually says the word "please" instead of the usual "heeth".

TIME OUT!!

The time out thing seems to be working pretty well. There are even times now that Jaydan will do something that he knows earns a time out, look right at us, and just take himself to the time out rug without us having to even say anything. He stomps over and plops himself down and wails..... just like we told him to go!!! It seems to help a lot for him to just have a few moments of no stimulations to get himself back under control. Here is the issue we are having now (he TOTALLY gets this from his Dad). We make him hug us to say "sorry" before he can get out...... that's when we talk about why he got put there, etc. That child would rather sit in the corner for 30 minutes than apologize!!! Often, he ends up setting for two or three more "sessions" before he will finally give in and give you a hug. Lord help us!!!