Stick me with a Fork....

....'cause I'm done. With Jordan's room, that is. And this was supposed to be our "easy" weekend. Oh, I hope I have some creativity and energy left for the second child. This was a two weekend project, not too bad I guess. If anyone sees any cute owl stuff, give me a holler. Owls are hard to find.

Other goings on from this weekend include:

- three hours on the phone with Dell; poor Jamie, what a bummer of a Friday night. And the cordless phones kept dying on him!

- decorated my first cake with my new cake toys. Fun, but it definitely looks like a first attempt :-) I'll decline to upload a picture.

- weeded the garden for the first time in, oh, two months. Discovered my Dill amongst the weeds, and too late. It's already gone to seed.

- fertilized the flowering plants (me) and trimmed the bushes (Jamie).

- two, count 'em, TWO trips to the park. That would be me feeling guilty for spending too much time on my hobbies this weekend.

- dinner at friends' house. Which means I only had to cook once :-)

Our eccentric child

There are so many signs that our little girl is growing up: she wants to do things herself, she's almost completely potty trained (we just don't trust her overnight yet), she's sensitive to others' moods and reactions.... But best of all, she makes up her own games. Jordan isn't a needy child, she just really likes the interactions with others. But once in a while she'll actually entertain herself, and it's always interesting for us to observe. She'll play babies, where she talks to her baby doll AND talks for it. She'll play with her pirates and pirate ship, and has the little figures walk the plank and take naps. But my hands down favorite is when she invents new dishes in her kitchen. And her latest culinary masterpiece is Foot Soup. This is 100% Jordan; she didn't get it from us, or friends, or a library book. And she knows it's funny, so she cooks it often. Here she is in action. There's a pot under that foot, and yes, she even turned the burner on. Enjoy :-)

New Toy for Mama

My Birthday present from Jamie arrived just now, and it's a gem. I asked for a portrait lens, and got a 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor. It's awesome!! I'm so excited. Thanks so much to my photography friend Phuong for pointing me in the right direction! Here are some before and after pics (pardon the green haze...Jo's room is super green, and I didn't adjust the white balance).

Before (max ap at 50mm was f/5)

After (max ap at 50mm now f/1.8)

I'm so in love.... :-)

Jordan Observations and Sensitivities

I'm writing this down so I can share these insights from Jordan with Jordan whenever she has a baby. Here are some of her pregnancy remarks towards me:

- when we sit in the rocking chair together, she tells me she doesn't fit

- she'll sweetly pat and hug my belly, and then say "Big Belly!"

- when I got out of the shower one day a while back, she squeezed the back of my thigh and said "I get your chubbers!"

- she tells me I have to push the baby out, and then makes her "pooh" face and turns red

- the baby was kicking, and I told her if she put her hand on my belly, the baby might kick it. She says, "No, I'll kick the baby!"

- "Mama is bigger than Daddy"

- she mimicks the way I walk sometimes, below is an example:

Birthday Traditions

I'm afraid it's a new tradition that my Birthday costs us a fortune, and not on anything good. Last year, I discovered the shower leak and mold problem. That was a 5-digit repair. This year I guess I should feel lucky because it was just the washing machine that died. My rather fancy, 1 year and two week old washing machine. I'm frustrated I can't fix it myself, and am dreading the service man's visit in a few days. I hope he doesn't take one look at me and see poor, hapless, pregnant housewife with expensive tastes for home appliances, and think "Ka-ching!".

Bye-Bye Crib

Ode to Joy, Jordan's room is almost "done". Nothing in my house is ever "done", but this room is finally pretty close. And what a trial... I've been shopping for her new bed since February. I finally purchased one only to have the incompetent fools at Furniture Row tell me they over sold the bed and couldn't fulfill the order. I bought the bedding back in March, only to have the incompetent fool that works for UPS deliver the duvet straight to the jaws of my beastly dogs, who promptly shredded it across the backyard. And Jordan's new dresser is on custom order from Pa (let's hope for no industrial accidents there).

Jamie and I worked like dogs all weekend. The (nearly) final result: no more builder-white walls, no more sloppy trim work, and somewhat sadly, no more crib. And it cost me my whole Birthday Weekend to get there. But my reward: Jordan LOVES her big-girl bed and room. So that makes me smile. I love it too, I want to sleep in there. And much to Jordan's glee, I can. "Mama, you fit!!" (she used to ask that I get in her crib with her).

