Matter of fact

I knew Jordan was getting to the point when she would be able talk about her difference. I think Sunday was the first day I got to watch her in action. There was a little girl sitting next to her at church who looked over to her mom and said: "That girl doesn't have an arm!" I looked at her and said my traditional: "That's how she was born." Then Jordan gave her explanation:

"I got a big hand. See my hand. And I got a little arm. This is my little arm."

So matter of fact. So to the point. I loved it.

Today I took the kids to the local water spray park and Jordan turned up her independent attitude. She demanded I stay away from her as she ran between the playground and the water sprayers. If only she'd feel that independent about potty training. I have her going commando at home, but she made a mess of things during a newsroom visit earlier today. I'm leaning towards going back to Pull Ups until the messes stop. Commando at home, Pull Ups in public. The process exhausts me!!! Seriously, I was down to two Pull Ups when this problem turned up. I was about to have a personal ceremony honoring the end of landfill piles of poop.

Wah.

Here's a silly moment at the water spray park:

31 Months Old!

Jordan got to celebrate her 31st month birthday by enjoying dinner at a station potluck. We had a TON of food and Jordan got to woo every single person there. She is not worried about being polite (although demanding) and adorable.

I'm so amazed to have this big girl in my house. In the last month, Jordan has taken her independence and shown me how easy it is to switch between big girl who can do everything on her own and one second later is desperately in need of me picking her up and giving her a cuddle. She still loves her lamby blanket even though I don't let her bring it everywhere like I used to.

We lost some potty skills during our vacation, but she's slowly getting back on track. I kind of forgot how I need to remind her on a regular basis about using the bathroom. I'm getting myself trained a little better, so she's staying pretty darn clean these days. (I love it!)

In the last month, Jordan has shown she can get really angry. She'll throw a huge fit, thrashing, punching, screaming... And I will try to help direct her into a calmer state of mind. The amazing thing is how she'll return to her calm demeanor eventually and apologize to me for the outburst. It's pretty awesome. She and her brother are still at each others throats -- Although they are getting to a point where they can play together a times. It's awesome to watch them pretend to cook at our play kitchen or run around outside being silly.

Speaking of sweetness, here are a few Jordanisms: Jordan can't just give you a kiss. A kiss ALWAYS comes with a hug. At night, she tells me "Good morning! Good night!" In the morning, she always tells me: "I wake up!" Recently she loves to walk up to me and let me know: "I happy Mommy! I really happy!" She's scared of bears due to my speech to the kids about how we don't put food in our tent while we were in New Hampshire. She still will tell me at a random moment: "Bears really scary. I not like bears."

Everyone at Jordan's school calls her Jordy and when Jordan talks about herself, she calls herself Jordy more often than Jordan. Oh - and when she says her name, it sounds like "Yordy."

She's growing up so stinking fast!! I'm absorbing myself into this phase. She's strong-willed, dynamic, sweet, loving and EXHAUSTING. I love it.

Exploring, demanding and exhausting

We're all winding down our big mega-vacation. Tomorrow is our final day in Maine before we drive home. It's a long 24-hour trip in the car -- which could be even longer with Jordan's constant need to use the bathroom. I'm hoping we can get her toilet training back on track - she's had a few more accidents than before the trip. The good news: She hasn't completely lost her skills. I'm certain that she'll have all of this figured out really soon. There's a little boy next door who is two months older than Jordan and still uses diapers. Randy and I both just look at each other and feel relieved that we're this far through this journey.

Speaking of journeys, Jordan has gone on a few little journeys around the island and around to other nearby spots here in Maine. She's really excited about planes, boats and her iPod. It's terrible, but I've found life on long car drives are just a bit easier with the help of technology. Her audio wrap from ifrogz.com is awesome since she can watch and listen to her podcasts without needing earphones.

Jordan got to hang out with a former student of ours and her boyfriend. They were awesome and put up with all of us. Jordan had fun and gave everyone SO many hugs. It's so funny to watch her moods with these kinds of public displays of affection. One second she's giving away dozens of hugs and kisses, the next second she doesn't want anyone near her. There are so many stories and pictures to post, but I'm exhausted! Maybe I'll try more tomorrow.

