Kung Fu Fighting

"Hello and thank you for shopping at Target today, my name is Jordan. Can I interest you in some of our R&B collection this evening?"

Jordan has really started to take to dancing lately. It is just too cute. He has also learned to clap his hands! Of course he does everything with his own personal flair. He has already shown he is left handed so clapping means hitting his right hand with his left. He actually did it at the end of the video. He is also learning lots of other little habits. For instance, he is learning how to throw tantrums. He isn't fully there yet, but sometimes if he wants something bad enough he'll get himself all worked up and cry. If it's something small, we may give it to him, but usually we let him cry it out. Of course, me being the daddy, sometimes I let him cry it out just based on general principles. I could give him the spoon, but I don't like the way he's asking for it. That leads to the new thing we are working on - discipline. When he breaks the rules we do something that he hates. We put him in the playpen in the guest room which is always empty. He hates the playpen in general and can't stand being alone. He hasn't yet fully made the connection of why we do it, but he knows when we're about to take him there, and he'll figure it out soon. You should see how worked up he gets over being left alone for 90 seconds. I'd take a video, but being alone is part of the punishment.

Last week, we went to go see the pulmonologist again. The doctor said that his lungs appeared to be fine, but that in this economy he needs the money so we have to back in 4 months. OK, he didn't say the second part, but if his lungs are doing well, it would seem that we wouldn't need to go back in 4 months. However, we do so I'm assuming it's for the money. We also found out that Jordan is stretching out a bit. At 23 inches, he is the 25th percent of length for his birthday. However, he lost about half a pound since the last visit so he is no longer on the growth chart for weight. That's means fewer than 1 percent of kids born on his birthday weigh less than he does - 20 pounds 6 ounces. I forgot how many grams that is. The reason he is off the weight chart is half his fault and half ours. He doesn't seem to want to grow anymore teeth. He just has the two front teeth on the top and the bottom. No new teeth have come in over 4 months. The books say that preemies are sometimes delayed in teeth, but they don't say that anything can be done to fix it. The result is he can't chew a lot of things that I'm sure he'd love. No raw vegetables like carrots and few hard fruits like apples (he can gum the juice out of apples, but then he spits them out). We try meat but we have to break it into such small pieces that he doesn't care for them. We have to break chicken to the size of bacon bits which eliminates most of the flavor. The result is that his diet is about 70% fruit and 20% breads, cookies, and cereals. The doctor prescribed that pediasure for him, which we do give him, but that stuff costs about 4 bucks a day for the store brand. All of the rest of his food costs under 6 buck a day. He loves french fries, which we've started to give him to thicken him up, but after about 5 of them he realizes what great toys they are. We have spent 3 dollars for a fast food kids meal only to have him eat 6 fries. That's 50 cents per fry. It's more cost effective to get a whole banana for 70 cents and he will eat the whole thing in under 5 minutes. If you ate oatmeal and bananas for breakfast 5 days a week, you'd lose weight too.

Happy New Year!!!

We're back! I haven't posted in a while because we were away until New Years. We had a great time. It started with the drive from FL to Baltimore. We left here at 7:30 pm so that we would be able to drive while the baby slept. It worked most of the way, but we were all awake by the time we reached Richmond at 5 am. Jordan didn't fuss, but he still cost us over half an hour. We decided to get through all the winter time clothes to change the wet diaper. Then as soon as we put on the clothes again you know what he did to the diaper. This is not the only diaper story of the trip. We arrived at about 8:30 am.

Of course, Jordan was the life of the party the first day because we arrived first. Everyone loves to tell us how much he looks like my father in law. The first real highlight of the trip was visiting our fan club. We have a few friends in the area who have been following Jordan since the early days of the hospital and we had to pay a visit. I don't mention names here without permission, but you know who you are and we thank you for all of your support.

Xmas eve everyone else arrived, but the main deal was the other two kids. The older cousin was a ball of energy and Jordan had the weirdest reaction. Jordan just looked at him. Most of the time he just studied his cousin as if he were a strange toy or something. The few times Jordan tried to play with him he seemed to just hit him. He waved his arms up and down and nearly beat up his cousin that is 2 years older. We don't think Jordan was trying to harm him, but we won't be tolerating that for much longer. Of course the kids all loved each other, but Jordan didn't spend much time playing with the younger baby.

