16 Months and 3 Weeks

Who says I need to wait till Jayden reaches an actual milestone to provide some updates?? I figure if I don't do it while I'm thinking about it, it probably won't get done at all so here goes...


Jayden has at least 12 teeth (the front 8 and 1 molar on each side on the top and bottom) although I really need to count to make sure there aren't more. Thank goodness we finally made it through the molars coming through! That was torture for everyone in the house, most of all Jayden. He was so miserable... runny nose, fevers, coughing, you name it. We're still waiting on the eye teeth to make an appearance; I've been able to see them under the surface for months.


Jayden says numerous words now although most people besides myself and DJ probably wouldn't know that he was saying an actual word. I suppose the pronunciation will come later. He says:

• Up (this word IS very clear and he uses it often)
• Bye bye
• Night night
• Thank you (I was most impressed when he started saying this especially because he uses it correctly!)
• Mama
• Dat (daddy)
• Doggie (He has only says this once but it was very clear so I have to include it)
• Yes
• No
• Boo (We say this a lot when we are playing with him so he's picked it up, so funny)
• Chace (It is so cute when he says my brother's name and we really only know he is saying Chace because he points at a picture of my brother when he says it.)
• Papa (This one comes and goes but he has started pointing at my dad in a picture and saying it so I think it's starting to make more sense to Jayden.)
• Nana (This usually means a banana...sorry Nana...My mom is also called Nana but Jayden hasn't really started calling her Nana.)
• Water (Actually it sounds like he says "agua" which is the Spanish word for water. Maybe he inherently knows Spanish because it's in his blood??)
• Book
• Baby ("bebe" - also the Spanish way of saying it...hmmm)
• Bath ("bap")
• Oh no 
• Uh oh

Jayden definitely understands many more words then he can say right now. He is a pretty good listener and really impresses me when I ask him to do something and he actually goes and does it! He is such a little helper and I try to really take advantage of that now and praise him a lot so hopefully he will continue being a good little helper, especially when Ava makes her arrival!


Jayden is sleeping better and better at night. He usually goes to bed in his own crib about 8:00-8:30 but it usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an 1 hour to get him to sleep. So we actually head upstairs about 7 or 7:30 and then he will finally drift off to sleep awhile later. He's been waking up pretty consistently at midnight and then sometimes one more time before he wakes up for good at 6:00 a.m. or a little sooner, much to DJ's and my dismay since we would really like him to get more sleep (and we would appreciate a few extra minutes too).


He is a good napper and apparently a different boy at daycare then at home! One day I asked his teacher how he was doing with naps and they told me that they just tell him to go to his cot and lay down and HE DOES. Just like that. No tears. No screaming. Just lays down and goes to sleep. Oooo. When I heard that, I was a little "annoyed" (because I really can't be annoyed at this sweet little boy, not yet anyway) because I do believe Jayden has learned that I am much more lenient and will rock and hold him until he goes to sleep whereas at daycare, it's just cut and dry. He is very hard to put down for a nap on the weekends although he will sleep about 2 hours once he is down.


Jayden becomes more and more opinionated every day about the food he likes and doesn't like. The foods that he will eat without question are Greek yogurt, grapes, cheese, corn, craisins/raisins, bread/grains of any kind and mandarin oranges. That's it. Everything else is a mystery from day to day and it is somewhat difficult to get any sort of variety in his diet. Thankfully most of the listed foods are on the healthy side so I'm not worrying about it too much right now and we just keep offering other foods to him in the hopes that we will find other favorites in the process. He still doesn't drink milk (at least not at home although daycare tells me he drinks milk there, I'm just not sure I believe it) but he LOVES water and will drink a ton of it each day. He also takes half of a multivitamin each evening.


Jayden has some favorite toys now which I love because for so long he was so indifferent to all the toys he had. He has a toolbox that he got for his birthday (but we just got it out for him recently) that he carries around everywhere and will play quite a while with. DJ has shown him how to use all the tools so he will actually screw the screws with the screwdriver, hammer the nails with the hammer and drill the screws with the drill! He's also gotten pretty good about putting the shapes in the right holes. It's adorable.

He received some pots and pans from Grandma for Christmas that he continuously plays with. He'll make noises like things are sizzling in the pans.

He received a rolling Thomas the Train backpack from Nana for Christmas that he loves to roll around and say bye bye. He loves to put things in it and take things out of it. He also likes to have it put on his back so he'll carry it around that way. Since the thing is definitely as big as him, this can be pretty comical.

Jayden's backpack is actually different from this one, much cuter I have to say. I think my mom got it at a specialty store in Phoenix so I couldn't find an exact picture. Jayden's is made of a corduroy material.

Jayden likes to roll his backpack around while mowing at the same time. He received this lawnmower as a gift from his Uncle Dan for Christmas and he mows our carpet daily.

Lastly, Jayden loves to play with Tow Mater. DJ got this toy for him as a surprise for the plane trip to Albuquerque and it's become more and more of a favorite. We play a lot with this. You pick it up and shake it and it revs up and then when you set it down it will go as far as you revved it up.

I'll do more updates later because there are some funny stories I want to share but since this post has become rather long, I'll save those for another day!