On the road

We're on the road for our big summer vacation. We're super lucky to have a great house/dog sitter taking care of things while we're away. So now we can focus on having fun without worry... Other than the fact that I'm on call for jury duty while I'm away. I'm not exactly sure how to deal with that if they want me to serve!

Anyway... We're taking the next two days to drive to New Hampshire to go camping near where we visited last year. This year we're staying for five days in Crawford Notch. I'm very excited. Both kids are much more interested in swimming. Cam loves biking with his bike extension (and we brought his real bike too just in case we want to work on his training-wheel free life). We're all excited to hike in the beautiful trails of the White Mountains. It's just plain exciting.

After the camping trip, we're headed to our yearly visit to Maine. I can't wait to sit by the ocean... And this year we're pretty certain that Jordan will be very interested in learning how to climb the rocks. That should be interesting.

We're traveling long, long hours the next two days so I packed a ton of toys for Jordan. I put it to Jordan's left side since I sit her in the car with her brother to her right so it's a fair fight. (Not that I want them to fight, but she should be able to defend herself if needed) I built up the side of Jordan's seat so stuff won't fall too far away from her seat. What's been amazing is watching Jordan use her feet to reach stuff she can't get to. She will try and try and try and most of the time, she'll eventually grab a toy with her toes. It's awesome.

Oh -- And she's rocking the travel potty thing. She's telling us when she needs to go and she's not demanding a potty too often. She even got a compliment for being such a big girl in one of the rest rooms.

Really busy

I'm so behind on pictures and life stories about Jordan. We got back into town yesterday morning at 3am after spending a long weekend with my Aunt. She's been battling cancer and we were able to get into town in between chemo treatments. My Aunt is amazing and it was SO great to be with her while she felt pretty good. Miss Jordan was awesome. She dealt with the horrible travel schedule, danced around and sang. She fell in love with my Aunt and Uncle's dog and their friend's dog who was visiting for the weekend.

I'm exhausted and I haven't gotten to updating all of the pictures and stories about Jordan.

Let's say this: She LOVES planes. She's so excited about "flying in the sky." She had to brag about it to everyone at school yesterday. She also had to show off a new pair of shoes we bought at the Disney Store. I have allowed my daughter to totally buy into the Disney mystique. I'm totally okay with it. My husband wants to shoot me. I've never been a princess type, but if my daughter likes it, I'll play. (I can't believe I just wrote that since I swore my daughter would never wear pink and we'd avoid all gender-assigning games and toys)

Oh! And Jordan was dry the entire trip. She even went potty on the plane! Incredible!

I promise to write more, but I'm working late tonight and I want to enjoy a nice day outside and read a book for a little while. It's one of the first times I've been alone in a long time. It's also really nice out and I don't want to miss sitting under a tree for a little while!

Fun fun fun

Jordan is starting to talk and talk and talk. So I have to write down a couple of funny things she's saying.

When turning on a light she says: "I open the light."
When turning off a light she says: "I close the light."

When Randy was leaving for work yesterday she asked: "You got your bye-bye bag? You go to your car and go bye bye?"
Bye bye bag. I like that. I isn't a computer bag anymore. It's a bye bye bag.

While going upstairs with Cameron yesterday, Jordan started yelling: "Wait up you guys!"

This weekend, we went on a bike trip down the Katy Trail... It's a pretty nice and easy trek even though it was hot outside. We were all biking while Jordan road around in the bike trailer. She did NOT like riding in trailer. She was feeling trapped and uninvolved. Her best tactic: Scream that she needed to go potty. We'd stop and offer her a chance to use the grass as a bathroom, but she was not interested. We finally had to turn around and find a bathroom. She actually used a public bathroom for the first time. But since that's been a challenge and we're planning a big road trip, I just bought a travel potty. I think it will make like a little easier. Anyway, after we turned around, she got to run around on the trail and she was just so dang happy (see picture).

