Jordan the snack lady

Jordan is denied by Cairo when she tries to bring her a treat.

The Belly Scoot

The first of what I am sure are many crawling videos:

Jordan is a 9-Month-old

Jordan is gaining independence. We like to think of her as our pint-size little explorer. Her mobility style, while unconventional, works well for her. She prefers an ARMY-style crawl on her forearms and toes rather than hands and knees. Jordan has logged quite a few "baby-miles" around the house exploring the carpet, the entertainment center, under the kitchen table and under her baby swing. She also found her toy box and Cairo's toy basket during an exploration. However, something really fun for her to do is chase Cairo around the house. It's a really entertaining game where she crawls over to the dog, who subsequently gets up and walks away (dog wants nothing to do with baby). Then it's really fun to go get the dog and do it all again...and again...and again.

In addition to crawling, Jordan is practicing independence on her feet by standing against furniture, or while holding onto mom and dad's hands. She can cruise a little, but is mostly working on her sense of balance right now. Usually she needs help getting to her feet, but has pulled herself up without any help a couple of times.

Jordan is eating a large variety of solid, well pureed, foods and also cereal puffs. She likes most foods with the exception of plain cereals, peas, and mixed vegetables (which smell like spinach, yuck!). Cereal puffs are fun because she gets to pick them up and put them in her mouth all by herself. Her dexterity seems pretty good, as she can manipulate many kinds of objects that move in all sorts of ways. She has a baby xylophone that she can strike with a plastic mallet to make music.

At her well-baby check-up yesterday Jordan weighed in at 17 lbs 14 oz, and measured 27 inches in length--both in the 28th percentile for babies her age. Her head, however, is still very large and in the 75th percentile. We didn't have to get any immunizations at this check-up so that was excellent, just like Jordan's health.

Is that Eric Cartman in our front yard?

Jordan does her Eric Cartman impersonation. (If you don't know who Eric Cartman is look it up).

The Mega Video Post

Jordan and her cousin Peyton playing


Jordan plays outside in the grass and wind


She's mobile!!

Our First Family Vacation

Last week we enjoyed our first official vacation as a family. Our destination? McCall, Idaho, with time split between the family cabin and Varney's Lakefront Vista. Ma Nature bestowed us with a lot of sunshine and warmer temperatures through most of the week (well at least warmer than 55 degrees, which it had been until then). Knowing that our best bet for lake activities was going to be the beginning of the week, we started our vacation there.

Jordan had never been to a beach before, and therefore had never seen sand. Varney's Vista features a beautiful sandy beach, and I must admit that Jordan ate her fair share of it, literally. She loved the feel of both wet and dry sand on her feet and hands and every now and then if we weren't looking we would catch her sampling it. However, she quickly learned it wasn't that tasty after all; a little gritty in fact.

Like I already mentioned the weather was a bit warmer, however the lake was pretty chilly, so I was reluctant to swim. Josh was braver than I and he would take Jordan out a little way into the water and dunk her feet in periodically. I could tell by her expression that she also thought the water was a bit chilly. So mostly she hung out with me on a beach towel and played with her toys. It must have been relaxing because she took a substantial nap one afternoon, meaning I got to have a nice little nap as well!

One of the nights was particularly exciting because there was a powerful wind storm that knocked out our power just before dark. We were able to find some candles in the cabin, and Josh donned a headlamp from our truck so that Jordan could enjoy her first meal by candle light. Fortunately the power was restored shortly after we woke up the next day. Others, we heard, weren't as fortunate.

Perhaps Jordan's favorite part of the vacation was playing with her new BFF, Peyton. Peyton is Jordan's second cousin (or something like that) and he was born just one day after she was. Though they are the same age, Peyton towers over Jordan and has mastered crawling already. Peyton had fun in Jordan's jumperoo and Jordan had fun standing at the coffee table with Peyton while they both slapped it with their hands. Jordan also got to meet her great aunt Mary Jo and her mom's cousin, Lindsey that day which was very exciting.

Toward the end of our vacation we took a short day trip to Boise to see the 'big city.' It so happened that we were able to meet Jordan's great aunt Lisa, great uncle Larry and their daughter, Hanna as well as great grandma Jeanne and Jim at Red Robin for lunch. Afterward, we drove around for a while and made a stop at Babies-r-us for some supplies. Then we were on our way to Nampa to take Jim's ski-do up to McCall on our way home. It was a quick trip but we needed to get back to the cabin since we left the dog there by herself. Jordan was tired of her car seat, but she was a trooper.

All in all we had a lot of fun that week. We played on the beach, felt the sand in our toes, cruised town in our stroller, saw a moose drinking and eating marsh grass, survived a power outage, and even got to watch Spain beat Portugal in the quarter-final of the World Cup while dining at Josh's favorite place in the whole world, the McCall Brewery.