Katie, Dave and Jordan

The big birthday party

2009-10-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Jordan's birthday party this year was at the Clay Center which was a lot easier than her 1st birthday party. I think the kids had a great time playing in the 5 and under area after the eating/present part of the party. We had a good turnout, though we missed Vivian and Jackson who were understandably unable to be there.

Instead of a cake, we did cupcakes and Jordan's cupcake topper was a cute little dog painted to look like Maddie who Jordan recently decided was her puppy.

One of Jordan's favorite presents was this chair from our friends Matt, Caroline and Hope. As soon as Jordan spotted it, she grabbed it and carried it all over the room with her. It definitely became the princess' throne! Of course, Jordan sported her birthday shirt for the occasion.

It is so hard to catch a genuine smile on film!

And some of the decor. The banner had puppies and paw prints.

As did the confetti on the tables. The gift bags included candy, dog bone shaped cookies and small stuffed dogs.

I have a confession. I have misplaced the USB cord for my camera, so I can only load pictures on the computer with the memory card. The card will only work with the home computer, so I'm not so good at loading pictures on the computer right now. Hopefully we'll find the USB cord again soon.

This past Sunday was our neighborhood Halloween parade, so I got some cute pics of Jordan and the neighborhood kids having a good time. She is one of the youngest in the neighborhood at the moment, so she was clearly a bit scared of some of the people and costumes. She has her Halloween party at daycare tomorrow, but the parents aren't invited due to parking and the knowledge it would be pure chaos if everyone was there at the same time. However, we are going to take Jordan trick or treating for the first time on Thursday. My prediction is that she will not go to a single door outside of our cul de sac without one of us carrying her, so this could be interesting. As a bonus, my mom is handing out candy at our house (she doesn't get trick or treaters at her house) and is bringing us dinner. Wish us luck trick or treating!

2nd birthday- first celebration

2009-10-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have to say that Jordan had a really good 2nd birthday. She started out with mini-cupcakes at daycare during snack time and ended the day with lots of fun presents and a giant cupcake at home.

One present she got a little before her birthday was this fabulous swing set from Robert a.k.a. Bobo. I'll post lots of pics later of her playing on her swing set.

Every 2 year old needs to rock out in Barbie heels- right? Of course, Maddie was nearby keeping an eye on everything.

Jordan's other "big" present was a playhouse from her MaMaw, Aunt Julie and great aunt Charlotte. She absolutely loves it and I'll admit that Dave and I have both already made it inside the thing. We've also eaten a lot of imaginery pizza that originates from the playhouse.

Blowing out the candles on her huge birthday cupcake.

This is the only picture I got of the cupcake before Jordan's finger went in the icing.

Jordan started out in a cute birthday shirt, but thanks to the first round of cupcakes and a water incident at daycare, she ended up in the change of clothes in her locker. I didn't feel like changing her because I was so excited to take her out back to see her playhouse.

My 2 year old baby girl

2009-09-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

It seems like yesterday I held you for the first time. I was so scared taking you home because the nurses wouldn't be there to watch you when we were sleeping. I woke up so many times that first night to make sure you were still breathing in the cradle beside the bed. Now you are learning to do front rolls, climbing the ladder to your swingset without any help and even swinging on the rings in your gymnastics class.

You don't miss a thing. When I walked in the door with your giant cupcake last night, inside of its plastic container and 2 grocery bags, you immediately asked what was in the bag and kept telling me you wanted cupcakes. Since I had mentioned it 30 minutes earlier, you knew that is what I had. You are so strong and strong willed. You have to have it your way or no way, which is why you threw a fit this morning when you did not want to wear your shoes to "kool" since my shoes looked so inviting. Everyone keeps implying that you get that from me, but I don't know about that...

You give the best hugs, and when you are in the mood for kisses, you give them, a lot. Every freckle is a boo boo, so it must be kissed. You love to sing Twinkle, Twinkle and humming it is almost as much fun. Occasionally you'll mix Happy Birthday with Twinkle like only you can do. Hearing you count to 9, always skipping 4, is adorable, even if you refuse to believe that 4 exists. Your recent love of rocks is pretty cute. I'm guessing not too many kids keep their rocks in a purple satin box like you do though.

I hope you have a great second birthday and that your next year is as amazing as the last 2 years. You are loved by so many, and I hope you always know how much you are loved, especially by your parents. We love you baby girl!

Firetrucks, boats and planes, oh my

2009-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

On Jordan's first beach trip, we managed to cram in her first trip on a plane, on a firetruck, on a golf cart (forgot to take a picture of that) and on a boat. Not bad for just a few days in the life of a 1 year old.

This was in the Atlanta airport before the big storm clouds rolled in. We had more quality time there than we anticipated, so Jordan ended up falling asleep on the flight between Atlanta and Wilmington.

And my aunt and uncle who live in Southport, NC, are part owners of a 1960 firetruck which has been altered so there is bench seating in the back and a cute little table. We rode in the back to an ice cream parlor across the street from the marina and had a great time.

Jordan with my aunt Marta checking out the side of the firetruck.

And on the ferry back from Bald Head Island with Dave.

And a picture of Miss Attitude for good measure. This was her reaction when I asked her to look at me and smile.

Tomorrow is the big day, so I'm not going to be sappy at this point. I will say that I can't believe my little baby Jordan is already turning 2!

Bald Head

2009-09-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

On what we thought was our last full day in NC we spent the morning on Bald Head Island. It is a neat little island where the main mode of transportation is to ride around on golf carts, which I must say were surprising expensive to rent for a couple of hours. We rode around the island and explored on our golf cart while getting off at some of public beach access points. Jordan was not in the mood for pictures much of the day, and the golf cart made things interesting. At one point Dave's hat blew off, and he had a minor pop spill incident, also in the golf cart.

Here is Jordan on one of the beach access walkways.

Dave holding her since she wasn't so willing to pose on her own. Notice the ocean in the background.

Bald Head Island is also the home of Old Baldy, a neat old lighthouse that is no longer in service. It was closed that day due to a pirate event in the afternoon (thus the pirate behind the fence). I quickly realized there was no way I was fitting Jordan and the entire lighthouse in a single picture.

So, Dave posed with Jordan much further from Old Baldy. I tried to hold her for some pictures, but by this point she was not the happiest baby, so the only ones I have of the 2 of us show her with her head on my shoulder. We were bribing her with cookies to pose for pics, but she still wasn't into it. Oh, well.

And a pic from my phone of the beautiful scenery at one of the public beach access points. It was gorgeous!! You can see the mainland in the distance.

Catching up- beach trip

2009-08-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought I had abandoned my blog, we're ba...ack...

We had a good trip to the beach at the end of July, including Jordan's first trip into the ocean, first plane ride, first boat ride and even her first fire truck ride. She handled flying better than I did since I ended up crying in the airport the day we were supposed to come home begging the jerk manning the gate to get us home the day Delta was supposed to get us home but was unable to do because of mechanical issues (in combination with weather issues in the preceding days).

Jordan was only so-so on the ocean, though I will admit the waves at Holden Beach were pretty rough. When I was on my knees holding Jordan in the water, several of the waves were strong enough to knock me off balance, but Jordan didn't go under water or anything like that. She was clearly more impressed with the pool at the beach house and the pool at Dad's housing development. It is like when we go to the park and all she wants to do is swing when we have a swing at home. At least we all had a good time and were able to spend time with my dad, his wife and her son.

Here is Jordan the first day at the beach checking things out.

In the ocean with Dave.

Playing in the sand. Dave would make the bucket-shaped mini castles and Jordan would knock them down. We bought a really cheap, small video camera for the trip, and we got some lovely footage of Jordan knocking those things down like it was her job.

This was the second day at the beach. Don't believe for a second she went into that water alone!

I have more beach pics to post, but long story short 1 case has taken over most of my summer, sending me to Elkins repeatedly, Parkersburg and Greensburg, PA, not to mention some all day depos in Charleston. I'm leaving for Motown/Morganhole on Monday for a 2 day mediation and keeping my fingers crossed that that will be nearly the end of the case for me. For that reason, I've felt like an absentee mother a lot lately and have gotten behind on blogging and lots of things, not to mention it now being a joke that I actually still have an office at my firm.

Potty training!!

2009-07-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to mention that Jordan has peed in the potty several times now. She isn't so good at letting us know she has to go (yet), but she loves to sit on the potty and has peed in it several times since Friday. At least it is a step in the right direction!

iphone and Festivall

2009-07-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my phone on to the computer, so these are from the library's 100 year celebration during Festivall. The paper had said there would be activities for families with young children, so we thought it was worth checking out. We had a fun morning and early afternoon there, and it was nice to do something different (especially since it was free!).

We got in line for the balloon animals and were happy to find sidewalk chalk to play with while we were waiting, even if it ended up on Jordan's clothes, as well.

Then Jordan got her balloon flower which she toted around for several days afterward.

Her new model pose- over the shoulder look with the wind blowing her hair.

Her favorite activity, by far, that morning was fishing the plastic ducks out of the fountains in front of the library. The entire front of her shirt and shorts were soaked, but she didn't mind one bit. We lured her away from the ducks with cake...

And last but not least were the buckets of bubbles. We didn't have much luck actually making bubbles, but Jordan slung the stuff everywhere and made a sticky mess. Notice she is double fisting the bubble wands.

Well, I'm getting ready to leave town AGAIN. I have depos in Elkins M-F next week, though I'm hoping I get to come home Tuesday night since we aren't scheduled to start on Wed until 11. Keep your fingers crossed I'll get to make the quick trip home because I will really, really miss Jordan, Dave, Maddie, Sloopy and even Miss Kitty if I'm gone for 4 nights in a row.

On the afternoon of July 28, Dave, Jordan and I will take our first flight together on our first beach vacation. After Jordan screaming for 1.5 solid hours coming back from Snowshoe, I was terrified of driving 8 hours each way with her. Robert was nice enough to give us frequent flyer miles so we can fly down and back at no cost (except Delta's lovely fee for each and every checked bag). Dad will pick us up at the airport Tuesday evening, and we will get to spend Wed, Thur and Fri lounging at the beach and visiting with my dad. Wish us luck and please feel free to share travel tips, especially related to toddlers and airplanes!

My baby and her (our) many shoes

2009-07-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Every girl needs brown heels

Afterall, they go with a variety of outfits

And brown sandals

And knee boots, er, well, you know...

Men's size 13 on a toddler size 5/6 is always the way to go!

Have a very happy 4th of July and happy birthday Nana!

Moving furniture is hard work!!

2009-06-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Months ago I saw a toddler sized patio chair at Big Lots that I didn't buy. I eventually broke down and went back to buy it because I knew Jordan would love having her own chair on the back deck- especially since "mine" has become a favorite word around here. Of course, all she does is push and carry that chair all over the deck.

And after all her hard work to find the perfect place for her chair, she sits in the adult chairs anyway.

Clearly an exhausting job!

I know I've been a slacker lately, but things were pretty busy for a while. After a fun-filled week in Elkins, the week of June 15, I came home and unpacked and then repacked to leave for Cinci the next day. Of course, we couldn't leave until I finished depos in Huntington, but those ended by 4. We made it to Cinci just in time to catch a Red's game. We bought tickets from a scalper, so I was a bit nervous until our tickets were scanned at the gate. We had a good time at the game and then made it to our hotel without incident. The next day we went to Jeffersonville to shop at the outlets, to Carrabbas for a late lunch and then showered and got ready for my brother's engagement party. The party went well with the exception of on of JC's friends getting a bit drunk and talking some things he shouldn't have in front of my brother's fiance's father- don't ask. We didn't take Jordan on that trip because we knew we could only stay at the party for 45 minutes if we took her, which would obviously defeat the point of the weekend. I was excited to get back to town and spend some QT with her since I had barely seen her in a week, so we've spent this week hanging out and playing together.

I'll post more catch up pics soon.

The Memorial weekend un-vacation

2009-06-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

For Memorial weekend we decided to head to Snowshoe. This was our first vacation as a family and as you can tell by the title, things did not go as planned. First, we planned to leave town around 12:30 so Jordan would sleep part of the way up and we would be there in enough time to get settled in a run around a little before dinner. That plan went out the window when the 11:00 hearing I was covering included an 11:50 conversation with the judge during which he told us all to come back at 1:15. I didn't end up leaving the courthouse until 3:15, which was actually later than my office was even open that day. Poor Dave was keeping Jordan up from her nap and just sitting around waiting on me to call so we could leave town. Jordan slept for over half the trip up, which was great, but when she woke up, she was pretty whiny. We were thrilled to finally get into our room around 7.

We had dinner with Kim, Steven and Sophie on Friday evening and then got back to our place a little after 9. Jordan was whiny again, but we figured she was just overly tired and out of sorts. In the middle of the night she felt really warm, so she got some Tylenol. She kicked around and kept Dave and I up a lot, so we were all pretty tired on Saturday. We had breakfast with Kim, Steven and Sophie and then the boys went to play golf. Jordan and I did a few craft projects and then we headed to the pool. It was clear Jordan was miserable since she didn't want to get in the pool and just kept clinging to me screaming.

Here is what I learned about Snowshoe- the clinic is useless unless you have some sort of cut or something along those lines. During the summer they don't have a doctor there or any type of thermometer for the ear or forehead. The closest pharmacy is 30 minutes away in Marlinton. Thankfully my Uncle John called in some antibiotic for the suspected ear infection and things got a little better. However, Jordan wasn't exactly up for dinner on Saturday evening. The food at the restaurant was DELICIOUS but Jordan would only eat gummies from the diaper bag. Oh, well...

Jordan and I had some quality time on the balcony outside our room.

We had a lot of fun with stickers and once the stickers were gone, we decorated Jordan's shirt with the stuff that goes around the stickers.

Foam stickers are awesome. They are the one thing that seems to keep Jordan entertained for more than 5 minutes. We decorated 1 wooden frame and 1 foam frame with them.

Jordan dressed for dinner on Saturday evening.

Jordan and Dave the morning we were leaving. I swear I think they have the same expression! No one is questioning who her father is!

And to top everything off, the MRSA is back. We are trying something new that Uncle John had at his office and it seems to help minimize the place on her butt. I am at my wit's end with this stuff. We have an appt with an infectious disease doc, but they didn't have an appt for almost 3 weeks so we are also on the cancellation list. Please wish us luck that we can get this completely out of her system and find some way to prevent her from getting it again.

Styling and profiling!

2009-05-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

Jordan may have interesting fashion sense, but at least she is a true WVU fan!

Mother's day 2009

2009-05-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm behind yet again. I hadn't loaded pictures onto the computer in forever, and Jordan is with Nana and Bo bo right now, so I actually have time to get a few things done. After an afternoon of planting flowers and painting, I'm hiding from the rain indoors with Maddie napping on the couch beside me.

We started Mother's day by opening presents at home and then going to Berry Hills for brunch. Isn't the expression on Jordan's face lovely?

