Styling and profiling!

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

Mother's day 2009

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

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

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?

What a pair!!!

Easter morning

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

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!!