Clemson/Carolina

Today is one of the biggest football games of the Clemson year--the Carolina game! Pop (Jenna's dad) has tickets, so he and I are going to Cola for the festivities. The weather is actually cold, so it was only fitting for her to be wearing her Clemson sweatsuit. She loves to wear her "Tiger Paw" and knows that the word above it is Clemson and that means that we say, "Go Tigers!"

Good grief, I love this girl!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day to everyone! We are thankful for a happy and healthy precious baby girl! We went to Mita and Papa's house for a great meal (THANK YOU!) and lots of fun. Jordan did not sleep on the way as she usually does. Of course, there was way too much excitement for her to even think about slowing down, so she went the whole day without a nap. Instead, she ran around chasing her cousin all afternoon. She ended up a hot and sweaty mess, but who can resist such a sweet couple of faces!!

Daddy's belly!

Whenever Kenneth reads the blog, I'll probably have to take this post down, so I hope y'all get to read it first!

Jordan was out of school today for the Thanksgiving holiday, so Daddy stayed home with her since I had to work. I can't bring myself to put one of the pictures up in such an obvious fashion as in this post, but you can just imagine...Kenneth lays on the floor and Jordan stands perpendicular to him right at this belly. Then she just flops over like it's a pillowy cushion. Luckily, Kenneth catches her before her face bounces off the floor!

truly Daddy's little girl!

On our way to school/work this morning, we were passed on 291 by a Honda Civic hatchback with a tailpipe that seemed as big around as a basketball! It was loud, but in the annoying, obnoxious, "ricer" way. Kenneth just sort of rolled his eyes as we watched the driver try to keep it running at the stop light. I noticed Jordan looking all around, so I asked her what she needed. In the sweetest of voices, she asked, "Where's the lawnmower?"! Kenneth was trying so hard not to break out laughing that I thought he was going to fall out of the car. When he finally got it together, he pointed to the offensive car and said, "The lawnmower's right there, Jordan. This proves you are my daughter!"...

The Wiggles!

We went to see the Wiggles today! We thought for sure that it would be so much fun for Jordan. We don't have a single picture to prove that she had a good time, but she raved about it tonight to Mita and Papa, Nate and Chanchi! Honestly, this picture captures how she was during 90% of the show... This was when Captain Feathersword made his appearance...one of the brighter moments!

Daddy's hat!

This girl is full of surprises! She hardly ever wants to wear a hat, so the fact that she wanted to wear Daddy's hat was quite a shock! I'm just so happy that the camera was close-by...

And you always have to include the cheesy shot...

the cup game!

Kenneth and Jordan play this cup game quite frequently. It's definitely a Daddy and Jordie thing, because "Mommy doesn't play this game". :)

Happy Halloween!

Augusta Road does a parade for Halloween. It was so cute to watch all the classes sit along the walls down the big hallway and watch each class walk by. They walked through the church offices and got some treats and then circled back around to their classes. Jordan was Raggedy Ann and even though she wouldn't wear the hat with the red yarn hair, this has got to be one of the cutest faces I have ever seen!! Trying to get these kids to stand in some fashion in order to get them in the same frame was not going to happen! This is a lot of her friends, but there are 2 or 3 off to the right and one hidden...
Standing in the back: "Big" Jackson Colson, Graham, Luke, Colin, Madeline, Adam
Sitting in the front: Cook, Evie, Jordan, Jackson Meares, Harper (front right profile shot)
Off to the side: Victoria, Gibbs

EP picnic

Kenneth's work picnic was this afternoon. They have it at a farm in Moonville and there are horses, hayrides, s'mores(!), pumpkin carving and a chance to visit with friends!

One of Jordan's new favorite things is for Daddy to make her fly. She gets so dizzy that sometimes she can't walk straight, but she absolutely LOVES it! I know that the goal is to get your subjects near the center of the frame, but when they are spinning around in a circle, it's a little challenging!

