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Well, on Monday I embark on a brand new adventure! I start my first class for my Masters in Elementary Education! I am excited and scared all at once. They don’t exactly ease you into it, either. My first class is Philosophical and Social Issues in Education, and my first textbook is Philosophical and Ideological Perspectives on Education. I read the first chapter today, and I am reminded how much I disliked Philosophy class when I was in college. I hope I can survive through the process. It is very interesting to me, but I know it will be a lot of work. I’m not supposed to be able to get into my class until Monday, but I kind of searched around and found my syllabus (I’m taking classes all on-line) and also found out that the first week I am to do 10 hours of classroom observation… Not too sure how I’m going to accomplish that as I have a 2 year old to contend with all day long, and I work 2 days a week… Maybe she can have extended playdates a couple of days next week, or something. For those of you who may think this is totally out of the blue, it isn’t exactly. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in grade school, but never felt qualified enough to pursue it, though I sort of did in college (thinking I would some day teach music in some form). My ideas on ages I wanted to teach have ranged from Kindergarten, to 7th grade science, to high school music, to high school drama, to elementary music, to preschool. I have finally settled on Elementary Education thinking I will focus on Kindergarten, or 1st grade as my niche. I may decide to expand and go up to High School drama at some point, but I figured it would be best to start at the beginning. So off we go! Classes start on Monday, and my busy little life is about to get much busier! Wish me luck!

I have at long last gotten all the pictures uploaded to the website! You can check out August 2008 and the whole first page of albums are all NEW! Here’s one of my favorites from this batch:

That’s her friend Preston from Gymboree. They were being particularly cute in the lobby after class.

Our quick trip to Kentucky went quite well, though too fast for my taste. We decided to try a new airline as I have been disappointed to say the least with the past few carriers we have used. And I am pleased to report that Continental is a winner! The trip to Kentucky was better than the trip back, but still a good experience nonetheless. We flew through Houston this time, which made for a 3 hour flight followed by a 2 hour flight. Jordan, being 2 had to have her own seat, but we had actually purchased a seat for her the last Kentucky trip due to the wiggle factor. I am used to flying only around Christmas, so a flight in the middle of August was quite a nice change. The airport personnel were actually nice, and patient with a harried mother of a two year old traveling alone. I went through a special line through security which allowed to to keep my Smarte Carte(my best friend for this trip!) all the way to the gate, our gate was right across from McDonald’s, which allowed us breakfast before we got on the plane. We checked the car seat this time, as I recently bought a “CARES” restraint system. They are pricey, but they are SOO much easier than a car seat, and still give the extra security of a harness for a little one. Jordan is so small that it’s almost too big for her, but that at least lets me know that she’ll be able to use it for a long time. It took less than 2 minutes to install the first time, and takes seconds to remove. Jordan seemed to enjoy it.

The first flight was the long one, and she did quite well. She was a little nervous about the turbulence, but I kept telling her it was just the clouds that were a little bumpy, so then every time she felt a bump she would say “Bumpy clouds”. Her ears bothered her a little bit, but sucking on a tic tac seemed to help. Those were also a wonderful “bribe” for good behavior. Every time I promised a tic tac, she would stop her “fake” crying, and be good. Her crying was real in the fact that she was upset, but it was fake in that it would stop within seconds of the promise of a tic tac. She did great on the 2 1/2 hour layover in Houston, and even sat down in the food court and ate 3 1/2 chicken nuggets and a couple french fries. Oh- and they served us BREAKFAST on the plane! For free! I haven’t gotten “real” food (other than a package of pretzels) on a plane in a looong-o time. They served honey nut Cherrios on the first flight with a little milk, and a large box of raisins. Jordan and I both ate the Cheerios, I drank the extra milk, and we left the raisins as neither of us are fans. The second flight they served a turkey sandwich on a little deli roll, a normal sized bag of potato chips, and a mini Twix bar! I was quite impressed. Jordan didn’t eat anything on the second flight because she pretty much slept through the whole thing.

