Our First Outing

Well, today was our first outing, just me and the girls. They've been out together before, just to the doctors, but I didn't take them by myself. I figured Jordyn was getting antsy and tired of being in the house, although the main reason was that our library books were do and I couldn't renew them any more times! So, we trekked off to the grocery store and the library. It actually was great. Of course, if I needed more than 5 things at the grocery store I wouldn't be able to take both of them. Landyn's seat takes up the entire basket and Jordyn sits in the front, but it worked out great since I was only running in for a few things. Then it was off to the library. We sat Landyn in a chair and Jordyn and I played and read. Thankfully, Landyn kept to her schedule and slept the whole time, not waking up until after we had gotten home and finished lunch! We are doing great, just the three of us, and while Jordyn does get fussy and want to sit in my lap every time I feed Landyn our days are going quite simple and well. I can't believe how easy it has been so far. Of course I know there will be rough and horrible days but so far we haven't really had those and I'm so thankful. Jordyn loves Landyn and Landyn tolerates Jordyn so they really do quite well together. I'm so thankful for both of them and the patience God has given me!

Landyn and Jordyn play!

I know we haven't posted any video of Landyn yet, it's a little busier with two, but here it is. This is a cute video of Jordyn taking care of Landyn, and some of just Landyn by herself, although that's hard to get. Hope you enjoy it and we'll try to get some more up soon.

Home Alone

Well, today was my first day home alone! I was so blessed to have my mom come and stay for a week and it was a lot of fun. She did tons of things with Jordyn and since I was feeling well most of the week we were able to do things together too. We made cookies, watched movies and did a puzzle. Mom watched the girls one night so Wayne and I could go out Christmas shopping and then watched them again the next day so we could pick out our tree. Thankfully my mom and I get along really well now (who would've thought it) and so the week was very enjoyable and I was able to get some much needed rest, although not as much as Wayne or my mom wanted me too! Sadly, she left on Saturday and Wayne was already back to work so today I was home alone. I thought it was going to be horrible and everything would fall apart, and while I'm sure I'll have those days, thankfully today wasn't one of them! Landyn was great and followed her eating and sleeping schedule, completely unfazed and unaware that anything was different from any other day. That made everything else go smoothly. Jordyn on the other hand had a rough day even though she pretty much had Mommy to herself. I think now she is going to have to adjust to now having Grandma or Gram to dote on her, it's just Mommy and life is going to start to get back to normal. We survived though and while she was whiny a lot we also had some fun moments.She really enjoys helping me with Landyn. She loves to tell me she's crying and give Landyn her pacifier. She likes to tuck her in with a blanket and help me change her diaper by pulling out the wipes. One of the things she really likes to do is share her toys with Landyn and pile them on top of her. Jordyn also got to have a pillow in her lap and hold Landyn today and she liked that a lot. We tried to get a picture when Daddy came home but it was unsuccessful. Since Landyn is such a great baby and sleeper Jordyn and I were also able to have a lot of time just the two of us, spent reading and singing and playing with her new kitchen set. She's also learning to treat her baby like Mommy treats Landyn. Her baby has a diaper we constantly put on and off. She also gets to ride in the swing and we swaddle her baby tightly when it's time to rest. It's been really fun seeing how Jordyn reacts to Landyn and how much she really enjoys her. So needless to say we survived the first day and I am looking forward to what the rest of the week might hold!

Our Christmas Party

Last Wednesday, December 10, we had my family over for a Christmas party. The last day of school was that Thursday and we figured we better have them over one more time before the end of the semester. Since we won't be seeing them over the holidays we decided to have a Christmas party and give them their gifts. We had a lot of fun decorating the tree, eating a good meal planned by me and made by mom, and watching Jordyn open her gifts. It was both of our girls first Christmas tree since we didn't have one last year and Jordyn enjoyed playing with all of the ornaments. She got a huge kitchen set from my brothers and tons of play food from Molly, Aaron's girlfriend. The box was huge and she could barely see over the top but she was able to open it and was very excited! We had a great night and are going to miss all the help and visits from my siblings over the next six weeks!

