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I’ve been trying to write this post since Sunday- sorry for the delinquent post, but a lot has been going on!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend here at home and my parents came down to celebrate with us! The weekend was very much fun, and we really enjoyed the time spent with them. I decided to try to tackle cooking a bit, with some help, of course. We got a turkey from Honeybaked, and my mom made 2 of the 3 kinds of pies we had. Mike made stuffing, my mom cooked the green beans, and we used canned corn, but I did manage to make a corn casserole, ice cream pumpkin pie, and yam casserole. I also baked 3 loaves of pumpkin bread on Thanksgiving morning. We also had biscuits and canned cranberry sauce for dinner. It was quite fun and very very yummy! The boys even did the dishes when we were done! How sweet!
Friday we all went to lunch together, picked up my glider (rocking chair) from Babies R Us, and then split off and the boys hit the sale at Fry’s while the girls went to Wal-Mart, and the mall. The mall was a bit crazy, but it was fun. We basically went to get some excercise. Jordan was a trouper, even though we stayed out late. Saturday was spent at home. My dad fixed up the Metropolitan so it can be driven now, and even washed it and filled up the tires with air! It looks great! I haven’t gotten a chance to drive it yet, but I hope to some time soon. Now I have to find a mechanic who can fix the brakes on it. Saturday night my dad took us all to the Panda Inn where Mike proposed to me, and where we had our rehearsal dinner. It was very yummy, and again, Jordan was a trouper!
My folks left Sunday morning and we headed to the mall to get our Christmas photos taken, and Jordan’s 4 month pictures (taken a week early due to the holidays). We got quite a few cute ones. Yeah! Thankfully we can pick them up in early December, so we will have them before Christmas! Hooray! I have decided to make almost all of my Christmas gifts, and I’m realizing just how much work that is going to be! I’m hoping that I’ll get done with all of them!
Monday I started feeling like I was getting sick, but it wasn’t too bad. I had a touch of a sore throat, so I decided to stay home and just relax here.
Tuesday I woke up to a giant ant trail in our kitchen. They were parading from the microwave through 3 cabinets to the chicken and beef bullion and the freshly baked pumpkin bread. :S Thankfully I had put 2 loaves in the freezer, so the ants only got one. So I had to lock the cats in the bathroom, and get Jordan out of the room while I emptied the cabinets, and sprayed for ants. We went to Gymboree, and then shopping afterwards for ant traps, among other things. I was still feeling a sick that day, and my sore throat got worse.
Yesterday we had tickets to go to the Christmas concert at my old college in Santa Clarita, so we hung around the house the beginning of the day, and left around 3pm for a 7:30 concert. We planned to have dinner there before the concert, and then get there in enough time to check out the still life scenes before the concert. The concert takes place in the gym, and there are small scenes set up all around the edges. Each time a new song comes on, they change positions, and hold the pose for the next song. It pretty cool to watch. After battling the traffic, we got to Santa Clarita around 5:45 or so, and got some dinner at Jack in the Box, then headed over to the concert after feeding Jordan. Once the doors opened, we headed inside, and almost every person who saw Jordan told us that she was the cutest baby ever, or commented how well behaved she is. Some said both!! It sure made us feel good. And she did look adorable in her little Christmas dress, fancy socks and patten leather shoes. I got to see one of the people in my theory class, Esther Ko, who’s a fantastic violinist. She was in the orchestra. I also got to see Mrs. Blackwell, the handbell conductor, Dr. Plew, the choir director, and head of the Music Department, Daniel Cardwell who was in choir with me, who is now teaching at the college, and then at the end of the concert we saw Mrs. Plew, and Megan Dixon who both went crazy over Jordan. Jordan did sooo well during the concert. For the walking around part, she looked at everything and smiled at everyone, then for the first portion of the concert she sat in my lap and fell asleep as soon as the handbells started. She woke up for the applause, but as soon as the music started again, she was off to dreamland. She woke up to listen to the women’s choir, then she started getting squirmy. I changed her diaper, which bought us a bit more time, because I really wanted to hear the Chorale sing a piece that I sang when I was in the group. She made it to the piece, but started getting a bit fussy, so I gave her a pacifier, but she’s a loud sucker, and when the song is so soft, any noise is amplified. She made it through that part, but then I took her to the car and fed her and put her pj’s on. I thought she would sleep through the end of the concert, but she had other plans. She was very awake and wanted to play! That doesn’t work too well during John Rutter’s Gloria, so I took her into the lobby where we hung out with Mrs. Plew and Megan. It was fun, and she seemed to enjoy being with new people. By the end of the concert, I had no voice, and my ears were totally plugged. Today I’m feeling worse than any other day this week, and I have no voice, I’m coughing, and my nose is stuffy, so no Gymboree for us today. Jordan has a bit of a stuffy nose, and has been clingy today, so I think she may have a bit of my cold as well. But she’s still smiley, she’s still eating, and doesn’t seem to be too upset by any of it, so I’m guessing I feel worse than she does. Anyway, I’d better scoot! Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures last night, which was a real shame. She looked adorable!! I’ll have to dress her in it again sometime, and get some pictures.

