Easter Egg-stravaganza

It was an egg-celent day of sun, above freezing temperatures and, of course, Easter egg hunting for Jordan. We got a late start on the day and at 8:55 am I saw on the Moscow Chamber of Commerce website that the Lions Club was sponsoring an Easter egg hunt at East City Park...at 9 am. With help from daddy, Jordan and I snagged our coats, hats, and an Easter basket and zoomed over to the park. We were late. But so was the Lions Club, apparently they decided to begin the festivities at 10:00 instead. Therefore, we spent the next 45 minutes playing at the park on the swings and collecting pine cones and sticks in the Easter basket waiting for the hunt to begin. We even met Leo the Lion (the Lions Clubs' costumed mascot) and mustered up the courage to give him "knuckles."

As go-time drew near there were some tense moments of toddler frustration and anxiety for Jordan. Because there were so many kids at the park, smart parents began lining up their children around the perimeter of the hunt zones and it was obvious that this was going to be a full contact activity. By this time Jordan had her sights set on a shiny orange egg laying in plain sight a mere 3 yards from the hunt zone boundary. She wanted that egg so badly, but couldn't understand why she was not allowed to collect it. We were seconds from a core meltdown when we were (quite literally) saved by the bell. And just like that the hunt zone became a war zone and it was every kid for him/herself. Less than 60 seconds later the hunt ended and the park lawn that was once a freckled landscape of colored plastic eggs had relinquished all its treasure. Jordan was lucky to find a single yellow egg on the lawn and she added it proudly to her basket.

Some of the Lions must have felt bad that Jordan had only one egg in her basket so they quickly "hid" a couple egg-stra eggs in the grass right in front of her for her to find. Jordan was very egg-cited!

Jordan is a Vagabond

Our house recently sold and we've been in our rental home for about two weeks. (read: the last month of our lives has been spent packing then moving then cleaning then unpacking!). Through it all Jordan has been a little trooper. The new digs, new routines, new sights and smells haven't phased her a bit. In fact, with more cooperation from Ma Nature, she might really get to enjoy this new, and temporary, location because it is just around the corner from Moscow's aquatics center and also very near a nice little park with walking paths and a duck pond.

Jordan is really enjoying her daycare. They've been doing a lot of new arts and crafts and are beginning to be able to play outside for longer periods of the day. Today was picture day and the photographer gave all the parents a choice of backgrounds to use for the shots--one was geared toward little girls, all pink and princess themed while the other was an outdoorsy/sporty scene with a shade tree and a big grassy field. It was suggested that you dress your child appropriately for the scene you chose. Their examples were a princess dress for girls, and a sports outfit for boys. I've never been one to perpetuate gender stereotypes/roles so I thought it would be cute to outfit her in the pink Adidas track suit she loves and have her photographed on the sporty scene. Though honestly it was more because she doesn't have any dresses that fit her yet. (we never bought her any because they seem so impractical to wear when it's so cold outside, and the ones she has are still too big for her). I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out.

Next time you greet Jordan, it might be with a fist. That's right, she likes to give you "a pound" or "knuckles" or the "Howie Mandel handshake" (i made that last one up). For those of you who are familiar with this relatively new greeting, we're still working on the part where you "blow it up" afterward. For those of you not familiar, it's really just an alternative to the high-five. We are also still trying to explain that Cairo, the dog, isn't ignoring Jordan's request for "a pound" it's just that dogs can't reciprocate. So mostly it just appears that Jordan is punching the dog in the nose or the head or wherever Jordan happens to make contact.

Finally, we are entering our annual traveling season with the onset of the Seattle Sounders soccer season. We made it to our first game last weekend and Jordan got to see grandma and grandpa Lewis at their newly remodeled house. Even more exciting, she got to see a sunny day in Seattle in April! Not too often that happens, really. Jordan doesn't prefer to go on long trips in the car, but she tolerates it fairly well. Usually the trip to Seattle isn't so bad because part of it coincides with her normal bedtime. However, the ride back to Moscow always seems to be more difficult and Jordan gets restless. We try to stop more frequently and let Jordan run around for a while. I now know why my father always preferred to begin our road trips in the middle of the night...dark=sleeping children.