Dec 26: Merry Christmas!

I decided to "splurge" this year and take a full week off work over the Christmas holiday.  My work schedule is very hectic from December until mid-February(I know, when is it ever not?!), so taking a week was truly a splurge.  I did have to work remotely for part of one day, but I was still out of the office!  We spent Christmas with the Chalker family in Greeneville, TN at Kirstin & Lee's home.  All of us were able to be there, which is the first time in several years.  We were able to get a complete family photo which was one of my main goals after learning that we would all be able to make it!  The funny part of the photo-taking process, is that while we were waiting for the camera to be set up for remote shooting, Erik started kicking Jake in the back.  I tried to hold Erik closer to me and further from Jake, but that didn't work very well.  Then Erik started putting his feet on Jake's shoulder, so I decided to go with it and just put Erik on Jake's shoulders!  Jake was a great sport and actually thought it was great fun.  Erik does love his big cousins!

The complete Chalker Family!

I found that I did have the typical Florida-resident problem of packing for warmer weather than what we actually encountered, so I was cold a good part of the time we were there!  In my defense, I had looked at the weather forecast before packing and the temps weren't that different from Florida, really.  However, a cold & wet weather system came through the day after we arrived (no idea why that wasn't forecasted!!).  Oh well, thankfully, I did pack significantly warmer clothes for Erik!  I also did one better than inadequately packing:  since we flew up almost 6 days before Christmas, I decided that I would finish my Christmas shopping in Greeneville, assuming that everywhere has stores just like Orlando does!  A big oops on my part!  Greeneville has a Wal-mart, Belk's and a JCPenney's and that's about it unless you drive over an hour to a larger city.  I was flabbergasted!  How do people live like that?!!  (I know, I know, I'm totally spoiled)  Thank goodness for Amazon prime & free 2-day shipping. :)

Even with my Floridian issues, we had a wonderfully relaxing time while in Tennessee.  Due to the wet weather, we couldn't spend much time outdoors, but had a lot of toys to occupy us indoors.  Kirstin's house had 2 separate flights of stairs, which Erik absolutely loved!  Kent & I were on constant alert, being prepared to jump up from whatever we were doing to rush to the stairs to monitor Erik.  I think we climbed up & down the stairs 20 times a day.  Made me so very thankful for my 1-story house in Florida.  By the end of the week, Erik was begging to go outside to play and wouldn't want to go back in even if he was cold & wet!  Kirstin & Lee also have a terrier-type dog, Stella - Erik would follow that poor long-suffering dog around saying "daw, daw", patting it, poking it and even trying to ride it!  And no, Erik's fascination with the dog doesn't mean that he will get one of his own. :) 

Erik playing with Stella, the dog

Opening gifts-the boxes were more interesting than the toys!

Getting a hug from cousin Caden

Helping Auntie Kirstin put away silverware

So happy to be outside!

Dec 8: First Haircut

Erik has had his first haircut!  We held out until he turned 16 months old and then all three of us couldn't take it anymore!  Kent had been mentioning a haircut to me since before Erik turned 1, telling me that Erik was not allowed to have long hair!  I thought his hair was cute until probably the beginning of November and then I decided it had gotten long enough, and with no curls to make it look cute, I also was on board for a haircut.  I think Erik was ready before either Kent or I!  He had taken to pulling at his hair in the back when he would get frustrated.  It was almost as if he was saying that he was upset and this hairdo was just making it worse!!  It was especially bad during his baths; when we would wash his hair, it would hang down past his neck onto his back.  That seemed to drive him nuts and he would pull and scratch at his neck.  Poor little guy.  We were all set to get it cut mid-November, but then Grandma Johnson asked for us to leave it long so that she could see it.  Not sure it was worth it, because again, no curls!!

We got his haircut on Tuesday, Dec 4, after work.  In our rush to pick Erik up and get to the salon, we forget our camera of course.  Thankfully, Kelli's iPhone was handy so we did get plenty of photos and videos.  Erik did pretty good during the haircut, all things considered.  He is very curious, so he would keep turning his head whenever someone would walk by or a blowdryer would turn on.  He sat on Kelli's lap for the first part of the cut, but then we stood him on the floor for the rest of it so the hairdresser could get to the back and sides better.  Some of the pictures below show how we had to bribe him with snacks!  Erik's hair is so fine that the piece we saved had to be stored in Kent's shirt pocket as it fell out of both the tiny rubber band and the bobby pin that we first tried to use!  Now I just have to figure out how to save it in Erik's baby book.  With all my scrapbooking supplies, I should have something!