And Jordan with Nana.

A better view of how adorable Jordan looked in her dress. With a room full of tons of good food, all Jordan wanted were grapes. Dave and I had tons of good food to make up for how little Jordan ate though ;)

Then we went home and changed into more comfortable clothes to go to Ma Maw's house. We hung out with Ma Maw for a couple of hours and then went to Dave's sister's house where Jordan and Zach played on Zach's swingset for a while. Unfortunately, there were ticks playing on the swingset as well, so I got 1 tick off of Jordan's shirt and another off of her leg where it was headed north. Dave killed 2 or 3 others on the swingset itself. Be warned, according to several people this is supposed to be a bad year for ticks. If the afternoon of Mother's day is any indication, I think they're right!

Jordan's 1st trip to the circus

2009-05-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we took Jordan to the circus for the first time. On the advice of a friend, we made sure to take her to the pre-show, so we got to go down on the floor and watch and elephant paint a picture, see the clown on stilts and lots of other things. I think it also made her a bit more comfortable once the show started because we had been in there checking things out for so long.

Here is Dave holding her while we were watching the elephant paint with a paintbrush.

Still the pre-show checking out juggling clowns.

During the circus she kept clapping with the music. Whenever I tried to snap a picture, the red eye reduction thing on the camera would light her hands up red and she would stop to try to figure out why her hands were suddenly red.

Since the whole experience was new to Jordan, she didn't point at any of the crazy priced items or food or ask for anything. Since we had animal crackers, raisins and juice in the diaper bag, we made it out of there spending only $3.50 for a Diet Coke Dave and I split (and Jordan had a few sips of). I'm guessing this is the only year we're getting away with that.

So, after the first place on Jordan's behind started healing, another one popped up a couple of inches over. We saw the pediatrician on Wednesday who got an appointment for us with a surgeon on Thursday. Thursday morning things were looking much better, but we wanted to take her in for the appointment to be sure. After waiting about an hour and a half in the waiting room and another 10 or 15 minutes in a room, we got in to see the surgeon who said it looked like things were healing just fine. Thankfully, it looks like that is continuing (knock on wood). Jordan seems to be fine, so she is going back to daycare tomorrow.

I'll post pictures later, but we got to do a wonderful brunch this morning with Nana and Bobo where the only thing Jordan would eat were grapes. Dave and I definitely ate enough to make up for Jordan's lack of appetite. We came back to the house and changed clothes before going to Dave's mom's for a couple of hours and then to Dave's sister's house to play on Zach's swing set. Unfortunately, there were an abundance of ticks at Dave's sister's house, so we had to pull one off of Jordan's shirt and another off of her leg.

For all of the mothers, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

What a difference a few months makes

2009-05-02T12:49:00.001-07:00

Last fall, sometime in late September or early October (I think), we went with Kim, Jenny, Andrea, Carrie and all of the kids to a great little park. Dave and I took Jordan back to that same park last weekend, and it was amazing how much more stuff Jordan could and would do on her own.

Here is Jordan with Dave on the swings in the fall.

And last weekend.

Since she was afraid of the slides last time, this was probably her favorite thing.

Last weekend she checked it out as she wizzed by. She looks so much taller and older now- it is crazy!

We didn't let her climb very far on her own, but that sure didn't stop Jordan from trying to climb almost everything at the park.

We will definitely be headed back to that park again this summer.

So, the bad news is that Jordan probably has MRSA again- this time on her behind. The good news is it doesn't seem to bother her too much, though that could change as it gets bigger. She is hit and miss on whether sitting hurts, but we hope this will open and drain on its own like the last one did so no one has to open it surgically. Dave was supposed to leave town Monday and be 4 hours away until Friday, but he thankfully cancelled the trip because things with Jordan are a bit unpredictable at the moment. Please keep your fingers crossed that this passes quickly and with as little pain as possible!

What's the best way to watch TV?

2009-04-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

What a pair!!!

Easter morning

2009-04-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

On Easter morning we had time to get into Jordan's Easter basket before heading to church with Dave's mom. Jordan's favorite Easter basket item was the $1.99 bendable bunny the Easter bunny picked up during a trip to Kroger. Of course, she likes the bathtub crayons, as well, though we couldn't convince her that they were only for the tub.

Dave's mom's church is mainly people ages 60+, so there aren't a lot of kids. It is great though because they are all happy to let Jordan, Zach and the other kids roam the aisles, go into a side room to play, dance, talk, etc. For the big egg hunt after church, I was told there were 174 eggs for the 4 children present. The eggs had candy and quarters in them, and then each child was given a big thing of bubbles, $1 and $5 in McDonald's bucks. The eggs were generally just sitting in grass, but I swear some of them were hard to see.

This is the closest Jordan got the Easter bunny. Notice that she is clutching her Ma Maw and leaning away from the bunny. She got much closer than the bunny on the prior day.

What do you use to collect your eggs when your parents forget your Easter baskets (even though you have 3 at home)? That's right, a good ole' Kroger bag. It was cute watching Dave help Jordan with the egg hunt.

And another shot of Jordan and I together. Of course she wouldn't actually look at the camera. She really wanted into the bubbles in her hand. I guess we could have picked a better backdrop than the foundation of the person's house who lives next to the church. Oh, well...

First Easter pics

2009-04-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

Since you all not only met but exceeded my demand for comments, here are Easter pictures. I'm glad to know I'm not just doing the blog solely for my amusement.;)

At the first Easter egg hunt of the weekend, we had brunch and then the egg hunt. There were a bunch of kids who were surprisingly well behaved. I was happily surprised that Jordan did so well among a large group of children rushing into the yard all at the same time on a mission for eggs.

First is a picture of Jordan and me. I'm not sure which is more surprising, the fact I allowed myself to be photographed or the fact Jordan allowed me to put hair bows in her hair which she left in for hours. Although she wasn't a fan of the Easter bunny, she was keeping an eye on him, which is why she wouldn't look at the camera. Moments after this picture she ran away from the bunny!

Being held by Nana before brunch. Still keeping her eye on the bunny.

Here is the dreaded bunny. This is as close as she would let Nana get to the bunny without a fit.

Just like any kid, this was one of Jordan's favorite parts of the day- COOKIES!! She mastered that word a while back, though she thinks veggie crackers and all kinds of things are cookies, so it isn't so bad.

And picking up eggs outside during the hunt. There were at least 70 kids swarming the lawns outside. One side of the road was for the smaller children while the other side was for the big kids. No one was trampled, and Jordan ended up with a few eggs.

Since it had been rainy that morning and there was a continued threat of rain on Saturday, Jordan had to sport the raincoat for this hunt. There was also face painting and clowns making balloon animals. Jordan got an orange balloon dog with she quickly turned back into a balloon snake. Later that evening she and Dave managed to deflate it, though I'm not exactly sure how they managed that. She seemed to have a good time with the whole experience. Hopefully Bo bo and Nana will take us to the hunt again next year. Thanks Bo bo!!

The many sides of Jordan

2009-04-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Jordan definitely has many sides to her personality. She can be so stinking sweet and innocent one minute and throwing herself in the floor pitching a fit the next- I have no clue where she gets that from. On St. Patrick's day she could not have looked more sweet or adorable in her shamrock shirt. See, sweet and innocent, right?

Who doesn't love a slinky? This one was leftover from the treat bags at Jordan's birthday party and she loves playing with it.

Playing outside with her pony tail Nana managed to sneak in her hair. It lasted almost all day before Jordan pulled it out. Sweet and cute but a bit like a mine-teenager.

Here is where the attitude starts coming out. Although I think she is too young to smirk, she seems to have that one mastered.

And, my favorite- full on attitude! This is actually what she kept doing when I told her to smile. I see some interesting years in our future!

So, I have Easter pics to load onto the computer that haven't made it there yet. Jordan got to do 2 Easter egg hunts, but she was terrified of the Easter bunny at both. After church yesterday there were 174 eggs for 4 children, so Jordan got a bunch. They were filled with quarters and candy, though since she is too young for peanut butter, Dave and I may have helped with some of the candy.

Since the comments on the blog have been few and far between as of late, I'll post Easter pics after I get at least 4 comments.

Bye, bye butt tree

2009-04-09T11:16:00.001-07:00

Up until a few weeks ago we had an abundance of trees around our house. Believe me, there are still plenty, but we had to thin out the herd. Several months ago our 6 year old neighbor said he wanted to go around the side of the house to see if something was still there. When I asked him what it was, he said there was a tree that he and the former owner's daughter called the butt tree. You can see for yourself exactly why this tree got its nickname. I found out later that it wasn't just the kids who called it the butt tree but the adult neighbor with teenage children across the cul de sac, as well. Since the butt tree was apparently dead, it had to go, too.

The 2nd day of tree cutting at the house, this is what I came home to find. These are 2 trees (only 2) that were out front loading front of the house and the cul de sac with pollen and leaves. We had both of the stumps ground down so we can have a decent little hillside. Of course, I'm going to turn around and plant a tree there that will stay MUCH smaller.

And these are some of the limbs cut up from those 2 trees.

And the truck parked out back with the boom resting on the butt tree after the top had been removed. Don't ask me why because I really don't understand either.

Not much else going on here except getting ready for Easter. I'm sure there will be lots of Easter pics to post, but I had to share the butt tree with you for my own amusement!

Birthday parties

2009-04-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

Since I got my bigger, nicer camera, the smaller, older digital camera has become the birthday party camera because it is easier to stick in the diaper bag and hand from person to person. I finally loaded pictures from the old camera to the computer today and a short video clip (if it worked). They are out of order, but you get the point.

This is from Sophie's birthday party when Jordan was double fisting a cupcake (without the icing) and some strawberry banana things we brought with us.

This is from December at Hope's birthday party. The pants she wore under that dress now look more like booty pants!

Eating cake at Hope's party.

On my lap going down the big slide at Sophie's party.

The closest she would get to the slide at Zach's party. If you look closely you can see Zach and 2 of his friends coming down the slide. 6 year olds are so fast zooming down the slide they are hard to photograph.

And if the video works, this is Dave taking Jordan down the slide at Sophie's party. I didn't realize the video setting was on, but I love that if you turn it up, you can hear Dave giggling like a school girl!

Is it really Spring yet?

2009-04-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

So, Jordan did have MRSA, but it seems to be healing (knock on wood). It finished draining on Monday, so Jordan went back to daycare on Tuesday. We have to keep band-aids on it and keep wearing rubber gloves until it completely heals though, and the band-aids are clearly driving her crazy. I actually found scratch marks on her legs near the band-aids, though I have no clue when she scratched that much.

As anyone local knows, the weather has been all over the place lately. Considering there is a chance of snow next week, I have no idea what to expect next. The warm days and evenings have been nice since it allows us to go for walks. Jordan loves playing outside, so she appreciates the warm weather, as well. Here are a few pics from a warm day where she got to sport capris and short sleeves. She refused to wear the sandals I wanted her to wear, so she wore her regular old tennis shoes.

Yeah, I can't explain this pose.

She loves to "help" get Maddie's food. The food has actually successfully made it to the floor in the bowl once.

Update and Aunt Dinky's birthday

2009-03-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago Jordan, my mom, Bo bo and I went to my Aunt Dinky's house for her birthday. I confess we don't spend as much time with Mom's family as we should, but I'm sure you all know how that goes. My aunt is 16 years older than my mom and is literally old enough to be my grandmother, especially since her oldest grandchild is a year older than I am. My uncle has 2 work horses in the barn a little walk from their house. Although Jordan has seen drawings and pictures of horses, this was her first experience with the real thing. Of course, since they are work horses, they are very large, which scared Jordan.

When we were finished with the horses and heading back to the car, Jordan finally decided she liked her Great Aunt Dinky and wanted to hold her hand. Of course, this was after she threw herself on the ground because she wanted to walk across a little foot bridge rather than me carrying her across it, so she was finished with me.

This is as close as the horses came, and Jordan still got scared. Since they are about 10 times her size, I can see how that would be scary.

Now for the update on the health issues. Yesterday morning I was running errands and Dave was putting Jordan in the bathtub. Since she isn't cooperative with the warm compresses, she has been getting 2-3 baths per day to draw out the infection, so I think she likes that part of things. When Dave undressed her he saw that the thing had started draining on it own, so we don't need to have it opened with a scalpel. We debated on having it cultured and decided we should, so we went to an urgent care location and were happily surprised to be in and out of there in about 30 minutes. We should have the results back on Tuesday, though they may be inconclusive due to the use of the antibiotic. The red place on her leg is a lot smaller than it was on Thursday when we went to see the pediatrician, and it doesn't seem to be bothering her nearly as much now. She is definitely none too happy when we go anywhere close to touching it though- not that I blame her.

Kim and Jenny hosted my first Kelly's Kids party last night, and it was a success. I'm going to have 2 more parties while I have the clothes, so hopefully I'll make a little moo-la and get some free clothes for Jordan through the party my mom is hosting. The clothes in the kit are so adorable! It is hard to choose which ones I like most! Thanks Kim and Jenny for hosting!

My horoscope

2009-03-26T10:28:00.001-07:00

I didn't read my horoscope this week (and rarely do), but based on my experiences this week, I'm going to draft my own:

DO NOT GET OUT OF BED THIS WEEK! Your finances are looking dim. Just when you think there is a possibility you may get ahead, your hot water heater will go out forcing you to spend almost $1,000 you were not planning on spending. Don't even try to get the tax incentive for a tankless water heater because that will require you to live without water for at least 1 week and will be a complete waste of time.

Your child will have health issues. After getting her hand shut in a door at daycare last week, this week she will try to climb onto a daycare table resulting in a large, purple knot on her forehead. Then, the thing that looks like a small bug bite on Tuesday will turn into a giant red place that will come to a head and eventually drain on its own or be forcibly opened up with a scalpel. Yes, it may be MRSA, but you may never know. You'll get to spend the next week or more watching to see if the red area expands an inch beyond the line that was drawn on her leg Thursday morning and to see if it starts draining on its own. If not, then you will cry while Jordan's leg is opened by a scalpel so it can drain.
_________________________________________________________________

On a separate note, the Kelly's Kids clothes arrived yesterday in the midst of the madness. I've only looked at a few items, but they are so adorable. I also found a link to the virtual catalog if anyone wants to check it out: www.kellyskids.com/virtualcatalog

And on that note, I hope your week is going better than mine.

Valentine's and a baby shower

2009-03-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

For the first Valentine's day when Jordan was old enough to give Valentine's to her daycare friends, we fixed up little buckets of treats, bubbles and Valentines colored by Jordan. Of course, coloring Crayola valentine's wasn't enough, so Jordan covered the backs of the cards with stickers. At least she had a good time making her valentines.

She also liked the toys and clothes Nana and Bo bo brought her for Valentine's day. Instead of the talking toy I had when I was little that involved pulling the string and hearing the appropriate animal noise, Jordan got the princess version that involves a throne, magic wand, mirror and other princess related items.