We arrived in Louisville about 25 minutes early, went down to baggage claim, and our suitcase and car seat were right together coming around the carrousel. I picked them up, loaded them on my beloved Smarte Carte, and picked up the rental car. I decided to take the car seat from Mike’s car as it was the cheaper one, and I didn’t want anything to happen to our Britax, but I’ve never installed this one. I’ve also never driven a Dodge Caliber. It took me around 45 minutes in the Louisville humidity to get the car seat installed to where I felt like we could actually leave. My brother tightened it when we saw him the next day. While I was installing it, I put Jordan in the front seat so she wouldn’t be running in the street, or getting smushed by the car seat, and she managed to locate the lights and turn them on, the wipers AND the wiper fluid, and turn both of those on, the turn signals and the emergency flashers. Oh- and the door locks. Thankfully the windows were rolled down, so I could get back in. Anyway, we stayed a a nice hotel fairly close to both the airport and my grandmother’s house in a HUGE king sized bed. It was quite nice. Jordan slept pretty much in the middle of the bed, and never fell out! When we arrived we were hungry as it was dinner time in CA, so we headed to KFC and got mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and mac and cheese. Jordan ate quite a bit of mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese and then really surprised me by taking my corn after I’d only gotten a few bites, and pretty much ate the rest of the cob! I pretty much kept her on California time while we were gone, so we would go to sleep at the same time, but she would sleep later. The next day we took a trip to Target to get some juice and water and other things we forgot/wanted. After that we headed to Geen’s 90th birthday party at Austin’s, and I got a yummy hot brown! Jordan “ate” chicken fingers and “tasted” some apple sauce. She has been very difficult to feed lately. She would rather do anything than eat, and won’t eat the foods she should to keep her tummy happy. Jordan greatly enjoyed sitting with Emery in his chair

and chasing Mallory around, who is pretty much the same size as Jordan, but she’s a tad heavier, and a bit shorter.

Anyway, the party was quite fun

After the party we headed back to Geen’s house where the kids got to play a bit, and Geen opened her presents.

We gave Geen a Shutterfly book of Jordan’s birthday party

Jordan didn’t get a nap, so she was a bit tired.

Evidently so was Uncle Clifton

Jordan kept trying to hold Mallory’s hand

Then we headed to Fazoli’s for dinner and cake!
Mallory enjoyed the cake

The kids enjoyed dancing with G-pa

And Jordan got all the kids to dance with her

Here’s the cake:

The next day we went to Dairy Queen for lunch with Geen and Gigi. Jordan seemed to enjoy herself there, and we stayed for quite a while! She was drawing in a notebook, practicing letters with Gigi, and drawing with Geen.

Our trip back was fairly uneventful except that my suitcase was overweight, so I had to repack it, then had more to carry on. She was also very cranky on the plane as she hadn’t used the potty since the Thursday before we left. She still hasn’t gone, and I’ve called the doctor and am waiting for instructions. I know she’s uncomfortable, but she refuses to “let it out”. I keep telling her she will feel better when she goes, but she doesn’t believe me. *sigh* I’m hoping to get this all straightened out soon so we can get back to potty training.

Geen and Jordan hanging out at Dairy Queen in Louisville, KY. Picture sent to me by Gigi.

I finally got the pictures from Jordan’s birthday up! I was going to have them all captioned, and organized, but instead I just got them uploaded and put into folders. There were 30 pages of pictures, so I put them into 5 different albums. That way you don’t have to sift though all the pics if you just want to see her eating cake, or whatever. Anyway- we leave for Kentucky the day after tomorrow, and I’ve got LOTS to do before then. I hope to get some of the other pics uploaded before I leave, but no guarantees!