Jordan is now rolling over almost every time I put her down on her back! I haven’t seen her roll from front to back in a while, but she loves going from back to front, which is supposed to be more difficult. She was showing off at Gymboree today to everyone. She’s also starting to be in a better mood in the car occationally. She doesn’t scream every single time she’s in the car, especially if it’s a short drive. She didn’t cry going to Gymboree, but started to get fussy on the way to the bank today, but fell asleep before she got really upset, but then she screamed once she woke up. Hopefully she’ll get better as she gets older.
Here’s Jordan during tummy time tonight. I was trying to get her rolling over, but this was as close as I could get. Enjoy!

My folks arrive tomorrow night for the weekend. Should be fun! Tomorrow I’ll be cooking a bunch to get ready for the big day! I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to post after the weekend!!

I know that generally referring to anyone as “fat” is taboo in our culture, unless you just want to be mean/rude or whatever, but I don’t believe the same rules apply when talking about babies. The other day at Gymboree, I said that Jordan was a fat little girl, and I thought the other mothers were going to have a conniption! Now when I call a baby fat, I think of it as a very good thing! When Jordan started out so little, I am certainly glad to see little fat rolls on her thighs, and I get excited when she is “too fat” for an outfit that used to swim on her. To better illustrate my point, here are two pictures of Jordan “Scantily Clad”.
This first one was taken September 8. Jordan was just 4 days old, and was still very yellow with jaundice:

And this one was taken this morning:

I guess in my book, fat baby= healthy baby, so to me it’s more of a compliment to say that one has a fat baby. I think fat babies are cuter, too!
Okay- I’m done with my rant now, and I’m going to bed!

Check out the gallery- Last week’s pics are up!

Today would have been my cousin Jay’s 41st birthday, but sadly he passed on Aug 22, 2006. He will never get to meet Jordan, and that saddens me greatly, however, he did get to see her picture, and sent a very touching e-mail to my mom about Jordan before he died. Jay had Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or OI which confined him to a wheelchair for most of his life. He lived in pain, but his attitude was great. He always had a joke to share, or a bit a sarcasm for whoever happened by. He gave me my nickname “Cream Puff” which I still use on-line. I always felt that he understood me, even when I didn’t really understand myself. He was incredibly sympathetic to all the injuries I had through the years, and really understood that kids can be cruel when faced with someone who is different. I always thought that he had every right to say to me that I shouldn’t complain about my torn muscles, or bad knees- at least I could walk/run/dance, but he never said a word. He knew what it was like when kids were cruel, he truly understood when he’d see me rub my knee when it was aching me. I believe we were kindred spirits in a way. We didn’t really talk about our physical problems with each other very much, but I always felt a connection with him. I only saw him at Christmas, as he lived in Kentucky, but we did keep in touch through e-mail a bit. That picture is from 1980 I believe- a trip to Kentucky that I took with my Mom. I wish that I could have a picture of him holding Jordan, and I wish that Jordan could have known him. He had a very unique perspective on life. I recently found a quote of his when doing a Google search on his name. I ran across his Amazon.com profile, and this is the quote I found that really sums it up: “I believe in saying ‘yes to life’”.
I want to post a poem of his that his sister e-mailed to us after he passed. It was found in his journal, and really sums up his life, and the way he lived it, and wished others would live.

Year after year, Unaware,
We live the day of our inevitable passing.

When transient flame and eternal flame
To each other wave
Their final wave

What if we knew our date?
Or the date of others?

If we knew,
Would there be
More love
More compassion
More tolerance
More peace

If we knew,
What good, if any,
Would it do?

~Jack “Jay” Clifton Crutcher, III

Some new pics are up on our gallery! Just thought I’d share one of my favorites!

