Babies are like cats

Jordon now is getting into everything. His main focus most of the time is pulling himself up, and he is starting to take a few lateral steps while holding on to the coffee table. He likes getting into his sock bin, and dressers, and anything else he can get his hands on. Any time he has the chance to pull things out and make a mess for Mom to pick up, he is game for it. I have noticed how much babies and cats are alike.

They like to spend time in the closet (and it can be a challenge to remove them from the closet).

They like to carry things in their mouths.

They like to chew on things.

They like to be outside.

They like to be under your feet whenever possible.

They like to get to the highest point available in the room, whether it's by standing, jumping, etc..

They like boxes and bags.

They think it's ok to share toys.

They really know how to smell up a room.

They have a tendency to be up during the night keeping others from sleeping.

Bye bye warm days...

These pics are from one of the last nice warm days this fall... warm enough for Jordon to be outside in short-sleeves. He likes playing in the grass and makes every effort to eat sticks and leaves. This is also his first time sitting on his Dad's Harley... he won't be starting up this habit if I have anything to say about it, but I'm sure Don has other ideas.

Daycare

Don accepted a coaching job for 9th grade girls basketball in Higginsville, which is even further east than Lexington where he teaches. He's been wanting to get some coaching experience for a while, especially with the trouble he had finding a job teaching social studies-- they often expect teachers to be able to coach something. The timing is not so good, with all that we have going on right now. With him having practices every day, and some games Tues. and Thurs. nights, we were put in a position of what to do with Jordon because there is no way he would last late into the evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Also it has become more difficult working around Mom and Dad's medical appts., so we found a daycare we can take Jordon to on Tues. and Thurs. That way hopefully it will be easier on Mom, as she will be watching him now on Mon. and Fri., and I will have him on Wed. It also gives them more flexibility with scheduling appts. on days they don't have Jordon.

He started last week Tues., and I think things went better than we expected. Aside from the initial wailing and me having bad parent syndrome the first day, I think things are going ok. The first day he seemed to get a little attached to his teacher, Jamie. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to get the kid to take naps since he is such a sleep fighter, but they have managed to get it done. He's already got a runny nose, but I guess that will be part of it with being around all the other kids with snotty noses. They also called me Thurs. to bring in some Tylenol 'cause they thought he was teething... which could explain why he was up the previous 2 nights wailing for 2 hours. Hopefully he will continue to adjust ok and this will be a good schedule for the little guy, as well as providing coverage for Don's coaching gig and giving all of us more flexibility. Bad news is that to accomodate Don's practices before school, our house is up at 4:15 am several days a week to get Jordon to Grandma's and Don to practice by 6:00 am. Insanity....

School bus rides

My brother Tim came up with the idea that Jordon should go for a ride in the bus, and started pushing him around in it at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here Don and my nephew Evan are pushing Jordon back and forth in the bus. We thought we might have a repeat of what happened with Evan when he was about Jordon's age-- Tim was pushing him back and forth in some kind of ride and he toppled off and banged his head off the floor. But Jordon managed to hold his own without any injuries. In the one picture you can see the old playpen in the background-- that thing is really something to see in person. It's even got duct tape on it in places. That's my Mom; gotta love it. Friday night we were all out at the farm and the guys were wrestling with Evan and throwing him in the pen-- he could partially crawl out and then would fall the rest of the way to the floor.

Happy Halloween

This is Jordon on his 1st Halloween. At 7 months old, we did not take him trick or treating, but he was fascinated with all the activity that night with the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. He and Don were outside recruiting business because for some reason this year we didn't have as many kids but we had tons of candy. We did take him dressed up to the Sinclair Pumpkin Carving Party, Hospice House, and on Halloween he went with Grandpa to the cancer center, where a lot of adults were dressed up. Geez, Mom and Dad really know how to hit the happening spots, huh Jordon?

Family pics

We had pictures taken with the Kirchhoff bunch at City Lake in Concordia. Here are a few that Don happened to get-- these don't include my siblings but there are some good shots of Jordon and his cousins, Evan and Logan. Poor Logan's face was pretty banged up from having hit the pavement... he's walking now and taking some tumbles. It was a lot of fun to watch the boys interacting. Jordon earned the name "leaf-eater" as he kept trying to shove leaves in his mouth. He threw up during the shoot and I managed to fish a twig out of his mouth.

Look who we visited in Columbia

On our trip up to Columbia for the game, we were able to catch up with our friends Denise, Kerri and Andy, Mike and Christie. Jordon also got to spend a little time with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jon.