Dec 22-28: Merry Christmas!

Did anyone notice how quickly Christmas arrived after Thanksgiving?!  Whew.  It has felt like a marathon in the Johnson household, trying to "convert" our mindset from Thanksgiving to Christmas!  It is especially difficult to get in the Christmas spirit, in my humble opinion, without cooler weather and snow!  For the past few weeks, the temps here in Orlando have been ranging from the 60s to the upper 80s.  You go from wearing jeans and jackets one day to shorts and tank tops the next.  It's very disconcerting, to say the least!

We've had a very busy week getting ready for Christmas, having Christmas and then cleaning up after Christmas!!  We did get to see Kelli's Aunt Margaret and her husband, Guy Robert, for Christmas dinner; it was wonderful to catch up and visit with them and let them see how big both Erik & Elin have gotten.  Since I goofed up and took too long to download my pictures for last week's blog - yes, it is finally posted - I'm going to keep this week's post short on text and long on pictures!!

It was very fun this year to open presents with Erik.  He definitely understood the whole concept of presents representing new toys.  However, we encountered an unexpected issue of Erik wanting to stop and play with the toy he had just unwrapped (or noticed) rather than open the next package.  It took us three days to open all his gifts!!  Some of his favorite toys, in no particular order, are his balance bike (a bike without pedals), his workbench & tools and his stomp rocket (we've had to fish some of the rockets off our crown molding and off the roof already).  He has been running between all three of these toys; at times, he can't seem to decide which he wants to play with first!  Elin was able to tear into some of her packages - her real intent was to get some wrapping paper to suck on.  However, she has been persuaded to play with the toys that were inside the paper!  Her big gift this year is a Little Tikes Activity Garden that has a phone, mailbox, door & doorbell, clock, etc.  She loves to sit inside the 4 walls and survey her domain!  Erik also likes this toy and will try to climb in with her.

Elin is still perfecting her crawl this week; she has a bit of a wobble, but she can move forwards and backwards now.  She is turning out to be very determined!  When she sees something she wants, she will try to go after it with all her might.  Erik's legos and Little People train set are her favorite targets. Elin ended this week by perfecting her sitting-up technique.  She has been able to get from her tummy to a mostly-sitting-up position, but it has always been haphazard at best.  Sabbath morning, I walked into her room  to find her sitting bolt upright in her crib, pleased as punch with herself.  Erik remains a favorite person of Elin's - he can get her to smile and laugh faster than nearly anyone else!

Erik is having a blast with his Grampa and Gramma here.  He goes non-stop from the moment he wakes up (thankfully, he does sleep in until 7:30 or 8 AM most days) until we force him to go to bed around 8 PM.  He does still take an afternoon nap every day that lasts 2.5 - 3 hours.  That is such a wonderful time of day!!  Erik's language skills are continuing to grow by leaps & bounds.  He is talking in complete sentences and comes up with new phrases nearly every day.  He is a complete sponge and wants to replicate whatever he sees someone else doing.  Some of his recent phrases are (sorry, if there is a repeat from a prior post in here):

1.  Open Presents?
2.  No, no, Elin, 'at's naughty!
3.  Dada, wanna play tools with me?
4.  Mama tooted. Say "excuse me", Mama!!  (He did this to me last night after HE tooted!!  When I exclaimed in horror, he corrected himself and said "Erik tooted. Sorry")
5.  Erik dirty; Erik need take shower!
6.  Erik no like it!  (He uses this one whenever we try to get him to eat a new food item!)
7.  Erik want 'nack!  (He tends to drop the starting "S" on a lot of words)
8.  Dear Jesus, Amen.
9.  Erik Awake!

Baby's First Christmas!

The Loot

Erik found the tool bench first!

Elin trying to eat the wrapping paper

Erik's new bike & helmet

Hmm, which to suck on first

Setting up the Stomp Rocket

Stomping with force

Some cool "take-off" picture effects

Love the speed on this one!

Elin's Activity Garden

Work bench & tools (the cordless drill really works!)

Anyone remember this shape sorter toy from your childhood?!  Still a favorite toy!

Erik giving Kent a head massage at the Zoo!

