Journal: Potty, Imitation, "Moe", Stage

August 30
Since Jayda is showing that she is aware of her messy diapers(see Aug 16 journal), we wondered if she might be ready to start potty training.  A friend offered to let us have her potty, so we put it in the bathroom.  Jayda loves to sit on it, but doesn't really understand what she is supposed to do, so she'll just sit there looking up at us excitedly from her toilet.   We might be a bit early for this, but it's still really cute.  

August 31
As evidence of Jayda imitating everything she sees in us, we have two stories today.  Pam has a little habit of twirling her fingers through her hair.  Jayda has seen this, and after trying it in her own hair, which is too short to be much fun, she likes to twirl her fingers through Pam's hair.   Also, the other day I (Jordan) had a bit of a stuffy nose and no tissues nearby, so I did what is know in some circles as a "snot-rocket" or "farmer's blow".  A minute later, I saw Jayda trying to do the same thing.  I guess if I want her to be a proper lady, I'll need to watch my behavior around her.

Sept. 1
Every day now, Jayda surprises us with a new word she has learned.  Today, it was "more".  She was sitting at the dinner table, having finished her plate.  Usually she will just scream or grunt to get our attention, but today she just kept saying "moe" until we brought her more food. 

Sept. 2
For the past couple of weeks, we have had a lot of new people moving into our ward with the start of the school year.  Since we are usually late, the only seats left when we get there are the two rows vacated by the deacons after passing the sacrament.  Unfortunately, they are right by the ramp up to the stand, and Jayda loves climbing up there and running around.  She's learned that I'll grab her if she goes too far up the ramp, so now she goes one or two steps up the ramp and turns around and looks at me.  Then she waits until I happen to look away, and she makes a break for it, requiring me to chase her up the stage while trying not to distract from the speaker. 

Journals: shoes, Onnie House, meemee, story time, Uncle Doggie

August 29th "The Shoes"

Today at the thrift store Jayda came across these pink dazzling shoes.  She was in love with them at first sight.  She wore them around the store admiring them as she walked.  When it came time to leave the store I tried to take them from her to put them back, but she threw a tantrum, screaming and throwing her arms around.  I gave in and bought them for a quarter, and now she refuses to wear any other shoes, even though she can barely walk in them because they are so big.

August 28th
Today Jayda walked her mini stroller from our house to her friend Annie's house, which is a few buildings down from ours.  All the buildings look the same so each building we passed she turned to face and yelled "Onnie house".  I would tell her that was the wrong one, so she would push her stroller to the next building and yell "Onnie house!" and so on until we reached the right building.

Bonus entry: Jayda only gets her binky, which she calls "Meemee", at bed time.  During the day, she isn't really interested in it; in fact when our friends have tried giving it to her when they are babysitting, she gets upset because she thinks it means she has to go to bed.  Usually when she wakes up in the morning and we go in to get her, she stands up, says "Meemee" and hands it to us to put on the shelf by her bed.  But some mornings, she hasn't quite gotten enough "Meemee time" because she climbs into our arms first and sucks enthusiastically on the binky for a couple of seconds before handing it over. 

August 27th
Bed time stories with Dada.
Jordan usually takes care of putting Jayda in bed.  The bed time ritual starts out with stories, then leads to lights out and some singing of songs.  Jayda prefers that Daddy puts her to sleep, because he is so good at reading/telling stories. One of the usual books is "The Belly Button Book" about, well, belly buttons.  Every night now, as soon as she sees the book come out, she pulls up Jordan's shirt and starts playing with his belly button.  Tonight, he squeezed it shut with his hands as if his navel was biting her finger.  She thought it was so funny, and now she loves to dig into everyone's bellybutton, hoping to get a bite from it. 

August 26th
Today during our usual Sunday skype meeting with Jordan's parents, Jayda met "soon to be" Uncle Morgan.  She smiled at him, then pointed her finger at his face and said "doggie"  Maybe it was Morgan's facial hair or just simply the fact that Jayda loves saying the word doggie.  Either way I'm thinking he should now be known as Uncle Doggie.

Just a cute pic of Jayda descending the stair while trying to hold on to her balloons.  It was fun to watch her struggle with the balloons at each step.

Journal, at the farm

Today, Pam was recovering from knee surgery, so I took Jayda to the petting farm at Domino's Farm.  She loved the ducks and chickens, but was terrified of any mammals, including pigs, goats, cows, and horses. 

Jayda's favorite part of the petting farm was this pile of wood chips she found.

Just a picture of Jayda being cool, rocking the sunglasses and the mullet already.

Journal August 22nd & 23rd

August 23rd

Today Jayda had a great time playing peek-a-boo with Jordan.  Luckily we caught some of it on camera.  We love her laugh!

August 22nd
Today's entry is not one moment that happened today, but a learned behavior that makes me think that Jayda is even more adorable.  When I ask Jayda to give me a kiss she walks to me and leans her head forward until her forehead or cheeks are close enough for me to give her a big smooch.  Sometimes I don't even have to ask.  When Jordan is around, she comes to me for my kiss than she turns and finds him to get a kiss from him.  It is things like this that make me love motherhood.

Tuesday Journal

Today we took Jayda to the mall.  While Pam was shopping for clothes, Jayda entertained me, playing tag and running up and down the department store aisles.  It was so funny hearing Jayda laughing uncontrollably as she tried to find me around corners.  It was also funny (and a bit frustrating) how she would pull clothes off the shelves, drop them on the floor, wait for me to catch up to her to put the clothes back, and dart away to another shelf to put more clothes on the floor. 

Monday Journal

Today around bed time, Jayda was jumping and playing on our bed.  She started burying her face in the blankets and waiting for us to find her.  One time when her face was hidden, Pam and I both hid on the floor at the foot of the bed .  When she realized we weren't there anymore, she started getting a little upset.  Pam and I both jumped up at the same time to scare her.  The look on her face was so funny.  She went from frustration at being alone, to terrified at us jumping up so fast, to pure joy and laughing, all in the time it took for her to fall backward onto the bed. 

Journal for Sunday

On Sunday, Jayda went hometeaching for the first time.  Pam had to work, so I took her with me to visit our friends in the ward.  She did remarkably well, never getting fussy or causing too much of a disturbance.  I wonder if I can start sending her in my place soon?