An encouraging day in the life of Jordan :)

Timothy is amazing me with his speech - both the extent of his vocabulary and his ennuciation. I can't decide if it is that he really speaks that well of if I have become so used to figuring out what Jordan is saying and the length of time it takes her to learn words that Timothy seems ahead of the curve or if he really is. The other option is that we have become so accustomed to translating Jordanese that Timothy seems to be talking early :)

Yesterday was one of the days that in a twisted somewhat frustrated way I was amazed and proud of how far Jordan has come. First after telling her to put her boots on five times as she wandered around with one Dora boot on in her hands I went down to the landing to help her - no other Dora boot.
"Jordan - where are your other boots? - I think you went downstairs when you came in last night"
"yes - they right there" points down the stairs like duh mom!!!
Seems like no big deal right? - except she was trying to follow my directions, had actually located her boots on her own, had determined she wanted to wear different ones AND was looking for them herself, and then clearly understood and communicated her answer - even with age appropriate duh mom inflection!!

After school both boys were napping and I suddenly realized it was WAY too quiet. She has taken to coloring in her bed (sometimes actually on paper - not the sheets and walls) so I wasn't too concerned but I had a nagging feeling I had seen her go in the bathroom. Sure enough I opened the door and got hit full force with the smell of nail polish. Scary part - the glass had broken either when she had tried to open it or it had fallen out of the cupboard- no cuts thought! The encouraging part - Jordan was sitting on the counter (where the girls sit when they use nail polish) and had actually only gotten nail polish on her nails (and some of the surrounding skin) - but not all over herself OR the bathroom!!!!

Later that afternoon when JJ came home we got in a large debate/discussion about how much money I owe him and what he is going to spend it on, donate etc. Let me remind you he is a 12 year old. He is a great kid and I have a wonderful relationship with him BUT he is 12 - and he is as argumentative as his mom. Which I personally quietly like because one of the reasons we have a great relationship is that we fight everything out - everything gets discussed to the end so there are no lingering hurt feelings! Anyway - back to the fact that he is 12 - it was not a quiet conversation. Jordan was sitting quietly on the couch next to me taking it all in. She has some interesting reactions when she knows I am upset with one of the kids or when one of them is upset. (The other day when Jessi was upset and crying, Jordie came over and gave her a huge hug then said, "all better?") Jordan watches the interaction and then picks a side - once when I was upset with JJ for being to physical with his sister, she jumped in shaking her finger at him, telling him "no hitting sisters!!"

But back to yesterday - finally she looks at me and announces "no more talking" and goes over and climbs on JJ's lap.
I cracked up and said, "I can't talk to JJ any more?"
"No - you talk to Jordie - no talk to JJ"
"But JJ and I are talking about his money"
"JJ - you spend daddy's money!, Mommy you talk to Jordie now"
"Okay Jordie"
"JJ okay - you give him daddy's money, he give money, all better"
"that will solve it?"
"Nyah (Jordanese for yes)! You tell Jordie - Jordie talk JJ - no more mommy talk to JJ"

I actually think she was trying to tell me that she didn't want JJ to be upset any more so I should talk to her about it instead. This conversation went on for a little while - which had both JJ and I in hysterics. But more than that I was amazed at her involvement. I have seen all my kids defend each other at different times but rarely does Jordan get it enough to defend anyone - it was awesome to watch her go over to protect and comfort her big brother - who, by the way is her idol!! Also as much as she misunderstood the conversation at the same time she did pick up on a lot of it as well and the thing that blew me away is that she was trying to problem solve. She actually got the concept of cause and effect when she was a baby which was great since it is the early stages of problem solving, and she has always had a high level of motivation and determination to solve physical problems - how does that block get in there, how can I get this shirt on, etc. But this is the first that I have seen her try and work through an abstract problem and communicate her thoughts. I'll take it!!!

And the icing on the cake - she thinks JJ should spend Daddy's money not Mommy's!!! She knows where the money comes from in this house - which again - great that she has picked up on - and I have no intention, even if she understood, of explaining any of it more thoroughly to her!!

oh poop

When I started this blog last week, I thought "what if my life suddenly becomes indescribably normal and boring now that I have decided to write about it?"

