Back by Popular Demand!

OK, so I hadn't planned on doing a lot more posting on this blog since Jordan is clearly a toddler now. The idea was that no one wants to hear stories about new words, learning the potty, and how much of a genius I think my kid is (he is pretty friggin smart). However, a bunch of people have been asking lately for exactly that. So here'the deal - I will post on major events and give updates, but it won't be just about the developmental milestones only. He is always going to have to be checked for complications of the prematurity, but right now he is perfectly normal - which is all I ever wanted.


So Jordan can now talk a bit. He had that surgery last year and can now stick out his tounge but still doesn't make the S or L sounds. Not really an issue yet, but we may see a therapist about that later this year. With the new vocab comes those wonderful toddler words like No, Mine, and Stop (he says that mostly to the dogs). He has too many adorable actions to count, but some are just really cute. As I have mentioned so some people over the phone, he loves cougars! When we take him to the playground he just seems to be drawn to older (4 and 5 year old) girls. They think of him as a baby who needs to be coddled and sometimes even carried. They help him up and down stairs and show him how to play. I don't carry him much anymore, and when we play I pretty much follow his lead. He loves that attention from those girls like it was a drug. He also can pee in the potty when we tell him, but if we don't tell him he will wet his pants and not tell anyone. He will try and hold it for a few minutes, but if we don't remember he won't ask. He knows when he does the solids but isn't yet ready to put that where is belongs. Sometimes we use the big boy pants at our peril. Right now I won't post any pics since he'll be reading this in 5-10 years, but the pics do exist so don't push me boy.

Right now we are in that golden age of parenting when Jordan thinks his old man is the smartest person in the world, and I know that I only have 5 years left before he changes his mind so I have really taken advatage of the situation. As mama would say, he's all boy. One of our (not her) favorite games is when I pick him up and throw him. I always make sure he lands on a couch or mattress, but as he gets older I get to throw him farther. My personal best is now over two feet. We also play this game where we bite each others finger. I don't really get the point but it makes him squeal like a pig.

I will post pics of Xmas soon, but even more fun was our trip to Busch Gardens. We took him to the park and got to see some animals. However, that wasn't his best part. We also took him on the cable cars which he loved, but that wasn't his best part either. He loved the trains most of all. He loved them so much that I didn't realize that the two trains were different colors until he mentioned it (Gween Twain! Yewwow Twain!). Of course there were some other nice parts as well...

He had a bit of a delayed reaction because he didn't actually get wet. He liked getting hit by the mist, but wanted nothing to do with the splash. In fact, we thought he didn't want to get wet at all

But if you listen to the first clip, you hear him say roller coaster a couple of times. This was the only roller coaster in the park that he was tall enough to go on alone.

That last clip was taken at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Now take someone with the judgement and maturity of a 2 year old and then add in his two year old son to help make decisions then this is what happens by 4 o'clock.

Now before anyone gets all upset, it was his idea to do that. After we did it he couldn't stop asking to do the boat again for the rest of the day. We had to find something to do to take his mind off of the boat. I must warn you in advance that you must tilt your head to the left to see this.

A Tale of Two Sisters

It has been a great month for the little guy. For one thing, he got to see both of his sisters. Aunt Rochelle came to visit us from NY and then we went to Atlanta so I could go to homecoming for my alma mater while Jordan spent some time with Aunt Traci. It was so cute watching the two aunts try and get Jordan to like them. Jordan is two years old. He likes everybody and desperately wants everybody to like him. All you have to do is give him attention and he is your friend. I told that story a few months ago about the kid who tried to take the tricycle at his birthday party. Jordan still tries to get that kid to like him.

So anyway, this was Rochelle's first time seeing Jordan in 14 months. He was just waking up from his nap so he was pretty sleepy.

Soon enough he was going full speed and had Aunt Rochelle chasing after him.

I enjoyed the rest.

We decided it would be a great day to go to the beach. I would just like to take a minute to complain about this. It is 90 degrees outside, halloween is in 2 days and I'm friggin tired. Some people may be reading this when it's cold out, but I am jealous. Summer shouldn't last 6 damn months! Anyway, we had a great time at the beach.

