This sweet video that oooozes with love brought some extra good luck to the family today. I’ll tell you more when I confirm our good luck.

Jordan got to enjoy a surprise visit from Uncle Barry and Beth yesterday. She was so excited when she saw her Uncle. The coolest thing: She knew who he was before we had to tell her. That’s pretty special. By the end of their visit, Jordan was calling him “Beardy” with periodic proper pronunciations. Very cute stuff.

Today Jordan got to hang out with the big kids at a Science Night event put on by Cameron’s after school program. It was super cool and Jordan even got to help create slime! Gross, but she really liked stirring. Maybe I’ll get her to help me make pancakes or cookies that involve stirring. I think it’s that play kitchen of hers that has got her into mixing and creating.

By the way, for those of you who were wondering, Jordan’s prosthetic has been back for a week. It seems to be working a bit better… It still has a strange click when the hand opens very wide. But the sensor just seems placed a bit wrong — it either goes crazy and constantly opens and closes from Jordan’s muscles or it barely opens and closes. There doesn’t seem to be a happy medium. So I’ll just keep considering the arm as a tool to help her grow muscle — And I’ve seen her use it for all kinds of gross motor things. Today I watched her push a chair into a table and pull up into a big chair. I even showed her how she could use it to drink from a water fountain.

I took Jordan to the grocery store today. Just as we were walking in I noticed a table of Girl Scouts selling cookies. That was no big deal, but I immediately recognized my OB-GYN who almost delivered Jordan (she kind of flew out on her own… seconds before my doctor ran into the room). Anyway. I sort of never went back to the doctor after Jordan’s birth. I was really unhappy about the fact that no one noticed a missing arm in the ultrasounds. I felt a bit pressured from some family members to stay away from that practice. I just kind of backed away from the medical community for myself and focused on finding the right care for my girl. So today was the first time I’ve seen the doctor in almost two years (she met Jordan once when she was four-months-old). I was polite and Jordan was NOT interested in saying hi. I’m guessing Jordan felt my discomfort.

For some reason that meeting made me feel a little raw.

This doctor didn’t really have a thing to do with Jordan’s difference, but she put me back to that place where I first felt lost and unsure about my little baby. Of course that little baby has turned into an amazing little girl who struggles to get those pull-ups on and has mastered putting on Velcro shoes. I shouldn’t feel like I felt two years ago. That OB-GYN shouldn’t stir that up in me… And yet she did. Damned brain.

Two weeks ago we started Jordan on swimming lessons. Four lessons later and today Miss Boo kicked butt.

We got into the water and she instantly started kicking. BIG splashes. She did so well. This swim school puts short tables into the water so the little kids can stand in the water. The idea is to learn how to put on your “sea legs.” Two weeks ago, Jordan screamed as we got her to walk up and down the table. Tonight, she not only walked up and down the table. She didn’t even need to hold my hand. PLUS she learned how to jump. And when she realized the glory of jumping in water you should have heard the the squeals of happiness. She hasn’t mastered jumping outside of water so this was really fun for her. PLUS, Jordan started blowing bubbles and being okay with putting her head under the water. I was SO proud. I never saw this much progress with Cam at this age. I felt so proud and she just had fun. It was totally worth the insanity it takes to get the kids fed and dressed and out the door in time for the class.

Not to mention how dang cold it was after the class.

When is winter going to end?
Ahhhh!

Say a prayer for my Aunt Jan. She’s amazing and battling cancer. She has battled and battled and continues to kick it’s butt. She’s currently going through an experimental treatment that left her a bit fried and somehow still with us.

I just talked to her on the phone and I just want to make sure as many people as possible are praying for her. While she’s fighting this, she’s still thinking of me and offering me advice. And that means the world to me. She means the world to me.

I love you Aunt Jan!!

Randy threw this one at me and I think he may be right… I just don’t spend time dwelling on it:

Ten percent of parents are totally cool with being around Jordan. They don’t care she’s missing some of her arm and they just know she’s a kid and it’s obvious her family loves her. 90 percent of parents don’t know what to do so they just kind of ignore the family’s existence.