Last month I attended a baby shower for girls I grew up with. They are twins who are both pregnant right now. Each is having a boy, so there was a ton of blue at the shower. It was held in my old high school cafeteria where I haven't stepped foot in about 10 years. Jordan joined me toward the end and was pretty good until it was time to leave. Since she wanted to run down the long hallway, she threw herself in the floor pitching a fit as I was dragging her to the car. She looked so cute in the overalls and shirt Nana got for her that I had to take her picture. Of course as soon as I got the camera out, her face turned red and she started straining. She definitely has my timing.

At least I got 1 good smiling picture of her.

Think she was tired of the picture taking?

See you later...

18 months- random picture day

2009-03-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

For some reason 18 months seems like a huge milestone. Jordan suddenly looks so grown up. She is saying more every day, even if we don't understand all of it. She is tall enough to reach some things on the bathroom counter top and will soon be big enough to reach the stove- not looking forward to that. She can also reach the water and ice dispenser on the freezer door which is not child proof. When I asked the guy at Lowe's about child proofing it, he looked at me like I had 3 heads. Any suggestions for that problem?

I dread the day when Jordan no longer claps for my terrible singing like she does now and instead screams because I'm embarrassing her. I love that she is amused by both of us patting our legs at the same time and that the surprised face back and forth is hilarious. I'm sure she won't keep running stuff to the trash for us, which is a great way to distract her when necessary. Have I mentioned how cute it is when she screams "Bubbles!" as soon as she gets in the bath tub? She still giggles and gets very excited when she spots Maddie for the first time each evening. She has some killer dance moves right now, as well.

Since I've been a bad blogger lately, probably because we haven't had much going on, I thought I'd put up a few random pictures. I really need to load more onto the computer- I swear I take pictures!

Jordan still loves her bananas and is now proud of being able to hold it herself. As evidenced by the panda in the background, we are still doing breathing treatments.

Look ma! I managed to fit your size 8 boots on Daddy's size 13 feet!

Trying sledding for the first time when it was almost 60 degrees. There was just enough snow left in Robert's front yard for sledding. After the sled tipped over and Jordan fell out, she wasn't so into it. Maybe next year...

This shirt speaks for itself. Of course, I got the "Here Comes Trouble" shirt for my own amusement, but Jordan was in a good mood the morning she wore it, so I had to take pictures. Here she actually smile on cue, which amazed me. She still only has front teeth and molars on the bottom but has a mess of teeth on the top now. Poor thing cries brushing her teeth now because she is probably in pain, though part of it is a control issue because we insist on brushing before we let her loose with the toothbrush. I have no clue where she would get any control issues from ;)

I think my dad is going to come up for a quick visit this weekend. Since Jordan hasn't seen him in 6 months, I'm curious to see how she does with him. She has the stranger danger thing going on right now, which is good in most situations but a bit awkward with neighbors and family she rarely sees. We are also going to check out Pump Up the Fun which is a place filled with blow up slides and the like. Jordan loved playing in Zach's blow up jump thing this weekend, so I'm hoping she'll get on some of the stuff, even if it means Dave and I going down with her.

On a side note, I am officially signed up to sell Kelly's Kids clothes now. I think Kim and/or Jenny are going to host a party or 2 and my mom is going to host one, as well. If you would like to host a catalog party or a real party (and are in my area- sorry Carrie and Elizabeth), let me know. You can also just order stuff online using my Rep # 113531.

100 posts- first time playing in the snow

2009-02-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

So, according to blogger, this is my 100th post. That seems like a lot when you stop to think about it. I hate to disappoint you, but unlike shows that have a big party and cake to celebrate the 100th episode, I just have some cute pictures of Jordan checking out real snow for the first time.

As most of you reading this know, in late January we had a couple of decent snowfalls resulting in enough snow to actually play in. Unfortunately, we didn't get Jordan's sled blown up. She did, however, get to check out real snow for the first time. We let her play outside for a little bit after we got home from work/daycare, so she didn't get into her snowsuit or gloves.

Snow is much more fun with a friend. Maddie was happy to help.

And when Jordan fell on her butt...

...Daddy was there to pick her up and warm her cold hands.

Of course, then he followed up by hitting her with a snowball! She thought it was funny, so it was all good.

We hope all is well with everyone and wish each of you a Happy Valentine's Day. On that note, a quick story about the flowers Dave sent me at work yesterday. He ordered a vase of lilies to be delivered yesterday, and they arrived looking beautiful. When I opened the card, I found a heartfelt greeting about eternal love and how much ALEX appreciated me standing by him. I cracked up since I don't know any Alex and the message was not at all anything Dave would write. I called the company so they could try to get a new card to the Lindsey who was supposed to get the card I got, and they read Dave's card to me. I'm telling you, these things only happen to us (and apparently Alex and Lindsey). At least it gave several of us a laugh.

Very belated Christmas eve pictures

2009-02-06T19:52:00.001-08:00

I finally got the Christmas eve pictures from Robert's camera about 2 weeks ago but then forgot to post them. For past few years, we've spent Christmas eve at Robert's house. Dave and I both had to work until noon on Christmas eve, so Jordan went to daycare and then we ended up rushing around to get ready for dinner, which is why we forgot either of our cameras.

Here Jordan is hanging out in the kitchen before dinner in one of her Christmas dresses.

And enjoying her ride on bouncy toy from Nana and Bo bo.

Yeah, this look seems completely rotten and self-explanatory.

And when Jordan was done for the evening, she started whining for her Be Be, laid down in the floor with the presents and played with her shoes.

We don't have too much excitement around here these days. We are still working on the basement. I have gotten in 3 of the 4 adorable pictures I want to frame and hang in the playroom portion of the basement, though I still need to find reasonably priced frames for them. I think we're going to go check out Kim's new house soon, which I'm dying to do. Other than that, we are just doing our day to day stuff.

1 thing I want opinions on is that I'm seriously thinking of becoming a sales rep for Kelly's Kids. I got the stuff in the mail today and am probably going to sign up. It seems to be the kids clothing version of tupperware that you host parties, get a commission, etc. Some of the clothes are adorable though. If you get a chance, check out the stuff at www.kellyskids.com and tell me what you think. Am I crazy? (Wow- that is a loaded question)

New favorite accessory

2009-02-01T09:51:00.001-08:00

Jordan used to love picking up my purse (and most bags), putting them on her arm and waving "bye, bye". While she still does this on occasion, she has a new favorite accessory- my scarves. I promise neither of us ever put one on her. She just started picking them up and putting them on. Some are so long she trips over them, but it only slows her down temporarily.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like she a homeless baby model.

Now she just looks homeless.

It's a good thing this homeless baby still has toys.

Jordan claimed ownership of the plastic Halloween candy bowl/bucket a long time ago, so it stays with her toys. It also works like a purse.

Yesterday I ran errands while Dave and Jordan had some quality time together at the house, Circuit City and Dick's. Jordan acted like she may take a nap, and then that glimmer of hope faded. At 2pm we went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time- sans nap. Jordan was terrified of every ride and wouldn't even get on the slide, but she loved the singing mouse. She and her friends Jacob and Cameron got a sketch done by one of the machines, and she liked it so much that she screamed bloody murder as I pulled her away from the machine when our turn was over. She continued screaming, arching her back and smacking me until we got outside where she went home with MaMaw. Of course, once she was in the car with MaMaw, she went almost straight to sleep. My view on Chuck E Cheese- not again for quite a while! It really wasn't that bad except for the fact the place was completely and totally packed and hotter than the depths of hell made worse by the fact I had to carry Jordan around most of the time. When we pulled up, there was a line out the door of more than 10 people. When we were leaving, I think there were more like 20 people waiting outside in the 30 degree weather waiting to get in. A friend at the party told me that he and his family go there about every 3 weeks and that there are usually about 20% of the people there as what we experienced yesterday. I'm not sure I'm buying it!

Miss Independent

2009-01-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

Lately Jordan is becoming more insistent about feeding herself. With some foods that is fine while others, like ravioli, not so much. While I was getting my hair cut on Saturday, Jordan and Dave did lunch. Actually, I guess Jordan did lunch while Dave took pictures. This bib has obviously seen better days.

A spoon isn't really a necessity for pasta- right?

And then Dave took a picture of the poor child chewing and talking at the same time and cutting the top of her head off in the picture.

So, the pulmonologist didn't really tell us much this visit except the usual- keep doing what you're doing. He agreed with us that Jordan probably had a cold rather than RSV, but we definitely weren't asking for a q-tip to be rammed up her nose to tell whether it was actually RSV. Considering how unhappy she is to have her head measured at well baby visits, I can't imagine the q-tip thing would go over well. She came back to day care yesterday and both mornings has seemed more clingy when I was leaving. Some of the kids in her class have left recently, so I figure that is part of it.

We plan to work on our basement again this weekend, so Jordan will spend Saturday night with Nana and Bo Bo. I love when one of the grandmothers calls "dibs" early in the week!

What is your definition of uh, oh?

2009-01-18T06:07:00.001-08:00

Around our house Jordan's current definition of "uh, oh" seems to be "I did something on purpose, but now I don't know how to fix it/get the item back." Jordan was diagnosed with the beginning stages of RSV during her "well baby" visit on Thursday. The visit was perfect timing because she had developed a nasty little cough on Tuesday evening. Dave kept her at home on Friday, and they had a pretty good day together while I did trial prep with our client and then participated in a 3 hour pre-trial conference in Huntington. Then, shortly after we got back to the office, Plaintiffs' counsel called and asked if an offer from February 2008 (and mediation last month) was still on the table. Long story short, the case settled at 6:30 on Friday evening. But I digress...

On Saturday Jordan walked over to an area of the living room where several of her toys are and started repeatedly saying, "uh, oh". Dave told me that on Friday she had done the same thing in the same place, so I went to investigate. I quickly realized what the problem was.

That is the recently named Be Be in the ball popper tube. Upon further examination, we realized why she had been saying "uh, oh" on Friday, as well. 2 Be Be's were in the toy.

Jordan tried to retrieve them, but her little arm wasn't long enough.

We ended up turning the thing upside down and shaking it until the Be Be's came out. We turned the toy on, but it apparently wasn't powerful enough to blow them out. After the Be Be's were freed, we turned the toy on and the balls flew every direction. Jordan then had to look down in the tube to see if anything else would come out. Check out the hair!

After I came in from a long overdue haircut on Saturday, I tried to get Jordan to pose for a picture with me. It didn't work out well, so this is the best picture we ended up with. While it looks like Jordan is being sweet, that is only partially true since she was really interested in the buckles on my sweater. Of course, part of the reason for this picture is because the hairdresser always goes through all the effort of straightening my hair and no one ends up seeing it.

Dave and I went to Lowe's last night and bought paint to try to tackle the basement that we've been putting off since we moved in. For anyone who hasn't been in our basement, I'll tell you that we bought 3 gallons of paint and are hoping that will be enough, so it isn't a small space. Jordan is with her Ma maw, so we won't be getting her high on paint fumes. It hit me when we were at Lowe's that Martin Luther King weekend 2007 we painted our basement in St. Albans. Dave asked the obvious question of how I remembered that. The answer is that that Monday morning I had off work, so I took a pregnancy test and found out that we were expecting Jordan. I felt badly we had painted an unventilated basement that weekend, so I will always remember that Martin Luther King weekend.

Jordan where's your...

2009-01-10T08:40:00.001-08:00

nose?

ear?

toes? (yes, she is saying toes while pointing them out)

And what could be cuter than a heart on Jordan's butt?!?

We've just been plugging away here. It looks like I'm going to my second trial beginning on January 20. Then, a week after that I think I'm going to a site inspection at the Sago Mine- yes, the one where the big explosion occurred on January 2, 2006. I don't plan to go all the way down to the area where the explosion occurred, but I won't know the complete details for a little while.

Jordan has her 15 month well baby visit this week (1 month late), and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her last ear infection has cleared up and no new ones have appeared. Then, the week after that we have a follow up with the pulmonologist, which Dave gets to take her to due to my trial. Jordan is spending tonight with her Nana so Dave and I can get some stuff done around the house and possibly have dinner together where we both get to eat at the same time- a truly novel concept.

More, more Christmas

2008-12-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

After opening presents and eating a messy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, we headed for Dave's sister's house for the next round of Christmas. Our nephew Zach had gotten a Wii from Santa, so the whole family was playing with it and trying to figure out all of the different stuff. Jordan didn't pay a bit of attention to the Wii, despite the fact that the TV it was hooked up to is much taller than Jordan. Oh, well. She liked the book, the vacuum and some of the other toys she got to play with there.

Zach was more willing to smile for the camera than Jordan. As a side note, Zach was given some money to spend at school when the kids got to do their own shopping for whoever they wanted to buy for. Maddie and I received presents from Zach, which was very nice. He was so excited to hand out the presents he picked out by himself. It was so cute.

Then we ventured to Dave's aunt's house right across from Dave's sister's house where Jordan got more presents, and we visited for a little bit.

Then, the last stop before home was Nana's house. Mom had a family friend repaint a very old rocking toy that her father (who was born in 1899) gave her. Jordan loved rocking in it, though we were afraid she was going to bust her face on the front bar because she was rocking so hard.

Jordan got her first American Girl doll from Nana which is a bitty baby. She had to carry it over to Nana for her to check out.

And like any good Nana, Jordan's Nana got her several books as part of her Christmas presents. This book has pictures of babies, which makes Jordan repeatedly say, "baby, baby, baby..." which is very funny coming from a "baby".

And Bo Bo was also present for Christmas at Nana's, but both pictures I took of Jordan on Bo Bo's lap were pretty bad. Hopefully some of the Christmas eve pictures taken with his camera (that I need to load onto my computer) turned out better.

More Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

We managed to forget our camera on Christmas eve, so those pictures will come later. These are some pictures from Christmas at our house. Here is what our poor, deprived child woke up to find in our living room. By the way, the cards were the presents from my dad in NC, not some strange decoration. Santa doesn't wrap presents in our house, so the unwrapped stuff are gifts via special delivery from the North Pole.

Jordan went straight for this wooden block toy that has a ton of different things to play with. It was actually hard getting her to move on to any of the other toys because she really liked this one. Jordan's dotted Christmas pj's show Santa holding a stack of gifts. Just below Santa, they say "Santa's favorite".

And the biggest present from Santa was her play kitchen which was fully assembled in the basement.

She had to check out the "silver" ware, cups and accessories.

And Daddy got to help with the kitchen play.

