It took several days of intense concentration, but Jordan has already figured out how to open drawers that are equipped with so-called child-safety “door locks. ” He was so proud of himself.

After 2 days of free reign and the drawers’ contents all over the kitchen, I had to take more drastic measures:

We had a pretty rough night with Jordan on Monday night. It was the first time since he was a newborn that he kept us up all night with tears. We pulled out every trick in the book, but he could not be consoled. We got almost no sleep. The only saving grace was that we had his 18 month appointment scheduled for Tuesday morning. Turns out he had an ear infection and major teething. He’s back on anti-Bs and after a half day on that he is back to his old happy self. He checked out well otherwise… He up to 23.4 pounds in the 20th percentile. The doc was pretty amazed with his verbal skills, which she described more usual for a 2-year old. Talking to him has been so much fun. He regularly says “Hi, Daddy, how are you?”

Cousin Jonah’s 4th birthday was over the weekend at My Gym… A place that used to be no fun for Jordan, now is one of his favorite places since he is walking and running.

BATHTIME (that’s not a shower cap, that’s his shirt on his head… he likes to wear “shirt-hats)

we haven’t caught it on video yet, but Jordan now loves to say “Happy New near.” Living with Jordan is like living with a parrot; he repeats EVERYTHING back. And when he wakes up in the morning he practices all of his new words.

The best part about 2013 is that Jordan is giving out out lots of love, hugs and kisses now, which he never did before. He even sometimes says “I Luh-moo (I love you) without being prompted. He says “hold you” when he wants us to pick him up and hold him. It’s all so sweet and fun to watch.

Here is a photo a forgot to include in my last post from our Christmas time excursion to the Grove:

Here is a picture from Tammy’s excursion to the Auto museum with Cyndi and Jaxon. I met up with them for lunch because it’s a few blocks from my office

Here is some video of Jordan, practicing stairs and falling a lot, but getting up over and over to try again

He rarely crawls anymore.
But he will still give the she-noo-fa face if requested:

He seems to have a thing for shoes… specifically, high heeled shoes. Very interesting:

We had a GREAT new years eve in Laguna Beach. Here is the view from the balcony of the awesome beach house where we stayed:

Here’s Jordan with his #1 girlfriend:

Hanging at the beach:

And then a beautiful lunch on New Years Day over looking the Ocean. Jordan’s favorite toys are in play here and always (obsessed):

When we got home we decided to give him a faux hawk:

He decided he liked it:

Jordan and all of us are really looking forward to our trip to Chicago next week!

It’s been a fun filled few weeks watching Jordan explore so many things now that he is walking more confidently. He quickly graduated from walking, to running, to dancing. And the looks of joy and self-satisfaction on his face make us smile every day

This was about a week and a half ago. One of the first times he got to explore the park near our house on two feet. At that point we were still helping him up when he fell because he was having a hard time standing without something to grab on to. But now he has learned to do it himself.

He loves to watch others run. We are encouraging him to try himself:

We took him to the Grove last week in the holiday crowds with Safta and Tali, Jonah and Hayley and he loved walking on his own there.

They have fake snow (soap suds) during the holidays falling from the sky, and a big fountain that dances to the music. Jordan loved both:

Here he is dancing to Beyonce (one of his faves)… Excuse the advertisement over the video…. That’s the price for uploading copyrighted content to youtube. Also excuse the messy room

And here he is dancing to some Israeli music, having a blast!

Opening a gift from Safta:

We were able to get away for a quick 24 hours to Palm Desert for much needed R&R. The video camera ran out of juice, but I captured a few photos.  We had such a fun time!!

We stopped at the zoo in the desert on the way home (Living Desert). Most of the animals were hiding, but we did see some giraffes:

I’ve been pretty busy, so I haven’t had time to post any videos lately but here are some recent ones:

Walking in the leaves, and pointing at his new obsession “van” pronounced “ban”

The da-da-da- song and dance

walking to Daddy (He is walking much more now, but I haven’t caught on video)

More walking…

Here he is doing one of his favorite activities, playing with his bus and firetruck. And learning “coffee cup”

Putting on sunglasses in the mirror

watching Jordan right after waking up from his nap on our video monitor. He is looking at himself in the mirror

And here’s what it looks like when I go to retrieve him from his nap:

Jordan took his first real steps this weekend!!!! Probably about 20 in all. The look of excitement on his face was priceless. I was able to capture a couple of the first steps here. He got MUCH better as the weekend continued.

Whoever said there are no seasons in LA hasn’t come to visit us in November. Fall is in full swing on Addison Street.

Musical lips or just boredom?? you be the judge:

That went on for several minutes. But just so you don’t think that was a random occurrence, here he is on a different day:

One of my new rituals is taking Jordan to Jamba Juice on the weekends.

We’ve all been practicing walking with Jordan, including his cousins. But he still wont walk on his own if we let go.

Lately he’s figured out he can carry stuff with him when he goes from one place to another if he walks on his knees:

Here are a few other photos from our day at the Santa Monica Pier with some of his cousins, including my fun ride on the merry-go-round with Jordan…

Pretty much anytime we take him anywhere, he’s ready to laugh, smile and be silly:

Here are a couple photos of him playing:

And he’s still chatting and singing all the time:

Enjoying story time at the end of the night:

One of Jordan’s favorite people these days is Shoshana’s brother Avi:

One of the new words that makes us laugh every time is bulldozer, usually said something like bu-da-do-da-do

His face might not show it here, but he is loving the wagon ride:

He gives the eye-brow look sometimes when he is eating:

One of our new favorite things to do is to let Jordan finish our sentences or songs with words that he knows:

Lately he only wants to hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Dancing to some old school music…

A few weeks late, but this still had to be shared…

Enjoying my breakfast with Jordan on Saturday…

Here’s what happens when a truck drives past our house during breakfast…

We went on a long buggy ride after breakfast. He lightened up about halfway through the ride, but when we started, he was pretty serious about it: