23 Months Old!

I have been sooo swamped at work that I haven't been able to keep up with the amazing development Jordan's made in the last week. She's a big girl. She's a TALKING girl. Right now, she's obsessed with nouns. She's constantly pointing words out everywhere. It's awesome.

After taking Cameron to school, Jordan and I had some time alone before her Parents as Teacher's teacher came to visit and do her 24-month-old developmental testing (since Jordan's birthday is over the holidays, we couldn't hold it in December). I tried to shoot video of Jordan before that meeting and she wouldn't have it. So I placed it on the table and just started rolling without her knowledge. And suddenly, something amazing happened. My girl broke out into song:

I'll be honest. That video is SO freaking cute I can't handle it. It makes my heart melt with glee and pride and just obsessive amounts of love for this little girl. I feel it deeply for both kids. Somehow, this video is pure love. It could be because she's singing "I love you."

Tonight, Jordan did another amazing thing. She took her sock and shoe off in the car. She would NOT let me put it back on. I had to carry her into the house (it's way too cold for a barefoot baby). She promptly sat on the floor, worked that sock onto her foot and then got her shoe back on. Then she stood up, put her arms in the air and declared: "Ta Da!" She did it! ALL BY HERSELF! I was so proud, I rushed over to her, gave her a HUGE hug. She felt so dang proud! What was really funny was Cam's reaction: "I do that all the time."

I love Fall!

It was surprisingly warm today so I packed the kids up and headed out to our local state park for a hike. The leaves are past their peak, so the hills were just COVERED with beautiful colors. I usually plop the kids into a leaf pile in our front yard, but that also requires a lot of raking. So I figured I might try for a cute picture or ten during the hike. I was right. Jordan LOVES the outdoors and leaves are no different then playing in sand or dirt or rocks. She was very happy.

We had fun. At one point, I had Jordan singing a hiking song, Cam was singing a different hiking song and I was just enjoying the complete silliness of it all.

Speaking of music. Apparently Daddy isn't allowed to sing. Cam went through a similar stage. But Jordan yells "NO DADDY!" when he starts singing. So I've got her trained to say: "Stop please" and then he stops. During this afternoon's hike, I was not allowed to sing. She is very demanding!

OH! And in the last couple of days, Jordan is finally saying "Cameron." She still won't say her name, but at least she is working on saying her brother's name.

School picture!

Here's Jordan's pre-school picture of the year. I was hoping this company would offer a CD copy of the photo like Cam's school, but no such luck. This one's really cute though.

Family time!!

Jordan and the rest of the family just got back from spending time with Daddy's side of the family. You can see the girl enjoyed playing with her Uncle. For someone who moved out of state, we sure have been lucky to see him so often.

We also had a chance to spend with Jordan and Cam's great-grandparents who can't travel like they used to. Jordan was not into giving kisses to her Moma Dot - until right before we were leaving Moma Dot and Daddy Jr's house. The trick: Make sure I'm not in the room. I'm hoping someone in the house got a picture of Jordan doling out the smooches. I tell you, there's something about me that keeps her from sharing the love with everyone else.

So there are some fun things going on in the language department: Many, many words. Some of the funniest. Jordan's Grandpa is named Poppy. Jordan has recently stopped calling all dogs Bubba in honor of our fat pug, she now calls them "puppy." But the difference between "puppy" and "Poppy" is slight. Only an expert hear can notice that difference. Another funny one: "hot" and "hat." Oh, and her blankey is officially named "Lamby." She is still walking about the house assigning items: The couch is Daddy, my computer is "Mommy." Ditto for my chair in the kitchen and of course my van and bike and phone. Now wait, the phone is "Elmo" because she can watch Elmo on it.

Anyway, during our drive home tonight, Jordan got chatty. I sat next to her to help her eat her dinner... And girlfriend wouldn't stop talking. She talked and talked and a few times I could notice a word or two. But whatever she was telling me was SERIOUS. I just nodded my head and responded to the words I thought I heard. If this is what we're headed into -- it's going to be tricky to think with all that chatter.

Oh! One other thing: Poppy trimmed Jordan's hair for the second time in her life. Just a little off the back to help even out the natural layers she's growing. It looks great and it think it will help lighten the load and help the curls pop out a little more. Hooray curls! (I only say that because I don't have any and I think they're cool)

So dang sweet

I know this picture is blurry... But I love it. Jordan was about to tackle me. I took the kids to work. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but work is near a cow pasture. (yeah) As we drove in, Jordan started yelling: "MOO! MOO! MOO!" She was really excited. So after we were done with the newsroom, we played outside looking at the cows. Then we (Cam and Jordan and I) tussled out on the lawn. The cows were freaked out.

Anyway. It was a sweet little time with the kids... It was cool out, but not cold. The sun was just starting to set and no one was outside except us... And the cows.