Xmas has always been a weird day for me. It seems that the adults spend the first three years trying to get the kids all amped up about the day. Then the adults spend the next ten years regretting it. Then the kids learn the truth about santa when they become teens, and the teens don't see a difference between the gifts and ransom. So of course, we spent the entire day trying to get Jordan to smile about getting gifts. That's hard enough with most one year olds, but you'll see Obama curse out Michelle before my kid smiles over gifts. He is really stingy with smiles and he saves it for people not things. Even when he plays he goes about it like a challenge, not fun. Knocking down blocks isn't fun unless we show some reaction. He has no imagination yet so he doesn't play with action figures, he just disassembles them to find out what they're made of and what they taste like. The weirdest thing was that Jordan never paid much attention to the tree. You would think that a kid his age would be trying to climb the branches and eating the lights. All December I pulled him away from the tree exactly 3 times. It got to the point where I would try to roll the shopping cart next to the trees in the store hoping he would reach out a grab one. Nothing doin. He also gave us a special gift, a freaking heart attack. As regular readers know, we went to NY in August. From August until Xmas, he had been on the 3rd floor twice. All were on the same day when we went shopping in Orlando where the malls are 2 stories. He hasn't been on stairs since he learned to walk beacause every place around here is one floor. Weel, he made up for lost time. Nama taught him how to go up once and he took off. He was so proud of himself he couldn't walk by the darn things, he had to go up. Of course, he can't even walk down a curb without holding on, but he loved going up a staircase. He didn't even need - or want - witnesses. I actually jumped when he looked down on me from 10 steps up when I walked by. Of course, he almost jumped too. I hadn't been so scared since the NICU.

I grew up on the east coast and later moved to the south. So I was excited to get the chance to visit one of my old fast food hangouts from years ago. Of course because I was eating there for the wrong reasons, I also ate too much. I was fine for a few hours. I don't think the food was bad or anything, but at about 2am my stomach made it clear that there was something wrong with it. The mama ali was sleeping between me and the bathroom. I am pleased to report that I made it past the mama Ali. I did not make it to the bathroom. My stomach emptied about 5 feet from the tree. It might have been closer to the tree if my luggage wasn't in the way. About 2 hours later I was trying to clear out a bucket that I knew I would need and I was right. I needed it. That day I didn't wake up other than vomiting and restroom until 6pm. By then my tract was completely empty from top to bottom. The next day I give the gift that kept on giving to my wife. It kept on giving her nausea, headaches, and other things she'd get mad at me for mentioning. I was feeling better. The day after, New Year's Eve, Jordan got it.

It's easy to tell when Jordan doesn't feel well because he cuddles. Usually, he is a big boy and doesn't want to sit in anyones lap or be held. He wants to walk. New Year's eve he wanted to cuddle and nap. We spent the entire day passing him from lap to lap and he enjoyed it. We actually woke him up a couple of times to force feed him some milk from a bottle. He didn't take his first steps that day until around 4pm. Every parent has a diaper story. 99% of the time the diaper is a diaper. 1% of the time it's bad. Then maybe 3 times in the entire kids life he comes up with a masterpiece. I remember the first time Jordan boldly went were no diaper had gone. He'd been home less than a month and it was cute. New Year's Eve was NOT cute. We had to change the diaper, the jeans, both shirts, and the socks. Both socks. It wasn't quite solid or liquid. It was whatever you didn't want it to be. Where it was nastier as a solid, it was solid. Where it was nastier as a liquid, it was a liquid. I will remember that diaper. I will also remember something else he did that day. About a quarter to eight he taught me a very important lesson - don't force feed the baby. We had spent much of the day feeding him milk he did not ask for. We responded by giving back to us. Of course he didn't give us back milk, he gave us cottage cheese. We did not originally feed him cottage cheese. This was the first real vomit he ever gave us. This wasn't little baby spit up. This smelled like a big kids mess. It ruined a couch. Honest to goodness the couch still smelled bad when we left the next day. On behalf of all 3 of us I would like to publicly apologize to our hosts for any and all stomach contents we left in Baltimore.

When we finally left I didn't want to try the same overnight trick. The baby waking up at the end of the trip when we were so close to the end was nerve racking. Plus I was tired after being up most of the night. New Year's day all 3 of us were healthy enough to do the drive so we left at 2pm. This is Jordan's blog so I won't talk about the entire trip, but Jordan was a real trooper. No one got sick and by 8pm he was out for the night. We got home by 3am. When I finally got to sleep in my bed I could still see that little red line from the GPS when I closed my eyes.

Later that evening Jordan broke his own record for a messy diaper. It had been nearly 3 days since he had a real meal of solid food and not milk and baby mush. He stood up in front of the TV and walked toward his room. He left a trail of bread crumbs behind him. Actually it wasn't bread crumbs because we hadn't fed him any, but whatever we fed him he left a trail of. I actually wanted to press the reset button and start that day over again. It took half an hour before I finished cleaning the carpets and tile floor and the mama Ali finished with the bath. That was the day we decided to use the next size of diapers until he got back to normal. He wasn't back to his normal diapers for about 5 days.

