Moments with Zayden

Yesterday Zayden officially became 2 and a half. :D I can't believe how quickly time has gone. This past week, I have made a point to have more alone time with Zayden. I think he has been craving it, and actually I have too. Ivy is old enough now that she can be left for longer periods easier with her dad (which is good for them too), so I can spend more time with my little man again.
Wednesday, Brian was home from work, and I was able to take Zayden to the store alone. It was just a little thing, but we had sooo much fun. We were gone less than 2 hours, but it was such a great time. While we were driving there, I asked Zayden if he wanted to hear me honk my horn, and of course he did. So I honked it and we laughed. He wanted me to do it again, but I told him I couldn't do it when other cars were around as the people might get scared. So we would watch, and when neither of us saw a car I'd honk and we'd laugh. It was a silly game, but we both were laughing and having fun with it.
Then we go to the store, and I put him in the front of the cart, which in itself felt so weird. He hasn't sat there in so long as that became Ivy's seat. It was weird to have him facing me while we were shopping. We talked and talked and talked about all the things we saw and heard without any baby interuptions. It was really fun. Then I asked him if he wanted to go fast. He did, so I literally started running down the aisle pushing him in the cart (for about 3 seconds). We laughed, and he kept asking me to do that again too, and I did about 10 times.....until I was exhausted. Neither of us caring how silly we looked! ;)
We left the store, and decided to go get dinner to bring back home. I drove to a little deli, and saw that right beside the deli was a pet store. So, I took him in there first! We had A great time in there! We had so much fun looking at all the animals (including Nemo) and talking about them. Zayden kept trying to get me to open the cage the mice were in......but I definitely was not going to do THAT! Then we kind of pretended that we were interested in buying a puppy, and asked to play with a couple different puppies. Z chose a pomeranian, and we played with him first. I then chose a puggle for us to play with! That was also really fun!
We went to the sandwich shop and as I ordered I let Zayden run back and forth all through the restaurant (we were the ONLY customers in there). Zayden loved running back and forth and he wasn't hurting anything.
On our way home Zayden pleaded that we didn't go home most of the way, and when we got home he cried and cried and didn't want out of his seat. He was fine when we got inside and started eating, but it did prove to me that he really did crave that kind of attention!

Yesterday for his 2.5 birthday after some friends left I decided to take him to this place called Bounce N Play (while Ivy again stayed home with daddy). It is kiddie land with tons of inflatable things for him to bounce and run around on. He loved, loved, LOVED it! We haven't been in awhile so it was just so surprising to see how much more he can do now. There are these huge inflatable slides. Last time we were there I just instictually carried Z up the big ramped ladders to the top. Yesterday, I just let Zayden go on his own. He was able to climb to the top all by himself slowly but bravely (I didn't see any other kids as small as him doing it). He'd then come flying down the big slides with huge smiles and get to the bottom and flop all around like a fish out of water....in his state of bliss. It was really fun to watch him play and see how much he has "grown". My baby boy really isn't much of a baby anymore sadly.

Also at home I have been making a point to grab some alone time with him outside, or in the bath, or just reading in his room. I always point out that we are alone, and he seems to be happy with that, and we both have just really been enjoying each other a lot lately! It's been great!

I plan to make sure for now on that I set aside time for both kids to have some alone time with mommy as well as time for us all to be together....I think it's pretty important!

Now for a couple Zayden funnies:

My mother in law told me this first one. She asked Zayden if he was her boy. Zayden said, "no". MIL than asked who was going to be her boy then? Zayden said, "You can have Fintan!"

I made the big mistake of telling Zayden he was too little to do something last week,, and boy has he reminded us of that several times. First time was when Brian was putting him to bed one night, and Z didn't want to go to sleep. Brian told him he had to go to bed like a big boy, and Z's response was, "Mommy said I was little!" That phrase has now come out of his mouth many many times, when we ask him to be a big boy to do something. I don't know how many times he has looked at me and said, "YOU said I was little!"

The other day I was giving Zayden a bath and Zayden pointed at his belly and said, "Look mommy I have a fat belly!" I kept telling him he did not (I don't know where he learned that, because I honestly don't ever say stuff like that in front of him). He kept insisting that his belly was fat. Finally I said, "Zayden your belly is not fat, it is cute and full of muscles." Zayden looked at me with an irritated expression and said, "Ohhh please!!"

In the kitchen earlier, Zayden looked at me and said, "Mommy I eat you!" I looked at him confused and said, "what?" And he laughed and said, "I'm just teasing! Nevermind!"

As I was typing this post I was listening to Z play pretend with his guys and he had this conversation:
Guy 1: I'm the boss!
Guy 2: You're not the boss! Mommy is the boss!
Guy 1: No, I'm the boss!
Guy 2: You don't understand me!