Friday Five 3-14

Random thought you might be interested in: I'm considering partaking in "Analog Weekends," an idea that The Tiny Twig dreamed up. I wonder if I really could do it. The fact that I'm scared to even think about it is probably a great sign that I need to do it. ... hmm...

• It snowed a lot Monday night and so Monday morning we shoveled and played in the snow and went sledding on the neighbor's lawn again (if you don't remember, we can't on ours because, though ours is a nice steep-ish hill, it has a death-drop retaining wall at the bottom :)) Jordan has gotten used to the whole process of getting bundled to go out in the snow now, though I'm sure he's as ready as I am to be able to just run out the door in what he's wearing and play! :)

Watching it snow Sunday night | Impatiently waiting for us to finish getting  read to go out
Stomping in our yard | Daddy helped him make a snow angel

• The word "faithfulness" is my life-word right now. Read a little bit on what God's been placing on my heart, here. I really want my heart to be full of God. Full to overflowing. Right now, God's calling me to evaluate more than priorities (which I've been working on for awhile!), but my faithfulness and how my priorities can help or hinder my faithfulness to God and His calling for my life. Exciting, and slightly daunting.

• Jordan's pronunciation of words has been so much more clear all of a sudden, and he's putting more words together into statements. While watching Mickey this week he made statements about what he was watching, all on his own! "Donald hiding. Mickey find'im." "Pete hUUngry!"
  He also has found a love for the word "no" the last couple weeks. Actually, it's more "NO, NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOOO!" Funny sometimes. Not usually. We definitely pray that he ends up using such a strong will for God's glory.

• I did things with friends THREE times this week! I definitely think I am a better wife, mom, and nanny when I take the time to take a break, preferably with a friend, and not to go grocery shopping. On Tuesdays Jordan and I go to a mommy friend's house. I don't even need my "break" to always be sans toddler, but to get out of the house, have adult conversation, have a break in daily routine [though it's our Tuesday routine, now :)]. Plus, Jordan loves the boys I nanny, and me and Josh, but he's with us ALL the time. Change of pace is good. {And Hezekiah is much younger than him and can't fight back, but that's besides the point ;)}

They kept grabbing for each other during snack.

Jordan always loves Hezekiah's box with lights pushed through the top.

• Jordan finally is brave enough to climb off the toilet by himself. Good most of the time. Bad one morning:
  Jordan locked himself in a bathroom with a deadbolt lock that has no access to the lock from the outside. The mom I nanny for and police officers ended up cutting a hole in the door to reach down to the lock, while I laid on the floor and Jordan and I held fingers as they worked. From the time he locked it until he was out was about 1.5 hours. Somehow the boys all ate and got down for nap only 5-10 minutes later than usual.
  The boys I nanny (2 and 3.5 yrs) were troopers as well as sweethearts, both offering me and Jordan lots of "It's okay! I'm taking care of you!" and "It's going to be fine!" Before help arrived, they also helped sing to Jordan through the door, slid him a couple books, and tried to help talk him into turning the lock back :)
  Jordan had just gone #2 (he had closed the door for privacy to finish when I went downstairs to check on the other boys who were doing a craft using glue), but it was scary enough that he also went on the floor. The poo was also smeared all over. Good thing the books the boys shared weren't ones we loved, they went in the trash, and the smell is mostly gone from the floor, lol!
  I sure hope this is the most adventurous story I ever have to share about potty training :)
  {I realized today that the poo was so smeared because he tried to clean it up. We had heard him flushing a few different times and I had no idea why. When I saw random poo on the toilet, and coupled that with the fact his hands were covered in poo I realized he had been trying to put it in the toilet. Poor little guy! (Not unlike him trying to clean up when I forgot to put a diaper on him for nap...)}

The hole that saved our boy.

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Just had to include again. He's so cute!

We spent most of Wed watching men work with a Ditch Witch outside

He spends most of his time playing at or sitting on his table. Usually he crouches, this time he just sat. So cute!

Paper hat.

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A few more things I want to include that we want to always remember, and I never remember to put in the Jordan log in my phone {and you can read if you're bored, ha!}:

• When Jordan is really fussy about going to the bathroom, we show him the fussy boy in the mirror. Seriously, nobody wants to watch a fussy boy. Works 99% of the time :)
• He just wasn't sleeping well in the pack n play anymore, so he sleeps on the bed of the couple I nanny for now. Much better! No extra "leave him in bed a few more minutes" for naptime on nanny days, though. When he's done with his nap he gets off the bed, exits the room, closes the door, and comes to get me. I usually try to meet him before he makes it out the door, now, because he's not very quiet :)
• When he's extra tired he finds naughty things to do and is interested in things he's not supposed to touch that he otherwise pays no mind to.
• He likes to do things a certain way and has to follow through with his full ideas. Just like us, he does NOT like to be interrupted! He also likes toys to be put away in the "correct" spot.
• He still only knows a couple colors, but really wants to know more! He constantly names the color of something as "blue" so that we'll tell him the correct color, then he repeats the correct color.
• He can pick daddy's favorite color, red, out of a group of crayons, but if you ask him daddy's favorite color he says, "blue!" {of course, and even if he's holding the red, of course :)}
• He loves repeating words. And daddy loves to make him repeat made-up words.
• He's a bit of a bully.
• He loves to sleep with a pillow and blanket, and loves them arranged just so.