5 Months!

Jordan turned 5 months on November 6th! I can't believe how fast she is growing and how fast time goes by! She is such a happy and joyful baby yet again (like the first 6 weeks of her life). Things seem to be making her less gassy and fussy and I'm figuring out how much time should go by between me eating things that make her gassy and when she nurses. I was thinking today that one things that seems to be a unique characteristic to her is how much she seems to enjoy when you talk or sing to her. She just gets this big smile on her face and coos at me. Before naptime and night time, I'll pray and sing to her and she just smiles and coos. It's so sweet. Today was one of the first times Jordan got on Keely's nerves. I was reading to the two of them and they were both laying on the couch. When Keely would lean up, Jordan would grab the back of her shirt. Keely kept saying, "Jordan, let go." Then Keely would scoot up closer to me to get out of the reach of Jordan. It was pretty funny!

Baby

All of you realists (Laquita and Jacob) are probably right that I won't be getting caught up! So, if I end up posting more October pictures yea! If not...so sorry!

On to current things. Keely is in this phase of doing what we do...which we have posted some stories illustrating that. Like last night at church, my mom and I were saying we probably needed to change Jordan's diaper before taking her to childcare and Keely came over and smelled her bottom to see if she had a dirty diaper. Friday night, Jacob and I needed to run to the mall and my parents watched the girls. They were eating popcorn and mom told Keely she would hold the bowl and just to take one. Later Keely wanted to hold the bowl and let mom take one.

So, this morning Jacob was either asking me something or telling me something and called me baby when doing so. I didn't even notice it until Keely looked up at me and said, "baby" of course with a little mischievous smile. The rest of the day when she would get my attention she called me baby. "Baby, more goldfish please." "Baby, Jordan cry." It was pretty funny!!

Do you do this?

I think I'm doing so good getting caught up and then I get behind again! I still have lots of October pictures to post and here it's almost mid-November!

Jacob has had 2 15-page papers to do for his classes and they have become team projects! Jacob writes them, but I have been helping with formatting it (inserting the footnotes right and doing the bibliography). He also did one of two of his book reports on the wrong book and had to redo that! So he has 2 out of 3 papers done! This weekend has been a vacation from all those crazy things and we'll start back up Monday! Looking forward to December when his classes should be finished! So, sorry ahead of time how far behind we are in sharing pictures and events that have happened!!

Virgina: Family Festival

The last day of our conference we had a family festival. They had inflatables, a petting zoo and a little train.

Keely was a little nervous to do the big slide by herself, so she convinced me to go too.

Jacob and Keely on the train.

We had a lot of fun!

Virgina: Fun on the playground

One of the two weeks we were gone was spent in Virgina at a conference. While we were in Virgina we had the opportunity to play on some great playground equipment every day we were there after meetings and childcare! Keely LOVED it! She also enjoyed having Mommy and Daddy play with her on the equipment too. Keely would start up the steps and call, "Come Mommy," "Come Daddy." We all had lots of fun!!

Sisters

When we got everything out to take Jordan's 4 month pictures, Keely was ready to take pictures too. She has always been fond of Jordan, but she has been more so lately and protective too.We ended up with a lot more of the two of them this time and Keely was pretty smiley too!! Of course they were never smiling at the same time, but that's too much to ask for!!

Jordan at 4 1/2 months

Jordan had her 4 month check-up last week. She's 12 lbs and 4 ozs and 24 1/2 inches long. She only gained 1 lb and 6 ozs in the past 2 months but the doctor didn't seem too concerned yet. Her belly button looks better to us, but the doctor still couldn't tell where the hole is located. We are hoping she can tell better in December at her next appointment. Jordan still has a fussy day or two a week (and today is one--so I'm typing with one hand!) but is so happy on the good days. Tomatoes and dairy still hurt her tummy though I've been experimenting with how long it seems to stay in my milk so I can enjoy a few things while we are in the States!

Stateside is wearing me out!

We got back from our two-week trip to Virgina and North Carolina about a week and a half ago but I feel like I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things!! I guess the middle of last week we were getting settled back into things and then Jacob went to another conference Friday. That completely rocked the girls' lives (both of them!). Neither one slept well at night or nap time and just weren't themselves!

