32 Months Old!!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks as I transition into a new role at work and we snuck in a weekend trip to St. Louis. The kids got to see their uncle AND enjoy the Magic House and the Zoo. Jordan is still talking about the animals - especially the penguins.

I was looking at the calendar and this month has just flown by. In the last month, we've seen Jordan grow in some ways and regress dramatically in others. From watching Jordan's development and mood, we're using her prosthetic only with therapy. I know our original prosthetic company would disagree with this decision, but she's so unhappy using the arm. I started talking to a new pediatric prosthetic expert in Chicago and it looks like we'll probably meet up with him when he returns from the Paralympics in China. We're talking about using a body powered prosthetic for now and return to myoelectrics when she gets older and has needs that a myo can help with. He and I are talking about how we'll target the things Jordan wants to do that a prosthetic can do. Our targets right now: riding a bike and playing sports like baseball and basketball with her brother.

We've had some interesting challenges at the end of Jordan's 32nd month. She got to stay in her class for the new school year but there's one new teacher and many new classmates. It's apparently thrown Jordan for a loop. She's back to clinging to me during the morning drop off and she's forgotten how to use the bathroom. We're talking really forgotten. We're talking not just pee. We're talking about DISGUSTING. I remember Cameron having weeks where we had a bag of messy clothes every day, but we never had this gross problem. I'm not sure how to get her back on track, so we're walking around the house without underwear again and I'm trying to decide if we should return to diapers or just full commando. I'm stumped.

Times change

As Jordan and I got our day rolling this morning, I had a knock on the door. Crews were here to clear some branches so the power company could tighten our power lines (it was droopy in the backyard... and as Cam gets older, the scarier that droopy line seemed). I showed the crew a tree that was threatening the power lines and convinced them to take the tree down as well. It really stinks to have to say goodbye to a tree.

The tree was rotting from the bottom and was going to fall. It had to happen. But I had to take a picture of it to remember. It's the tree in the middle of this picture. Why am I so sentimental? Well, first I'll miss its shade. But most of all, it's my favorite hide-and-seek tree with Cam. I have used it to avoid his poor ability to seek for years.

But what made me very sappy, was just knowing that Jordan never had a chance to enjoy that tree. So I leave this picture for her to know about it someday.

The upside of it all: We don't have a droopy power line anymore. Let the backyard volleyball commence!