Portal J

Goodbye Snow Hall

2012-02-01T08:11:00.008-07:00

If you haven't driven past BYU in the past 6 months you might not know... Heritage Halls is coming down. They are replacing it new 5-story apartment complexes and merging it all with the old DT complex which has already been replaced by this new style apartment. I was over there last night in Harris Hall signing contracts with my renters for next year and I was dismayed to see that Snow Hall was already gone! (The first photo is of Snow back in the day, the second I took of Wells Hall last night). I had hoped to have one last look. But since all of Heritage is very similar, being in Harris was still like stepping back in to the past.

It was a strange feeling to be back on my old Freshman stomping grounds on the eve of it ceasing to exist. It brought back a lot of memories and emotions. I could feel again all the excitement and newness and discovery as well as the weight of stress and uncertainty and nervousness. Meeting up with those freshman girls last night there was a part of me that felt like I was still one of them - I could step in to their apartment and start that life again as if I'd never left. It was hard to believe I had a husband and three kids, an income and a mortgage, wrinkles and gray hairs. But really I knew I couldn't possibly go back to being that silly or staying up that late or feeling so foolishly passionate about everything and everyone. The truth is I now have a contentment and security I never experienced in those Freshman days of wondering if I'd ever have a husband and kids. I now have a different perspective on life that makes me... well, not all grown up by any means... just a different creature than I was before.

I stood for a moment in the dark and cold last night and thought how sad it is that my growing-up years were being taken down. But I also didn't relish the sadness of the nostalgia. It is perfectly wonderful for life to move on and leave the old behind. As the winter destroys the fruits of last summer so a new crop can grow and nourish us, so should old buildings and old memories come down so that new life and new creatures can flourish. And with that I went ahead and said 'goodbye' to an old friend.

Halloween Manners... or Not

2012-01-04T20:33:00.001-07:00

Now that Summer is going to bed at 6pm and taking (usually) 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon, I might finally start to chip away at my blogging. (Or I might clean my house, but blogging is way more enjoyable).

We attempted pumpkin carving for the first time this year. The kids did not find it amusing to stick their hands in pumpkin guts. But they did enjoy drawing faces on the pumpkins for Anthony to carve.

No family costume theme for Halloween this year. I just didn't have it in me. And it worked out for the best. Austin intended to be a spider, Ruthie intended to be Ariel and I intended to take the kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. But we ended up at my parent's house that evening and we decided to stay. So instead, Austin wore his brand new super-cool Batman pajamas (we bought earlier that day) and Ruthie wore a costume my mom had in her basement from long-long ago.

Alright, you tell me... which one is Ruthie and which one is little Heidi? Ruthie is almost 3 here and I think I was 4.

Antho opted to stay with baby Summer...

While my mom, Heather and I took the kids out trick-or-treating. My kids were such crack-ups that night! We all got quite a kick out of it.

Mr. Austin is a funny kid and doesn't like all candies. He particularly dislikes m&m's and most other chocolates in preference for chewy things like starbursts. At the fourth house of the night, Austin plucked the proffered m&m bag from his candy tote, handed it back to the lady who'd dropped it in and kindly said, "No thanks. I don't like m&m's."

She sweetly held out the bowl and allowed him to pick any chocolate confection he desired. He pawed through the bowl then looked up and said, "I don't like any of that. What else do you have?"

I tried to shoo him off the porch, but to prevent an unhappy customer the lady held up a finger and said, "Wait right here. You're mom's going to hate me for this," then disappeared into her kitchen. She returned with a bag of red liquid, hooked to a syringe tube, labeled "Bag o' Blood."

Austin wasn't quite sure if this was really any better, but decided to take a chance and took the bag. Yet before we could make it off the porch, Ruthie stepped closer to the door and called up to the lady, "But why is my mom going to hate you?!" All of us adults got a good laugh out of the whole situation and finally sauntered off to the next house.

Between houses, I took a moment to explain to Austin that it wasn't polite to put the candy back. He should accept it graciously no matter what it was and if he didn't like it he could always give it to me.

Next house. The homeowner here held out a bowl of full-sized candy bars to choose from (every kid's dream!). Austin picked a bag of skittles for himself, then took a bag of peanut m&m's (my favorite) and gave them to me. I laughed, embarrassed, and put the bag back, eliciting Austin's confusion, "but mom, you said to give the candy to you!"

Before we got to the next house I tried to explain to Austin again that he should only take 1 candy and to take the one he wanted, but if there wasn't anything he liked to take something anyway and say thank you and that he could give it to me later.

Next house. The man here dropped a candy in to Austin's bag. While he was offering one to Ruthie, Austin dug the offending candy out of his bag, slapped it in my palm and said, "You can have this one too mom." And so it went, house after house, Austin passing the candy off to me before the door even closed. I gave up trying to explain Halloween manners to him, content that he was at least saying thank you, and ended up reliving my own childhood as I filled my jacket pockets with candy.

Dressed In White

2011-12-04T21:14:00.005-07:00

Eva Summer Johnson

Blessed by her father

Dec 4th, 2011

Also in the circle: grandpa Jim Duffin, great-grandpa Walt Farmer, uncle Tarl Lambson, bishop James Cox

Blessing:

Health as you mature
Strong love of the gospel
A love of the scriptures and desire to search them
A desire to come close to your Heavenly Father
A desire to do the right things
To have compassion and empathy for those around you
An ability to gain friends and help those around you
To be an example to those around you
Blessed with peace

Your family came to support you on your big day. We can't get enough of your smiles. We all love you very much.

Anthony's sleep-inducing armpits

2011-11-25T22:01:00.001-07:00

or "Why Anthony is My Hero"

Simply put, I have the best husband in the world. Two weeks after Summer came home from the hospital, Anthony went on night duty. Every night I get to go to bed around 10 or 11 and sleep solidly until about 6am. Anthony is in charge of Summer, including the 2am feeding and diapering. He lays down with her for about an hour each night on the couch to help her fall asleep and often curls up with her again at 2am to get her back to sleep. We've joked that Summer has learned to associate Anthony's armpits with instant sleep.

He has been on night duty for 3 straight months now! (except for maybe a half dozen nights). This great act of husbandly service and love has saved my sanity. I do not do well when I am sleep deprived (I get grouchy and depressed), so he has made the sacrifice for our whole family. I am so so so grateful for him (and so are the kids because they get a happy mommy all day).

Now at the ripe ol' age of 3 months, Summer's royal treatment comes to an end. We've started the cry-it-out and learn-to-sleep-on-your-own sleep training. 3 days in and she's getting better already (only 20 minutes or so of crying tonight). Anthony is excited to have less baby sleep duty, but I think it's a double edged sword. For the past 3 months he's also been able to take long naps whenever he wants because he knows as long as he lays down with Summer I won't complain (in fact I'm delighted to have her sleep a long time too). But I think that's been a well deserved perk for being on night duty. Thank you Anthony! I love you.

Marriage By The Numbers

2011-11-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

7 years
3 children
8000+ diapers
4 cars (2 have passed on)
3 houses
3 trips to Disneyland (1 as newlyweds)
320 Star Trek episodes
2555 days of gratitude for a great marriage.

And that's the gospel truth. We're pretty lucky to have a lot of common interests and very little conflict. Raising 3 kids together is a lot of fun. Challenging, but in a great self-and-relationship-maturing kind of way. I love my family.

We spent an over-nighter this year in Park City. My parents kept the older 2 and the babes was with us. For that reason it was pretty low-key: movies and sleep-deprived napping.

The day before our anniversary I spent a night in Park City with the kids and my parents. We had fun exploring the hotel, the park and the pool. It was actually a great refresher for me to get some quality vacation time with my adorable kiddos.

Eva Summer

2011-11-20T21:34:00.004-07:00

Summer's full name is Eva Summer Johnson. We had a tough time naming this baby. We had an ever growing list of 20+ names that just kept growing even after she was born. We almost named her Jadie Eva Johnson. Adorable, except that it started to sound like JD Johnson, which sounded like a boy's name to me. We considered names like Haley, Holly, Joanie, Jill, Hannah, Susie, Allison, June, Brooke, Mallory, Melanie and Melody. The one name that I just couldn't let go of was Summer. It took Anthony a while to warm up to the name, but since I was so wishy-washy about everything else he finally said, "Let's name her Summer." Once I had his blessing on the name, I knew that was the only name I wanted!

The name Eva comes primarily from the name Austin and Ruthie gave the baby after we found out she was a girl. They chose the name Aviva (or as Ruthie says it "a-eeva"), which is a character on Wild Kratts, their favorite kid show. I loved the idea of my kids helping to pick the name, but I didn't like Aviva per se, and I also wanted a family name. Anthony's great-grandma's name is Eva and it seemed a perfect fit. We even have one of Eva's paintings hanging prominently in our living room. However, to avoid having our child burdened with the name "Summer's Eve" we opted for Eva Summer and to call her by her middle name.

Much thanks to Debbie for taking all these fabulous pictures for us the week Summer was born. I love how they turned out.

The first 5 pictures are an attempt to match some similar pictures I have of Austin and Ruthie as newborns. Now the question is, which one of the 5 should I hang next to these (Austin top, Ruthie bottom)?

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-10-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

Has Summer been in our lives for 2 whole months already? Boy time flies! She's already seeming so big and strong compared to those first few days. And I am still enjoying the ecstasy of not being pregnant. I rejoice in being able to lay on my back, take hot baths, clean up the house, go for walks - and especially in having the energy and motivation to really play with my kids again. Of course I have back aches from holding Summer in awkward positions, my house is still a terrible mess, I don't have as much kid-focus as I'd like and sleep is still my #1 priority. But even two months later I am still so high on not being pregnant that those things seem inconsequential. If only I could always remember how grateful I am to have this amazing, healthy body!

Speaking of gratitude, I was at Costco last week with Austin. I was pushing him in the shopping cart and he wanted my attention so he was grabbing my face and pulling at my hair and talking loudly while I tried to find the right bread rack. An 80-year-old man walked past us and I figured he was feeling sorry for me having to deal with a squirmy 5-year-old. Instead he looked me in the eyes and sincerely said, "Oh, how I miss those days." Man! If only I could live my life backwards! If I could first be 80 and miss the "good old days" and then go back to parenting these young children, how much more would I value each day!? I've been trying to think about that all this week and it has given me more patience and JOY with those squirmy bodies and undone chores.

Enough musing. What I really wanted to blog about is what we've been up to these past two months.

Anthony...

...turned 33 on Wednesday. We went to Wingers for dinner. Later he instructed me how to download a Kindle e-book for him. Is it just me or do instant downloads take something out of the gift giving process?

Heidi...

...turned 33 last month. Anthony brought me into the modern era by buying me a smartphone. I hesitated to open the box, wondering out loud if I would use it enough to justify the expense. An hour later I was totally hooked and can not imagine my life without this little beauty.

...printed our 3rd blog book (plus got digital copies of the books). It's so easy with my new favorite program www.blog2print.com. 3 out of 5 blogging years complete.

Austin...

...has been doing crafts like a mad man. He is so self-entertained with his crafts that I invested in a "craft center" where we keep the basics: lots of plain paper, markers, scissors, glue, and masking tape (plus a few other things). With these basic supplies he can create remarkable things! He's made backpacks, costumes, hand-shaped birds, telescopes, sailboats, story books and more.

...got a little too eager with the crafting last week and loped off a chunk of skin from his pinkie. Thankfully it was a Saturday so Anthony was home to handle the blood and the trip to the Urgent Care for 3 stitches.

Ruthie...

...is potty-trained...sort of. I was intending to wait till she turned 3, but she had other plans. When we brought Summer home I couldn't help making comments about how big Ruthie was to be in diapers and how we would have to potty train her soon. After about a week of that, Ruthie told me wanted to wear underwear. I was feeling just barely healed enough to help with emergency toilet runs and I figured I wasn't going anywhere with a newborn for several weeks anyway. So we trained. Like with Austin, it took her about a week to recognize her body's signals. Currently she's about 50% on making it to the potty. I've just decided I lack the energy to focus on that other 50%, so we're reverting to pull-ups for the next month or two. But I'm happy I don't have to change poopy diapers anymore.

Summer...

...has started smiling and "talking". We love it! The kids love it when she says things that sound like words. "Mom, she said hey!", "She said good!", "She said hi!" Grandma reports that she's even had a few hour-long conversations with the babes.

...loves her swing. They say babies have different cries for different needs. I think one of Summer's cries is a "swing cry." Just goes to show how different each kid is. Austin hated the swing and always wanted to be held. Ruthie kind of liked the swing, but was calmed more by noises. Summer seems to relax from over-stimulation in her calming swing.

Summer's Birth Story

2011-09-13T20:37:00.001-06:00

Thursday, August 25th. It was another "normal" day. Austin went to preschool that morning, I posted to my blog about how I hoped this baby would come on Friday, we ate lunch and settled down on the couch to watch a movie and take a nap. It was around 1pm. Austin, trying to get to his spot on the couch, rolled (gently) over me during a contraction. I felt a pop and thought my water had broken. It was actually just the mucus plug, but the contractions immediately began to hurt. I measured 2 at 10 minutes apart and called Anthony at work. By the time he got home 20 minutes later my contractions were 5 minutes apart so I called my mom. By the time she arrived another 20 minutes later the contractions were 3 minutes apart. My wise mother shooed us out the door quickly. My dad arrived only 5 minutes later to watch my kids so my mom could join us at the hospital.

In the hospital triage they measured me to be dilated to a 9. I was shocked and immediately called for the epidural! Being so far along, they recommended I get a spinal instead since it acts faster, the draw back being it only lasts for about 2 hours. I was so grateful for the pain relief! I think the only thing that made those strong, close contractions tolerable was the fact that I'd only been in labor a few hours. If I'd been going on 10 or 20 hours I'm sure I would've been insane with pain.

Once the spinal was in, the commotion around me died down, all the nurses disappeared and we relaxed for a bit. Unfortunately it took 1.5 hours for me to dilate the last centimeter and by that time the spinal was starting to wear off. I insisted that we start trying to push NOW before the spinal was completely gone. The doctor arrived a few minutes later and the VBAC effort began. After 45 minutes of pushing, the baby hadn't budged an inch. Several times the doctor tried repositioning the baby and me, but still nothing. She wasn't even descended into the birth canal enough to reach with forceps. By this time the spinal was almost gone and I was moaning and grunting and nearly crying through each contraction. The doctor suggested we could keep trying, though he didn't think the baby would budge, or we could do a c-section.

Motivated in part by the pain, I was eager to do the c-section and be done! Somewhere in the reasoning part of my brain, I also recognized that even with an epidural and a longer pushing session, it was going to be a long and possibly body-damaging delivery. I admit I am more afraid of severe tearing and life-long incontinence and other such problems than I am of a surgery. Besides, I'd already had a c-section, so that damage (severed muscles, big scar) had already been done.