My little Picaso, or more like a Pollack...

Jordan had her first real painting experience yesterday and it was a lot of fun. We're redoing her bedroom for her "big girl bed", which we should pick up this weekend. The theme is birdies and owls, very precious. So I bought these little cheapy unfinished bird houses for us to paint and hang in a corner, with the plan of letting Jordan paint one.

We set up outside yesterday (NO WAY am I letting her paint indoors) with the paints and brushes and the only rule was she couldn't use the same brush in more than one paint color. And I stripped her down and made her wear pull-ups so no clothes would get ruined. She did amazingly well, and only broke the paint brush rule once. No biggie. And she even let me put her hair in a pony tail to keep it out of harm's way.

We painted for about an hour. She loved it. She even posed for the camera. She kept saying birdies were going to come live inside her house. I was painting one of the other bird houses along side her, and she would say things like "That's pretty Mama", and "You're doing a good job". She came up with that all on her own; I hadn't even had a chance yet to tell her that hers was pretty, etc. That was interesting to me because I wasn't aware that she really had a concept of things, especially inanimate things, being "pretty" (or not).

Of course when it was time to put the paint away, she howled and cried and threw a fit. But I'm so glad she enjoyed it, because she doesn't usually seem very interested in creative activities like coloring. I'm looking forward to all of Jordan's future art projects, and we'll always cherish her birdie house.

Grandma and Koo-Koo Katherine's visit

Once again we're left bereft with an empty house. Jamie's mom and little sis just visited us and hopefully got a good dose of Jordan to last them until next time :-) Jordan was super excited to show them her toys and get their undivided attention.




We all took a day trip to Santa Fe on Saturday. It was Jordan's first choo-choo ride and I think she liked it. Apparently the train is a pretty popular way to get to Santa Fe, and we were lucky to have seats both ways. Jordan had a good time making funny faces for her Grandma and Auntie. We spent the afternoon walking and shopping the Plaza. It's mostly touristy shops, small art galleries, and super expensive home furnishing-type shops.

We ate lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe, which was super yummy. I guess from all of the eating out we've been doing lately, Jordan has picked up a few tricks. This time she patiently waited while our orders were taken, and we it came time to order for her, she piped up "I want the corn dogs". It was a riot. But then 5 minutes later she peed all over the booth seat and had to be rushed to the bathroom for an emergency wardrobe change. I guess Santa Fe potties were not to her liking, and we never got her to use one. Luckily, we never had to change her clothes again either (which is good because I was only prepped for one accident).



After lunch and some window shopping we checked out the St. Francis Cathedral Basilica in the plaza. Jo made some new friends in the park outside. She saw three little boys running and chasing each other, so she just started chasing whoever was in the lead. They didn't seem to mind the girl invasion. Then we went to see the Loretto Chapel, which has the "miraculous staircase". Supposedly the spiral choir staircase had no hardware or beams to support it; it's very well engineered. To be a honest, it seemed a little circus side-showy to me.... First, we had to pay $3 each to see it. Second, if you wanted to read about the details of why it's miraculous, you had to buy that, too. And third, you had to exit through the gift shop. Hmmm.... So everyone can save their $3 cause here's a picture.


The rest of their visit we really just spent hanging out and playing with Jordan. Jordan ran Katherine ragged, of course :-) And she even posed sweetly for their pictures. Since Jo's B-day is only a few weeks away, we went toy shopping on Monday morning and Jo hit pay dirt. And she even allowed us to wrap the stuff up to give to her later, in large part due to her "now" toys Grandma also bought her. Tuesday we went to a cake supply shop because I was hoping to get a fondant icing lesson from Katherine before she left. She makes some really cute Birthday cakes and appears to know what she's doing :-) But the store didn't have any reasonably-sized tubs of fondant, so I'll have to wait until next time. But I did discover a very cool store, and am seriously considering taking their cake classes in September.

And then this afternoon they flew home. And we're lonely. With sore throats. Pity pot hour at the Kropkas'.

Grand Canyon Highlights for Jordan

I'll try my best to capture Jordan's vacation experiences since she can't blog them herself. I think they would fall into the following two categories:

Potties

Jordan is newly potty trained, and public toilets are an even newer accomplishment. On this trip we brought diapers to use in the car and on hikes. My opinion is anything is better (even pants wetting) than taking her to a port-a-pot, or worse, a latrine (what if she fell in???). But rather that rely on her trusty diaper, Jordan insisted on using the big potties. This is a good thing, except I stupidly brought real diapers instead of the pull-ups. It is no easy matter getting a diaper reattached to a standing, squirmy kid who's absolutely NOT allowed to touch anything in a public restroom (and she knows it. I think she'd fall down before she used a hand to steady herself in a toilet stall).

