Friday Five 2-22

 What is your favorite way to focus on the positive? To remember all you have to be thankful for, all that God has blessed you with? Here of five of my favorite positive things from this week!

• The highlight of our week was a definite improvement in Jordan's overall happiness/joy, and great playtime with less fussing, and quite a bit more giggling. It was more than just a return to normalcy after being a little sick. He has just been so full of giggles and love! He even played peacefully together with Miles (the younger of the two I nanny) multiple times. Today I heard them chatting and giggling; I do believe this is a first. Oh my, JOY! ... I think part of it is that I've been trying to focus more on him and purposeful play, and letting him "choose" what to do. Work in progress, as usual! :)

Wanted to play on the couch a lot this week. Did this on his own after nap at nannying :)

We love to dance to the music we quite constantly listen to. Lately we've been getting great snuggle dances, too!

Josh taught Jordan to slow dance with me :)

• 
  After a lot of fun on Monday, Josh and I were discussing how his favorite part of the day was a certain super cute, silly moment with Jordan! Then, we decided that's a good thing for us to do together each day. Our favorite part of the day. Yesterday we had a favorite Jordan moment, and a favorite "other," too. Yay for more positivity! (One of our goals right now.)
  Josh's favorite moment with Jordan was when he did a silly fall to the ground, ending sprawled out on his back, and Jordan mimicked it perfectly, multiple times. Daddy would fall, then Jordan would fall just like him, and they both ended sprawled next to each other in basically identical positions. Ah, the little things!

• It must be included that we hit a new level in potty training. After a few days of increased accidents again (ugh!), we had four days with no pee accidents again, and not because of less water (I was starting to really debate that!), but because of more awareness! I got a little over-dramatic after he peed in his highchair like six times in a few days, but I think that was a catalyst moment for him! Phew!

• Taxes are done! I usually have a lot of stress, some tears, and quite a few confused moments when doing taxes... but not this year!! I still had a few confused moments, with not much new (tax-wise) this last year, I didn't have to try to figure many new facets of taxes! And, we get money back. Score!

• Half snow-day Thursday. I wish I could have a recording of the afternoon to play back for years to come! Instead, I'll try to just remember all we did and document it here, so you can smile, too! Got home around 2:30 from nannying, met by daddy clearing the driveway. Jordan grabbed a "scoop" (except the only thing left where the shovels usually are was a rake :)) and helped finish ;) Then we came in, potty, snack, and... the play began! Climbed in the laundry basket, pulled stuff down off the "octopus" hanger, then wanted his stuffed things hung up. Added jumbo animals to basket. Moved baskets and played beside the dryer/vacuum, hiding from daddy and giggling non-stop when daddy snuck over (over and over again, of course!!). Played with lids and animals in the kitchen. [Transition as daddy had to start doing homework.] Played with potato head on the couch, played with a pompom and potato head in his lap. Played behind the couch, hiding, peeking, and giggling like crazy; found a balloon. Mommy blew up a new balloon and Jordan bounced on it, and popped it! Scary! Clean up the scary evidence. Grabbed the vacuum and told me "clean up!" and started vacuuming over toys. Mommy got a box out to use as a car ramp... Not interested - "[in]side, mama! [in]side box!" Played "nigh-night"/peek-a-boo with mommy: crouching in face-down fetal position and tilting his head just enough to see when I moved the flap to peek at him! "Peek! {outrageous giggle} Close! Close it, mommy!" Mommy got a bigger box, that closed on the bottom, play continued. Mommy climbed in, too! Mommy's neck hurt = mommy out, potato head in. Supper time. Has become very interested in clean up time the last few weeks, and actually does a super job cleaning up; the house was a disaster and Jordan and daddy had it cleaned up in no time!

"mama, pompom lap? Tato head top." then he did it.

During potty break he grabbed my sleep pants, and wanted to wear them like a blanket...

Jordan Five

• Put a puzzle together on his own! I asked him to help clean it up, then had to help another boy with something, and came back and he had 4 out of 6 pieces in. I knew he could do it by himself, but he always asks for help!
• Used glue for the first time. He did great, and only licked it a few times! He even glued a handful of pieces to paper completely on his own.

"Sticky!"

• Went "sledding" for the first time. Our front hill is sloped, but has a death drop (retaining wall), so we went to the neighbor's! (Then we shoveled their stairs and walkway to make up for it :)) Jordan liked it the first handful of times, but then it either got too fast for him at the end, or he was more interested in the doggies barking inside the neighbor's, ha!

• Love for music continues to grow. Moved on to including "Holy" "ooohs" and a muddled "praise ye the Lord" to the phrases he sings {often, and randomly, just like mommy ;)}! The "oohs" are the best, in a specific Big Daddy Weave song, he moves his pitch in the correct pattern to try to sing with the bridge (though not on pitch, usually :))! We like to sing "Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah... Praise ye the Lord!" and he sings it better every week :)
  He just added singing "you are" along with the phrase "You are my One and Only" (another Big Daddy Weave song, of course :))
• Puts his potty seat away on his own now. He grabs it and says, "Potty seat. Handle. Hang up!"

A couple photos from last Saturday. Thanks to Papa for the new basement cellar door!