She loves this holiday

Jordan loved her Christmas Eve. She got to play with family... Many who had never met her. She got to eat good food (she kept saying "YUM" and chow down on all kinds of stuff). She also got to open presents. OH MY GOODNESS. She loved ripping through paper. I honestly think if we had gotten her books and a bunch of boxes to rip open, she would have been content. Oh, and a Dora doll with hair she can comb. After Jordan was done opening presents, she continued to help everyone else open their gifts. It was awesome.

She really enjoyed playing with her brother's stuff and a new wooden zylophone from Africa. All kinds of fun for the kids.

She did not want to go to sleep tonight and telling her Santa was coming meant absolutely nothing. It was a great Christmas so far. She enjoyed the fun and the festivities.

Ho Ho Ho!

Jordan is having fun with all this time without the push and pull of school and therapy and Mom's work schedule... I put her in a dress I bought for her before she was born two years ago. The funny thing is I thought of this dress not long after her birth and I thought: She'll never be able to wear it with her little arm. So, this year I decided to try it anyway. I had her wear that Santa dress with her prosthetic. It was a struggle getting that arm through the Santa puff, but it looked super sweet. What's funny is she's so skinny, she fit it in this year and it was too big last year! During church yesterday, she lifted her hand up, looked at the white fluff at the end of the sleeve and said: "Santa!" Very cute.

Anyway, Jordan is enjoying running around talking about Santa and harassing her brother. They're playing and fighting together in the most classic of ways. What's cool to watch is that they actually can play together. They're giggling, teasing and enjoying each other's company (in between being annoyed with each other).

By the way -- That little Santa hat that Jordan is wearing in that picture... It took me all day to just get her to wear it long enough for me to take three photos. She's a stubborn bugger. I love her for that.

In the holiday mood

We're enjoying family time for the holidays -- I'm doing my best not to hop online as much as I normally do. Jordan is getting better at saying words like Santa, Ho ho ho and tree. She's also saying more sentences. REALLY fast sentences.

I wanna eat that sounds like "Iwannaeatthat." She'll say it rapidly five times in a row before I realize what she's saying. There are other sentences - They are all very fast and I'm floored every time I translate it and realize this little baby is NO baby.

I'm also talking her into doing a few things with actual logic. If you've noticed, her hair is constantly in her eyes because I'm growing out her bangs. Bangs suck. It's a BEAR to grow them out so I figured we'd just grow them out from the very beginning. Well, she has started complaining about her hair in her eyes from time to time - And I've jumped onto the opportunity to actually put a bow into her hair. Check out the picture of her at her school holiday party. I've been able to get her to wear a clip two times in the last week. It doesn't always work, but it's progress.

I've also found that I have to count to three every once and a while -- To get her to move away or stop doing something she shouldn't do. The down side, she screams the moment I say "One..."

She's screaming a lot these days. It's loud here. It's very loud.

Happy Holidays! Go Tigers!

This has been quite a weekend in our household. We started getting the house switched from standard messy kid-zone to slightly cleaner holiday mode. While Daddy was helping with the big Missouri football game coverage, the kids and I set up the tree in our Mizzou outfits. I also took the kids to a local restaurant for small burgers and real milkshakes. Jordan wasn't that interested. She was really interested in decorating the Christmas tree.

Of course, in Jordan's world, decorating means putting on ornaments and immediately taking them off to put them back on the tree again. That means almost half of the tree has a sparse number of ornaments to keep me from needing to police her all the time.

By the way, I think the Mizzou outfits worked. We won the big game!!

Staring

**Note: I've spent a few days on this post. So pardon the slight rambling**

Staring is an issue my family will forever learn to deal with... I used to have a really hard time with it. When Jordan was a baby, I'd look for people staring. Like I was a glutton for punishment. At some point I realized I was focusing on others and not on my family. No, I'm not ignoring what's happening around me. I'm just not encouraging the drama. I also think it's more important to focus on my family than worry about the general public.

But I keep thinking about the staring.

I was talking to one of the grad students about our life with Jordan. In so many ways it's just like having another kid... But when you think about it, we're different people now. We're different because we aren't able to just pass by in the crowd. I used to be very jealous of families who have kids without any obvious differences. The comfort of just being a family without staring is a gift that you don't realize you have until you lose it. Then I felt bad for even thinking about those stares because I'm not the one who really will have these stares for the rest of my life. It's Jordan who will have it forever.

Anyway, I've been trying to think of constructive ways to deal with staring. I'm offering kids the chance to ask questions when I see them whispering. I look people head on when I see them stare. If there are any inquisitive looks, I offer the person a chance to ask. It's the kids who don't know when to stop staring. I have a hard time. It's the grown up who does a double, triple take without saying something. I have a hard time.

But then I realized I have a staring problem too. Any time I walk by a person with any type of limb difference, I stare just a little too long because I feel connected to this person. BUT then I don't want to interrupt their day just because I want to say: "Hey! I have a little girl who belongs to your world! Can I be your friend?" A limb difference shouldn't be a person's identity. But yet, I want to identify with people who live in my town just because of their differences. Isn't it strange? No one writes a book on how to be a parent of a child with a "difference." I just want to do my best. I also hope I can help other parents so we can lean on each other... And make sure our kids can lean on each other.

Happy 4th of July

Not much to say... But I watched Jordan help make this little holiday hat at school yesterday. It helped her look even more festive in her outfit.

Highlight of the day: Plopping my festively dressed girl in the sandbox... shoes and all. Then I watched her take a head dive into the sand and come up with the BIGGEST smile. If only she was happy when I had to get the sand out of her hair in the bath tub!