Phoning it in

I'm phoning this post in - literally. I recently got a new cell phone, but just figured out how to transfer the pictures to the computer. It's pretty cool because I don't walk around with my camera usually, so my phone catches the cute stuff.

This was actually taken by another camera and sent to me. It is VERY rare to get a picture of Jordan smiling, standing up, standing still, looking at the camera, and not reaching for the camera. The pic was taken in January and it hasn't happened since.

"Listen up. I work hard, I play hard, and I rest hard."

I'm not making him mow the lawn yet, but soon.

The few who have seen this thought he shouldn't have done it. I say his diaper also doubles as a seat cushion.

This is how he handles toys that move. He's not hating it, but he's not liking it either.

Why was Jordan smiling? Today was tax day. I already filed, but I had to remember to pay my taxes. This picture was taken after traveling to the doctors office. I have to make sure my boy has health coverage. I had a salad for lunch. My mother's birthday is tomorrow and I have to get her a present. I woke up this morning with a stiff neck because I slept in a weird position.

Jordan doesn't have a concept of taxes, or bills, or limited amounts of money. He has two years before he has to worry about school, another decade before his first paper route, and another decade after that before getting benefits. He has a weight problem which involves us trying to get him to eat ice cream. The only present he has for nama is a loaded diaper and she'll have the nerve to treat it as an accomplishment. When he wakes up in the morning his body can do one new thing that it couldn't do yesterday. Who wouldn't be happy with that!

Tounge Untied

There was a full moon in Florida last night.

This is what happens when you try to change Mr. man's diaper in the backseat of the car. The still photo doesn't really do it justice, but he ended up standing up holding onto the liner within a minute. He really wanted to examine the dome lights in the roof.

Jordan has been really going full speed lately, and I do mean full speed. He has figured out what light switches do and thinks that it is magic. He doesn't just hit the switch once or twice. He flips the switch a dozen times or more. It somehow gets more amazing each time. It would be more amazing if he got to do it at night, but his bedtime is just before sunset. He also loves cars. He now knows when we are getting ready to leave the house and as soon as we open the door, he runs out to the car and tries to pull on the handle to get in, but there's a catch. He always tries to get into the front seat. He loves to sit on our laps and steer, and honk, and push buttons, and turn on the high beams. If I let him he would sit in daddy's car all day and push buttons on the radio and the bluetooth. He may grow out of it one day, but judging by me it will take more than 30 years.

Jordan has also started to talk a bit more. Of course he can say 'No'. He has gotten better at mama and daddy, but he just likes the word daddy. He will say it whether or not I'm there. He has a toy that says apple and he says 'ah-ah'. He loves to talk about his two furry little 'duhs'. He can also repeat 'dah-buh' when he have him on the changing table. He usually says hi and bye if he feels like it. When he throws things or knocks them over he also says 'uh-oh'. Hopefully after the procedure next month he can add 'spaghettios'.

Tongue Tied

We went to see a specialist yesterday back in Jacksonvile. It was a memorable visit. They checked for hearing for the first time since the NICU. He heard fine when he wasn't hollering. He didn't like the test which consisted of me holding him in my lap while speakers on either side made sounds at different volumes. Something about this really upset him. I still don't know why. Anyway, next the ear nose and throat doctor checked the ear nose and throat. The ears looked good which I didn't expect. Babies are supposed to have ear infections, but Jordan was fine. The nose was congested pretty bad. He usually is congested, but the doctor wanted a clear view so she gave a prescription strength decongestant. For the rest of the day everytime Jordan sneezed it looked like a party favor was coming out of his nose. He had streams extending below his chin after a sneeze. Then we had about 5 second to wipe before he did it himself.