After some prep and another spinal (ahhh!) we did the c-section. One funny side note... I think Summer was my most active baby in the womb. I sometimes commented that she was doing tap dances in my stomach. As I laid there on the operating table, moments from her delivery, I heard the nurses commenting to each other, "Look at that! That baby is moving like crazy in there!" She was doing apparently doing her "I'm about to be born" happy tap-dance.

Summer was born via c-section on August 25th at 6:18pm (18:18). She was 7lbs 130z and 19in long. My impression when I first saw her was that she looked just like Ruthie. I held her and kissed her and was so joyful and relieved to have a healthy perfectly formed little baby. I was also so glad to finally be done with pregnancy.

Although you may be tempted to express sorrow that I didn't achieve my VBAC goal, don't. I am thrilled with how everything turned out. I did want to have a vaginal delivery with Ruthie because I wanted that experience and the "easier" recovery. But it turned out to be a very difficult recovery. I only wanted a second VBAC because I hoped that it would somehow be "easier" than the first. But my c-section recovery was great. I was on my feet the next morning, on very little painkiller, and ready to leave the hospital by day 2 (though I was required to stay for 3). Now 2 weeks later, I feel great. I have to remind myself not to pick up Austin and not to exercise just yet, though I feel like I could. I think the tricks to a smooth recovery on this delivery was 1) reducing the pain killers so I wasn't nauseated, 2) getting on my feet as soon as possible so I could take ownership of my recovery and 3) lucking out with great nurses and doctors.

Additional thoughts on the c-section... Now that I'm a c-section gal, if (big if) there is a baby #4, it's nice to know I can be done at 39 weeks for sure (although I kind of like letting the baby pick their own birthday). Also, after this delivery, the doctor told me I couldn't have tried any harder to push that 7'13 baby out - which for me, validates the c-section I had with my 8'5 baby.

Another funny side note... Summer grew in utero with a nightly dose of Star Trek Voyager almost the entire pregnancy. So it was a bit ironic that this turned out to be the doctor who delivered her. And this is Voyager's Harry Kim. My baby was delivered by Harry Kim! It was meant to be.

After delivery, Anthony followed baby Summer to the nursery and an hour or so later I got to hold her again. Soon the little ones were on their way to visit...

At 8pm the sibs arrived to finally meet their 2-hour-old nameless baby sister.

Lots of great hugs and holds so early in life!

The cousins came the next afternoon to meet the new little one.

On Sunday evening the kiddos played hospital with the cool moving bed, while we packed up and got ready to take our little Summer home with us.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Farmer came to visit latter that day.

Welcome Sweet Girl!

2011-09-02T15:45:00.002-06:00

Summer Johnson is here! She was born Thursday August 25 at 6:18pm. 7lbs 13oz, 19in. After an attempted VBAC, we ended up in a c-section since she was just too big for me, but my recovery is going better than my previous VBAC, so I'm totally happy with how it turned out.

Austin and Ruthie love their new sister - no jealousy or attention problems thank goodness, and they've been kept busy with lots of grandparent and cousin time. Hopefully birth story and other pics will follow soon!

How We Measure Time and Why Tomorrow Is The Big Day

2011-08-25T12:01:00.002-06:00

Ten weeks ago, Austin discovered a new game on the Disney Junior website. It's a Jake and the Neverland Pirates treasure map in which a new treasure chest opens up every Friday with new "prizes". At that time I was 10 weeks away from my due date too. I figured this was a perfect way for him to count down to the baby's arrival. We have diligently checked the map every Friday (even if the "prizes" were lame) and grown more and more excited. In these past 2 weeks I've tried to get the kids on board with rooting for the baby to come early. Austin, however, is quite insistent that the baby is coming FRIDAY when we hit the big red 'X'. As in tomorrow. He has so much confidence in this that if there is no baby by tomorrow I will be totally disappointed.

To add to the deadline, I just found out that I have tested positive for preeclampsia. I go in for a stress test on Saturday and may end up having to have a C-section this weekend. On the one hand, I really want the VBAC, but on the other, I don't want to endure 2 more weeks of pregnancy only to end up having a C-section anyway. This past week and a half has been tough - I've got first trimester fatigue and nausea back again mixed with third-trimester insomnia, contractions, immobility and impatience. The worst of both worlds. Total blah. But I do feel very blessed that Austin and Ruthie have been on one of their playing-well-together streaks this entire past week.

So if you read this, send some "go into labor" vibes my way!

I'll end this with a little sisterly cuteness. My favorite part is Ruthie's final sentence (and it is unprompted).

First Day of School

2011-08-24T20:48:00.003-06:00

Austin had a great first day of preschool (round 3) on Tuesday. I'm excited to experience him learning to read this year. Ruthie can hardly wait to follow in her brother's footsteps.

Pregnancy Notes

2011-08-21T17:03:00.001-06:00

This picture sums up the Johnson family survival guide to pregnancy...

Nearly 3 pregnancies complete now, I find it interesting to look back and compare them. I think my kids might get a kick out of this someday too. I've always loved the story of how my mom craved cottage cheese when she was prego with me - I can just picture my brain actually being formed out of cottage cheese.

Let's start with the similarities. For me, pregnancy breaks down like this:

Weeks 1-5 - I'm pregnant! Yay!
Weeks 6-18 - "The Black Hole". I am nauseous, tired and unmotivated. I cope by taking zofran almost round the clock, watching a LOT of TV, eating every 2 hours and giving in to any food craving I have.
Weeks 19-34 - Happy days are here again. I love finding out the baby's gender at week 20 - it's my reward for surviving the first trimester. During these weeks I get into a good routine of sleep and exercise, I start making real dinners again and start doing fun activities again.
Weeks 33-37 - Hunker down and don't let that baby come early. This is when contractions and weird pains start to appear so I start taking it really easy - killing the exercise routine and staying home as much as possible. Insomnia tends to crop up, making me pretty tired once again.
Weeks 38-40 - "Let's do this thing!" Exercise, do jumping jacks, pack the hospital bag. I'm ready to get my body back and eager to meet that new little baby!

Other similarities:

Whenever the pregnancies got tough, I relaxed by envisioning the same thing - a family trip to Disneyland!
Hardest things to give up: hot baths, deli sandwiches, IB profin, being skinny
What I couldn't live without: zofran, breathe right strips, a husband with a flexible work schedule so I can get a morning of extra sleep when I'm desperate, a mom who helps me with the kids at least weekly.

What I look forward to about not being pregnant:

Immediately: laying flat on my back while still breathing, laying on my stomach, no more heartburn, sleeping (ok, I know that's short lived), waking up from sleep for reasons other than peeing, aching legs and hunger pains.
Within 2 weeks: walking upstairs without feeling winded, laying down on Ruthie's bed when reading her books, picking up stuff off the floor, sitting on the floor without my feet going numb, rolling over in bed, taking a hot bath, doing dishes and washing my hands without twisting my torso completely sideways, no more well-meaning comments like: "I swear you're bigger than the last time I saw you", "Are you still pregnant?", "How much bigger can you get?", "You poor thing!" (The reality is I am 5' tall and now 4' around - seriously - so I try to not be offended and to appreciate the thought instead).
Within 2 months: running (gently), eating healthy - controlling my cravings instead of them controlling me, taking all 3 kids out on my own and surviving it!

And the differences (as much as I can remember):

(I'll have to return and edit this after the babes is born).

Category	Austin	Ruth	Sister
Frequent foods	cereal, frozen burritos, jello	yogurt & granola, toast w/ jam	bagels & cream cheese, yogurt & granola, Wendy's burger meals
Food aversions	beef stew, Cafe Rio	chicken	chicken (kind of)
Weight gained (all from exact same starting weight)	35	50	60
Biggest pain	nausea (including an ER trip), HUGE knot in my right shoulder	hemorrhoids	partial bed rest for early contractions (33 w)
Unexpected help	discovering Zofran at 8w	"labor induction massage" (trigger point below ankle) I swear started my labor	regular chiro visits - I had no sciatic nerve pain and almost no back pain
Exercise routine	Nightly walks and talks w/ Antho. First around the old neighborhood, later around the BYU botany pond.	Circling the floors of the new SFB on BYU campus while listening to the Dune audiobook.	Walking on the treadmill in the basement while listening to Fablehaven 3.
How I passed the time	Watching the original Star Wars series, again w/ commentaries, and all bonus material	Reading 5 Stephanie Meyer books, then the Narnia series	Online games, online shopping, blogging, Spider solitaire
Why I went to TN (apparently a requirement for me when prego)	My first Johnson Christmas (at 6w)-stuck barfing in Nashville for 2 days	Ila's death (Antho's grandma) (at 28w)-stuck on tarmac for 2 hours alone w/ tantruming Austin	Claire's wedding (at 26w)-blissfully uneventful travel
Where I was working	Altiris - full time	Flexsim - part time	full time motherhood
Major purchases (kids are pricey!)	3bed condo (6mo prego)	5bed house (2mo post partum)	Honda minivan (7mo prego)
Early or late?	induced 4 days early	4 days early	?
Method of delivery	induction then c-section	VBAC	?
Difficulty of pregnancy	8	5	5
Difficulty of labor	6 (epidural)	6 (epidural)	?
Length of labor	10 hours (7a-9p)	10 hours (6a-8p)	?
Difficulty of recovery	6	8	?
Length of recovery	8 weeks	1.5 weeks	?

Gymnastics & Soccer

2011-08-18T19:00:00.000-06:00

Our weekly gymnastics class has been our "summer school" this year. This is Austin's second summer and Ruthie's first. I was lucky that they had a 4-yr-old class at the same time and in the same room as the 2-yr-old mom-and-me class. Gymnastics is a great toddler sport - you get to move a lot, practice being in a class, practice following instruction and practice basic movement skills that help in all other sports.

Today was our last class for the summer. Austin has enjoyed it tons and wants to do it again, but there aren't any boys in the next classes so we'll be looking for soccer and basketball next summer. (I think boys pick it up again when they get those Iron-Cross muscles as teenagers).

Ruthie received many compliments from her teacher and other moms in the class on how well she followed instruction and on how strong she was. Her teacher commented a few times that Ruthie could do moves that she'd seen only 1 or 2 other 2-yr-olds do. Being uber prego, it was extra nice that she could remember and do the routines without much help from me (or having to be chased and coerced back to the mat).

Austin also participated in Itty-Bitty Soccer class this month. It's a 2-week 6-session class for 3 & 4 yr olds. I was impressed at how much he actually learned in the class! He came away with a basic understanding of soccer and skills such as shooting, dribbling, trapping, goal-keeping and (his favorite) running. He even learned all those soccer terms. When the kids played little scrimmages, only about 1/3 of the kids seemed to recognize the point of the game and Austin was right there in the ball-kicking mix. The two weeks was a perfect amount for his attention span too. I wish 5-yr-olds could sign up so we could do the basketball session. Hopefully he'll enjoy a longer sport next year.

Getting Excited

2011-08-17T00:04:00.002-06:00

Yeah, we're getting pretty excited for this baby. When I pulled out the old baby bottles and clothes, the kids wanted to play "baby" with their hats and milk.

The Boy Is 5

2011-08-14T07:11:00.019-06:00

Mr. Austin turned the big '5' two weeks ago.

We enjoyed a multi-birthday celebration for Grandma, Grandpa, Austin and Tyce at a cabin in Brighton. We ate yummy food, opened presents, and attempted to enjoy the outdoors despite the rain. (In the bottom left pic you can see the cabin we stayed in right above Debbie's head). By far, Austin's favorite gift was from grandma, a set of Bakugan transformers that change from balls into animals. He could hardly put them down for 2 straight days.

Austin got a fun truck/puzzle set from Oma and Opa that he was obsessed with for a couple days. Austin's gift from his parents was a new bike. (Top pic is of a Brighton-classic arrow hunt he followed to find it). Austin has not had a lot of success riding the bike he got for Christmas because the training wheels are unstable. We thought a new, smaller bike might be the solution. But training wheels just don't provide perfect balance no matter what. Austin was momentarily excited about the bike, but 3 minutes in to riding it got mad when Anthony let go of it and it felt unstable. He got off and huffed away, tripping over the bike in the process and scrapping his knees. When Ruthie asked for a turn, he was so mad he wanted to throw the bike across the parking lot. Needless to say, the bike went back to the store. So I guess he won't be a bike kid till he's 6 or 7 and he may just skip the training wheels phase altogether.

I've thrown Austin a big 'friend' party for the past 2 years, but decided to go low key this year. I told him he could invite any 2 friends to the Monkey Island bounce houses and he picked his three best friends: Kalyana, Kayla-Rayla and Tycey. So Debbie and I took the cousins to play and topped it off with a Wendy's lunch at my house.

So those were the celebrations. Now for some low-down on life as a 5-year-old.

A 5 x 5 View of Austin Johnson

5 Personality Traits

Imaginative. Give him the right toy or idea and he's engaged for hours creating or story-telling.
Friendly. He's never been shy, never held back. He goes right up to kids at the park or McDs or wherever, introduces himself and wants to play.
Solver. He loves to understand how things work - from the computer cords, to food growing in the garden, to the bones in his ear.
Rough and destructive. What can I say? He's a boy. Everyday I have to break up fights between Austin and Ruthie, where Austin is hitting or pushing or sitting on Ruthie (though Ruthie tries to throw a few punches now and then). We're also going to have to replace furniture someday. We've got marker drawings on his dresser and walls, cracks in a couple of doors he's kicked in anger, and scratches in our dining room table when he experimented with a sharp object.
Unashamed. On more than one occassion, I've caught Austin running around outside in the nude. Last time, I left him alone in the front yard to play in the mud. When I came back 15 minutes later I found a pile of muddy clothes and a nudey tushy playing on the swingset.

5 Random Things

He hides behind the couch or under a blanket when watching scary parts of movies.
He coaches Ruthie on what to say when playing together. Typical phrases are, "Say, 'huh'", "Say, 'what's going to happen?'", "Say 'really?'"
Austin and Ruthie find pill bugs (rolley polleys) in the sandbox then create houses for them. All pill bugs are named 'Filbert'.
Anthony and I both enjoy reading simple chapter books for Austin's bedtime stories. Favorites include: The Magic Tree House, The Magic School Bus, Dinosaur Cove, Superman, Batman.
He loves to write, asking me how to spell certain words. His drawing and writing often end up on himself. This one says "Super Hero Circle."

5 Favorites

The color green
Life cereal, apples, strawberries
The number 5 (recently upgraded from the number 4)
TV show 'Wild Kratts'
The letter 'A' (and then the letter 'u' and 's' and 't' and 'i' and 'n')

5 Big Life Events of the Past Year

He completed a great year of preschool with Mrs. Shannon.
He enjoyed his second trip to Disneyland and is now completely hooked.
He jut finished a fun summer of gymnastics.
He has been patiently anticipating his baby sister whom he has nicknamed "Eviva" after a character on Wild Kratts. He knows she is coming soon after he turned 5 and is very eager now.
He lost his front 2 teeth around March. The dentist warned us this would happen because his roots were so short on those teeth. Austin thinks the hole is cool and a handy way to drink through a straw.