I told you not to feed me so many damn prunes. Now change me!

The xmas tree. One of the advantages of having a bunch of kids is that the big toy boxes always make the tree look better.

Merry Christmas mommy. Thanks for the pacifier.

The video game is nice, but the dog seems to be licking himself and I want to help.

He hadn't seen his grandma for about 3 weeks and he wouldn't leave her side while she was there. It's akward when he runs by the parents to get to grandma.

The two oldest kids. I had to hold them to keep them still long enough to take the picture.

This little baby had such a big smile. He was always happy after eating.

This is an inside joke. Everyone in the family knows who this is. For those outside the family, it isn't me or the mama Ali.

Christmas Wish List

It's time for the holiday wish list! First, a couple of disclaimers. First, no one is required to buy a gift. Times are tough, especially in this house and we totally understand that it's the thought that counts. I wouldn't try too hard to impress someone who likes to eat carpet lint. Second, if you get anything, we will like it. Jordan will love it. There is almost no kind of toy he dislikes, just a few that he isn't ready for yet. If you give him a playstation 3, he isn't ready for it yet, but I will start teaching him how to play on Dec 26th. Finally, this is for entertainment only. If you use this to imply that he's spoiled or we're holding you up for fisher price ransom, you are reading too much into this. I've been doing this blog for a year and a half and have almost never talked about him playing.

Like I said, there is almost nothing he dislikes, except for one type of thing. Anything that you have to put him in. He is a walker now. He won't stand for walkers, playpens, bouncers, or anything else that won't let him walk around. The kid burns more calories sitting in a high chair than I do walking around and would eat walking around if we let him. Also, it is important to remember that at this age he has absolutely no imagination. If you give him a toy car, he won't pretend it's a real car. If you give him a toy elmo, he won't treat it like the TV elmo. He will love it and play with it, but treat it just like his blocks or a drum. A good rule if thumb is if you want him to play with it, get him anything. If you want him to do it properly, make sure that it says 12 months on the box.

Jordan loves toys that play music. Look at this:

That's really weird considering he hates toys that move. I take him to the toddler toy aisle and he cries when he sees a doll move. But he loves when toys sing that annoying alphabet song (all baby toys sing it and I hear it half a dozen times a day). He also loves to do cause and effect with his toys. He likes to knock things off the table to see the sound they make. What happens when I drop this toy on the gound? Will it bounce? Will it break? What about daddy's cell phone? What about the remote to the TV that would cost over $50 to replace? The cardboard blocks that are 8 for a dollar are not interesting enough. He does love to play with blocks though. Look at this:

Without a doubt, his favorite toys are books. I'm not one of those obnoxious parents who thinks their kid is a genius because he can turn the page of a book before his 1st birthday, but it does keep him happy. He likes books and loves baby books that make noise. His totally favorite toy in the world is a book that sings nursery rhymes when the pages are turned. I like it to because it doesn't sing that insipid alphabet song. Finally, I mentioned to a relative that Jordan likes grilled cheese sandwiches. This relative seems to not understand the difference between "like" and "should have".

This was a sandwich he clearly enjoyed. It was also fun for the dogs who got to eat most of it because it ended up on the floor. The only one who didn't love it was the guy who had to clean it up. Guess who that was?

Thanksgiving Day

"Thanksgiving dinner Huh? I don't see what the big fuss is. You people haven't even fed me yet!"

"OK, I think I'm full now. You can let me down."

Hey, you know what we're thankful for this year, but it was still a special day. When I eat Thanksgiving dinner I have an established routine. I eat usually the same food, in the same quantities, and end up with the same physical feelings. Afterwards I usually fall out onto the couch in front of a football game and get mad at myself for eating so much. I rarely do anything more strenuous than belch. Jordan didn't have the same plan. He just ate as much good food as he could with 4 teeth. For him, dinner is about eating to get calories. Then, afterwards it was time to burn those calories. Guess who had to chase him around. It seems that my son teaches me something new every week. Notice that crawling is now the exception not the rule. He just learned this weekend how to stand up on his own without climbing on something. Now all we have to do is teach him how to stand still.

Playing and Walking

This is a Youtube clip of Jordan walking. He is actually even better at it now, but this is a good video. I must warn you that it is a 8 minute video so make sure you have the time. A special thanks to my Dad for making the video too.

Stepping Out!

One of the funniest things about Jordan is that his brain sometimes works like a switch. A few months ago Jordan was doing a ugly little army crawl. I was certain that he would stay there for a while. Between Friday and Sunday he moved totally to the regular crawl. I think it took him a couple of days to learn to pull himself up on furniture (still can't stand up on his own). Anyway, last weekend he decided he was done standing still. It was time to walk.