So Worth It

I thought I would quick post an update about how everything has been going. I get to go home today, Saturday, in just a few hours and I can't wait. It has been quite restful here at the hospital and I've enjoyed some time off from all the other mom duties to just enjoy Landyn but I'm definitely ready to get back home to my other beautiful girl and see how this new life is going to be.

My recovery after the delivery seemed really quite quick. I was up and walking around quite soon after having Landyn and the pain was quite bearable. I thought everything was going to be great from then on but it wasn't. Wayne spent the evening with Jordyn, taking her to dinner and playing with her until bedtime. As soon as he left the hospital after bringing her to visit I began to have profuse bleeding and passed quite a few blood clots. I was quickly surrounded by three nurses and a doctor and filled with medicine, 5 doses of 3 different things! The scariest part was not having Wayne for any of it. I did cry quite a bit in those 3 hours I was bleeding and he was gone but God gave me great nurses who stayed past their shifts just to sit with me. I wasn't allowed to be alone with Landyn or feed her because I was busy being attended to and really shaky from the medicine. I also wasn't allowed to be alone in the room and so the nurses took turns sitting with me until Wayne returned. I was told it's just a common thing for red heads to have a lot of excessive bleeding and blood clots. I guess I can thank mom for that!

Everything is great now and the next two days were wonderful and filled with visitors. I was back to my quick recovery despite the rough first day. The one thing I remember thinking through that whole ordeal and even now is that I was just so thankful I was the one going through it and that Landyn was as healthy as anything. She is worth all the pain and trauma and I hope I can remember that in the bustle and stress of the days to come!

Sisters

It feels so crazy to say that Jordyn has a little sister! She was very excited to meet her sister on Thursday night and also very unsure. Wayne brought her over before dinner on Thursday and right away she climbed into bed with me and wanted to touch the baby. She even got to hold her and she enjoyed that for quite a bit. She was very interested in Landyn but at the same time wasn't to sure about her. Last night when she was here she even got a little scared when Landyn went into a crying fit! While she she is still a little nervous she is still very thrilled about her new baby! We know that things will be crazy and Jordyn won't always be gentle but we are excited to see the bond grow between our two beautiful girls!

Landyn Aurielle Yates

Landyn Aurielle Yates

December 4,2008 6:42 am

Virginia Baptist Hospital

7 lbs 2 oz, 20.5 in

The Birth Story

Well, let me say that Landyn's birth was a whirlwind of activity and we weren't able to document it like Jordyn's, although there isn't much to document. While Jordyn's labor was about 16 hours, Landyn's was a total of 4, with only one hour spent in the hospital! Thankfully, we're alive to talk about it as I thought I wouldn't survive.

I woke up at 2:30 am in the middle of a contraction but since I had been having them for a couple of days I didn't think much of it. After laying in bed for an hour and experiencing contractions every 5-7 minutes I was pretty sure this was the real thing. There was only one problem, I was experiencing all the labor in my back and that had me so confused. I wasn't sure if it was real or just false because none of it seemed to be radiating to the front.

Around 4:15 I woke up Wayne and let him know I was pretty sure this was the real thing. After a shower and a call to the hospital I was now having contractions about every 3 minutes. Of course, both Cassandra and Aaron, who assured me they would answer their phones in the middle of the night, didn't. I called Cassandra almost 8 times before I got her on the phone to tell her "Come right away!"

We were checked into the hospital at 5:40 and by then my contractions were about every 90 seconds and I was already 7-8 centimeters dilated. All I could say the entire time was to beg the nurses to hurry up and give me the epidural before it was to late. They had three nurses working on me to get finished quickly, in time for an epidural, but I was to have no such relief. At about 6:20 I was ready to push and couldn't wait any more for the epidural to come. During the pushing Landyn's heart rate dropped dramatically and they ended up having to perform an episiotomy and use suction to help me push her out quickly. At 6:42 she was here and I was still medication free.

