Summer Visitors

We have our first round of summer company here this week, and it feels like vacation for everyone! My little sis flew in Wednesday morning, a very impromptu trip, and is staying about a week. It's really fun for us because A) we really enjoy Karen, B) it means we get to do touristy things too (and eat out a lot), and C) I have someone to play with when Jo takes her nap and goes to bed. I've already taken a good licking at both Mexican Train and Scrabble. But Karen brought the Texas weather with her. It's been freakishly humid and warm. We introduced her to Golden Pride and green chile stew, ABQ Jump, and swamp coolers, which don't work by the way in this weather. We told her if the humidity doesn't improve, we're sending her back home to Houston early :-) It's going to be a fun weekend, and we're glad she likes Albuquerque.

More Jordan Antics

Jordan has been saying some interesting things lately. Here are a few examples:

- when she dips her hamburger in ketchup she says she's "making it pretty"

- she asks for "leg rubbins" and "back rubbins" when she wants me to rub her back at nap time

- when I touch her shoulder blades she tells me that's where her wings go

- she likes to play Godzilla. This involves walking thru towers of blocks and such that I build for her. Today we were playing Godzilla with a tower of dominoes. After she crashed thru, she had to go pee. She's sitting on her potty and says "Godzilla going pee-pee on the potty!"

- I got out the big Costco bucket of animal crackers for snack yesterday, something we haven't had since last summer. When she saw it she said "Oooh!! My FAVORITE!". She also calls them "Pooh-bear crackers".

- Lately when I've been getting onto her about something (not quite to the point of scolding her) she tells me "I not naughty. I a good girl."

- She's convinced that when she starts school, she's going to get to ride the bus

- in swim lessons, they're supposed to pretend to be their favorite animal when the wade to the other end of the pool. In the car I asked Jo what animal she pretended to be, and she said a gorilla (?)

- this morning she imitated the yoga poses shown in own of her library books about preschool. Some were pretty far off, but just so happened to be a legit pose (like downward dog). Below is her tree pose.

Green Thumbs

We finally enjoyed some of the bounty of our garden today. And "bounty" is a real stretch. Our sweet peas were ready to pick and eat, and they were really good. And also probably the most expensive peas I've ever eaten. We had about 6 plants (that were grown from seed, so no expense there), invested in a few wooden dowels for support, a bag of compost, and probably dumped $20 worth of water on them. And the yield?? Half of a small (cereal sized) bowl. But it was worth it to see Jordan shell peas, POSE and SMILE for the camera while she was doing it, and then eat more vegetable than she's had in the past 3 days. The rest we cooked with orzo pasta, and it was yummy.

The next morning we had bisquits with jelly. Jo wanted me to take her picture with her jelly mustache. Maybe she's turning over a new leaf for the camera....

Baby Prep

We're all gearing up for the new baby in our own ways. I've finally started working on the scrapbook, and I've gotten back into watching all those baby shows. Jo likes those shows too, and she makes us (mostly Daddy) practice having babies by sonograming us with the wooden pull from the blinds and telling us to push. Somehow, she thinks babies come out of your foot.... (Boy, is she gonna be in for a surprise whenever she learns the truth.) I'm not quite sure how Jamie is preparing, other than by nixing all of the names I suggest. Well, he says OK to the really outlandish ones that are a joke, like Boris and Demetri. He's going to be busy enough when Jo's new bed arrives and I hand him the paint can and roller to do her room.

There's shockingly little to do to prepare for a second baby compared to the first, especially when you plan to reuse furniture and not find out the sex. So we're all pretty chill. I'm not complaining. Since everything isn't a brand new experience this time, I think that's why we're enjoying letting the gender be a surprise.

Let this day go down in history....

At exactly 2 yrs and 10 mos old, Jordan made her first poop in the potty :-) She is very pleased with herself. I was talking to Nana on the phone when it happened, and she told Nana all about it, and then we called Jamie and she told his voicemail all about it. I feel an unbelievable sense of relief that yes, my child will be able to attend preschool in August with all of the other pooping-and peeing-on-the-potty 3 yr olds. And that this jumbo Costco box of diapers we have was indeed the last diaper purchase for Jordan. Hooray for potty poopers!!

