2002 Journal

Mom's Journal

January 2002:
On 1/8/02 Grandparents Grimes come to stay with us for a little while. The kids have lots of fun playing with them. We visited the Orlando Science Center and had lot of fun playing in the Richard Scary's Town exhibit. (http://www.osc.org/) We also took a trip to Green Meadows Petting Farm and enjoyed playing with the animals. Jordan loves to chase and catch the chickens. She's very brave to hold the animals. (http://www.greenmeadowsfarm.com )
On 1/19/02 Jacob starts to pretend he has a cough. When he hears someone cough he mocks them.
On 1/20/02 Jacob takes a few steps. By the end of the week he was taking several steps with no problem. He really has incredible balance.

February 2002:
This month Jacob starts adding more words to his vocabulary. Including "Mama, bye bye, bath, and up".
Jacob finally get's a tooth on 2/22/02. He's 10months old now and we are happy to finally see his 1st tooth.
2/1/02 - This is a big day for Jordan and Jacob. Today was their 1st day at Powers Drive Baptist Church Preschool. The will be attending on Mon/Wed/Fri. from 8:30-2:30. Jordan was a little shy at first but now she loves playing with her new friends.
2/15/02 we enjoy some visitors...Great Granny Jordan, Aunt Sandra, Aunt Elaine, Uncle Mac, and Melissa.

March 2002:
3/9/02 - Jacob's second tooth comes in. By 3/15/02 just as he is turning 11 months old Jacob has mastered running. The kids have lots of fun playing with each other.
On 3/17/02 Jacob learns to say "Ba-Ba" when he wants his bottle. During this month we transitioned him from the breast to the bottle and by 3/26/02 the breastfeeding ended. Towards the end of this month he tries to color with sidewalk chalk and crayons & Jordan teaches him to play "Ring around the Rosie". They are so cute when they "all fall down".
We have special visitors on 3/23/02 when Grandparents Kelley come to visit. The Easter Bunny came to our town one day and we went to see him but neither of the kids wanted to sit in his lap. But they were both very excited on Easter when they found the baskets that the Easter bunny had left them. On Easter Sunday we spend the day playing at Turkey Lake Park. It was a lot of fun playing with balls, fishing and hunting Easter Eggs.

April 2002:
4/10/02 - Jordan has a fun night with Mommy and her friend Danny. Tonight we went to the Bob Carr theater and saw the stage show "Veggie Tales Live". It was a lot of fun. They especially liked the singing and dancing vegtables.
4/16/02 - Jacob turns 1
4/17/02 - Jordan turns 3
4/18/02 - Today we travel to Pace Florida and on Sat. 4/20/02 we had a big birthday bash at MawMaw Laney and PawPaw Jack's house. It was a lot of fun playing with our family and friends.
4/28/02 - Jacob's 3rd tooth comes in.

May 2002:
On 5/9/02 the kids went to see Dr. Guyton for there annual checkups. Jordan weighed 28 pounds, is 36 inches tall and her head is 18 3/4 inches around.
Jacob weighed 22 pounds, is 31 inches tall and his head is 18 inches around.
Watch out Jordan...Jacob's catching up with you!

By this month Jacob has a huge vocabulary. He say's about 25 words, some of the words such as "backpack and purple" are really hard but he has no problem saying them. Whenever he sees a purple toy he always says "purple". We think he's very smart for his age.

Jacob is very adventurous now. He loves to play outside and he climbs up the slide attached to the swing-set and slides down. He even scares mommy by standing up on top of the slide and laughing. He also has managed to climb up the stairs of Jordan's little tyke playhouse. Here he will play around on the platform before he slides down the bumpy slide.

Jordan had a big night at Preschool when they put on an end of year show for us. They sang and danced on stage and were very entertaining. Jordan was not scared to be in front of everyone but she was a little to shy to sing the songs. But she did like to March, clap, and wave her little flag just like her classmates,

June 2002:
The kids love to go to our brand new city pool which is very near our house. It's a really nice place that looks like an water park for kids. We try to visit it once a week for some swimming fun with our friends.

Jacob continues his adventures by learning to pull out the dinning room chair and climbing up on it to see what's on the table. He has also learned to climb onto the living room furniture.