We videotaped some of Christmas morning. Jordan really seemed to enjoy some of her new toys. I must admit that I have somewhat turned into my mother. I forgot to take some price tags off, I couldn't remember what was in which package and I still can't find clothes that I swore I wrapped for Jordan. I'm hopeful that in cleaning and packing up the Christmas decorations the outfits show up. There will be a couple more Christmas posts to come. Merry Christmas (again)!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we did Christmas with Dave's family, and Jordan had a ball opening presents. One of her favorites was definitely the shopping cart. She cried because we wouldn't put it together on the spot. Of course, she had plenty of other toys to distract her and to play with.

She is still at the stage where the boxes are some of the best gifts. This box originally held a very soft Bath and Body Works blanket. I can't explain the look on her face...

Her cousin, Zach, was happy to help with presents. He even connected the handle of her vacuum so she could play with it.

This Leap Frog caterpillar thing was/is also a lot of fun.

Jordan has her 3rd ear infection in 3 months. According to the PA at the pediatrician's office, if she has 1 more before April, they will have to refer us to see about tubes. I have mixed feelings about that, but we will obviously do whatever is best for her.

We did Christmas eve at Robert's house, as usual, this year. However, we (read Dave) accidentally left the camera on the kitchen counter. We took pictures with Robert's camera that we'll load on the computer sometime soon. Christmas this year was a lot more entertaining than last year because Jordan got excited about some presents and really got into playing with some of them. Of course, baby's firsts are important, but there was something special about this year because it seemed like Jordan really enjoyed it. I hope each of you had a good Christmas!

Christmas 2008 is almost here

2008-12-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas Jordan was too little to be into anything. Of course, at 15 months, it is her mission to be into EVERYTHING. I was excited to have the tree up and decorated when she got home last weekend after being with her Ma Maw overnight. I was careful to leave ornaments off of the bottom branches, and all of the ornaments within her reach are not breakable. Here she is trying to grab an ornament from the tree.

Admiring a small red ornament that looks like a miniature version of the one she threw all over the Capitol Market while taking Christmas pics.

Can't you just see the wheels turning as she goes for it?!?

Apparently all of that hard work wore her out!

We went to a first birthday party today for my friend Marsha's little girl Paige a.k.a. Rubie- for those of you who know Marsha, you understand why this poor child has 2 names. Since Rubie was not very interested in opening presents, Jordan got in on the action. She really enjoyed playing with Rubie's brand new popper and some of her other toys. Hopefully that means she'll be excited to open Christmas presents.

Christmas pictures

2008-12-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Most of you already know that Kim did a PHENOMENAL job taking pictures of Jordan the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Since Jordan has melted down the past few times she has been in any type of studio for pictures, this seemed worth a shot. I knew Kim would do a great job, but I wasn't sure Jordan would be the best subject. I ended up sweating keeping up with her all over the Capitol Market, but it was definitely worth it for the pictures Kim was able to get. Since most of the Christmas cards have been delivered, here are some of the pics I loved.

And then there was the big red Christmas ornament. Kim mentioned that on some of her photography boards people had taken kid pictures with big ornaments. We headed to Big Lots, and I found a large, red plastic ornament for a whopping $2, so it made some of the pictures. Of course, Jordan thought the ornament was a fun ball. She started off holding it like a sweet girl and quickly realized it was much more fun to throw it all over the place- under Christmas trees, down concrete steps, down the sidewalk, etc. If you look closely, you can clearly see where she chipped some of the paint off with her throws.

Since it was a cold day, Kim was nice enough to share Sophie's red coat from last year with Jordan. I thought it looked perfect on her, not that I am biased at all.

I didn't even notice the string of lights on the walkway covering until I saw the pictures. It added more interest to the pictures though.

See ya' later!

THANKS AGAIN KIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bad blogger- oh, well, we'll blame it on the Holidays

2008-12-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

When WVU had its last Thursday night game of the season, the daycare had WVU day. Several of us brought in football/WVU themed snacks and drinks, and the kids had a special snack that day. Jordan had to wear her new cheerleading outfit for the occasion. Unfortunately, she wasn't into posing for pictures that morning. Any of you with kids, especially kids in daycare, know that the outfit doesn't look the same by the end of the day, so pictures of cute outfits must be taken before leaving the house.

Since it was cold, she wore leggings underneath to stay warm. Yes, that is a spoon sticking out of her mouth.

And why, you may ask, do I have a picture of a "hamburger" included? This special hamburger was 1 of 48 that I made for the daycare kids for a snack. For those who were at Jordan's birthday party, you know what this little burger is made of. For everyone else, these "burgers" are actually made with vanilla wafers, a mint cookie and icing. Typically you use green, red and yellow icing to look like the typical hamburger toppings. Of course, for WVU day, they had to have blue and gold icing.

We had a crazy Thanksgiving, but all is well. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Jordan was diagnosed with 2 minor ear infections, so she had to go on a stronger antibiotic than normal which meant fun in the diaper department beginning on Thanksgiving morning. This was only after she threw up twice during Wednesday night/Thursday morning between 4:30 and 5:30. Thankfully, most of the rest of the day was better. Jordan was fussy at the first Thanksgiving dinner until the Tylenol kicked in since she is getting several teeth at once. I don't know what is going on with her mouth, but she is getting her front tooth on one side, the one next to it (further back) and a molar! Craziness. All 3 teeth are on the same side of her mouth, so it looks pretty pitiful right now. Hopefully her other front tooth will come in soon to help even things out.

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

Little late on more Halloween posts

2008-11-22T04:46:00.000-08:00

On Halloween we stayed in and handed out candy rather than taking Jordan out trick or treating. She doesn't each much candy, which I understand considering she really only has 2 teeth to chew it with, so it seemed crazy to take her around the neighborhood collecting candy. She only handed candy to 1 little boy, but she had to run to the door each time the doorbell rang or kids came to the door just to check everyone out.

Although she wouldn't wear the headpiece for her own costume either time she wore it, she wore the headpiece for Maddie's for a few minutes the night of trick or treat.

Yes, Maddie and Jordan had matching costumes. I swear to you Dave was the one responsible for Maddie's costume though!

Jordan appears to be getting 3 teeth right now, though they are strangely all on one side of her mouth all on the top. I hope that is the reason she has been waking up once per night recently crying. We didn't realize there were so many coming in until yesterday evening when Dave was holding her upside down playing with her in the kitchen where the lights caught the glimmer of the teeth. Ouch! Not much else going on around here except getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mom may keep Jordan for us this evening so we can sleep! Sad that that is what we look forward to now...

Halloween pics- round 1

2008-11-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

This is the third time I've tried to load Halloween pictures from our home computer- frustrating! But anyway...

The Sunday before Halloween our neighborhood had a Halloween parade for the kids. As usual, we ran a minute late and missed the group picture. Maybe next year.

At the end of the parade everyone went to a neighbor's garage where there were lots of goodies and snacks for kids and adults. There were games, but Jordan was really too young for hot potato or eating the donuts tied to the tree. She had a good time playing in the neighbor's side yard with the soccer balls (whenever the big kids took a break).

Here is my little ladybug with icing all over her fingers. Why wouldn't she do this at her birthday party?!?

And a better view of my little lady bug. She refused to wear the hood for more than 2 seconds and ended up with icing all over her tights, but she had a good time.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Rotten but cute

2008-10-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

What happens when you leave a 13 month old alone with an open can of pop? Hmmmm....

I don't know what happened to the pop... (I'm sure that is what she could say if she could articulate what she was thinking here.) Dave was in the kitchen while I ran down to the basement for a minute. When I came back up, this is what I found. Nice. Dave explained he forgot there was an open pop in there. Whoops!

Do not adjust your computers, Jordan is upside down. Upside down is fun when you are being tickled!

The Halloween pictures are yet to come...

BTW- I'm still not sure if Jordan had pink eye. The good news is that if she did, it was only contagious for 24 hours, so she is safe to go back to daycare and attend the Halloween parties tomorrow. Woo!hoo!

Fall fun

2008-10-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Colorful leaves in a field beg for fall photos. Although Jordan wasn't dressed for pictures, I borrowed Robert's camera to take a few pics. These ended up in the opposite order I intended, but you get the "picture"- ha!

It is always a good time for a wagon ride.

Playing in the leaves in Robert's side yard.

Such fun!

Jordan was nearly knee deep stuck in the leaves here, but she had a good time with it. Of course, everything is more fun with a stuffed frog in hand. The frog is one of the toys she keeps at Robert's house. When you press the frog's stomach, it says, "Ribbit! Ribbit!"

I got the dreaded call shortly after 4pm today from day care. Jordan may have pink eye, so I got the call to pick her up. I really don't think that is what she has, but to be safe she is staying home with Nana tomorrow and going to visit the pediatrician tomorrow afternoon. Since the daycare, firm and Twinkie Halloween parties are all Friday, I REALLY hope she doesn't have pink eye. Not to mention not letting her hand out candy to the neighborhood kids tomorrow evening.

The park is more fun with friends

2008-10-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

As most of you who read these blogs know, Carrie and Rick brought Vivian down for a visit 2 weeks ago, and we got the law school crew and kids together at a local park. I was impressed this park had a variety of things to entertain kids from the ages of about 6 months and up. I think Jackson had fun, too, though he needed a little extra help from Jared and Jenny to enjoy the park.

Jordan had fun "steering" this thing.

What do you do after you go down a slide? Try to climb back up, of course.

Emma, Vivian and Jordan all had fun on the swings.

The impossible picture of all 6 kids.

See ya' suckers... I'm outta here.

Daddy's girl

2008-10-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have seen Dave, Jordan and I together in the past few months, I'm sure you've noticed that Jordan is already Daddy's girl. That cuts both ways for me. However, it is adorable watching them together at times.

These are from the park a few weeks ago.

Still at the park. Since this is how I spent much of my childhood on a road once known as Bee Tree Hollow, I was glad Jordan liked playing near the creek. She tried to go in completely, but we had to put a stop to that one. She also plopped her behind down on the wet rocks.

And sharing a drink at a new restaurant we tried out while Carrie, Rick and Vivian were visiting. I had finished my Sprite, and Jordan wanted to test it out. Since we were just waiting to sign the sales slip and Jordan had been pretty good during the meal, she got out of the high chair to be closer to the action.

Last night Dave and I got to have a 1 month late anniversary dinner. Uncle grandpa Robert treated us to a delicious meal at the same restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner. Although I'm sure I gained 15 pounds at the table, it was amazing! Any meal that starts out with a pineapple upside down cake cocktail and ends with a chocolate souffle has got to be good!

Although I managed to forget a camera, we took Jordan to the Capitol Market today to pick out pumpkins and other fall decor. She quickly realized that holding 2 small pumpkins was a bit difficult. We did get a Jordan-sized $2 pumpkin that we let her carry around. I'm afraid to leave it out for her to play with though because I'm afraid it will meet an untimely end on the steps...

Park days

2008-10-04T12:09:00.001-07:00

We have been pretty busy lately, so I've gotten behind in blogging. At the moment Jordan is taking her second nap of the day (yes!), so I had a few minutes to load pictures and post. A couple of weeks ago we decided to explore some of the parks in the area to find one that had options for Jordan. The first park looked good for older kids but had nothing for Jordan. I put her on my lap, and we got in a swing for a few minutes. We then decided to go to park #2. All of the shelters in that park had a bunch of people in them, and we didn't see anything for Jordan there either. However, we pulled in at a picnic table to feed Jordan.

Since we let her sit on the picnic table, she seemed to think standing on it was a good idea, as well.

After her tummy was full, we drove to another park to look around. We had more luck at park #3. There weren't any other kids at this playground area, but there were several things for Jordan to check out. She is a fan of swings.

Going down the slide was alright, but climbing up was apparently more fun.
Jordan also had fun on the metal rocking horse, though we had to make sure it hadn't gotten too hot in the sun before letting her try it out.

On a side note we got the results back from Jordan's allergy tests, and it doesn't appear she is allergic to anything. That is good, but that still means we have no clue why she coughs. The pediatrician said he still thinks "there is an allergy component to it", so if she keeps coughing he wants to redo the tests when she turns 2. We may get things straightened out at some point...

More from the big party

2008-09-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

Now for a random assortment of party pictures. I think we had around 30 adults and 10 kids there. It was pure chaos, but everyone ate well (except Jordan). Here are my dad, Dave, my cousin Shea, her daughter Nyla and our friend Josh around the food table.

I'm glad to see that Ethan still enjoys the ride on toy. Jordan is more interested in hitting the buttons to make the horn blow and music play than actually riding on this one. Hopefully that will change.

One of our best helpers was Jordan's cousin Zach. Jordan absolutely adores Zach, and everything he does makes her squeal with laughter.

Jordan's third cousin, Nyla, was happy to help her get going on the ride on toy.

After opening the first gift bag, Jordan spotted the toys and lost interest in the other presents. She kept going back to that bag and looking in. Notice that several of the presents were taller than Jordan. The polka dotted dress belongs to the one and only Sophie B. She was our helper getting ready for the party and opening the presents.
This is probably my last post until after the WVU v. Marshall game this weekend. Dave and I are headed up on Friday so I can go to the CLE, and we'll be staying in Motown Friday and Saturday nights. Jordan will have plenty of quality time with her Ma Maw, and Maddie will have quality time with Jordan's Nana and Uncle Grandpa/Bo Bo. I must say that Ma Maw is getting the prettier granddaughter!

Quick post

2008-09-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Although most of you know the sad outcome of the WVU game against Colorado, I had to share a picture that was taken at day care yesterday. Although no one asked the parents to dress their kids in WVU apparel, we have Mountaineer spirit and dressed our little ones in preparation for the big game. Aren't they adorable?!?

I'm glad Jordan was asleep by the time the game started so she didn't have to witness it. I'm also glad she is still too young to understand defeat.

The big party

2008-09-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I think Jordan's first birthday party was a success. We had a ton of people there, and I didn't get more than 2 minutes to speak to anyone once the party started. Dave and I got to the party site shortly after 11 am and started loading everything in and rearranging tables. Thankfully my dad showed up to help and then Kim and Sophie were kind enough to bring the cakes and assist in decorating, as well. I had tons of help, but we barely got it done in time. I was thrilled with the way everything turned out though. Jordan was in a good mood during most of the party, and all of the kids seemed to play well together. This is the first of what will be several birthday related posts.

First a picture of the cake table decorated with pics of Jordan. A friend's wife did both cakes, and I was sooooo impressed with the look and the taste. The pictures were from our ill-fated trip to the Picture People.

A closer picture of the amazing cake. What you can't see well here is that behind Winnie the Pooh there is a sign that says "Happy 1st Birthday Jordan".

The "spread" in front of the room wrap and scene setter. Thanks Kim for the idea of the room wrap- it made the room!
Of course, you can't have a birthday party without the birthday girl. This was early on when she was still checking out all of the other kids and all of the chaos. Holding onto Nana's hand made it a little easier.
And last but not least for today is Jordan checking out her "smash" cake. She basically flicked some of the icing and that was it. She didn't tear it apart or eat a single bite. I tried putting icing on a spoon to get her to eat it, but she was not interested. She had the cutest little birthday hat, but it only stayed on for .2 seconds before she ripped it off. Oh, well.
Thanks to all who came to the party. For those invited that could not make it, we missed you but know you were thinking about Jordan on her birthday and/or the day of her party.