As you can see he isn't very good at it. In fact, he's bad at it, but he won't let that stop him.

I think the biggest problem is that he spends so much time cheesing for the camera that when he sees it he doesn't concentrate on walking. That's why I can't get him on video for more than a few steps. I know that some people want more clips of walking. This was my attempt.

My dad loves to tell a story about my cousin who never learned to walk until she went to school. She went from crawling to running and didn't learn to walk until kindergarten. Jordan looks like he may be taking after that. Right now when he walks he usually falls forward on his hands and rarely on his rear. That's because he usually is moving so fast.

I don't like to give cute stories about the baby, because these stories usually are less funny to read than they are to see, but yesterday was too cute. We were in a dept store. If I knew Santa would be out this early, I would have bought my camera. Anyway, we were in the kids clothes section and I decided to let him loose for a run. Of course with the bright colors and noises he goes to the toy section. He isn't an experienced walker yet, but he knows that the floor is hard and quiet. He ran to the toy section and encountered one of those floor pianos. Floor pianos are those things you play with by stepping on them. When Jordan stepped on it at first it was soft and noisy. He took another step and almost jumped. His eyes were wide open and he was at full fear mode. By step #4 he stopped, went down to all fours, and refused to move. He almost had a heart attack and wouldn't move until I picked him up. For the rest of my life, I will not be able to look at one of thise pianos without remembering what happened yesterday.

Barbers and Birthday

One of the advantages of being a preemie is that for the first two years you have two birthdays. We tried having a party for the first birthday, but there was a family emergency so we missed it. However, his due date was last week so we got a second chance. Of course, before going to a party you must make sure that you look good for the ladies.

We really are spoiled with this baby. He did cry, but I can honestly say I was much worse on my father. Sorry, dad. You will see below that he looks much older just by having a haircut.

As I mentioned, he has to look good for the ladies. Of course, he does have the disadvantage of having to impress older women.

Take this woman for instance. She really liked the haircut. Jordan thought she was cute too because he drooled all over her.

Some nice person at the supermaket actually worked on this cake with care and pride in their profession.

Jordan took pride in what he did too. Don't be confused though. Any witness will tell you that he didn't actually eat any of this cake. He just seemed to be mad at it.

What can I say. He loves playing with balloons. I love watching him play with things without eating them. Especially balloons because he grabs them with one hand which makes them scoot across the room and then he has to chase them. It he could learn to hold it without squeezing it would work much better.

HE WON!!!

It is official. Jordan was entered in a costume contest and he won. Actually he didn't win, but at that age everyone gets a banner for participating. What a great day to be an American.

This video was put together by my dad. It shows a couple of shots of him standing briefly and at least once wetting himself. There are also some shots of Jordan too.

Change the baby, change the world, change the diet.

For those of you who don't know my father, he is old school. A very smart man, but ultimately a man whose intelligence comes from his experience. My father has always belived his grand child would get to vote for a black person for president one day.

He just never believed he would live to see it happen.

That was a great way to celebrate a great day. For those who don't remember, Jordan was sprung from the big house 365 days ago (It was the 25th, but this is a leap year). We all celebrated the one way we couldn't a year ago. We slept through the night. We also went to see the doctor because we were supposed to and he has a boat payment to make. Jordan is 31 and a half inches tall which is pretty normal for kids born when he was. He weighs just under 21 pounds - 95% of kids born the same time as him weigh more. Also, we get to start with cow's milk! We aren't going to have to buy any more formula and we should finish what we have over the weekend. I remember growing up my mom used to complain how much milk my sister and I drank. Now that I'm the parent I can honestly say TOUGH LUCK! Cow's milk costs about a third as much as formula and she didn't have to pay three and a half bucks a gallon for milk. Also the doctor said to avoid fish (probably would have anyway at 7 bucks a pound for a kid who eats carpet lint), and chocolate and peanuts in case of allergies. Otherwise we can feed whatever he'll keep down. Finally, I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but Jordan is able to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. He is so funny when he stands. He does his best standing when he doesn't know he's standing. If he picks up a toy from a table with two hands and starts waving it in the air, he stand fine and doesn't think about it. If you hold onto him and let go, his arms go out to the side and he gets almost into a crouch as if he were on a tight rope. I will definitely post some pics of that next week.

