Special Exposure Wednesday

This is my favorite moment at the water spray park on Labor Day. She is SO dang funny.
Nothing is going to stop her and I'm pretty certain she'll figure out a way to do a head stand.

Pie, lobster and the beach

We've continued this non-stop vacation with non-stop trips. After visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens yesterday, we took the kids to eat at one of the best diners in the country: Moody's Diner. We got their famous 4-berry pie. We even bought a slice for Jordan She'll eat it ONLY if disguised in vanilla ice cream. It was strange, but I was happy to see her try it no matter what. Cam opted for the standard slice of chocolate cake. Oh well. I cooked up my famous scallop dinner. Cam wasn't interested at all, but Jordan took a few bites before throwing it to the floor. She's really into throwing food lately. She mainly throws because she only wants to eat one food type at a time. So if she's eating a hot dog, she'll throw the bun so she can eat the bread. If she eats the bread first, she'll throw the hot dog. If I catch the food first, she'll probably eat what I salvaged, but not until she's done with the first food. You just never know. After a while, she just throws everthing. She throws before she says "all done." By the way, Jordan's "all done" is "no no" in a sing songy "all done" manner.

Today we let Jordan take a good morning nap before we drove off to one of our favorite sandy beaches along the Maine Coast: Reid State Park. I was pretty surprised by Jordan's reaction to it all. After I put her into the water where a little surf was lapping our legs, she screamed. Randy thinks she freaked because the water was so cold. I'm just not sure if she trusts water that moves like that. Either way, we didn't really get into the water very deep. She did enjoy a bit of time in the water jetty nearby. Her brother had a BLAST jumping and running through the frigid cold waves. He's getting braver by the moment. When Cam invited Jordan to join him in the water. She gave him a solid: "No." I almost fell onto the sand from laughing so hard.

Tonight we had our annual home cooked lobster meal. Jordan and Cam got to see the lobsters before they went into the big cooking pot. Cam is still very scared of the hard shelled guys. Jordan wasn't phased at all. She just checked out those guys until she got annoyed with just sitting there.

Speaking of annoyed. The brother/sister dynamic is becoming a lot clearer in this time away from home. Jordan is growing so fast right now. She even said "lobster!" These cool developments in her personality has us zeroing in on her... It's exciting to see her become her own person. But Cam is seriously jealous. He admited to me that he feels left out sometimes. It's one of the hardest parts of growing up. Jordan deserves the attention... Cam deserves attention. Figuring out the right way to give each what they deserve and need is the hard part. I think it doesn't help with the way my girl clings to me. Even after this many days with our whole family, she's still desperate to be in my arms. It's great for my arm muscle growth... Terrible for the overall peace between my son and I. We'll figure this out just like we have all kinds of other things to figure out. I do know that long-term vacationing is wonderful and we've been so damned lucky to do it.

Maine vacation is good for my girl

Jordan is so happy outside... And she LOVES the water. It's been clear since we started camping that she just loves to be outside. She doesn't want to be constrained, she wants to go. And the best thing to do: Dip her feet into the water. I've let her get soaking wet in a New Hampshire river and in the ocean in Maine. I just can't help it. She's so happy. And wet. Jordan learned how to throw rocks into the cove yesterday by watching her brother. I tried to get Jordan's official picture out on the rock today -- same spot every year. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to get my flash to work even though it the camera didn't think it needed the flash. I'm not confident enough to use all of the manual settings for such an important shot. I'm a wimp. I'll admit it. This was the sixth year we've plopped Cam onto the same rock -- Jordan's second year.

An amazing thing happened today while we were hanging out at the house on a beautiful day. We heard a knock on the door and there was my cousin Dave! His wife, one of her co-workers and her co-worker's son were on their way to Bar Harbor. They decided to stop by the house just for the heck of it. How cool is that? We got to go down to the water during low tide and skip rocks. We got to take a few family pictures. It was a random cool family moment! They had to run off to register for some kind of conference. Can you imagine getting to attend a conference in Bar Harbor? It's such a cool place!

Jordan is quickly developing more and more into a two year old. Her sleep has been off since we had a rough night sleeping on our last night on the campgrounds. So she's still trying to catch up on her rest. We're making it through 2 naps and an early bed time. But sleep or no sleep, she's getting more and more able to tell us what she wants and when she wants it. Most of the time she just wants to be in my arms or in my presence. I don't want to deny my love to her... But it's exhausting. I don't really want to complain much because it's just so special to be able to spend so much time with her and Cam.

I took notes while we were camping since we weren't able to have cell or computer access. I have daily stories of our experiences... And MAN did we have adventures. The lessons learned: Jordan will sleep while Mommy takes her up a steep mountain. Jordan will play in any type of water if she can get to it. Jordan is happy to chase after animals: dogs, cats, chipmunks, squirrels.... It just doesn't matter. And Jordan will scream anytime her brother takes a toy away. New to the mix: She will cry like she got a shot at the doctor's office. It hurts the ears!! Maybe tomorrow night I'll type all of the entries out. I took more than 600 pictures over our four day camping experience. I have a ton from the last two days in Maine as well. I have all kinds of Flickr work to do! But I'll worry about that tomorrow. I'm tired!