Big Weekend

We had a fun family Saturday this weekend, and we're all going to bed early tonight :-) Saturday morning we tried out a new hiking trail in the Sandias. It was our first time to hike on the east side, which is greener and at higher elevation. We did an easy (for Jamie) 5 mile hike through the pine forest and it was lovely. It was a windy morning, but you could only hear the wind thru the trees, not really feel it, and everything smelled like dried pine. Sunny and 70 degrees. Our destination was a large-ish natural spring with "pretty travertine rocks" surrounding it. Hmmpf. Maybe because the east mountains have been getting a lot of rain, but the "pretty travertine" looked to be buried in lots o' mud. Oh well. Jordan rode in the back pack most of the way, and got a little tired, but otherwise said she had fun.

That evening we met some people Jamie works with at the Isotopes game. We had told Jordan the weekend before that we'd be going to a baseball game, and she'd brought it up daily. She really had a good time. We sat in the berm on the grass, which was awesome because you could lay down and watch the game, and Jo had freedom to run around and make friends, which she did. They had a kids play area too, which Jo was a little too young for, but it's nice that it's there. I'm not a baseball fan, but I guess as far as games go this was a good one, despite the 30 minute start delay. The Isotopes won by a mile, and we got to see two homeruns, including a grand slam. Jordan never got tired, complained when we packed up to go (after 9:30) and jabbered the whole way home. She did sleep in until 8:30 today and took almost a 4 hr nap. Then her (and our) friends came over for dinner and playtime. A very nice weekend.

Natural Grace is a Family Trait

Kim Kropka and graceful are not two thoughts you'd ever put together unless you're making a joke. Somethings in life can't be helped. The other day I got up from the couch and walked into something, I don't remember what, probably the coffee table or a dining room chair. Anyway, I made some sort of pitiful sound, because it hurt, and Jamie is standing there and he laughs. I say, you should feel sorry for me, not laugh at me. And he says, the only one I feel sorry for is Jordan because she's inherited this from you. Nice.

So yesterday morning Jordan is coming down the stairs unattended; something I thought she was perfectly capable of if she's forced to (she really likes to hold hands going up and down). I hear her say Ow, my eye.
I ask her what happened, did you poke it?
Yes.
With what?
With my finger. Ow.

Somehow she managed to scratch her cornea with her fingernail while walking down the stairs. The doctor said it was a really minor scratch, prescribed an antibiotic ointment, no biggie. Probably a sign of things to come.

It's June?!?

Um, what happened to spring? Wasn't it just Easter (with some snow on the ground)? Actually, it is still technically spring, and the weather is very spring-like here, but my Texas brain is having a hard time adjusting to the fact it's June and it hasn't hit 90 degrees here. We haven't even turned on the swamp cooler yet.

We are in spring cleaning mode. Jamie gutted the garage yesterday (I even saw him vacuum out the tool box) and I am still tackling the wood blinds, one. room. at. a. time.... I'm starting to feel that itch to paint, and have been eying the cabinets in the downstairs bathroom, thinking they would look much better refinished. One major item has been ticked off the list: Jo's big girl bed and mattress were ordered yesterday. In three short weeks we will be (temporarily) packing away the crib. Hmmm, I'm starting to wonder if I might cry over that. Must be pregnancy hormones.

We've also booked our Grand Canyon trip. "Trip" may be a bit of a stretch as we're only staying 3 nights. But Jamie will be able to tack it onto July 4th holiday, so it'll seem like a longer vacation. Next weekend we're going to an Isotopes baseball game (same league as RREx) and Jordan is very excited about this. She talked about it some yesterday, telling us she's going to watch baseball and run around. Then when she woke up today, she said she was going to a baseball game, but not today.