This was 2 pm

This was 2:15 pm

This was 2:30

Of course Aunt Rochelle played games with Jordan in the tunnel. Then she played with Jordan at the beach. Then it was time for Jordan to learn some of Aunt Rochelle's games.

I think she learned this one in college. After Aunt Rochelle went home we had a party. One of Jordan's friend's turned three so we had a party for her at our house. However, we had her do the cooking...

What happens when you mix three toddlers, three pots, and three spoons? Nothing that you would want to eat.

Later that week we went to Atlanta to visit Aunt Traci. Sort of. She had to work that week so I actually don't have a lot of pics of them together. We spent the first day visiting the Children's Museum. This is him walking in the museum for the first time.

He loved that place, but I can't really say that he learned all that much. He already knew how to do this.

At the end they had a buy come in a teach the kids how to play instruments. Guess which one Jordan liked the most.

Of course if you have a toddler in Atlanta you have to take him to the aquarium. This was the first fish he saw. He acted like he usually acts. He didn't run away, but he didn't run closer. Didn't scream, but didn't laugh. He doesn't get too far but not too close. You can't see his face but you know he's thinking a mile a minute.

This was too cute. There was a tunnell around the back of this tank for the kids. However, Nama had to go back there too to show Jordan where the camera was. Otherwise he would have just run right through the tunnell without even slowing down. Thanks Mom.

And of course Aunti Traci got to spend a day with Jordan too. When you are a parent you expect your siblings to spoil kids rotten. I expected Traci to give Jordan Ice Cream, and soda, and stuff like that. Apparently, she was content feeding my son a crayon.

Terrific Twos

I don't know how to embed a youtube in a post yet so I had to provide a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1xTlADyruI

He was so cute, but there is a little problem. He thinks he can swim.

All parents are full of pride when their kid does this and we are no different. We took this video over a week ago. Now he can recognize about 10 letters. As you can see he thinks 'YAY' is the 27th letter of the alphabet. I don't think people will still be using the web in 30 years but I would love to show my grandkids how their dad called W 'dub'.

My boy is becoming more of a toddler every day - he makes the rules. Last month we had an elmo birthday party because that's pretty much 80% of what we let him watch. Today, he is all about Blue's Clues and to hell with Elmo. We didn't want to change, but he's old enough to say what he wants and too young to reason with. We have a bookstore by our house with toy cars in the kids play area. Cars are his favorite toy and sometimes we take him to the bookstore and let him play for half an hour while we read. Sometimes he makes us read him something. However, he has taken to crying in the car every time we drive by the store - which we have to do to get to the interstate. Yesterday I tried to take a back road to avoid the whole mall area and mr. navigator wasn't having it. He knew what I was trying to do and he had to regulate. I am ashamed to admit that there have been times I have chosen where to grocery shop based on which shopping cart he likes the most.

His food is the weirdest thing about him. He is getting even pickier about his diet, but it was pretty limited before. He very rarely swallows meat. If you give it to him he will chew out all the juice and seasoning, then spit out the left overs. That reminds me, I didn't do it, but don't ever teach 2 year olds how to spit. It never gets old for them. He only eats a couple of veggies and you have to give him the right veggies at the right time. The only things he will always eat is fruit and grandma's cornbread. If I let him he would eat strawberries and peaches for dinner every night.

All that being said, I am loving this whole daddy thing. First, he is getting bigger all the time. 2 year old boys like to roughhouse and sometimes I am not necessarily the adult. Also 2 year old boys think daddys are cool. When I burp in front of Jordan my mom thinks I'm gross but all Jordan thinks is, "Damn, how does he do that?". When Jordan steps on my feet, I knock him down. He gets back up and steps on them again. He wants to be knocked down. Mommy is fun too, but mommy doesn't ever body slam Jordan. Mommy just comforts Jordan after he has been body slammed one too many times.