Anyway, after a few successful potty trips, Jordan started to get picky. Really picky. She'd say she had to go potty, we'd find a bathroom, she'd take one look at the stall and if it wasn't to her liking she'd say "I don't need to go". And she'd hold it, like, forever. Once we had to resort to her training potty in the parking lot, and I did the walk of shame to dump it down the storm sewer. We could never figure out what set her off about certain potties, but I think it was a combo of:

- lighting

- if the flush was too noisy/scary

- cleanliness

- height of pot

- if the seat was "complete" or had that gap in the front

- if there was "foreign" matter in the toilet already

Ok, so about the last item... We were at our "nice" dinner at the Rim and Jo starts in on needing to go potty. By this time, we were convinced she actually needed to go half the time, and the other half was just an excuse to check the potty out and wash her hands (so she could use the air hand dryer). And when we were not on a hike, she wore panties. So Jamie takes her, and then comes back a few minutes later. Did she go? "No." Why not? "She didn't like that bathroom." Sigh. "Well, to be fair, there was a hair in (on?) the toilet." Ew, can't blame her on that one. Good girl. So 10 minutes later: "Mama, I have to go potty. I don't want to go to Daddy's potty. I don't want to go to hairy potty." So I take her to the ladies room, she looks at the toilet, turns to me and says "It's not hairy, Mama. It's ok" and proceeds to have a nice little pee. For the entire rest of the trip, she looked in the pot first for hairs, proclaimed it to be hair free, and then would or would not use it. But for the record, she did not have a single accident.

Trolls

This is all my fault. I started it, not sure when it'll end... Some background: Jo was watching a You Tube video the night before we left ABQ about Jack and the Beanstalk. She called the giant a Troll. She watched it several times until we said no more. She came into our bedroom where I think I was packing, and asks where are we going. I say the Grand Canyon. She says she doesn't want to go to the "Gran Caren". I say there might be trolls there living in the rocks, hoping to spark some interest in the trip. To my credit, it worked.

We get to El Malpais, driving along the highway, and Jordan is on troll alert. Same thing at Petrified Forest. Same thing on all of our walks/hikes at Grand Canyon. Jamie and I kept playing along, and would bring it up when she got antsy from being in the back pack for too long. We also totally abused the game as a means to hurry her along when she dawdled on a trail (a troll is gonna get you!). Sometimes she would get scared, so we'd drop it. Then she'd start in again.

It culminated on our last night when we went to the Watch Tower for sunset. She was fussy and bored from the start. She was done with the Grand Canyon. The tower had a little access door at the base, so Jamie pointed it out to her and told her that's where the troll lived. She wouldn't go near it! She turned into a huge chicken, started in about being scared of the troll, and pulled Jamie away from it. There's no telling what passerby thought of our parenting skills. When we went in the actual tower, she said the Princess lived in there and she wanted to see her. So we climb up, get as far as we can go, and Jo starts to fuss because we can't go up the access ladder to the roof. A lady nearby was telling her companion "How cute, she's looking for a princess". Hmmpff. Wonder what she would have thought of the troll obsession.

Other Jordan vacation experiences, not affiliated with potties or trolls, include:

- the bedroom (hotel room)

- binoculators (binoculars)

- fridgerators (hotel elevator)

- shuttle bus (I think her favorite part of the trip)

- hotel ice machine (her second favorite part of the trip)

- chocolate milk (her first time to have it, only to declare she'd rather have white milk)

- IMAX movie (where she also looked for trolls)

- "Crocodile-face" (my last ditch effort to get her to "smile" for the camera)

Grand Canyon - Day by Day

Ah, the Grand Canyon....our big family hoorah for the summer. We had a nice trip, and it was cool to see a Natural Wonder....only 6 more to go.

It was a short trip, but we did a ton. And Jordan was a great traveler: happy to sit in her carseat, minimal whining, and borderline excitement for parts of the trip (which was NOT geared for kids). And the part of New Mexico we live in is so beautiful, I might even become a road trip convert. We'll see.