On Jordan's first birthday

2008-09-10T09:03:00.001-07:00

I remember being in the operating room nervously awaiting Jordan's first cry and many nights where all I could think of was making the crying stop. It seems like yesterday Jordan entered my life, but it is also hard to remember what life was like before she was here. I can't believe my "baby Jordan" is officially 1 year old. One of the girls at work asked me today what time it was 1 year ago that she and another girl took me to the hospital. I think I was the first person at this office to actually go into labor in the building. Dave and I had gone for a follow up ultrasound, had lunch and then went back to the doctor's office to discuss our options since they thought Jordan was 8 lbs 9 oz. After deciding on a c-section to be scheduled at the end of the week, I returned to work and e-mailed people to say Jordan would be arriving by c-section on September 14. Just like the way she lives her life now, Jordan had other plans. She decided she would be arriving that day. She arrived at 8:15 pm weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Below is a small glimpse back at Jordan's first year...

Our first family photo.

As soon as you were dressed for your hospital photos, with your parents' bad timing, you gave your parents their first poopy diaper to change.

I was so thrilled when you learned to really smile. You looked like you were cracking up even before you could laugh out loud.

You had a great first Christmas beginning with Christmas eve dinner at Robert's house, Christmas morning at our house, later that day visiting with your cousin Zach, Ma Maw and Aunt Julie at Julie's house and then finishing off with presents at your Nana's house.

After scooting backwards for a while and getting frustrated, you mastered crawling. Honestly, watching you scoot backwards under furniture was pretty darn adorable!

Your first time in a pool was during Memorial weekend at Robert's house. As usual, you preferred being independent in the pool rather than in the shaded float purchased just for you.

Your first time on a slide at my firm picnic in June. Since the crocs seemed to be slowing you down, sans shoes was definitely the way to go.

You finally started loving the outdoors and just being in the grass. Of course, your buddy Maddie wasn't far away. The glowing eyes behind you belong to a kitten that stayed with us for a month or so until we found a new home for him. You had a lot of fun with him while he visited- don't worry he went to a good home.

Then you got Zach's roller coaster he had outgrown. I was a little scared to put you on the roller coaster, but your father was braver and took care of that. While you are hard to photograph zipping down the coaster, loving every second of it, capturing any of that joy on film is wonderful.
And now you are a big girl, standing, walking and trying to run. You love to climb the stairs, though going down is not something of interest at the moment.

This first year of life has brought so many changes and amazing moments, I can't wait to see what you have in store for us in the years to come. I had no idea what it was like to love someone so much until you came along. As I've told you many times, I love you with all my heart, and you owe me a lifetime of kisses. Happy birthday baby Jordan!

Gross feet and a loving tree

2008-09-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Like many infants and toddlers, Jordan is not a fan of shoes on her feet, though they seem to make great toys. Well, the carpet at day care has been an issue since she started crawling. Now that she is walking, it is just as much of an issue. Even though the carpet was cleaned about a month ago, this what Jordan's feet looked like after a day at day care on Friday:

And here is Jordan "reading" the letter from day care to our firm employees saying that our day care rate is going up $29 per week! Ouch! That was not a happy surprise, especially considering the frustration with the carpet.

When we were sitting in the basement this afternoon I noticed what looked like a heart on the bark of a tree in the back yard. Since I got a new camera this week, I had to snap a few pictures of it. Can you see it?

So many books, so little time

2008-09-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

Jordan really seems to like books these days, but she will not sit still to allow us to read her an entire book. Right now she is more into the soft and squeaky and hard books with tabs she can open or toes she can wiggle (seriously- thanks for that one Mom). It is never enough to have only one book out though, as evidenced by these pictures.

When she is taking a break from "reading" her books, our dog, Maddie, is her best buddy. Jordan is so excited to see Maddie when we get home each day, and Maddie equally happy to meet us at the car and try to lick Jordan's toes as we carry her inside. They really are cute together. Maddie sneaks in as many licks as possible, but that is normal for her since she licks everything all of the time, including the carpet. Jordan has gotten better about petting Maddie instead of hitting. Thankfully, even when she hits Maddie either takes it or just runs away.

So, Jordan is now only 4 days away from her 1st birthday. I think we have most everything for her party, though we are missing some RSVP's. I really hope a lot of friends and family come for this one since she has only 1 first birthday. My dad is going to drive up for the weekend and will see Jordan walking for the first time. I guess a lot of people at the party will see her walking that have never seen her walking before.

And now another ultimatum. Since the last 2 posts illicited only 1 comment combined (thanks CBR), I'm waiting on at least 4 comments before updating the blog so THAT MEANS YOU!

Big girls share

2008-08-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Jordan for months has loved to hand us things. Now that she can pick up bigger and heavier items, it is interesting to see what she tries to share. She also loves opening every cabinet that does not have a baby lock of some kind. In the bathroom she likes all forms of feminine products. Here she is trying to share panty liners with me.

She is equally as generous with the ads she has ripped to shreds.

She is often territorial when it comes to the remote and phones, but she does try to share on occasion.
Today we had a 10:20 appointment at the Picture People place in the mall. We left in plenty of time to get there and get her clothes changed since I didn't want her birthday dress to get all wrinkled up before the pictures. We had no idea the local distance run would block off some of roads to the mall, so we got stuck on an exit ramp for about 15 minutes. Since traffic up ahead looked terrible, we ended up pulling into a Hampton Inn parking lot and strolling the rest of the way there. While we were walking several blocks, we noticed the road we wanted to take had reopened, but there was no time to go back and get the car. We got Jordan changed without any whining, and she was in a fantastic mood. She wasn't hungry or sleepy, so I thought it was a perfect time for pictures. It turns out with Jordan there is no such thing... She was walking around the store playing and having fun. She was waving at everyone we saw and happy as a clam until the camera came out. At that point she started screaming at the top of her lungs with tears streaming down her cheeks. It was insane! We got her calmed down several times, but as soon as any part of her body hit the floor, the screaming resumed. We gave up and put her back in the stroller. However, a wonderful lady named Gretchen came to me and said that if we held Jordan she could take some close up pictures. I was skeptical, but we did manage to get a few decent pictures. I'm not sure who was more frustrated with the screaming- me or Dave. I was just glad after all that that we ended up with some good pictures for her first birthday.

Potty post

2008-08-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

Potty post sounded more interesting than bathroom post. When we bought our house, the master bathroom was downright scary. It was so scary that I couldn't bring myself to take a true before picture. However, I thought the demo pictures were lovely. Everything from the floor to part of the ceiling came out in the master bathroom because it was dirty, dingy and scary. I have 1 question for you- Who drops the ceiling above the shower down to make a small, stand-up shower even more claustrophobic?!? The home inspector and our contractor both think there was mortar (for brick laying) between the tiles rather than grout. It looked like someone had tried to go in there with dark mortar or grout and then only half-way wiped it down. It was smeared all over the tiles. Yuck!

Don't be jealous of the lovely medicine cabinet and lights.

The tile on the walls went, as well.

Over 2,000 lbs of crap came out of the bathroom and went to the dump. The room is narrow, so it is hard to photograph, but here are the after pictures (with Jordan's head included since she was my assistant):

So, we decided not to keep the lovely medicine cabinet with the installed lights. We went with this look instead. The beadboard is sooooo much better than the gross tile that was on the wall.Although the house will be a work in progress for years to come, it was so nice to have the bathroom completed and looking great when we moved in. it isn't huge, but having a 2nd full bathroom is key when the hall bath is being shared with an infant.

So thirsty

2008-08-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Although times have changed and babies are supposed to have plain water due to fear of strangulation, Jordan apparently didn't listen to the doctor on that bit of advice. Dave left a pack of water on the kitchen floor, and Jordan quickly figured out how to pull the individual bottles out of the plastic.

But she needed more than 1.
And she had to check the nutritional information on the label (upside down).

Then she carried one of the bottles into the hallway and tried to get a drink. Thankfully, she hasn't figured out how to twist lids off yet.

Jordan is finally getting her first 2 teeth, but I haven't been able to snap a picture of them yet. She has had a lovely cough again for the past couple of weeks, as well. The combination makes it difficult for her (and us) to sleep most nights. Dave and I have been walking around like zombies from time to time due to the lack of sleep. Keep your fingers crossed for all 3 of us that we start getting more sleep again soon.

1 month off for good behavior

2008-08-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

When we've tried to get Jordan to wear a sun hat in the sun, she has repeatedly pulled it off and thrown it to the ground. However, she will occasionally keep it on inside the house. go figure. All the cool kids wear sun hats with 1 eye covered...

especially while chasing the kitten with an unsnapped romper. It takes too much holding still at the end of the diaper change to re-snap when there is playing to be done.

Yep- she can now reach the top of our dining room table (and pull off anything within reach).

Jordan and I spent almost 3 hours at the doctors' office yesterday where we saw both the pulmonologist and gastroenterologist. Since the breathing treatments and reflux medicine seem to be working well together we are just keeping things as they are. The pulmonologist said she gets 1 month off for good behavior, so we won't have to follow up until October. It was an adventure seeing 2 doctors in the same office without Dave to assist. In my hurry to get Jordan from day care, I forgot to grab her pacifier. While she was very good most of the time, during her meltdown, I called my office and begged the office runner to bring me her paci from daycare. Of course, after my pathetic begging, Jordan switched back to her normal self and didn't even need the paci. Oh, well. She is going to have to have blood work done twice in the next few months because she has to have her lead level tested for her 12 month appointment, and we are going to go ahead and have allergy tests done. I'm definitely making Dave hold her for the blood work because she is incredibly strong.

Early birthday present(s)

2008-08-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ma Maw got Jordan an early birthday present of a Jordan-sized swing and slide. It is perfect because we can use it outside during warm weather, and then it can come inside to the basement for not so great weather. She has loved big girl swings since we put her in one at her Ma Maw's house a couple of months ago. This one doesn't go very high, but it is still fun (as far as I can tell since my behind clearly doesn't fit).

But there are lots of things to check out on the swing set.

And then there is her need to hang onto the sides.

She would only go down the slide if one of us was hanging onto her. I'm sure that won't last long.
But, the MOST exciting "toy" of all was the rubber mulch underneath the swing set. At least she used the slide to balance herself.

On a side note, Jordan and I will have our third visit with the pediatric pulmonologist on Thursday and our first visit with the gastroenterologist in the same office immediately thereafter. Dave can't go with us, so please wish us luck!

DEFENSE VERDICT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

This is a pictureless totally bragging due to excitement post. Our trial began with selecting the jury at 9am today. Before lunch we had opening statements and the testimony of the Plaintiff by video (recorded 2 weeks ago). After lunch we had the remaining 3 witnesses and closing statements. The jury was out only like 20 minutes before coming back with a defense verdict on both claims. Woo!hoo! When we were sitting there for a couple of minutes after we knew the jury had a verdict, I soooooo felt like I was going to pee my pants. Since I had the police officer defendant beside me at counsel table, I was especially nervous. I am so excited to say I have my first trial under my belt and that we won- even if I only got to question 1 witness. Woo!hoo!

We are having a fancy celebration this evening once Pizza Hut gets here...

Crazy busy yet again

2008-08-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

So, it looks like I'll finally get to go to trial for the first time on Tuesday morning. That means this week has been a bit hectic. That wasn't helped by Jordan's refusal to sleep through the night- I'm REALLY hoping this stage passes quickly. Oh, well. My gagging girl finally ate a few bites of something solid on Wednesday. I picked up a pizza on the way home, and while Dave and I were eating it, she started opening her mouth like she wanted some. I tore out some of the center of the crust (the soft part), and Jordan actually ate 4 bites. When we switched to Cheerios, she did not take to that as well. When I tried mashed potatoes yesterday evening, she gagged so badly that she spit up the bite of potatoes and a little of what she already had in her stomach. Clearly this is going to take a while...

Jordan is still a fan of the open mouth smile. ..or maybe she was just jabbering.

Still amused and amazed by the camera case.

This is Jordan in front of the armoire in the living room staring straight up at the TV. You can tell she belongs to Dave and me.

Tomorrow I'm helping host a baby shower for my friend Jenny who is due on Jordan's first birthday. Since I'll be running around helping, I'm attending without Jordan. After I get home, we'll leave to drop Maddie off to be groomed. Then we'll head to a 2 year old's birthday party. Jordan may spend tomorrow night with her Ma Maw, but that is still up in the air. Since I'll be doing trial prep on Sunday most of the day, guaranteed sleep on Saturday night is probably a good idea. Wish me luck for the trial! It should only be a one day trial, but you never know.

Finally taking to the outdoors

2008-07-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

The first few times we put Jordan in the grass, she seemed very upset by the feeling of it on her feet. For whatever reason, she has changed her tune about grass recently- in a good way. She was happy playing in the grass this time, in part because she could play with the dog and the kitten. When I snapped this picture, I didn't notice the kitten's eyes glowing in the background. At least Jordan was laughing.

And she discovered a new toy- a stick.

Blades of grass are also very interesting to a 10 month old. Can't you see the wheels turning in Jordan's mind?
We had a pretty average week at our house. Jordan spent last night with her Ma Maw, so Dave and I got to go out to dinner with another couple and have real adult conversation. The amount Jordan is sleeping is going back and forth for both naps and nighttime. The daycare had to rearrange the cribs because my non-napping girl kept waking up the baby beside of her who is a light sleeper- lovely. Oh, well.

Happy birthday to me!

2008-07-23T05:18:00.001-07:00

Well, I've officially crossed over the line and am no longer in my twenties. Of course, I went out in style with a party that was more for the kids than the adults (if you ignore the delicious margaritas and the beer). We didn't have a big group, but the kids seemed to have a good time, even if Emma accidentally went into the pool and little Hope smashed her finger in the cooler. When I put Jordan in the wagon for a ride around the pool, the under 4 set all decided to take a ride, as well. Can you say, "Wagon full o' trouble"? I thought it was adorable, but it was truly impossible to get 5 kids exhausted from swimming to look at the same camera at the same time.

I was determined that Jordan was going to wear this dress before she outgrew it, so she started the party in this lovely Polo ensemble.

I wasn't sure if we were going to do the cook-out for a little while because Jordan had a heck of a virus most of last week. Last Sunday she started running a low grade fever, so she stayed home with my mom on Monday. Tuesday we had a well baby visit scheduled, and she was fine, so she got 4 shots and went to day care. She threw up her peas there, but they thought it was probably just due to the shots. On my way home that evening she projectile vomited all over my backseat several times. We ended up back at the pediatrician's office on Thursday afternoon because we needed to make sure she was not dehydrated and that it was just a virus. Thursday and Friday were pretty rough, but she woke up much more like her usual self on Saturday. She was still a little extra cranky on Saturday and Sunday, but she is doing much better now (knock on wood!).

