I got back from China and went straight to work with Jordan! I met up with her occupational therapist to finally show her how Jordan’s new prosthetic works. It was incredible to watch how Jordan took to naturally using the “hand” after we convinced her to work on it. (She was a little stubborn since I was there)

It was cool to see what Jordan can and cannot do… Right after wroking with toys, Jordan had lunch and I could see the big challenges she has during that time. Holding the plate, holding a cup and trying to scoop up food like the slippery peaches she was eating today. It’s kind of hard to see her deal with a simple challenge like that — simple to me. Not simple for her. I guess I expect her to fail so she can learn… but man, it’s hard to watch her fail. I know she always finds a solution, so I’m not that worried. It’s just hard to watch sometimes. I just want to swoop in and help – but she needs to be completely self-sufficient. I know she will be able to do that.

After I took a quick jetlag nap, Randy and I got to go to orientation at Jordan’s new school. I got to see her classroom and play with some of the kids in the playground. I met a really sweet boy who is in Jordan’s new class. I’m already a big fan. He’s already invited me to his house to play. Jordan’s room is big with all kinds of big windows. I’ll post pictures soon!

We’ve been out to eat a little more than usual. With all of our traveling, Jordan has figured out the process it takes to eat food at a restaurant. Lately, she takes charge when the waitress asks us for an order.

My in-laws were in town to spend time with the girl and take the boy to their house for the week. So we got to go out to restaurants again. Last night, Jordan immediately asked for her drinks: “Water! Milk! Water and Milk!” I had to reminder her to say: PLEASE!! She didn’t forget please after that. I tell you, the girl got her water and her milk. She also ordered her dinner. It was pretty impressive. She holds her own.

This morning, she ordered her milk and waffle at the Waffle House. She was polite and VERY excited about eating a waffle. She ate the whole thing. Seriously. All of it. She had to take some of it home, but she ate it all up. If Jordan can just improve her tone with the wait staff, she’s going to get everything she ever asked. She’s dominant, but learning to remember to say please (and a smile on the side). She just floors me.

Today I took her to my friend’s apartment complex to swim in the pool. I was impressed with Jordan’s attempts at kicking and moving her arms. She was a bit nervous at first, but warmed up and got brave in spurts. It was good. No crying. Impressive bravery for a two year old.

I’m planning to meet up with Jordan’s occupational therapist this week. I’m questioning our prosthetic more and more these days. The hand’s opening and closing mechanism hasn’t been consistent since we got our second arm last October. I’ve been brainstorming with our OT on other options. I’m looking for a prosthetic company that is willing to be creative. I really think Jordan needs someone who wants to try something new. If not, it’s time to start planning to work with my current company to schedule Jordan’s next arm. Wish us luck!!

Jordan enjoyed her third Easter… And she was able to participate in it more than ever before. She put up with my attempts to pose the kids for Easter in their pretty outfits. She put up with my need to put them through an egg hunt. She enjoyed eating a bunch of sugar — Although she would only take little bites and throw out the rest. She’s been eating strangely lately. She loved talking about the Easter bunny and she LOVED challenging her brother over what is hers and what is his. She’s getting very possessive. Of course that bugs the heck out of her brother.

Other than that, Jordan made sure she talked as loudly as possible during the prayers at church but happily went to children’s choir with her brother. It stuns me how she has grown up since she turned two.

We’ve continued this non-stop vacation with non-stop trips. After visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens yesterday, we took the kids to eat at one of the best diners in the country: Moody’s Diner. We got their famous 4-berry pie. We even bought a slice for Jordan She’ll eat it ONLY if disguised in vanilla ice cream. It was strange, but I was happy to see her try it no matter what. Cam opted for the standard slice of chocolate cake. Oh well. I cooked up my famous scallop dinner. Cam wasn’t interested at all, but Jordan took a few bites before throwing it to the floor. She’s really into throwing food lately. She mainly throws because she only wants to eat one food type at a time. So if she’s eating a hot dog, she’ll throw the bun so she can eat the bread. If she eats the bread first, she’ll throw the hot dog. If I catch the food first, she’ll probably eat what I salvaged, but not until she’s done with the first food. You just never know. After a while, she just throws everthing. She throws before she says “all done.” By the way, Jordan’s “all done” is “no no” in a sing songy “all done” manner.

Today we let Jordan take a good morning nap before we drove off to one of our favorite sandy beaches along the Maine Coast: Reid State Park. I was pretty surprised by Jordan’s reaction to it all. After I put her into the water where a little surf was lapping our legs, she screamed. Randy thinks she freaked because the water was so cold. I’m just not sure if she trusts water that moves like that. Either way, we didn’t really get into the water very deep. She did enjoy a bit of time in the water jetty nearby. Her brother had a BLAST jumping and running through the frigid cold waves. He’s getting braver by the moment. When Cam invited Jordan to join him in the water. She gave him a solid: “No.” I almost fell onto the sand from laughing so hard.

Tonight we had our annual home cooked lobster meal. Jordan and Cam got to see the lobsters before they went into the big cooking pot. Cam is still very scared of the hard shelled guys. Jordan wasn’t phased at all. She just checked out those guys until she got annoyed with just sitting there.

Speaking of annoyed. The brother/sister dynamic is becoming a lot clearer in this time away from home. Jordan is growing so fast right now. She even said “lobster!” These cool developments in her personality has us zeroing in on her… It’s exciting to see her become her own person. But Cam is seriously jealous. He admited to me that he feels left out sometimes. It’s one of the hardest parts of growing up. Jordan deserves the attention… Cam deserves attention. Figuring out the right way to give each what they deserve and need is the hard part. I think it doesn’t help with the way my girl clings to me. Even after this many days with our whole family, she’s still desperate to be in my arms. It’s great for my arm muscle growth… Terrible for the overall peace between my son and I. We’ll figure this out just like we have all kinds of other things to figure out. I do know that long-term vacationing is wonderful and we’ve been so damned lucky to do it.

