Happy Easter!

She has a tendancy to pull funny faces.

What were we thinking...

A few weeks ago on a Friday night, Chad and I went to dinner at our favorite non-busy, no-wait place...Cracker Barrell.  As we left the restaurant, we chatted back and forth about what we were going to do for the rest of the night.  We got an idea to do a puzzle.  We love puzzles.  We had done one when we were engaged and Chad was living with his uncle.  That one took us one night and was fun so we thought we would do it again.  We went to Wal-mart and after much debate, picked out one we thought looked like a  good one.  Like we really know what makes a good puzzle?!  We went home and took off the lid, sifted through the pieces, and realized we had made a mistake.  1500 pieces did not seem like that much until we actually saw how many pieces that is.  What were we thinking?!

That first night, the only thing we accomplished was the edge.  The next night we added about 20 more pieces.  Just how long this puzzle was going to take started to come into perspective.

THREE WEEKS LATER, we finished it.  Yep, three weeks.  And we diligently worked on it every night for at least 30 minutes.  30 minutes is all we could take before I got puzzle ornery and started to say mean things.  We ate on the floor since the puzzle took up the whole table.  Jordyn, in her wiggly and mobile state, attacked every plate of food we ate.  After it was finally finished, we had to leave it on the table for a couple days as a testament to hard work, dedication, devotion, everlasting love despite challenges, and a reminder that next time 750 pieces will be enough.

Please ignore the one missing piece.  Either Jordyn ate it, or the vaccuum did.  I was about to paint a green piece of cardboard to fit just so we could say we did 1500 pieces, not 1499.

Rough Day

Little Jordyn had the worst day in her short 6 months of life.  She is usally just smiley and happy-go-lucky.  But this day was a different story.  For the first time in months, she cried during the night, several times.  Chad and I would take turns going into her room to check on her and she would seem to be sleeping.  She would cry til we woke her up and then we would put her back in the crib and she would play with her feet and suck her thumb til she fell back asleep.  By 5:30, we were sick of this routine and brought her into bed with us.  I left for work around 7:30, and left a sleeping baby and a sleeping husband snuggled together.  At some point, Jordyn woke up and Chad was still in the hazy awake/asleep stage.  Then bam...the thud...the cry.  She had rolled off the bed.

Shortly thereafter, Chad was working on the job hunt quest.  He had a phone interview with a company in SLC.  It was Jordyn's nap time so he put her in the swing to take her morning nap.  Typical routine.  He went into the bedroom to do his interview and she started to cry.  He figured she was just tired and knew she was alone, and really, what could he do in the middle of a phone interview.  After he hung up, he walked out of the bedroom and saw her lying on the floor.  She had wiggled out of her swing and fallen to the floor.  After crying for 10-15 minutes she had given up, put her thumb in her mouth, and fallen to sleep there on the floor under the swing.

Later that day, we had the dreaded 6 month appointment.  One look from the doctor and she burried her face into me and cried.  It makes my heart break when they stick in the first needle and she starts to get that red, sad face.  And then she cannot understand why it happens over and over.  Poor girl.  More crying.

This is the sad Jordyn face we saw for most of the day.


This is an old 1 month picture, but her pathetic little whiney face is still just as cute!

 Finally, the day came to an end. We let her roll around in her diaper and her smiles came back. We let her play extra long in the bathtub and her smiles continued.   Lets hope the next few days are better than the last.

Changes

About 4 weeks ago, it seemed like we went through a whole lot of changes with Jordyn...
We started feeding her cereal and she LOVES it! Some nights it is almost like she inhales the stuff. Other nights, if I let her get too hungry before I feed her, she loses her patience with the spoon, and then I lose my patience, and then Chad steps in!
At the same time, she suddenly started guzzling bottles and then wanting more. We had to go buy 9 oz. bottles.
At the same time, she started holding her own bottles...that is awesome!  Chad's comment "I have been waiting for her to do this... and it is every bit as glorious as I imagined."
At the same time, we made a transition to formula... maybe someday when I feel like opening up I will blog about that. Talk about changes!
At the same time, her 3 month clothes stopped fitting. I know this sounds like...duh...she is now 4 months old, but it was just like it happened overnight.
At the same time, we bought a little umbrella stroller to take on a trip to Idaho. We tried it out at Walmart while we shopped and it was just weird that she was old enough to keep herself sitting in the stroller.
At the same time,she started playing in her bouncer/gym/stand-up thing. All of this happened within like a week. I figured she must be going through a growth spurt. Funny thing was, these changes continued throughout the following weeks...
All of a sudden she is eating bananas and peaches and green beans. All of a sudden she is scooting around everywhere and getting trapped in all the little crevaces in our family room. All of a sudden she is clingy and wants mommy and daddy more than anyone else in the room. The list of "all of a sudden"s goes on and on.

Moral of the story...EVERYTHING IS CHANGING SO FAST! Saddest part is, I know this is only the beginning and these fast changes will never stop. The past 5 1/2 months have flown by. I find myself wanting her to be that little baby who slept through anything and cuddled up and was not so wiggly. And despite all these changes, I find myself loving this little girl more and more with every little new adventure we come across!

This is Jordyn doing her army crawl to the camera that was sitting on the floor.  You can't really tell, but she moves a couple feet in the time of this little clip.  It might not seem like much, but we think it is fast!



Jordyn lovin' some peaches.



Jordyn lovin' a bottle.

Jordyn lovin' a bath.



Jordyn lovin' some Scrubs.

 The weird noises you hear are me blowing in her face.  For some reason she loves it.  Chad thought this clip was a little racey, showing the world our naked baby girl.  But I thought it was cute!



Secret Code

I just wanted to let the blogging world know that I fixed my blog problem all by myself. I figured out it was a problem with the html code of my Valentine post. I went in and fixed it. I just want to clarify that my code-writing, computer-working husband did not do it. I did it :)

But... He did teach me a little photoshop lingo so I could learn how to make my own little banners. So he did kind of redeem himself there. Also, he played Jordyn while I played with blogger. Also, he cleaned her up when she spit up everywhere. Also, he changed a messy diaper. Also he fed her. Ok, so he totally redeemed himself.

Sherlock....

I solved the mystery of the missing links. Look down at the bottom of my blog. Way down. Keep scrolling. There there are. Now how to get them back where they belong?

Puzzled...

So, take a look over at the right hand column of my blog. Is it empty? For about a week now the only thing that is showing up are my posts. No pictures off to the side. No posting history. And worst of all... no links! How am I supposed to blog stalk when I don't have links to your blogs?! Has this ever happend to anyone but me? Any suggestions of how to fix it? When I go to my settings it is all still there. Like where you go to add gadets or links, all is good. Hmmmm. Puzzling.