Did you know that there is a medical condition that doctors actually call 'tounge tied'? Jordan has never stuck out his toungue or licked his lips. When he babbles he never makes the S or L sounds. I always thought it was a result of age, but it turns out that one of the tendons attached to his tongue is unusually tight. This could easily result in a speach impediment or lisp if left untreated. The doctor wants to treat it. Also his airways are a little funny. His vocal chords are a little out of alignment. We all have two sides that come together and create sound when we push air through them. Normally they come togther in the middle, but for Jordan one side (I believe the left) isn't coming all the way to the middle, so the other one over compensates. This itself isn't a problem, but the doctor wants to know why. It is most likely because of being on the vent for the first month after birth, but it could be from something else like swelling or an infection. More over, there is a problem in the windpipe. There is a flap of tissue that covers the windpipe when we swallow to keep food from entering the lungs. That part works fine on Jordan, but the rest of the time it doesn't fully go back to normal. That slightly restricts the airflow resulting in a slight wheeze. If you have ever spend a day with Jordan, you know that sometimes you can hear him breathe. This is why. Anyway, he has been diagnosed with Stridor. I'll leave it up to you to Google it, but the doctor isn't happy. She wants to go in and check it out with a bunch of procedures ending in -oscopy, not -ectomy so it shouldn't be too bad. The procedures are outpatient, but require him to be under anesthesia for about 45 minutes or so. She will go in down the throat to get a better look with one of those fiber optic cameras and fix what she can. She will definitely fix the tongue. The procedure is scheduled for May 5th. We are going to research the stuff a little more to see what we can learn. Luckily, little Ali has no idea what is going on. I'll update on his development otherwise next week. He is growing so fast.

Why does a little boy need his mommy?

Why does a little boy need his mommy?

To protect him from his daddy!

March Milestones

Someone this past weekend asked me if Jordan was sleeping through the night. It occured to me that while I have been including a lot of videos lately, I haven't been updating about some of the little milestones associated with a little baby. So anyway let me start by saying that yes, he usually sleeps though the night. About once or twice a week he wakes up in the middle of the night but we usually try to let him cry himself back to sleep. His bedtime is 8pm and he usually wakes up around 6:30 am. It's really adorable because we usually bring him into our bedroom to get dressed so he lets out a little cry to let us know he's up, we walk over to his room to get him, and once he sees us he'll pick up either his teddy or his blanket and reach up with his arms.

Feeding him is much easier lately. He is totally without bottles. In fact, we have put them all up and he lives off of food and sippy cups. We are going to try to use regular cups soon, but that will take a few months before he gets that right. He is also 99% done with baby food. The only baby food we use is the baby oatmeal for several reasons. First, you just mix it with milk. When Jordan is hungry, he won't wait 15 minutes for you to cook regular hot cereals. Baby oatmeal you mix with milk (or heavy whipping cream for the xtra calories) and zap it for 30 seconds. Also, he loves the stuff. If he won't eat his oatmeal, it's only because he isn't hungry anymore. The foods he likes are some of the old favorites we all remember. Pork and beans, crackers (saltines, graham, and animal), grilled cheese sandwiches, cheerios, and bananas. He has his four front teeth but right now he is getting in two more on the top and one on the bottom right. The main thing is that because his only has his cutting teeth, he can't chew meat very well and will only eat fish. Very small quantities of any other meat usually end up on the bib after he spits them out. Before you become a parent you are certain you will never try to force a kid to eat a cheeseburger, but he needs to gain another pound just to be on the growth chart for his actual age. Everytime we feed him, he just wants to get taller.

We are mostly done with the pacifier. At bedtime we leave one in the crib but don't give it to him. That's mostly in case he wakes up in the middle of the night. I don't give it to him when I put him down at night. However, I tend to give hime one for a nap still. The main reason is that if you don't force him to take a nap he won't take one but he gets real fussy at about 3pm and stays that way for the rest of the day. He's a real active kid who cares nothing for lying down, and the pacifier does calm him. Any other time he can kiss my butt. He's almost two and it's time to man up! (The mama ali hates when I tell the one year old to man up)

Physically, this kid is the solution to the nation's energy crisis. He walks all day long in the house and won't even sit to play with his toys - he just squats. On Monday he climbed into his stroller. Not a real problem except he was standing in it. We now put the stollers away when we aren't using them. He can get out of the couches and adult beds and he climbs people. If you are sitting on the couch and he wants your attention he won't ask. He will just climb up into your lap and demand it. He is just like his cousin Ariel. We do try to explain to him that that is not the right behavior and he needs to wait for permissison. However, just between us I love it. When your son climbs on your lap to watch TV with you and he can't understand the words, but he just wants to hang out with his old man....that is the true meaning of life.

Happy Birthday Auntie!