5 Goals for This Next Year

Learn to read.
Meet Baby Sister.
Attend 2 preschools - a professional one that focuses on reading and a neighborhood one where he's excited to enjoy his good friends Calvin, Corbin and Afton.
Take another trip to Disneyland (of course)!
And his ultimate goal: "When I grow up I want to be a Superhero and a Daddy."

You Need to Know This Before Buying A Used Car

2011-08-04T14:57:00.000-06:00

We received an interesting, and critical, education while looking for our recent used car.

What's the hardest thing about buying a used car? Knowing that the car you're getting is a good, reliable, damage-free car. And there's always that fear that the seller isn't telling you everything. Besides checking the Carfax, doing a good thorough test drive (several checklists are available online) and getting a mechanic to check it out, there is one more thing to check out - VIN stickers. What amazes me is that I've never heard of this before, yet when we asked multiple dealers they acknowledged this was true.

Here's the skinny on VIN stickers. When cars are made, the manufacturer puts a sticker with the car's VIN # on each panel of the car. These stickers are made to shatter if they are damaged or someone tries to remove them. This means that if a sticker is missing, that panel has been replaced (or some idiot tried to peal it off). If a car is missing a couple stickers then it's a good bet that it's been in an accident and had some body work done, and it turns out that not all accidents are reported to Carfax.

When we were car shopping we drove a couple cars that were missing stickers on the driver door and the engine block on the same side. One of these cars drove a little bumpy, the other had a suspicious clicking noise when making a hard left turn. The dealer only pointed to a "clean Carfax" and when we asked about the VIN stickers, suggested that maybe those panels had been replaced because they were scratched. That could be true, but having 2 missing stickers, especially one in the engine area, and a funny noise, was enough to convince us to move on.

It helps to check out a car of the same brand you're looking at to see where all the VIN stickers are on that type of car. Depending on the car, you can find these VIN stickers in the following places (look for red rectangles in the pictures):

3 under the hood: 1 on the panel that lifts up and 1 on each side of the engine block
on the inside of each door
if you have a van they are on the back of the sliding door and the inside front of the non-movable door panel piece
on the inside of the trunk or hatch
on the bumper? (I haven't found one on either of my cars so I'm not sure about this one)

New Van

2011-08-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

And baby makes three. Three car seats, that is. No longer able to fit into our Corolla, we have been forced to upgrade. After test driving several brands, we gravitated toward the Honda for its drive-ability and reliability. We found an '08 Odyssey with 44K miles on it and took it home. It's a very basic car (no dvd player, no heated seats), but it has lots of room for road trips and stow n' go back seats. I've been surprised at how comfortable I feel driving a big car, and the kids love our new van too.

Kinda Nice

2011-07-31T04:17:00.000-06:00

In the past few weeks, my kids have started doing something amazing - playing nicely together for more than 5-minutes! We've even had some 30-minute stretches in there. For the first time ever I feel like I can let them disappear into the playroom without following them (or constantly being a "hawk" as Anthony and I call it).

What's going on? Is it that I'm too pregnant and lazy to be a hawk so the kids are being forced to figure out how to get along? Is it that Austin is nearly 5 and more mature? Is it that Ruthie is nearly 3 and better able to hold her own? Is it that Ruthie is growing up and becoming a more fun playmate to Austin? Probably some of all of it.

Of course, life is a roller coaster. After 4 good days in a row, we had 3 awful ones with a zillion time-outs. Then a couple good half-days. That's how it goes. Still, I'll take it.

Living In The Moment

2011-07-30T04:09:00.000-06:00

You know the old advice to "live in the moment"? Even though I think I do a pretty good job of enjoying the moment with my kids, it's not often that I am truly lost in it. Where I am not watching from across the room or the park; I am not thinking of my to-do list. Where I am undistracted and laughing and imagining just like a 4-year-old.

We had such a precious couple of hours recently playing a game of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We set up our hideout, made a treasure map, had an adventure in search of our stolen picnic and outwitted Captain Hook. It was a perfect morning.

July 4th

2011-07-28T04:16:00.000-06:00

The "Fourth" came early this year as we started our celebrations at Debbie's house a few days early. We had a fill-your-tummy-busting-full picnic and lit off smoke bombs, snaps and parachutes. Parachutes are definitely a favorite around here- the kids love chasing down the chutes.

On the actual big day we had my parents and Heather and grandparents over for dinner, more parachutes and (other people's) evening fireworks. This was the first year we've been in our own neighborhood and we discovered just how patriotic (aka pyromaniac) our area is. Thanks to ariels being legal this year we could see 5 different shows from my yard and hear 2 others. I couldn't help thinking of my ligyrophobic friend Rachel as we sat there in the middle of what sounded like a war zone. It was loud! The kiddos weren't too excited by the exploding lights, but they sure loved getting to stay up extra late.

I Forgot Christmas!

2011-07-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

Seeing as how I was slammed by First-Trimester woes shortly after New Years, it's no wonder I neglected to blog about Christmas... for 7 months.

Pre-Christmas activities.

Christmas Eve.

Traditions - doing puzzles, nativity scene, new pjs, leaving out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

This year's nativity scene.

Christmas Morning.

Our first Christmas in our own home. It was actually a lot of fun to do our own simple thing at our kids' relaxed pace. Austin, as usual, only got through a handful of gifts before having to stop and play. Ruthie diligently kept opening till the end. That's Austin's new bike that Ruthie is on. And the run-away hit of the morning was the marble toy.

Christmas Day.

Duffin traditional breakfast-orange julius, scrambled cheesy eggs, cinnamon rolls. Austin preferred his Santa-provided cereal. My fam came by in the afternoon to play and deliver another round of gifts.

It was a great holiday for us.

"Those Girls That Live Far Away"

2011-07-24T04:23:00.001-06:00

We had some super fun visitors a week ago - Reese and Claire Bjorkman. Last summer we went to CO to visit them and the four kids totally hit it off. This summer we got to have them over to our house for a day while their parents were attending a funeral. The popular game this go-round was "The Ouchie Bum Bum Slide" - two mattresses propped up at an angle in the playroom closet where Austin and Reese would climb to the top, squeeze in between, and slip down. Ruthie and Claire laughed their guts out watching them.

At the end of their 8 hours together, which was seriously fun for them the whole time, when asked to say goodbye, they referred to each other as "the big girl" or "the little girl" or "that boy". I guess names are truly secondary to good friends. Speaking of good friends, it was a huge delight to visit with Rachel too. Next summer in CO?

Yes Sir, That's My Baby

2011-07-22T15:57:00.003-06:00

I had an ultrasound this past week and got a 3-D image of my little one. Look at that adorable little thoughtful face. She looks fully cooked to me! Ah, just 5 more weeks to go.

Claire's Wedding

2011-07-21T21:00:00.004-06:00

On May 28th we were in TN to witness the beautiful wedding of Claire and Joe.

They were married in the Erin Presbyterian church, where the Johnson family has attended (and still attends) a Christmas Eve candlelight ceremony ever since they were little kids. It was fun to see the wedding in that meaningful place and to have it performed by pastor John Stuart who has the cutest Scottish accent and a funny personality to go with it.

After the wedding was a gorgeous reception at aunt Jan's Bluebird Hill reception center - with live music and delicious food. There was even a merry-go-round for the kids (where mine pretty much took up residence for the evening).

Claire and Joe are such a great match and obviously very happy together. We were so glad we got to be there!

The beautiful bridesmaids. Sisters: Hilary, Amber, Kerry, (bride) Claire, (friend), (niece) Olivia, Tiffani.

The week before the wedding we spent vacationing in TN. We joined up with Amber, Mike and Henry to be tourists for a few days. Dad was awesome and joined us for most of the outings.

We spent one afternoon at Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg.

One evening Dad took a group out on his boat. Anthony water skied and Austin was brave enough to go tubing!

Another day took us to the Knoxville Zoo where the kids got to feed camels. One evening we went to a splash park downtown only to realize we'd forgotten swimsuits, but the kids didn't care! (Luckily we had extra clothes on hand). On another afternoon Anthony took the kids swimming in Dee's pool where Ruthie had a blast jumping off the diving board over and over (look closely in the picture below). And of course, one of the big highlights of Oma and Opa's house is all the animals. Rummy (in the picture) is the favorite (and most kid-friendly), but the other dogs and cats were a big thrill too. Austin and Ruthie also loved seeing cousins Henry, Olivia, Sophie and Rosie (in the doggie picture).

As for me, I'm just thrilled that this trip to TN while pregnant was nothing but fun!

A Little Ruthie

2011-07-18T04:12:00.001-06:00

Just a little Ruthie cuteness...

I love the picture of great-grandma Ruth reading to her little Ruthie.

Ruthie is a swimmer. It's the reason Austin and Ruthie no longer share bathtime... she insists on kicking all the toys out so she can lay down and "swim." She's actually done this her whole life, but now she's too big to swim with brother in the tub too. Look out Olympics 2028, this girl will be bringing home some swimming medals.

This video is from Feb, a week or two after Ruthie first figured out how to use the mouse. I loved the role reversal here - where Austin is the helper and Ruthie is the one driving.

Jail Birds

2011-07-16T05:00:00.001-06:00

When daddy gets home from work (and after dinner) the call goes out, "Daddy, are you ready to wrestle?!" It amazes me how my kids (mostly Austin so far) come up with clever and unique games. The kiddos have named some of the games they've invented.

Get Past Daddy - Run from one side of the room to the other without getting caught. Daddy plays on his knees.

Steal The Hat - Daddy puts something on his head to be the "hat". Try to steal it.

Stay On Daddy - Daddy is the bucking bronco.

Show Your Moves - Classic wrestling, where you periodically show off your karate chops and kicks before you attack (though we only attack with wrestling moves, not hits or kicks).

Jail Birds - Run around the couch until daddy catches you and puts you in "jail" on the couch. Escape and do it again. A little sample of this game...

Cousin Tyce

2011-07-14T04:50:00.002-06:00

Tyce has been over for a few sleepovers. Here's some of our fun adventures.

Hot Chocolate anyone?

My kids got very hooked on Swiss Miss hot chocolate with marshmallows this past winter. They preferred to add and stir the mix into luke-warm milk themselves. Often they would pick out the mallows by hand, spoon-eat the sugary powder right off the top, then drink the milk.

Superheroes and Gymnasts!

Yes, my kids think those are "big stickers" and have come to specifically use them for making superhero letters on their shirts. Austin and Tyce are 'A' and 'T', but since 'R' is too hard, Ruthie is usually 'X'. And that "gymnastics bar" and "jungle gym" is Austin's closet. It amazingly holds up just fine and has turned out to be a great toy for my little monkey children.

Preschool

2011-06-08T20:16:00.006-06:00

First and last day of preschool

Austin recently completed a wonderful year of preschool. From September to May he attended "Imagination Station" at Miss Shannon's home every T, W, and Th for 2 hours. A few of the things he learned this year:

To write every letter
Tracing shapes
Cutting practice
To spell and write his first name
To spell and write his last name
His phone number
His address
To count and write numbers up to 30
Days of the week
Months of the year
And more

One thing I've particularly enjoyed watching him mature in is his group skills. He's always been super friendly, but as he's consistently interacted with these kids and been shaped by this teacher he's improved in his ability to share, take turns, wait or ask for help instead of hitting to get his way, and to sit still and listen. He's still probably the most wiggly kid in the group during "lecture" times, but he is also the youngest of the group - and as I've said, I'm delighted to see improvement.

Happily, he's adjusted to being out of preschool without any tears or complaints, though I know he misses Miss Shannon and his friend Sierra. He'll be turning 5 in August, but will be doing another year of preschool this coming year.

Here's a video of his last day at preschool - they start the day with "Show and Share" then the Pledge of Allegiance and then I got to watch their singing program where they had a song for each letter of the alphabet (we were in TN for the actual graduation program, but luckily I got to go watch them practice).

Photo Shoot

2011-05-21T09:09:00.005-06:00

Do I have the cutest kids or what?

A quick funny Ruthie story:

Ruthie and I were driving somewhere when she started listing off the people in her family.

Ruthie: "Dere's Roofie and Mommy and Daddy and Tycey and Kaya-Waya and Kawyana and Debbie and Taroo and Gramma and Grampa and Header."

Me: "What about that boy that lives in our house?"

Ruthie: "Huh?"

Me: "Who's the boy in our family?"

Ruthie: "Broder."

Me: "What's his name?"

Ruthie: "Huh?"

Me: "Au..."

Ruthie: "Au... Huh?"

Me: "Brother's name is Au..."

Ruthie: "Au... AuBroder!"

Easter

2011-05-15T10:50:00.000-06:00

This is how our Johnson Easter went down. Saturday the kids "surprised" daddy with the egg pinatas they'd made and filled with m&ms. Then daddy and mommy surprised the kids with a brand new swing set! It was fun to see how excited they were over it. They had to try everything for 2 seconds then something new, then back to the first.

Sunday we celebrated with my parents, where the Easter Bunny also left all our hidden candy. The kids had a great time hunting. Ruthie enjoyed all the chocolate, often eating one bite of a candy then opening a new one - so many (identical options) to sample! Austin, on the other hand traded his chocolates to Ruthie for her jelly beans. We were well taken care of by the Easter Bunny and by grandma with lots of fun presents.

Can You Read 4-glish?

2011-05-13T14:30:00.000-06:00

Something I *LOVE* about my boy is his creativity. He has an imagination like you wouldn't believe. There are times when he'll have a handful of legos, a toothbrush and kleenex box and for the next 2 hours he's deep into an elaborate story of rocket ships, caves and heroes. When we put him to bed at night, he always asks for an "invisible" story... which means a story that we make up (not from a book). In the past couple of months he's started to direct these stories and tell us how the story goes.

He has also found a great game on PBS kids called "Dot's Story Factory" where he can draw pictures and then type captions about it. He loves to write his stories all by himself then have us read what he has written. I get a huge kick out of reading Austin's version of English. It actually makes sense in a way! Let's see if you can translate 4-year-old phonetics...

"Austin Johnson [age] 4. [To] Heidi."

"The monster ate Dot and Dash. Then Austin and Ruth flew in the box with wings."

"Add that recycled newspaper in to jugs."

*This one was spelled correctly!*

"They were using." [Explanation: Using a treasure map to get to the green 'X'.]

"Austin Johnson and his favorite color."

"And he has a favorite blanket."

"His favorite color is green."

