Here are few odds and ends of happenings lately ...  BTW, I updated the last post with a link to Oma's post about Thanksgiving w/pics, here it is again ... Click here

The other night Grant was fascinated with a flashlight.  Andrew turned off all of the lights and we used flashlights to get around and play for a little while.  I had the camera near by so I took a few interesting shots ... the shots were taken with flash except the last two.

Jordan and Grant looking up at the lights

Grant looking down at the flashlight ...

Daddy holding Grant's hand over the flashlight to see his hand lit up; Baby J looking at the flashlight

Here is Grant's entourage at night ... I mentioned the potty training in the previous post, he's only had one accident at night so far, he started wearing underwear to bed the same day he started wearing them to school.

And one more, I remember when Grant used to squat down (he still does sometimes) and play with his toys, Jordan does the same thing.  I checked back in the archives and Grant was doing the same thing as this age and I posted about it too :)

Here is Jordan's blue fish pic from a few weeks ago.  She's getting a lot harder to get a picture of with blue fish these days ... the first few pics were when she had the rooster tail thing going on and the next too were from the following day ...  next blue fish pics ... she'll be 1!!

So what is Jordan up to these days ...

- Jordan loves to write on the magnetic boards, she loves taking the magnets off of the refrigerator, she likes banging two things together to make loud noises, she definitely has opinions about things and lets you know when she's not getting her way, she loves peaches (#1), bananas, oatmeal, yogurt, cheese, graham crackers, and bread, she loves being held, she doesn't like to be left ... if you walk away, even briefly, she has to follow you; she's not interested in tv (and we don't encourage it anyhow); she gives kisses these days, yep, mostly with an open mouth but she'll initiate them sometimes, see pic below of Jordan kissing the mirror;

She's practically running, the other day I let her chase me around our blue chair while I snapped a few pics ...

She'll be getting a new car seat soon, she's just too big for her current one; she doesn't nap as long as Grant but she'll usually take two naps about 45 minutes or so each; she's off bottles and only drinks from cups or sippy cups; she prefers to feed herself which we like except when she's eating applesauce or oatmeal; she's a great sleeper at night, Jordan and Grant are on the same night time sleep schedules; she doesn't immediately wake up in the morning like Grant, she's a lot more groggy initially than he is.  I suppose that's Jordan these days, I'm sure I'll think of more but I'll save 'em for her one year post.

A few milestones ...

Jordan had her first Thanksgiving at Oma & Opa's with Aunt Anna, Uncle Jim, Uncle Micah, and Uncle Josh.  Oma put the leaf in the table so there was no kids table this year.  I hope Oma posts the pic of Jordan at her house.  Here is the pic I took of Grant at her house on turkey day ... UPDATE:  SEE OMA'S BLOG HERE

Jordan is officially weaned this week.  She's had some troubles with sinuses and that makes it difficult for her to swallow much less nurse so she weaned herself.  Mommy has mixed emotions about that, it's good and sad but the plan was to wean her in a couple of weeks anyhow.

And finally .... Grant is potty-trained!!!  Woohooooo!!  Grant wore big boy underwear to daycare Monday before last and only had one accident.  The following day he still did pretty good but had two accidents.  After that ... no accidents for over a week now and he'll even go to the potty without us asking him every two minutes if he has to go potty.

A few weeks ago I tried to take advantage of the fall colors and get some pictures of Grant and Jordan.  Here are a few shots ... the percentage of good shots to overall shots taken wasn't pretty ... my limited skills are starting to rust ... darn school, I need to graduate already :)

I also figured it was time to update the pics at the top of the blog so you should see some duplicates from this post and the heading but if I don't add them to the post then they don't get in the photo album on the left side of the blog.

I know, I'm a bit behind on the posts.  Did you notice I added pics to a few posts down???

Andrew and Grant carved pumpkins again this year with daddy holding the pumpkin guts over Grant's head again ... similar reaction as last year :)

This year though he came around quicker and started scooping out the guts himself ...

Here was baby J's reaction ... so we let her paint another one of the pumpkins instead of playing in the guts ... and then Grant wanted to paint a pumpkin too ...

A few weeks before Halloween, we came across two of Grant's old costumes ... Tigger and a monkey costume.  Tigger fit Jordan perfectly and the monkey costume fit Grant a little snug but comfortable ... it was a 2T/3T which makes sense since it was a bit big for him last year but manageable.  They LOVED wearing the costumes and wore them after daycare several days in a row.  When we asked Grant what he wanted to be for Halloween he would always answer a monkey.  Come Halloween night Grant got tired half way through trick-or-treating again like last year and mind you, we only went on half of our block!  He did pipe up this time and say "Trick or treat, give me something good to eat."  He was good about saying thank you too.  Oma and Aunt Anna were at the house too and handed out candy while we were out.