Eating, Sleeping, and Walking

My boy has really changed his eating habits. First of all, he doesn't like to be fed. He loves to eat, but usually tries to take the spoon out of your hand. Most of his food is the consistency of applesauce so it leads to big messes, but he is proud of his messes. He would rather lick the food off of his hands than eat a spoonful given to him by someone else. I don't know if I mentioned before, but he now has 4 teeth – 2 on top and bottom in the front. Not enough to eat a lot of real food, but I will admit it is sometimes easier just to give him my scraps rather than fight him over some Gerber mush. We went McDonalds and bought him some apple slices which he loved. Of course with only 4 teeth and no molars it took 10 minutes to finish 1 slice. He just kept gumming the poor thing until it just gave up. Saturday night we were at a birthday party and he had a small bottle and my leftover pizza crusts for dinner. He acted like he was mad at the pizza and wanted to teach it a lesson.

We have been trying to get Jordan to walk for months now. That was probably an error. We have trouble keeping up with the current crawler. I have spent last week baby proofing parts I didn't think we would have to worry about so quickly. Our cabinets don't have handles so I thought that might slow him down a bit. Our pantry has folding doors which I thought worked in our favor. I also thought that the baby would one day learn to climb out of the playpen. Well he can open everything in the kitchen without a lock including the fridge, and he hasn't let anyone even put him into a playpen since Labor day.

When people who haven't had a kid ask what it's like for the new parent, I tell them the following story. After months of trial and error we now know exactly how to put the baby to bed. We have a system and the system works. If the baby gets a bath, you start with that. When I'm home alone, he doesn't always get one. Then dress him in the Pjs. Close the door to the bedroom and don't open it again. Then sit down on the bench with him on your lap and give him a sippy cup with formula while you read him a story. After the story, turn him around, give him a pacifier, turn out the light and he will fall asleep on your chest. Yes it's adorable, yes it effective, but it is ultimately flawed. The baby goes to sleep with food, a pacifier, and his parents holding him. It took most of a year to give him all of that so he could get to sleep, and now as parents we have to take it all away. However, what do we take first and how do we do it? We have already started making some changes, but this story is a perfect example of what it's like to raise the baby. As part of growing up we parents know we have to make these changes, but ultimately Jordan will be making the calls.

OK, I admit that he was a little too close to the lens when I took the pic, but the drool is adorable.

I was recently asked if Jordan has lost interest in standing.

The dictionary definition of standing involves to stop or remain motionless or steady on the feet. By that definition, he has lost all interest in standing. In fact, he doesn't seem to remember how to sit still for more than 10 seconds. Take a look...

Have you thanked your parents for raising you lately? I know I have joked in the past about eating the camera, but had I left the shot going another 5 seconds, you would have seen his tongue. Jordan has really taken to eating pretty well this month. We have officially moved him up to cheerios. Unofficially, we have tried a couple of other things, but his grandmothers read this blog and I don't want to give them any ideas. Also his mother reads this blog and I have to be careful of what she knows. The mama Ali works late 3 nights a week which means I have him all night until his bedtime. Let's just say that I know a lot more about Jordan and his abilities (or durabilities) than I can safely admit. I will say with pride that nothing I have done with him has ever resulted in the breaking of skin. I will also say that sometimes he thinks he's a toddler, but he still has a few months to go.

Another Reunion

Jordan is crawling on all fours! He figured it out and he's definitely in a big rush to go. He doesn't know where he's going yet, but he needs to get there quickly. Also, if you look closely you can see the bottom two teeth. I can tell you from experience you have to be careful sticking a finger in there. Anyway, the rest of this post is about what happened to Jordan rather than how he's doing. Stop reading if you aren't interested.

This past Saturday was the NICU reunion. We went to go visit all of the people who we thought we would never forget. It turns out that we forgot almost all the names, and about half of the faces. The reunion was for any kid who has ever stayed there which meant there were some toddlers at the reunion. That means the DJ was playing nursery rhymes and kid songs. If going to kids parties means 3 hours of Jimmy Cracked Corn and Itsy Bitsy Spider, then we will have very few parties until I'm old enough to dislike the rap he'll listen to in 10 years.

That's the thing about Jordan. He won't cry when he meets strangers. I love that about him. He's met both sides of the family this summer and didn't even whine. However, he doesn't smile either. He just studies people. He didn't mind the clown, but he clearly didn't care either. People try so hard to make him smile, but they can't do it.

These previous two pictures are from our neighbors. In the nicu we met other parents. We never got to get a good look at their kids though. You can't really walk up to someone else's crib and examine their kid in the nicu. No rules, that's just rude. Anyway, these people lived up in Jacksonville so we haven't really kept in touch, but it's nice to see the kids are doing well. I regret we didn't see all of our neighbors.

These pictures are the nurses who we came to know well. They were absolutely thrilled to see how well Jordan is doing. They kept saying he looks great and how surprised they were. I don't know why. He spent 4 months doing better than they expected of him.