Here are some before, during and after pictures of Erik's hair.  Since it has been awhile since I've updated the blog, I'm opting for a short entry with plenty of photos!!

Before: Fly-away hair

Before: Long enough to have little tufts come off the back

Before: Wet, spikey hair during bath

During: Bribing Erik with snacks to get closer to hairdresser!

During: Kent giving Erik more snacks with the buzzer is being used

After: Success - we're done! 

After: Not the best post-haircut pose, but the best that I could get!

Nov 25: Happy Thanksgiving

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we were pleased to have Roger and Mary join us.  We were eager to have them see Erik again.  They last saw him in July and it seems like every week that has gone by he is changing more and more.  Erik is now walking proficiently so Grandma and Grandpa got a little more exercise than they had been accustomed to on previous trips.  They also got a good dose of reading books for 1 year olds.

Roger and Mary were here the 19th - 26th.  Some of the highlights in no particular order are listed below:

* Grandma teaching Erik the "Grandma Dance" as Mary named it.  While it's not something you'll see on dancing with the stars, it can be mastered by a one-year old, so there's a good chance you can do it.  I would describe it as a fast paced potty dance.

* Installing a tree swing for Erik to use at home.

* Going on an all afternoon shopping trip for groceries where Erik got to ride in the shopping cart in three different stores!  What a trooper.

* Riding on the Home Depot electric shopping cart with Grandpa

* Reading numerous stories with Grandpa and Grandma.

* Erik showing Grandma & Grandpa how he can't sit still for Sabbath School.

* Erik getting to stay home from daycare all week!

* Erik getting 2 naps a day!

* Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for several of our friends and their families that were in town over the holiday weekend.

* Meeting family friend, Donovan Kurtz, at Maggiano's near I-drive (tourist central in Orlando)

* Going to Mount Dora to the corn maze and seeing Santa!

* Putting up the Christmas tree.

* Watching Hallmark Christmas movies.

* Special thanks to Roger for installing various electrical items such as ceiling fan light kit, stove lights, programmable switches and of course for helping put up Christmas lights, etc.!

* Erik climbing the ladders while Grandpa was working...against Momma's wishes!

* Being in the swimming pool and hot tub in November!

We were hoping to post some videos to go along with a few of the items in the list above, but its now been a month since Thanksgiving and the videos aren't ready, so we are just going to post a few random pictures from that week and move on!

The Johnson's at the Corn Maze

The Johnson's with family friend Donovan Kurtz

Erik hugging the lamb in Sabbath School

Showing off a new North Dakota hat with Grandma

Erik being a shepherd!

Thanksgiving Food - yum!

Nov 1-18: Time for another Catch-up!

Well, once again, I've fallen off my own personal bandwagon and gotten several weeks behind on updating this blog.  My apologies to anyone who has checked the blog in the past few weeks only to find no new information!

The month of November, thus far, has been a very busy one and since we are on the verge of the official holiday season, the busy factor is only going to grow. {sigh}  Work deadlines are also looming ever closer for both Kent and I as we deal with monthly financial closes, preparing presentations for board meetings, prepping for year-end close and the annual audit, completing & getting approval for next year's budget, just to name a few of the special projects that we are dealing with on top of our regular work loads.  Needless to say, the end of the year and therefore, the holiday season isn't generally a fun one for us. :)

However, I do realize that the real reason you have logged onto this blog is to hear the latest news and see some recent photos of Erik!  So, enough about Kent & Kelli - let's talk about Erik.  I mentioned in my last post that Erik had 3 molars breaking through.  Well, he now has all 4 of his 1st molars that have broken through the gums and are mostly all the way out.  It is very odd looking at him when he laughs now that he has more teeth.  It also makes me that much more hesitant when it comes time for his bedtime nursing.  Thankfully, he hasn't bitten me in a very long time!

