Duh

I've been keeping this blog for about a year, and it doesn't seem like I've learned very much about blogging. Like those recipes I add to the sidebar? Yeah, they aren't archived like the other blog entries. Duh! So I'm going to start a second blog and save all of the recipes to it. Most of the recipes I post are things I've made up on the fly. Or adapted from other recipes. Which means I'll never be able to reproduce them if I don't write them down AND SAVE them...

Post Nap

I was on the phone with a girlfriend when Jo woke up from her nap today. I heard her walking around, and figured she'd be downstairs soon. Then I called up to remind her to go potty. She called down" Yeah Mama, I have on my kitty panties". Uh-oh, she didn't go to sleep in kitty panties, she was wearing striped panties today. So I go upstairs to investigate, and this is what I found.

Those are her striped panties tossed over the stairs railing onto the plant ledge. Out of my reach. Iasked her "How am I supposed to get those, Jo?" She says, "You'll have to get them later." Hmmpf. My girl is 3, and she's already tossing panties.

First Day of School

Jordan's first day of preschool was today, and all went well. She had fun, didn't cry, I stayed busy, I didn't cry, and when I picked her up still appeared to be in the same condition as when I dropped her off. A success. But last night we weren't so sure....

Jordan started to act a little odd yesterday, and I can only figure that she was nervous about school. I really didn't think Jordan was capable of being nervous. At nap time, she refused to sleep in her bed, and slept in mine instead. And it took her a little while to fall asleep, so that was unusual. Then at bedtime, she wouldn't stay in her bad at all. We did the normal routine, Jamie did rocking chair. A few minutes after he left her, we heard her walking around, and she came out to the loft. So Jamie put her back to bed. Then she got up to go sleep in the guest bed. Jamie says, "I think she's sleep walking". Then we found her sitting in the hallway. Then she got up and went to the potty. Then when I was in bed reading, we heard her again, and I found her in the loft trying on the Santa Claus hat. Very very odd. I asked her if she couldn't sleep because she was afraid of going to school, and she said Yes. But she always answers yes. I took her back to bed and laid down with her until 10:00 or so (and she insisted on wearing the Santa Claus hat to bed). Then about 20 minutes later, she was back in our room, and Jamie slept in her bed with her until about 4:00. By 6:00, she was back in our bed, with all of her babies, and the Santa Claus hat.

But when it was time to go to school, she was happy and excited. She even posed for pics wearing her backpack. She started telling me "Bye Mama, I see you later" when Jamie left for work. Then again all of the way in the car, through the parking lot, and to the class room. I signed her in, got a hug and kiss, and left quickly lest she changed her mind when she saw the other upset kids and Mommies. I went to my OB appointment, went across the street to the labs to do my glucose screen, and then drove back to the preschool and read a book until it was noon. I could see her playing on the playground, and she wasn't pushing kids off of swings, so that was good. When she saw me she was happy and willing to leave. The teacher said she was happy the whole time. Whew. Then Jordan started insisting that we go out to eat. I think she overheard another family saying that. So we got a little something at Wendy's (but no orange frosty float, much to Jo's disappointment) and came home. I think she's pooped. I'm pooped. It was a milestone day :-)

Back to the grind

It is nice to be home. And this is the final stretch before our family is forever changed, for the better (and bigger), of course! I think I'm officially in nesting mode. Seems a bit early, especially since we don't intend to set up the nursery until after the holidays. We're not expecting any more visitors until the baby arrives, but still have a lot on the agenda.

The next big event is Jordan starts preschool on Tuesday. We all went to orientation last night, and Jo and I are going back tomorrow morning for "playtime with parents" so she feels comfortable on her first day. No worries there. I'm hoping to chat up some of the other moms, though. So, orientation was kind of interesting. Here's what we learned:

- All of the classes have a pet. Jordan's classroom's "pet" is a tarantula. Super.

- I need to go buy her some new clothes because she's not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts. 90% of her summer wardrobe is sleeveless shirts, the remainder being T-shirts that she sleeps in. But hey feel they need to teach kids under 5 "modesty". DO NOT get me started on that. Then they tried to play it off as sun protection (duh, she still has to wear sunscreen).

- She's not allowed to wear her cowgirl boots. That one I understand. She stepped on me the other day and it really hurt. Still, a bummer.

- She is required to bring a backpack every day. Yay! That's fun for her. Thanks to Aunt LaLa for the cool Paris one!

- They have a little file folder for each kid and that's where they put their artwork every day. I cannot wait to see what Jordan creates!! I'm so excited, that's better than getting stuff in the mail!