More Bedtime Conversations with Austin

2011-04-24T23:13:00.001-06:00

"Daddy will you come and lay by me for a while?"
"Sure, since you've been so cooperative for bedtime I'll lay by you for a few more minutes."
"No Daddy, not for a few minutes. I want you to lay by me for a while."
"OK."
"Daddy, do you know what a while means?"
"What does a while mean?"
"There are lots of wild animals, like polar bears and lions and aardvarks. They're wild. But that's not what a while means. Do you know what a while means?"
"What does a while mean?"
"It's something that takes time, like sometimes church takes a while, and sometimes I play in the yard for a while, and sometimes you lay by me for a while."

"Daddy, what were you like when you were little, like when you were one years old?"
"Well, when I was little I was a lot like you."
"Really? Did you have yellow hair like me?"
"Yep, just like you."
"Did you have yellow skin like me?"
"Yep."
"Did you have Mickey Mouse socks like me?"
"You know, I don't remember if I had Mickey Mouse socks."
(Austin tapping Daddy on the head) "Remember brain, remember brain, remember brain..."
"Actually, I think I do remember, and I don't think I had any Mickey Mouse socks like you when I was little."
"Well, I guess you weren't that much like me after all."

Ruthie's Secret Night Life

2011-04-17T13:33:00.004-06:00

I could also title this post "The Best Present Ever." A little over a month ago, Anthony bought me the best pregnancy-survival gift... Star Trek! He bought the complete set of Voyager and we have both been enjoying it tons (we already own and have watched Next Generation). We've settled in to a nice little night-time routine of putting the kids to bed, cleaning up for 45 minutes or so, watching an episode of Voyager and then going to bed nice and early at 10pm. It's been great for my pregnancy because 1) it gives me something to look forward to at the end of every day and 2) it gives me a great wind-down routine and early bedtime that both help me stay ahead of the sleep game. We've got about 140 episodes left and 135 days of pregnancy to go. It looks likely that this will be the routine for next 5 months.

As for Ruthie's part in all this... As mentioned in a previous post, she still takes a good afternoon nap most days, but is then up until 10pm. About a week in to our new routine she wandered downstairs all quiet and shy, crawled in to Anthony's lap and watched a Voyager episode with us, then happily went right to bed afterwards. She was so darn cute. And what Trekkie parent can resist sharing Star Trek with their kid? Ruthie's bedtime routine is now as follows. She gets ready for bed at 7:30 with Austin, then is required to stay quietly in her room for an hour, then we go get her so she can watch Voyager with us. It's a crack up to walk in to her room and have her jump off her bed asking, "IS IT TIME FOR VOYAGER?" We do have to be selective about which episodes she watches - most episodes are really just standing around talking, but some are scary, intense or show gross looking aliens. We have to read ahead to know which episodes to save for the nights when she falls asleep early (or violates the "stay in your room till we come get you" rule).

Austin doesn't know about Ruthie's nightly privileges and I've contemplated feeling guilty about it, but then I realized that, being the oldest, he's had lots of special Mom & Dad time when Ruthie wasn't here or was still a baby. Plus he's completely zonked out by 9pm every night. Someday, though, I intend to get Austin hooked in to the Star Trek world too.

Boy or Girl?

2011-04-12T08:37:00.004-06:00

Austin has been pulling for a boy since the day we announced the pregnancy. (That's him and me and Baby Buzz in the picture). Ruthie has been waffling back and forth, but mostly requesting a girl.

Yesterday we went as a family to see the big ultrasound. The baby had it's legs crossed at first, so we had to wait while the nurse checked on the baby's heart and head and stomach and bones. I am pleased to announce that we have one healthy little baby growing here! Then finally we found out...

It's a GIRL!!!

I am thrilled! I was hoping for a girl, though I'd gotten so used to calling it a boy that I still caught myself saying "he" yesterday and having to correct it. I'm excited that I'll have two daughters to play with and that my girls will have sisters. Austin's reaction to the news was a disappointed, "Oh, I was wrong." After saying that about 3 times, he was over it and announced, "I thought the pattern was boy, girl, boy, girl. Now I know it's boy, girl, girl, boy!" Now we just have to convince Austin to call the baby "Baby Sister" instead of "Baby Buzz". That may take some doing.

This is Austin's picture of me pushing the baby in a stroller. I love that the baby is so real to him that she's making it into his art! The kids ask me several times a week when the baby is going to "hatch" out of my tummy. It seems like a long way to go still, but 12 weeks ago I thought 20 weeks was an eternity away. Just 20 more to go.

Ruthie is 2...ish!

2011-04-04T09:45:00.001-06:00

I have terribly neglected this post! Ruthie is almost 2 1/2 and I haven't yet written about her 2-year-old antics. This little gal is so full of personality there's almost too much to say. Maybe that's why I haven't tried to write it all down yet!

So Ruthie turned 2 when we were at Disneyland. The big milestone of her birthday was graduating to a big girl bed. This actually happened at Disneyland thanks to grandma. Ruthie and her were sharing a room and Ruthie was supposed to be in her pack-n-play. But grandma couldn't handle the cries, so Ruthie slept in bed with her all week. Ruthie did so well with it that when we got home we converted her crib into a bed. She does a pretty decent job of staying in her room, but with her new freedom to move she will often stay up late (10pm) "reading" books to herself. And she insists of falling asleep with the lights on.

Here are a couple of cute movie clips from the big birthday day.

As for her little personality.... here goes:

She's a great talker. She is so good at communicating what she wants, how she feels, etc. She's also a skilled little parrot, which gives the illusion that she understands a lot, when in reality she's just repeating things. Being 2 she also comes up with a lot of humorous insights on the world that continuously entertain us.
She asks for naps. You heard me right. She knows when nap time is (after lunch) and has often sleepily said, "Can I take a nap now?" Now that she's actually approaching 2 1/2 she rarely asks for naps anymore and we are occasionally foregoing naps these days. She'll still takes them if I put her down, but then she's usually up until 10pm on those days. Oh well - what's a tired pregnant mommy to do? She usually gets a nap.
Now that she's in a big girl bed, for nap time and bed time she insists on having daddy or (more often) mommy lay down by her. Since she completely resisted cuddles for the first 2 years of her life I am only all too happy to indulge her now!
She wakes up happy in the morning and greets us with big hugs. On mornings when Anthony gets her she sometimes shrieks "Daddy! You're home!"
She's good at singing songs. I found it funny when I read an article that said by age 2 many kids can say 2 to 3 word sentences. And little Ruthie had the words to "I am a Child of God" completely memorized! Her repertoire continues to expand. Current song favorites are - "I Will" (aka "The Mommy and Daddy Song"), "ABC's", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Happy Monkey Song", and others.

She mostly calls Austin "broder" and despite the daily sibling fights, they are definitely best friends. Their standard morning game is "doggie and owner" wherein doggie Austin wakes up owner Ruthie and then they play in her room till mom or dad wake up. She also gets into his role playing games with him. She plays Martin to Austin's Chris Kratt, she plays Robin to Austin's Batman, she plays Gnocchi to Austin's Curious George. With all that practice, she's pretty socially advanced and actually plays better with Austin's 4-year-old girl peers than she does with her 2-year-old peers.
About a month ago Ruthie learned how to use a computer mouse and can now play PBS Kids games independently. These days it is common to see Austin playing "Wild Kratts" on his computer while Ruthie plays "Curious George" on my computer while I'm making dinner.
She doesn't like diaper changes and often cries or kicks trying to get out of them (grrr).
She had a bald spot on the top of her head for the past 6 months. We think it was probably caused by Austin pulling her hair out. About a month ago it finally grew in!
She adores her Opa even though she's only seen him 3 times.
Her favorite color is usually purple (though she still gets her colors mixed up).
She loves going to nursery and is very cooperative when we tell her it's time for church.
She eats all day. Every 30 minutes or so she raids the pantry for a "nack" - nutrigrain bars, crackers, protein bars, apples, fruit snacks.
She makes the funniest faces which elicit many cries of "you're so cute!" from her parents.
She's so polite. She's quick to offer words like, "Thank you for my cereal", or "I sorry I screamed", or if you compliment her clothes she'll say, "You're Welcome."
When she's hurt or upset her comfort is to hold her blanket, suck her thumb and watch TV.

This girl is soooo adorable. If I could clone her I'm sure I could make millions selling copies of my cute little girl. I love my Ruthie.

Up His Nose

2011-03-23T21:20:00.004-06:00

It happened today. That day that every parent dreads. The day their child sticks a small round object up his nose. Austin was munching on a bag of popcorn when Austin's nose and a popcorn kernel met up this afternoon. I investigated after hearing whimpering from the couch. It wasn't hurting him, but he remembered the warning I'd given him a year earlier that if he ever put anything up his nose he'd have to go to the doctors to get it out and it would hurt really bad. I couldn't get it out myself and so I took him in.

He handled it well until the scooper tool actually went in to his nose. Then he freaked out. It took 3 nurses and myself to hold him down while the doctor extracted it. Meanwhile Austin was screaming, "Stop! Don't do this to me! Why are you doing this to me?!" I was so relieved when it was done I nearly cried. Austin was equally relieved and almost giddy when it was finally over and the doctor didn't have to cut open his nose as he'd feared. Austin reported that he had learned his lesson and would "never never never do that again." After the trauma we out for french fries and ice cream to make Austin feel better - or maybe to make me feel better.

When I asked Austin why he'd put the kernel up his nose in the first place (he obviously knew it was a bad idea), he reported that he liked the taste of boogers so he put the kernel in his nose to make it booger flavored. Oh boy!

Best By 8-30-11

2011-02-20T21:10:00.003-07:00

This is the "big" gift I gave my parents and sisters for Christmas. That's right! I'm busy cooking baby #3, due Aug 30th. At this point I'm 13 weeks along (though I swear I look 20). I had my first doctor visit last week and heard the heartbeat so I now feel safe in blogging to the world. Sadly, I'm still feeling like garbage everyday. But I'm lucky to have 2 astoundingly adorable children to remind me everyday that the agony is completely worth it.

Austin is so cute about this baby. He loves to pat my tummy or kiss it or sing or talk to the baby. He has already named our baby too - "Buzz Lightyear James Johnson." So even though we don't know the gender, our baby is referred to as "Baby Buzz" and called a "he." I think Austin does realize though that this baby might be a girl, he's just placing his bet. If it does turn out to be a boy I have a feeling the nickname will stick, even though he will definitely be getting a different name. Every Monday when I "advance" to a new week (yes, I am counting down every single day right now), Austin and I sit at my computer and spend almost and hour looking at pictures of "our baby" on babycenter.com to see what he looks like now and all the weeks to come.

Ruthie, on the other hand, is having baby sympathy pains. Well... she's picked up on my global excuse to lay around and whine all day. If she wants her blanket and I tell her to go get it her response is, "You go get it. The baby in my tummy hurts me." If she's hungry and I'm too lazy to feed her she'll tell me, "The baby in my tummy is making me sick." She also knows that Daddy and Austin do not get to use this excuse because "only Mommies and Ruthies can have babies in their tummies."

I am so thrilled that this little one is on it's way. We've planned on a third for a while and so for several months before getting pregnant, when we'd be out on fun family outings, I'd think, "Our next child is missing out on all this fun!" Well no more! Welcome to the fam baby Buzz.

August Doings

2011-01-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

A few quick pictures from the month of August....

We had lots of visitors! Opa came out from TN and the Molloys came up from AZ. The grandkids loved playing with their Opa. Especially Ruthie. She was quite enthralled with him - it was adorable. Amber, Mike and Henry stayed at our house. We always have a blast hanging out with them. It was so fun to see little Henry getting to be so big! We also had a visit from Jeremy and his boys Colton and Miles. The boys quickly enticed Austin up in to the tree with them. It was a lot of fun to spend quality time with the fam.

Opa and Oma gave Austin a t-ball set for his birthday. Here he is playing a modified game with daddy of "hit the ball, run to the fence, get the ball, throw it at daddy."

Austin is 4!

2011-01-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

For Mr. Boy's 4th birthday, way back on August 1st, we had a Dinosaur Train party. I enjoy throwing themed parties. I recently discovered how simple it is to make my own iron-on t-shirts, so instead of goodie bags, I sent all the kids home with Dinosaur Train shirts ($3 from Walmart). We played all sorts of themed games - including bug collectors, pin the tail on Buddy, present "fishing" and of course riding the Dinosaur Train! We borrowed my mom's bouncy house for some added fun.

Austin requested "the same cake Buddy got on his birthday." Being a terrible and impatient cake decorator, I printed a picture of the cake and just put it on top of the one I made! Thankfully Austin was satisfied.

Party guests: Audrey, Ruthie, Ethan, Taylor, Joseph, Austin, Malachi, Inza, David and Nathan (not pictured).

If anyone out there has an opinion - what do you think of throwing parties for your kids every year? I honestly don't mind the work (right now) and I like the celebration, but I worry that other parents might feel burdened by buying my kid gifts year after year. Plus most people around me seem to be in favor of the "party every other year" plan. What do you think?

Now for some "being 4" highlights:

Soon after turning 4 Austin started writing letters on his own. One day, out of the blue, he just started writing. Moments like that amaze me. What kids can pick up on their own. Since his birthday, his writing has been reinforced by preschool and he's getting pretty good. He still sometimes balks against holding his pen the correct way, but he'll do it if I remind him to "do it the way Miss Shannon tells you." Sometimes he'll ask me how to spell things and write them out. A few weeks ago he surprised me by writing AUSTIN, RUTH and HIDE (my name) all by himself (and he asked for help to write ANTHONY).
As mentioned, Austin started preschool in August. His teacher praises him often for his smarts. He quickly picks up on new things and is great at counting and memorizing. Did I mention the day he recited the Pledge of Allegiance? I had no idea he was working on it until the whole thing popped out of his mouth one day!
Austin loves to build. Train tracks, Legos, Playdo, marble run, his airport station - if it can be built he'll be enthralled. Then he'll spend an hour playing a make believe story around his creation. These are good care-free moments for mommy!
Austin and Ruthie are becoming better and better friends. I'm definitely breaking up squabbles multiple times a day, but they also have moments where they play so well together it delights me. Like tonight, they played "doggie chase" around the couch for 15 minutes before bed and laughed and giggled their heads off.
Austin also has unpleasant 4-year-old moments. Right after his birthday we started working really hard on "being nice". It seemed like he was physically attacking me or Ruthie 10 to 15 times a day. It was beyond aggravating. So we took a "Power of Positive Parenting" approach - which included a lot of praising for correct behaviors. There are days when I swear the system has worked miracles, and days when I think we're almost back to ground zero. Sigh. I keep hearing "He'll mellow out at 5." Here's hoping.
Austin's other unpleasant behavior is his screaming. When he's frustrated, he will scream at the TOP of his lungs. Ruthie has started mimicking this behavior lately too (grrr). In fact, one time, he got frustrated with a toy and let out one of his blood curdling screams in the middle of the sacrament at church! Anthony took him out at lightning speed. At other times I tend to let it go since a) I prefer screaming to hitting and b) I hope that ignoring it might eventually kill it. We'll see.
I was delighted that at Austin's 4-year check up he measured in at 40.25 inches. He hit the magic "big kid" mark just in time for our big family trip to Disneyland!
Favorites (some old some new): green, raisin bran, The Cat in the Hat tv show, Buzz Lightyear, his Batman playset, playing "chase" around the couch, fruit roll ups, hot chocolate, his cousins.

