Whirlwind trip

I just got back from a whirlwind trip where I had a chance to meet with a bunch of companies in California. I had hoped to meet up with BethGo, but the schedule was packed. I barely slept. I did eat well (Cliff House, Brickhouse Cafe, Circolo) and I am feeling very inspired when it comes to my job.

I got home without getting to see Miss Jordan before she went to bed. But she did make sure she hogged the phone when I called in this evening. She can talk and talk and talk but when she has a phone in her hand, all she says is: "Hi Moma! Hi Moma! Hi Moma! Hi Moma!" I think she's just trying to hog the line so no one else can talk.

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.

Wow.

So... Yesterday I had a moment to myself. I was able to take a really long shower. You know, the kind you take when you don't have any concerns. You know, the kind when you don't have to wonder if one of the kids is climbing on top of the kitchen table or drawing on the wall.

I was standing there thinking... I really have let work and kids take up my world lately. There is this one project that I really want to launch. I really, really want to, but I don't have the technical skill to do it and no money to find someone to do it for me. It stinks. Add in other responsibilities for work and the normal kid needs... I let myself go. The only positive side: no weight gain.

Go team.

Tonight the family called me while I was at work. I swear I heard Jordan say: "Come home." Poor baby. I need to slow down, do something fun and take a nap.

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.

Ick

The girl's intestinal issues aren't improving.

GROSS.

So we're going to start allergies tests on Thursday to figure out what's going on. We're close to a month of icky poops.

I have no experience in this kind of ongoing health problem. I'd like to say it's just teeth, but I don't know!

Here is a slideshow of our big zoo trip over the weekend:

As usual, if you can't see these pictures, you're welcome to join in on the fun at Flickr.

It may be the fourth of July tomorrow, but Jordan's PT is kindly coming over to help fit lifts for her newest non-sandal shoes. I'm still pretty bummed she can't wear her favorite shoes. Maybe I'll sneak them on our vacation so she can wear them a couple of times.

We're working in the newsroom tomorrow... Not a full day, so hopefully we'll have a fun holiday at some point in the day. We're thinking about calling it a "hol" or "iday" since it won't be a full holiday.

Little changes

So I did two things today. First, you clearly got to this blog because you noticed that I changed the URL for this blog: bornjustright.blogspot.com
I decided that as my site gets more activity, I should transition out of a URL that includes our last name.

I also asked for special treatment for Jordan for the first time ever. Of course I've asked Jordan's care takers to try to pay attention to her therapeutic needs, but I've never demanded that. I'm just lucky to have teachers who love Jordan and who are willing to put in the extra effort. But as she starts walking and gets better at new skills, she's going to need a few helpful things. So I'm trying to plan ahead. When Jordan gets bigger and moves to the bigger kid room (around 18 or 19 months), she's going to start going down stairs. At her school, there is only a kid-height railing on the left side when you're going down. That isn't very helpful for a right-handed only child. So I asked the owner of Jordan's school to consider putting a kid-height railing on the other side. I realize this is a change that is solely for Jordan's needs. But I did talk about it with a couple of teachers and they think it would be helpful for all kids. I still felt a little funny asking.

The semester is wrapping up and my students are FLIPPING out. They have the majority of the class due by this Monday and the Monday after that. Many of them have waited until the last minute. It's ugly, it's unfortunate and I'm exhausted thinking about it. I also found out that I didn't get a provost's teaching award for the second year in a row. I'm disappointed because I put my heart and soul into my work. I'm also disappointed because we could have really used the money that came with the award. But I'll plug on, keep working hard.

Here's a little slideshow of Jordan's week-by-week pictures for the year so far.

I'm getting closer to home

Amazing. I've bumped into and talked to so many people on this trip... Many who I've worked with in other markets or know through the many, many connections you make in the broadcast industry. But in the end, I think I got to know a lot of my students a little better. I also helped many of them make connections and get closer to finding a job. I have one of the best jobs in the world.

I miss my kids and I can't wait to go home.

So this is what I do

Here's a truthful parody of my industry... except I work on the local level. Honest. We're not as swarmy.

What We Call the News | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

How she grows

I've been drowning in work, child care and travel. I haven't been posting about my world enough lately. But I have to say life with my girl is getting more and more interesting. For a couple of days, the boys of the family were out of town enjoying basketball. So I got to enjoy Jordan time to myself. She and I played outside and enjoyed some good giggles and talking about the dogs. She loves saying: "Hi Bubba!" Bubba is our little black pug dog. She ADORES our dogs.

Jordan got to enjoy her brother's performance in "Curious George and the Puppies." She was more interested in the fact that there was someone sitting in front of us and could kick.

Then we went off to enjoy a little basketball fun with family and friends. It was really my first time with Jordan away from home since she's gotten a bit more adventurous and mobile. She was climbing up steps, scooting and pulling up on a bunch of furniture. I was tired!

To make the past week more exhausting, I agreed to analyze 60 different news websites for a national contest. 60 websites is a lot of work... Especially since more broadcast companies use similar content management systems. I was trying really hard to find the elements where each station was trying to (get ready for this one) break outside of the content manager box. (yeah, I'm talking like I'm teaching my class) This hard work has been pretty exhausting. I'm happy to be done.

So here's a little blast from the past:

powered by ODEO

I'm tinkering with an embeddable audio player for my work web page. I have a reporter who is working on a story with images and audio... and I'd like to use our standard content manager to post the items.

While I was out of town with Jordan, we got her new, expensive shoes. It turns out her feet were an entire size bigger!! That's kind of surprising. The shoes are cute. I did buy little bells that you put over the shoe tie to keep Jordan from undoing the shoes. It's kind of cute, but tricky to get on in the morning if Jordan isn't in a good mood. Hopefully better fitting shoes will help her with moving around!