Come to find out Landyn was facing the wrong way and came out face up, instead of face down, which caused the back labor. She also had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck which caused the problems with her heart rate. She was very healthy though and started screaming almost immediatly. To add to the excitement, about 5 minutes before Landyn was born Wayne blacked out and almost fainted. He stopped helping me push even though I was yelling at him and had to be seated by nurses after not sitting on his own. It was pretty scary for me to see him like that but he got over it fast and is now back to normal!

So now we are just resting in our mother baby room and I'm actually feeling great. I've been up to walk around some and have fed Landyn twice already. She's a hungry girl! Hopefully we will have more pictures and info up soon. We love you all and thanks for your prayers and calls.

Halloween

While we didn't have a halloween party this year, we still were able to enjoy a fun halloween day! Jordyn got her very cute costume from Grandma and Grandpa Beer and I was very excited for her to wear it...twice! The library had trick-or-treating and a costume parade that we were a part of. It was very fun and Jordyn loved seeing frogs, ducks, babies and all kinds of other costumes. We got to wear the costume again for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We visited about 8 houses and while Jordyn loved climbing the steps and ringing the door bell, as soon as the door opened she was jumping into my arms and acting very shy. Everyone was very nice though and loved her costume. One lady told her that she was the cutest trick or treater she had seen all night and that just made my day! Then it was back home to color her pumpkin and make spice cake cupcakes...mmm, were they good. We had a good night and Jordyn loved having kids come to the door in costumes. Thank you grandma for the cute costume!!

Pumpkin Picking

We went pumpkin picking on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I had been telling Wayne that we had to go this season since I hadn't been in forever and while he wasn't all that thrilled about it he agreed. So after church we ate our lunch in the car and traveled to Laymans Farms. It was a pretty cool day which made it more enjoyable because it actually felt like fall! We were able to do a lot of fun things that I think we all enjoyed. We went on a hayride to pick pumkins, saw sheep, pigs and goats and shot pumpkins in a pumkin blaster! There was a cow train ride that Jordyn cried when she got on, then decided she loved it and cried when we had to get off too! There was also a mini corn maze for kids that Jordyn got to do with just Daddy! Overall we had a great time and got some great pictures. And come to find out, it wasn't just Jordyn's first time pumpkin picking but Wayne's too!

Long Awaited Update

Hey everyone! I know it's been a long time since I've uploaded the blog but things have been busy around here. Wayne just finished his 8 week class which was taking up a lot of time and causing a lot of late nights. I've been doing the math tutoring thing a lot more than normal to try and save up some extra money for when the baby comes and I'm to busy and exhausted to tutor. The few moments of free time I have are usually spent napping, trying to catch back up on some of my energy. The baby is getting more and more wild every day and my belly is definitely getting larger! According to the doctor everything looks great and I feel more in shape than I have in a long time. Jordyn keeps me busy and moving and most of the time unaware of my pregnancy pains! Jordyn is growing like crazy and many of you wouldn't even recognize her. I can't believe she's 14 months old. She's talking and running and has developed such a personality. There's just to much to describe about her so I thought I would post a video. I know it's long but for those of you that haven't seen her since Christmas or summer, I know you'll appreciate this!

13 Months Old

Jordyn is growing in unbelievable ways. It's hard to believe that just a month ago she turned 1 because it seems it has been so much longer. This past month she has begun talking and really developing her vocabulary. She loves to repeat anything we say which is really fun since she can only get one syllable of it, you never know which syllable she'll choose. All she ever wants to do it read and while I'm so sick of our 15-20 books it's been exciting too. I can now leave words out and she can fill them in. She's learning what so many things are because we point out all the different animals and objects. She also has favorite pages in certain books and they're the only page she wants to read, over and over again. We thought we would write up a quick little chart of all the words that she can say, of her own accord. There are tons of words she says when prodded but these words listed below she can just see the object and say them. Granted, they don't all sound like what they should sound like because again, she can only say one syllable, but enjoy the list, there's some cute words!