Lullabies

2011-01-09T21:15:00.002-07:00

Those of you who have seen our wedding video know that "our song" is I Will by the Beatles. We've made sure to familiarize our children on this song, so it's a regular in our bedtime lullabies playlist, and a favorite for them. Both Austin and Ruthie know it by heart. OK, Austin knows it by heart, and Ruthie is catching onto the syllable sequence (you never know if she gets the words or just plays them back as she hears them). Case in point, this is from a conversation that Austin had with Heidi a while back:

But mommy, I was so lonely in time out

Then let's make it faster

But mommy, I love you. Do you love me too?

I always, always love you.

Do you love me when we're apart?

That's when I love you the most because I miss you.

And when we're together my song will fill the air. And I need to sing it loud so you can hear me. Like this, "I'm a T-Rex. I'm a tyranosaurus. I'm the biggest carnivore in the cretascious forest." That's my song.

And, finally, a capture of Ruthie singing along with me.

Disneyland 2010

2010-12-31T11:08:00.005-07:00

ur second family trip to Disneyland took place Sat Nov 13 to Sat Nov 20. During the trip we celebrated Ruthie's 2nd birthday on the 15th.

Here's a handful of memories from our fun week, roughly left to right:

1-Lambson kids on the teacups. Their family went to Disneyland a month before us.

2-Austin found a map of the future of California Adventure. He spent 20 minutes comparing his map to the one on the wall.

3-The 'A' boys. Anthony and Austin.

4-Austin showing Pluto his remote control "Shiny Pluto" toy.

5-Anthony buried the kids in the sand at the beach. We spent our last day at the beach.

6-Ruthie started out scared of the characters, like she was last year. On the second day we met up with Koda and Kenai. They didn't have a line, so it gave Ruthie a chance to approach at her speed. She spent 20 minutes watching other kids approach while the bears tried to encourage her to come over. Finally she had the courage to give them both hugs. The silent, perma-smile bears clapped and pumped their fists and coddled her. It was so cute.

7-The 'R' girls. Ruth and Heidi Ruth.

8-Ruthie digging the Playhouse Disney show now that she knows what the shows are.

9-Ruthie has recently adapted Donald Duck as her favorite character. My mom, who came with us, got Ruthie a stuffed Donald for her birthday. When asked, "What are you going to name it?" she replied, "Um... Mickey Mouse."

10-Autopia cars. Austin and grandma rode, but we didn't. Every afternoon one or two of the adults took Austin around to play while another one took Ruthie back to the hotel for a nap.

11-At CA Adventure park with Minnie. We tried to get Austin on the Soarin' ride, but he was still too scared to ride some of those 'unknown' rides.

12-Austin with, who else, Buzz Lightyear! That morning we bought Austin a magic trick so he spent a moment showing the trick to Buzz.

13-Partners statue. Is there a story there?

14-What if I'd married a man my own height? Ruthie helped bury Anthony in the sand. It was cold and cloudy on the beach that day. I kept my jacket on and didn't get in the water above my knees. Anthony and the kids were braver.

15-It sure was fun having my mom on the trip with us. Good times, great memories. Plus we got a date night in the park. While mom watched the kids Anthony and I rode some of the best coasters - Space, Screamin', Tower of Terror.

16-The bubbles on the Nemo ride elicited the biggest reaction out of Ruthie last year. But this year it was just so-so, but still a fun ride.

17-A future princess.

18-Our trip family photo. If I was a Christmas card sender, I probably would've used this picture.

19-Lambsons with Mickey.

20-Ruthie and I enjoying yummy treats. Ruthie was absolutely coated in it by the time she was done.

21-Austin on his big afternoon with grandma. They rode so many rides and had such a fun time together.

22-Stuck in Prim Nevada. Our car broke down on the way there. We were set back 4 hours and got to Anaheim around 3am. Grrr! I'm just glad we got it figured out.

23-Lambson's family Christmas card picture.

24-Dinosaurs. Austin can name all of the dinosaurs! He takes after his mother. I used to love naming the dinosaurs when I was 5 and now my little 4-year-old does it. (Thanks Dinosaur Train).

25-Anthony and the kids braved the cold November ocean water for about 30 minutes before they were totally blue and numb.

26-Ruthie at Minnie's house.

27-My triumphant moment of the trip. Austin rode my favorite ride with me - Splash Mountain! It took a bit of convincing, though. We first had to ride the Matterhorn, then bribe him with popcorn on the walk over and even use peer pressure telling him that even Makayla had gone on the ride! His take? It was fun, but wet. He was willing to ride again, but we never got around to it.

28-Darling wiped out kids. We actually spent long days at the park, crashing around 8 or 9 pm. By the end of the week we were a bit back logged on sleep.

29-Austin wrote his name in the sand. He's gotten so good at that this year!

30-Dumbo!

31-Austin's surprise favorite ride of the trip: Alice in Wonderland. He requested this about 3 times a day.

32-Goofing off in Toon Town.

33-Playing in the Brother Bear area.

34-My boy was just barely tall enough to ride some coasters this year. Scraping the 40" sign at 40.25". He loved Thunder and Splash, but wasn't ready for some of the others. That's ok. It's fun to have something to look forward to.

Rona and Other Sundries

2010-12-05T20:07:00.015-07:00

Ruthie has become quite the little miss independence lately, and she won't stop at irrationality to assert her new attitude. Case in point, take our latest bedtime conversation:
Dad - Ruthie, it's time to put your PJ's on.
Ruthie - No!!! I want Rudolph (the current alias for Austin).
Dad - OK, if we get our PJ's on, we can read books with Rudolph.
Ruthie - No!!!
Dad - Well what do you want to do then?
Ruthie - I want my PJ's.
Dad - Great, let's put them on.
Ruthie - No!!! I do myself.
Dad - That's fine, go ahead and put them on yourself.
Ruthie - No!!!
The other day Heidi was in her bathroom putting on makeup and Ruthie grabbed the eye shadow from her. Heidi said kindly, "Ruthie, would you like to put on the eye shadow." Ruthie replied "No!!! My shadow!!!"
As indicated above, Austin's latest obsession has been Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. That's all he wants to watch 24-7. The other day when he got sent to timeout Heidi overheard Austin quietly brooding in his room, "Why am I such a misfit? I am not such a nitwit. Just because my nose glows, why don't I fit in?"
The Red Nosed Reindeer fad has also rubbed off on Ruthie. Whenever she sees Yukon Cornelius she hollers out "Yuuu-konnnn," mimicking Rudolph and Hermie calling out Yukon's name as he falls off the cliff with the abominable snow monster. Ruthie has also nicknamed the snow monster "Rona." Yes, that's Rona as in Mona with an R. Whenever she sees him in the movie or in our Rudolph book she claims matter-of-factly "That's Rona." Tonight we played the ambiguous wrestling game of kill-or-be-rescued-by-Rona. I'm absolutely lost as to how she picked up that name. TV says: "A-bom-in-a-ble Snow Mon-ster." Ruthie hears: "Ro-na."
"Cooperate" has been the word of the house for the past couple months. "Now, Ruthie, if you don't cooperate...", "Thanks so much for cooperating...", "Are you ready to cooperate?" And the kids have caught on pretty well. And yet, it just sounds out of place coming from a 2-year-old. "I no co-op-e-wate" sounds like we skipped all the middle chapters and jumped to the back of the handbook on language development.
A few weeks ago Heidi was in the church bathroom trying to convince Austin that "this is Jesus' house, so we should be reverent and treat it nicely." Austin's reply was "Wow, I didn't know that Jesus had so many potties in his house." And when one failed to flush he added, "And one of his potties is broken."
Yesterday we went to see Tangled in the theater. When we got back Austin proceeded to turn off all the lights in the house. After singing a little song, he informed us, "See, my hair is glowing!!!" Then he made Ruthie sing (her version: "ladl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl") "Look Ruthie's hair is glowing!!!" In truth, it was pitch black and Austin's hair was definitely not glowing.
At church I was sitting on the foyer couch between two others holding Austin for a time out because he screamed at the top of his lungs during the sacrament. Austin was wriggling so I had to hold him down pretty firmly. After struggling for a while he called out "Dad, you're hurting my penis!" Promptly followed by a blush from a Dad and two couch sitters. Yes, he has no qualms about discussing his body parts.
Last month on our trip to Disneyland we were taking pictures in front of the CALIFORNIA letters at California Adventure. Ruthie got pictures in front of the R while Anthony and Austin got pictures in front of the A. Then Austin climbed up on the A and yelled out "Take a picture of me inside the A-hole."

Page Turners

2010-11-03T17:57:00.004-06:00

I don't know why, but I foolishly started reading The Hunger Games last night. I'd been warned it was good. Anthony read book 1 on a flight to Germany, book 2 on the flight home and neglected the kids for an entire Saturday while I was gone so he could finish book 3. It's not like I have that kind of time. So why did I even start? Maybe I thought I was stronger than that. Maybe I haven't read a good page-turner for a few months and I'd forgotten the ocean-tide-like pull. Actually, I just wasn't expecting it to be that addicting. I started last night and was able to put it down for bed when I finished 'Part I'. I woke up this morning and spent the entire rest of the day neglecting the kids and the house till I finished the book around 5:30pm. For some reason the kids were extra extra good today and I managed to get away with it. I'd take a picture of our tornado house but it's all too embarrassing.

But, this has me thinking - what are the best page turners you've read, recently or not? Here's my list, though I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

1. The Hunger Games (I don't think I've ever ever done a 1-day read like this)

2. Angels and Deamons

3. Ender's Game (The first page turner I ever read back in 9th grade)

4. Harry Potter book 1 (The other 6 weren't quite as "new" as that very first for me)

5. Twilight (and Stephanie Meyer's other 4 books, although caveat: I was pregnant when I read them so I was only too happy to indulge in an escape!)

6. The DaVinci Code

7. The Dark Divine

8. Echo (an unpublished book by Brodi Ashton - I can't wait for Everneath to come out next year)

What am I forgetting? What is your top ten?

Happy (Utah) Halloween

2010-10-30T20:35:00.004-06:00

Halloween comes early in Utah when it falls on a Sunday. Many trick-or-treaters were out and about tonight - including us. Austin selected our costume theme again this year. About a month ago he got super into the new PBS kids show "The Cat In The Hat" - hence The Cat, The Fish, and Thing 1 and Thing 2. I actually get a big kick out of doing family costumes. It'll be sad someday when they want to do their own separate things.

I discovered tonight that I must be a sugar-indulgent mother because this horde of collected candy meant nothing to my children. Austin got home, dumped his loot on the floor, looked at it and announced, "Here daddy, you can have it." Ruthie, on the other hand, wanted to at least try the candy, but only one bite from every package. "Open this, mommy." Bite. Toss. "Open this, mommy." It's ok though, Anthony and I didn't mind eating it all for them.

The Weepies (I Got Bounced!)

2010-10-26T21:42:00.006-06:00

Welcome to "The Weepies"! This has been Anthony's favorite group for about a year now. They did a concert here Saturday night and Anthony got us tickets. I am now totally hooked too! It was a great concert; the only downside being that they only played 10 or so songs and we were well prepared to listen to their entire musical library. If you are reading our blog (not just reading this on an email) you can hear some of their best songs. Click here to check it out. Or watch our concert recording below (if the link is working).

[Us in concert-bought t-shirt and beanie].

Oh, and I got bounced from a club for the first time in my life. (Yes, it was the first time I've ever been to a club in my entire life!) Whenever Anthony and I go out he always drives and pays for everything. I drag along my wallet, hanging conspicuously around my neck like a janitor's keyring. So for once I decided to be free of the burden and leave my wallet at home. Turns out the concert was held at a small music club (with a bar) that held about 300 people. As we approached the front of the line to get in I noticed people showing their IDs. I laughed and said, "Guess I won't be going to the bar tonight! Ha Ha." No ma'am, you won't even be going in. The bouncer dude refused to let us in! Ack! We raced 30 minutes back home, grabbed my stupid wallet, raced 30 minutes back to the concert, missed the opening act and made it 2 minutes before our band took the stage. Phew! Listen up people - never leave your wallet at home!

(Please no commentary on why you should never go without wallet or ID. Believe me, I felt plenty small and stupid about it so just laugh

and don't rub it in.)

Cutest Girl in the World

2010-09-19T21:06:00.005-06:00

Many thanks to Amber for the adorable hand-made dress (seriously - is that amazing or what!?).

My Favorite Picture Of Summer

2010-09-18T00:06:00.004-06:00

This summer we discovered two things:

The kids have more fun playing in our oscillating sprinkler than in their kiddie pool. They even manage to get me to join in the fun!
We love cucumbers! My over-ambitious garden was worth it if for only one thing - Austin figured out how to pick ripe cucumbers and eat them straight from the garden. He loves to cut them in half with his bare hands and share with Ruthie. One vegetable they eat gladly. Yay!

Teaching Children

2010-09-06T20:13:00.004-06:00

Austin's primary teacher called me yesterday morning about an hour before church asking me to pinch hit for her in teaching his class. This is what I love about teaching 4-year-olds: the lesson took me 5 minutes to prepare - then we had snacks - and played with play-do. It's nice when it's that easy! Alternatively, three weeks ago I was asked to teach the Relief Society lesson. Teaching adults is definitely tougher - that lesson took me 5 hours to prepare.

But I just learned that teaching 4-year-olds and teaching 40-year-olds can have something in common. One thing I love about teaching kids is that the lessons are so basic. In Austin's class we learn very basic principles of religion and morality - like being kind, being honest, loving our family, how to say a prayer, etc. I truly love leaving behind the complex and the complicated that we often get in Sunday School and going back to the simple and sweet that surrounds children. This year the lesson manual for the adults is awesome because it actually goes back to the basics. I am really enjoying revisiting simple religious principles. I actually hope that I'll get to teach some more this year (though not too often since an extra 5 hours can be hard to come by).

We Love Gymnastics!

2010-08-01T21:00:00.001-06:00

Summertime was gymnastics time for Austin. He attended the Lehi Rec center program weekly April-June and had a great time learning new ways to move his body. They do a stellar job there - rotating sets of 4 kids through 3 stations with different teachers, sampling each of the major gymnastics events. At the end of each class all the kids put their arms in the center and shouted "We Love Gymnastics!" Austin had a great time with this and I enjoyed 1) watching him try new things and 2) practice taking teacher instructions. Although, after 3 months, he started to resist going so we had to call it quits then.