We're finally getting Jordan's feet casted today for her shoe inserts. The previous fitting wasn't done properly so we have to go through it again. This has been a really crazy delayed process and Jordan's really enjoying life in shoes that don't require socks. I'm expecting a pretty unhappy process when we bring the inserts back into her life. (There I go again - always so negative. Sorry about that.) The upside of taking her to the appointment, I get to leave work a little early and spend some time working out. I work an odd shift on Mondays and I did some Wii Fit yesterday afternoon while Jordan snacked and watched. As I tried a number of yoga poses, Jordan kept asking: "Whatchya doin' Mom?" It's very hard to hold a balancing pose when you're getting the third degree!

A memorable Memorial Day

Jordan and Cam got to go to the local Memorial Day parade in town... And I had not realized, but this was her first chance to watch a parade from the side. She's been in two homecoming parades, but never sat through one. Funny.

She was really interested in all of the cars and waving to as many members of the military as possible. We walked around town after that and enjoyed a tasty treat for lunch. In all... She continued a staunch denial of all public toilets. Luckily, this girl has control and waited until we got home. She's been dry for all her naps and dry for the last two nights as well. We're getting there. In a week we've made HUGE strides. Then I won't have to blog about this process anymore. And I'll be very, very happy about that.

We had a potty party today

Remember how I was all concerned about this potty thing when we went cold turkey on Sunday? Today Jordan was dry from when we put on the cotton this morning until I put on her bedtime diaper. I'm thinking I might need to give up diapers all together and see what the overnight experience is like. (Messy I'm sure... but today she surprised the heck out of me, it could continue)

The potty party day started a little unusual. Jordan woke up ten minutes before we had to run off to school and take part in a Kindergarten walking trip to the nearby gardens (where there is no bathroom). Cameron asked if Jordan could come along so she could hang out with his classmates. I was a little nervous since she'd be in cotton the whole time. I brought extra clothes and was prepared for a mess and a bunch of kindergarteners yelling: "YUCK!"

Three and a half hours later, I rushed home as quick as possible to give Jordan a chance to go to the bathroom. And she was mad at me. I am not allowed to force her to go to the bathroom. She held it through our trip to school and even a quick lunch while the rest of her class went down to nap (we were a little behind schedule because of the field trip). As she ate, I kept asking if she needed to go... And she kept saying no. I had to ask one of the teachers at school to ask her to use the bathroom, and it worked. The girl made it through nap and didn't make a mistake. She made it through the entire day. I was so freaking proud.

So when I had both kids, we (Cameron and I) bought Jordan a balloon and some pizza. Then we had a potty pizza party that also included watching the Little Einsteins. It's like she's growing up right in front of me. Amazing. This sink or swim experience apparently is what motivates Jordan better than anything else.

Potty update

I promise not to blog much more about the potty training experience. Here's the deal - Jordan will do it when she wants to do it. Yesterday at school, she told her teachers that she needed to pee, but then they got into a spat over who would take off her pants. Jordan wanted to do it!!! So since that took too long, she ended up peeing in her pants. She had a couple of situations through the day when she just forgot to go to the bathroom. All in all and five pairs of underwear later, I think she made progress.

I have no idea how she's doing at school today - I'm a little stressed just thinking about it though. I really really look forward to this stage ending as soon as possible (you know, like in a year).

Update: Today was a much better day for this experience. Only one accident, but barely an accident at school. She used the bathroom a number of times at home too. I'm feeling a little better about going cold turkey on diapers! I'm really proud of how she's able to pull her clothes up and down on her own when we're not in a rush to go potty. Go team!

Wish us luck

I bought the cotton underwear - She's wearing them and I've already had to do two extra loads of laundry. That's cool, we're learning. She's already used the potty more than ever before.

And she doesn't really like it. When she uses the potty, it's exciting and she's proud. But she doesn't like that I've pushed this situation on her. Pull ups and diapers are awesome.