I have almost finished catching up now with the photos and posts. The ones I posted a few days ago I went ahead and backdated so they are in the right spots chronologically. I still have to post about Jordan’s b-day, but I wanted to catch up on what’s been going on since then. Jordan went to her 2 year doctor’s appointment, and had a slightly traumatic experience. She had to have her ears scooped out again, and they still couldn’t see inside them. She has a crazy amount of wax in her ears, and now I’m supposed to be putting drops in her ears once a week to help with that. She was weighed and measured, and is now 33 1/4 inches tall, and weighs 22 lbs. She is in the 30th percentile for height, and the doctor said we’ll call it the 3rd percentile for weight. In actuality, she’s not really on the chart for her age. She’s pretty much average size for a 1-year-old, and she’s 2! She was 19 lbs at her 1 year check up, and she’s only gained 3 pounds in the past year. But she’s healthy and active, so I’m not worried. She had 1 shot, and then sadly we had to have blood work done, as they have always been concerned about her iron levels. I was so hoping that she wouldn’t be put on an iron supplement, since that wreaks havoc with your digestive system, and thank heaven she’s “on the low side of normal” which means I’m just supposed to have her eat Iron-rich foods. That is quite the struggle, as she has realized that’s something she can control, so she does! She will only eat what she wants to eat, when she wants to eat it. She hasn’t starved, but I’m concerned since she is so light for her age. I know it will all even out eventually, and she will eat some day, but for now it’s a bit of a struggle. She’s been pretty good about knowing when she needs a time-out, or time away. She will actually give herself a time out when she’s upset. She’ll go into her room, pull herself together, and then come out when she’s feeling better. She seems to really enjoy her new room, and I think it gives her a sense of independance. We haven’t had much trouble with her leaving her room, since she did a few times, then I told her if she came out one more time I’d gate her doorway. I have only had to gate her room 3 times since we switched her to her big girl bed. And the mornings now are so much easier. She will play by herself in her room for a good couple of hours before either I go in to get her, or she comes out on her own. Today she was in there until 10:15! I heard her wake up and start playing before 8am, but she was quite content to play by herself. She’s been really good about following directions when we’re out, too. And she’s started to show an interest in potty training again. In fact when we’re out, especially for a meal, she will stay dry the whole outing, and request to go on the potty, then she actually uses the potty, and goes back to the table to finish lunch or dinner! I’m very excited about this! The only problem we are having now is she is remembering the hurt from before when she was so constipated, and is scared to poop. She’ll hold it in as long as she can, then screams when she can’t hold it anymore. This past week has been difficult, but it does seem to be getting better. Thank heaven we have discovered that she likes prune juice, and it really helps her.
This past Wednesday Mike and I had our 3rd Anniversary! We celebrated by Jordan and I going to Disneyland with Lori and Tyler, and Mike going to a job fair with his friend Dan. Okay, so that wasn’t how we celebrated, but that’s what we did Wednesday. We decided to celebrate Friday since too much was going on during the week. Friday Jordan and I met Mike at Panda Inn (where Mike proposed, and where we had our rehearsal dinner) for a yummy Chinese Food dinner. Jordan seemed to enjoy it as well. She had white rice, cashew chicken (my favorite) and a bit of pork lo mein. It was a fun evening, and quite yummy. Mike gave me a very sweet card that he made on the computer, the new Jonas Brothers CD, Pink Panther DVD (the one with Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, and Beyonce) which just so happens to be the last movie we saw in theatres before Jordan was born, and a computer game- Wedding Dash. I have almost finished that game already! It is quite addicting! I gave Mike a cube-paperweight-type thing with 3 pictures of him and I through the years, a PS2 game called Buzz which we have played together a few times, and Heroes DVD season 1.
Jordan and I leave for Kentucky on Friday of this week, so we’ll be crazy busy preparing for that this week. I’m going to try to catch up with the pictures before we go. Here’s a teaser on what’s to come:
Jordan’s birthday party
August Disneyland trip with Tyler
Pictures from our Anniversary dinner
Pictures of Justin and Jamie before they left for New York

I took some pics in Music Class at Gymboree on August 1. She was having a lot of fun with a 3 year old in the class named Sherridan, and Sherridan’s older sister Madison who is 7.
Singing “Row Row Row Your Boat” pianissimo (very soft!) sitting next to Teacher Megan

Singing with Sherridan

Watching Maddison play Nintendo DS