In May we were treated to a gymnastics "meet" where the parents got to come in the evening and watch these little ones show off their stuff (older kids had a real meet later in the week). In the pic below you can see Austin (L to R) doing tumbling, vaulting, parallel bars, marching in, and balance beam. At the end of the meet each kid was awarded a medal. I included my favorite moment of the night in video - Austin's "Buzz Lightyear" vault.

Happy 4th

2010-07-05T21:41:00.007-06:00

This is something I haven't done in a good 6 months - blogged an event right after it transpired! Well I'm all caught up baby! Go me! (Of course, I stopped taking pictures for about 3 months to help with that...)

We started our holiday traditions Friday night with a visit to Provo's Freedom Days. The kids made crafts and Anthony and I grabbed some lamb gyros, which were delightfully reminiscent of German duners. The festival didn't do much for me this year - not sure if we'll attend next year.

Saturday morning (the "official" holiday in Utah) we took the kids swimming in the morning. In the afternoon we dropped Ruthie off at Lisa's (she had a great time) and met up with the rest of the fam to see Toy Story 3. As you can see, Austin was so excited, he wore his Buzz Lightyear costume for 2 straight days. Take on the movie? I loved it. Pixar is great. Toy Story 2 is still my favorite of the trilogy. Poor little Austin was deeply disturbed. At one point the bad guys capture Buzz and tie him to a chair. This is were it started to get hard for Austin. He leaned over to me and asked, "Why does Buzz have to go to time out?" Then the bad guys flipped Buzz's reset switch and turned him into a "bad" guy. Austin crawled into my lap crying and asking, "Why is Buzz being mean?" I kept reassuring him that his friends would save him and to keep watching. He did, ducking his head into my arm several times and at one point telling me, "I just want to see Toy Story 4." He made it through the movie and was happy with the ending, but confessed to everyone after, "That movie was just a little bit scary for me."

Following the movie we dashed off to Debbie's house for some evening nummy BBQ and fireworks.

Anthony overate. I lit my traditional parachutes. Ruthie stayed up till 10pm. And Austin got a girlfriend. A neighbor of Debbie's (whom she doesn't know) hooked up with Austin during the course of the evening. Wherever he led, she followed and he seemed quite content with her company. He didn't know her name (Lacey) and she kept calling him Buzz (which makes me wonder if she was won over by the uniform), but they sure were cute to watch. Her dad ran over to snag pictures of the duo too. Anthony thought we were watching the Austin and Lacey show more than the Stadium of Fire.

Ruthie is 18 months

2010-06-27T20:00:00.004-06:00

On May 15th, Ruthie was officially 18 months old. This little girl seriously AMAZES me. When you ask her, "How old are you?" She quickly responds, "Two." Most days, I believe it. I tell people she is 18 months going on 3 years. Here are a few of the amazing things Ruthie can do:

(I wish I had pictures of everything. Perhaps I'll take some and retroactively add them).

At the park, she can climb from the ground to the top of the big slides and go down in a sitting positions - all by herself.

She can run - and she and brother love to play chase every day.

Every morning, she feeds herself a bowl of cereal and get 80% of it in her mouth. (I've gotten accustomed to the daily clean up of the other 20% ).

When we put on the "Oo and Ah" song in the car, Ruthie sings along. "Oo Oo, Oo Oo, Oo Oo, Ah Ah." It is so stinkin' cute.

To this day she's still not really a night-time cuddle-bug. If she'd let me, I'd hold her and sing to her for much longer stretches, but when reading time is done, she starts to cry and wriggle. Maybe I just haven't mastered the bed-time routine the way Anthony super-dad has.

That said, Ruthie is (and has always been) the easiest kid to put to bed. She actually asks for naps. No joke!

She has her routine. Every morning she greets me with, "I cererereal now." Immediately following breakfast she announces, "T B" (for tv). She and Austin watch one or two PBS kids shows while I get some things done. Then we're out of the house and playing. We come home in time for lunch about noon, at which point she announces, "nap." It's a tough life.

Ruthie is a very happy, pleasant girl. She's super easy and often does her own thing quite happily. The things that upset her, though, are 1) brother trying to bend her to his will with pushing, pulling, or sitting on her; 2) her morning routine thrown off; 3) waking up from naps early; 4) diaper changes.

She is definitely a girly-girl. When I let the kids wander through the toy aisles at the store, Austin heads toward the Toy Story, Batman, Leggos kind of stuff, while Ruthie heads for the babies, strollers and purses. I have not pushed this at all and her supply of girl toys is still severely under par. But it's amazing to me to see the natural gender differences in these two.

Ruthie definitely talks like a 2-year-old. She uses over a hundred words (I can't count them all) and frequently uses 2-word, sometimes 3-word sentences! Nursery leaders, the gym daycare workers and many other adults often comment on how well and how much she speaks. We never bothered teaching this little girl sign language because she's been communicating her needs since she was 1.

Some of my favorite funny words are:

"bank-bank" = blanket
"cuppy" = drink
"bop-bop" = grandpa
"ma-ma" = grandma (and I'm "mommy")
"cerleerreeal" = cereal
"weee" = swing
"tank oo" = thank you

Some of her clearest words are:

"Debbie"
"Tyce"
"shoes"
"socks"
"nap"
"car"
"hungry"
"ta-da"
"doggie"
"alright" (this was one of her earliest words too and it cracked us up every time!)

Some of her best word combinations are:

"play car"
"stop it"
"I did it"
"No, I do"
"Daddy, are you?" (where are you?)
"Daddy work"
"I oo oo mommy" (I love you mommy)

My precious daughter is a blond-haired, deep-brown-eyed, cherub. I'm so so glad she's in my family. What would life be without having both a boy and a girl to enjoy? Ruthie, your mommy and daddy love you fiercely - never forget that.

Gardening 102

2010-06-27T18:30:00.002-06:00

Year 2 of gardening is underway! My gardening efforts actually began in February with a technique I learned 2 years ago called "winter sewing". Cut open a milk jug, fill it with dirt, plant your seeds, tape the jug shut, water well, leave the cap off, toss it out in the snow, and don't bother with it until May! The first 2 pictures below are our February gardening efforts. The next is the result in May: beets, onions/carrots, peppers, squash. Here's what I learned about winter sewing this year: 1) don't start until St. Patricks day - all my plants out grew their containers a month before planting time. 2) plant peppers indoors and start them in January - they just don't grow in the cold and they grow slow. 3) plant only one type of seed per jug - when they get big they're hard to separate. 4) for big items, like squash, only plant 1 or 2 per jug so they have plenty of room to grow. Winter sewing is a blast though. It's like having your own nursery starts for super cheap and very little effort.

The last photo (above) is the zucchini plant Austin started from a seed in preschool. When it got big enough, he planted it himself in our backyard. Today, it's got a few little zucchini's starting to grow (picture 4 below).

Here's how our garden looks today: Our new honey crisp apple tree, our new garden plot, our new lemon Elberta peach tree, Austin's zucchini, last year's expanding raspberries. This year our garden contains: watermelon, zucchini, rosemary, raspberries, winter squash, summer squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, carrots, onions, beets, tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. We've harvested all 10 of our miserable strawberry crop already (here's hoping I can do better next year). Everything else is just starting to bloom and I can't wait to start eating it!

First Preschool

2010-06-27T18:30:00.000-06:00

This past year Austin was part of a little neighborhood playgroup/preschool. We met once a week, rotating turns between the moms. This was sooo great for Austin - to make good friends, and to be exposed to other "teachers" and "lessons". It was good for me too - to enjoy teaching and to see Austin in comparison to his peers. (Which is probably important to me because he's my first to go through everything).

Our adorable group of kids (L to R): David, Inza, Nate, Austin.

Austin writes

2010-06-27T18:00:00.000-06:00

My little man is growing up in so many ways. In the past few months, his art work has changed drastically. He now draws recognizable faces and bodies and will tell me who is who in his art work.

He's also started writing his name! How do kids pick this stuff up? I never taught him how to write a single letter. Yet somehow, one day, he stumbled onto making an 'A'. A few months later, the other letters started to appear then suddenly - bam! - he was writing his whole name.

Supper Nanny to the Rescue!

2010-06-27T17:30:00.000-06:00

Boys will be boys. Right? No way! Back in April I stumbled across an episode of Supernanny that changed our family. If you're a fan, this was the episode about The Johnson Family (fitting, eh?). In that family's 3 rowdy boys, I saw a reflection of my own adorable son. So after that show, I made Anthony watch it online, bought the book and cracked down on time-outs. It's helped A LOT. On the one hand, it has reduced Austin's physical lash-outs, which typically land on Ruthie or his cousins, by half or maybe even in fourth. The other big thing it has given me is a way to react to him calmly. I used to get so frazzled when he just wouldn't stop and wouldn't listen to me. But he responds to time-outs (if I use the Supernanny technique). It has cut my "loosing it" by a good 98% - and that is heaven sent! Thank you Supernanny!

Easter

2010-06-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

So Easter was, what.... 3 months ago? Ni yah. Just a few fun photos from our celebrations. We got sooooo much candy, that we actually only just finished it off about 2 weeks ago! Go Easter Bunny!

Rex Lee and Susan G

2010-06-27T16:14:00.001-06:00

Another Rex Lee in the books (end of March). Debbie was my buddy this go round. We had a great time - and I actually won something in the raffle for the first time in 8 years! I got $10 to Hogi Yogi - after donating $240 over the years. Remember kids - gambling is dumb.

Debbie and I walked the race this year (5K in just under 1 hour) because I'm still nursing a bum knee from an injury over a year ago.

A month later (May), Heather, Debbie and I all walked the Susan G. Komen "race" in SLC. That was some experience! It was curb-to-curb people for a solid mile. We couldn't have run, or even speed-walked, if we'd wanted to!

A Conversation Between Father and Son

2010-06-11T21:25:00.008-06:00

Austin struck up the following conversation with me while lying in bed before bedtime.

Austin: Honey, wanna hear a joke?
Anthony: Sure.
Austin: What did the pineapples say before eating themselves and eating themselves again and then they go to bed?
Anthony: What did they say?
Austin (in a high-pitched three-year-old this-is-the-punch-line voice): We are going to eat ourselves and eat ourselves again and then go to bed.
Anthony: {Laughing to himself}
Austin: Honey, what's the funny part of that joke?
Anthony: {Laughing to himself some more}
Austin: Honey, what's the funny part of that joke?
Anthony: I don't know, you're the one who told it, what's the funny part?
Austin: I don't know... Wanna hear another joke...

Goodbye Thumb... NOT

2010-05-09T20:20:00.002-06:00

On Sunday March 7, we wrapped Ruthie's thumb, told her her thumb-sucking days were over and cried with her. She stayed up late that night watching Baby Einstein because she couldn't fall asleep without her thumb. We did this same technique with Austin at the exact same age. He gave up the thumb after only 2 days. I thought Ruthie would be easier. For 2 solid weeks we wrapped her thumb. Every nap and bedtime she wailed for 20-60 minutes. This was extra hard to take since Ruthie has been soooo easy to put to bed her whole life. Chuck her in the crib with her thumb and her favorite blanket (in the picture) and she basically goes right to sleep. Without her thumb, she soon learned to suck on her finger, or fingers, or her hand or arm or other hand. What were we to do? Put her in an upper body cast?

So yeah, Ruthie won the battle. The wrappings ceased. The thumb returned. Sleep returned. And everyone lived happily ever after.

(We figure that when she's 3 or 4 we'll try to help her give up the thumb using sticker charts and all that good stuff).

Bits and Pieces

2010-05-09T19:43:00.005-06:00

Some old old updates (super quick):

1. Austin has a cat. It doesn't belong to us. I don't have to change it's litter box. But he loves it like it was his very own (aka - sporadically). It belongs to our backyard neighbors and comes to visit every so often. Austin has named him "Filbert". It's either after Calliou's cat Gilbert, or Sid's dog Filbert - or both.
2. We went to Thanksgiving Point's Cornbellies in October (ancient news, yes). The kids loved it and I am totally planning on getting a membership for it this year.

3. I came in to my kitchen one day to discovery this.... Austin used the step stool to climb up the wall, to the fridge, to the cupboards, and eventually made his way in to the pantry. Hopefully he got in enough trouble to never do it again (but not before I could get a picture to remember how secretly proud I was of his bravery and skills).

4. We carpeted our living room in December. Love it! It has cut down on the echos in the house 10 fold. We roll around and wrestle on it pretty much daily. It has made our home so family friendly.

5. A month ago we wrapped up our singing group. We went every Wednesday for 6 months to Brie Frank's "Cherubs" group where we sang kids songs, played instruments, danced with puppets, and had fun. Pictured below is our Valentine's Day party.

Germany

2010-04-03T21:43:00.002-06:00

Ah, the perfect vacation. It will be a long time before we can do something like this again. Anthony has been wanting to take me to his old mission for a while, but between finances, pregnancy and nursing babies, it's never been a good time. This year, he had a work conference in England in January, so we thought, "why not?" My parents heroically accepted to watch our kids for 10 days. So we met in Germany after his conference - Jan 18-27 (counting air travel days).

Day 1 (Tuesday) - Stuttgart

Anthony wanted to see a little of south Germany, but still be close enough to get to Berlin. So Stuttgart became our starting point. Turns out it's not really a tourist site, but it was a great place to catch up on jet lag, see a busy modern German shopping district, buy a fun new game, and get some insanely delicious doners and gelato (I'd return to Stuttgart just for those)!

Riding the Rails

One of the big treats of Europe is experiencing superb public transit. We used the U-bahn, S-bahn and Strassen-bahn (did I forget one Anthony?) to get around. (Anthony informs me I forgot the Regional-bahn). I loved traveling by train from city to city. We talked, ate, read and slept without any driving stress. It was also fun to see the countryside of Germany - even if it was covered under feet of cold January snow. I got a kick out of seeing the rented gardens along the rail. People in cities who want to try their green thumb can rent a 50-square-foot garden in the country to tend. Clever idea. And it makes me grateful for all my free backyard dirt!

Our travels took us from Stuttgart, to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, to Dresden and finally Berlin.

Day 2&3 (Wednesday-Thursday) - Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Recommended by the Duffin clan, we were so delighted by our stop here. Rothenburg over the Tauber river is a well-preserved medieval city. The houses, streets and protecting wall all stand much as they did 500 years ago. We stayed in the atmospheric Gasthof Goldener Greifen (the mayors old house). I discovered one of my most favorite German meals here too - Spaetzle.