WORDS: no, yes, nose, duck, dog, cat, up, down, baby, snow, daddy, uh-oh, boop (the word she says when she falls), socks, bird, cookie, yum, book, shoes, juice, swing, bug, loud, fish, truck, ow, rock, hi, eyes, ball, stick, hot, mama, ice, whoa. (35 words)

SOUNDS: animal sounds for lion, dog, duck, monkey, sheep

SONGS: she sings "Row Row Row" and rocks her body from row row row your boat.

Also, she put together her very first phrase a couple of weeks ago. She was doing something disobedient and when Wayne tried to remove her from the situation she looked right at him and said "Dada, no!" Oddly enough, no is a word we barely ever here from her mouth so at this point, it's still cute when she says it. Lastly, she is now the proud owner of 8 teeth, she just had two come in this week. We just can't believe how much fun she is becoming, how verbal she is and how fast she is changing. I know it only happens faster from here on in. We hope you enjoy all our updates and are trying to keep you as posted on her changes as we can!

p.s. all the pictures posted are from the day at the park when we flew Jordyn's kite!

New Tricks

Here is a video we thought you might all enjoy, to show Jordyn's new tricks. We've been trying really hard to keep up on the video so you can all experience her as much as possible from whatever state you're from. This is Jordyn identifying all the body parts she knows. Unfortunately, she only likes to play this game when she's in her swing, so it might be hard to see everything. I slowed the video down some but you have to look closely, especially when she shows her eyes, because she doesn't point, she blinks! Enjoy.

Family Fall Day

Yesterday was family fall day and I thought we would share some pictures. Usually we call it our family fun day but since we did all kinds of fall things we changed the name. Neither Wayne or I had homework or anything else that was pressing so we were able to get up early and spend the whole day together doing something special with Jordyn. I chose apple picking. It definitely wasn't fall weather, it was 90 degrees but it was still an enjoyable day.

The apple orchard was about 40 minutes away so I decided to pack our lunch to take and have a picnic. I think that might have been Jordyns favorite part...being allowed to eat and walk around at the same time! Then it was off to pick apples. It didn't take us that long to pick because it was really hot and we had to take turns holding Jordyn so she could reach the apples. There were a few trees where she could stand on the ground and pick but when she was on the ground she wanted to pick the rotten ones up and she kept asking to get back up to reach the high ones. We did get a lot of different kinds and they were all very delicious looking. They also had animals at the orchard that we got to take a look at. It was fun to see Jordyn getting to put the sounds to real animals. We got to hear a pig oink, a sheep baa and we saw rabbits wiggling their noses. It was cool to see Jordyn make the sounds back at the animals too. She really enjoyed it. The days wasn't over though. There were still fall things to do! When we got home we made sugar cookie dough and Jordyn got to help with that too. She liked helping me hold the mixer and beating everything together. After dinner we got to take it out of the fridge and make pumpkin and apples sugar cookies. She liked rolling the dough but cutting the cookies got a little boring and she wasn't to thrilled about the sprinkles. I convinced her to stay and help me make 6 cookies but after that she was done. I think her favorite part about cookie making was getting to stand on a chair! We ended the night with a video in bed, all 3 of us, and then mommy and daddy got to watch their own video when Jordyn went into her own bed. It was a great day! Today I made applesauce and apple crisp from our apples we picked yesterday. Jordyn loved both although I think she liked the apple crisp better because she got to have ice cream with it! What a fun and tasty weekend.

Ultrasound Video

Well, we now have a video of our baby girl to go along with the cute picture. She is already so precious to us and we can't wait to meet her!