Potty time, Party time

I know I am supposed to talk about the birthday party, but Jordan flipped the script. He got pee pee in the potty today (be quiet dad)! We've been working on this for over a month now and had no success until now! In the interest of good taste I didn't take a picture of it so you'll just have to trust me. He's gone from 0% potty trained to 1% potty trained. From what I hear it will take at least the rest of this year with a boy.





Before you become a parent, you think spending money for a cake with cartoon characters is silly. Two years in, I think it is cool.






One of Jordan's aunts came to visit for the party. He liked Aunt Traci.

He LOVED Aunt Traci's dogs. I think the dogs must have loved him back.

I don't think he cared much for the party hat.

I mean he REALLY, loved those dogs.

Of course he had no interest in blowing up the little party favors when it is so much easier to eat them.

The funniest story of the party was associated with this picture. This was obviously one of Jordan's gifts. In order to make this year's party more kid focused than last year we also invited a 3 year old boy who Jordan saw only once before when Jordan was about 15 months old. They have seen each other but that's about it. Anyway, the 3 year old got a hold of the trike when Jordan was away. Jordan comes back and sees this three year old on the trike. Jordan is two years old and an only child. He has no ability to understand the concept of sharing or taking turns. However, he can tell pretty quick that he can't physically force a 3 year old to do a damn thing. He solves the problem the only way he knows how. He walks over to Hassan (the 3 year old), sticks both of his arms straight up in the air, and shouts 'UP!'. It didn't work so he repeats it a good dozen times or so - UP! UP! UP! By this time all the adults in the room are looking at this. I still don't know if Hassan ever paid attention but it was adorable. Jordan was trying to have an argument with a 12 word vocabulary and he used the only word that fit the situation. I swear if I was a better father I might have tried to help my son rather than get the camera. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera in time. Hassan got off when he got bored, but I secretly wanted him to stay on for another minute or so.

Jordan went to the pediatrician yesterday for his 2 year old checkup. Jordan was completely up to date on his shots so yesterday was strictly a checkup. He is about 40% on the height chart but just barely 5% on the weight chart, which means he's still skinny. He weighed 23 pounds 3 ounces with his clothes and diaper on so he's probably about 22 and a half naked. The doctor said that he is doing well enough that our next scheduled appointment is for his three year old checkup next July!

In the world in which we live there were about 3 digital cameras at the birthday party beyond mine. That means I haven't gotten all of the photos yet. Anyone who has photos please send them to me (Aunt Traci). If you are waiting to see more photos I should have them up in a few days.

Happy Birthday Son!

Jordan went with the mama Ali to visit family in Chicago last week. Most of the pics are of people close to us but no one wants to see a dozen pics of Uncle Joe and Aunt Jane. They wants pics of my main man.

He looks like he's been crying, but we told him that once he's two crying isn't allowed anymore.

I don't even remember doing this, but this is the type of thing I do with him a lot. If I dance he will dance. Neither os us is very good but when he does it he's cute. Notice how he is left legged. He doesn't pick up his right leg once.

Jordan is growing so fast lately it is hard to believe. He now says please and thank you when you remind him. He does it with the signing so that makes it even more adorable. He is so funny when he signs that sometimes I try to teach him signs he doesn't need to know. Last month I tried to teach him the signs for mommy and daddy even though those are the first two words he learned and two of the few he says clearly. He is also trying to say the alphabet when he watches Sesame Street. It is too cute because he can't say more than 10 of the letters properly. He still doesn't ever make the K or S sound at all so that eliminates about 5 letters right there. He just says vowel sounds along with the TV (or as he says AHH-me). He also knows how to hold up two fingers for the number two. It was something he picked up in Chicago. The only thing is that he holds up each of his index fingers, so he needs two hands two hold up two fingers. If I sent him to New York to visit my father's side of the family he'd only know how to hold up one finger - and it wouldn't be his index.

Jordan is having a party that weekend to celebrate the birthday so will definitely have some nice pictures up soon. Check back next week.

