Little Dumer News: Speech Development

signing "blue," and then indicating his favourite Wiggle, Anthony (the guy in blue)

So, the morning of Jordan's birthday was, of course, not the end of the birthday fun around here! In fact, it is the end of the day Sunday and we are only just winding down, it has been KER-RAZY around here! But a fun kind of crazy. I picked Jordy up from pre-school where they all had enjoyed some chocolate cupcakes, there happened to be ONE extra which four teachers split between them! After we got home and Jordy had a nap, our friend Eryn came over for some dinner and to have some birthday cake, because even though we planned on a big celebration on Saturday, Mommy had to do a cake and a little present on the "day of." And since we wanted as little cake hanging around this house afterwards as possible, we invited our kindly neighbours, Orval and Sandy from next door, over too.

checking out the goodies Eryn gave him

Here he says Eryn's name!

We love the way he tosses his ball into the new glove too!

While Eryn and I were having dinner with Jordy, he said "Happy Birt-day!" about fitty'leven times, but as soon as the camera was on he refused to say it, no matter how much we asked. He did however, say how old he turned! We're calling it a victory.

Wellington's Rainy Day from Orval and Sandy

He stars out by saying thank you to Mommy, then Eryn, but I can't get him to say Mr. & Mrs. Cosby! Instead he calls Orval by his first name, he can even say the name of their doggie, Chloe but doesn't know how to say Sandy! Poor Sandy, left out!

Dad with Mom: freshly coiffed and enjoying a night without kids!

As many of you know, Jordan's birthday is the day before Mommy's! On Friday, Mom went and got her hair cut and coloured and then Eryn kindly watched the Little Dumers while we went to The Boathouse for a delicious dinner. And a surprise present was Mommy's new Kitchenaid stand-mixer which I used at midnight that night to whip up some buttercream frosting to decorate my little dude's cake!

The birthday feast!

Thanks to Cindi for taking many of these pics,

as I was pretty busy that afternoon and am glad someone snapped them!

For Jordan's celebration day, we got the most gorgeous warm and sunny day! It was beautiful! And we were happy to see the sun, as it would have been mighty crowded in the house with munchkins running all around.

Trio of Mums: Me, Michelle & Cindi

Jerry kindly gives me a little break and holds the princess for a while

Owen wanting me to hurry and take the picture already!

Jake explains to Jordy that The Gruffalo is his favourite book!

Ooh! The Big Red Car from Mom, Dad & Cygni! This gift was a huge hit!

There's not just blood, sweat and tears baked into that cake,

there is a whole lot of yellow #5....

One of the biggest crowd-pleasers was the Balloon Typhoon. "What on earth," you might ask, "is a Balloon Typhoon, Deb?!" Well, it's a big inflated space (in this case shaped like a clown's noggin,) and the fan that inflates it also blows around as many balloons as Daddy and Auntie Michelle can blow up before passing out. Add kidlets, and your recipe for fun is complete! Check out the snaps and videos we have below:

In that big happy clown head is a BALLOON TYPHOON!

When we first set up the Balloon Typhoon, we had to talk Jordy into coming out with us, not always an easy task, so I said, "daddy has a surprise outside for you, come outside!" And henceforth, as far as Jordy was concerned the Balloon Typhoon was called The Surprise. And the video above demonstrates how you sign surprise.

Nolan catches one!

After all the kids left, all of us went down for a nap! We didn't have to return the Balloon Typhoon til the next day, so we invited some of the other neighbourhood kids to come play inside for a little while, then we had some family balloon typhoon fun! It wasn't long though, before we had to say good-bye to the the balloon typhoon, and Jordan was sure to say, "B'bye!" to the balloons, and the fan and the clown's head. As Mommy took the kids up for a bath Daddy packed it all up to take back to the rental place Sunday morning, bright and early. We went with him then had breakfast together. Jordy took his Wiggles and The Big Red Car with him, and I am sad to say that somewhere between the restaurant and home, we lost Anthony - the Blue guy! Looks like we're going to be doing just a little more online shopping! O'course the chaos hasn't quite ended... shortly after we got home Cygni felt really warm, and has had a bit of a fever all day. She is sleeping soundly now (nearly midnight,) so we hope this will blow over soon. But a HUGE thank you to all our friends and family who helped us celebrate Mommy & J-man's birthdays, even from afar. It was a very special weekend for both of us!