New Picture

I went to the doctors on Wednesday for my normal check-up and to get an ultrasound video of the baby made. We decided to do some 3-D pictures as well. This one was just too cute...she looks a lot like Jordyn with those little lips and button nose!

Funny Story

This was too cute of a story not to share. The other day I was making dinner and Jordyn always loves to get in the kitchen and "help". Pulling things out of the refrigerator is one of her most favorite things to do so a lot of times I let her. We were having cantaloupe for dinner and we had half of the melon wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge. I gave that to her to hold so she could feel like she was helping. She brought it into the play room and began to roll it around and just play. I was happy to have her out from under my feet so I let her continue to play with it, checking on her every few minutes. After a while I realized it was just too quite and went in to look on her. Of course, at the same time, Wayne walked in from work and looked at me and Jordyn like we were crazy. That's because she had pulled off the plastic wrap and was sitting in the middle of the floor eating the cantaloupe, rind and all. Of course, she was then spitting out the rind all over the floor to get to the good insides. It was very cute and I couldn't help but take some pictures. She loves cantaloupe!

The Mommy of a 1 Year Old

I can't believe it's here but Jordyn is 1 year old! It seems so hard to imagine that we've only known her one year...it seems I've been her mom forever. She has grown up tremendously and is nothing like the person she was a year ago. Wayne and I look back at the pictures and just laugh saying "that doesn't even look like her, can you remember when she was that little?" Time flies by so fast. Oddly enough, as her b-day was approaching I wasn't quite as excited as I thought I would be. Wayne will testify to the fact that I had a few meltdowns (maybe due to the pregnancy, maybe not). I know those of you with children my age will just laugh at me and say "just wait", but she has grown up way to fast! I know she's only 1 but already I want to turn back the clock and have her be my little cuddle-bug again, to sleep in bed with us at night and be a lot less independent. While I know this is such a small step compared to what's coming I am not ready for her to grow up...I wan't her to be my baby forever. Already she is our big girl. We tell her that mommy has a baby and it isn't her, she's the big sister now. But despite the thoughts of sadness and longing to what things were I am so looking forward to what is to come this next year. She is changing every day and I can't even begin to imagine what she will be like on her second birthday, or how crazy I will be going by then. I'm the mommy of a 1 year old....how crazy.

Happy Birthday Jordyn!

Jordyn is 1!! I can't believe it. We went to the doctors the day after her birthday and in the last 3 months she hasn't even gained a pound! Man has she slowed down a lot but she's still growing taller...2 inches taller. The doctor said she looks great and is doing everything she should be. We also got to turn her carseat around so now she can see out the front window and she loves it. Now, I know everyone wants to here about her party so here it is.

My mom and Wayne's mom were able to come for the party which was a lot of fun. They both slept over, my mom 4 nights and wayne's mom just 1. It was a lot of fun though and Jordyn loved having so much attention. On Sunday we had her party at the park right down the street. We rented a pavilion and invited friends from school, work and our small group. There was a playground right next to the pavilion that was great for all the kids to play on. Jordyn had a great time. She spent some time on the swings at the play ground but most of her time was spent playing with all different people at the party. A few of the girls from our small group just love her and latched onto her throughout the day, giving her lots of distraction and fun.

The party had a duck theme, since Jordyn loves ducks. She can say both "duck" and "quack" and has a lot of books, stuffed animals and toys involving ducks. The picture above shows some of the things that brought the theme together. There were duck cups (yes, my mom and I cut, glued and drew on every one!), there were rubber ducks floating as center pieces on all of the tables. There were duck chocolates and duck cakes as well as table clothes with duck footprints through the middle (I didn't get a picture of that). Presents was a lot of fun too. Though Jordyn was tired she enjoyed opening everything and wanted to pull things out and play. She would've been happy with just one and was annoyed we kept taking them away to open more but she did enjoy it a lot. We put the presents in a closet and are taking one out every day or so to keep the toys special, and thats been great.