From NICU to PICU

So of course Jordan had his surgery Tuesday. There was actually a mix up on Monday that almost cause the thing to be postponed again. The hospital always confirms the day of the surgery, but never confirms the time until the day before the surgery. The call the evening before to tell you what time to show up and of course I stepped out of the house right when they called. They left a message to return the call, but I didn't get the message until after business hours. Anyway, we know that they do surgeries in order of age with the youngest first so Jordan was likely to be first or second. To get to Jacksonville first we woke up the baby around 5 am. There's no problem with the parents getting up first, but we had to wake up Jordan, dress him, give him some foul tasting medicine, and load him in the car before sunrise. All of this without eating or drinking anything except medicine. He got is revenge in the hospital the way that only my son would. He didn't fuss much, he just started running away after he was wearing his little gown. He was adorable and all, but mama and I had to take turns chasing him down while the other answered question for the nurses. The other parents thought he was too cute. I thought he was too quick.

The surgery was to laser out some of the fluid filled cysts in his throat. All of them together created a kind of whistle which gave Jordan a virtually constant wheeze. The doctor told us it would take about an hour and a half to fix it and as she promised we saw her almost right on time. The procedure went perfect and the kid was in recovery. They have this policy where they don't let the parents into the first recovery area so we had to wait another 20 minutes or so until they moved him to his room in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). They told us before time that Jordan no matter how this went was going to spend a night in the hospital for observation. The PICU took up most of the 3rd floor of the hospital and I was secretly happy to see that at least half the rooms were empty. If you ask me, children's hospitals should be fully funded but completely empty of patients. My old NICU manners didn't let me stare into the occupied rooms, but I did notice that all the other ones I saw must have been older than Jordan because no one else was in a crib. Jordan was in a weird metal crib whose sides must have been a little over 2 feet high because they went up to his neck when standing. Of course at the time he was sitting with an IV in his left hand (we should have told them he was left handed) and a bunch of leads. He was also pretty punch drunk because he was reclining (he never reclines while he's awake). The TV was turned to Sesame Street so he made no serious attempt to acknowledge his parents or the two nurses attending to him. He was in some sort of nitrous/elmo haze so we let him be. We saw the familiar monitor keeping track of all the vitals and smelled the familiar smell, and I felt nothing. He was satting about 97%. His heart rate was good. After my experience with that machine, I felt absolutely no fear at all. The entire time when the alarms went off, I knew if was because the machine was wrong.

Jordan has certain rules at home that we try to follow. He doesn't get a pacifier any more. We try to limit him to an hour of TV (though we strongly suspect his grandparents don't). He doesn't use a sippy cup anymore. If you want an object you either name it, sign it, or point it. You eat in the chair and try to feed yourself. All of those rules were suspended in the hospital. He got all the TV he wanted, drank from a sippy cup, and spent most of the day with a pacifier in his mouth. And he still spent half the day fussing. We think he had gas, but what ever it was he was cranky. He spent the first 6 hours either crying, watching TV, or both. Of course 2 year olds don't just cry either. For him, crying is a full contact sport that involves climbing out of the crib, pulling at leads, and climbing on any adult within arms reach. When he gets a tantrum, I get out of breath. He didn't really calm down until dinner came.

Jordan is usually a picky eater, but that hospital food must have had something special in it. He ate Jello (which we thought he hated). He ate mashed potatoes and gravy and corn (he hates corn at home). He did chicken his own special way. That means grabbing the drumstick, putting the narrow end in the mouth, removing the skin and cartilage and sucking on the bone – under no circumstances eating any meat. Even Mima and Pop pop were amazed at how much he ate when they showed up around dinner time. He ate so much that he took a nap at 6pm (something else he isn't allowed to do at home because of his 8pm bedtime). By the time he woke up we let him has a disney movie for the first time. We have nothing against disney, but at home we limit him to the educational stuff. Madagascar may be funny to big kids, but it's nothing more than pretty pictures to a two year old. By the time he finally got to sleep, we headed to the cafeteria to get something for us to eat.

The next morning we noticed we couldn't hear Jordan breathing. His number were fine, but we just couldn't hear him. In the past, if you couldn't hear Jordan breathe in a quiet room, he wasn't in it. When the doctor came in to listen to him breathe, she confirmed what I thought. The stridor is gone. She told us to come back in a month for a regular visit to see how the scars are healing, but for now we could go home. We were out of the hospital within an hour of the doctor writing the order.