- Jordan has her own coat hook and cubby hole. For some reason, I'm really excited about that, it's just cute. AND, she was able to pick out her name amongst all of the other names. My kid's a genius!

Last Vacation?

Jordan and I just returned from a very lazy week in hot and sunny Tucson. We drove out with Nana and Pa to get in one last family visit before Baby #2 arrives in November and we're house-bound for a while. It was a nice trip, we got to spend a lot of time hanging out and doing nothing. My cousin Jeremy took me out to a movie, a very rare treat. My Grandma got donuts for breakfast TWICE! My uncle cooked us all a steak dinner, and then delivered home-made Belgian waffles for breakfast one morning. That's living.

Jordan had a blast playing with cousin Julian. This is Jen & Jeremy's kiddo, and he and Jordan are the same age. They got together 4 days in a row, and Jo really had a fit when she had to say goodbye the last time. He brought over toys to share (Jordan is still struggling with the whole sharing thing, a new development that started on her birthday....), they danced like wild monkeys to Michael Jackson (Julian's favorite), and tumbled and rough-housed together. Jordan mimics everything he does. He's a hot little kid, and would start stripping off clothes to keep cool. She'd do the same. Eventually they were both romping in their underwear. It was really cute.

I also got to visit with cousin Jason, and he and his girlfriend are expecting a baby girl a month before me. So both of my kids will have cousins the exact same age! How cool is that?!? It makes future holidays and trips to Tucson even more fun to look forward to.

Jordan's Birthday Weekend

Your kids' Birthdays must be one of the best parts of parenthood. Jordan turned 3 this past Saturday, and we filled the weekend with fun activities: lots of play time with Nana and Pa, a trip to the children's science museum, presents and party on Saturday, and lots of playing with new toys on Sunday. It was really special this year because Jordan was so into it. She's been talking about her Birthday since her Daddy's Birthday in May. She plays Birthday (makes up cakes with imaginary candles and we all sing and blow them out), she plays Party (tears up grass in the yard, throws it in the air like confetti, and yells "party!"), and she LOVES cards (she stole all of my Birthday cards last month). Here's how our weekend went down:

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - Mama makes dino cookies, dino cake, and about 5 pounds of icing.

Friday morning - whole family hits the Explora Children's Museum. What a fun place, by far the most awesome place for kids in town. Thanks to Koo-Koo Karen for the membership!

Friday night - Mama and Nana build the present pile. We wanted to surprise Jordan when she came down the stairs the next morning.

Saturday morning - Jo comes downstairs and says "My Birthday Toys!!!" when she sees the presents. Surprisingly, the presents are instantly forgotten when she sees her Birthday party hat sitting there as well. This kid loves hats.

Birthday Breakfast - Dino cookie for Jordan. We hang out while we wait on Daddy to get back from his run and clean up.

Birthday presents - Jordan was really excited and appreciative of all of her presents. I was pretty impressed (and relieved) that a 3 yr old would have that attitude. She wanted to stop and play with everything, or try it on if it was clothing (OMG! The Cowgirl boots from Koo-Koo Katherine!!) or a costume (her fairy princess outfit from Nana and Pa).

Birthday Nap - Yay!! Time to clean up the house, send Daddy out for the balloons (his traditional responsibility), and put our feet up for a few minutes before the party.

Birthday Party - Jordan's friends arrived for Slip n' Slide, a Dino Hunt, pizza (from Costco...to think that I had actually planned to make my own...), presents, cake and cookies. It was so fun seeing Jo have so much fun. She totally got that it was her special day.

Birthday aftermath - We weren't sure she'd ever wind down. She put on a little show for us that night with the boots and the fairy wings and anything else she could think of. It was like she didn't want the day to end :-)

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make her Birthday so special!!!

Oh My....

How did it get to be August? My baby's Birthday is in (less than) one week, my little sis's B-day is in two, school starts in three, and our 9 year anniversary is right in the middle of it all. I think August will always be a super full month for us. This year Jordan and I are squeezing in a trip to Tucson as well. And true to form, I'm already planning for Halloween :-)

Today we took Jordan to have 3 year portraits done and it was a lot of fun. She totally hammed it up for the camera, made both nice and silly faces, and was pretty patient while we selected photos. I don't think I can legally share them with you on the blog, but we'll be mailing some out to family and friends. I did attempt to do my own 3 year portraits. Here are some examples of the cooperation I got. Not sure if it was the shade casting a yellow-y glow, or me playing around with camera settings, but I think I got too much color saturation.