Jordan is taking her second nap of the day in a very long multi-state drive. She's come across two challenges: not getting every toy she wants and not being able to pick up things she dropped to her left. Gross moment of the day: I gave her a chocolate chip granola bar. I look over and she had spit out the half chewed food and smeared it all over her. That was fun. I'm sticking to cheerios for snacks now.

I watched an amazing thing happen yesterday. My daughter gorged on popcorn. She’s didn’t just eat a lot… She ate so much that I had to leave the movie to refill the popcorn tub. We took the family to see Ratatouille. It’s a really sweet movie… But I don’t really think it’s the kind of movie that would have engaged Jordan that much. It has a real story line, there isn’t that much super-silly stuff in it. It’s just a really great story. Fantastic animation. And apparently, AWESOME popcorn.

So after Jordan ate and ate and ate… This morning, the diaper was the most normal I’ve seen in more than a month. A month! So apparently she needed an obsessive amount of fiber to help clear things up.

I don’t really want to jinx things… But I was going to write how it looks like her intestinal issues were improving. After the popcorn incident, I think I’m comfortable to say that she might be okay. I’m still skeptical about returning to dairy products. I’ll put that in the wait-and-see category for when her blood test comes back.

Anyway. Along with going to a movie, Jordan got to go to a pool party where she started getting comfortable in the pool with me. She also got to test out her new bike chariot. It will be a fun addition to our outdoor time during our vacation. I did learn that her bike helmet wasn’t put on tight enough. Woops. Lesson learned.

Thank goodness it’s the weekend! It’s been a long one for some reason.

Miss Jordan’s grandparents are here to spend some time with us. Thank goodness they were here — I needed to get Jordan into the doctor since her gross and unexplainable diaper issues continue to wreak havoc on her bottom and clothing. I was able to get time with our doctor… But it was only 50 minutes before I needed to be at a graduate student’s project dissertation. My in-laws were kind enough to wait and wait and wait to see the doctor (since I had to leave before she came into our exam room). But lucky me (and I’ll try not to get graphic)… I get to scoop poop into various container so they can be sure she doesn’t have a parasite. Nice, huh? Everything about Jordan is totally okay… Actually great. She’s 23 pounds, 3 ounces!! I just wish we could figure out why her intestines aren’t doing their job properly (and we’re heading into our third week of this issue).

We did enjoy some time at another t-ball game. She also enjoyed a dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants. It doesn’t have a kiddie menu, so I ordered catfish and garlic mashed potatoes. I figured I’d just share. Official discovery: She LOVES garlic mashed potatoes. She grabbed a spoon and just dug in. It was awesome.

We really enjoyed another t-ball game once Cameron calmed down (he didn’t get a nap and was VERY cranky). Jordan was walking all over the place, laughing, drinking water and playing with anything and everything. I really like how the entire crowd is used to Jordan and even laughed about how she was suctioning a water bottle cap onto her little arm. You can see her playing with it in that picture. She really will play with anything with the little arm… That’s when I had to take the potatoes away at dinner: She took a spoonful and started smearing it into her arm. Messy. But it must have created an amazing feeling. I can’t wait to have the chance to ask her what things feel like on the base of her arm compared to her hand. That will be fascinating.

I was sitting at the dinner table with the kids on Sunday. We were listening to music off of my computer when this ROCKING song from the Bottle Rockets came on. Cam started dancing in his seat and not eating. So I told him that if he ate a couple of bites, I would stop everything and dance with him.

So we danced and Jordan joined in on the fun. It was so awesome I grabbed the camera that was closest to me: the cellphone. So here was a sweet dancing moment:

Another great moment happened at dinner tonight. We grill up corn every once and a while. The last few times I just cut the corn off for Jordan to eat. My mom convinced me to just give Jordan a hunk of corn. So I did.

She chowed down. She loved it. We giggled.

I got stuck at work late today because we finally launched the new and improved KOMU.com! (hooray!) So my in-laws got to be there with Jordan when our PT worked with her. Miss Jordan “walked” for an entire 30 minutes. Up and down the driveway, along the little walkway. She just wanted to go, go, go. I’m proud. I also kind of think that the day wouldn’t have been as productive if I was there. So I’m proud.

The girl is babbling a TON. She’s trying to copy words. She so happy to get involved in our dinner conversations. She’s still eating all kinds of foods (past the time when her brother made the decision that bread products were the only things he would eat). It’s just fun.

Although daddy wasn’t around this weekend, I have to say we had a really good time. It was one of those weekends where I focused so deeply on the kids, that I didn’t even think of finding the camera. I pulled out the camera phone a couple of times.

We were outside or doing something all day. Church, Sunday school, napping, playing, shopping and we even spent some great time at the library. Jordan was scooting and pulling up on all kinds of things. The big shocker for me: She pulled up into a couple of little kid chairs. It was cool. Of course, I was reveling in her sitting skill when she suddenly lunges forward to touch the table… but the chair wasn’t pushed in. So she head plants into the little table. Fortunately, it was a rounded edge table. I caught her before she fell on her face, but she’ll have a bit of a bruise there. It’s so hard to not hover over her. She has to learn her boundaries. But watching her bump and bruise up isn’t fun. Cam went through it too. This isn’t a new experience for me. But it’s never fun to watch!

By the way. The girl LOVES oranges. You should have seen her tear though them at church. It was especially fun to hear a parent say: “I wish my child ate like that.”