Got to start the post by wishing a happy birthday to Aunt Traci. I would and will give her a call tomorrow, but she can be hard to get in contact with. Ever since the baby came home from the hospital the average is 3 phone calls. Anyway, I haven't posted some still photos in months. The reason is very simple. I need Jordan to look at the camera, make an attempt to smile for the camera, and not try to grab the camera. That hasn't happened yet this year - until now.

Yeah, I can read. I prefer Tolstoy, but Dr. Seuss is nice too.

This was an Xmas gift. He never has gotten on it before, but he finally figured out how to make it bounce.

Ordinarily, I don't like to brag about the baby, but this time is special. Jordan is officially a genius! I know that all parents think their kids are a genius, but I have proof. Any time we ask Jordan a question he knows the answer. Ask him his name he says "Know!" Ask him to say know and he says "Know!" Ask him the time, he says "Know". There is nothing this kid doesn't "know". Look!

Know is his first word. How many other toddlers know so much? Need proof? Watch this.

He even knows how to throw his clothes on the floor while daddy tells him not to.

This was a gift from xmas 2007. That was the first time he hasn't run away from a dancing doll since he could run away.

Quick update

My grandfather passed away last week. The mama Ali and I went to NY to attend the funeral, but we left the baby behind. I'm not paying for his own seat and he's too active for a lap in coach. Just a few observations and then I'll move on.

1. I happened to wearing the same color suit as my grandfather. That was weird.
2. The driver of the hearse took the HOV lane to the burial. He may have been following the letter of the law about 2 people, but he wasn't following the spirit of the law.
3. According to the thermometer it was about 35 degrees at the burial. Apparently 35 degrees in NY is colder than 35 degrees in FL.
4. I grew up in NY. Apparently they wanted to remind me of my childhood because several of the bridges had not been maintained in anyway since my childhood. It appeared that the whitestone bridge was still standing only by force of habit and the strength of rust.

The baby spent the time with my in laws. I really appreciate my in laws. Jordan can pretty much out run them and their doorknobs are latches, so he can go into any room he wants. They sound like they tell Jordan to stay out of the bathroom, but sometimes it sounds more like a request. Plus, he's doing something new now that he didn't do before. He's starting to climb. Yesterday he kept himself happy by knocking over his stroller and climbing into it. He also climbs up on people when he wants the lap. We are working on getting him to stop, but it's a process.

He went to the doctor's office on Thursday. He had a lot of earwax in the ear that was previously infected. A year ago I didn't know that cotton swabs were a bad idea, but now we know. We used a solution that breaks up the wax so he's better, but the pediatrician refferred us to a specialist. Other than that however, we don't have any doctors visits scheduled until after his birthday in July!

TV Turner

That thing that he did was the first time he did it. It was cute for the first 24 hours. He has also taken an interest in the remote controls. He isn't just fascinated with the buttons, but he has learned to point it at the TV which results in weird things happening. The TV flashes to different channels, changes volume, and gets his parents to yell and run around after him. That means it's time for discipline, but that is less effective than it used to be. Discipline usually involves putting him in his playpen in a room alone. It used to work really well, but no longer. He used to holler, scream, and he once threw up. Now he whines. We don't want to start hitting him yet, but he's too young to understand scolding and sending him to his room would be not only ineffective, but potentially dangerous at his age.

Have you ever seen the cartoons when the characters start running but they don't actually move anywhere for a few seconds and their feet just spin around? Yeah, my son does that spinning thing. He can't run forward yet, but he can run in place with the best of them. I don't want to create the wrong impression. I don't want him to run yet. I don't need him to run until kindergarten at the earliest. He walks as fast as I mosey. He can already outrun most of his grandparents indoors. The playground is a different story. He is an only child. Because he has wonderful grandparents he doesn't go to daycare. He's never had a playdate. He can't run or climb or talk. When I take him to the playground he looks at other kids like they are wild animals that need to be observed. He doesn't know how to be a kid yet so he just looks at kids but he doesn't care to play with them. I tell him to go closer, but he won't let me go further than 2 feet away. I take him over to the jungle gym to watch, but he won't let me back away more than 1 step. I know he isn't a seven year old ready to be on his own, but I wish the playground was as fun for him as grandma's house is.

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.