We didn't do anything for Halloween this year except answer the door and dole out candy to the more than 200 trick-or-treaters that come through our neighborhood.  Yeah, I typed that correctly - 200+!  Our neighborhood is near several apartment or condo buildings, so we get a lot of kids from there.  Plus, we live in a rather large neighborhood and the neighbors on our street have earned the reputation of being exceedingly generous to the kids.  Kent did the honors this year and couldn't believe how many kids came by.  Sometimes, they would come in groups of 10-15 with a second group swarming onto the porch before the first group was gone.  Kent tried to keep an accurate count, but lost the battle early on!  Erik loves our front porch and he was thrilled to see all the action.  He stood in the doorway with Kent to greet the kids and wave at people.  We let him stay up a bit past his bedtime so that he could enjoy the festivities; thankfully, none of the costumes seemed to scare him (can't say the same for myself!).

Erik standing in doorway waiting for next group of trick-or-treaters

Erik has had his first pony ride!  This past quarter, the Sabbath School theme for Erik's classroom has been the farm.  There are 3 rocking horses that are brought out near the end of the program for the kids to ride on.  However, Kent & I (okay, mainly Kent) spend the majority of Sabbath School chasing Erik as he runs up front to sit on the horse.  It's so much fun to go back to our seats with a screaming child who refuses to walk on his own, so you end up half dragging/half carrying him back to his chair!  The local elementary school was holding a Fall Festival and when I heard that there would be pony rides, I knew that the Johnson's would be attending!  Erik wasn't afraid of the pony at all and actually went "hands-free" for a good portion of the ride.  I've added some pictures below; you'll note that Erik doesn't crack a single expression in any of the photos.  Even though he loves the pony ride in Sabbath School, he was trying to figure out how the real deal worked!!

The beginning of the pony ride - he's hanging onto the saddle at this point.

Just past the half-way point: no hands and he finally looked up from the saddle

In other Erik news, he has begun to show an interest in feeding himself!  Up to this point, he has been very content to let Kent or I feed him.  We have actually been very happy about this as it is faster and so, so much neater!  However, we were aware that he would need to develop this skill on his own soon.  Well, Erik has taken matters into his own hands and started "asking" to hold the spoon as we fed him.  He is now able to hold the spoon on his own and get it from bowl to mouth with a pretty consistent success rate!    He still needs some help actually getting food on the spoon, but he does pretty well otherwise.  He is also kind of neat - if he can feel food on the outside of his mouth, he will wipe it off with the back of his hand (I'm sure he will ask for a napkin any day now!)  I've included some of the pictures from the first few "self-feeding" episodes.

Holding the spoon all by himself!

Eating raspberries out of a little jar (one of his favorite things to play with in the kitchen)

And one last picture to tide you over until I can update this blog again!!  This was taken by Katelyn Pettijohn who babysits Erik on occasion.  He had a fever a week ago that resulted from his MMR immunization; fevers require that Erik stay home from daycare until he is fever free for 24 hours.

Reading outside!

Oct 15-27: Single Parenting

Yes,  I know.  I'm 2 weeks late posting this entry.  I'm blaming the business trips that Kent has been on the past 2 weeks. :)  He has been traveling A LOT lately and I've been a single parent from Monday-Thursday the 1st week and Monday-Wednesday the 2nd week - and this during my busy season at work with the 2013 budget deadline looming very near.  By the time that Kent arrived home each week, I was exhausted.  I have so much admiration for single parents after weeks like these.  There really is no personal time or time for chores until after Erik is asleep, then I have to rush around getting everything ready for the next day, cleaning up the current day's mess and then logging onto work and trying to get a few more things done.

Due to the decreased humidity and temperature that central Florida has been enjoying lately, we've spend several of the past Sabbath afternoons at local parks.  We have discovered that Erik loves loves loves to swing.  I think he could swing for hours.  He also likes to slide, though he tends to fall backwards or to the side as he descends so we don't usually let him attempt any slides on his own!  I've included some pictures from one of our recent visits to our favorite park in Maitland.

Riding the see-saw (aka teeter-totter) with Daddy

He switched to Mommy's side to even out the weight!

At the end of a slide "run" - notice the hair!

Assistance from Daddy - gotta love static electricity!

"Please, sitting on slides is for babies!" 

A slide race with Kaleb Zbaraschuk 

On his beloved swing!

Latest Words:  'nana for banana.  He says this very clearly - I'm sure that my Mom, whose title is Nana, will be thrilled to hear this one!

Latest Achievements:  Erik finally got some new teeth this week - I was starting to despair that he would ever have more teeth.  On Wednesday night, I saw that 3, count 'em, THREE, of his first molars had broken through his gums with the fourth not far behind.  Poor little guy has been extra fussy and congested lately; I'm hoping that his temperament will improve and his cold will go away now that these teeth are here.

