Jaida's new blog

Well this is a long over-due update! We have been VERY busy. Where to begin ...

Joe was out of town the end of August and a good portion of September. So while Joe was gone Jaida tried our hardest to just enjoy ourselves and not miss him too much. We went to the zoo, hung out with friends and did some work to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Jaida started peewee soccer. She had a couple of practices before Joe returned home from his trip. Jaida was VERY happy to have her daddy home after being away so long. I think the first words out of her mouth when she saw him was "play with me". The weekend after Joe returned home Jaida and I packed up and headed up to Pennsylvania to stay with a friend and her darling little boy Will. Another friend and her son William came into town to meet us. We all had a great visit and the next day went to the Philly zoo to meet up with several more friends. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and so many little kids in the same place. :)

October was a VERY busy but fun month. We went to two different pumpkin patches. Jaida rode the hay-ride and painted pumpkins and picked out her very own pumpkin. We went to the Shenadoah balloon and wine festival mid-October and that was a lot of fun. It was a perfect cool fall day and we had a nice picnic. It was a lot of fun. We also went to Rehobeth Beach one weekend. Jaida really enjoyed picking up shells and loading them in her pockets. Jaida played soccer once a week all month and then the last week they had the Peewee World Cup games where they had actual little fields with pint-size goals set-up and real referees. Jaida got right in there and played for her team (all 2-3 year olds) and even made a few goals. She did great! The next week they had the awards dinner and Jaida recieved a nice little award as well as a medallion on a ribbon. We had pizza and cake and Jaid had fun socializing with her team-mates ... especially her friend Courtney. Halloween was a blast. Jaida dressed as a frog ... of course. She spent about 2.5 hours out with all of her friends from daycare trick-or-treating. She happily marched up to each and every house and yelled trick-or-treat as loudly as she could. She always said thank you when they gave her candy and often times showed people how high she could jump and loud she could ribbit. She ended up with some serious loot in her pumpkin. It was handy that she really doesn't like candy so after she ate one piece of chocolate she gave the rest of her loot to her dad and me. :)

November has been busy in its own way. Mostly getting yard work done, blowing leaves, getting the ponds winterized and then the cool weather settled in. We are completely ready for the holidays and Jaida is quite excited about Christmas and Santa and all the other stuff. She loves looking at the Christmas displays in the stores and gets really excited when I tell her we are going to decorate soon. Christmas really is going to be a blast this year. We are having just our small family together for Thanksgiving and are really looking forward to a quiet and peaceful holiday. Jaida is a little perplexed when I say we are going to have turkey for dinner since she remembers the actual live turkeys she saw at the fair so we no longer talk about the eating turkey part of Thanksgiving too much. :) Unfortunately, Jaida has been battling a semi-chronic double ear infection since mid-September. It didn't even start with a cold. The infection just went straight to her ears and would not clear up even after all the antibiotics she has been on (5 in total plus one mega dose (injection) of rocefrin). Her pediatrician finally conceeded defeat and sent her to an ENT. The ENT took one look in her fluid filled ears and announced she needs tubes and possibly her adenoids removed. Since the infection is technically still there since antibiotics aren't working on it we had to act fast. So she is scheduled to go in Monday (11/28) to have surgery on her ears. As you can imagine Joe and I are just a wreck at the thought of having to sedate Jaida and have someone mess with her ears but it needs to be done so we are trying to get okay with it ASAP. The worst part is the nurse will have to take Jaida back to the OR herself (we can't go). She assures me that she will not leave Jaida alone and that the anesthetia they give the little ones really knocks out their memories so Jaida really won't remember any of it ... but still. Think good thoughts for us.

As for Jaida specifically ... she is just one amazing little girl. She talks as much as any adult although she has no internal filter yet so we spend a great deal of time apologizing when she says something totally inappropriate. :) She counts and knows her letters and numbers. She has an amazing imagination and goes through VERY intricate imaginary scenarios with her toys or dad and I. She entertains herslf for long periods of time. She has almost lost any small amount of shyness she ever had. She lights up when in crowds and warms to new people and situations very quickly. She loves boys/men ... which makes both Joe and myself incredibly nervous. She really is a pleasure to be around. Once the diapers are gone she will officially be a little girl. She has never taken a pacifier or anything like that so the diapers are the only thing that still make her very much a toddler. Jaida will start pre-school next fall and she is so insanely excited about it. She simply can't wait until she can wear her backpack and go to school like a big girl. Oh yeah, her two year molars are finally coming in. The corner of her right upper molar popped through this last weekend (11/19). Other than the resulting ear infection we would have had no idea.

I will try to be better about updating this blog.