Friday morning, we headed back to OC, which meant another stop at Disneyland. We can’t seem to get enough! We were driving back that way, and made an impromptu stop there. We stayed until about 4pm, and then went back to the house. We wanted to go for an early dinner so we could get the kids down while we met up with Josephine. We went to a new Japanese restaurant that had opened up. There were pictures of Sake, Soju and martinis, and Peyton looked at each one and said, “I no like this.” That was great news, since she had tried grabbing my happy hour drink the night before. She had two hands on my glass before I told her it was “Mommy’s drink”.
Peyton was pretty funny on our trip. Dave noticed upon his return from his business trip that she was talking a lot more than the week before he left. I hadn’t really noticed, but that’s because I was with her. During our trip, she was talking a lot to herself, pretending like she was talking to me. I caught her saying, “Hello? It’s Robyn. Hello, Mickey.” Then chatting on and on like she was holding her own conversation. When Josephine came over to the house, she was trying to hear Peyton talk, but Peyton was very shy about it, only barely whispering to me. Jos was asking her all kinds of questions about Disneyland, etc, just to get her to talk. She finally got down from my lap, and headed over to Dave’s mom, and started spouting off all the answers. Dave heard her from upstairs, basically answering all of Jos’ questions, but to Dave’s mom. She was talking about her favorite ride, but she didn’t like the blue fish (from Ariel), and on and on. She was teaching herself phonics with her computer, saying, “Capital A. Says A and ah.” She was also still very sensitive, getting frustrated with the puzzle on my phone at Jeff’s parents’ house, and crying in frustration. She wanted help, but I was talking and told her it was her puzzle and she needed to do it herself. She burst out in tears, and was sobbing. She did finally calm down, and I asked her, “Whose puzzle is it?” She said, “Pey-en’s.” (That’s how she refers to herself). I asked, “Who needs to learn how to do it herself?” Peyton said, “Pey-en.” But she still had residual heaving of her chest, even though she was calm now. She also lost it again at my parents’ house, with everyone watching her. More on that later.
We drove back on Saturday, leaving Dave’s parents’ house to meet up with Marcia for me and Mike for Dave. We all met in Westwood. This was Marcia’s first time meeting Peyton. The last time she visited was a few days before I had her, back at my parents’ house. Peyton also LOVES Uncle Mike. After only five minutes in the restaurant, waiting for Mike’s food, and the yogurt I ordered for the kids, she was warmed up, and talking non stop to both Marcia and Mike. I told Marce that it was rare that she was that warmed up. Marce said it was probably from her lack of height and that she looks like a kid, and thus less threatening. We stayed for about an hour, then headed on our drive. We made it back with plenty of time to meet up with my mom and family for her birthday celebration. We had done all our laundry at Dave’s parents’ house upon our return, and just had to put away clothes from our trip. We were even early to the restaurant and called to see if they could come earlier since they were all close by at my parents’ house. We had an uneventful dinner, and headed back home. Dave and I went back out to get dessert. Thinking both kids there would be too much for them to handle, we took Peyton with us. She cried and screamed because she didn’t want to leave. We bribed her and told her she could choose something for herself. We were headed to get an ice cream cake, but would just get her her own thing. We found these mini cones, which were great for portion control, especially for the kids and also for the adults. I told Peyton to choose a flavor, and she found one and said, “I want the pink and purple one.” Cotton candy. Nice. At least it was sherbert. She got a kids scoop, which was much bigger than the cones the adults and Brandon were going to get. She enjoyed that scoop, finishing it to the very end. She ate such small spoonfuls, it took her from the time she got it, all the way back on the drive home, and even after we sang to my mom. Everyone was staring at her eating it, and she happened to flip her spoon backwards since it was dripping down her finger, making it slippery. The adults all commented and started laughing. She suddenly burst into tears! Everyone was shocked, but I knew. She HATES the attention, especially if she thinks she is being made fun of, and hid her yucky face into my sweater (I was standing right next to her). I tried to calm her down, but it made her cry even more. I said it was a good thing my dad didn’t look at her, otherwise, all heck woulda broken loose. After she calmed down, she finished up her sherbet, and I cleaned her up. We had planned for the kids to stay over, and we were going to meet up with Dave’s Missouri friend, but we got lazy, and ended up all just staying over. She woke up this morning, and said, “I pooped.” Dave and I both ignored her and she fell back asleep. I had set my alarm for 8am to get to the Brown boys’ birthday party on time. She stirred a bit, then I changed her diaper. She really had pooped, poor thing. I laid back down, to “snooze” and she fell back asleep. By 830am, I had put all the blankets back, and she didn’t move a muscle. She doesn’t like covers, so she didn’t mind not having them. But I moved everything out from under her, and she didn’t seem to care. Since she was still sleeping, I decided to keep her with my mom. She had started to come down with something during the week, and may have even infected Kimberlee and Gregory, who both had fevers by week’s end (though Peyton did not), so it was better. Later my mom said she didn’t wake up until 930am! Brandon had fun with Mommy and Daddy at the park. We ended up being early to the park, since I had gotten my times mixed up. I thought we were running late, but it didn’t start until 1030am! We took advantage of having only one kid, who was playing nicely with Ian, and we ate first. Both of us were able to eat on our own, and then Brandon came over when he was hungry. Dave and I threw the football around a bit, while keeping an eye on Brandon, who was playing with water toys. All things we couldn’t have done if Peyton were around, as there was a lake nearby, and I’m sure she would have wanted to go in it. Dave said that Kathy had a bee land on her piece of chicken, and she was picking at it slowly, around where the bee landed. Brandon noticed and said, “Oh it’s going to taste good now, it has honey on it!” Still comes up with funnies on a daily basis.
Afterward, we headed out and did some more Peyton-friendly errands, like the phone store, and shopping for furniture that my mom had suggested for our kitchen table. Dave dropped us back here, and Brandon headed up to his room and said, “Mommy, can you turn on my music?” I had mentioned that he needed to take a nap, but he knew I wasn’t kidding about it. He went down without a fuss, and I, too, took a nap. When I woke up, Brandon was hanging out with Dave who was putting our table together. We finally have a dining room table. After he was done, we headed up to pick Peyton up. She was so happy to see us, but my mom said she only asked for “Bruddah” the entire day. I thought she’d ask for me, like she did when Dave’s mom had her while we were out with Jos. She was walking around crying for me, but not with my mom. She only asked for Bruddah. She got into the car, and said, “HI BRUDDAH! Hi DADDY!” She was so excited to see them both. Brandon was telling her how we got a new table and telling her all about her day. Peyton had given Brandon a lego minifigure that she and my mom had picked up at the mall. Peyton got one too, but waited to open it when Brandon got his. They were so cute chatting in the car, like they hadn’t seen each other in years. When Peyton got home, she said, “We got a new chair!” She climbed up on it, and felt the table. Neither gave us trouble after we told them it was bedtime. Brandon read a book to me, slowly, but he got through it. Dave read to Peyton. Both kids had lights out by 915pm, which is later than normal for them, but I guess we have to ease them back into our school routine. Peyton wanted a hug from me, and when I went into her room, she hugged me so tightly. When I got close enough, she whispered in my ear, “Sleep with me, Mommy.” I had to tell her no, and that only when we are travelling does she get to sleep with us. She nodded, and again, she hugged me tight. She whispered again, “Stay, Mommy.” I smiled and gave her another tight hug, then left. She came out to tell Dave, “I no like the darks.” She had her nightlight on, so we sent her back. I came down to finish blogging, and Dave came down to watch the replay of the soccer game. Neither were heard from again.