Cleared!

We had another meeting with the physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor that's worked with us since Jordan was three months old. I've used him as a back-up source... And extra eye on Jordan's care so we can be sure that she's developing and getting the proper care.

Today we arrived to show off her growing use of her prosthetic, her amazing muscle tone at the base of her little arm and her greatly improving skill of walking -- her shoe inserts are really helping steady and straighten her walking.

He was so pleased with her progress that we don't need to come back... Unless I find a need to meet up with him.

To me, that's a great relief. It means we are on the right track. The doctor commended me on working hard and getting Jordan everything she needs. He was impressed with her muscle tone in her back and he agreed that we need to keep working on Jordan's little arm's strength to help lift her prosthetic up high. He thought the idea of getting Jordan swimming was a good idea. Just holding onto her big arm and getting her to splash with her little arm would be strength-building.

SO hopefully I won't need to visit with him unless we need his help in getting healthcare approval for a device or any type of procedure that Jordan might need. So far, that isn't a concern. Who knows what will happen next year when we have a new healthcare plan. I'll keep my fingers crossed for that.

Still talking about Z-O-U

Jordan loved going to the football game this weekend. We were trying to get Jordan to say the second half of the M-I-Z-Z-O-U chant. She kind of says "Oh-Eww"

She is getting better with her words. Tonight she called Dudley dog "Dudley" instead of Bubba. She wanted more bread, she said "more bread." I still can't get her to say Cameron's name -- Now he's kind of named "Bruddah."

I love watching her grow. I have a hard time accepting how grown up she is though. The little tantrums and the conversations where I know she understands me... They're all signs of her turning into a little person. Wow.

Homecoming is so fun

Miss Jordan got to ride on her school's Homecoming float this morning. She had so much fun waving hello to the crowd. I had fun listening to her yelling "HI!" to everyone. She blew kisses and wanted desperately to eat the tootsie rolls that the big kids were throwing to the crowd. Jordan is NOT old enough to eat that kind of candy. You can't explain that to a kid who is almost 22 months old.

Almost 22 months old. Unbelievable.

Anyway, we have a TON of alumni in town and I'm having a blast hanging out with them and showing the girl and boy off to some of them. We're attending the football game this afternoon... Hopefully we'll bump into more grads that way.

Other than Homecoming and showing off the kids, life is pretty good. It's slowly turning into Fall. Jordan loves checking out the leaves on the ground. She's very picky about which ones she likes... So that makes our trips home from walking Cam to school take a lot longer. But I love watching her enjoyment of nature, so I'll let her pick through the leaf piles to find one that makes her smile. She's starting to catch onto colors, by the way. Red and yellow are easily identified by her... And it makes me very proud.

Bravery!

Jordan surprises us. Every once and a while, when you least expect it... She does something amazing. We were all playing in the playground at Cam's school this afternoon when Jordan climbed up and just slid down the slide TWICE. No need to sit on my lap. She just DID it. I love it.

I'm so tired. I'd go on and on about the girl, but I'm running out of energy. But here's the summary about what's going on with her:

She's almost 2.

The tantrums come and go. Her moods and needs are more dramatic. She's starting to create rules and needs and we are all supposed to follow those rules -- except we don't know what the rules are. Cam did the same thing. Tonight I had to put her to bed when she started screaming at the dinner table for "more cheese!" She ate all of the mac and cheese and wanted MORE!! She was so upset that she tried to dump the rest of her dinner all over the table and floor. Randy and I were able to put a stop to that before it got too messy. But man was it murder getting the girl dressed and put down for sleep. She was ANGRY. The highs and lows with her are just a bit more exaggerated this week. I'm hoping this will pass... Hopefully when her final three teeth poke through.

Cranky pants

Something's going on with the girl. She slept poorly last night. She wouldn't eat today... only mushy stuff. Anything the crunched ended up getting spit out. Of course some mushy stuff wasn't right so she threw it. She cried a lot at school. Her nose it runny. She has a cough. It's just a mess.

Poor baby.

Day in the outdoors

Jordan made herself even more known at church today. She screamed her way right out of the service and into the nursery. It was ugly... And kind of funny at the same time. It was so loud that I was given some recognition as I returned to the service after dropping Jordan off. Aren't kids fun. Some of the parents thanked us for helping them feel better about their embarrassing moments with their kids during church services.

Jordan really needed a nap after church.

After the kid naps, we (Cam, Jordan and I) went out to a state park just outside our town and went on a mega hike. Jordan was awesome as we trekked all over the place. She oooohed and ahhhed over the beautiful blue sky, danced along to my silly hiking songs and said she thought things were pretty when I asked. After a couple of hours of hiking, she and Cam had a blast eating ice cream and playing at a local playground. Jordan tried climbing up a rock wall and fell on her face. She's pushing her limits. I'm proud of her for that -- But it's hard to step back and watch sometimes. I have a hard time knowing when I should jump in. I should let her take risks, but I don't want to see her get seriously hurt. She did go down a couple of slides on my lap.