First step without holding onto anything!

2008-07-13T19:06:00.001-07:00

Ever since Jordan figured out how to crawl, I've wished I had a faster camera. It is nearly impossible to get her to smile for the camera for more than a second here and there. Oh, well. Here are a few pics from the day of the Smoke on the Water chili cook-off. Jordan looked adorable in this little capri outfit, if I do say so myself...

Who needs toys when you can play with a camera case?

Who, me?
Jordan spent last night with her Ma Maw and her cousin Zach. When her Ma Maw brought her home today, Dave went to the basement while Jordan and I stayed upstairs in the living room. She was standing up with these little shape toys in each hand. She was dying to hand one of the shapes to me and was so excited that she forgot she wasn't hanging onto anything. She took a step or 2 without holding on to anything. I, of course, screamed and clapped for her. Dave was disappointed he missed it, especially since she refused to do a repeat performance all evening. I had a secret fear that her first steps would be at daycare where Dave and I would both miss it. I'm so excited I was the one who got to see her first unassisted step!

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-07-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Jordan got to attend her first law firm picnic. While she did alright, I would say she was less than impressed with the whole thing. However, she did get to go on a slide for the first time. Most of the time she wanted to sit on the picnic table and tear apart chip bags.

Here she is on the slide. Her little croc-like shoes seemed to slow her down, so we took them off. Then her bare feet slowed her down, as well. Apparently socks are the fastest way to make it down a slide, though they aren't much fun when it is 90 degrees. While it didn't look like much fun to Dave or I, Jordan fussed when we took her away from the slide.

And now introducing the kitten (who is currently looking over my shoulder). Dave is a mine inspector with the DEP and travels to both active and reclaimed mine sites 4 days per week. Some mines were/are shut down this week for miners' vacation. When he was at one such site this week this kitten started following him around meowing. He asked the security guard if the kitten belonged to anyone up there, and he said it didn't. It was no where near a road or house, so he was afraid what would happen to the kitten if he left it there. So, being the softies we are, the kitten is currently in our basement. Our other animals are not too happy about the situation, and I'm still hoping Kim decides to take it. It is friendly and playful, but 2 cats, a dog and an infant are plenty for us right now. I think the kitten is a female, but I've been wrong on that front before. Isn't it cute?

We had the follow-up with the pediatric pulmonologist on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the doc had had something come up and was running very late, so we were there a lot longer than expected. He is leaning away from asthma at this point but didn't really tell us much of anything. We are down to 1 breathing treatment per day, at least until the August appt, so that is good. At that point we are going to see both the pulmonologist and gastroenterologist because there is a chance reflux is causing the coughing. I really don't think that is what it is, but we owe it to Jordan to talk to the other doc and get his opinion on the matter. Hopefully she'll grow out of this very quickly.

Lastly- Happy 4th of July and happy birthday Mom!

Slowly but surely

2008-06-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

We will eventually get our house finished- right? We still have a lot of plans, but it is certainly a lot harder trying to fix up a house with an infant than with just the 2 of us- especially since she is now pulling everything off of tables and opening cabinets. Here is a picture of Jordan's crib, her wall letters, mobile and the window closest to her crib. For those of you well versed in our crib saga (never buy Creations Baby furniture), this is her real crib.

And a close up of the letters. Since I have very little (if any) artistic talent, I got someone from ebay to paint these for me. The "o" and "n" have dragonflies to match Jordan's bumper and quilt.

And a leftover picture from Memorial weekend. Jordan loves being pulled around Robert's pool in this red wagon that I swear has some type of special off-road wheels. We routinely have to stop the wagon ride when she stands up (for obvious reasons). On a side note, this is the most fabulous pool because it is around 4 ft deep so I can hold Jordan and be anywhere in the pool.

Wish us luck with the follow-up pediatric pulmonologist appt on Tuesday because these breathing treatments are wearing us out. If Jordan is awake, she still fights us on them, including stiffening her entire body, screaming and trying to squirm out of our arms. This makes her sweat which seems to make her cough, which is tons of fun. She has a well baby visit on July 15, as well, so she is all doctored up.

Just plugging along

2008-06-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

So, we have just been plugging along lately. Jordan had a follow-up appt from her ear infection, and it turned out she had thrush. I think that was a lot of the reason she stopped sleeping through the night 4 nights in a row. She is on the mend, but she has a follow-up with the lung doc on July 1. We may end up insisting on allergy testing because her cough still comes and goes.

So far Jordan isn't a big fan of sitting in the grass, but she has always loved going outside. This is a picture from an evening when we were grilling out. Jordan was in one of her favorite spots- Dave's lap. Clearly, she still has no teeth.

Not the greatest picture, but I love the way her eyes look here. Outside you can truly see how big and blue they are.

And she has begun expressing interest in assisting the photographer (me)...

Baby proofing

2008-06-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

We've been MIA in the blogging department b/c things have been pretty busy. When Jordan was trying to overcome hand, foot and mouth disease, we also had company for several days bravely staying with us. Then I thought I was finally going to get to go to trial, so we were prepping, though the case settled at a second mediation on Tuesday. Yesterday afternoon was my firm picnic, then this morning I went to a Tastefully Simple party and then the family went to the chili cook-off. But anyway...

With crawling and pulling up comes baby proofing. We now have a couple of baby gates set up on the first floor of our house to keep Jordan from falling down the stairs and out of the dog's food and water bowls. She has been frustrated with the gate between the dining room and kitchen since that one keeps her out of Maddie's food.

Busted!

Of course, Jordan isn't the only 1 frustrated by the baby gates...

Twin fun at Emma and Ethan's birthday party

2008-06-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

So- better late than never. Before Memorial weekend we attended the 3rd birthday party for twinmommylawchick's adorable twins, Emma and Ethan. While the rain held off, it was VERY windy that day which resulted in paper plates being blown off of tables, despite being taped down. We didn't go the playground with the bigger kids, but I know a good time was had by all, especially Sophie who was so into playing that she didn't stop to go pee- oops.

Notice Jordan's eyes which look red from the wind.

And while we got each of the kids their first pair of roller skates (Barbie for Emma and red boy ones for Ethan), one of the biggest hits of the party were the capes purchased by 3carrs from etsy. While I didn't get good pics of the capes because the kids were having a blast with them and their other toys, here are the ones I did get.

At least the wind made the capes fly!

Because Jordan can't get a break, she currently has an ear infection and is probably coming down with hand, foot, mouth disease. 2 of the toddlers at daycare were diagnosed this week and Jordan now has red bumps appearing on her legs and feet. Oh, what fun...

Memorial day water fun

2008-05-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

As any of you local ladies know, we had great weather during most of the Memorial weekend. That meant Jordan got to experience the joy of a pool for the first time. I think she was a little baffled by the bathing suit when we were putting it on. I guess I'm either brave or crazy posing with her in a bathing suit- of course, she is covering me up for the most part.

She was kind of iffy about the float. She seemed alright with it to begin with but started fussing after 5 or 10 minutes. I was so disappointed at that point.

When I got her out of the float and played with her in the pool where she could kick and splash, she loved it. We stayed in until she looked like a prune on her hands and feet (and then some). Since Dave was in charge of the cameras, he ended up video taping a fair amount and only got this 1 shot of her out of the float in the pool.

She's a big girl now

2008-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

Jordan has had a big couple of weeks. She is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything she can reach now. As soon as she figured out how to crawl forward, she headed straight for the outlets. We definitely have our hands full now. She has already managed to bang her head on the wall and fall on her butt hard enough to scare herself. She usually just plops down on her butt to begin crawling or playing with whatever she has grabbed from the coffee table.

And this is Jordan playing with a toy from Wally world designed to help her learn to walk. I just wanted something she could safely pull up on and had a hard time finding anything without wheels.

And while no teeth have come in yet, she is teething and drooling. Notice the drool on both her onesie and the couch. I think she was proud of herself.

So, this week we figured out what was more pitiful than an infant chest x-ray, an infant barium swallow study with upper GI. They had to strap her down with her arms by her head again, only this time for more like 20 minutes while they fed her barium and watched it progress through her system. Not that I blame her, but she was royally POed with the whole thing. Infants apparently like barium, which is something I was worried about. We still don't know much of anything about the cough, but the radiologist said everything looked fine. I think we're going to call our pediatrician on Tuesday to see what the results were. The pediatric pulmonogist is apparently out of town until sometime in June, and we don't have a follow up appt with him until early July.

On a happier note, Jordan will attend her first cook out tomorrow. I hope the weather is warm enough for her to get in the pool. This pool is kept in the high 80's, but if it feels chilly, we are definitely not putting her in there. As much as she loves playing in the bathtub, I have high hopes for the pool. Don't worry, our deprived child owns 5 swimsuits and a coverup to choose from.

The queen of uncomfortable positions

2008-05-17T07:19:00.001-07:00

With all of the coughing and throwing up Jordan has done at daycare, she has been sent home several times recently. This picture was taken on one of those days after we got her home. She acted fine and enjoyed playing in the dining room floor. At a part supply store recently I picked up a cute little bucket and shovel, which she has loved playing with. She gets in positions like these and doesn't seem to understand why she can't get going. Maybe she is practicing to leap over hurdles later in life.

This week Jordan finally crawled forward at daycare and at home. She didn't go very far, but she is already heading straight for the outlets. Looks like we have some baby proofing to do in the very near future. She can still get herself stuck under the furniture quite nicely.

Jordan loves playing on the bottom part of the dining room table, with the exception of getting stuck underneath it. Don't you love the diaper sticking out of the onesie?

Busy, busy times

2008-05-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Dave may not be a great photographer, but he is clearly a born hairdresser. He loves "styling" Jordan's hair during bath time. She apparently thought she was supposed to make an Elvis face with her lips fixed that way. Notice the bath toy in each hand- you can't enjoy a bath without a toy in each hand.

Of course, anything in her hand also has to make it to her mouth if at all possible.

Since Jordan has been coughing on and off since January, the pediatrician set an appt up for us with a local pediatric pulmonologist. Let me just tell you for those who have not been through it, infant x-rays are terrible. They strapped Jordan to this board on the x-ray table with her arms up beside of her head. Clearly that is not going to go over well. They took 1 frontal and 1 side view of her chest to check out her lungs. There is no definitive diagnosis at this point, but the doc is treating her for asthma to see how the treatment works. Next Friday we have to go back to the hospital where she has to drink barium and get another x-ray. That one should be tons of fun. For now we are doing 3-4 breathing treatments per day, which she hates, and taking 5 days of liquid steroids. Please wish us luck with all of the medical stuff, though I don't think we'll know anything for a little while.

The floor and Jordan's model pose

2008-05-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize until reading the comments that none of the pics showed the new tile floors in the kitchen. We coordinated the countertops with the floor to look very neutral. The cabinets look so rich in person that we wanted those to be the focal point. The green is very vibrant and warm, as well. Here is the only pic I have that includes the floor.

Ignoring the mess on the couch, here is Jordan's model pose. She was hanging out on my lap one evening and ended up situating herself this way. As soon as Dave pointed it out, I knew he had to grab the camera. Can't you just see us embarrassing her with this one when she is a teenager?!?

Of course infant models need the appropriate accessories, like a paci and a paci clip.

And now for the sort-of after pics

2008-05-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

As you can see, we don't have the outlet covers up, and there was still a bar thing against the walls between the countertops and cabinets, but this is pretty darn close to being finished.

The new window, dishwasher, sink, faucet and sprayer and, of course, new cabinets and countertops.

I love the seamless sink!

The glass front corner cabinet is filled with West Virginia made Fiesta, most of which is from the fabulous tent sale I stumbled on last week.

And a close up of the solid surface countertop.

This kitchen has been a big pain in the butt, but it finally looks worth it. We have a lot of work left to do throughout the house, but I see some light in the distance now.

Not finished but getting there

2008-04-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Now that the kitchen is almost finished, I'm brave enough to post some before and during pictures. Don't be jealous of the kitchen we started out with. The previous owners decided instead of replacing ugly laminate countertops from the 60's they would just unevenly put tile over top of the laminate and put wood on the ends. These things just looked dirty, and you couldn't do anything on the countertops like write notes because of the huge grout lines. Don't you love how the tiles were not cut to really fit around the sink?

I've never been so big on faux painting, but these cabinets were hideous and also just looked dirty. The original stove and windows from the 60's didn't make the kitchen very appealing either. I'm not sure what the people who picked out this hardware were thinking either.

And a close up of the faux painting on the backsplash. Notice the switchplate cover which has more holes than switches in a lovely faux copper.

These 2 walls are still a bit of a mystery. There was wallpaper painted white above the chair rail and no wallpaper below the chair rail. Under the wallpaper were these odd bright yellow walls. Of course, the wallpaper came off in a mix of decent sized and tiny pieces. That was a very frustrating weekend.
The tile really wasn't bad in the kitchen, but we figured dark floor and dark cabinets would make the room way too dark. Dave took out enough of the tile to put the cabinets against this well and let the contractor take out the rest. There was lovely vinyl flooring under the tile though.
I'll post some of the pics with the new countertops, appliances, cabinets, flooring and painted walls soon. We need to get outlet covers and replace the ugly light fixture, but most everything in there is finished. Wish us luck on that and the rest of the house.

Why Daddy doesn't take many pictures

2008-04-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Typically I am the one taking the pictures of Jordan. However, when I was taking some pictures a week or so Dave decided he wanted to take a few. Here are some of the results (which I told him he was not allowed to delete).

This one wasn't too bad. I think that is supposed to be a smile.

Yes, the camera has auto focus, but you would never know it by this picture.
We had an unusual day today thanks to a water line break which required my office and the day care to shut down completely. While the attorneys were supposed to work from home, Jordan didn't make that task so easy. She did take a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which is a very long nap for Jordan who usually does more of a cat nap. Now that Dave is home, I guess I need to work for at least a couple of hours.

Big girl bathtub... on a sad note

2008-04-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

Jordan graduated to the big girl blow up tub a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting pics. I was afraid for a while that she would fall back into the water, so we waited to put her in the blow up tub until I was sure she could hold herself upright well enough. She LOVED being in the deeper tub so she could splash until her heart was content. Check out those rolls!

Cheesing for the camera. Dave was brave enough to get in the tub and ended up wishing he had worn swimming trunks!

She had to check out the new tub completely, including the useless hardware stuff.

