Yesterday while Mike was at work, Jordan decided she wanted to try on her Halloween costume. I said okay, and got out the camera. It was quite the photo shoot! She was being such a little ham that I got out the video camera and got some great footage. Here are some highlights:
This was the last picture taken. The End. 
We have been home since Saturday (except for me working last night) with poor Jordan who has not been feeling well. Her poor little nose is stuffed up, or running alternately. She has however gotten very good at blowing her nose, and taking only one tissue out of the box. She’s also better at wiping her own nose, but she still needs help sometimes. Mike was drilling her on her letters this morning, and she knows her uppercase letters quite well. She couldn’t remember Q or X, and maybe one other, but it could have been the way they were written. I’m starting to add lower case letters to the mix now, and she’s doing okay with those. I was quite impressed when I asked her where a lower case b was on a page with all mixed up letter,s and she pointed right at it without hesitation! She can also draw “O”, “U”, and “C”, though sometimes U and C aren’t perfect. And O has a tail at times, but she gets the concept at least. I think we’ll add the sounds that the letters make soon, since she is so interested in how words are spelled. I would love to get her reading early. I went to my first practicum experience for my Master’s last week, and was shocked by the students who couldn’t recognize more than 3 letters. It was a kindergarten class, and some of them speak only Spanish at home, but they should at least know the names of the letters in Spanish I would think! It’s not like Chinese or another language with a completely different set of symbols. Anyway, I go to my second day of kindergarten tomorrow, just for a couple hours, then next Monday it will be my Title One school in 4th grade. Whee! Well, back to the books, just wanted to update on the family.
I just updated the “Our Pets” page that can be accessed on the side bar to the right. It now includes thumbnail pics.
So some of you may be wondering about the kittens you met earlier. I haven’t had a chance to make a post until now, as I was working on a chart/paper that was 10% of my grade (which I got 100% on!), and reading this week’s reading.
Okay, so here’s the story.
Back in August I went to Petco to buy cat food, and they had a hutch of kittens. One in particular caught my eye, and I sent Mike a text with her picture. We kiddingly talked about getting her, but he has always wanted a Persian kitten. I went to Kentucky, and figured I’d never see her again. Well, she was still there when I got back, so I sent another picture to Mike. She continued to live in this little hutch for a month, and Mike and I did some research on Persians and found out we don’t want the upkeep on one of those. So we agreed to go to the adoption fair on Saturday to check it out. While there, Mike fell in love with a white kitten. When I came down from work on my lunch, he wanted to get the while kitten, and I wanted the tortie. We held both cats, and they were both quite sweet. Anyway, we talked to the lady running the adoption and asked if they do discounts if you take 2 cats. She said yes- buy one, get one free. Mike and I looked at each other, and well…
Meet Mishra, Mike’s baby boy:
And Meet Sassafras, my baby girl:
Personality-wise, Mishra is a total sweetheart and quite the cuddle-bug, and Sassafras is, well, a spaz. She is extremely playful, but has a bit of a hissing problem. She hisses at Mishra all the time, and has hissed through the door at the other cats. Spats seems slightly interested in the back bedroom where we are keeping them, Midnight has been quite curious, and has tried to get in, and Stormy doesn’t seem to care much. Jordan has been fairly good with the new kittens, but we have to watch her closely. Mishra is 5 months old, and Sassafras is 6 months old. Oh- their original names were Love (Mishra), and Saquita (Sassafras).
Here’s Jordan and the kitties playing today:
I also uploaded a bunch of new pictures, some in August, and all the September ones are new!
I haven’t blogged in a while about anything that’s happening around here, mainly due to the fact that every non-Jordan moment I have has been spent doing school work! I have survived my first 2 1/2 weeks of school, and so far have gotten full credit on every assignment, and discussion board/class participation. I always had a hard time with class participation when physically attending class, but somehow the anonymity of going to class on-line has helped immeasurably! I can respond to other’s comments without wondering what they will think of me, etc. I can also post my views with confidence knowing that no one is going to criticize my ideas at lunch. I still have one more project due this week, and it is 10% of my grade, so I’m a little nervous about that one. I have, however found out that I am fairly decent at the English language! I find myself annoyed by other students’ incorrect usage (talking about “There classroom” as opposed to “Their classroom”.) or spelling/grammatical errors. Now, don’t get me wrong- I know I’m not perfect, and I’m sure any number of people can find things wrong with this blog especially, but I do get a shot of confidence when I read the other students’ entries. Though that confidence turns to fear when I realize that many of them are already teachers themselves… But I digress.
Tomorrow is my first observation in a school. Miss Kara, one of Jordan’s teachers at Gymboree, is coming over tomorrow morning to babysit Jordan while I go back to kindergarten! I’m going to view a “later gators” group from 10:02-1:22, yes weird times, but that’s what the principal told me! I go back next week to view the same class, then the following Monday I get to see a Title One school that is 85% Hispanic(one of the requirements for our Practicum Experience).
There’s not too much to say in Jordan news- she is still the same little girl she was a few weeks ago. She’s getting better at independent play, which helps me a lot! She’s also struggling with the fact that she’s a little girl, but still wants to be a baby sometimes. Also we are seeing her independence really come out at times. She has had more than a few tantrums in public recently. At home it’s easy because we just send her to her room until she feels better, or she will send herself to her room until she can calm down, but when we’re out, it’s hard. I can’t always remove her from the situation(like leave the grocery store before we’ve purchased the groceries). But it is fun to see her become her own little person with her own likes and dislikes.
We’ve gone on 2 outings with the signing parents play group. I have pictures from both that I need to upload. I’m getting better at signing as well, but I need to practice more in order to solidify it in my head. Oh- and Jordan has begun to learn the manual alphabet! (Sign Language letters, basically how the deaf spell) She knows E, R, S, A, F, and X all the time, and will sometimes remember more letters. I’d say that’s pretty good! Oh- and due to our Music class at Gymboree she can count to 4 in Spanish, and Portuguese (we’re going through Latin music right now). Well, sounds like Jordan is awake from her nap, and I promised to play puzzles with her when she awoke!