HAH - I should be so lucky :)

*warning if you are poop-story-a-phobic do NOT continue reading*

After this morning's events of re-arranging the mess in the house we headed off to dance. We were SUPPOSED to be heading to a birthday party with Jessi but we had the wrong day - not completely my fault except the part where I trusted that the information given to me from Jessi, passed along to her by another 8 year old, supposedly originating from said 8 year old's mother was accurately relayed. Something got lost in translation because the party was yesterday. UGH!! I have to say that sometimes things truly aren't fair for Jessi - but that is a whole entry unto itself!!

So we head off to dance, with a stop for a haircut for JJ along the way. NOT my favorite activity - my completely agreeable 12 year old becomes sullen and miserable the two times a year I insist he get his hair cut. It only lasts a brief time but still not very pleasant. We arrive at dance a little early, Jessi heads off to her class and JJ says - "I think Jordie is stinky." My heart sank!! I was just thinking the other night how I have finally pretty much relaxed in this area - not completely - I am still highly conscious of making her go on a regular basis and don't trust her at all to tell me when she has to, but we have come a long way in the last six months. I do a furtive check and don't see anything but I smelled something too so I sent JJ out to get my purse from the car for wipes and clean underwear. He comes in with the purse which somehow has no wipes in it. As a mother of five and half I truly believe that wipes are one of the most if not the ABSOLUTE MOST essential tool. So how is it that I am without them more often than I care to count??? I send him back out to the car to look - five minutes later he comes back in - no wipes any where in the car!! AARGH!!!

Now we are waiting to get into the bathroom where multiple girls are getting changed. They are all finally out and we are about to enter when another girl slips in ahead of us to fill her water bottle - really? You can't walk upstairs to the water fountain? But eventually we are in - I pull down her pants - false alarm!! Whew, all that and we dodged a bullet - must, must, must remember to put wipes in both my purse and my car!!!!

I sat back down in the lobby, relief filling my heart, when Nathan crawls over to me - oh boy - here is the stinky one! I tell JJ to watch the other two while I change him thinking - ugh but no big deal. HAH - since Nathan has blown out a diaper the last three days I have had him I am not sure what crazy world I was living in at that moment!! I get him in the bathroom lay him down and pull up his onesie - ugh!! This was definitely a "wish there was a bathtub, hose, fire hydrant anywhere nearby" moment! !Suffice it to say I threw the onesie in the trash (sorry Jen I owe you one but there was no way that one was coming home), managed to get the onesie over his head without getting poop in his hair (I must say I take a little pride in having perfected this skill), get him cleaned up (at least there was running water and plenty of paper towels in this wipeless scenerio of mine). I start to clean up the little spot of poop on the waistband of his jeans thinking it will just have to do until we get home (of course having extra clothes would be far to organized of me!!) and realize there is poop falling out of them into the sink - huge poop leakage had gone on in those pants!! Sigh - cleaned up the sink and get a bag for the jeans.

Next problem - did I mention I have no other pants for Nathan and by the way it is MN in the WINTER? Jordan is off to her dance class, having discarded the sweats - hot pink sweats - she wore there. Hmmm - whatever you gotta do right? So poor Nathan crawled around in hot pink sweats that were literally 5 sizes to big for him for the next hour. Numerous times he literally crawled right out of them. At which Timothy would run over and grab them, "Nathan, uh oh, Nathan pants!!!!" I got a few disapproving looks from a couple of the moms and some good laughs from the others. Glad we could provide some entertainment!! And for those looking on reproachfully - sorry that you have never had a day like this - maybe you need more kids!!! :)

This whole thing brings flashbacks of other times in this predicament (apparently I am a slow learner) - like the day at the beach that Timothy blew out his diaper and spent the rest of the afternoon in one of Julia's shirts (so Timothy and Nathan can be in therapy together for gender issues later in life), and the time at Wendy's when JJ was about 2.5 and Bethany was about 1 and she exploded - JJ pulled all the toilet paper all over the bathroom as I cleaned that one up and Bethany went home wearing JJ's sweatshirt on her legs like pants - quite the fashion statement!! Remembering that time makes me even more grateful that I had a much more helpful JJ today, to coral the other two while I took care of Nathan.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful - except for the piece of bread that Timothy turned into confetti and threw around the lobby and when he stole Nathan's bottle and ran across the room shaking it upside down. "I funny" - I knew that would come to haunt me again!! But we managed to leave without destroying any costumes that were being rhinestoned and without any children being rhinestoned so I guess all in all we came out ahead of the game!!!