By the time we got home, she was EXHAUSTED. A little bit of food and she was done. The funny thing is how her going to be process is changing. She's more demanding. She wants more books, more ways to delay the sleep process. I'm holding true to the bath, PJ's, one book, lullaby, sleep process. No matter what, she cries for a minute when I leave the room. A minute is nothing... But for most of her life, she hasn't cried at all. I'm sure it's another sign she's growing up... But man, I hate hearing her cry!

Arm challenge

I put Jordan in a really cute outfit today... But her arm was too wide. The wrist was a bit to wide. The dress never really fit properly. She did wear her arm all day -- She did all week except Monday. She's amazing.

Today Jordan stepped up on a stool to get water from the water fountain. She used her prosthetic to help her pull herself up. It was sooooo cool to watch her do that on her own. I just stood back and watched her try and try and try. Then she even stepped back down all by herself. She's finally catching onto steps! I'm thrilled.

Day 4: A New Arm and Exhaustion

I'm in the Dallas Airport right now... Jordan is running around in a kids' play area. She's the littlest one here, but she doesn't seem to mind.

We had Jordan's new prosthetic for about two hours before we needed to head to the airport. Occupational therapy wasn't extraordinarily helpful since Jordan was spent from all of her hard work yesterday. But we got some great tips and the therapist typed up a bunch of tips and ideas on ways to get Jordan using two "hands." The big bummer was during therapy we got a little bit of pink marker on Jordan's new glove on her prosthetic. So the hand is already dirty! I'm pretty bummed about that. Hopefully it will wear down and won't be as noticeable.

Before we left, one of our former students/reporters came by to interview Jordan and I and the folks who worked with my girl. He's working on a story about her and Pediatric Prosthetics Inc. for KTRH - a commercial news radio station in Houston. He even ran to the airport to catch some sound with us there.

So we've survived the first flight -- it wasn't much fun. The girl is EXHAUSTED and she wanted more freedom during the flight. But I hope running around at the Dallas airport will help her take a great nap

***UPDATE****
We're home... We're exhausted. Jordan was fantastic on the second flight. When we were getting close to landing, I started rocking her a little and humming a song. She grabbed her baby, wrapped her baby with the blanket that is now named "Night Night" and started rocking the baby and singing the baby song: "Baby, baby, baby, baby." When the song was over (and it was 2 minutes long), Jordan started clapping and saying "yay!!" Apparently she was very proud of her song.

She slept in the car once I pulled over and placed "Night Night" on her appropriately. She was screaming her blanket's name until I had to pull over and fix it. Geez, this girl knows what she wants.

I'll post a little bit of video of Jordan's therapy tomorrow. I'm fried from all of the travel and driving.

Day 3: My Girl is a Trooper

The day started out calmly. I got to take Jordan to the store to get her new shoes that would fit. We found a Stride Rite that was really close to the prosthetic office and found these cute little diddies. Then I went to Payless to find some black shoes that I think will work for the holidays -- they probably won't be as comfortable, but Jordan did fit in them with her little inserts. Apparently the t-strap is a good option for her feet. Most of the day, Jordan would stop and show offer her shoes to anyone who asked or didn't ask.

After an early afternoon nap, Jordan got to try on her new prosthetic. It seems to go pretty well, but not long after she started wearing it, we could see it wasn't holding up on her arm properly. It was the same problem we had before: Her arm would droop and the prosthetic wouldn't sit, it kind of fell off a little. We really don't want to do that again. This trip had two goals for this arm: 1) Get the sensor in a spot where Jordan can purposefully open and close the hand and 2) Find a way to get this arm to fit better so Jordan doesn't hold her shoulder strangely. There was a little time to tweak and poke at the girl, but an occupational therapist who works with the prosthetic company came to work with Jordan so there wasn't a ton of time to fix the problem. During the short evaluation and therapy, Jordan was doing something very cool: Holding bubbles with her "hand" and trying to blow. In the end, she was more interested in rubbing the bubbles on her belly.

Before therapy time was over, the prosthetic was off and our prosthetists were trying to figure out what was going wrong. The therapist had to leave around 3:30 and from then on, we tried and tried to figure out what was going wrong with Jordan's prosthetic. Six hours later, I was able to get Jordan back to her bed for a night's sleep. It was a long, long evening. It's even longer for our prosthetists... They're still at work building it.