So... I set her off to school with three extra outfits and an extra pair of shoes. We're in deep now.

Plan averted

I've suddenly started feeling crummy. My goal was to leave the house this evening to shop for cotton underwear for the girl... But I've suddenly picked up a sore throat and I'm wondering if my body is saying I should put this potty training on hold. I'll give it a couple of days.

Here's the problem: She's finally consistent with the potty thing without pants. So I should just go for it. I know I should. I guess I'm trying to hold on to one tiny little piece of sanity that I'd lose the moment we go into hard core potty training mode.

By the way, I stumbled onto an article that talked about how the mom blog Dooce pulls in $40,000 in advertising revenue a month. A month! I am in the wrong business. Wow.

Grace period?

So... Remember how I thought we were in a grace period when we took the crib rail down? A grace period between when Jordan was contained to her crib and the time when she realizes that she can get out of her bed whenever she wants to?

Ummm. We're still in that grace period.

Can I still call it a grace period when we're reaching close to two weeks of sleeping in a "big girl" bed? It's stunning. She stays in bed when I put her down and when she wakes up in the morning, she doesn't get out on her own without me in the room. It's great. It's also kind of strange. Randy has decided that this is going to be a great item to harass Jordan about when she's older. It took her brother about a week to figure out he could escape his room whenever he wanted. That didn't last long. IT was a bit of a battle of the wits. We're headed in that direction with Jordan soon enough. I shouldn't complain.

Speaking of not complaining... Jordan is starting to really give the potty thing a run for its money. Here's the tricky part: Taking off a diaper or pull ups are really hard. The one handed removal with tightly fitting "underwear" is really hard. Tonight she was working with just her elastic shorts and she was doing a great job - pulling up and down and up and down. In all of this effort, she was pretty productive. And it made me wonder if there is practice underwear that would make it easier for her than the disposable stuff. I'm willing to bring four outfits a day to school for Jordan if it helps her learn the potty thing faster. She wants to do everything on her own -- I just need to figure out something that will help her to just that!

A number of big changes

You can tell that I'm swamped at work when I don't blog as regularly. It's so glaringly obvious.

Well, while I've been swamped at work, Jordan's had some big changes in her world.

First, she transitioned into a new classroom this week. She is now in a room with a majority of kids who turn three in the next month or two. It's kind of strange to see Jordan as the littlest kid after she's been very much in charge in her classrooms for the last 6 months or more. But the change is perfect for her. She's so dang verbal that in the last week, her speaking has improved dramatically because she can really talk to the kids in her new room. PLUS, a lot of these kids know how to use the bathroom. And that means Jordan was immediately motivated. We made some progress in that department - even though I haven't moved forward to an all-out training method just yet. (P*tty training bloggers, please do not leave comments, I have my own system thank you very much)

Jordan also officially grew out of her shoe inserts - it was a painful realization. I had noticed a red spot on the side of Jordan's foot, but it rapidly turned into a blister that bled. Randy noticed it when he dropped her off to school yesterday, so I immediately went on emergency shoe patrol. Before yesterday, Jordan had three pairs of shoes: sneakers, a pair of dressy/casual brown shoes and a pair of black dressy shoes. All three pairs had the insoles pulled out to fit the inserts. Well, without the insoles or shoe inserts, Jordan would NOT wear them. So I ran to Target and bought some new Dora sneakers. I also splurged and bought a pair of princess sandals. I realize Jordan will get new inserts and won't be allowed to wear sandals again. But in the meantime, I wanted to give Jordan the chance to play with a pair of sandals. She LOVES both pairs of shoes. She spent a lot of time at school yesterday and today telling the grown ups about her Dora shoes and how she had princess shoes. (By the way, Jordan's pronunciation of princess sounds like "penciss" and confuses people who think she's saying "pencil")

I'm thinking about really working on living a pants-free lifestyle in the house this weekend to get the real training underway. I'm feeling inspired... Even though I need to read three graduate projects and two graduate project proposals.

Yeah. I'm crazy.