Another popular attraction at the picnic was Alice. She is a beautiful little horse there in the stable. When we first went to visit Alice, Jordan would happily take a handful of hay and promptly throw it on the ground for Alice to eat. She would not have anything to do with trying to feed her or touch her. By the end of the day, she actually reached out to touch Alice...and then talked about her all night! :)

Pumpkin Patch

After 3 days of rain, the plans for a grassy pumpkin patch at school turned into a muddy bog! The backup plan was to go under the canopy since there was still a chance of scattered rain today.

Knowing how Jordan can be about change in routine, we talked a lot this morning about how I was going to be coming back to school when her class went to get pumpkins. It was all I could do to get her to let go of my hand and claim a pumpkin by sitting on it, so this picture wasn't going to get much better...
This is most of Jordan's class at school. They are really a cute group of kids...

stickers!

Today was a monumental day! We took pull ups and stickers and a sticker chart to school. I explained to Jordan that when she went to the potty that Mrs. Nikki and Mrs. Marie would give her a sticker to put on her chart. I think she was more excited about the pull ups, honestly! I was pleasantly thrilled to see when I got to school that she had 4 stickers on her chart! Now, she didn't ask to go potty each of those times, but she went, and that's what matters...

it's not working, Mommy

Jordan has come a long way in her potty training. Don't get me wrong, we're not even in big girl underwear yet, but she has decided to use the potty at school. That's a huge step for us! At home, she's doing pretty well, too. If she tells you she's got to go, she'll go. It's just that she doesn't always tell you she's got to go. Occassionally, she thinks she has to go, but then can't or won't. This afternoon was one of those times as she climbed up on the seat, sat for a minute, and then said, "It's not working, Mommy" in a very matter of fact way!

Mommy and Daddy are old!

This morning, Nana and Papa Carroll came to pick up Jordan and we dropped the dogs off at PetSmart for a day of play. Then, Kenneth and I hit the road to go to Carowinds! We haven't done something by ourselves, other than dinner and a movie, since I was pregnant. And, even then, I couldn't ride any roller coasters, so this was a great get away for us!

We got to the park around 10:45 and pretty much walked onto most of the rides. Carowinds has 3 wooden roller coasters. Today is the last time that we ride any of them! They just beat you up and jerk you around so much, that we pretty much felt like mush by 2:00! The highlight for me, was the Borg. You sit in the seat to load the ride, but after that you are laying down--sometimes face up and sometimes face down! I will happily ride that one again! :)

Boo in the Zoo!

All of the friends at school were asked to wear orange, the color they are studying, today. What better orange to wear than a Clemson cheerleader outfit?!?!

After school today, we got a bite to eat and then headed to the zoo to meet Hannah. The zoo sponsors Boo in the Zoo each year and is a "safe, non-frightening event for kids 12 and under". Various vendors have tables set up through the zoo where they give out treats and toys to the kids. Most of the animals are put away, so there's nothing to see there, but there are Halloween decorations all around. Jordan was supposed to change into the Raggedy Anne costume that we borrowed from Hannah, but when it came time for that, she wouldn't hear of it!

The picture above shows how Jordan feels about being out at the same time that we are normally getting ready for bed surrounded by people and things that she can't quite figure out!

The 2 pictures below show how cute Jordan and Hannah are when they get together and have fun! Hannah is Curious George, by the way...

Hannah knew right away what was being put into her orange bag. Thankfully for us, Jordan was so in awe of everything going on, that she didn't know until the end that there might be something to eat in there!!

joys of the monitor

Yes, Jordan is 2 and we still use our monitor! The video doesn't work anymore since one of the dogs knocked it off its perch one too many times, but the audio is still there. This morning, as Kenneth and I were finishing getting ready, I heard Jordan stirring on the monitor. We've decided that she likes to have a few minutes to wake up, situate all of her friends in the bed, and then get ready to start her day. (We figured this out after going in right after she's woken up a few too many times! Not the prettiest start to the day...)