This is the doctor who saved my son's life. We got a little upset with her at the end, but a lot of that was the emotion of the time. I would have spent evey penny I had and then some to see this picture 12 months ago. Thanks Doc.

One of the advantages of living in Florida is that every 4 years, people ask for your vote. Many of the people reading this blog live in states where people don't ask for your vote. I refer to them as 'lesser states'. In fact the republican party has said that those of you in NY are not in real america but rather some fake version I suppose. Anyway, this was a rally for the democratic candidate Barack Obama. You can see him clearly just a quarter mile beyond that tree. The park had a capacity of 10,000 people, but about double that showed up. We were able to get close enough to hear the loudspeakers. The campaign estimated 20,000 showed up, but they didn't mention that the rally was held 2 blocks from a basketball arena that would have allowed everyone to actually see him. I can't complain too much because it was free, but I didn't get any closer than seeing the road his bus drove on. I just thought it was important to bring my kid to see the candidate. He was so excited he wet his pants.

Lessons Learned

They say that in life you should learn something new everyday. So I would like to go over some of the things I learned this week.

1. Grandma's cooking is always the best cooking you will ever have. Grandma gave Jordan some of that baby toast they sell in the supermarket. He loved it. He chewed, smiled, all that good stuff. I figured this was great. He and I could sit down later and share a slice of toast together and have one of those Hallmark moments. 2 days later the high chair still smells like vomit.
2. It is easy to get Jordan to sleep if you are willing to make the sacrifice. This little boy will spend all day long in bed eating and sleeping, as long as he has company. If you don't get in bed with him he will stay up all day long and fight his nap as long as he can.
3. When you have the heart of a toddler, it doesn't matter how cool you look as long as you get the job done. He has perfected his little army crawl. He uses arms, legs, feet, face. Whatever it takes to get the ball in front of you.
4. Biting starts to hurt when you get bitten with teeth rather than gums. That leads me to the next thing.
5. When you don't know the definition, 'No' is a fun game to play with daddy. This little boy loves to make me say No. I don't really discipline him yet (too young in my opinion), but when he grabs the electrical cord, I separate him, look him in the face and say no. I'm trying to teach him the meaning of the word. He just loves the reaction. I might as well be tickling his feet.
6. No more baths in the sink. He can easily fit in the sink and I find it easier to work with him there, but he can't keep his hands off of the faucet. He has to play with the faucet which means a cold drip on the head, or a hot torrent down his back. Either way, I can't let him play with the tap.
7. Playing with Jordan for 30 minutes will solve any problem. No matter what happened at work with your boss. No matter what bills are due today. No matter what you just fought about with the mama Ali. Just sit Jordan on the floor without any toys and sit down next to him and 30 minutes later you have had a great day. I can't wait to see what I learn next week.

Take a close look. Do you see anything?

His first time on a swing. We had trouble getting him to smile and look at us at the same time.

It isn't pretty, but it worked. He got from point A to point B, but it isn't a true crawl. He pushes forward with his feet and doesn't let his knees do any of the work. He actually looks like he is trying to climb a ladder. It doesn't look right, but it does look adorable. He is going to be so pissed when I show this to his prom date.

Did you see anything new in the top picture? Look closely. Just kidding, it's there, but you can't see it. However if you stick a finger in his mouth you can feel it. The bottom two front teeth have just barely cut through. They are so small that he can't do a thing with them yet, but I did feel them and you can hear them when he drinks out of a glass. He's still pretty bad at that.

Our little boy is about to stop being a little boy soon. He loves to climb his parents whenever he can. For some reason he prefers me but I think it's because I wear sleeves more than mommy (tank tops), and I spend a lot of time wrestling with him. If you are careful with him he does enjoy being tackled. He also enjoys floor time. We can't call it tummy time anymore because he doesn't stay on the tummy when awake. He spends a lot of time putting things in his mouth, using his other hand to put the same thing in his mouth, and scooting after the dogs. At his pace he never catches them, but little buys love little dogs and he won't stop trying. I haven't gotten a picture of that yet, but I will soon.

Test Results

This week Jordan went for a physical evaluation. Overall, he is on average for his adjusted age of ten and a half months. He interacts well with adults, reacts to sounds properly, and plys with his toys like he should. The people did notice something in a few minutes that we have noticed all summer long. If you give him a toy in his left hand he will eat it. If you give him a toy in his right hand, he will pass to his left - and eat it. They didn't see it, but he will hold a bottle with two hands or only his left. He definitely favors his left and his grandparents and parents think he is left handed.

