Mr. Helpful

I have tried getting Jaydon involved in a few more household jobs - he has always loved to sweep and vacuum so we decided to move onto dishwashing. He has a great time with me and while I feel slightly guilty over the extra water we are now using it is nice to have such a willing helper.

In fact, after lunch I was at the computer looking up some baby stuff and I heard him get up to the sink and start re-washing one of his cups, I really didn't think that much of it. It was a clean cup and he was just playing with the water and having some fun. When I finally went over there to check how it was going (yes maybe another bad mom moment), this is what I found...

Thank goodness we have an undermount sink and the edge of the granite comes above it so that the sink that he manged to get the stopper in just poured over into the other side to drain rather than get all over my floor. It was still quite a mess but boy was Jaydon one happy dishwasher!

Numbers and the clock!

I am happy to report that my kid loves numbers! He counts well (forwards and backwards) and he recognizes numbers. We can now ask him to wait until the clock says a certain number to be done with something and he will patiently wait and get so excited every time a number changes that he makes us look at the new time and then when it hits the time he was waiting for he knows it and is ready to move on to the next fun thing!

Jaydon also really enjoys his evening naked running time. It doesn't even have to be full-on naked, just no pants and diaper. In fact, socks are favored because they help him not hurt his toe when he runs and kicks his football out of his block as if he were kicking off in a football game. We have a policy where before he gets his running time he has to sit on the potty for a minute (he isn't really all that interested in potty training yet but he understands some of the concepts so for now we just give him some opportunities and let him choose). Then once he has sat on the potty he tells me how many minutes of running time he wants. This is often something around 8 minutes. Well, one evening I got distracted setting the oven timer when his running had begun so I went to set it after he had been at it for a couple minutes, I figured I would just put 7 on their because he had already gotten a bit of extra time. No luck on my end, Jaydon ran up and looked at the clock, then he looked at me and said "no mama, 8 minutes not 7." Well I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because I know he can recognize all the numbers but there was no pulling one over on this kid.

Building and Puzzles

Jaydon enjoys building with his blocks (the taller the tower the better) we are still working on having a solid base but he does pretty well. He also has become really good at a couple big puzzles. He can do an Animal Train puzzle that is 10 feet long and the Thomas puzzle (seen below) by himself and he loves to put them together then tear them apart by knocking them onto the floor and then building them again. It is fun to watch him problem solve and get so into some of these toys and games.

cheesy smiles posing with his tower (dad may have provided a little help on this one).

Posing with his Thomas puzzle - thanks Timothy and Alex for passing this puzzle along from when you were kids using it 12 years ago.

Trains!

Jaydon really enjoys Thomas and trains and so we looked up the local railroad museum and decided to take him to it (the hours aren't great for a napping toddler but since he had such a late night the night before he slept in and we were ready to go). He had a blast! In fact, I wasn't sure how long he would want to stay but he sure out lasted me, I was ready to leave waaaay before he was but fortunately grandma and dad were around so I could hang out in the chairs and relax a little bit.

There was an area for young kids with a large Thomas to ride on and then a train table with a ton of trains to use.

Then there was the big set up with a couple different trains going round and round. Jaydon loved seeing them come and go.

Jaydon and daddy watching!

After the museum we walked a ways to a lovely woodfire pizza spot for lunch! Such great pizza!

Coaches vs. Cancer

Every year for the past few years our basketball conference has done a large scale fundrasier to help fight cancer. Every team plays in a game decked out with pink and we all wear special t-shirts and have honorary coaches who have been impacted by cancer. This year with some snow changes to our schedule we went from hosting the game to being the visitor and while I was always going to have my mom come to my JV game, she got to be our varsity honorary coach as well. Jeremy was out of town and we had to bring Jaydon along as well so grandma got to be an honorary coach and babysitter. It was a great event raising money to fight cancer or crush cancer as our t-shirt logos said. Thanks mom for coming up and participating.

Jaydon watching from the stands with our statistician and a couple players. He later climbed down and came almost onto the cour during the game before I caught him and took him to the bench to be with grandma.

The girls getting ready for the starting line-ups to be announced and my mom with another coach on the side.

My mom had to stand in the center to be recognized, they always read a write-up about every honorary coach and this is what was written and read about her.

When Susan Lahti was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2010 her thoughts went to her mother, Jean, who had battled and beat breast cancer 3 times before losing her fight with colon cancer a number of years later. Susan decided that aggressive treatment was her best option and after her double mastectomy she was declared Cancer Free!! She has been able to go from a participant in Casting for Recovery, a fly-fishing support group for women with cancer, to an instructor, continuing to help others deal with this terrible disease. Susan is the mother of Squalicum Assistant Coach Sarah Smoldon and has helped instill in Sarah and her entire family the love of basketball and the pursuit of good health. Susan played basketball for the Western Washington University Vikings and basketball has continued to play a large role in her life and lives of her family. She is a physical educator at Mt. Lake Terrace High School where she coached varsity basketball along with having previously coached at the community college level. She is happy to be here tonight, back on the court, where she spent so many years playing and coaching, and is honored to be part of such a wonderful event to help CRUSH CANCER!

Candy Land

Jaydon learned how to play Candy Land (or Candy Lands - as he calls it). It has been fun to play with him and it came at the right time because we were able to keep him happy and somewhat still while he was recovering from being sick. He can also do some Chutes and Ladders but he prefers Candy Land.

Is it a bird, a plane... no it's Super Jaydon!

Jaydon loves Sesame Street. Cookie and Super Grover are definitely two of his favorite characters. He has taken to wanting to wear a cape like Super Grover and sometimes even a hat is necessary to be the helmet. He runs around shouting "up, up and away" and even sometimes just doing "walk, walk, and away" as one of our shows has Super Grover being unsuccessful at flying so he just walks towards the end. It is pretty funny. He has also started thinking that running around the house naked is a highlight of his day so with the cape and being naked (from the waist down he is a happy super hero.