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.

What a weekend

It was quite a busy weekend -- Busy because I really wanted to spend time with the kids and have fun. In between the fun, I had many interesting challenges with Jordan. The battle over shoes, getting dressed and putting on the seatbelt continued.

It is tiring and at some points, I have to just get her dressed, get her shoes on and put her seatbelt on. I look forward to bringing in more concepts of logic for Jordan. I think she can make decisions with logic when she wants to -- But in most cases, she just gets so upset that I'm making her do something that she didn't choose to do, there's no chance in reaching her. Typical two year old stuff.

Jordan was a trooper when I helped coach Cam's t-ball team. Randy is out of town so I had some extra responsibility in helping keep the practice in motion. It was tricky keeping Jordan out of the parking lot AND Cam focused on the ball.

After practice and a challenging trip to the grocery store, both kids helped me cook egg burritos for dinner. Cam and Jordan helped me crack the eggs - something I'd never done with them before. Cam was super careful with the eggs. Jordan knocked the poopy out of the eggs. They both loved it. Most nights I'm rushing so fast to get dinner cooked that I don't get the kids involved. It was kind of cool to let them help out even a bit.

Super silly

Jordan is a kick. She is SO stubborn. She's so stubborn that you have to laugh. Her new thing is to take a stand. A loud and screaming stand. It is so appropriate since she's my kid. But today was a turning point.

She talked back at me. I was telling her that we were going to pick up Cameron at school and she kept saying: "No Cameron's school."

I told her yes, we were going to to get her brother when she yelled, screamed: "NO CAMERON!" There was a tone of disdain that I'd never heard before.

Ah life with a two year old. She's also taken to throwing an all-out tantrum when I try to get her dressed or when I need to buckle her into her car seat. Traditional stuff to try and test my will to live.

It's all good. And exhausting.

Growing by the minute

My girl
Originally uploaded by NerdyMom

Jordan enjoyed a long weekend with her Grandma and Poppy in town. Along with all kinds of attention, she got her hair trimmed a bit. It was only her second haircut ever!!

We've seen an increased drive for independence -- Yesterday Jordan threw her first SOLID tantrum in the middle of Target. She would not let me help direct the stroller that she was pushing (I should have never let her get out of the that thin!). Obviously one and a half arms aren't that great at pushing a stroller in a straight line... and I wanted to get in an and out of the store. We had already spent a couple of hours snacking and reading books with friends at a bookstore. But Jordan wouldn't let me touch the stroller -- It got bad enough that I strapped her screaming, tantruming body into the umbrella stroller and just let her SCREAM! Cam and I tried to giggle about it -- What else can you do? But MAN! "My do it! My push! My srow-wer! (that's how she says "stroller") She solidly independent. I won't change a thing about that.

She is amazing to watch -- That little fire in her personality is going to carry her far.

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.

Here we go

With Jordan' breaking into a more independent world... The terrible twos are breaking through. In the past week, she falls into severe tantrums. They are loud, emotional and shockingly upsetting. She got so upset today that she started to gag. It happened twice.

I talked to her physical therapist who says she's seem similar issues during her time with Jordan. So she's kindly coming over on Saturday so we can figure out the right sign language that might help guide Jordan into less screaming and more communicating. I hope it helps!!!

Mood swings

Something is going on with Jordan. Today she wouldn't eat anything at school except a blueberry muffin and baby food... She wouldn't eat table food at lunch time. Every time a baby in the room drank a bottle, she wanted one. She desperately needs to get out of the baby room. She's reverting and doesn't want to be grown up in that room. She eats and drinks just fine at home. She also denied therapy today. She was so upset that the therapist left early! No fun. I was teaching class, so I missed that. But we weren't very productive when I met with her last Friday. Jordan knows what she wants to do and she isn't afraid to freak out to get her way. Not too different from her brother.

But after a few positive steps towards standing up this weekend, I'd hate to lose that progress. I guess we'll just take it one day at a time and hope that she will keep wanting to work and grow and move around. I seriously think moving to the bigger kid room will make a HUGE difference.

Jordan was iced into home with weekend while her parents had to work a bit. She didn't seem to mind it a bit. She was content to scoot all over the house and play. Her favorite item to play with: Shoes.

There wasn't a lot of talking for Miss Jordan this weekend. She spent the majority of the time dripping and coughing. I think she has at least two more teeth coming through. So she was more interested in getting hugs, playing with toys and sleeping. The one thing I'm noticing is how she just doesn't use her arm when she wears her prosthetic. She's still holding it behind her shoulder. The one thing she is using it is to help push herself up from her belly. And she's in that position a lot these days: If she's unhappy, she'll fold up and bonk her head on the floor, fall onto her back and then she rolls onto her belly crying. By the time she pushes herself up, she usually calms down.

So gross story of the weekend has nothing to do with Jordan. Big fluffy dog Dudley discovered that an ice storm is the only way he can catch an animal in the backyard. A rabbit got into the yard and just couldn't get out fast enough. I watched Dudley prance by the back door with the rabbit hanging from his mouth. Gross. Gross. Gross.