Long Story Short

I know I haven't been posting in a while I have been busy with some other suff that kept me busy for the last month. While I have been keeping busy, Jordan has too. He became a friggin toddler...Look!



We have to turn him at an angle to fit on the changing table. He is above the 85th percentile for height for his actual age. He is taller than 85% of kids born on his birthday. However, he isn't on the chart for weight. Less than 5% of kids born the same day weigh less. Look at those legs. Considering where he started and where he is, it is hard to believe that at one point he was chubby. I think it was a Tuesday.

His surgery was postponed before because of a respiratory infection. I'm not saying this is where he got it, but I didn't let any dogs near my mouth and I feel fine.

The procedure has been rescheduled for June 23rd. We are going to try to limit him to eating less than 3 toys off of the floor per day. Maybe then he can avoid the germs for a day or two. Toddlers love to find germs. Toddlers also love to play with toys what ain't not toys.

You think he gives that much attention to his toy camera? Forget it.

Jordan has really gotten better with his communication. He understands many simple phrases and questions directed at him. He is getting the timing of his 'no's to be much better too. He can do about 3 or 4 signs, identify 3 or 4 of his body parts, and speak another half dozen words that he doesn't know the signs for. It's so cute but I won't be posting videos of that anytime soon. He's at the stage where the parents can understand him, but if I showed him saying door, it would sound the same to the untrained ear as dog and daddy. I will try and get a video of him playing up soon because he is just a whirlwind of motion.

Rain Date

Well, Jordan didn't have surgery yesterday. Before going in to the hospital we had to get approval from the pediatrician. Well, Jordan had and stil has an upper respiratory infection - a.k.a. the sniffles. Not at all unusual for someone who thinks daddy's flip flops taste good. Kids this age are usually sick with something and I wouldn't even mention it except he needs to be perfectly healthy before they put him under. We are trying to get the surgery moved to next week. I'll post a more detailed update as soon as I can get some more info.

You ever heard of the books that say you can teach your kid sign language?

Well here's proof. He doesn't truly understand what he's saying (no difference between 'more' or 'food'). However he does know that when he gives the sign we feed him. That's pretty cool. This one is pretty cool too.

Jordan is so cute when he plays this game, but there is one problem. He can only get two parts rights before he gets confused. We taught him his head, belly, and feet. On any given day he'll remember the head and one other. This particular day was the belly.

We finally found out when the next surgery is going to be. It is a week from today, the day after memorial day. They are going to use an endoscope very similar to the last one they used, but this one will have a laser on it. There is a cyst in the middle of the vocal chords and three cysts right below them in the windpipe. The one in the vocal chords is probably restricing the volume and the other three are acting almost like a whistle. The doctor believes that all are fluid filled cysts which should be able to be excised pretty easily with the laser. As a result Jordan is definitely going to spend Tuesday night in the hospital for monitoring. That will be a good thing considering last time.

Last time Jordan was pretty fussy. He spent all day crying so much that I caved in and gave him a pacifier. It turns out that he was fussing for a reason I never predicted. After shoving the endoscope down his throat he had pretty bad gas. He calmed down after he let out a belch and filled up a pretty mean diaper. Then he took off. I miss the baby. Now, I've got a little toddler who has learned how to run and only speaks 5 words (Mommy, daddy, bye, no, and more). If he can't express himself in those words he doesn't cry. He just says bye and runs away. I can't believe there was a time when I wanted him to learn how to walk.

Operation Recap

Well, we are home. The day went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone and the baby is currently resting in (my) bed. We had to arrive at the hospital by 7:30am which meant we had to leave home by 6:15. We get to the hospital and there is a little mix up with the paperwork but they did us a real solid. We told them that we left the paperwork with a nurse at out previous visit and rather than doubting us and assuming we were lying, they actually looked for the paperwork and found it.