Why you ask? Well, we had to recast Jordan's arm and they had to rebuild the socket so it will fit on Jordan's arm better. The best option is getting her into the arm using a think nylon sleeve. It pulls her arm in and it keeps things loose enough to help her get her arm out. She's complicated and it was hard to stay positive while Jordan was tinkered and tinkered and tinkered with. She is amazing. She really did a good job tolerating most of it. Casting is horrible, but other than that, she put up with a lot of crap. I won't have time to put a video together tomorrow (The day starts at 9:30am with therapy using a prosthetic that I hope is ready by then and we won't get home from the airport until 11pm or so).

Day 2 evening in review

We're ready to go today... But things don't really start rolling until this afternoon so we're going shopping for shoes.

In the meantime, I wanted to show you a highlight of last night:

Silly me... I forgot my camera. Can you believe... Me? So the iPhone had to do in low light -- so it was tough to catch the kids playing in a sandbox.

It was so cool to hang out with them. Jordan gave her friend a big hug and kiss... I think it surprised her. It surprised the rest of us because it wasn't prompted!

By the way, this is what Jordan's prosthetic looked like when we left yesterday. By the time we get in this afternoon, it should be ready to go! Excitement. There's more to come!

Day 2: Getting Things to Work

We slept a TON last night. Jordan was so well rested that she popped out of her pack and play and squealed HI!!! to me this morning. I figured that meant she was ready for business today. We worked with two different test sockets, watched a lot of Elmo and finally got Jordan into the mood to really work on using her muscles so we could find a good site where she can learn to open and close her "hand" on command.

It's all about getting this sensor to feel muscle movement -- and the hard part is finding a muscle Jordan can move on command that is strong enough to trigger the sensor. I hope (knock on wood) that we found one today. It's actually the muscle she uses that bunches up her arm at the base -- Something we were able to get her to do on many different motions, especially when she moved around, picked things up and often when we asked her to wiggle her fingers.

Jordan is napping now and we hope to get her back with a possible arm that's ready for her. It will probably be ready by tomorrow since it took us so long to get a good test socket and sensor site. Either way, tonight we get to hang out with a family of a little girl who is two months older than Jordan. They met last year and I can't wait to see them again!

Day 1: Getting Started on a New Prosthetic

We got up crazy early this morning (even though Jordan seemed quite alright about it at the time - that picture shows her bright and cheery in the car around 6am) and headed out to Houston. The combination of morning traffic in St. Louis and a 20 minute layover in Dallas was enough stress for the day. But I knew how things work with prosthetic building. When we got here, they got right to business with trying to locate a sensor site on Jordan's arm to help trigger the hand. We also had to get Jordan casted. Boy was all of that UGLY.

Shoe insert drama

I'd like to introduce you to Jordan's newest tool: shoe orthotics. These are going to help Jordan hold her feet better and prevent damage to her legs. But we're having trouble finding shoes. I'm so bummed. We went to a local shoe store and tried on TONS of shoes. The problem: Cute girl shoes cut into her arch because the orthotic pushes her foot up so high.

We thought we found a cute pair of Mary Janes that would work... But after a trip to church, it's obviously leaving marks into her feet. Poor kid.

So for now, we only have a pair of princess sneakers that work. Another down side of these inserts: They make it really easy for Jordan to pull of the shoes. Every time she does it, she says: "Uh oh. Uh oh. Uh oh." Until I put it back on for her.

Two big developments

Jordan has her new shoe insert/braces. I bought her a pair of sneakers and you'd never even know she has them. Of course we had to try five different pairs of shoes to see if her feet would fit comfortably. It could be a while before I find a pair of sweet, pretty shoes for her.

Also, we got a big deal letter in the mail that says we can move forward through the health care process for Jordan's next prosthetic. That's a big deal because:
a) We're going to Houston next week
b) If we didn't have health care approval, I probably would have still gotten the arm
c) It gives me a little peace of mind given the extreme cost of prosthetics

Our job is moving to a new health care system in January -- more to be worried about.

Another thing that is looming on my mind: In a little more than a year, Jordan won't have the 0-3 program that helps us TREMENDOUSLY in the cost of therapy. Heck, just the fact that our therapists come to us changed my world. When that goes away, I don't think our need for OT and PT will disappear. That's why I'm so glad our therapists are working really hard with Jordan. We're going to beat down her foot position problems and gain some skills that will benefit her for the rest of her life now. Hopefully by three she'll have a good base that won't require as much intense care. So for now, I'll do my best not to fret so much and just focus on the incredibly growth Jordan has had in the last three or four months. Really fantastic.

Can you believe she's 21 months old tomorrow? Wow.

Or as Jordan would say: "Hooray!"

Sentences

I swear Jordan is going to speak full understandable sentences in the next few days. Every hour as she grows, it seems like her words are better, clearer... and prouder.

This is so fun.