All of this traveling, schooling and still doing work along with hanging out with friends and family and speaking... Goodness, goodness..I'm exhausted! All of this to say sorry we are so behind and we'll try to get caught back up in the blog world!

Bobby Bowden

The family just got back from two weeks of travel. Our first week was business related, but the second week we took a trip to Raleigh, NC to spend some time with my sister and her husband and their son, who we all met for the first time. My grandma even took the train up form Jacksonville to spend the week with us. We'll get pictures of that time up soon, but the highlight of my week was getting to meet Bobby Bowden. My bro-in-law is an operations manager at the airport, and he was able to get me on the airport where I was able to meet Coach Bowden as the FSU football team was disembarking from their flight to Raleigh. We spoke for a few minutes and then my sister snapped a few photos of us together. FSU went on to win the game Thursday night.

Black Walnuts

The weather is changing and that means the black walnuts are beginning to fall. The house we are living in has a black walnut tree as well as the fellowship who owns the house, which is just next door. The past few mornings, Keely and Jacob have gone out to pick up black walnuts. Keely loves the outdoors anyway and then we haven't gotten to experience fall weather since the fall of 2004-- so we have been enjoying the excuse to be outside! The other morning Jacob asked Keely if she wanted to go outside to pick up walnuts and Keely got super excited. She found me and asked for her jacket. Then she ran into the living room and put on her blue crocs. She came back to find Jacob and he told her she needed her other shoes. She runs back into the living room and puts on her pink crocs. Jacob says, "No I meant her tennis shoes, go get your tennis shoes." She was so excited that she didn't know what to with herself!! Below is a video of them picking up black walnuts. It's not super great since I was doing it out the bathroom window, but I wanted to remember the moment and just thought we'd share it with you!!

The Things They Say #1

Keely had been talking some before we came back to the States, but just a couple days after arriving here the floodgates opened. We think it helped that she always heard English around her. Since she is talking up a storm, she is now saying interesting and cute things.

"What you doing Mommy (Daddy, baby, Mimi, Papa -- whoever she is talking to)?" If Keely asks this once, she asks it a million times a day and sometimes a million times in a minute! She has just started to answer the question when we ask her too!

"I went night night." Keely says this after her nap and in the morning after getting up in a very excited voice (like she is very proud of herself). She even says it when she has just been reading in her room and we try to correct her but she doesn't go for it!!

"No thank you." Keely was passionately saying no one day when I asked her if she wanted something and so I told her say no thank you if you don't want something. The very next time I asked her if she wanted something she said no thank you. What is funny is that if you ask her something like, "Do you have a dirty diaper?" She responds "No thank you." "Are you sleepy?" "No thank you." At least she's polite, huh?

"Baby Jordan." In the morning, when Keely is coming downstairs she normally calls out for me, "Mommy." One night I was feeding Jordan in her room and Keely came in to say good night. When she got up that morning she went to go find baby Jordan in her room, but she was downstairs with me eating. The whole way downstairs Keely called out, "Baby Jordan, baby Jordan, baby Jordan." When she found us, she leaned over and gave her a kiss. (When Kelly gives kisses she goes mmmmm ah.) It was sweet.

Reading with Papa

As you know, Keely loves her books. She went through a short time of not being interested in her books. However, now she is very much into them again. Just a couple days ago, Jacob was working on a study guide for his sem class, I was reading a book with Jordan sitting with me and Keely was reading her books. One day when we were at my parents' house, Keely had my dad, Papa, read to her. They read a lot of books that day!! I just had to share the picture of that time...

Imitating Papa

Keely has been acting like she is blowing her nose for awhile now after I had a cold last January. She'll take the Kleenex and blow and actually is pretty close at blowing her nose... until now. While we were on vacation, Keely observed my dad blowing his nose and it's a bit louder than when I blow my nose. A week later, Keely, Jordan and I are sitting on the couch and Keely asks for a Kleenex. I hand her one and she blows her nose but this time she made a zurbert sound while blowing her nose. Immediately I knew she was imitating my dad and it was pretty funny! There was spit everywhere! But now she's like Papa!!

Pig Tails

Keely's new found hairstyle is pig tails. We'll ask her if she wants us to do her hair and most the time she answers, "Yes." Then we ask her, "Bow or pig tails." "Pig tails," is normally her answer. However, it's still not her favorite thing to sit still and let me do her hair. We have found that letting her sit on the counter top, play with with the hair bands and letting her brush her teeth occupies her long enough so I can do her hair.

