Our Little Halloween Lobster

A few months ago, I started looking for Halloween costumes online and found the cutest little lobster costume and just had to get it for Jayden. When it arrived, Jayden was 10.5 months old (i.e. pre-tantrum Jayden)...we put it on him and he didn't even notice he was wearing anything- he walked around like normal and could care less. Well, fast forward a few months...now Jayden has decided that he does not like anything on his head, hanging on his back, or dangling off of him, which was a slight problem since his costume did all three. On Wednesday I dressed Jayden up in his costume because it was Halloween dress-up day at storytime...well, Jayden was NOT happy with me and screamed and screamed for a good 10 minutes straight (so we went to storytime sans costume). Yesterday we had playgroup and we all brought our kids' costumes to get some pics of all the kids in their costumes. Well, Jayden threw another fit and screamed and rolled around the ground (see pics below)...

Jayden throwing a tantrum...get this thing off of me NOW

I said I want this off of me NOW

So, yesterday after playgroup we headed across the street to Joanne Fabrics to see if they had any costumes left since it was pretty obvious we would not be able to take Jayden to the Halloween parade in his lobster costume. The only costume they had in Jayden's size was a skeleton (for $5)...it was perfect since it was like PJ's and not costume-like at all. I put Jayden in it and he walked around like his normal self and had no idea he was in a costume...brilliant! He wore his skeleton costume all day and looked pretty cute in it, although I was a little sad because his lobster costume was sooooo much cuter. Anytime anyone said "oh, what a cute little skeleton" I would respond "well he was supposed to be a lobster, but he refused to put it on, so this is our back-up costume" (yup, a little bitter, I know)

Jayden's back-up costume

Jeremy took the train home early and right before we were about to leave I had an amazing idea...since the hood and claws were what seemed to really annoy Jayden, I thought I would cut them off and see if this made a difference...

The remains (Mr. lobster was beheaded and de-clawed)

After cutting off the lobster's head and claws, I put the costume on Jayden and he continued to smile and run around...SUCCESS!!! Before we picked up daddy, we went downstairs to Dorothy and Brent's house to go trick-r-treating and to show off his lobster costume. They were so sweet and got him his favorite fruit bars from Trader Joes.

Making a stop at Grandma Dorothy and Uncle Brent's house

Jayden showing off his loot

After hanging out with Brent and Dorothy we picked up Daddy and then headed over to Burlingame to meet up with some of our friends. The town has a little parade/Halloween party downtown and it was the perfect place to let the kids run around, listen to music, and show off their cute costumes.

Momma's lil' lobster

Running to mommy

Lobster on the loose

Running away from Daddy

Izzie & Jayden

Momma and her lobster and Natalie and her ladybug

Jeff & Jer with the kids

My boys

Team Mack: Under the Sea (lobster, fish & crab)

The moms and the babes: Jenny & Clay, Kate & Oliver, Natalie & Izzie, Momma & Jayden

The kids and daddies: Jeff & Izzie, Craig & Clay, Corey & Oliver, Jer & Jayden

The fam

Trying to steal Sleeping Beauty's lollipop

Our little lobster on top of mommy

Ok, seriously, how cute is this kid?!

Jayden listening to the band...he looks so little here

Gettin' down with mommy

Enjoying dinner with friends after the parade

Moo

Our big boy is now drinking whole milk...no more formula (thank god since that stuff is EXPENSIVE)!

The pure joy of being a parent

Saw this on a friend's blog and had to post it since this is how I feel every day since becoming a mom...here's a blog entry from a man writing about his daughter taking her 1st steps

We’d had 2-3 tentative steps at a time starting as far back as a couple weeks ago. Then mostly nervousness, the usual fast crawling, and lots of hanging on to one of Daddy’s fingers for cruising through the house.

Then on Sunday, while we were in Vegas — and on the day before her 1st birthday — Eleanor suddenly started tearing ass all over the place with no help at all. And she’s really good at it. Maybe too good.

I know (because numerous friends tell me so) that this kid thing gets continually better over the next few months, but, man: I wish I could put a morning like this one in a jar and enjoy it ten seconds at a time for the rest of my life.

Love that kid.

