Sweet day

There are many times when I feel very lucky to live where I live. Today was one of those days. First, we woke up early to go to church to see Cameron perform in the children's choir. It's the older group of kids and they sang with the adults. Jordan was excited to see her brother up there singing. Afterwards it was so nice to say hello to many people and just smile and feel welcomed around a lot of people. Then we ran to breakfast at a local coffee shop that serves wonderful biscuits and gravy... It's not a chain, just a local and warm feeling place. It felt good to be there.

After a good Jordan nap, she and Cameron hopped into the car with me to go to a nearby park. It's the kind of park that just has a lot of running space and trees. There was a fundraiser underway that was a word of mouth kind of event. A local photographer (and the best friend of my neighbor) passed away earlier this summer and she left a big hole in many hearts - especially her husband and two kids. So a group of her friends and photographers got together to hold an open family photography event. I and many other families got a chance to get a casual family portrait for no sitting fee. Profits of any photo prints will go towards Sarah's pet project: POYi (also a program that is part of RJI/Missouri School of Journalism) I look forward to seeing if there are a couple of shots of the kids and I. Beyond the picture part, we got to hang out with the kids' favorite friends who happen to live up the street from us. Jordan is friends with their twin girls (4 months younger than Jordan) and Cam is friends with their son who is in Kindergarten. It was fun and sweet. Both kids ran around, ate food and enjoyed crafts. Jordan also grooved with folk music players (thus the groovin' picture).

There was such a cool feeling of community and friendship. I met people I didn't know. I met people who go to Jordan's school who know Jordan but didn't know me. (that happens often) It was just a great feeling.

Special Exposure Wednesday

I stumbled upon this awesome idea from the blog 5 Minutes for Special Needs. It's a chance to show a cool moment of our kidlets through photos. Special needs is a tough word for me to swallow sometimes even though Jordan is two and a half and we've had a long time to digest what her differences mean in this world. She does need special things every once and a while. But thanks to her stubbornness, those special needs aren't as obvious as you would think.

Here's a sweet moment when we were at the beach in Maine. She was so happy she started dancing. It's her newest love and she's getting stronger at jumping and spinning every day... She's figuring out her balance!




It was so fun to watch - The picture doesn't tell half of it.

Santa!!

Proof that Jordan just doesn't like Santa. Maybe next year she'll change her mind. This year Jordan was so unhappy about sitting on Santa's lap, I had to sit with him too.

By the way - I know I'm crazy, but I just like getting the Santa visit out of the way. The mall had a Santa breakfast and I figured we'd have a little fun. The big bummer of the visit: This year's Santa isn't as good as in years past. He wasn't as friendly or as good looking as our Santa from last year. I'm kinda bummed.

I am really glad to have the Santa visit marked off my list.

Picture day

It's picture day -- and (knock on wood) there wasn't any drama on Jordan's big day. If you recall, last year her teacher spilled coffee on Jordan's dress. This year I got her to school in one piece, with a cute little dress AND no cuts, bruises or spills. Of course I had to drag the girl out of the house while she cried for "nana!" But I couldn't allow banana goo on her velvet dress.

Funniest moment was when Jordan and many other kids in her class started showing off their bellies to me. There's nothing like cute dressed up kids stripping to show off bellies.

Easter fun

1. Easter Smiles, 2. Egg happiness, 3. Alas! An egg, 4. Playing with an egg, 5. Egg play, 6. Egg smiles, 7. Dogs sniffing a basket, 8. Bunny hugs, 9. Smiles with a bunny, 10. Hi little bunny, 11. Sly grin, 12. Peeking, 13. Jordan's basket, 14. New book, 15. She got all kinds of stuff, 16. Smiles

I don't know why, but I kept visiting these pictures online today because the pictures make me smile.

Photo drama

My digital camera died this evening. I was taking some pictures of Jordan playing in the basement when the camera just stopped focusing. I turned it off and it won't turn back on. After talking to the Sony online chat support people, they say I have to send it off for repairs. I'm so sad. It's not like I've used the camera a lot. I've posted more than 2,000 photos onto our Flickr site and I have more than 8,000 photos in my computer. I got this new camera at the end of June. I'd have to say I've taken at least 2 to 3,000 of those pictures since I got this new camera. It's a Sony DSC-W50 by the way if you were thinking about getting a new camera. I'm sad because I planned to take pictures of Jordan in her new classroom tomorrow!! I'll use my cellphone, but the picture quality isn't as goo!! What a bummer!!

Jordan had a good day in her new room. She only slept 45 minutes in the cot... It was the first time she'd ever slept in something like that. But I think when she gets used to it, she's going to nap longer than she ever has before at school. She also do an art project and had a ton of fun on the tumbling mats in the room. She was really happy to see me when I got there. She even called me "Mom!"

Another cool toy

Jordan in Pink
Originally uploaded by Jen.

I figured out another way to play with images I have on Flickr. This is kind of fun. The pictures were taken in June... But it's still fun.

Check out this cool thing!

I just found this fun toy:



Run your arrow over the images and they'll go back and forth. Sorry Uncle Jon... That picture had to be posted.