And now for the sad note. When I was growing up my mom had several good friends that were always around. As I got older, I grew close to several of them and came to value their friendships, as well. Everyone needs at least one friend willing to start gossip with "don't you dare tell your mother I told you this..." For me, this friend was my mom's friend Ruthy. She was a very good friend to Mom and I for many, many years. I spent countless hours when I was in high school and college sitting in her living room discussing everything and nothing at all. She had not gotten to meet Jordan yet and jokingly gave me a hard time about it when I last saw her several weeks ago. On Saturday I called her to take Jordan to her house to meet her, but she wasn't home. On Tuesday she was found in her house having passed away. She was a beloved mother, sister and grandmother and was far too young to pass away of natural causes, but that is exactly what happened. Now I'm trying to remember if I hugged her the last time I saw her and regretting that I didn't try to get Jordan to her house sooner. Even for those of you who didn't get to meet Ruthy, I ask that you please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Jordan's first Easter basket

2008-04-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, things were so hectic at Easter that we didn't even get to the Easter basket. No worries though, Jordan got to have a good time with it later. I'm glad we went with a plush Easter basket because Jordan loves being hands on, and I prefer when she cannot injure herself with things- call me crazy. She had to grab the bunny's ears.

She generally likes playing with the plush blocks that were in there, though she wasn't very interested in the book.

Of course, I think her favorite was the purple Easter grass stuffed in around the real presents.

Well, the pediatrician still isn't sure exactly what is going on. Jordan is now taking Zyrtec in case it is allergies, liquid Albuterol in case she wasn't getting enough of the treatment through the nebulizer and we switched her formula in case it is a food allergy. He also gave us a referral to a lung specialist for next month. Since she threw up on Dave last night and didn't sleep very well, I'm not sure if this is working yet. She is with Dave's mom this evening, and we'll get her tomorrow some time. Thankfully the pediatrician doesn't think it is anything serious since she is healthy aside from the cough, but we are trying to figure this out. It is so pitiful when she coughs and cries.

Crappy day

2008-04-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today did not go as planned, not that much in my life does. Jordan awoke at about 5:30am, so I put her in bed with me until I was ready to get up at 7. During that 1.5 hrs, she spent much of the time trying to grab my eyeball through my eye lid, trying to stick her finger up my nose and grabbing my lip. It was lovely. Then, I put Jordan in the bouncy seat while I took a shower, and she fussed much of the time. She was whiny most of the morning but fell asleep on the way to get her pictures taken by a real photographer for the first time. She was in a good mood to begin with until she nearly hit the floor while sitting in a small chair against my better judgment and never fully recovered. I HOPE there are at least a few good pictures in the bunch. It really was a terrible experience with her in the mood she was in. Then, she made it at daycare for about 3.5 hours before throwing up all over the place, including on the poor lady giving her a bottle. So, we came home early and waited on the guy to come measure for the countertops. He never showed up, so that necessitated another call to Lowe's. He is coming tomorrow instead. Jordan has her first temperature of her life, so we are headed back to the doc tomorrow morning. Boy, what fun.

But anyway...

Jordan is thinking about crawling, but she can't seem to get going in the right direction.

She was not too happy when she realized she was stuck under the chair. Don't ask me why we haven't taken the paper off the feet of the chair yet.

And a random smiling pic since we haven't seen too many smiles today. I think this expression is a lot like the one of her during her diaper change in my last post.

Keep your fingers crossed that things go well at the doctor tomorrow and that the countertop guy shows up. Of course, it will be another 2 wks after he does the measurements before the counters are actually installed...

Jordan is loving life

2008-04-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

We are still getting settled into the new house, even if we haven't found half of our stuff yet. Most of the kitchen cabinets were installed today, and the rest should be installed on Monday. The kitchen floor should be re-tiled early this week. Hopefully the new countertops will be installed within a week or so. We are getting back into our routine, and Jordan seems to be doing well. However, part of her routine is getting up earlier than we want to roll out of bed.

She is so funny during most diaper changes that I can't resist the occasional picture. This one cracks me up.

And almost everything she gets her hands on these days ends up in her mouth, especially the turtle on the Exer-saucer. (Have I mentioned that we could not live without the Exer-saucer?)

Jordan is going for her first pictures with a real photographer on Wednesday, so wish us luck. I REALLY want it to go well.

I'll post before and after pics of the kitchen when it is finished. We love the way the cabinets look so far, but there is still a lot to be done.

Jordan's first Easter

2008-03-29T04:20:00.001-07:00

We woke up on Easter morning at our house. I was so excited to give Jordan her first toy filled Easter basket, but we ended up running late that morning, so she didn't even get to her Easter basket. Have I mentioned it is hard to find items for an Easter basket when a child can't have candy yet? She ended up with Baby Einstein blocks, bunny slippers, a book and bubble blowing rabbit.

Although putting tights on a 6 month old is an adventure, Jordan ended up dressed and ready for church with time to spare. Who needs toys when you can sit on a hit the coffee table at Ma Maw's house?

And a better picture of Jordan's dress, matching cardigan and shoes that cost more than most of my shoes- thankfully, they were a gift.

Jordan loves talking to her Ma Maw. While I thought her dress was adorable, all the frilly layers made her a bit slippery. Jordan did very well in church on Easter. The only time she fussed a little was when she got hungry. She doesn't even fuss when the 89 year old man who thinks he can sing does a solo each Sunday. It was too cold to take part in the Easter egg hunt outside church, but Jordan was given a chocolate bunny and some of the plastic eggs with candy inside. Yeah, those didn't go straight to my hips...

And on the home front... we finally got carpet in the bedrooms on Monday. The kitchen cabinets and appliances are supposed to be delivered on Monday, and we hope our contractor is going to be finished at his current job by the end of next week so he can start installing our new cabinets in a week or so. I can't wait to unpack the kitchen stuff and to fix food in a kitchen that doesn't make me want to gag!

Caught blue pawed... and celebrating St. Patrick's day

2008-03-23T17:32:00.001-07:00

I'm sure I've mentioned our dog and 2 cats before, and you've seen pics of Maddie, our dog. Last weekend we were painting our bedroom blue while Jordan was spending time with her Nana. That evening, I went into our bedroom to find this:

My first suspicion was my cat, Sloopy, who is generally very curious. Since he is almost all black, I knew it would be easy to tell if he had walked through the paint. Surprisingly, he was innocent. We checked Maddie's paws and found that she didn't have any paint on them either. Then, we checked Miss Kitty who, sure enough, had 1 blue front paw and 1 blue back paw. Apparently she walked through the paint tray that Dave left on the floor and just kept right on going. Thankfully, the paw prints in the hallway where we intend to leave the hardwood exposed were very faint. All we could do at that point was laugh.

Last Monday was, of course, St. Patrick's Day. It was also my friend Amanda's and my Uncle John's birthdays, as well. Although my family is Scottish rather than Irish, I found these cute St. Patty's day items which Jordan had to sport for the holiday. Since green beer seems inappropriate for an infant, I thought these were a good way to show her celebratory spirit.

And Jordan in the floor at daycare on St. Patty's day since I didn't have time to take her picture before going to work that morning. Monday mornings are always hectic.

And for anyone following our home improvement/Lowe's stinks saga, the manager of the local Lowe's store called Friday and yesterday and was apologetic. The carpet is supposed to be installed tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. The cabinets are supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, so please keep your fingers crossed that all of the cabinets are in good condition so they can be installed as soon as the contractor is finished on his current job.

Still settling in

2008-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Dave and I get the paper daily because Dave takes it with him to work. Our favorite part of the Sunday paper is the ad section. Since Jordan now loves to tear paper, she also loves the Sunday paper. Here she is enjoying her part of the Sunday paper. Although it looks like she is checking out the pictures in the ad, she started ripping it apart in no time.

When we moved, the red slipcovered loveseats went to back to Mom's house, so this is one of the last pics you'll see for a while of Jordan on the loveseat. Goodness knows Dave and I took turns trying to get Jordan to sleep laying on the loveseats when she would get up and cry from 3am-5am. She also spit up on the loveseats, then again, so did Miss Kitty...

We are still waiting on the carpet for the bedrooms, so we are at a little bit of a stand-still moving in. The kitchen cabinets should arrive within the next few days, but our contractor won't be free to install them for at least another week or 2. However, since the carpet was supposed to arrive in 10-14 days and we are now up to 26, I believe what the people at Lowe's tell me almost as much as I believe politicians. It did make me feel better yesterday to take it out on the flooring lady at Lowe's whose first language is clearly not English. Since I'm sure she got some kind of commission for selling us carpet and has generally sucked, I don't feel the slightest bit guilty. I guess I've been in a mood lately because in the last week I've complained to/about UPS, our new postal carrier, Suddenlink and Lowe's. Unfortunately, I'm sure the problems with Lowe's and Suddenlink will continue. Please wish us luck and patience!

Getting settled in

2008-03-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

In the middle of packing, I tried some self-portraits of Jordan and I that didn't go so well. Clearly Jordan was confused by the process, as well. I need to load a bunch of pics onto the computer, so this is all I have to share for now.

We were supposed to move last Saturday, but several inches of snow make moving a bit difficult, so we put off moving until Sunday. Of course, that meant that we didn't get much unpacked before going back to work on Monday. We still don't have carpet in the bedrooms because Lowe's sucks. It will be several more weeks before the new kitchen cabinets are delivered, so we are stuck with a gross half kitchen at the moment. Seriously, we won't put anything in the oven because there is 40 years worth of dirt and grime in that thing- yuck! The only things being eaten around here are things that can be grilled (when the weather is decent), microwaved, can be eaten cold or is prepared somewhere else.

As the rooms get finished in the house, I'll post before and after pics. The before pics I took are too depressing to share without showing the after pics. Now that we have the internet hooked up here and installed the wireless router this morning, I should be better about updating the blog again.

Still getting ready for the move

2008-03-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

We have been busy scrubbing and painting the new house, in addition to starting to pack. We are moving next Saturday, so if anyone is available and willing to help, please let me know ;)

On Valentine's day, Jordan's present from Dave and I was a cute little pink bear that is incredibly soft. She had a ball playing with the bear laying in the Pack N Play. I think she really likes being able to hold things and look at them, even if she eventually tries to shove the face of whatever it is in her mouth.

Who can resist those cute little toes?

And the adorable rolls?

I'll post some before and after pics of the house after more work is done. The windows were replaced last week, and the new carpet should be installed before we move in. There is still a lot to be done though.

Craziness around here

2008-02-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

Things have been very hectic around here lately. We closed on the new house on Wednesday, found out on Thursday that the seller could not locate a single key to the house, bought a new lock on Thursday, the contractor started working at the house on Friday morning, he replaced the lock on Friday, the carpet installer measured for carpet on Friday and the cabinet guy came to the house to confirm the measurements and make necessary changes. I had depos in Madison on Thursday afternoon, so Jordan went with me. Both of the grandmothers met me in Madison and Ma Maw took her to her house for 2 whole nights. I have to admit that Thursday evening without her was pretty lonely.

On Friday, I spent 3 hours waiting on a 10 minute status conference, which somehow sucked all of my energy. After work, Dave and I met at the new house where I took a few measurements and he started taking down some of the kitchen cabinets so the contractor can rip out the soffit above the upper cabinets before we move in since that should be a dusty job. We went to Home Depot and bought a vanity and vanity top for our bathroom, and Dave dropped the vanity on his toe trying to load it into the Jeep. Of course, I didn't realize he was really in pain and couldn't stop giggling, which didn't go over so well. But anyway... the next errand was to Lowe's where we ordered carpet, cabinets, appliances, the countertop and sink. We also bought and brought home 7 gallons of paint and a bunch of paint supplies, tile for both bathrooms and grout. Whew!!!! Tired yet? We sure were. We ended up leaving my car at the new house, grabbing fast food dinner at 9:30pm and coming home.

The plans for today are to wipe down some of the walls and begin painting. Then, we will go retrieve my sweet girl. Speaking of sweet, this is how she fell asleep the other evening. I'll explain the pink bear later. I hope you guys have a little more calm around your house than we do. Wish us luck!

I think I can, I think I can...just not yet

2008-02-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

A few evenings ago Jordan and I were in the floor playing. She started out sitting up in front of me and then fell forward onto her stomach. Next thing I knew, she was pushing up. She kept kicking her legs behind her but couldn't manage to get anywhere.

Then she gave up and laid her head on her hands, though she really didn't whine.

And she rubbed her eyes, which has become a favorite activity when she is tired.

She started trying again.

But then gave up again.

Jordan figured out last week that she can scoot a little on her back, though she hasn't done it much on carpet. She loves sitting up now, but when I tried to take a picture of her sitting up, she fell backwards and got upset. It is so amazing to watch all of the little things she is figuring out and how she grows and changes each day.

On a side note, we close on the new house on Wednesday. We'll have about 3 weeks to work on the house before we move in, though the kitchen cabinets and countertops probably won't be replaced until we are living there because they take 2-4 weeks to come in. The contractor is going to start gutting the master bath the day after the closing, and we'll have the windows replaced shortly thereafter. I am excited and nervous about all of the projects for the house. Dave brought home some boxes today, so the reality of packing is starting to set in. Any volunteers to help us paint, pack and move?

On a sad note, a friend's high school age cousin accidentally took his own life yesterday. While it sounds corny, make sure everyone you care about knows how much they mean to you because life is truly fragile.

Woo!hoo! for the Jumperoo

2008-02-10T17:57:00.001-08:00

When Jordan started jumping when Dave and I were holding her, we knew it was time to get the Jumperoo. When she started jumping in her Exersaucer, we finally went to get the Jumperoo. Jordan immediately loved it. She jumps in it most evenings after day care, and I think it helps tire her out and helps her sleep. When she is coughing, she still won't stop jumping! The funniest is when she starts whining but stops whining to jump.

And when she takes a break from jumping, she is into the toys. She figured out very quickly that the green thing spins.

Jordan has now started whining when Dave and I leave her. Yesterday she was with Nana (my mom) and screamed for over 30 minutes when she had just been fed and had a clean diaper, so Dave and I had to go calm her down. Thankfully she was fine for the rest of the evening, night and next morning. Today she threw a fit every time MaMaw (Dave's mom) held her. She throws a fit at day care whenever one certain girl holds her, as well. I guess she is selectively throwing fits now, though she was great for us yesterday when we were meeting with contractors and the kitchen design guy at Lowe's.

We have been trying to feed Jordan cereal and baby food, and it is not going well. If any of you experienced parents have any advice, please share. Jordan is throwing a fit when we try to feed her and is spitting most of the food back out like she hates the taste. We've tried cereal and water, cereal and formula, cereal with baby applesauce and plain baby applesauce without success. Help!

Big girls sit in chairs

2008-02-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago Robert decided that Jordan needed a chair that was just her size. Since we were selling the house and now need to pack it up, we haven't brought the chair to our house. Last Sat night was the first time Jordan got to check out her First Anywhere Chair in green gingham with her name monogrammed on it. I'm happy to report that she could sit up quite well in it, though she eventually started trying to nose dive into the floor in it. For dinner, Jordan was dressed in an adorable velvet outfit Nana got her for Christmas which even includes the matching bib.