Day One - El Malpais, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert

If you're into geology, New Mex is your state. There are volcanoes in ABQ, and not far west of town you start to see lava fields and ancient sandstone cliffs that are really colorful. Our first stop was El Malpais, or The Badlands. It's a large lava field that's pretty new, some of it only a 1000 years old and very raw looking. We took the eastern most route through to see the sandstone bluffs and the arch. The have another highway you can take to see caves and crawl through lava tubes! Alas, not for kids. The bluffs were cool, and Jo liked getting out to run around. The arch was really big, the biggest one you can see in the state (the bigger one is inside a reservation). But they don't let you hike too close. This pit stop marked the beginning of Jordan's vacation-long obsession with public potties and trolls living in the rocks. More on that later.

Stop number 2 was the Petrified Forest in Arizona. This was a 4 hr long detour for us and very cool. The northern end is the painted desert, and it befits its name. We were there at noon; I bet it's absolutely amazing at sunset. We stopped at most of the sights through the park and took lots of pictures of pretty rocks.

Rocks are pretty dull stuff for little kids, but Jordan was a trooper. At the southern end of the park is the petrified forest. We "hiked" through Crystal Falls, which I think was the best place to see the wood/stones and also through the Long Logs trail. By this time it was 96 degrees and full-on sunshine; hello Arizona. I was pooped. A DQ Blizzard fixed me right up.

We drove through Flagstaff and were in Tusayan about an hour later. Flagstaff looks like a neat stop over place. I'd like to go back in the fall, they have a lot of aspens and volcanoes and cool hiking trails. It would have been a great place to spend the night that first night instead of in Tusayan. Tusayan is about the size of a large neighborhood and the only place to stay near the south entrance but outside the park (unless you want to pitch a tent). We found our hotel, unloaded, got some food, and called it a night.

Day Two - Grand Canyon Rim Trail

We woke up that morning to the smell of forest fire. Hmm... We'd seen a fire on the drive in the evening before, and it turns out they were doing management burns. We got to the park around 7:30 and set out for our Rim Trail hike. Our first view of the canyon was amazing, but it was filled with haze and smoke!! Oh well, I just had to be patient. It eventually did burn/drift off. And that was the last time they did burns while we were there.

We were probably 2 minutes into our hike, which is really a walk because most of the trail we did was paved, before my first panic attack set in. I'm not afraid of heights, narrow trails don't bother me, but the Grand Canyon is a death trap. Period. And it is NOT a place for kids. The thought of Jamie and Jordan falling off the edge put me on tilt. Here's the picture I took that sparked the first attack.

We were the only people we saw with a kid-pack (and I didn't see any other pregnant fools out there, either). I guess it's good we went this year while Jordan is still small enough to carry in the pack; no way I'm going back until my kids are at least 10 and can respect the canyon.

We walked about 3 miles of the Rim Trail and took the shuttle back to the village to eat lunch at the car. We scoped out a place for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel for a nap and shower. Jamie planned the rest of the trip while Jo and I took a snooze. That evening we ate at the Arizona Room, which was supposed to be a good place to eat in the village: good food, casual atmosphere, and it's on the rim. That's when we were convinced that all food at the Grand Canyon sucks. Every place we ate was Denny's quality and very overpriced. McDonald's charged us a freaking take-out tax when we ordered from the drive-thru!! Oh well, I'm sure their costs are high. It is in the middle of nowhere, and we read that ALL of the water has to be trucked in. Our sub-par dinner was followed by an amazing sunset and full moon rise.

Day 3 - South Kaibab canyon hike

We woke up at 5:00 to ensure a cool, shady morning for our "big" hike. It was a whopping 3 miles but with a 1100+ ft elevation drop. It was gorgeous. We all really enjoyed it, I got to put my trekking poles to good use, and we finally felt like we got to see the canyon up close. Granted, we didn't go very far, but it was all we could do with Jo and pregnant me. Jo and I rested at the turn around, and were accosted by aggressive squirrels while we ate our snack. Jamie went 5 minutes further down the trail and climbed out on some rocks (which I didn't approve of). We all survived and made it back up before the sun really set it.

That afternoon we checked out the IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon, a pizza place, and then drove to the east park entrance to Desert View and the Watchtower for sunset pics. We had an amazing sunset, and got our best family pic here. I was also criticized by some English dude for being pregnant at the Grand Canyon and wearing flip-flops (um, they were sandals, not flip-flops). I guess he thought I was being reckless. Then an old lady came up and told me I could do what I want because this was a free country and I'm white (?!?). Oy.

