An end to a great vacation

We're wrapping up our first day of driving home from a great vacation. The kids have been pretty tolerant although I think they've just about had enough driving for today. I have to say, the more often we visit Maine, the more thankful I am to have such a beautiful place to visit with my kids. Both Jordan and Cameron seem to have a true enjoyment of the outdoors and beautiful things like the ocean, boats, mountains and the moon. Jordan and I were hunting for the moon last night before it got too dark.

I tried to snag a chance at a family picture yesterday after attempts the day before didn't work because the kids were too tired. I think this one is pretty cool even if the wind was blowing Jordan and my hair.

For Jordan, the highlight of this trip was probably so much Mommy time. She really likes me. She really really likes me. We spent a lot of time cuddling, singing and dancing together. There's a rock near the Maine house that turned into her dance rock. Everything we did ended up becoming a song. There was just a lot of entertainment during this trip. But for her, the best part was probably her constant access to my cuddles and ability to answer to her every beck and call. The down side to it: She wouldn't let anyone else do much. She had a bit of a stranglehold on my attention - screaming anytime she didn't get my attention. If she needed help, she's wait until I did it for her. Or she'd just scream. Not a pleasant habit for me or anyone else who wanted to spend time with her. It certainly a phase I hope ends soon.

Our trip was fun. It was beautiful out the entire time we were in New Hampshire and Maine. We were so lucky. It was so fun to watch my little girl turn more and more into a big girl each and every day. She is turning into a witty and very able little person. She knows what she wants and most of the time, she figures out how to get it. It makes me proud. It makes me tired. It makes me excited to see how she continues to grow!

Long delay!

After a relatively long business trip, I'm home again with the kids. I hate being away for so long, but I did a lot of good stuff for my students and I got to see a ton of cool technology and ideas. (I was at the RTNDA/NAB conference in Las Vegas - such a silly town)

Jordan got to spend time with her grandparents while her dad and I worked and had fun. We stayed at the super trendy Palms hotel, ate amazing food and even got to see Cirque du Soleil's Love show as a way to celebrate our tenth anniversary. Those who know us are probably wondering if what happened in Vegas came home with us like Jordan -- I have high hopes that we'll remain a two kid family.

The kids and the grandparents left us a sweet note on the door when we got in. I think they missed us.

I'm trying to get Jordan back into the swing of life with Mommy. She's taken to screaming for what she wants. Unfortunately for her, I don't do things for screams so she's going to have to find her talking voice to get action from her mommy. It might take some time to work that out.

This morning we walked Cameron to school in the rain. I decided to put Jordan in the hiking backpack so we could use an umbrella together. At some point Jordan dropped her lamby on the sidewalk. So we hopped in the car and drove around to look for that precious pink thing. The entire drive Jordan was yelling: "Lamby! Lamby!" as if we were looking for a missing dog. It was so funny. Anyway, the wet little lump of pink was discovered on the sidewalk near the school. All is well -- and a cleaner, drier version is waiting for her when I take her to school for the day. It's bring a stuffed animal to school today - so she'll get to bring her new love: A little white Webkin she has lovingly named "Puppy." And no - we haven't gone online to plan with her cyber Webkin. We aren't like that yet in this household.

By the way - that's a picture of Jordan playing with a bubble maker I bought recently. She loves it and I had to play outside with the kids before work yesterday.

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.

Oh I remember this

Cameron started this screaming thing earlier in life. I forgot the mind-bending stress that comes from a child who can't communicate enough. And this all happened while I was away!! We have a lot more screaming in the house. I've also noticed things are aggravating her for the first time... Or at least she's verbally expressing the aggravation: Taking a Mega Block apart, getting raisins out of a little box... I could go on with the list. I know she'll figure out answers to these challenges, but in the meantime I get screams.

Oy.

And I thought Vegas was loud.

Wow. Could you get some words please?

We're soundly in the phase where my girl needs more words. She has taken to screaming a lot since I got back into town. Really painful screaming. I'm using words back with her, asking her to use the few signs that she knows... But she will fall into a ball of tears and an on-the-floor tantrum if I can't figure out what she's asking. It's rough. I know it's hard when you can't communicate. I'm thankful she isn't hitting the floor with her head or doing any real physical damage to herself. But add in a tantrum across the dinner table from her brother at the same time... It's mind-bending stress.

But along with the screaming communication, Jordan's getting braver with holding my hand and walking. It really is stunning how she walks better when she's anywhere other than our house. She walks better outside, inside a tent and at my cousin's house.

Randy put our new tent up in the backyard -- Going inside totally freaked Jordan out and then suddenly it was the coolest place around. She started walking around me and there she was: Standing. It lasted about 5 seconds. I'd have to say it was the longest standing moment I've seen with her. I have a meeting with our First Steps coordinator on Friday along with Jordan's occupational and physical therapists. Hopefully we'll be able to get our PT into Jordan's classroom on an intense level for the next month or two. Her PT thinks focused time with Jordan away from me will be very productive and help push Jordan into walking full time. I keep thinking that she isn't as fearful about her safety as Cam was because she's willing to climb stairs... But I watch other kids learning to walk and I realize she really likes things the way they are. She doesn't like pushing herself into something new physically. That's why it took her so long to notice her little arm when she was 4 months old. That's why it took her so long to sit or sit up by herself. Why do I have kids that are worried about their physical safety? It's strange.

Anyway. Here comes another week... Crazy schedules and all kinds of juggling between work and kids. Standard stuff and I'm tired just thinking about it. Did I mention I had a sinus infection last week? The drugs make me tired and a little dizzy. Oh well. Just another hurdle to jump over.

Can someone turn down the volume?

Jordan needs more words. She desperately needs more words. She was doing pretty well with her sign language, but her hands can't demand a toy, item or food as well as screaming.

It's high pitched, loud and mind bending.

I'm usually pretty patient about this kind of stuff. But tonight I took her out of her high chair and declared her dinner over. She's already eaten a ton and figured whatever she was demanding had nothing to do with food.

Last night she was screaming while I writhed in pain from a strange stomach bug that hit me. I went downstairs to see if I could help, but the noise and smell of dinner forced me back to bed. I'm better now, but it wasn't fun. I'm just praying Jordan doesn't catch it.