Oct 14: Silly Boy

This past week has been a rather difficult one for Kent and I in relation to work & scheduling.  I mentioned last week about all the holidays that Erik's daycare observes in the months of September and October.  This past week was the last week of the holidays and our lives should have gone back to normal.  However, Erik got sick and so we had to keep him at home.  Kent and I had to do some fancy  re-arrangement of our work calendars so that one of us could be home with him. Thankfully, our wonderful baby-sitter, Katelyn, was able to help us out a day or two.

Erik had a fever off & on over the last weekend and then on late Sunday afternoon, he started to get a rash on his arms & legs.  At first, I thought it was bug bites after going for a walk through the yard, but the rash got worse on Monday & Tuesday.  It got bad enough that I finally took him to the doctor on Tuesday; they couldn't say for sure what he had but they thought it looked like Hand, Foot & Mouth disease.  He didn't have the trademark sores in his mouth, so they warned me that it could be coming soon.   Apparently, this disease is diagnosed after the fever breaks and the rash appears; the rash also marks when Erik was the least contagious!  Oops - hopefully no one who has interacted with him in the past week will get sick.  We were wonderfully fortunate in that Erik never did get the mouth sores; his rash gradually receded until we deemed that he could go to daycare again on Friday.    Erik has always been a pretty good little patient; he doesn't fuss or cry much and his attitude and behavior stay fairly normal (one reason it is so hard to decide when he might actually be sick!).

Other than being a bit under the weather, Erik has recently begun to exhibit a thoroughly silly nature!  He is so funny and is turning into quite the tease!  He loves to take something that Kent or I have and then taunt us with it!  He will walk away from us and then hold out the item waiting for us to come chase him!  This week, he and Kent had quite the little tug-of-war over Kent's water bottle with Gatorade in it that Kent was drinking after working in the yard.  I've included some pictures below - they may be a bit blurry when viewed full-size, sorry.  Oh, and no worries - the bottle was in the "locked" position, so Erik didn't drink any of the Gatorade!

No, let me have it

I almost have it! (look at his biceps!!)

Look, I licked it - that means it's mine!

Ha, ha, I win!!

Erik also loves to play with our cell-phones; Kent charged one of his old phones this weekend so that Erik would have his very own "working" phone that would have a colorful touch-screen.  He will hold the phone up to his ear and say "O, o"! (which is short for Hello, of course!)

O? O? Who is this?

So happy to have his own phone!

And one more picture of my silly boy(s)!

Silly boys with pizza boxes as chef hats!

Oct 7: Happy Thanksgiving (if you are from Canada)!

Oops!  I forgot to post this entry last week!  I did think about posting it every day, if that counts!

Erik goes to a Jewish daycare and we have learned that there are a lot of Jewish holidays in the months of September and October.  The daycare has been closed for at least 2 days for the past four weeks.  It would be great if Kent or I could just take time off work to spend with Erik, but unfortunately, these holidays are happening during budget season as well as during the month-end close for the 3rd quarter (aka very, very busy time at work for accountants).  For those of you that are wondering what holidays there are in September & October, I've got just the list for you!

Sept 17-18: Rosh Hashanah (New Year)
Sept 25-26: Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
Oct 1-2: Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
Oct 8-9: Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah (Assembly of the 8th Day and Rejoicing in the Torah) - these are technically not part of Sukkot, even though they occur right afterwards)

We ended the week by celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with all our Canadian friends that we met here in Florida!!  Even though Kent and I are not Canadian, our friends have made us honorary citizens and let us partake in their delicious celebration.  So, Happy Thanksgiving, eh!

The adult table - I couldn't get a wider angle on my camera!

When I downloaded pictures today from my camera, I found some old pictures from early September when Kalvin was here visiting (and when Erik, Kent & I all got the dreaded flu).  Thought I would share some of the pics of Kalvin & Erik!

