Happy Birthday Jordan!

Happy Birthday to my Jordan.



Jordan is our only boy. He was born on Father's day 22 years ago. Since that day, this is only the third time that Jord's birthday has fallen on Father's day again. I remember the nurses teasing me that I'd set a pretty high standard for Father's Day gifts and asked how I planned to top it the next year. Pretty sure I never have topped that one.

Jordan is sandwiched between two sisters, poor thing.  As I was looking through pictures I noticed that I have no pictures from his third birthday.  His sister had been born two days earlier.  I'm pretty sure there was a little party for him but there is no photo evidence of it. I guess we just did video that time. I suppose the lack of pictures is the first evidence of the inconvenience of having a sister's birthday two days before your own.

Jord was a happy baby for the most part and had a winning smile that people loved. 

Jordan always loved animals of all kinds but especially dogs.  He always wanted to have one for a pet but couldn't in our student housing situation. So instead he loved everyone else's dog.  On a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house I discovered him loving their dog Chub and snapped this picture. Jordan was very tenderhearted about all creatures.  At a very young age, he came to me in tears.  When I asked what was wrong he said he had accidentally killed a Roly Poly bug.  He felt terrible. 

I always loved this picture of Jordan with his oldest cousin Keith.  Too cute.

Talk about adorableness! Just look at this picture.  Jord's bright eyes, cute smile and chubby cheeks are only matched by his hair. He sported this bowl cut do for some time until one day when he was about four he came to me and said, "Mommy, why can't I have hair like Daddy's?"  Bye-bye bowl cut.
Notice how blonde his hair is in this picture.  His hair was quite dark at birth and is now as well but during the bowl cut years his hair would bleach out these beautiful blonde streaks. It would go dark again in the winter but summer brought back those blonde tresses.  

Here is Jord getting acquainted with little sis. Yes the one that prevented him getting pictures of his third birthday.  There is that cute smile again too.  









Another cutie patootie smile pic.

Jordan has always made friends easily everywhere we have lived.  It seemed like there was always a gang of boys asking if Jordan could play.  And the playing was even better if Jordan's dad played too.  That was great until Jord and his friends got big enough to actually cause physical damage like cracked ribs...

Jord with his posse of friends in their elementary through high school years used to roam the neighborhood going from one of their houses to another.  Sometimes I wondered if I should be worried about what kind of mischief they might be getting into. One day I pulled out of the driveway headed off somewhere. These teenage boys were all lined up along our neighbor's sidewalk.  My first thought was to wonder what in the world they were doing there in a line like that.  As I drove by the boys raised their arms in "the wave" and as another car went by they did the wave again.  I cracked up! Who knows how long they had been doing the wave at passing cars... Maybe I didn't need to worry too much after all.


Jordan has a fun sense of humor and entertains us all with his wit.   But on this particular day he apparently wasn't feeling very humored.  Seriously I have no idea what the problem was when this picture was taken but isn't it an adorable mopey faced pic?

Love you Jordan...

Happy Birthday Hannah

 Happy 19th birthday to my Hannah!
Nineteen years ago I gave birth to my third child - a girl.  I had believed this one was a boy. I was so sure of it. But I also felt that something was very wrong with this pregnancy. The doctor assured me that the baby was fine but I was convinced that this baby was handicapped in some way.  It was not until I gave birth that I figured out what was "wrong".  The doctor announced "It's a girl!".  Wait.  This was supposed to be a boy.  I was so shocked! It took me about three days to get used to the idea that she really was a girl. 

And a lovely girl she was indeed.  Hannah was a delightful baby.  She was very easy going and didn't cry very much.  I can remember people being so surprised when I'd take her to visit with friends or something.  She would sit on the floor entertaining herself. When she got hungry she would start a little fuss. I'd pick her up and feed her and then she'd entertain herself on the floor again.  She was just very happy. I do have pictures and some video of her crying so there is proof that it really happened but I don't really remember much of it.

When I looked at this picture this morning I started to laugh.  It seems that Hannah has had a love/hate relationship with food from the beginning.  Actually, Hannah started out as my least picky child but as she got older she became more and more picky.  Finally figured out in a science class at school that she has odd taste buds. Her dislikes are probably not willfulness but rather that food tastes different to her than it does to me.  

This is a picture of Hannah playing dress up. It seems she put on everything she could find in the dress up box but the real reason I like the picture is because I love her eyes.  And she'd never had so much hair.  ha ha. 








One of the things I noticed as I looked at the pictures in Hannah's album (besides my poor photography skills) is this adorable grin.  I could show you pictures all through the book of this same happy, cheesy grin. It makes me smile.






 I was trying to think what word I would use if I had to describe Hannah in one word.  At this age I would have said "bouncy".  Or perhaps "exuberant". Hannah was so full of energy and I remember she seemed to be bouncing all the time. 


Here is one more cheesy 4 year old grin.







And one last picture just because I like it.  Hannah is wearing her Mimi's hat and I always thought it was adorable with that springy dress.


 I can't quite decide what one word I would use to describe Hannah now.  She has many talents and abilities. She likes to learn for the sake of learning. She will read classics just to be able to discuss them with someone.  She is a hard worker especially when she enjoys the particular task. She likes to laugh and make others laugh. When she dislikes she is not afraid to dislike and when she loves she is not afraid to love.  And she has a little stubborn mixed in there too.



 I was with Hannah just a few days ago but went home early because I got sick.  Wish I could have stayed long enough to bake a cake for this day.

So happy birthday to my dear Hannah.  Love you.