It's amazing how it really makes her look like a toddler!!

Touchdown!

Keely was playing while Jacob was watching college football Saturday afternoon. Jacob got really excited and right as Ole' Miss was about to score and he yells, "Go! Go! Go, go, go! Touchdown!" Keely started laughing really hard. She thought it was hilarious!! Who knew that college football was so funny!!

Playing with sister

Keely is really good at coming up with things to play with and entertain herself. She enjoys coloring, but I think she enjoys playing with the crayons even more!! When Jordan was sitting in the bumbo seat one day, Keely saw this as a great opportunity to have a playmate.

"Here hold these crayons Jordan."

"So what am I suppose to do with these?"

"Look at all my crayons Dad!"

"Wait, where did Keely go? What happened to my crayons!?! Hey, what's going on?"

Bumbo Seat

I was planning on posting these at some point, but was motivated to do it right away after reading Michelle's comment on the last post.

When Keely was 3 months old we were in the States for Thanksgiving. I looked at the Bumbo Seat and really wanted to get on and really thought Keely would like it because at that age, like Jordan, she liked to sit up. However, Jacob convinced me that we didn't have room in our bags to get one back with us. My cousin sent us a list of baby gear she had that we could borrow and I was so excited to see she had a Bumbo Seat because I had always wanted to use one! Jordan seems to really enjoy it. However, I think she looks funny sitting in it. I can't really put into words what it makes me think...but she enjoys it and I think it makes Keely feel like she is more involved in playing with her too. Of course Keely likes to sit in it too!!




At meal time we put in a kitchen chair so she is at our level. This afternoon she sat with Jacob on the sofa and watched college football!!

Jordan at 3 months

Jordan will be 4 months in about 10 days -- so I better get her 3 month pictures up, huh?

Jordan's 2 month appointment was 1 week before she turned 3 months and she was 10 lbs 14 ozs and 22 3/4 inches long. Her check-up went well.

When Jordan was a few weeks old we noticed her belly button was looking odd and after reading What To Expect The First Year, we decided it was probably a herniated belly button.
This appointment was her first one to get it checked out. The doctor said it may be the umbilical was herniated and it should go back at least by the time she is 5. The doctor said it may be another kind though that she would need to have surgery...she hopes that by her next appointment in October she'll be able to tell better though she doesn't think this is the type she has.

The doctor also pointed out that she seemed to be favoring her right side (turning to the right) and so we have been trying to help her look and lean towards the left more.

Jordan has less fussy days these days and I seem to know more what I eat that bothers her. Things with lots of MSG (like Chinese food), garlic or tomatoes makes her fussy for a fully day or more. Dairy seems to give her extra gas, but I think her system is maturing and it doesn't bother her as much as earlier on (and I didn't realize that Dairy was causing it).

She is independent like the rest of us in our family and has never been real consistent on how long she would sleep at night. She'd sleep until 6:30 am for a week and then she'd start waking at 4 am. But this week she seemed to no longer want her late feeding at 11 and started sleeping til sometime between 7 and 8 and is eating 5 times instead of 7. She just made a huge leap in one week!!

That's our daughter!! She is a sweety and loves to smile at us and watch us. Her new favorite thing is to sit in the bumbo seat my cousin lent us. Both our girls definitely keep us on our toes!!

Getting Caught Up

Where have we been for so long? We went on vacation for 10 days (4 of those days were driving days - 15 hours with 2 young children (lots and lots of fun!! lol)). We were then home 3 full days and then Jacob went for a conference for 2 1/2 days. And then my days are so completely full with just the normal duties of a mom and wife that here it is Thursday and I'm forcing myself to sit down to the computer while I have a minute of quiet (and lets hope it'll be more than just 1 minute!).

The vacation was wonderful. Yes, still lots of work when you have little ones and one that wasn't quite sleeping through the night at that point (that's another post), but we haven't taken a full week of vacation in a long time and it was good to get away. My expectation of when we got back to the States was that it would be relaxing right away, but it's still life-- still need to clean, do the laundry, got to the grocery store and take care of the kids. For Jacob he still has work e-mail (and a lot of it!) and two classes he is enrolled online. So vacation was really good and Jacob and I even got to go to a FSU game. That was fun!