Sept 30: Boston

We have completed another trip with Erik in tow!  We just spent the past week from Sept 25 through Sept 30 in Boston, Massachusetts, for ACC Corporate Retreat (Kent's employer).  This was the first trip to Boston for all 3 Johnson's.  Before heading up north, I had checked the weather and saw that it was going to be mostly sunny and in the 70's.  Beautiful fall weather that I couldn't wait to experience.  Unfortunately, after our first day there, it changed to rainy & in the 60's.  That certainly put a damper on the outdoor excursions that Erik and I were going to do while Kent was in meetings.  We spent a lot of time in a nearby shopping center walking around and people watching.  I managed to restrict my shopping to only one store!  We also went to the New England Aquarium, the Boston Commons & Public Garden, we started the Freedom Trail, took a duck-boat tour (on land and on water vehicle), we ate at Quincy Market and took Erik on his first subway ride.  There was one part of the ride where I got separated from Kent & Erik and ended up on the opposite side of the car.  I looked over and saw that Kent & Erik sitting on a bench and they were literally surrounded by girls oohing and aahing over Erik.  I tried to take a picture, but had a blocked view.  By the time I had a clearer view, there was only 1 girl left (see bottom picture below)!  It was quite funny to see Erik looking up at a circle of 4-5 girls all hovering over him trying to hold his hand and waving at him!!  Kent said that one of the girls had red fingernail polish on and Erik kept stroking her nails trying to touch the color!  Erik loved the attention - I'm not sure how I got a social child - maybe when he gets older, he can do all my talking for me!!!

Even with the not-so-great weather, we really enjoyed our time in Boston and look forward to going back again to further explore the city.  We really liked the Back Bay area where our hotel was located and thought that the city had great character.  It actually reminded Kent of London.  I've included some pictures of our Boston trip below.

Outside the New England Aquarium

Out and About in Boston

Watching fish in the HUGE tank at the New England Aquarium

Finding adoring fans on the Subway!

This past week, Erik continues to display some new "tricks" - we have been trying to teach him sign language, such as milk, Daddy, Mommy, more, all done, etc - on Tuesday, Sept 25, he did the sign for "More" when eating!!  I was super excited to see him use a sign that he has completely ignored for the past year.  He has used it correctly since last Tuesday.  It is amazing to see him learn how to communicate.  In addition to some sign language, his vocal skills are improving.  I've mentioned that he has mastered new words like "Up" in recent weeks; he is now trying to string multiple words together.  He has been saying "All dun" when he is finished eating or wants us to stop something like wiping his nose, he just started saying "Up, Dada" this week when wanting to be held and will say "Dankt du" when he has been handed something or after I say "Thank you"!  I love hearing him try to say words; it is so cute!

14 Months: Construction, Cars & Church

During the past few weeks, there has been road construction on various roads surrounding our neighborhood and last week, the construction got to our street!  Ironically, the construction vehicles showed up just after Kent had talked to a neighbor about when the city might ever repair our street.  How nice that the City of Altamonte Springs heard Kent's conversation and decided to address his concern right away!!  Erik was very pleased to see all the big construction vehicles and one night they actually parked all their vehicles right in front of our house.  We had to take the unique opportunity and took some pictures!!

Construction vehicles in front of our house

Erik learning how to drive!

Erik is actually turning into quite a driving fanatic.  He loves to steer any vehicle that we will allow him to get behind the wheel, as evidenced by the picture above.  In the past few weeks, we've also occasionally let Erik sit in the driver's seat of Kent's Lincoln.  We are going to have to start hiding the keys soon, I think!!

When are you going to let me have the keys?

This week marked the first week that Amy & Karis brought their baby girl, Addison, to church.  We had to mark the occasion with pictures, of course.    Poor Addison is going to grow up completely surrounded by boys (seven to one)!  The photo session proved beyond any doubt that it is completely impossible to get 7 boys to look in the same direction at the same time with happy, normal smiling faces!!

First, a picture of all the boys. Count 'em - seven!!

With Addison & Amy added

The whole big group of us!

We learned some sad news this week.  One of Erik's little friends from daycare, Dylan, has just been diagnosed with cancer; Dylan is just 15 months old.  After being sick for a few weeks, he was hospitalized and had some tests run.  A tumor was discovered but it is too big to be surgically removed, so Dylan will have to undergo chemotherapy through a port to shrink it down to an operable size.  All other scans and tests that Dylan has undergone have come back clean, which is great news.  I simply cannot imagine how Dylan's parents are handling this; trying to stay positive and trying to keep Dylan calm and happy.  Please pray for this family.

One last picture from the last few weeks:

Erik napping at daycare on his little nap mat