Oh... Best part of last week: I took Jordan and Cam to the children's museum that we love to visit. This was the first time Jordan was old enough to really love it there. She stood up and enjoyed so many different experiences: blocks, water, sand... toys. It was wonderful. I'll try to get pics uploaded to Flickr soon.

How much is too much

I've hit the classic working mom hump. My husband has decided that I'm not doing enough at home and too much at work. What is the right balance? How important is our housework compared to the time I spend with the children?

My priorities are my kids, my family and my job over housework. Apparently I have to drop some work items and place more importance on the housework.

I'll be honest. I don't know what I'm going to drop. But clearly I'm going to have to drop something.

I think we're funny

Dude. Where's my arm?
Originally uploaded by Jen.

I love this t-shirt. It makes me happy. I've waited for Jordan to grow into it and immediately made her play on the floor so I could take a picture. Silly me.

Jordan was up really late Wednesday night, so she slept in late. Past 9am! I was luckily working later into the day so I just let her sleep while I worked at home. We had a Parents as Teacher's meeting where Jordan got to show off her communication skills and amazing fine motor skills. She's amazing to watch.

I had a busy day at a conference on campus. Jordan got to attend this conference dinner last year because she was young and I wasn't ready to start pumping yet. She also went with me for another conference last May. So lots of people were asking about her. I pulled out the camera and showed off this picture. I'd have to say, not as many people have the sense of humor I have.

But the funny thing is... If I took the t-shirt off, would her arm suddenly appear? No. So why not keep a sense of humor? Why not proudly display my beautiful baby? And why not happily display the fact that I'm happy just the way she is... With a dose of humor.

The good news? The newsroom loved the shirt. Jordan's school loved the shirt. And those are the places where Jordan is the most... And I'm glad the people I'm around the most are comfortable with our world just the way it is.

Newsroom changes

Every semester I visit classes to talk about what I do, explain how they can be better journalists or advise students how they can do well in the newsroom where I work. A lot of these journalism students have a chance to sit in the newsroom and shadow different positions... And lately I've seen myself hanging out near these students and realize they don't know a ton about me. They don't have to. But every once and a while I go on and on talking about Jordan and Cameron when I realize they have no idea what I'm talking about. So when I start talking about therapy, they think I mean I'm going to a psychologist-type therapist. When I'm really talking about Jordan's physical or occupational therapist. Then when I start talking about arms and prosthetics, I just get funny looks.

A couple of days I pulled out a picture from my camera and was showing it off to someone and I offhanded said: "Here's a picture of the cutest one-armed baby in the world!" And this girl spun around and looked at me in horror. I just looked at her and said: "No really. She really is cute." Then I showed her the picture of Jordan.

I don't feel like I need to run around and tell people my entire life story, but my work life and home life mesh. Probably since Randy and I work together. But I talk about work and home all the time and I'm not in the mood to explain myself all the time... But I also don't want my world to be secret. I hope other parents with limb different kids can know that when they read Jordan's blog, that they aren't alone. I hope my students can learn that a child who is "different" isn't really that different... But there are challenges that they would have never known if I wasn't so open about it. I also think keeping a sense of humor about a missing limb keeps the "uncomfort zone" less uncomfortable.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm babbling about... Except that I hope I can be a public voice of a birth defect I really never knew existed. I was dancing around with Jordan this morning thinking how awesome she is. I wouldn't change a thing. But no one writes how-to guides about how to raise my kids... And they certainly don't tell you how to raise a self-confident, awesome, caring, limb different kid. And the only thing I can do is make sure as many people in Jordan's world know about it and are as comfortable about it as I am.

Simple day

Yesterday Jordan's sixth tooth arrived after all that hard work. Thank goodness. This morning we had fun with breakfast. I enjoyed taking pictures of her and I decided to capture just a normal moment with my girl in video. We giggled at each other while she popped Cheerios and threw her sippy cup on a regular basis. So here's just a little moment in the high chair:



Jordan has been working very hard on words, but lately it seems her standing and pulling up skills are trumping words. But in the last day, she points at pictures and dolls and says: "tritty" I have to believe that means "pretty." I find that to be pretty darn sweet.

Can you believe she's 13 months old now? Just amazing.

I've started working out again... I got up at 5:20 this morning to exercise. So why amd I still awake? That's a good question. Randy just gave me a stern talking to before he went to bed. It just feels like I can never do enough -- with work, with blogging... with just brainlessly surfing the web or knitting (which I learned how to do this weekend). So I should head off to bed. I just wanted to update with a few smiles to share with everyone. I've been pondering heavier thoughts... But I'll hold off for another day.

Working so hard

Jordan had to run off to school early with her brother the last two mornings because I've been leading the morning meeting in the newsroom... And that means scurrying the kids to school right after they wake up. It's no fun for any of us... And I miss my mornings with Jordan. She's been a trooper... I gave her a bottle the last two mornings and she didn't care at all. I did get out of work early enough today for Jordan to work with her physical therapist... And Jordan showed off how hard we've been working on her ability to stand and attempts to pull up. Afterwards, Jordan scooted all over the basement looking for ways to pull up and stand. Our best options right now (other than her cool cube toy) are the stairs and full clothes baskets. Lucky for Jordan, we have stairs on two floors and there seems to be a full basket everywhere as well.

I'm exhausted. All this work, kids and holiday preparation is just a bit much. I'm trying to get some laundry done and get to bed at a normal hour. I can only hope I can pull that off.