My 2 year old baby girl

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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!