Jordan is 100 days old today! And no, I didn’t really count them- I have a book called “365 Things Every New Mom Should Know” and it goes day by day through the baby’s first year. A cute book that I would recommend! A friend from work’s wife gave it to me. She had read it with her first son, and passed it along when she was through with it. Jordan was 14 weeks old on Thursday, and that morning she woke up with no “goopies” in her eye. Now this may not sound very interesting to most of you, but to those who have had a child with a blocked tear duct, you may understand my exuberance! I basically held my breath for a few days, but I have consistantly noticed no discharge of any kind, no tearing, no nothing for 3 days straight, so I feel confident saying that her duct must have opened. I’ve been very vigilant massaging it, and actually started doing it more than 4 times a day (as was recommended by my doctor) to whenever I fed her, and any other time I thought about it. (More like 10 times a day) It seems to have worked, but I have continued massaging about 4-5 times a day even since it’s cleared up. I really don’t want her to have to go into surgery at 6 months to “poke it open”. I know it’s not that big of a deal to the baby, but it would be to me!! So anyway, that’s the good news from here.
In the “not-so-good-news” catigory, also known as the “bad news” catigory, Mike took the Acura in to the shop today to find out what the mystery liquid was that is pooling in the car port. Turns out it’s transmission fluid, and we have a cracked transmission casing. The way to fix it? Replace the transmission. On top of that, the back 2 tires are bald, and there’s a nail in one of them, which cannot be patched, because the tires are bald. The total for the repairs? $3500. On top of the $1000+ we spent on it 2 months ago to fix the breaks, and the $5000 spent on it in February of this year. Almost $10,000 in a year on a 12 year old car. So we made the decision to not fix it, and start looking for a new car. It doesn’t make sense to keep pouring money into a car that will eventually die on us completely, probably sooner rather than later. So off to Enterprise to check out what they had! One of my old co-workers works there and sold us our SUV when we found out we were pregnant, so we thought we’d stop by and visit him again. He’s going to try to get a Hyundai Sonata on the lot on Monday for Mike to test drive, and we very well may go with that. Sadly, we were going to head to Babies R Us to check out a high chair, and a glider that I was looking at purchasing when we got the news about the car. They’re having a sale on the glider that I would like (glider as in rocking chair for rocking babies to sleep in/feeding babies/etc.) until next Sunday, so we still may end up getting that as well, but we will probably have to hold off on the high chair for now. I was thinking I didn’t want a high chair, that I would use one of those booster things for regular chairs, and I do like that idea, but after seeing one of my friends with their high chair that just so happens to match our swing, bathtub, tummy time mat, and crib aquarium, I saw the benefits of that as well. We shall see what we end up with, if anything, but the main concern right now is the car! We need 2 cars, and preferably 2 cars that run properly, so that will have to be the priority. Isn’t life fun with its unexpected twists and turns? Whee!!

Jordan is 3 months old today! We went to JCPenney for her 3 month portraits today. I decided to go to the Brea Mall instead of the Orange one, and it was sooo much better! It actually looks like a portrait studio, and the “sellers” do a much better job of showing the portraits when they’re done. We got some really cute ones! Yeah! After the portraits we wandered all around the mall, and got a few new things from Baby Gap- I love sales! Anyway, Jordan was a trouper today. It’s so much fun to go anywhere with her, because so many people stop to look at her, smile at her and tell me how beautiful she is. For some reason it’s an ego boost for me, even though it’s not really my doing. I just love to have others share in my adoration of her. And I also love it when people tell me she’s so well behaved. Not that I really have much to do with that at her age, either, but she really is a good baby. I’m reminded of this when I see other children who are not quite as “well behaved”. While I was in Baby Gap in line there was a little boy around 2ish who was having a major temper tantrum strapped into his little car stroller, and his mom seemed to be no where in sight. I found out later that she was 2 people ahead of me in line, and was expecting her 5 year old daughter to take care of him while she was purchasing the clothes. Now I’m sure in a couple years I’ll have a similar screaming problem with Jordan in some store somewhere, but for now, I’m glad it wasn’t her! heehee.
In other Jordan news, she slept in her crib for 9 hours last night! I put her down at 9pm, and she slept until 1am with no noise, then I heard the start of crying, so I went in to investigate. There she was sleeping, but starting to get upset because she couldn’t find her hand, and wanted to flail her hands, so I gave her a pacifier, and she was quiet immidiately! She did this a few times in the middle of the night, but was actually asleep when I went in, so I don’t call it a “wake up”. I woke up, but oh well. By 6am she was quite hungry, so she didn’t wake up in as good a mood as she normally does. After she ate she slept for 2 more hours in our bed, and then woke up in a very good mood. Yeah!

I got all the Halloween pictures up- they are under Jordan’s 13th week album. And I uploaded some a while back to her 12th week, and I don’t think I mentioned it on here. But on to the real reason for my post:
Jordan is now laughing and grabbing toys! Not just coughing for laughter, but actually laughing. I know I posted that she laughed at that toy at Babies R Us, but 2 days ago I was playing with her, and actually got her in a fit of giggles! It was so funny! I kept doing it to make her laugh, but then when I tried to do it in front of Mike, she wouldn’t. I guess she was all laughed out. She has done it a couple more time since then, but I can’t always get her to. I guess she’s not always in the mood to laugh. And her toy-grabbing- she is now not only wrapping her fingers around things when I touch them to her hand (a baby reflex) but she’s actually picking up toys that are laying beside her, and either shaking them, or bringing them to her mouth! Yesterday she started this little trick, and has picked up her rattle many times and has shaken it, and her little ABC links she has picked up, brought to her mouth and started chewing on them! I don’t think it’s been accidental, either, because she’ll be looking at the toy next to her, or in her lap, and will pick it up and bring it straight to her mouth, or start shaking it right away. It looks intentional. Well, Jordan thinks it’s time for this post to be over, so I’d better go rescue her!