This month we had some special visitors when MawMaw Laney and PawPaw Jack came to visit. Jordan was sick with a virus so Jacob got all of PawPaw Jack's attention. Since he loves to play outside he would grab PawPaw Jacks' finger, pull on him until he stood up and would walk to the door to go outside. Pawpaw Jack thinks Jacob is very entertaining.

This month Jacob's 4 tooth starts to come in. He still doesn't like big kids food yet. But he does like snacks such as graham crackers, wheat crackers, and just like Jordan he loves Cheerios.

July 2002:
At school Jacob has been spending time in the toddler class and he loves it. Jordan also loves playing with her friends at school. She had the best day at school when she was able to wear her bathing suit and they played in the water with their friends. Jacob is learning new words and phrases such as "Mine", "Where are you", "There you are", "My Paper" (talking about his school work), "eat", "bite", "apple", & "kayla". He loves to climb on everything and his newest "mountain" is the dinning room table. He climb onto the table and reach for the light. I think that he's trying to be a monkey and swing from the ceiling.
Jordan had a great time playing with her cousin Kayla. They loved playing pretend, playing in the water, and especially taking bubble baths.
This month we had some visitors: Great Granny, Grandparents Grimes, and Maw Maw Laney (with Kayla).
Illness struck our home a few times when Jacob had 2 ear infections through the month (in Aug will see an ENT), and Jordan had an unusual form of Bells Palsy. She had to have a MRI but we found that she was OK and by the end of the month the Bells Palsy was gone.

August 2002:
On Aug 7. Mom, Dad, Jordan & Jacob went to see Blue's Birthday party. Its a stage show that was performed at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center here in Orlando. It was exciting to see Blue and his friends Dance and Sing and have a great time. Both kids loved it. This was the first show that Jacob has seen (Jordan has seen 4 now). At first Jacob was a little scared and then when he realized how much fun everyone was having, he started clapping and dancing too.
On Aug. 12 Jacob had his first surgery. Dr. Cotter (an ENT) put tubes into both of his ears. Jacob was sedated during the process which only lasted about 5 min. Surgery was at 8:00 and we were home by 9:30. He was a little drowsy the rest of the morning but it wasn't long before he was back to normal.
On Aug. 15 we went to open house at pre-school. There we meet our new teachers and some of our new friends. Jacob is now in Ms. Sarah's 1 year old Mom's day out class and Jordan is in Ms. Kim's 3 year old Mom's day out class. On Monday Aug 19 we moved into our new classes. Both kids are really having a great time with their new friends.

Jacob had a well baby check up (16 months) on 8/19 and just as we suspected he's extremely advanced for his age! He now weighs 23lb 11 oz, is 32 1/2 inches tall, and his head is 18 1/4" around. Dr Guyton had a great time interacting with him and enjoyed watching him try to do the things that Jordan was doing. She said that we should treat him like his is 2 years old - that is where he is intellectually. His vocabulary is huge and he has begun to say 3 word phrases (where are you? there you are? you, stop that!) He has also learned some new words such as "tractor", which he loves to point out to you, and "mine".

September 2002:
Jacob get's his 5th tooth at the beginning of this month. He is doing better at eating big kid foods, so we're eating less and less baby food each day.

Sep. 6 Mom, Jordan and our friends Rosanne & Danny went to see Disney's Princesses on Ice at the TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando. It was a really amazing show. Jordan's favorite part was when the Little Mermaid was skating around and Sebastian the Crab was singing "Under the Sea".

Sep. 11-18 We took a vacation to Gatlinburg TN with MawMaw Laney and Great-Grandma Ruby. We stayed in a beautiful cabin (www.moonshinecabin.com) and Uncle Kevin came to see us while we were there. The kids had the best time when we had ate lunch at a mountain park and played in a really cold stream.

October 2002:
Oct. 17 Jacob 18mo well doctor visit. He weighs 24 pounds, 1.5 ounces. Is 33 1/2 inches tall and his head is 18 1/4inches around. Dr Guyton seriously thinks we have a super smart kid on our hands. She says he is the mental age of a 2 1/2 year old child and that we need to treat him as if he were older. She also wants us to start potty training because he is showing all of the signs (and has been for 2 months now). He really wants to use the big potty just like his big sister Jordan. So wish us luck!