Day in the outdoors

Jordan made herself even more known at church today. She screamed her way right out of the service and into the nursery. It was ugly... And kind of funny at the same time. It was so loud that I was given some recognition as I returned to the service after dropping Jordan off. Aren't kids fun. Some of the parents thanked us for helping them feel better about their embarrassing moments with their kids during church services.

Jordan really needed a nap after church.

After the kid naps, we (Cam, Jordan and I) went out to a state park just outside our town and went on a mega hike. Jordan was awesome as we trekked all over the place. She oooohed and ahhhed over the beautiful blue sky, danced along to my silly hiking songs and said she thought things were pretty when I asked. After a couple of hours of hiking, she and Cam had a blast eating ice cream and playing at a local playground. Jordan tried climbing up a rock wall and fell on her face. She's pushing her limits. I'm proud of her for that -- But it's hard to step back and watch sometimes. I have a hard time knowing when I should jump in. I should let her take risks, but I don't want to see her get seriously hurt. She did go down a couple of slides on my lap.

By the time we got home, she was EXHAUSTED. A little bit of food and she was done. The funny thing is how her going to be process is changing. She's more demanding. She wants more books, more ways to delay the sleep process. I'm holding true to the bath, PJ's, one book, lullaby, sleep process. No matter what, she cries for a minute when I leave the room. A minute is nothing... But for most of her life, she hasn't cried at all. I'm sure it's another sign she's growing up... But man, I hate hearing her cry!

Sleepy

Here's a sweet sleepy moment I captured in the car last Sunday after the big zoo trip. I sat in the parking lot while the rest of the family got custard. I caught this shot on my cellphone.

In a funk

I've been a bit down today... So it's great to know I have my kids to bring in the smiles. I let Jordan take a big long morning nap before heading to work today. She decided to try and play with head bands that are too big for her head... and just slightly too small for mine. She thinks it's funny when we both wear them at the same time. As you can see in this picture, she's giving me my head band for silly dress up time.

Cutest moment not caught on camera: I snuck in to watch Jordan nap and found her sleeping butt-up. You know, curled up in a ball, with the butt sticking up in the air. It's the sweetest thing and I've never seen her sleep that way before. It was Cam's constant sleep position when he was a baby... And I'll tell you: he sometimes still does!

Great day

Jordan did such a fantastic job in therapy today. She climbed up and down the little step between the living room and the foyer many times with her arm off and on. AWESOME! She's getting braver and braver! It makes me so proud to watch her. We figured out how to get her to do that: Food. That motivation helped us really get her moving today. And she didn't cling to me. She was independent and happy to move.

At school she did okay -- But didn't sleep well again. I'm hoping she'll figure out how to make it work. Last week she pulled of 2 hours of sleeping one day.

When we got home, Jordan cooed and babbled during dinner. Then she climbed all over Randy, the coffee table, Cam's little desk and the couch. She was moving from one location to the other. She was getting up and down. It was so great to watch her happily explore, that I let her stay up a whole hour past her bedtime. Hopefully that won't hurt her mood tomorrow!

My lovely Valentine

Hanging at a Valentine's party
Originally uploaded by Jen.

Jordan had her second Valentine's Day... This time she got to have a classroom party. She was fashionable and enjoyed the yummy sugar. But thanks to a very short nap, she was pretty darn cranky and clingy when I took her to Cam's party. Not a lot of smiles. The eyes a gunky again, she's drippy and just uncomfortable. I was guessing teeth... But I just can't be sure.

The only thing that's making her smile is her brother being silly... But only when she wants to be amused. Poor kid. She isn't really being cranky to anyone other than Mommy... But I know something is going on and I'm sad about that. She's such a happy kid, hopefully I'll figure out how to make her feel more comfortable.

Photo drama

My digital camera died this evening. I was taking some pictures of Jordan playing in the basement when the camera just stopped focusing. I turned it off and it won't turn back on. After talking to the Sony online chat support people, they say I have to send it off for repairs. I'm so sad. It's not like I've used the camera a lot. I've posted more than 2,000 photos onto our Flickr site and I have more than 8,000 photos in my computer. I got this new camera at the end of June. I'd have to say I've taken at least 2 to 3,000 of those pictures since I got this new camera. It's a Sony DSC-W50 by the way if you were thinking about getting a new camera. I'm sad because I planned to take pictures of Jordan in her new classroom tomorrow!! I'll use my cellphone, but the picture quality isn't as goo!! What a bummer!!

Jordan had a good day in her new room. She only slept 45 minutes in the cot... It was the first time she'd ever slept in something like that. But I think when she gets used to it, she's going to nap longer than she ever has before at school. She also do an art project and had a ton of fun on the tumbling mats in the room. She was really happy to see me when I got there. She even called me "Mom!"

Mission accomplished

I dropped Jordan off in her new room. I was slightly nostalgic, and brought her old teachers flowers to thank them for their unending love to Jordan. She's so lucky to have had them helping her grow and learn about the world for the last 10 months.

When I put Jordan into her new room, it was like she was mesmerized by all the big kids. She just sat with them and drank some water with the rest of them... Until one of the toddlers started tugging on Jordan's prosthetic arm. That sent her into some unhappy screams, but she got over it pretty quickly.

Today she's going to sleep on a cot for the first time, I told them to take her arm off just so she'd be more comfortable. Tomorrow I'll teach them how to put it back on. It felt kind of strange... I took her bottles and extra sippy cups back to the car. I watched her get excited with the rest of the kids as they went to the reading area for a story. I look forward to finding out how the day goes! She seemed pretty happy -- Heck, she didn't even noticed when I left!

By the way, she didn't start in her new classroom yesterday because she picked up some eye gunk... Conjunctivitis. It isn't contagious, but I thought it would be better if I kept her away from the kids for a day. What a bad start to a new classroom if her teachers worried about Jordan sharing some kind of communicable disease. Her eyes look better today thanks to some eye drops. She also doesn't seem a gunky with her coughing or nose drips, so maybe she's feeling better too. It's hard to tell the difference between a cold and teething with Jordan. I guess this time around she actually had a cold!

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.

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.