Cleaning Day

I am quite certain that anyone who has ever had a child under the age of five in their home while they tried to clean can relate to my morning! Not sure it should really be titled "cleaning" day because it's not so much cleaning as re-arranging the mess. Even as I start to write this Timothy has taken the recipe box out of the cupboard and is gleefully tossing recipe cards in the air in his own version of 52 card pick up! Except that the pick up part is slightly lacking. Not sure why I have a recipe box anyway since my husband can attest that I have pretty much never truly followed a recipe.

And Timothy's latest trick is to pull the little chair over to the play kitchen (or if that is too much work - simply climb up the kitchen - for which, let me tell you, it really wasn't designed) and pull the filled bin of plastic food off the top. He thinks it is tremendously funny to have all the food shower down on his and Nathan's heads!! Fortunately Nathan appreciates the end result and so doesn't see to mind grapes, watermelon, bananas and peas raining down on him.

But I decided this morning that some cleaning HAD to be done - since the floor was covered in cereal crumbs too small for even Sadie since another highlight of Timothy's morning was emptying the shredded wheat out of the box - at least this time I caught him before he jumped on too many of them! Also littered around the living room were random granola bars that Timothy had gotten out, clearly thinking that he would wear me down into saying yes if he just asked enough times!

So I set out determined - the books that had all been pulled off the shelf (and the shelf itself) were replaced, granola bars and popcorn packages put back in their drawer, toys picked up and put where they belong and dirty clothes taken downstairs.

But ironically here I sit an hour later - toys all over the floor, new dirty clothes distributed around me (Jordan is on her third outfit of the day), granola bars have been brought back out of the snack drawer in high hopes of getting eaten, and books are off another shelf (at least the shelf is still up on this one!). At least I can console myself that underneath it all most of the crumbs were swept up!!

Oh and of course there is the addition of the recipe cards!!

Dinner at the Moores

Dinner last night was great - in part because there was very little choice of food left in the house and no one has issue with Italian baked chicken, carrots and celery!!

But due to a little table re-arrangement Timothy was close to the light switch - halfway through dinner he thought it was hilarious to flip it on and off. To which Jordan got very upset, "TIM - MO - THEEEEEE" and "Ba - Beee" (we are convinced Timothy will be "baby" forever - we thought Nathan might replace him but Nathan is "Boy")

I am not actually sure if she was upset the light was going on and off or if she was upset she was not the one doing it, but whatever reason she turned around and hit him in the face. Note to self - do not seat the two of them next to each other! She hits and he kicks. In response to that (after a lengthy - "You will apologize to your brother") I moved her seat over.

The problem with that? Timothy has learned this wonderful new trick of mobility. He eats in one of those booster seats that strap to the chair. The other day he was throwing peas - yes throwing - ready, aim, fire - with sound effects "pow, pow, pow" When he ran out of his own peas, he bounced and pushed off the table until he was sitting across from Nathan (in a similar chair) and could steal his peas and "pow" them as well. The fact that Nathan thought it was hilarious and laughed uproariously at Timothy did not help deter peas being made into ammunition.

But back to the problem - apparently Timothy did not mind the hit to his face as much as his mother did because he promptly bounced himself right back next to Jordan and put his foot on her chair. Which she was not thrilled about so she shoved him away and he grabbed her chair as she did and yanked her with him. And announced, while giggling hysterically, "I funny!" Fortunately that cracked up everyone, including Jordan, difusing the situation! But I wonder how many other behaviors are yet to come where he thinks "I funny!"

Chocolate and Potty

Chocolate seems to be the theme....

In a desperate attempt to have Jordan start kindergarden potty trained last fall I went all out in a chocolate bribe. Timothy, who was about 14 months at the time, picked up on it full force. I would tell Jordan "Go potty."
Response, "chocolate"
"go potty"
"Chocolate"
"GO potty first"
"CHOColate"
"GO...POTTY...FIRST"
"CHOCOLATE!!!!!"
"IF you go potty then you can have chocolate"
"Otay"

(She's not dumb - she wants the whole contract spelled out in one sentence!)

This scene would quickly be followed by Timothy running for the kitchen yelling, "chocolate, Chocolate, CHOCOLATE!!!!!" Where he would stand bouncing until Jordan was done and would come in the kitchen as well. LIke a baby bird waiting for his worm he would look face up until that precious piece of chocolate was in his hands! Then off they would both go until a few hours later when the whole thing would be replayed!