Speaking of crazy, Randy and I were both told we are getting promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. That's a big honor and it's nice to be recognized for all the hard work we give to our jobs.

Mommy misses her kids

I have been working a lot. A lot.

When I walked into the house today, Jordan squealed with excitement. She scrambled up the stairs. She babbled to her heart's delight. She missed me.

I've been swamped at the beginning of a new semester - There has been a culmination of projects that need attention at the same time. Plus, my class more than doubled in size. I have so many people to train, fires to put out... I could go on and on.

But let me tell you about my girl.

She's now 25 months old. 25 months. Can you believe it?

In this past month, her ability to communicate has SKYROCKETED! She knows what she wants and often puts together the words that helps us know what she wants. She knows colors WHEN she wants to tell us the right color. She wants to sing the ABC's but doesn't always feel like she needs to say the right letters at the right time. She loves to play the piano and she loves to be in charge. She warmed up to her daddy this month. She gets upset if she wakes up late and he already went to work. She hugs and kisses him more. She leans on him for comforting sometimes. She's growing up.

She knows how to say her brother's name and she loves him on her own terms. She's very demanding of him and she always wants what he's doing. Lately she gets upset about her breakfast. No matter what, she'd rather eat what's in his bowl. Who cares if they have the exact same breakfast. She wants HIS.

We continue to talk about potty training. She is not comfortable with actually using the potty after our initial success. She is getting pretty good at pooping on the floor. (YUCK)

Jordan is starting to use her prosthetic a bit more. She uses it at dinner sometimes. She is using it to work with coloring and other art projects at school. She's really doing great with her occupational therapist... Mainly because we're doing therapy at school twice a week. I think I get in the way of therapy.

"Read a book" is a big deal in our house. Jordan is reading up a storm. She loves it when we read, she loves to read, she's copying her brother's enjoyment of a good story. Lately she's been telling me the things she sees on the pages. She really likes Elmo stories, nursery rhymes and baby animals. Her teacher tells me that Jordan is really good at school. She transitions incredibly well. The only thing she does that's challenging is she does stairs very slow. If I felt off balance, I'd do stair really carefully too. So if that's the only challenge in her class, I think Jordan is kicking butt. (But we already knew that)

I'm so proud of my girl. This coming month we're going to try swimming lessons to help build her shoulder strength. I'm considering equestrian therapy as well. I'm just looking for ways to help her continue to gain strength so she can continue to use her prosthetic in more useful ways. If she gets stronger, she'll be able to use it more.

Beyond therapy and talking... I'm just having fun. I look forward to getting past this work hump and spending more time with the kids. They are growing in so many amazing ways.

Quick update

I haven't been online much because I'm desperately trying to launch a new website for work. At the same time, I've tried to continue the potty training message to Jordan. Unfortunately, our success on the first day has not continued.

Jordan has peed on the floor, she's sprayed water from her potty baby doll's bottle all over the house... She's walked around the house without pants for hours at a time. But we haven't successfully used the potty since last Sunday.

I'm thinking that this is too much focus for a little girl who just turned two. I'm thinking about going back to normal life with diapers and forgetting about the trends I started this week (we had pants-free time each day). Jordan actually stood up from the potty today, pointed to her butt, said "I need diaper." Then she walked away and started chanting "diaper, diaper, diaper."

Yeah. I think I'll keep working on the potty thing some other time.

Let the potty training commence

I jumped into the potty training experience today. Jordan started talking about it after church today. She actually wanted to sit on the potty. So while she was napping, I bought a training potty that actually plays MUSIC when something hits the potty. So when Jordan peed into it TWO TIMES today, that potty played a little celebratory tunes.

My goodness, she was proud. So damned proud. She told her grandparents on the phone (with a bit of a mumble that included the word "potty"). When we praised her, Jordan would flash the biggest smile.

I'm not sure if this is just the first little step towards potty training interest or if we're really going to drop the use of diapers. I do know it's an intense process that will take amazing amounts of patience and attention.