The biggest problems were the gross and fine motor skills. Picking up something the size of a box of cheerios is gross motor skills. Mostly whole arm type of stuff. Picking up individual cheerios is fine motor skills. Mostly hands and fingers. He was on the low end of normal in both areas. I would love to give him more practice, but there is a big problem with the fine motor skills. The best way to practice that is to let him feed himself. However, he has no teeth. I can't let him have crackers or cheerios until he can chew. Of course, as soon as he learns to eat cheerios, he learns to throw them. Maybe I can wait a little longer.

The one thing they told us to work on is tummy time. They say that he should still learn to crawl.

Does this look like a crawler to you? Does he even look like a sitter anymore?

Family Reunion Pics

Here's your new screensaver Traci.

Jordan - a.k.a. Athos

Isaiah - a.k.a. Porthos

Christian - a.k.a Aramis (the 3 musketeers)

Family Picture

The life preserver is because he HATES to get dunked and he wanted to walk.

Too cute. And baby looks good too.

The family reunion was held at a place called 'Great Wold Lodge'. There are about a dozen of them in the country. They all have water parks in them and are family hotels. The catch is is that the water parks are designed for both kids and adults - not infants. There was screaming, splashing, little waterfalls and all sorts of stuff a 3 year old would love. Infants can only deal with so much stimulus at a time and this infant in particular can only handle being wet in certain ways. Jordan HATES to be splashed anywhere on his body and still cries during baths when his face gets too wet. It took him about 10 minutes before he could deal with all of the activity around him. Kids were running, there were strangers in the pool, there were sprinklers everywhere. His eyes looked bigger than mine. However, after he got used to the stimulus he LOVED it. We should have taken a video where he was laughing while his gums were chattering from the cold water.

Speaking of stimulus, look at the 3 musketeers up top. Christian (3 years) and Isaiah (4 months) are the children of my cousin (I don't know what number cousins are anything they are and I don't particularly care - we're all cousins). Anyway, you are looking at the next 15 Xmases or so. Especially when they can all walk. There was a preview this weekend. Of course Christian loved Jordan and wanted to go play with him. He was told Jordan hadn't learned to walk yet. Christian thought the best way to teach him was to help him. Christian grabbed Jordan's left hand and started walking. I still had Jordan's right hand while trying to slow down the 3 year old. Jordan didn't say a thing because he wanted to play with Christian, but he would have literally been dragged away on the floor if I wasn't there. 3 year olds don't do anything slowly except eat veggies.

One more thing happened on this trip that i just have to mention. When we take jordan out in public, he gets lots of attention. We take him out to the market and he sees people and they see him. People smile at him and he smiles back. The women especially like to do this. Living in FL, we hear at least twice a month were Jordan reminds someone of their grandkid(s). Anyway, the night before leaving we are in a restuarant in Harlem with cousin Tony. He is a little grabby hasn't had solid baby food all day and he's a little fussy. He's been a champ all trip so it's OK, we just try to do our best since it's already past his bed time. The 3 adults are talking about the trip and eventually we forget about the baby. He's in a high chair eating a bib so what could happen? Well we weren't giving him attention so he found a table of 5 women behind us and these women were nobody's grandmother. He was just cheesing for attention and they thought he was adorable. He practically was flirting with them. He couldn't stop smiling directly at them which they thought was adorable so they smiled back at them. It was getting to be a pretty vicious cycle until cousin Tony stepped in.

The last day was marked by flight delays. I won't go into details because if you have ever flown in Atlanta or NY (especially the same day) then you have had the same stories. I'll just say that Jordan couldn't have been better. He doesn't mind flying and he cares nothing for flight delays. He got to spend one flight napping on mommy and the second flight climbing on daddy. Overall he was a perfect baby for this trip. Thank you Jordan!

Tour Pics - Part 2

This is the first time his parents have given him a bath in a sink.

Like I said aunt Rochelle hasn't seen him in nearly a year. He seemed more interested in the doll in this picture, but he absolutely loved her.

Unlike Chicago, he stayed awake in Times Square.

This is Marilyn. More on this pic below.

This is the bed we slept in. He apparently thought it was a playpen because he preferred to stay awake in it.

The second day of the tour, Jordan was amazing. We left Brooklyn before 8am and went to times square. I don't know if all 9 month olds are like this, but he acted like we were in the local supermarket. The scenery was nice, but the strap in the stroller is the real entertainment. We even took a boat tour around the island of Manhattan - his first bost ride - and he handled it like we were driving the family car down the interstate. Due in part to the fact that I forgot how long it takes to walk from 7th to 12th avenue, we returned to Rochelle's house at 4pm. Any other time this would be a busy enough day and we'd relax before bedtime or something. However, this trip had nothing to do with relaxing. We turned around and went to visit Gail in Long Island.