So, we finished doing whatever we were doing and then hear this sweet little voice say, "Wake me up, Mommy". Then the next time was a little louder, "Wake me up, Mommy". Then the next time sounded a little more serious, "Wake me up, Mommy!"

Thinking about this during the day made me laugh out loud more than once! :)

let's go see Hannah!

Jordan's best friend Hannah had to be sedated this morning for an MRI. She has an internal hemangioma on her waits and the docs needed to take a closer look at it to see if it needs to be removed. Stephanie, Hannah's mom, called me to say that in order to get Hannah to cooperate with the staff, she bribed her with a visit from Jordan this afternoon! It was fine by me because the girls haven't seen each other in a while and we're borrowing their Raggedy Anne costume for Halloween, so it was a good excuse to go and pick it up.

It was all fun and games until Jordan took a spill on the front walkway and scraped up her face. After that incident, she clung to me like white on rice. Hannah's nap schedule was a little off since she spent much of the morning sleeping off her sedation. So, with 2 "out of sorts" girls, it was a nice visit, but a short one! We'll be seeing Hannah next weekend when we go to Boo in the Zoo!!

visit at the McNay's

Right after breakfast this morning, we jumped in the car to head to Charlotte. My college roommate, Katy, and her husband, Matt, recently adopted their second son, Will, from Guatemala. We haven't had a chance to meet the little guy, so we were excited at a chance to catch up. Of course, just because we were there does not mean that I got a single picture of Will. I only have pictures of Jordan and Will's older brother, JD. Oh well! It was a nice visit all the same!

Chuck E. Cheese

We haven't seen Uncle Trey and Aunt Heather in a while. We also haven't taken Jordan to Chuck E. Cheese's...ever! So, Heather suggested we give it a whirl. I was really curious to see how it would go. The last few times we've tried ride-type things that involve motion, it hasn't gone all that well.

We ate first and the pizza was surprisingly not that bad. I won't say it was great, but it wasn't that bad! Jordan just stared and took everything in while eating her pizza. By the way, we've all been eating it wrong with the toppings facing up. Each and every bite she took was with the crust up! :)

Eventually, she wanted to explore. Heather and I chased her around the toddler section for a while. Then she rode in this seat that moves around in a big circle sort of like a Ferris wheel for 1. After Trey and Kenneth finished eating we gave them all the tokens and let them run around with her so we could finish eating. We didn't get enough tickets from the various games (mainly Skee Ball) to really amount to much, so we are going to save them and the numerous tokens we still have for another trip!

paci fairy - revisited

So, here we are the third night without a paci. Jordan is really doing pretty well. The pink shoes Monday morning definitely helped ease the pain. I encouraged Jordan to tell her teachers about the paci fairy Monday morning, which she did. I worried that she might be a little extra irritable about it, but the only time that she seem to be bothered by it is at night. Tonight's paci whining was almost non-existent. All I have to do is ask her where the pacis are and she mentions the paci fairy and babies. She's caught on and the rest of it is just breaking the habit of having it in her bed!

video clips

I don't know how well this will work, but we'll give it a shot...

Below are 3 different video clips. They are each pretty short, but together sort of typify how challenging it can be to catch your child doing cute things! Jordan loves the song about 2 little monkeys sitting in a tree, teasing mr. alligator, can't catch me...along came mr. alligator quiet as can be...and SNAPped that monkey right out of that tree! It's a cute song and she's cuter doing it because she typically leaves out the part about 'along came mr. alligator quiet as can be'. She just gets so excited about the monkey getting snapped out of the tree!

This particular night, she had just been singing it all throug dinner. The camera happened to be right there, so I just slid it over and turned it on. Please keep in mind that I had not had a chance to wipe her off yet, so she doesn't always look this grungy!

Take 1...song? what song?

Take 2...and no, your speakers haven't quit working...she just gets really quiet while thinking about the various parts of the song.

I skipped a couple more attempts and we end up here...I'm so glad to be able to post video so that y'all can see her in action! It's really quite amusing!