Jacob's conference went well even though he says it was weird to not have any of us with him. I agreed that sitting in church by myself was really weird too! He found someone that is interested in helping with IT at our meeting in January so that is exciting. And the people at the conference really blessed us and the girls with some neat things.

Hopefully I'll get us caught up in the next 10 days because then we leave again for 2 weeks!!

Lovely

Here is our precious little Jordan. She is smiling and cooing a lot these days, and just makes the cutest faces and sounds.

Smile Keely

We often ask Keely to help us make Jordan smile. When we do, this is what she does, and guess what, it works!

Vacation

We're on vacation in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We're enjoying the sun, the sand, the waves (courtesy of Ike, who is nowhere near us but making lots of waves come our way), and the pool. Keely is loving her water wings (freedom in the pool) and playing in the sand and having the waves crash at her feet. Here's a picture from today after a bit of a walk on the beach.

BRRRRR

Thanks to Hurricane Gustav we had quite a bit of rain and cooler weather a few days ago. After living in Thailand for three years with the very coolest days in the 70's, we were freezing! The first cool day was 70... we all dressed in pants but Jacob and I were still freezing when we were out. (We kept telling ourselves it wasn't that cold,but we were still freezing!) The next day we kept the pants and added sleeves when going out. Keely seems to not be a fan of pants though! She has probably only worn warm clothes two months out of her two years! The first day she cried when we tried to put her jeans back on after a diaper change and the next day she had her pants pulled up past her knees! Winter will be interesting!!

Things I (Jacob) Enjoy About the States

Here are some things I enjoy about being in the states.

1. Turkey Sandwiches

2. Time with family

3. Cherry Coke

4. Central air

5. All my email comes first thing in the morning and then again at night. I can handle it all at once, and not have it coming in throughout the day. This means less time in front of the computer!

6. Blueberries and peaches

7. Our minivan - we have room for the car seats and friends and family

8. Other restaurants such as Panera, McAllister, Olive Garden, Sonic Happy Hour, etc. etc...

I guess the states are not so bad, though I do miss the laid back lifestyle of living in Asia. :-)

Some of Daddy's Favorites

Here are some of my favorite shots from the last week.

Do I Have Your Vote?

So it appears that there is a grassroots effort to elect me as the next President of the United States. It'll be quite a career change, but if I win, then hey, I'm up for it. Do I have your support? Click here for more information.

Smiley Jordan #2!

We got a couple really cute pictures of Jordan smiling at us!

It's really cute when we ask Keely to make Jordan smile...she'll look at Jordan and say "Smile" while making a funny fake smile! It's really cute!

Are You Reading This?

We'd love to know who is reading our blog, as from the logfiles it looks like there are a number of folks out there blog stalking us. Shoot us a comment or email and let us know who you all are! :-)

Keely Is 2!

Monday Keely turned 2! Wow, does time sure fly by!! She seems to be learning and growing more and more every day!

We tried to make Monday mostly Keely's day (except for a family trip to Sam's). We went to IHOP for pancakes, played in the pool in the backyard, had chocolate chip cookie cake and ice cream, had homemade pizza and opened and played with presents! What a day!! (As you look through the pictures, you too can have hair like Keely's if you take a nap with uncombed wet hair!!)

Keely's Birthday Cookie

Keely not quite awake nor sure about this big cookie

Still not sure about what's going on

However, Keely is very sure about eating the cookie!!

Keely reading her new Elmo book
(she didn't want it read to her, but looked at every page and pointed out Elmo on each page)

Keely playing with her new Doodle Pro
(Kelley, glad you mentioned Kiran got one a few months ago..that made us check it out and Keely loves it!)

What a great day!

Princess Keely

A few weeks ago, Jacob was out of town for a week. The girls and I were hanging out at my parents' house, when Keely found a pink tiara and shoes in the toy box. My mom got out the matching princess outfit and put it on Keely. I thought it was about the most hilarious thing ever! When Jacob got home and found out, he wasn't too excited about us dressing her up! (He's funny about things like that! HAHA!) After that Keely would find the shoes and wear them around the house. The really funny thing is that she would tell me they were Mimi's shoes. I don't think my mom could wear those shoes...but sure they are Mimi's shoes.