Finally, the cake. Everyone always wants to know how that goes. She did great and ate it just as messy as you would hope a child does on their first b-day. While the first bite was tentative and had to be fed to her by mommy, after that it was full of fun. The cake was choclate with a layer of chocolate pudding in the middle and vanilla frosting dyed blue. All that put together is a great cake for a mess! And it was. But instead of telling you all about it I thought I would post a video to show you...enjoy!

It's a Girl!

Well, if you haven't already heard, we are having another girl! I am very excited that Jordyn will have a sister and hope that as they grow up they will be very close. Wayne was hoping for a boy but don't worry everyone...God-willing there will be more babies in our future. He is happy too though and loves being the man of the house to his girls. She doesn't have a name yet but even when she does that will be kept a secret until she's born. We are thrilled to be able to talk about "our baby" as a "she" and we will definitely keep you posted on more news about her and Jordyn as well.

A Video Update

Here's the video I promised filled with fun insight into the big girl Jordyn is becoming. Hope you enjoy it.

Sorry...

It has been absolutely forever since I last posted on the blog and I know a lot of you have been sending me messages asking me to update. I promise I'm not getting lazy or just getting over the excitement of Jordyn, the reason is that we moved and it just took about three weeks to get Internet in our new house. That's right, I just said it. Wayne and I are proud home owners and loving it all, even the bills! We had wanted something bigger when we found out about the new baby and this is a great 3 bedroom 1700 sq ft town home. We will definitely be posting pictures soon. Now on to the more important stuff.Our new baby is growing wildly although oddly enough, I'm not. When I was pregnant with Jordyn I had already gained about 10 pounds by my 20th week but with this baby I haven't gained even one. My belly still continues to grow though and Jordyn steps on it more and more as it gets bigger and in her way. The crazy thing is that this baby is even more active than Jordyn was so Wayne and I might really be in for it. At 20 weeks this baby is already constantly kicking and making me uncomfortable, something Jordyn wasn't even doing this early on. We don't know what we're having yet, our appointment is set for July 28th and we will let all of know as soon as we do. Just keep praying for a healthy pregnancy!Now, news about our big girl! You might say that she's only 10.5 mos but she is definitely a big girl! There really is just too much to post about her. She is now eating almost all adult food, chopped up really small of course. At lunch and every once in a while at another meal we can sneak baby food into her but most of the time she refuses it. She hold her lips shut really tight and covers her mouth until we give her some big girl food. It's unbelievable how much of a stubborn will she already has. She is full of energy that often gets her into trouble but the great thing is she is really learning how to obey as well. Many times just a stern look and a "no" will send her on to something else although sometimes it takes a few hand smacks to encourage her to do the right thing. She is talking up a storm and actually says quite a few recognizable words. Of course she says "Mama" and "Daddy" but she also likes to say "uh-oh" and her favorite one right now is "ow." She will throw her stuffed animal across the room and then say "ow" as if she was the one that was just thrown. Also, if you show her a duck she will begin to quack and if she sees a puppy she'll start barking. Those are the only two animal sounds she knows right now but she's very good at them. We've been giving her a lot of new experiences lately as well. On July 5th she got to go play at the park on the slides and swings and swim in the big pool. She loved it and much to my thrill (sarcasm) she really enjoys holding her breathe and putting her face in the water. We've have also been out walking and exploring almost every day since moving into our new house.Finally, the craziest thing is that she is walking. We kept saying she was going to walk by the time she was 9 mos and though she took a few steps at the end of that month she has really blossomed in her 10th month. She can walk an average of 15 steps without even wobbling and sometimes she can even run a little. She loves to put her shoes on and walk down the sidewalk to go get the mail. It is just unbelievable how well she has picked it up. One day it was two steps at a time and week later she's just walking like crazy. We will definitely put video up of that soon. So hopefully I have got you all up to date and I will try to get back on track for posting video and pictures but look for a video in the next few days!