This scene still plays out now - Jordan is essentially potty trained during the day but still close enough to accidents that I am content to be manipulated into chocolate if it means I don't have to clean up any more gross underwear for awhile ( I do still have one and half children to go so I am not home free yet :))

But last week Timothy took it to a new level. I told him I would make him lunch after I went potty - he proceeded to follow me into the bathroom and announced "CHOCOLATE". Nice try kid, but mommy going potty does not entitle you to chocolate. Mommy going potty in peace might be another story - chocolates all around if that ever happens!!!

The sayings of Jordan

Now that Jordan can talk so that we can actually understand her a reasonable amount of the time, it is interesting and often hilarious to get a glimpse of how her mind works.

On the way home from dance tonight we were discussing that Daddy would be in England another week. She insisted that she wanted Daddy. This isn't surprising because I had just told her to stop hitting her sister in the face. Jordan's response to any discipline is to ask for someone else. Often she wants Mommy if Daddy is disciplining or Daddy if Mommy is disciplining - or generally not doing what she wants done. And if Daddy is not available we go down the list "I want JJ", "I want Bop (aka Bethany)", "I want Jessi" - pretty much I want anyone except Mommy - it's pretty funny.

But I digress - so she announces to Bethany that Daddy is over there (pointing a random direction out of the car). This led to a discussion about where east is (due to my literal 11 year old) and she spent the rest of the trip home pointing that direction telling us Daddy is over there and he is coming home. We kept telling her he isn't coming home yet. Finally as we reached our street she announced " Yes, Daddy coming home with chocolate!!!" Sorry Sonny - apparently it isn't so much you that she wants home as the chocolate you bring with you!!

This little exchange cracks me up and also gives me a lot of hope. Sonny travels a great deal to a variety of places. I don't even try to keep up with where he is - he has a cell phone - does it really matter where he is when he answers it? But it is when he goes to England that recently he has been bringing back chocolate for the kids. It amazes me and gives me so much hope for what she is truly understanding and processing that she made the connection that Daddy is in England and therefore will be bringing home chocolate. Is it a coincidence? Maybe - but at least for tonight I am going to believe that is isn't, that under that hard to read sweet face of hers and behind that sometimes garbled speech - she really is getting it!!

This is why...

You know how some people seem to attract good fortune or trouble or disaster? Well our family seems to attract those little moments that you just shake your head at and say "Only us!!" Sometimes it makes me wonder what's wrong with me, sometimes it makes me grit my teeth in frustration but most days it makes me shake my head and laugh!

When did we become this family? I think it was six years ago next month when I sat in the ultrasound room at the hospital as they looked at my fourth child on the monitor. I read in their faces what they were hesitant to confirm - my daughter has an extra chromosome, trisomy 21, commonly known as Down syndrome. The saving grace at that moment truly was Saving Grace. I felt completely enveloped in the pure peace and grace of God. At that moment - one of moments to come - literally from that to this it has been a roller coaster of emotions and hopes and disappointments - but thankfully that peace has always lingered somewhere in my heart to help us walk this new crazy path that God placed us on!!

Not that all our challenges and chaos happen because of Jordan - any parent can tell you that is part of the life :) But it seems to be that that moment marks a new direction in my world. No longer would there ever be any semblance or hope of being a typical family. Forever more we were on our own road - for better or for worse. It's been both but I wouldn't change a thing. Okay that's not totally true but I wouldn't get off the road!

In that moment in that room the portrait of my family shattered. The first year or two it was hard to put it back together and every so often it shatters again. But each time less drastically, less painfully. It's almost like being given a child with special needs means you get to forge a whole new way of doing things. I've never been good at doing things conventionally or "because that's the way it's done". Having a child with an extra chromosome is like a free pass to do things differently.

But this blog isn't about Jordan - well not completely - although you will probably be hearing plenty about her artistry, escapes and raids on the chocolate. It's about this amazing life I have been given to live (at least this morning as I watch the three youngest play together before Jessi heads off to school is seems amazing - there may be other words for it later!! :) It's about the dreams and the hopes and it's about the way reality plays out - from the dog that runs away as the neighborhood watches, to getting stuck in the driveway on the way to a funeral, to the bat in the house on Halloween.

They say that average blog has one follower - if you choose to be my one (or more :)) THANK YOU!!