Yes, I know, Mommy has been a very lazy blogger. It has just been very busy around here and I have not been able to keep up!

The day after Aunt Virginia and Uncle Larry left for home (they stayed a couple days at Mary's after they left us,) Daddy went on his first business trip since The Little Dumer has been in our lives. His new job will probably take him on trips much more regularly than he had in the past. This time he visited the EA Redwood Shores studio in California for a few days, so it was the Mommy & Jordy Show Wednesday through Friday that week. We did really well! I had to adjust my work schedule so I was always off by 5:30 but we made it work.

Just before Easter, on her birthday, Nanny Mary sold her house! That didn't take long! So, it's official, she is moving to Newfoundland this summer. Charlie just got into town yesterday and is going to help her get packed up and moved. They've set a wedding date for August 19th which is all very exciting and we are happy for her, even though we are sad that she won't be as much of a presence for Jordan as she is now. Still, we'll have skype and the occasional visit!

Then of course, was Easter. Mommy got it in her head that we would try an Easter Egg Hunt this year. As it turned out, this was rather ill-advised. I think Jordy was a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of other children involved. Besides that there was a lot more than an egg hunt going on, they started with crafts, then mother goose story time, and THEN the egg hunt. Little Man would not participate in crafts at all. He did okay with story time, but when it was egg hunting time, he was too distracted by the balloons that were blowing in the breeze, and upset that I wouldn't let him have any. We snatched up a few eggs and claimed our goodie bag. I dragged the boy kicking and screaming back to the car (he was absolutely outraged that I did not procure for him a balloon before leaving!) and after placating him with a chocolate to get him to sit still enough to strap him into his carseat, he passed out! Whew -- exhausting! After both Mommy and Jordy tumbled into bed for naps, we were greeted not long after waking by Nanny and Grampa Charlie, Tia Aida and Uncle Mark and Cousin Jerry and his very pregnant wife, Michelle. Nanny decided to make us all what will most likely be our last traditional Mary turkey dinner for the holiday. It was an excellent meal and a very good visit with our dearest family and friends.

Charging up for the Egg Huntin'

This pretty much captures his mood all that morning!

Mother Goose telling us about Benjamin Bunny

Tantrum and chocolate coma

Happy Easter!

Mmm! Chocolate! See his hands, he is signing "chocolate."

Tia spoils him with even MORE Easter goodies, but we all love her for it!

Hanging with Uncle Jerry!

A few days after Easter Jordan developed a cough which he promptly shared with Mommy, and as usually happens with his coughs it turned rather croupy. Well, Dad took him to the audiologist one day, not long after, to pick up new ear molds and on the way Jordy puked in the car, Daddy just got him cleaned up and he went and did it again -- odd! He seemed to be okay afterwards, so Chris just decided to go through with the appointment thinking that the coughing was just too hard and prompted the puking up of breakfast, and that he'd be okay. He called me afterward and we made the call that we had to at least try getting him to daycare. Now, we know, there is a strict rule no child is to go to day care within 24 hours of vomiting, but we were sure that this was not THAT kind of vomiting. So we dropped him off. Wrong! A few hours later, Miss Veronica called me at work and told me he was mopey and clingy and not at all himself, and that he was having trouble breathing. So I called Dad and he went to pick him up. As it turns out, I got home just a little after Dad and Jordy did and I could tell something was wrong just looking at him. When Chris picked him up Miss Neda said his heart seemed to be racing, and I noticed that in addition to really raspy breathing. We decided to take him to the ER. We drove out to Eagle Ridge Hospital and had our first ER experience with the Little Dumer. He did get worse before we were seen; he began sweating like crazy, was pissed off to be in such a strange place and his heart still pounding like crazy. The ER nurse took one look at his heart rate and got us into the ward within 15 minutes even though there was a room full of people who'd been there before us. It was that which told us we had made the right call and we were not over-reacting. After some poking and prodding, the doc gave him a steroid to inhale in an attempt to reduce what he suspected to be inflammation caused by the coughing and leading to a really bad case of croup. He wasn't completely sure, so he also ordered some x-rays be taken of Jordy's chest to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. The steroid helped immensely and he calmed down enough to take a nap on Dad's chest. We asked if the vomiting earlier in the day was a symptom of something else, and he didn't really ever say, I think we can only guess that Daddy's hunch was right and that the coughing was just so violent it caused breakfast to come up again. We spent a total of 3 hours at the ER and I took the next day off work to make sure Jordan would be okay. He was pretty much back to normal an hour or so after we got home, still coughing, but a lot less wheezy and raspy.