That sucks. But it’s true. Randy noticed the 10 percent rule while at swimming lessons yesterday. I think he’s right. I wish I could move that to the 90 percent rule but I don’t think our culture can handle that.

Speaking of noticing differences… Some of Jordan’s friends from school who are six months older started asking me about Jordan’s arm. She was wearing a prosthetic that day and we all talked about how Jordan has a smaller arm and the prosthetic helps Jordan get strong. Both kids showed me how they have a big arm. It was sweet and non-judgmental. That made me realize that we’re probably only six months away from letting Jordan speak for herself. Six months. That’s mind boggling.

Click here if you want to see it bigger.

You can build multiple pages and then Scrapblog creates a little power point presentation of all of your scrapbook pages. It’s cute. I’ve always been jealous of those people who create beautiful scrapbook pages on their computer. I’m a bit busy to really get detailed, but this was simple and cute.

Jordan had a ball egging her brother on today… They ended up playing pretty well right before bed time. But the big moment was when Cameron jumped onto the little toy rocking horse that sits in the living room. Jordan has been wary of it… Until now.

With my help, she got on and had a BALL! She was obviously proud. Check out that smile in the picture. It wasn’t long ago when I tried to get her on that horse and she was not going to risk it. She felt really unsafe. Tonight, when I was taking her upstairs, she kept calling “Horse! Horse!” thinking I’d change my mind and let her ride it one more time before bed.

Nope. I’m a sleep nazi.

Anyway. I’m happy to see her continuing to be brave. It’s awesome.

Lately everyone at Jordan’s school has commented how similar she is to her brother. She is stubborn, she thinks she knows what is right and DANG IT she will do it her own way. Apparently she is willing to throw tantrums like he did (and honestly, still does). But tonight proved she’s a different kid.

She enjoyed swimming lessons.

She REALLY enjoyed it. She giggled and splashed and learned how to jump into the pool from a sitting position. She tried to kick and she really worked on reaching out and paddling towards the edge of the pool. I’m thrilled. While we were working, Cam was learning to swim with a class full of kids who were smaller than he was. Good news: he didn’t seem to mind. He also didn’t cry at all. (sigh of relief)

Anyway. I’m pooped. Changing our schedule to include evening classes is really hard. I rushed home to grab the kids to get to swimming on time. Randy picked them up, dressed them and fed them. He kindly heated food I ate on my way to the pool. We got there JUST as class started. I’m sure it will get easier. The trick is it’s so cold, you have to get dressed before and after class. Add in the need to clean the chlorine off the kids before bed and you’ve just eaten up two hours of hard core work.

It’s all worth it when you watch Jordan giggle and splash.

What’s even more enjoyable, I didn’t feel like everyone was staring at us in the baby class. Everyone said hi and giggled right along with Jordan. It was really nice. I didn’t feel ostracized… and I’ve felt that way before at pools. So I think this change of scenery might actually get us swimming more by the summer.

As I continue to try and teach Jordan about how to manger her bodily functions… This weekend she made it clear that she understands what a fart is. Every time she does it, she makes sure we ALL know it.

“I fart! Mommy, I fart!”

“Great Jordan. Can you say excuse me?”

“I fartcuzme!”

Today she was incredible at church — No, not when she was trying to talk about every baby that made a noise during the prayers (“A baby!!” “Shhhhhhh!!!”) When I got up to take the kids to the children’s sermon at the front of the sanctuary, she just walked up, sat down, sucked her thumb with her lamby. When it was over, she got up and just walked with the crowd to choir… Cam and I had to chase after her. Then she walked into the choir room with Cam and didn’t even turn to say good bye. She had a great time according to the choir director. Cam says she didn’t sing much. But I’m thinking we chalk up the occasion as a win since she didn’t cry.

The last thing we talked about tonight was about farts… I tried so hard to convince her to say excuse me every time she mentioned it, but I think that might take a while. She’s kind of stubborn.