We spent Thursday visiting the church and two famous museums in town. I learned some crazy things about old-time laws and punishments. In some ways it sounded barbaric, in other ways it kind of made sense. I mean, if you were caught quarrelling with a neighbor, you both had to stand in the town square locked to each other for a day. How many poor sport soccer parents would we have with punishments like that? It kind of makes me wonder how people 500 years from now will view our system of lawyers and courtrooms to "prove" (or artfully convince) one's innocence. The big claim to fame of the city is the original well, which brought life-giving, fire-stopping, water in from the river. It's underground canal was kept top secret so enemies couldn't destroy it.

The most unique feature of Rothenburg is the fortress wall surrounding the entire city. Significantly bombarded in WWII it has since been restored. It's a blast to walk along the ramparts of the wall looking down into 500 year old history and out the loopholes (windows) at modern day Germany.

Day 4&5 (Friday-Saturday) - Dresden

Moving further north, Dresden gave us a taste of German art culture as well as WWII destruction.

A few fun pictures from Dresden I took to show my kids.

Home of the famous Saxon king Augustus the Great, this is where he commissioned and collected hundreds of amazing vessels and sculptures in all different forms. The vault consisted of 10 rooms each with a different theme - such as bronze, silver, amber, crystal, etc. This was perhaps my favorite art collection I've yet seen. We also visited the famous "Old Masters" painting museum, where I discovered that I'm not a big fan of looking at the same 5 Biblical stories painted over and over again in various forms of nudity. Sculptures rock. Paintings bore. And so we moved on to...

Day 6-7 (Sunday-Tuesday) - Berlin

The city where Anthony served his mission. Anthony planned to be in Berlin on Sunday so we could attend the East Berlin ward he served in. (I nearly froze to death in my nylons walking to the church on the coldest January day Germany has seen in 100 years!) Anthony had a great time being back and reminiscing with familiar people. We were invited to the home of Werner Riedel for dinner (authentic German cooking!). He spoke fair English, his wife spoke none, but still I hardly felt the language barrier as we enjoyed talking about their many travels. On the way home we snagged pictures of Anthony's first mission apartment and the familiar street he walked everyday.

On Monday we explored the city. We started with a freezing morning walking tour (which we almost skipped because of the cold and we're both glad we didn't). We stopped in the U-bahn to see pictures of the burning Reichstag, visited the Jewish memorial, the Bradenburg Tor and of course, the Berlin Wall. We spent the afternoon at Checkpoint Charlie and then swung by the Reichstag that night (next collage). That picture of my feet - that's me standing on the Berlin Wall! Red bricks mark the original path of the ripped-down wall throughout the city.

With all the build up of 14th century Rothenburg, 17th century Dresden, it was at the Berlin Wall that the great panorama of history gelled and came alive for me for the first time. On Tuesday we visited the German history museum where I saw for the first time the great cycles of history. Peace, war, new maps. Over and over again. The world I once imagined was stable and flat is actually volatile, cyclical and round. Amazing. Unsettling. It made me anxious to want to learn more of the story. What will happen in the next 50 years? 1000? It's exciting. Too bad I won't know (except in the afterlife), but cool that I get to see so much of that history now.

A few more fun pictures: Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower (think Bourne Supremacy), the top of the Reichstag, old school pinball and "cannons" at the German History museum. Washing our clothes, German "art" (aka graffiti), the famous home of the missionaries' favorite doner spot, rotegrutze (raspberry gelatin in vanilla sauce).

One of the best bonuses of the trip was that we came home with new friends. Irene and Oliver Luedtke and Irene's sister Tine. Irene and Tine grew up in the ward where Anthony served and Anthony helped teach Oliver the first missionary discussions. Anthony was surprised to discover that Oliver is now the ward clerk and that Oliver and Irene had gotten married. They graciously hosted us at the German History Museum and then took us out to an authentic DDR (old Communist) restaurant. All three spoke excellent English. I had a blast getting to know them, hearing their perspective of the fall of The Wall (when they were about 10) and learning all about German vs American culture. Hanging out with them made me want to learn German because I think it is awesome to be able to make friends half a world away.

Of course, while we were away, we missed our kids terribly. We talked with them online most nights - the only way to go with kids so young. They wiped my parents out, but they also bonded like never before. Thanks Mom, Dad, Austin and Ruthie for letting us have this magical trip to Germany!

Tenessee Christmas

2010-04-03T19:42:00.000-06:00

Christmas season officially begins with the decorating of the tree. Shortly after, we blockaded the tree with the couch to prevent little miss curiosity from pulling it over. Every morning, Austin hurdled the couch to plug in the Christmas lights for the day.

Another important family tradition is the annual grandma picture with Santa Claus. Ruthie did not dig this tradition too much. Austin got into the spirit of it, informing Santa he wanted train tracks for Christmas.

We started (hopefully) a new tradition this year - a Christmas mailbox, where elves and mommy can deliver Christmas surprises all month long. This included Christmas stories, crafts, movies, decorations and treats. I didn't bother taking a picture of the mailbox because it was just a diaper box with one end pulled out (you can see it the picture below by Ruthie's table). In the future I hope we'll have a fun day decorating the new mailbox each year and anticipating the fun deliveries.

We celebrated this year in Tennessee. Thankfully, I wasn't pregnant this time, so we could all fully enjoy the trip. Before we left, we had a mini Christmas at home, opening a few family gifts that were too large to travel.
We arrived late on the 23rd, so before we knew it, it was Christmas! The kids lined up on the stairs Christmas morning ready to go. (Christmas PJs were supplied by Grandma Duffin). Some family members were still sleeping in (the thrill is lost in adulthood), but Oma, Opa and Hilary joined my little early risers. One of Anthony's gifts was Jazz tickets (really a gift to me too - we enjoyed watching them win that game against the Nuggets by the way). Everyone's stockings included some traditional items - fruit, m&ms (which I devoured), mini Baby Ruth's, and a bag of Cheetos (which Austin devoured).

Santa did his job well - Austin got his train tracks and Ruthie got a new puppy.

Later, when the rest of the family woke up (poor Amber had a stomach virus!), we opened family gifts. Tia Claire got the kids adorable Disney PJs, and Buzz Lightyear gear, plus a membership to the Childrens' Discovery Museum in Salt Lake! Ruthie got toys and books, Austin got an airport (one of his favorite toys still), I got a cash card which I am using to get a couple much needed massages and Anthony received some stylish new business apparel.
Other notable events included the traditional Christmas candlelight ceremony, a game night at the Barnes (bottom right above), the Gatlinburg aquarium (thanks Amber for planning that!), a lively religion discussion, a trip to the park, lots and lots of fun with cousins Olivia, Sophie, Rosie (Kerry's kids) and Henry (Amber's boy). Ruthie also became a savvy little traveler this trip.

Ruthie learned her first distinguishable word - "Henry"!
(Of course, 3 months later, she now has several good words)

It Starts With P and That Rhymes with T and That Stands for Trouble

2010-02-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm talking potty training. I was intending to wait until after our Christmas trip to TN to tackle this, but it suddenly hit me that we had another big trip in January and that I'd really be waiting until almost February! So we plunged in.

Look at that cute little underwear boy helping to decorate the Christmas tree! There is nothing cuter than a 3-year-old in underwear.

So how did we work it? We started on a Sunday afternoon after church (the day of the picture taken above). I told him he was done with diapers and he was going to wear underwear now. He gave no argument. The first 2 days I gave him 3 M&Ms for every time he sat on the potty. I set my timer to go off every 30 minutes and had him sit on the potty and try. After 2 days he was getting tired of that routine and so was I. Plus, I could tell that he had fully accepting this potty thing, he just needed to "own" it and figure out for himself when to go.

So I introduced this sticker chart. He got a sticker every time he went potty and kept his underwear dry. I thought he'd fill the chart in 3 days, but it ended up taking 5. Five rip-my-hair-out days. It seemed like Austin announced his need to go potty 1 second before it came out of his body. We changed a lot of underwear and spot cleaned a lot of carpet. Obviously, we didn't go anywhere that week. I suppose I could have used pull-ups, but I wanted to get this over with, no handicaps. Finally, on day 7, I had a heart-to-heart with him and asked him if he was trying or if it was just hard. He sincerely told me that he was trying and that it was hard. He was cute. And I decided to have more patience. But, joyously, we woke up the next morning and bang! he'd figured it out. He went dry that day and many a day since!

This was Austin's prize for filling up the sticker chart. For the first 3 days he asked every time he went potty if he could play with his "surprise" now. It was so hard for me to hold out and not give it to him but I wanted him to have a reason to keep trying. It turned out to be just right actually. When he finally earned this, he was so happy! He played with this toy for a solid straight week.

Looking back, the potty training actually went fast, but that one week was excruciatingly frustrating. He only had one poop on the floor incident (phew) which I made him clean up - and I'm pretty sure that convinced him to never do that again. Now he's doing great. We still get wet underwear about once every other day, but he knows how to get himself cleaned up so I'm feeling patient with it. Last week we did another sticker chart to practice wiping himself (that's so nice!). The only big thing left is night-time training and I'm not sure when I'm going to tackle that.

I'm so happy the hardest part is over. He seems so much older and more responsible now. It's definitely changed the way I perceive him and what I expect of him. My little man is truly growing up. And he's at that magical age where he couldn't be prouder.

Ruthie is 1!

2010-02-16T19:39:00.007-07:00

My little baby turned 1 on Nov 15th! How did she get so old so fast? I swear the year has flown by. We celebrated her birthday in style with the whole family and her very own cake to destroy. Everyone commented that Ruthie was the most bold of all the kiddies - digging in almost right away. Her big bday gift from mom and dad was a stroller and baby doll that she instantly loved.

Here is the video montage of the cake destruction. Can she get any more cake in those little hands?

A few fun memories of my little one-year-old, as recorded on her first birthday:

She has the funniest head shake when she's "talking". For any Johnsons out there it's rather reminiscent of her Opa.
She picked up a little phrase from cousin Tyce who frequently calls out "Heidi" whenever I'm around. Now Ruthie walks around saying "Ei-Eee", "Ei-Eee". I get called Heidi before I even get called Mom!
She plays "duck duck goose". Seriously. Somehow Anthony taught her this. She pats his head saying "du. du." and then runs around with him. It's pretty much their favorite game.
She climbs onto the kitchen table. So not my favorite thing. That would be quite a fall!
She loves containers. Loves to move items from one container to another.
She can say "bye", "hi", "da" (dad), "ma" (mom) and "ei-ee" (Heidi)
She can sign the words for "bye", "more" and "dad". Actually, when she says "da" she waves her little hand bye. She's associated her dad with waving bye to him when he leaves for work.
She has yet to refuse to eat anything - except ground turkey.
She has recently been going through a mommy-hold-me phase. For a long time she has been content to just wander around doing her own thing, but lately she wants to be in my arms, so I'm having to relearn my one-handed skills.
She's learned to cry whenever Austin gets near her. It gets mommy to come running before Austin can even pummel her.
She goes down the kiddie slide all by herself, feet first on her tummy. No fear.
She feeds herself almost exclusively. She accepts it if we feed her sometimes, but she's had to learn early to feed herself since I'm only too happy to have my hands free for other things.
She currently takes 1 90 minute nap each day. Very consistent. Very easy to put to bed. Definitely the easiest kid to put to bed I've ever heard of. Often she doesn't even want a wind down time - no stories or songs. Once you get her in her PJs she starts to cry until you lay her in her bed. Then she's instantly happy, sucks her thumb and is ready for sleep.
She still wakes up in the middle of the night. We're working on that.
She is a forager, constantly ready for food. If you are eating anything, she will come up to you, hold out her hand and make begging noises until you share.
She has just started to watch TV. This is important to me because this how I sneak in my extra naps.
She loves bath time.
She smiles every morning.
She has a funny fake-sounding laugh.
She has fine blond hair and deep brown eyes.
She loves her cousins, aunts, grandparents and all.

Disneyland!

2010-01-30T06:00:00.004-07:00

This past November I finally realized my long anticipated dream of taking my kids Disneyland! (It started when I was miserably sick in my pregnancy with Austin. I got through the vomiting and pain by visualizing my future little boy at Disneyland.)

November 1st, the day after Halloween, my whole family got on a plane and flew to sunny California. This included my parents, Heather, Debbie and her family too. My wonderful parents gave us this trip as a gift so we could all go play.

We were there for 5 fantastic days. Already I can't wait to go back! Anthony laughs a little when I say that because my memories of the trip are already rose-colored. I have hopes of putting together a scrapbook dedicated to all our future Disneyland trips. If I ever do, I may share online. For now though (and because I'm so behind on blogging) I will keep it super short.

Here is a collage I printed and framed for everyone for Christmas. Just a smidgen of the good times:

