As a special treat, this blog post is brought to you by one of our rarely-seen staff writers: The Big Dumer. With Mommy going back to work in a few days we’ve given her some time-off to get ready for that big change.
The Big Dumer took most off this week off work to get some stuff done around the house and to have some fun time with Mommy and Jordy before we settle into the routine of work and daycare. On the “fun” side the family packed-up and went to the Greater Vancouver Zoo on Wednesday to enjoy some sunshine before the weather turns (it is the May long weekend after all!) With the new Golden Ears Bridge it only takes about 20 minutes to drive to the zoo...not bad! We had heard mostly “meh” things about the zoo, which is why neither The Big Dumer nor Mommy had ever been there. We’re pleased to say that it was better than we expected. We’re not saying it was great or anything but with sufficiently lowered expectations anything can be enjoyable. That’s how The Big Dumer got dates in university.
It is a pretty big place and we didn’t have time to walk the whole thing...storm clouds were moving in and it was a race against time to see the good animals while staying dry. We wandered around the entrance, caught the end of a Falcon demonstration and saw some Emu and Eland. One of the highlights was a train ride around the park – Jordy’s first ride on a miniature train! The train took us by a wolf, hippopotamus, two moose (named Maverick and Goose), camels, yaks and more! Our only concern was that Jordy would choose a bad time to throw one of his hearing aids off...for instance when the train went over the hippo lake. So we removed his hearing aids for the train ride.
After the train we wandered around the African Savannah area and got some great shots of Lions, Giraffes, Zebras, Baboons, one Rhinoceros, Hippos eating watermelon, Wallabies and a Black Panther. Oh my!
Jordy holding on for dear life while on the train.Notice the new silver & blue HA's with green ear-molds. Canuck colours. Didn't help.
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Happy with Mommy after the train ride.
The Crocodile didn’t move enough for Jordy to notice him.
The Crocodile didn’t move enough for Jordy to notice him. 
The Big Dumer jumped a security fence to get the shot of the Lion so we have to show it. 
By this time the rain clouds were moving in and the Little Dumer had fallen asleep so we headed home. And not a minute too soon as the promised storm moved in and sent sheets of rain driving in the wind. Amazingly a few minutes after passing 264th on Highway 1 we heard that a tree had fallen right across the highway due to the high wind! Narrow escape! Closer to home the traffic lights were out on our main route so we re-routed through the Costco mall parking lot. Bad idea. When the power goes out across an entire mall, the last place you want to be is in the parking lot as everyone vacates every store and heads home. We eventually made it home and enjoyed the storm passing overhead.
Fittingly, the one-year anniversary of the blog coincides with another major milestone in the life of Jordan. Yes we are announcing here and now that JORDAN HAS HIS FIRST TOOTH!!! Yay! We were hoping we could make this announcement before his first birthday and just days ago those small white bumps in his lower gum turned into a full-fledged tooth. We tried to get a picture of it but the only way to do it is to get him laughing hard and then take a close-up. This is the best we could do so far:
Fittingly, the one-year anniversary of the blog coincides with another major milestone in the life of Jordan. Yes we are announcing here and now that JORDAN HAS HIS FIRST TOOTH!!! Yay! We were hoping we could make this announcement before his first birthday and just days ago those small white bumps in his lower gum turned into a full-fledged tooth. We tried to get a picture of it but the only way to do it is to get him laughing hard and then take a close-up. This is the best we could do so far:
Next up: First words, first steps and college. Another exciting event occurred this week – we got the FM unit for Jordan’s HA’s! For those that don’t know, the FM unit is a little attachment that goes on the bottom of the hearing aid. It receives a signal from a small transmitter that can be worn around the neck. When someone wearing this device speaks (such as a teacher or parent) then the sound is beamed directly to the HA’s. This is especially effective in noisy environments such as classrooms or in the car as it will lower the volume of the ambient noise and raise the volume of the voice from the FM unit. The theory is that if we use it around the house then Jordan will more clearly hear human speech and that will help him develop his speaking skills. In the classroom it will allow him (for example) to pick up the subtle elegance of a class on Electrodynamics. Another upside is the legendary stories of teachers past who have gone to the teachers' lounge (or to the bathroom) with the FM unit still on and discussed topics inappropriate to be beamed 3 rooms down the hall into the ears of a child with an evil grin on his face.
Since it’s been a while, we have TWO Sign of the Week links for you:
First, "Ball":
First, "Ball":
Second, "Cookie":
Whew! It’s been a busy week already! And the best is yet to come as Saturday is Jordan’s big birthday party – a Beach theme and Grandma and Grandpa are coming up from Oregon! Yay!
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