Many New Milestones

It is so hard to believe but Jordyn is 4 months old today! This past month has been a huge one for her and she is growing and learning something new all the time. She had her four month appointment on Friday, Dec. 14 and we had some surprising news. (The picture above is of her after she had just gotten her shots.) Jordyn weighs 17 lbs 4 oz and is 25.5 inches long. She is in the 97% for her weight and 90% for her height. I was afraid she was getting to chubby but the doctor reassured me that since she is so long her weight fits with her body size. I look forward to all of her check-ups just to see how much she has grown since the last one.


On top of that this month Jordyn has learned how to roll over. I talked a lot about it in an earlier post so I won't get into much detail about it now except to say that she is now obsessed with rolling over and is no longer content to just play on her back.


Jordyn has also decided that upright is her favorite position. She loves to cry as soon as I sit down and stop as soon as I'm standing again. Obviously it is not realistic for me to be standing every minute with her on my hip, especially with how much she weighs, so we came up with another solution. One day I dug deep into thet closet and pulled out her exersaucer. Most of the time she loves to play in it which is wonderful for me. I can stick her in that and drag it out into the kitchen and she'll play while I cook and take care of things around the house.

Another new development would be her shyness. Just recently she has decided that she doesn't really like anyone else touching and holding her except Mommy and Daddy. There are exceptions when she is in a really good mood but lately she is just being very picky about who she chooses to play with. It is definitely frusterating for me but we are working through it and trying to teach her that other people are ok too.

Lastly, Jordyn had real food yesterday for the first time. It's nothing I would consider real food but it wasn't formula and that was very exciting. We made her rice cereal and waited for Daddy to get home so we could all enjoy the new experience. From what the doctor had said and what I had read it would probably become a big mess and Jordyn wouldn't want to spend much time eating. That wasn't true however. Instead she was terribly patient and ate the entire bowl of food. It took about half an hour but she was very content to eat little tiny bite by bite. It was so thrilling for Wayne and I to watch.

I think that sums it up for this months update. She is growing up faster than either of us can believe and while it is exciting every time she reaches a new milestone it's a little sad to know that she is getting less dependent on us and growing up so incredibly fast. But we know she's not ours but God's and He hasn't promised us a little baby forever so we need to just cherish every moment we have with her, even the horrible moments. Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Our Christmas Letter

For those of you who didn't recieve our Christmas letter I have posted it below for you to read.

December 1, 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you all well and thriving, and enjoying your holidays. We thought it would be nice to send a family newsletter this year and let our friends and family know what’s been going on in our world.

All throughout this last year we have learned so much … how to rely on each other, how to survive on a budget, what a blessing children are, how to make it through the day with just a few hours of sleep, how to juggle school and home life, when to take time for ourselves, how to make new friends, how to have truly thankful hearts and most importantly how to rely on God.

A New Life

One of the things that have truly made our lives exciting this past year was the birth of our daughter, Jordyn Arianna on August 17. She is so beautiful and is definitely our pride and joy. She is growing by the day and learning new things all the time. The other day, Wayne and I were looking at the pictures of Jordyn during her first week of life and all we could do was marvel at how tiny she was and how different she has already become.

The first two months were rough, filled with little sleep, tons of crying and a lot of wondering, “what should we do?” This last month and a half though has been so wonderful. Jordyn has become such a happy girl, full of smiles and squeals. She has become obsessed with eating her hands and anything else that comes close to her mouth. She is getting so close to rolling over and cannot be still even for a minute.

Sadly, we have to admit that she is already a T.V. lover. I tend to have the T.V. on while I’m feeding her and she has now gotten to the point that if I’m giving her a bottle and my hand gets in the way she pushes her head around until she can see the T.V. On the upside, not only does she love to watch T.V. but also she loves to watch Wayne and I as we walk around the room. Her eyes will follow us as far as they can. She is such a wonderful miracle and we are looking forward to the months ahead!

The Juggling Mom

Jordyn has made my life quite full and busy. There are days when I feel like I am trying to do a million things at once and then at the end of the day I look around and can’t name one thing I actually finished.

I started back at school just two weeks after Jordyn was born and it has been hard and fun. I go to class every day for about an hour and a half. There are days when I miss because Jordyn is sick or she decides to make a big mess a minute before we’re supposed to be out the door but my professors are very forgiving. I do enjoy being back though and I know my brothers and sister enjoy watching her while I’m at class.

Also, I have been working nights as a math tutor, pretty shocking huh!?! I tutor Algebra 1 and 2 online. I usually work about two hours a night and Wayne then has the responsibility of watching Jordyn and helping me with the questions I don’t know the answers to. Even though I work from home I’m not usually much help to Wayne.

School Again!

Wayne is also returning back to school in January. He is working towards his Masters in Apologetics and is very excited to begin. That will be a struggle to figure out how to get his homework done and mine every night but we are excited about it!

Wayne is also still working at Liberty as a data analyst. He loves it, most of the time, and has made some good friends there. He still has computer parties like he did at home with his work friends and enjoys every minute of them.

I think that’s about it in the lives of the Yates’. Our life feels like a whirlwind and though most days when we finally climb into bed we are exhausted we are so thankful for the blessing God has given us in Jordyn and everything that we are getting to experience here in Virginia. We hope you too have had a great year just like us, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

With lots of love until next year,
Wayne, Alicia & Jordyn Yates

Good Job Big Girl!!

Good Job Big Girl!! Those are words that Jordyn has heard a lot in the past two days. All of a sudden about a week ago Jordyn started trying to roll over. She would get from her back to her side but then she would get stuck because her arm was in the way. She grunted and cried and fought to go all the way over but she couldn't. Then yesterday it happened.

Jordyn rolled over all the way by herself. I wasn't even coercing her by shaking a toy just out of her reach. Of course, I had to get her to do it five more times before I decided it was the real thing and I could call Wayne at work and tell him the good news. Now she is unstoppable. She tries to roll off her changing table, in her crib and on top of her toys. It's impossible to stop her which leads to another problem. Jordyn can roll either way from her back to her stomach but she can't roll from her stomach to her back and she is not very tolerant of being on her stomach. So now if I leave her on her back and walk into the kitchen a minute later she will be crying because she has rolled on to her stomach and doesn't like it. So now the challenge will be to teach her to roll from her stomach to her back although I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be rolling all over the house yet. Our baby girl is just getting so big!