Outside the new Monsters Inc. ride. One of the little kids' favorite rides - including Austin. Austin was pretty freaked out by all of the "dark" rides (the black-light lit rides). We took him on Pinocchio and that sealed the deal - no Snow White, no Peter Pan, no Mr. Toad, no Alice and definitely no Haunted Mansion. I was totally fine with this because I wanted his memories to be happy, not painful. We did coerce him onto Pirates because I had to see the Jack Sparrow updates. Austin spent the entire ride with his head in my lap. Just for the record, the Pirates changes were nicely done and a fun way to pull in more of the movie.
Grandpa and Makayla strolling through Critter Country eating churros. Mmmmm.... churros.
Me and Austin in front of the Brother Bear playground area. Austin and Ruthie had a blast here. I never understood why Disneyland put this boring old playground in their park. Now I get it. Disneyland caters to all ages - playgrounds for kids, farmer's markets and wine galleries for the "elderly". Those Disney guys are pretty darn smart.
Anthony and Austin with their "A", all decorated with a Christmas Goofy. Ruthie and I got a similar picture by the "R". I thought this would be a fun picture to take every year and compare. Turns out, though, that California Adventure is about to get a major overhaul and the letters are going away.
The gang with Minnie. We had a great time playing in Toon Town - a section of Disneyland I'd mostly ignored until this year.
The most awesome parents on the planet! Tigger is my mom's favorite character to collect. She has about 50 Tigger memorabilia.
When we arrived, the park still had it's Halloween face on. This Goofy pumpkin sat atop the entrance gate. By the time we left, most of the Christmas fun had arrived.
On the bus. The kids came to think of the shuttle as being as much a part of Disneyland as any of the other rides. Whenever Austin and I "play Disneyland" at home, it always begins with the bus ride.
Me and Ruthie on the carousal. This girl was amazing. She was so easy. I thought a 1-year-old would be kind of tough, but she completely enjoyed herself. She gave up her afternoon naps for a week (despite a few of my half-hearted stroller nap attempts) and was basically happy and easy going the whole trip.
Kalyana and Makayla with Snow White. Character greeting is another piece of Disneyland I've always ignored. But these kids got into it (as we knew they would). Grandma gifted them with autograph books and they filled them up!
The gang with Pluto. Seeing Pluto at Disneyland holds a special sentiment for me and my sisters. Back in the day (when I was 5ish) my Dad worked for Disneyland. During a park worker's strike, the business guys (my accountant Dad) were called in to run the park. My Dad spent one day operating Small World and another day playing Pluto. We didn't actually see him do that, but as kids that story felt magical.
The entire group in the Tiki Room. A little Disneyland wisdom my Dad passed on to us early in our park-going youth - escape the hot afternoon with some pineapple ice cream and a nice air conditioned animatronics show.
Grandpa and Tyce aboard the Astro Blasters. I still think these rockets were funner when they were on top of the people mover platform. You could see the whole park then! And for the record, I miss the Skyway too.
Heather and Austin on Autopia. What kid doesn't love driving a car? The crazy thing is that even though the park was nearly empty when we went (an average 5 minute line) Autopia had a 40 minute wait the whole time! And for some reason the Fast Pass wasn't working for this ride. We still rode it twice though - and reminded ourselves that Disneyland is way more fun in the no-line off-season.
Tarl and Tyce on Mr. Toad's. It was so great to be on this trip with the whole family. We spent part of the time all together and part of the time in our own families doing our own thing. It worked well. And I love that all the kids have this very memorable experience to reflect on and share (and they do talk about it often).
Perhaps the favorite character meeting - Woody! All the kids are crazy about Toy Story. Kalyana may vote for the princesses, but I'm sure the rest would pick this guy. Sadly, Buzz doesn't do appearances anymore (I'm picturing parental mob scenes perhaps).
Debbie, Makayla and Tyce on Dumbo. The very first ride on the very first day (not counting the bus)!
Grandma and Austin on Tuck and Roll's Bumper cars. Bug's Land was completely empty on Tuesday. Seriously, it was us and two other families. We walked right on to the rides and then stayed on them three or four times before getting off. If you'll notice, my Mom is chatting on her cell phone here. This was a reoccurring theme in many pictures. Mom did a great job of keeping the group together.
The Lambsons with Mickey. We all got pictures with him at his house in Toon Town and again at CA Adventure. No trip is complete without the big guy. (Oops, two #19s. The second is of Sleeping Beauty's castle - the defining icon of the park).
Me and Kalyana on Splash Mountain. This girl, now just above the height limit, discovered roller coasters big time! She was tall enough for all except California Screamin'. I believe she picked Splash as her favorite coaster - despite the cool weather and all. A girl after my own heart.
Mom and Heather with Mr. Big Cheese. Heather knows the parks better than any of us and has probably gone an average of once a year her entire life. She spent the $40 to upgrade her pass to a season pass and is planning to go back with some friends before the one-year mark. $40 extra dollars for another 5 days? Pretty smart.
The family at the Princess lunch. We debated about spending the money ($30 per head) for this character meal, but in the end (and thanks to mom and dad taking the tab) we all felt like it was one of our favorite events. It was so nice to sit, relax, eat great food and recharge our batteries in the middle of the day. The kids had a blast meeting 5 princesses - including the boys (and we saved ourselves 45 minutes of standing in line to meet them).
Anthony, Austin and Grandma on Toy Story Mania. A new family favorite! As Mr. Potato Head says, "It's a ride that's a game. It's a game that's a ride." Tarl ending up pulling in the family high score (of course), but I had a pretty close second. We rode this one twice, but like Autopia, the line was consistently 30 minutes long with no Fast Pass, otherwise we would've ridden it a ton more.
Ruthie looking out the porthole on the Finding Nemo submarines. It was so much fun to watch this little girl enjoy the park. In my visualizations of Disneyland I always pictured Ruthie as being like a 6-month-old blob. I'm glad we didn't go until she was 1. She had so much fun on this trip and delighted and surprised us all with her squeals and laughs and animated faces. This ride was a huge crackup. Every time she saw the bubbles rush past the window she'd point and pant like she'd just won the lottery.
The Johnsons outside the teacups. Notice Ruthie's apple? Grandpa gave that to her. It was literally as big as her head. She loved it.

Oh the joys! Ok, now to recall one or two small drawbacks:

We made Austin wear a leash around his wrist. He hated it. He was the only one forced to wear it and I think he was aware of the unfairness of it. But that boy has always been a boundary pusher. When you say, "Stop!" it's often an invitation to take one more step...and then another. I'm glad we insisted, because momentarily loosing him would've ruined the trip completely (I've lost him before and it is devastating). However, one morning in particular, us Johnsons spent an hour outside the entrance while Austin threw the biggest and longest tantrum of his life, smacking his head on the concrete and giving himself the biggest goose-egg I've ever seen. At long last he gave up and then we had a great time for the rest of the day!
Lack of sleep slowly crept up on us. Us parents went to bed at the same time as the kids because we were that exhausted. Plus, with everyone sleeping in one room, the rest isn't quite as restful.

And finally, three stories I wish I had pictures of:

Austin discovered a love for swimming on this trip. The hotel pool (we only went once) had a 20-foot diameter area that was only 3-feet deep. Austin loved the freedom of being able to run around in the water on his own.
One morning Austin and I got an early start in the park (Anthony and Ruthie took it easy at the hotel for an extra two hours). We did our own thing, including the Playhouse Disney Live On Stage show. Spending that one-on-one time with my boy was so much fun. He finally had the freedom to take the park in at his own speed - walking slowly, looking at decorations, going on Monster's three times in a row, etc. It was wonderful bonding time.
Ruthie slept in the bathtub. She's the lightest sleeper in our family and we didn't want every shuffle of the sheets to instigate a crying attack. Our extra small playpen fit perfectly in the center of the bathtub. So that little girl got to sleep in her own room.

Did I mention I can't wait to go back?!

First Talk

2010-01-17T16:52:00.003-07:00

Austin gave his first talk in church last week - the First Article of Faith. After one Family Home Evening lesson he had it memorized! He gets quite an astonished reaction from anyone he shares with, so he loves to share. In church, when it was his turn, he got up and recited this without any help. We were proud parents.

Halloween

2010-01-15T21:59:00.006-07:00

When we last left our heroes, they were anticipating a sugar-filled Halloween and a trip to Disneyland. Let's see how it all went down.

Halloween night we took the wee ones, plus the L kids to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood. We had a couple fairies, Buzz, Baby Ruth, and me - Jessie, the yodeling cowgirl. Ruthie only went with us to a couple of houses so I could show her off, then my mom took her home. The L girls were all business, running from house to house trying to max out their candy horde. Austin was the opposite, he walked slowly enjoying all the decorations and saying hi to all the neighbors we passed. I ended up carrying him piggy-back from house to house so we could keep up with the girls. Austin did eat plenty of candy that night - licorice, nerds, and lots of suckers. Anthony I got all the good chocolate stuff.

Unfortunately, having our first real neighborhood Halloween, I overestimated the number of trick-or-treaters we'd get. Recognizing the upcoming holidays, Anthony insisted that I not keep that much candy around for us to fatten up with. Crazy, I know, but I'm pretty sure my cub scout parents would not have appreciated me unloading 5 pounds of sugar on their kids.

After a fun Halloween, we got up the next morning and flew to... Disneyland! Finally! That was an awesome trip - and for the next blog post.

Share Your Christmas Fun Ideas

2009-11-25T20:28:00.003-07:00

I'm ramping up for a month of fun in December. I'm excited to have a kid old enough to enjoy the holiday season and I want to play! I'm trying to come up with ideas of things to do and need your help!! Please share with me your favorite family Christmas ideas. Here are some categories to get you thinking:

Movies (TV specials)
Crafts
Early gifts (decorations, toys)
Books
Food
Games/Activities
Outings (that's the big one - stuff like temple square lights - what's out there that I've never heard of or haven't thought of in ten years?)

Thanks everyone!

Nativity Re-enactment 2008

That's Creative

2009-11-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

The kids got creative for Halloween. They made a gingerbread "house", except that if it were to be a house, it would've been my project, so instead they made gingerbread cookies. After gobs of mess on the kitchen table, we moved upstairs and painted the tub with frosting.

What's the difference between a 3-yr-old and a 1-yr-old? About 2 pounds of mess.

We had our first snow of the season two days ago. Austin and Anthony went out to play and this is what they built.

Austin has beaten me to the punch - he wrote a book. His creativity also included writing it on post-it notes in green ink in some form of Swahili. But here's the interpretation... (if you compare this video to the one of Austin's tonsils, you'll notice his voice has changed. Less nasally and higher pitched.)

The full story is as follows. Look for it in stores near you:

Once There Was A Spider

Once upon a time there's an Austin and a mommy and there's a scary spider named Ruthie. And she scared mommy. And the spider walk walk walk to mommy. And the spider went up to mommy's head and the spider pulled mommy's hair out of her head. And mommy said, "Oh spider, spider. Where's my hair?" And the spider said, "It's right here in my hand." And my spider friends want their hairs. And mommy said, "Guys, I want my hair back! I want my hair back! I want my hair back!" And the spider said, "Ok. Ok, ok, ok." And the spider get the hair on mommy's head. And the spider get mommy's hair on her. And she drove. And the spider and mommy drive, drive to my house and the spider drive to my house too. And mommy and the spider drive the fastest. And Ruthie and Austin go to work at their office. The End.

Playing Together

2009-11-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when your kiddies play together? Austin and Ruthie recently discovered yet another game they both enjoy - WALL*E! Austin and Ruthie spent half and hour making trash in Austin's WALL*E box. Ruthie fed the trash in and Austin crushed it. This appealed both to a 1-year-old's love of putting objects into containers and a 3-year-old's love of imaginative play.

31-5-31

2009-11-03T10:11:00.001-07:00

31... years ago (last month) Heidi J. was born.

My little clone was born 30 years later. Is she me, or what?

5... years ago (2 weeks ago) the J Fam began.

31... years ago (last week) Anthony J. was born.

My Tonsils Are In The Trashcan

2009-11-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the whole tonsil history. Mid June, Austin started waking up 5-6 times a night crying, sounding like he'd just had a nightmare. We often laid down by him to comfort him back to sleep. That's when we noticed that his breathing often sounded like this:

In August Austin had his well-child check up where a very exhausted mother complained about his poor sleeping patterns to the doctor. He suggested it might be sleep apnea. We followed up with an ENT who said that his tonsils were definitely large and getting them out would significantly improve his breathing. (To help you decode this picture, his tongue is in the foreground and you can see the uvula almost dead center.)

We scheduled surgery for three weeks later. In the mean time, I did my best to prepare my little man. We checked out a handful of books from the library about hospitals (Froggy Goes to the Doctor, Franklin Goes to the Hospital are both highly recommended). When I saw this Halloween costume and doctor kit at the store, I couldn't resist getting it for him - in an attempt to create a positive association with all the paraphernalia. His cousins were very willing patients and nurses.

Austin did great at the hospital. He was very nonchalant about the whole thing. He was super excited to get his name bracelet, and quite content to watch TV while he waited. I can't help wondering just how much he remembered from being there almost exactly one year ago for ear tubes. (Which fell out just before his surgery and which dropped Austin's ear infection rate from 7 the previous year down to 0 last year). On the left, Austin 1 year ago for ear tubes. On the right, the recent tonsil surgery.

15 minutes before surgery, they gave Austin an oral tranquilizer, which basically made him drunk. It was hilarious to watch him try to sit up like his arms and legs were two sizes too long. We had to put the bed rails up to make sure he didn't fall off. Too bad I didn't get video of that.

The surgery went quick and one hour later we heard him crying as they carried him back down the hall to us. He cried loudly for about 20 minutes, then fell asleep in my arms. When he woke up an hour or so later he was groggy, but great. The next day he seemed almost back to his old self. He was a little more aggressive that first week, which I attribute to the pain killers making his head foggy so that he really didn't "know his own strength." And for 5 days his voice sounded like he'd been sucking helium. I tried to get some comparison video, but the helium sound is a little harder to hear on video. Video 1: The night before surgery, grandma came over to give Austin a Woody doll to take to the hospital with him. Video 2: A few days later.

Austin is now 6-weeks post-op and doing great. I'd throw in video of his breathing now, but he breathes silently now, so there'd be nothing to hear! I'm so glad we did the surgery. He breathes so beautifully now and he wakes up only once a night (sometimes zero). When you ask Austin what happened to his tonsils he reports, "The doctor threw them in the trash can."

Do You Dressup?

2009-10-31T11:43:00.006-06:00

I think adults with trick-or-treat aged kids should take full advantage of the creative opportunity! I've discovered that I enjoy creating a theme around Austin's costume choices. (Ruthie should've been BullsEye to coordinate, but I had to dress her as a Baby Ruth candy bar while I still could!) Last night Debbie and I discussed that the reason we get into dressing up is all thanks to Tarl. Tarl's costume enthusiasm is contagious.

Do you dress up? What are you going to be? Or what would you be if you were cool like that?

Lost Comments - Ya, Yeah, Yea

2009-10-30T21:51:00.005-06:00

I know when I have comments because I get an email telling me so. After changing over my blog I apparently messed up that setting. I just discovered I had comments tonight. What a glorious feeling to go from wondering, "where is everyone?" to realizing they were all there the whole time. Ya friends.

Ok, so does anyone know the proper use of Ya, yay, yeah and yea? I just throw them out at random. It's one of the big grammatical hurdles I've never mastered.

And if you're wondering how to switch over your blog (Rachel), just go to Settings -> Publishing. Then change the address to something like "portalj1". Then immediately create a brand new blog with the old address "portalj". Make the old one private and start publishing on the new one. Voila!

Ruthie and Finger Foods

2009-10-25T18:16:00.004-06:00

Ruthie has taken the next step in finger foods: feeding other people. Lately she's finding more pleasure in stuffing other people's chompers than her own. Like most young families, Heidi brings to church a veritable stash of crackers, fruit snacks, goldfish, and anything else that will keep them busy during sacrament meeting. Today when she divvied out the bags of goldfish to Austin and Ruthie, Ruthie just sat in my lap, fished out a goldfish and stuffed it in my mouth, then fished out another, stuffed it in my mouth... It kept her entertained for a good 5 minutes.

Worst Hour of The Day

2009-10-20T22:21:00.007-06:00

Announcements (blah, blah): I've wrapped up my third year of blogging. Yea me! In the interest of blogging security, I've moved all my old content to a private blog and am starting fresh. Anthony has decided to start being part of our little family journal by chiming in with witty comments - hint, hint.

Do you ever find yourself staring down the clock, urging on each minute, waiting for a better moment just around the next 'toc? When that time arrives for me, 4pm is most often the culprit. My blood sugar is low as I try to hold out till dinner, my kid fun ideas are used up, TV time is long past exceeded and the father of said kids isn't due home for 2 more hours. So I retreat into semi-coma mode. A child's bed becomes my cave as I hibernate the dreaded hour away with an occasional eye looking over at my (please be pleasant!) little ones. When the liberation of 5pm arrives, my second wind kicks in knowing the end-of-day process can begin.

What is your worst hour of the day and how do you deal with it?