So we were headed home from daycare this afternoon, Grant, Jordan and mommy.  Daddy was in the Jeep.  As we were driving home Grant kept saying that he saw daddy but I kept asking him where and he couldn't point him out.  So I said "I see him" even though I hadn't.  Grant piped up "where?"  To which I responded "I'm just playing with you, I didn't see him."  So a mile or so up the road I spotted some police lights on the driver's side of the road.  Grant sits in the back, also on the driver's side.  It was dark at this point so I told him to keep looking up ahead because there were flashing blue and red lights.  We took a little bit to get to the police car because traffic was slow going due to construction.  I kept asking him "do you see the lights?"  He kept saying no.  So we pass the police car and with it being dark, the lights were obvious.  A few seconds after passing the car I asked him again "Did you see the lights?"  To which he responded "No," ... I said "really" .. he said: "I'm just playing with you, I saw them."  I bust out laughing at his quick grasp of the concept "playing with you" and of course he chimes in laughing just as hard. 

On another note, Grant wore underwear to daycare today!!  He only had one accident!  He's starting to do really well with the potty training.  I'm sure there will be set back days but it's looking promising :)

Here's some pics from the other day while we were playing around at the dinner table ...

11 mo update of Jordan coming soon ... in the mean time, here is a pic highlighting Jordan's hair from the other day.  The folks at daycare wet her hair and put it in a pigtail on top of her head ... when it dried, it stayed like that for two days until I couldn't take it anymore and wet it back down ...

Since the marathon in September, I've continued to run but am only base building ... meaning I'm increasing the average number of miles per week I run.  It's best to do this gradually and without increasing speed too.  I ran a race yesterday as part of our base team mostly because I had planned on running 9 miles either Sat or Sun anyhow and so I didn't really race it, I just ran faster than normal.  The race didn't start until 10 am, so I was treated by Andrew, Grant and Jordan joining me.  Grant thought he was going to run in the race too.  Unfortunately they didn't have a kid race with this one so I let him run with me from the car to the check-in table and back to the car.  He was having so much fun wearing his running shoes.  It was time for me to go to the starting line and he was not too happy that he wasn't really going to get to run with me.

Fortunately, it was a small scale race on a bike path that was an out and back course.  So when I headed towards the finish line I was able to see Grant, Andrew, and Jordan right beside the path.  Grant came running to the path and grabbed my hand and we finished the race together!!  It was such a sweet moment.  He had so much fun crossing the finish line and then running through the cones.  We actually kept running about 50 yards or so to the stop sign that was on the path.  I think we'll look for a turkey trot race that has a kids race too and let him run in that.  It was a big change from his first kids race that was poorly organized so he ended up getting trampled on (practically) by the older kids leaving him frustrated, scared, and crying.  Another bonus of the run was that I got 2nd place in my age group and got to bring Grant and Jordan up with me to get my award.

Jordan is practically running too these days.  A few times here and there she'll get going and "run" to me or Andrew and in the final steps she'll fall forward to us.  She loves carrying things around with her.  I don't remember Grant doing this.  I do remember Andrew or maybe some of the siblings mentioning that Anna used to carry something around too.  So maybe it's a girl thing?  I guess we tend to carry purses or backpacks as the case may be :)

I really am going to update the previous post with pics.  I think we finally have the computers in a functioning configuration so I can access the photos again.  We (Andrew) also recovered some of the photos from the hard drive that crashed.

A quick update on Jordan ... she is getting an attitude sooner than Grant did!!  Oh my goodness, when there is something she wants or wants to do but has problems with it ... she sits down, leans forward so that her head touches the ground and then cries.  I feel bad but I can also envision the tantrum getting more pronounced!

Alicia had a picture recently of Wyatt with his bum in the air when he sleeps, we agree, it's such a cute position to see our kiddos in at night ... here is a pic of Jordan in that same position :)

A few weeks ago Andrew attached a string to one of the diaper boxes and both Grant and Jordan enjoyed pulling as well as being pulled in the box.  At one point BOTH Jordan and Grant were in the box being pulled by mommy ...

For Andrew's birthday recently, we got him a ride in a Stearman airplane.  It was really nice weather the week leading up to his birthday so we gave him the present a few days early.  I think he really enjoyed it and now he's flown in another airplane that I haven't flown in :)

We took Grant and Jordan to the Pumpkin Show over in Circleville (outskirts of Columbus) this past weekend.  It was a little chilly but everyone had fun.  We took Grant on his first Pony ride ... at first he wasn't sure about it but then he picked out the "brown" one and had a lot of fun.  The pony's name was Spirit which seemed appropriate with Grant's personality ... he definitely has a lot of spirit in life and everything he does.