Gail is one of my dad's former coworkers from the 80s. I literally grew up with her son David who is the same age. Also her daughter Alana and husband Steve was there. The funniest part was when I saw Bob. Bob is my dad's former boss. I am 31 years old and literally haven't seen Bob in over 20 years. The last time I saw him he was 20 years younger, had a mustache, black hair, and was twice my height. I heard this stranger say he was some guy named Bob, but I didn't know it was THE Bob for about an hour. Gail has been reading this blog since it began and she was thrilled to meet the baby. My biggest regret is that she will now be bugging her kids to give her a grandchild. Or course everyone was loving on the baby and he was loving them back. He enjoyed Gail's house so much I'm sure he would have stayed all night if given the choice. However, we had to leave at 8pm. I would have posted some pics from there, but all of the pictures were taken on other people's cameras. Oops.

Usually bed time is 8pm, but Jordan is on tour and has plenty of people to meet. Next stop is Marilyn's house. She has known my Mom she says since they were teenagers (My mom was never as young as I am. She was born at 40 years old with some weird desire to force kids to eat vegetables). Marilyn's son Kalik and his girlfriend Angela was there too. Angela's 3 year old daughter has the distinction of being the only toddler in history who didn't want to spend all day playing with Jordan. However, Marilyn more than made up for it. She was wearing a tank top with straps, her hair was braided, and she was wearing loose dangly jewelry. The one year old found her more than entertaining. He hung in there a while too, but eventually he started to crash. Jordan loves being around people and doesn't want to miss out on anything, so he will stay up as long as he can. By 10:30 he was visibly fighting sleep. His mind was saying party but his body was shutting down. He wasn't saying anything, but I felt terrible about it.

The next morning was a very special trip. We went up to the Bonx to visit my grandparents. Of course this was their first time meeting the baby. My grandfather (unsurprisingly) was not as excited as my Nana. We bought them plenty of photos and of course they loved those. I got to let Jordan play in the room I used to play in even though he couldn't walk on his own and would never remember. Actually, thinking back, I think I only got to ply with him for about 5 minutes. Between Traci, Nana, and my Aunt Barbara, he didn't get much floor time. Anyway, towards the end Jordan also got to play with Aunt Barbara, my mother's sister. We would have stayed a lot longer but it was time for us to drive to Pennsylvania. We had to attend the Ross Family Reunion!

Tour Pics - Part 1

First let me say that there are more pics coming. I just haven't downloaded all of the pictures yet. These pics are from the first part of the trip.

Jordan is about ready to go. He doesn't know where he is going, but he knows he's ready to go there.

I know this is Jordan's blog, but I have a fondness for cute ladies.

Actually, all 3 of us have a fondness for her.

These previous 2 pics are very special ones for me. The one directly above is my Aunt Barbara who of course has never met the baby before. The one above that is my grandmother (Jordan's great-grandma), Nana. That picture alone was worth the entire trip.

We flew from Orlando to LaGuardia and it took 4 hours. No delays, just a stop in Canton, OH. Of course, Jordan was a champ. We kept him fed, he kept us busy, but he also kept quiet. He just spent half the flight sleeping and half the flight trying to get us to put him down. I don't know why since he can't stand on his own, but he tried really hard. After landing, we met my younger sister and her husband at the airport, then rented a car and drove to my older sister's house. She hasn't seen Jordan in about 16 pounds (He is currently almost 20). Then all 6 of us went out to a great Thai restaurant. The only problem with the restuarant is that they made no pretense of being a family restaurant. They didn't kick us out of anything, but there were no high chairs, no changing tables in the bathroom, and I don't know if there is such a thing as a kid's menu for Thai food. The aunts learned a very important lesson. You must be very careful when you have a one year old sitting on your lap - they grab everything and hold nothing. He reached for everything and unfortunately got hold of a cup of Sprite. Aunt Rochelle and I were sticky for the rest of the day.

After the restaurant we took a nickel tour of lower Manhattan's bridges and then dropped Aunt Traci off at the house of some old friends. We left the restaurant at about 8pm and then woke him up at 9pm to see the old friends. We didn't take him out to play, but he did wake up. Then he fell asleep when we drove back to Aunt Rochelle's. We had to carry him upstairs at 10pm (we never have stairs in FL) and laid him on a strange bed in a strange house. He figured we wanted him to stay awake since we kept waking him up, so he obliged. We placed him in between us on a king size bed where he proceeded to play and kick even though we were dead tired. He was totally silent, but he taught us a lesson about constantly waking up a sleeping baby. He played in bed in between his parents for over an hour. I thought only pregnant women were supposed to experience the 'Joy' of a baby kicking them in the ribs all night.