Jumped the gun

So school now tells me the move to the big baby room is delayed until they can hire another teach in the 2-year-old room. Why? Because the move out of the little baby room is dependent on a 2-year-old. When kids move into the 2-year-old room, the 18-month-olds can move into the 18-month to 2-year-old room. Then the one year olds can move into the one-year-old to 18-month-old room. Confused yet?

So the 2 year old room needs a teacher before Jordan moves. So who knows how long that will take. So I'll try to be patient. I asked the director of the school to see if there would be some kind of coordinated effort to let Jordan play with the older babies and help encourage her to pull up and walk. I wasn't snotty about it, I was just asking. But the director kind of snapped back at me... And it made me wonder why I take my kids to this school. I'm nothing but understanding and helpful to the teachers. We're a team when it comes to my kids. It just feels bad when I'm treated like I'm an annoying, needy parent. That's not my style and not how I like to be treated. Okay. I feel better letting that out.

Jordan didn't nap at all at school today. When I got home, she was EXHAUSTED. She actually passed out as I fed her and didn't protest a bit when I put her to bed tonight. Thank goodness I gave her a morning nap... It makes me feel a little better. By the way. This picture is the same as the one above... but if you look closer, you can see all 4 of Jordan's teeth. How cool is that?

Miss Jordan is getting opinionated by the day. She has this thing where she folds up and then flings herself onto the ground. Then she cries. And eventually, she pushes herself back up and all is well. She's also denying food and demanding specific food. She's turning into a person, not a baby.

Experimenting with the girl

So we have a push toy that I bought back in the day when Cam was little. It totally freaked out the boy... He never trusted toys that rolled. His opinion changed about a year ago. So I plopped Jordan on this push toy thing to see what would happen. She thought it was SO cool. And amazingly, she took a couple of steps before falling down. She held onto it pretty tight and tried so hard... And she kept wanting to pull up and try again. The funniest thing is she fell down pretty hard a number of times and that tough cookie didn't mind at all. That is a major development... At least to me. A lot of our milestones have been delayed because Jordan was too concerned about falling down.

It's probably because when she's mad, she's been flinging herself onto the floor in protest. I'm guessing falling onto the floor isn't as big a deal when you choose to do that yourself.

Talking up a storm

Matching girls
Originally uploaded by Jen Reeves.

Jordan is picking up words by the minute. Tonight she told her Daddy: "Night night." Her vocal cadence repeats some of my sentences. And she's catching a little temper. If she wants Mommy cuddles and I put her down, she is not afraid to throw herself onto the floor and cry. I know the cuddles will go away someday, but I have to get things done from time to time, so she can't be in my arms all the time!

She's so smiley and happy at school and at home. She gets to excited to see family members. When Dad came home tonight, she was chanting "Hi da da." It's awesome.

She's trying harder and harder to pull up. Today, she was more comfortable standing (but you have to put her into a standing position). For the first time, I saw her stand along the couch and hold onto it with one hand... and not standing very close to the couch. She was doing pretty good. She had her prosthetic on at the time so I wonder if it was giving her extra balance. I'm torn about what to do with her growing skill of pulling up. She has such a hard time moving up with her prosthetic. I can't figure out what will help her learn how to pull up in the best way. Should I let her go prosthetic-free more often? Should she wear it less? But then there's this challenge: Her feet. When Jordan plays with toys without her prosthetic, she uses her little arm to hold things. When she's wearing it, she pulls out her left foot and gets just about everything done that way. I just can't get her to use the prosthetic arm with her big arm. It's tricky.

Time is ticking

The holidays are roaring into my calendar and I feel totally lost. I have a ton of wrapping, packing, mailing, sorting, cooking... everything to do. But I have to clean my house. It's terrible and it's starting to bother me. It doesn't help that our backyard is muddy and the dogs keep tracking mud into the house. It really doesn't help that Jordan scoots on her butt and nomatter how I try to sweep and clean, her butt is always dirty looking from being my own personal Swiffer broom. Tonight I couldn't take it any longer and threw the pug into the bathtub. Hopefully that will help my nose buds from falling off everytime he tries to sit on my lap. The big dog is a lost cause.

I can't over emphasize how Jordan has turned into a toddler in the last week. She is arching her back and getting mad when I pick her up sometimes. When she WANTS something, she really wants it bad and she's not afraid to scream or yell for it. She really wants food and she's going to wave her hand around it in a similar fashion to the sign I made up for her that means "More!" She is obsessing over a toy that lets you put magnet letters into it. When it fits perfectly, you press down on the letter and it plays a song about that letter and tells you the sound it makes. Jordan loves it when she gets the magnet to fit. But she gets very upset if she can't make it work fast enough. She'll actually throw a magnet to the side and pick up a different one if it takes too long to work. I'm guessing she's assuming that the letter must be broken and the next one might fit better. It's amazing to watch. And exhausting to think about the next stage we're heading into.