Next Andrew took Grant on the ferris wheel while Jordan and I stayed on the ground and walked around.  Grant seemed tickled with that ride too.  I love these outings these days because they turn into "One day" stories.  One night before bed, instead of reading the usual bed time storybooks, Andrew made up a story that started off with "One day" and included Grant in the story.  The story happened to be about something we had done recently.  So with the Popcorn Festival a while back, Grant wanted us to tell the "One day" story about the Popcorn Festival for weeks.  Now with the Pumpkin Show, this has become his new "One day" story.  What's especially neat with this recent "One day" story, Grant now wants us to include Nemo as if Nemo was right there too.  So we start off with "One day, there was a Grant and a Nemo, and they drove to the Pumpkin Show and walked around until they found the Pony's ..."

After the Pumpkin Show we stopped at Uncle Matt's and Aunt Melissa's but Melissa had to work so we visited with Matt.  We ended up watching football and having a good visit.  The Bearcats won again which made it especially nice to watch.

As we headed home it was getting late, so we opted for stopping at McDonald's for dinner and to let Grant and Jordan play for a little bit.  Grant had a lot of fun and the playground slides get inserted into the "One day" story where Nemo his scared to go on the slide but Grant shows him how to do it and that it's not scary (too cute).  Jordan, my goodness, she was able to get her leg up on to the slide which came to her shoulder!  She is constantly trying to lift her leg onto something to climb on ... like the couch, in a box, into the laundry basket, etc.  She was able to climb up the stairs (bumps) at the playground. 

Grant has been especially good with Jordan lately.  Tonight he came over to her and just gave her a hug out of the blue.  It was pretty sweet to watch.  And she still giggles at just about everything he does.  He'll lean his head into her belly and my goodness does she laugh and laugh.

Jordan can now get to a standing position on her own without any assistance from anyone or a chair or toy.  I'm not sure where she picked it up but she now likes to point at you.  If you point back she laughs and thinks it's pretty funny.  She also knows high-five already.  She's been waving bye-bye for a little while now.  She's cute (of course), when she waves sometimes she'll wave with both hands.  She still just has the two bottom teeth but a couple more look like they won't be too far off.

Well, the computer is still downloading pics so I'll post some tomorrow ... I'm backing them up over the network so it takes a little longer and I'm heading to bed :)

This morning before heading up to Oma and Opa's for a bonfire, we stopped a couple stores and got the kiddos new coats and hats.  The temps have been getting colder and colder these days and Grant's duds from last year no longer fit even though they are 2T and he's still 2.  And Jordan needed a new coat, well, because she didn't have one from last year :P  I got a couple of pics at Oma & Opa's of Jordan in her new coat and hat.

We also spent a very nice visit with Grandma McCarty, Grant and Jordan's great grandma! 

We also got to hang out with Matt & Melissa and Anna & Jim and Mark & Ruthie!  Of course along with Oma and Opa and Micah and we had plenty of really good food, a bonfire, and an all around really good day visiting with the family.

Jordan is really 10 months, yikes!  Wasn't she just born yesterday??  :)  Well I left my notebook at work with updates that I'd written down so I'll have to post them later.  I guess we'll start with the most current updates and work backwards.

The two biggest updates are that she's walking and she got her first two teeth this week, the front bottom two!!   Jordan was so hard to get a pic of with blue fish last month (pic to come with the catchup) and again this month.

   If you click on the pick you can see the two pearly whites

   on the bottom ...

And here are a few quick shots from our trip, I think two of these are my favorites.  They were taken at the Aquarium in Atlanta, a couple shots show Grant taking it all in, there's a shot of Jordan taking it all in, a couple shots of Jordan digging feeding herself a cracker, we really started letting her feed herself on this trip and she loved it!  Lastly (one of my favorites) there is a pic of Jordan looking up at her big brother and Grant looking up at all the fish, very sweet.

Ok, quick update since I said I would post an update this weekend ... it's still the weekend :)

Week before last we headed down to Georgia to meet up with one of Andrew's college friends and his family and Andrew's older brother and his family.  Some follow up pics will have to wait since it's so late but just thought I'd mention a preview of what's to come.  This was Jordan's first road trip.  We took a day to drive there and back and during our visit we flew with Scott (Andrew's college friend), went to a few parks, went to the Aquarium, and a children's museum.

Since coming back Jordan has gone beyond just taking a few steps when either Andrew or I were on either side of her and she is now walking half way across the room at times without initial cheers or encouragement from mom or dad.  She's such a quick learner.  I was pushing some buttons on the back of my camera yesterday and she took her index finger and pushed the same exact buttons.  She eats that way to, with her index finger and thumb.  Yep, that's the way Grant used to eat too!

Here are a couple pics from today and a couple from yesterday.  I put a barrette in Jordan's hair today for the first time :)  You can see it in the pic of me and her.  Grant was playing the harmonica today and he sounded really cute.  Hmmm, Jordan likes to play the piano/keyboard ... now if I could pick up the guitar again (or maybe we can get Uncle Micah or Uncle Joe, and Wyatt can play the piano too!) and we can get Andrew to sing ... hmmm :)  I thought the pic of Grant was especially cute because the last time we had a pic of him playing the harmonica was when we had his one year old pics done.