Poor little fella finally snags a few minutes rest on Dad

The boy's chest x-ray!

Yes, we have had some adventures, and work as well as day-to-day living is keeping us busy. The Little Dumer has been sleeping like a big boy with his crib now converted to a toddler bed (the mattress on the lowest setting and the side rungs removed,) for over a month now. He decided one day that he was done napping and tried to climb out of his crib on his own, the first time he was lucky, as Mommy was there and ready to catch him, but the second time he wasn't and tumbled right out as one is wont to do with gravity on the earth being what it is. That decided matters for me, we took the 4th side off the crib that day. We tried one of those side-rail things but it was just too big for the toddler size bed so we decided to go without and placed a comforter on the floor under him for when he rolls off the mattress. He rolled out a few times, and woke himself up on occasion, but we haven't heard him fall out in a long time. I think we'll keep the extra padding there for a little longer, but we think he has pretty much nailed the new sleeping arrangements.

He continues to surprise and charm us with his learning. He is acquiring new signs at an amazing pace and uses them for the most part, though he does get frustrated with us at times and we have to remind him to tell Mommy or Daddy what he wants or to use his signs. He is speaking more too! Among his vocabulary are "bubble," "ball," "all done," and "high five" to name a few. He has about 8 words altogether.

Big boy sleeping in a toddler bed! He sleeps in the same position as Daddy does, with one foot dangling

But besides all the daily stuff there is to tucker a mother out, I am also finding myself in need of the occasional extra nap from time to time... it gets tiring building a baby! Yes, you read that correctly, we are expecting another little Dumer on November 2oth! We didn't exactly plan for this to happen quite yet, but now that we have had fourteen weeks to wrap our brains around it, we are quite happy and think it will be very good timing for Jordan. Poor kid, has no idea what's coming! We have tried to tell him I have a baby inside, but he just kind of looks at us sideways like we're crazy. He seems to be really good with visiting children, so we are hopeful. While we both just want the new kiddo to be healthy, I think Chris and Nanny are pretty much hoping for a little sister for Jordan. While I do think one of each is nice, I can't seem to make myself forget that little girls turn into teenage girls....

Backside to us, "just five more minutes, Mom!"

In this one you can nearly see baby's face, I like that you can the hands are up by the ears

A profile shot

The birthday party feast

Wow, we are getting pretty well caught up here. Just one more thing to share about and that is Jordy's 2nd birthday party! We've still got a few more days til he officially turns TWO, but we wanted to take time this weekend to celebrate, so we invited lots of family and close friends for a little party. Mommy and Daddy chose a race car theme and had some cool decorations and a cake featuring the Pixar characters from the Cars movie. Not that Jordan knows the difference, but we're pretty sure in a few months he will, all little boys seem to love this movie. Besides that I thought it a better choice than a pirate theme for example, as he has no clue what a pirate is but at least knows a car goes, "vrrroom-vrroom," and he laughs and claps when Daddy takes a fast turn onto Coast Meridian during the morning commute. Jordy's new cousin and Jerry and Michelle's daughter, Isabella came to help celebrate and her cousin Nolan who is 10 months came out too. Unfortunately, his buddies Owen and Jake couldn't make it, but J-man had a fun time anyway, carrying his balloon around all day, and having cake and collecting kisses from his favourite people. We'll sing happy birthday to him again on his actual birthday, but it was great to have so many of our favourite people around to wish him the best this Saturday. Thanks to all who came! We love you!