Memorial Weekend

Jordyn and I were able to go home for a week to visit friends and family before memorial weekend. Then we met Wayne at my grandparents camp in PA for the weekend. It was the first time we had ever taken Jordyn camping and it was definitely an interesting weekend. It was the coldest it had been in a long time, the temperatures dropping to 30 at night. The first night Jordyn and I tried to sleep in the tent but it was way to cold. After an hour we moved into the bunkhouse with the rest of the family. The second night we left Jordyn in the bunkhouse and Wayne and I slept in the tent and it was a miserable cold night. After that Wayne slept in the tent by himself and Jordyn and I slept in the bunkhouse. Even with just that short time outside Jordyn and I both got sick. She is very stuffy and having a hard time sleeping and eating because she can't breathe out of her nose. She's been very needy and been doing a lot of cuddling which is hard when I feel just as miserable. We did have a great time during the day though. We hadn't seen my grandparents and some other family since Christmas so it was fun to show Jordyn off as well. There were a few days that we spent most of the time inside because even during the day it was cold but the last two days were beautiful weather. It was Jordyn's first experience to just play in the grass and she loved it. All she wanted to do was pick it and eat it. We also got to play a lot of games and eat a lot of food. It was a fun weekend.

A New Baby

I was reminded that I hadn't posted our exciting news on the blog so I thought I would. I'm sure most of you know by now but some of you might not. Wayne and I are expecting our second baby and Jordyn is going to be a big sister. I'm a little nervous about that since she's not the most gentle girl but she'll learn and we'll learn together. I am 13.5 weeks pregnant and have already had two ultrasounds showing that the baby is doing really well. This first trimester has been a struggle with sickness and exhaustion but I feel like I'm coming out of that now and getting a lot of my energy back. We don't know what the baby is yet but we will definitely let you know when we find out. Please keep us in your prayers.

9 Months Old

This post is a week old but Jordyn is 9 months old...so close to 1 year! She is getting so big although at the same time slowing down. Everyone thinks I'm lying when I say that she's getting thinner but she really is! We went to the doctors on May 16th and she is very healthy. She now weighs 24 pounds and is 29 inches long. Now, 24 lbs may seem like a lot but that means she gained a little less than a pound a month compared to her earlier average of 2 pounds a month. So she definitely is slowing down.

She has grown so much just in the past two weeks. Over the past month she has begun standing on her own and is very sturdy. She definitely doesn't want to do it unless she wants to do it but when she does want to she does it well. Also, just this past week or so she has started taking steps. Only 2-3 at a time but she does a great job at it and doesn't fall. I think she could be walking a lot more if she wanted to but she is very cautious.
She also has begun saying words. Her new favorite word is uh-oh and we are trying to catch it on video to show you. She is really into copying people and so if you say uh-oh she says it back. She also likes to say ow and clap if you clap first. She has really begun talking a lot although most of it doesn't make sense. It's very fun though to see her read a book outloud or just talk while she's playing with her toys. She is becoming very grown up. She also has 3 teeth and another about to come through any day. We are very proud and excited about our big girl!

Busch Gardens

On the weekend on May 9-11 we were able to go to Busch Gardens. I was very excited about going because Jordyn would actually be able to enjoy the trip and the rides and so would I! It was colder than we had hoped but still had a great time. Jordyn was still considered to small for most of the rides so she was only able to ride two but they were fun. We were able to ride the carousel together and Jordyn and I also rode a flying dinosaur. It ended up being a great weekend to see family and have a break from work and life.

Swimming

We have been having some wonderful weather here, up to 80 degrees, and so we have been spending time outside taking walks and swimming. Despite all the sunblock I've been drenching Jordyn with we have been noticing that she is developing some freckles around her eyes, nose and forehead which I think is very cute! Jordyn is definitely a water baby and has loved swimming in her pool. She usually cries when she has to get out! We thought we would share some of the pictures which are very cute!