I won't go into the boring details except to say that between 7:30 and the scheduled 9:30 procedure we spent about 90% of the time just waiting. We waited in 3 different roomswith play areas for the kids. I'm sure all parents do this at some point, but I think the urge is even stronger when your kid has something wrong with them. You compare kids. Mentally I tried comparing Jordan developmentally with other kids his size (Who stack blocks better? Who rocks better on the rocking horse?). I also compared behavior (That kid cries more than my kid. The other kid can count to two and my kid can't even say two). I compared size (Jordan is 10% on his height chart but not yet on the weight chart so he's always too skinny). I eventually got bored and played pac man on the video game system. The mama Ali thought I should have let some of the other kids play.

The procedure itself went off very smoothly. The doctor took one of her little video scopes down Jordan's throat to see what is causing the stridor. It turns out that Jordan has 4 cysts in there. The surgeon even showed us the photos (I won't post them). The cysts are clearly restricting the air flow in there and the surgeon said she wants to remove them. She wants to laser them out at a time yet to be determined but certainly before the end of the summer (Thanksgiving day here in FL). She also fixed his tongue which she said would have definitely been a speech impediment.

After the procedure we finally got to see Jordan after he spent 20 minutes in recovery. The recovery area we were in was pretty loud. Every pateint under the age of six was pissed off including my son. The boy hadn't eaten, was in a strange place, still felt the effects of the happy juice, sore, and had an IV in his left hand (that's pretty bad when you're left handed). We knew this going in and agreed to bend the rules for today. Jordan got all the pacifier he wanted. If fact he got more today than the rest of 2009. We even let him try Gatorade even though he's been limited to fruit juice and milk before now. It made little difference. He cried himself to sleep - I think twice. Finally at 1pm the let us out and the nurses reaction were so funny. They were making a big deal for Jordan because he got to leave the hospital. "Yay Jordan! You get to go home!" "I bet your happy to be leaving the hospital huh Jordan?" "Jordan you made it!" The nurses were making a big deal because we had been in the hospital for five and a half hours. If only they knew...

Pre Op Preview

It turns out that I didn't post any pics from Easter. Here is the best video. He still has a bunch of the plastic eggs that he loves to play with. Anyone who has been the parent of a one and a half year old knows better than to use real eggs.

It isn't important to know why I ended up in the box, it's just important to know that he wanted to join me in there. Sometimes a man needs to play with cardboard.

After the cardboard, all of us decided to go for a drive. The mama Ali called shotgun so guess who got to drive?

You know how when you live somplace you never get to do the tourist stuff? New Yorkers never go to the Statue of Liberty. People in DC never visit the Smithsonian after grade school. Well After being home for a year and a half, Jordan drove 6 miles east for his first visit to the beach. He has now been to the beach as many times as he has been to Times Square (1000 miles north).

After the last video, this was the next obvious step. You can see how much he hates bathtime.

Yesterday was our last preparation before Tuesday's procedure. We went to the hospital in Jacksonville to visit the anestesiologist. She gave us a couple of meds to give him this weekend and made sure that we knew what to expect. Anyone who has ever had surgery knows not to eat or drink before hand, but this will be a problem. When you have a kid, you have a schedule. His schedule usually has breakfast by 9am. We can't even give him water within 4 hours of the surgery. We don't know what time it will be, but either we wake him early to get hime there and he gets hungry, or we wakes up at the normal time and he gets hungry. Either way the doctor makes the rules and the parents catch hell. Oh yeah, we also have to give him a breathing treatment before putting him in the car. He hates those.

On Tuesday we will go to the hospital at a time TBD. After changing the lil' tornado into a hospital gown they will time to the OR. They will fix his tongue and place a tube in his throat to see what they can find. They know what is obstructing the airway, but they need to know why. With luck the might be able to fix it right then, but that probably will happen in the future. Then he goes into recovery. If he recovers well we can go home before dinner. Otherwise he may have to stay in the hospital overnight for observation. Personally I want him to stay overnight. Jordan is going to be hungry as hell, mad as a wet hen, and his throat will be as sore as sh!t. I want to people who cause that to happen to deal with the consequences while I relax in an easy chair reading the night away. Like I always say, don't do the crime if you can't change the diapers full of crap.

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.