Today was the make-up appointment for Jordan's 4 month well baby visit. She had to get 4 shots and an oral vacination. I swear she knew what was up as soon as the nurse walked into the room. Jordan threw a fit and was even trying to knock the nurse's hand away. Thankfully Dave was there to hold her while she got the shots. After about 5 minutes, she settled back down. And, now she has reached the milestone of 20 POUNDS! Yes, 20! I was predicting 19, so I was shocked to find out she had gained 1.5 pounds in less than a month.

Still loving the Exer-saucer

2008-02-03T15:05:00.001-08:00

We had a good family day yesterday, though Jordan wouldn't nap for more than 30 minutes at any point yesterday. Since she loves standing up and playing with toys, especially at the same time, she has loved the Exer-saucer since the first time we put her in it. It is a life saver since it entertains her for at least 15-20 minutes at a time allowing us to do fun things like wash bottles. Jordan has also taken to jumping lately, which she tries to do in the Exer-saucer. Thank goodness that thing seems to have some good springs. I picked up a Jumperoo today that has been loved by several other kids first, though I wanted to share these pics before the ones of Jordan in the Jumperoo, which she already seems to love.

This look of concentration seems to convey, "so many toys, so little time".

Unfortunately, after a great day together, Jordan didn't have such a great night. After sleeping through the night twice this week, she woke up at 2am and didn't want to go back to sleep. As I was carrying her to bring her downstairs so Dave could sleep around 5am, she threw up all over me soaking herself in the process. Then, she had another bottle around 7:30 which she threw up all over me about 30 minutes after she finished the bottle. So, we are back on reflux meds. I hope they do the trick because I can't handle another night like last night for quite a while.

Jordan the thug

2008-02-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

With all of the excitement with the house, we haven't been takin many pictures lately. Jordan is still getting better, though she is still coughing a little and sounding a tad congested. Of course, she couldn't get better without sharing with Dave and I, so we both have head colds now. At this point I'm sick of strangers I talk to on the phone at work telling me how terrible I sound and asking why my boss won't let me go home. Other than an inability to breathe, I feel fine.

Here is Jordan hanging out in the Bumbo a couple of weeks ago in an outfit she has probably already outgrown, which is sad since it is a 3-6 month outfit. Tonight we are going to have dinner with my mom, Robert, JC and Kate, so we'll see if Uncle JC is brave enough to hold Jordan now. I'm betting the only way he'll do it is if Mom and I pester him about it. I guess we'll see.

House update!

2008-01-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Although no one has posted any comments yet about my beautiful girl from earlier today, I wanted to post an update about the house. We got 2 offers today and are officially under contract now! Woo!hoo! I am soooo excited. We have to pay for a termite inspection, but the buyers aren't doing a full inspection. Since I already have parts of the new house decorated in my head, I'm so relieved that it feels more real now. I'm in denial about packing for now, but the buyers aren't closing on this house for 45 days, so I can just be happy for at least a week or so. That allows us 2 weeks after we close on the new house to do some work before we move in. Keep your fingers crossed that the rest of the deal goes smoothly!

On the mend

2008-01-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

Since Tuesday Jordan has finished a 3 day course of steroids and has had a number of breathing treatments with the penguin nebulizer. She tolerated both pretty well. She isn't coughing much at all now, though I think Dave and I are getting a version of RSV, which in adults is supposed to be just like a cold. I figured there were only so many times she could cough and sneeze on me until I got something, too. Other than fighting sleep, she has been a happy little girl throughout this one. I ask you- does this look like the face of a sick child?

On Tuesday, we tried to let Jordan sleep in her bouncy seat because the pediatrician's office said to have her as upright as possible at night. Since she isn't a fan of her car seat or the swing, we tried the bouncy. I laid the love seat cushions in the floor to sleep beside her, which lasted until around 11pm. On Wednesday Jordan fell asleep with me holding her, so I laid her down on the cushions that were still in the floor. Of course, her eyes opened wide as soon as her head hit the cushions. She was in a good mood, so I got out the camera. By some miracle, she fell asleep on her own on the cushions and took about a 2 hour nap.

If you look closely at both of these pictures, you can see the scratch on Jordan's cheek which was a day care incident. One of the girls who works at the day care accidentally scratched Jordan's face and clearly felt terrible about it when I picked Jordan up.

Also, 3 groups of people had appointments to see the house yesterday. According to our realtor, someone is writing an offer today, so please keep your fingers crossed!

No shots for Jordan

2008-01-23T05:22:00.000-08:00

We were running late for Jordan's 4 month old well baby visit yesterday thanks to snow a few minutes before we were leaving, a chain reaction car accident and a broken down vehicle in our lane. I was glad Dave went with us because there was no parking at the lot closest to the pediatrician's office, so he dropped us off at the front door and parked in the nearby parking garage. Jordan weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs 10 oz, which means at 4 months and 12 days, she has gained almost 10 lbs since birth. She is also 25" long, putting her at 98% for weight and 89% for height. However, we got some bad news, as well. The good news was that Jordan didn't have to get her 4 month shots yesterday. The bad news is that she has a bronchial condition most likely caused by a mild case of RSV. She is out of daycare for the rest of the week, so I stayed home with her yesterday and am home with her today. I think Dave will have Jordan duty (so to speak) tomorrow and Friday.

The weird thing is that Jordan has never had a high temperature (or even above 98.1) and acts like she feels fine. The cough is bad and we are sucking snot constantly, which makes Jordan so happy. She has started grabbing my hand and digging her little fingernails in as I try to get the sucker in her nose. She had a bit of a rough night but is hanging in there.

Grinnin' and chillin'

2008-01-20T06:45:00.001-08:00

When Jordan is in a good mood, she is so much fun. She will go for hours just smiling and talking, and I love it. I hope it is a sign of her personality as she gets older. Dave constantly calls her Katie, Jr., when she babbles for long periods in an obnoxiously loud voice- not that I blame him. Of course, we talk back to her like she is carrying on a real conversation. According to the ladies at day care, Jordan and the little girl who is 4 days older than Jordan, Jenna, have conversations on the activity mat and in the Exer-saucers pulled side by side. She also has conversations with some of the kids who just turned 1, which really makes you wonder if they understand one another.

And here is Jordan just chillin' one morning before day care. I can hardly get away with propping her up on the loveseat anymore because she pulls herself forward onto her face in no time. She is constantly on the move in one way or another.

We are having an open house today, so I better get to work. Keep your fingers crossed that we get an offer. Since the high today is around 20 degrees, I really hope people come out (and MAKE AN OFFER!!!).

Birthdays and balloons

2008-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Jordan's only 1st cousin, Zach, turned 5 on New Year's Eve. I was glad they chose to have his party on the 30th this year so we could celebrate New Year's with our friends. This was the second birthday party that Jordan attended. At the first, she was so happy being passed around by hometown people who had not met her yet that she didn't notice the multitude of balloons. However, at Zach's party, once the balloons got her attention, she wouldn't look at much else. I could only drag Zach away from bowling for 1 picture, and Jordan was too interested in the balloon above to look at the camera.
This was when Dave held the balloon down close enough for Jordan to really check it out. I had my fingers crossed that she wouldn't manage to pop it in her face. This was also Jordan's first time wearing shoes instead of just socks or booties. Even though they said 3-6 month, they were huge on her and kept falling off. Apparently her feet aren't as off the charts as her weight! ;)

Jordan's next well baby visit is on Tuesday, so we'll find out then exactly how much she weighs and how tall she is. Any guesses? If I remember correctly, at the 2 month appt, she was 14 lbs and 23", though at a sick appt about a month ago, she was already 16 lbs!

Not always so happy... but always cute

2008-01-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a change from the norm. You usually get to see happy, sometimes smiling pictures. While Jordan is often pretty cheery and easy going, though hyper, she has her unexplained fussy moments. I decided to capture one of those and share it with you. Our somewhat clever little girl even has a fake cry already, though it is pretty obvious. When you call her on the fake cry, she usually stops, which makes it even more obvious.

You have to follow up a crying picture with a cute, happy one, so here it is. This was a few days after Christmas, though I'm not sure why I keep getting cute pics of Jordan which also have Dave's hairy leg. Thankfully I can crop this one before printing it.

On a side note, 1 lady looked at the house on Thursday and supposedly loved it. I'll believe it when we get an offer. Keep your fingers crossed on that one. We will be attending another 1st birthday party tomorrow, but Jordan knows the guest of honor at this one. The birthday girl, Marlee, loves mothering Jordan in daycare, which includes kissing her and trying to give her her blanket. She loves "playing" with the older kids, so I think she'll have a good time.

Officially on the market

2008-01-08T16:28:00.000-08:00

So, as of a few minutes ago, our house is officially listed with a realtor. We have a real estate sign in the front yard and a lock box on the front door. While I really hope this place sells quickly so we can get the other house much closer to work and our hometown, it is still a little sad since we put so much work into this house. There really are a lot of things to love about this house, especially the general feeling you get when you walk in the front door. I guess we can make any house feel like a home eventually though.

First, here is the basement after the little incident from November. It is nice to say it has brand new carpet and was freshly painted, but it stunk listing that incident on the real estate disclosure. I must say that the new white baseboards look a thousand times better than the ones that were in there previously.

And the kitchen. We spent hours painting the cabinets, though the baby blue was quite lovely before we painted them. I have to also say that I don't miss the white counter tops that showed every spill and stain so well or the fake tile wallpaper that the previous owner thought made a lovely back splash. It did match the fake blue and gray brick linoleum floor well, though.

And last but not least, the back patio. I went all over town to find galvanized picture hanging wire to hang the iron wall grille from that beam. I'm still not sure where I came up with the idea to buy and hang that, but I really like how it turned out. Then Mom was nice enough to sew my sunbrella fabric to make the outdoor curtains. The pillows on the Adirondack chairs started the whole project rolling in my mind. Thanks Tuesday Morning for those, though Kim tells me that the only local Tuesday Morning is now closed.

There was your non-Jordan random stroll down memory lane because I just wanted to share. Keep your fingers crossed and send us luck that we get this house sold so we can move in the next couple of months. More importantly, wish us luck that we can finish cleaning up and keep this place clean for it to sell (since those of you who truly know me know that I am not exactly the neatest person)!

Hangin' out

2008-01-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

Occasionally Jordan's bumbo seat (thanks again Kim and Sophie B) becomes her own little Lazy Boy to watch television. Yes, she is already addicted to the television, regardless of what is on. She doesn't care if we are watching football or the weather channel as long as she can see the TV. This morning she was pitching a fit until I turned her toward the TV.

And here is Jordan with her buddy, Maddie. We were trying to get a picture of Jordan playing in the floor, but Maddie really wanted to join in. Every time we try to let Jordan pet Maddie, Maddie has to sneak in a lick, which drives me crazy. Here are the 2 buddies hanging out in the floor together. Poor Maddie has no idea what is in store for her once Jordan is mobile.

Pictures of 2 are impossible

2008-01-01T07:25:00.001-08:00

On Christmas day, I was feeling some of Andrea's pain trying to get pictures of 2 kids at once. Zach still isn't sure what he thinks of Jordan since she takes some of his attention from Ma Maw and other family members, but I think he secretly likes her. On Christmas day he refused to hold her but did agree to a few pictures. As you can see, when Zach was smiling, Jordan was just falling over and then we have the flailing arms.

Is it possible to fly with just one arm when the other arm is pinned against your cousin?

Jordan has spent the last 2 nights with Ma Maw so we could get our house de-cluttered to show and so we could go to a New Year's party with friends, including 3carrs and twinmommylawchick. Ma Maw got to hear Jordan's worst fit on Sunday which is her "I'm tired but refusing to go to sleep" fit. If anyone outside were to hear that fit, they would probably call CPS assuming she was being beaten instead of rocked to sleep.

We hope you all had a happy, safe and fit free new years!

Christmas Day!

2007-12-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

Twas' the night before Christmas and all the presents were finally wrapped. "Santa" had put together Jordan's rocking duck and left it under the tree for her to find the next morning. And as you can see, Miss Kitty was sleeping comfortably in one of her favorite chairs by the tree.

On Christmas morning with the video camera rolling, we plopped Jordan in her rocking duck, and she seemed to like it. Since it was her big present, I was sure she would hate it, but I'm happy to report that she liked it. Of course, we have to rock it for her, but she sits in it and is content even when we aren't rocking it (for about 15 minutes at a time). I had put her wrist rattles on that morning which is why she has an odd looking stuffed thing on her wrist.

I had to get a picture of her with her "My First Christmas" ornament from Eggplant. I wanted to get a cute little girl ornament, but all of those were blond, so I refused and went with the cute little snowman. I even asked the sales woman (a brunette) for a brunette or black haired girl ornament but to no avail.

Jordan sitting on Dave's leg at my mom's house while we were opening gifts. You can see Maddie in the background since we didn't want to leave her home all Christmas day. Jordan is checking out a cute little stuffed frog in a purple dress that Nana got her for Christmas. Thanks again Nana!

Ahhhh!!! The bow is eating her face. Anyone who has had anything gift boxed at Eggplant knows about the huge bows they attach to gifts. Dave got Jordan a Little Giraffe pillow to match a blanket Nana got Jordan before she was born, and Eggplant put this lovely bow on the package. One of us put the bow on Jordan's head, but by the time the camera flashed, the bow managed to slide down to cover most of her face. Since I found it funny, I had to include it. You can also see the other wrist rattle- an elephant.
Since we had the video camera on while opening Jordan's presents at our house, we didn't take a lot of pictures. We kept putting Jordan's hand on the wrapping paper and making her hold it while we pulled the paper away. Although she had no clue what was going on, she seemed to go with the flow. We had a good first Christmas as a family and look forward to many more!

Christmas eve a.k.a. Christmas celebration #2

2007-12-27T05:27:00.000-08:00

The second Christmas celebration was Christmas eve at Mom's friend Robert's house. Our wonderful receptionist at work, Pam, got Jordan an adorable dress that she had to wear for one of the Christmas celebrations. Since Christmas eve is a nice sit down dinner, that seemed like the best time. Since Jordan has discovered her fist, it is hard to get pictures of her without her hand crammed in her mouth. I'm also being brave and including some pics of myself.

Jordan and I in the living room posing in front of the tree. Jordan looked cute but wasn't being cooperative with pictures.

Dave and Jordan at Robert's before dinner. I've told Dave he looks mean in pictures, but he refuses to hold a smile for pics.

A family pic. Notice the fist in the mouth.
And then we have Queen Jordan. Of course her crown is actually the bow from Dave's present. And the finger she has a hold of is her Uncle JC's, though he still wouldn't hold her.
Jordan got a Tiffany & Co. sterling silver baby cup engraved with her initials and date of birth from Robert, though I forgot to take any pictures of it. She will definitely appreciate the little blue boxes in a few years.

Don't forget that pictures from Christmas day are yet to come!