Blog makeover

We started this blog when we moved to California to keep in touch with our friends and family back home. When I got pregnant, it became a belly journal where we talked about and photographed the growing being inside of me. And, when Jayden arrived on October 17th, 2007, this blog morphed into a day in the life of where we chronicled Jayden's entire 1st year of life. We plan on making the blog (from his birth to 1 yr) into a book so one day we can look back and remember what an amazing year this has been. Now that Jayden is so active and takes one short nap a day, I don't really have the time (or the energy) to maintain the blog like I used to. So, this blog is now going to become posts of random things/events throughout the week that I want to remember when I'm older. I am so blessed that I am able to stay home with my son and while it's sometimes frusterating being a stay-at-home mom, I wouldn't change this for anything. Every day Jayden makes me laugh, and I know one day he will go to school, and eventually grow up and not want to be with his mom anymore, and I want to be able to look back on this blog and laugh out loud (or cry) about all the moments we shared. So, as Jayden enters his 2nd yr of life, this blog will now enter a new phase. If we do something fun as a family, I will still post pics and write a little caption, but mostly this will be a space where I just write little stories that I don't want to forget. And my 1st story is from this afternoon...

After I fed Jayden his lunch, I noticed that our kitchen floor was REALLY dirty. We're not too good at keeping our house clean, but I know I cleaned the kitchen floor a few days ago. We have linoleum floors though, and no matter what I do, they ALWAYS look dirty. Anyways, my ADD got the best of me, and I just HAD to clean the floors. Now, if I didn't have a toddler who follows me around the house and likes to touch everything, this wouldn't be a problem...well, I sprayed the cleaner on the floor, got on my hands and knees and started to clean. After spraying twice, I realized this was not a good idea, as Jayden, attached to my leg (as usual), tried to eat all the dirt I was cleaning up. So, I decided that this was something that needed to wait until his nap (don't know why I couldn't have thought about that before, but this is what ADD does to you- if there's something you want to do, you have to do it right that moment). Anyways, I'm finally at the funny part. I told Jayden that I was being silly and I would clean later. I picked up the spray to put it away and he started to talk "eh, eh" and then smiled at it and started waving goodbye to it. He's been waving hi and bye a lot lately, but he's now started to do it to objects (trees, cars, toys etc)...I just sat there laughing, my crazy son was waving goodbye to the cleaning spray...and had a huge grin while doing it...so so cute (and a little odd). Oh how I love this kid!

Field trip to the SJ Children's Discovery Museum

Jayden and I met up with some of his friends this morning and headed over to the San Jose Discovery Museum. The last time we were there, Jayden had just started to walk and spent most of the time looking at the people rather than exploring. Today, however, Jayden had so much fun checking everything out and playing with everything...this will definitely be a regular spot for us once the rainy season hits us.

Grandma and Grandpa visit again

G & G have a meeting in Monterey this week, so they flew into SFO and we all spent the weekend together. On Saturday we hung out at Central Park in downtown San Mateo. We walked around the park, played on the playground, went swinging, then Daddy and Jayden went on a little train that goes around the park. After the train, we ate snow cones and walked around the Japanese Gardens. After the park, we went home, J went to bed, and Mommy and Daddy went out on a date!

Having lots of fun at the park with Grandma and Grandpa

Peek-a-boo, I see you

Swinging with Grandpa

All aboard

And they're off

J, G & G at the Japanese Gardens

On Sunday, we drove to Monterey and went to the Aquarium. We've been wanting to take Jayden here for a while, but probably would never have gone had my parents not had a meeting here, so it was perfect, because Jayden had a blast. We spent pretty much the entire afternoon at the aquarium and then had some food and headed home, leaving G & G in Monterey. It was so much fun spending time together- that's 3 times in 3 weeks that Jayden has been with his San Diego grandparents, and we all had a great (but exhausting) day at the aquarium.

On our way

mother and son

The fam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

J was in awe of these fish

trying to grab them through the glass

HUGE sun fish

Going down the slide for the 1st time on his own

Jellyfish

Chasing after mommy

Up on Grandpa's shoulders...where Jayden spent most of the day

J touching seaweed- yuck

Looking at the starfish

Hello little fishies

Playing in the old cannery

Hugging Mommy (J just started giving real hugs...best thing in the world!)

Trying to steal Joanna's straw

Wave Pool

J was a little scared

Clinging onto Mommy

Jayden was not that impressed with the wave pool

Thanks for another great weekend Grandma and Grandpa. See you in a few weeks.