Day 4 - Photography class and trip home

Jamie found out about a digital photography clinic taught by pro photographers with Canon. What a cool deal. The classes were small groups, the instructors were really knowledgeable (albeit a little young), and if you didn't want to use your own camera, they checked out top notch equipment to you. All for FREE! They travel from state park to state park teaching these classes, and I lucked out that they were here in July. And it was really nice that there was no sales aspect at all to the class. So I learned a few things and am convinced that a longer class at UNM or photo shop will really help me.

After that we said good bye to the Grand Canyon and basically made a bee line for home.

July 4th

We had a fun, summery July 4th weekend this year. It sure beat last year, which was spent painting, cleaning blinds, and wiping baseboards in preparation for our furniture arrival the following Monday. So we're officially in our 2nd year of ABQ residence. Wonder if I should change the name of the blog... Anyway, I digress.

Our friends came over for hamburgers and hot dogs and some water fun. I got the kids a slip and slide, hoping the weather would hold up. It kind of did. We set it up and Jordan (and Jamie) got to play on it for about 10 mins before lightening had us scurrying for cover. Then the wind picked up, the storm blew by, and the temp dropped 15 degrees. Finally the sun came back out and Jo and her friends were able to play. Kids are tough, they don't feel the cold until it's time to quit. It was sunny, but tap water is pretty cold here, it was only 73 degrees, and the wind was really strong. Anyway, nobody's lips were REALLY blue.

Afterwards we pigged out on junky American fare: hamburgers, hot (i.e. too spicy for the kids)hot dogs, jalapeno poppers, pasta salad, fruit salad (ok, that was healthy), and banana wafer pudding. Yum. We let Jordan stay up late and the three of us set up shop on the balcony to watch fireworks. Whenever we sell this place, we'll have to be sure to mention that you have ringside seats to an awesome fireworks show. And it's crazy how into the 4th ABQ folk are. You could see fireworks all across the city, the stuff people buy (illegally) to shoot from their house, for HOURS. Someone on the next street over blew a lot of money on the big ones, and they would rain down on our balcony, and also Jamie's car, as he found out this morning. I don't know how Jordan, or us for that matter, slept through it all. Must have been all of that Slip n' Slide fun.

Jordan Good Mornings

Jo always seems to have something interesting to say first thing when she wakes up in the morning. You never know what you'll be confronted with when you walk in, but it's usually entertaining. Here are some samples:

- I pee-peed my bed, I smell like pee (that one's not my favorite)

- There are crumbs in my bed

- I'm doing my exercises (she's on her back doing a horizontal pull-up)

- Mama, did you have a nice napper?

- I hear a "crick" (that Jordanese for cricket, there are no crickets)

- I don't want to get in Mama's bed! (that's what she says when she's gotten up too early and I still look sleepy)

Backseat Driver

Jordan is my new driving critic. She tells me when she thinks I'm going too fast or too slow. She tells me when the light turns red and green (something she learned in swim class). I-40 near us is under construction, and the construction speed limit is 45 mph. Nobody follows it but me (I've gotten a speeding fine once already). When a semi or RV passes us, something big enough to consume Jo's field of view, she tells me/asks why we're going backwards. When we drive home from a place on the east side, she tells me if we're going Daddy's way (thru the neighborhoods) or my way (on the highway).

An Emty House

It's so sad when you're house is suddenly empty after house guests. Well, maybe it's not sad if you don't like your house guests, but we've never had that sort :-) My little sis flew home yesterday morning and Jordan and I were in a funk the rest of the day. We're trying to remember what it is we do all day when we're on our own. When Karen was here, we had stuff planned every morning and evening and I had someone to play Scrabble and dominoes and watch Food Network with when Jo was asleep. It was a fun week.

But enough complaining. Tomorrow is Jamie's Friday due to the holiday, and we have another busy week ahead of us. Saturday we're having people over for a cookout and then we leave for Grand Canyon on Monday. I have done almost zero prep for this trip, which is very out of character for me. I'm actually looking forward to the road trip. I HATE road trips, but maybe that's from living in Texas for long. Road trips there are boring and tedious and you never seem to leave the state. I think the drive from here to GC will be very scenic and we have a stop planned at Petrified Forest. Let's hope there are no Griswold moments ;-)