California

At 1 am this morning (Thursday), we walked back into our house after our trip to California. It was a short, but jam-packed trip. And I have to say that Jordan took it all in stride. He was remarkably well-behaved and adaptable to the time change and to the 3 different beds at 3 different houses that he slept in. We started the trip last Friday. We drove to Louisville, boarded a plane and flew to Phoenix. We changed planes in Phoenix and took another flight to Oakland, where we were met with a luggage fiasco. Luckily, we did get our luggage, and my best friend from college, Kimber, picked us up at the airport and took us back to her house in Menlo Park where we spent a great weekend with her, Brandon (her husband), their son Ryland - who is only 3 weeks older than Jordan, and their beautiful new addition, Christian, who is 5 months old. Despite a few tired moments of not wanting to share, Ryland and Jordan hit it off and had a great time. On Sunday afternoon, we picked up a rental car (actually, minivan WITH a DVD player) at the San Jose airport and drove 4 hours down the coast to Santa Maria where we spent an evening with Auntie Danielle and Carl's stepmom, Sylvia (or Grandma Sylvia - as she is mortified to be called). On Monday, we drove another 2 hours to Oxnard to visit Grandpa and Daddy's high school buddy, Pete. We then headed down to the San Fernando Valley and had a great dinner with Deirdre and her beautiful boys, Jake and Maclean, as well as Bill and Brenda and Rob. We spent the next two nights at the Dickeys (Neal, Deirdre, Jake and Maclean) and then hopped back on an airplane on Wednesday, flew to Chicago, changed planes after a two hour layover, landed in Louisville and drove back home to Lexington. And with the exception of a few minor meltdowns, Jordan was an angel. We had a fantastic time!

Jordan was a little drowsy on the airplane, but he LOVES Daddy's IPOD, so he was listening (and singing) to it intently.

Jordan and Ryland's daddies took them on a trip to the park:

This is the "puddle" that Jordan fell in - causing his clothes to be soaked and filled with sand and dirt.

Breakfast and Sesame Street on Satruday morning.
Ryland got a guitar for Christmas and Kimber was smart enough to go out and buy an extra. But Jordan was also very interested in the accordian. They had their own little band.

They performed Jesus Loves Me and seemed to have a little bit of a disagreement over who Jesus actually loves:

Jordan showed off his new robe to Auntie Danielle:

Here are Deirdre and her beautiful boys at dinner on Monday night: Could these guys be any cuter?

Jordan receiving some instruction from Grandpa:

Maclean isn't choking Jordan, he's trying to put his arm around him, but my son seems to be a little claustrophobic (he MAY have acquired this trait from me . . .), so he didn't really like that very much:

Running off some of the energy at the restaurant before bedtime:

Where's my watch?

All Jordan asked for from Santa was a pink ball and a watch (to be like Daddy - the watch, of course, not the pink ball). And yes, pink is his favorite color. Anyway, Santa brought him lots of other stuff - including a new guitar and a kitchen, but according to Jordan, Santa did not bring those things, because he didn't ask for them. Auntie was a big hero on Christmas morning and brought a tricycle AND a microphone with a stand (see Jordan's bar debut in the post below to know how much he loves this). We got more video than pictures on Christmas morning because his moments with the guitar are just too priceless. So, here are a few pictures and a short clip where he asks "Where's my watch?" - as if Santa forgot.

Sorry Auntie, you're really only in the video briefly, but it defaults to this picture at the end:

Guitar Hero

As I might have mentioned before, Jordan is obsessed with the guitar. His auntie and I had him in a local restaurant a week or so ago. The restaurant has a small bar and there was a guy singing and playing the guitar. We let Jordan listen for a while and then bargained with him that he could come back if he would eat his dinner. When we came back after dinner, his auntie decided she should go out to the car and get Jordan's guitar so he could stand by our barstools and pretend to play along with the guy. He loved this and the 7 or so people in the bar were getting a kick out of him. The guy apparently caught on and realized he could make some better tips if this cute kid was part of his act, SO he invited Jordan to come up and play with him. He even lowered a second microphone for him. Jordan was in HEAVEN. The guy indulged Jordan and made "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer" the first song. And then, Jordan stood up there for two other songs that I can't remember, but they weren't childrens songs. He would have stayed there all night if we had let him. I got a couple of cute pictures and about 20 seconds of video:

Friends, food and more Santa

Sorry that it's been two weeks since the last update, but we've been busy at the Gilford house. Last weekend, our good friend Tom was in from California. On Sunday, we drove to Louisville, where he was staying, to see him. Here's some photos from that visit.

Tom's host for the weekend happens to be the CEO of a large restaurant chain. He had never been to one of the restaurants, so we took him there. As you can see below, Jordan wholeheartedly approved of the dessert.

This weekend, we attended a local charity event, "Brunch with Santa." Here are a couple of shots from that:

We saw Santa twice in one day! We have a friend who manages a local hotel. It just so happens that Santa stays there when he's in town. So, she invited us to come take a picture with him. He's not sleeping in this picture, it's just the best shot she was able to get with my camera. Hopefully, we'll have a better one soon.

Christmas decorating and cookie baking

On Sunday, we put up the Christmas tree in Jordan's room. He put all of the ornaments on and was VERY proud of himself.




On Monday night, we made cookies. Jordan had fun decorating.

And eating them.

And here are his thoughts on the cookies and some other things. I apologize, but I don't know how to rotate the video so it's no longer on it's side. Feel free to tell me if you know the solution.

I'm going to be in big trouble for this, but I have to share it. Any of you who know us know that Jordan's Daddy is a big boy band fan. You may know that there has been a reality show on TV called "The Man Band." We watched some of it. Daddy found a song that he kind of liked, called "No Way." Jordan LOVES it and asks to sing it all the time. Here is Jordan performing it (with Daddy in the background).

NOTE: Daddy has corrected me - the show is called "Mission Man Band"and the song is called "Withoutcha." "No Way" is Jordan's name for it.

Santa Claus

We took a trip to Nana's house in Somerset for Thanksgiving. Santa was at the Somerset Mall and Jordan loved him.