Kelli & Erik touching a 3 year old alligator. We refused to touch the snake, though!

Elin and Gramma (Sabbath, 12/28)

Elin crawling to the Legos!

Elin's first ride on Erik's riding pony!  She loved it!

Bath-time Babydoll.  Look at those huge eyes!

Who can resist the priceless picture of a sleeping baby?!

Dec 15 - 21: 6 months old & Mobile!!!

We started off this week with all 4 of us fighting colds; Erik got a bad cough first and then Elin developed a runny nose & a cough and now Kent is sick with a full-blown cold and I'm nursing a sore throat.  For Elin, I tried putting Baby Vicks on the soles of her feet at bedtime, which is supposed to cure a cough.  And amazingly, her cough never really developed, hallelujah!  I blame our colds on the weather changes - I never know if the day is going to be hot or cool; Kent has also spent considerable time outside after dark, in the cold, putting up Christmas lights (our street goes all out when it comes to decorating for Christmas)!  The weather changes have been especially fun when trying to convince your 2 year-old that he needs to wear something other than tank tops and shorts!  Getting Erik into long sleeves and pants is a nightmare.

Elin started out this week by being soooo close to crawling - she has figured out that she can lift one of her hands while she's on her hands & knees, so I just know that she'll soon figure out the coordination necessary to move both hands and knees!  Watch out, Erik's toys!!  Elin turned 6 months old on Friday, December 20 and she celebrated her "birthday" by crawling for the first time!!!  We were able to get it on video, too.  I'd post it, but have never been able to get a video to successfully post to this blog.  I went back to find out when Erik first learned to crawl and was shocked to realize that Erik didn't crawl until he was 9.5 months old!!  Elin totally won this round.  Wow.  I'm very proud of her for learning to crawl, but I'm not really ready for her to be mobile!  Gramma & Grampa Johnson were here to witness this milestone, so they were very pleased. They are threatening to teach her how to pull herself up on the furniture and walk along it, but I've hopefully but the kibosh on that!

Another wonderful thing that Elin is doing lately is giving "hugs" - often when I pick her up, she grabs hold of my shoulders with both of her arms, buries her face in my neck or shoulder and just hangs on.  She also will cling to me when I try to lay her down on the changing table or on her playmat and after I successfully extricate myself, she will reach up with both hands to hold onto my face.  I love it; she's such a sweet, wonderful baby!!

We did have a scare this week at Erik's daycare.  Kent and I had been at an appointment on Wednesday morning and noticed lots and lots of police cars blocking driveways and roads as we got closer to our neighborhood.  We then saw a car accident that appeared to involve a brick wall around a neighborhood - there were at least 3 fire engines and a lot of police cruisers there.  They actually had the road blocked off.  We were able to get home and then I immediately got into the car to go get Erik from his part-time daycare.  I arrived at the daycare (after having to drive near the accident site again) only to be met at the door by the head of the infant/toddler program saying that the school was on lockdown.  That stopped me in my tracks!  I was told that it was okay for me to pick up Erik and take him home, but not to linger in the parking lot!  Yikes.  I got to Erik's room where I learned that the lockdown was due to armed gunmen in the area and that Erik's teachers had been anxious enough about the situation that they had taken the kids and kept them in a large storage room that didn't have any windows (Erik's classroom is on the back of the building with 2 easily accessible windows during some construction that is going on).  I decided to high-tail it home!  I learned later that the accident we had seen was actually the 3 armed robbery suspects that had caused the lockdown.  The police had been chasing them and set up roadblocks and blow-sticks.  The gunmen ran their car into a neighborhood wall, totally obliterating it.  The police were able to catch them in the neighborhood they had crashed into.   That neighborhood was on my Top Five favorite locations when we were last house-hunting. Can you imagine looking out your back window to see the brick wall come down or to watch as the police tackle & arrest some bad guys?!  Freaky!

Kent's parents, Roger & Mary Johnson, arrived for the holidays on Thursday evening, Dec 19.  They arrived before the kids were in bed, so they got to play with them a little bit that first evening.  We had a nice, "leisurely" Friday that included lots of shopping (I just have to say that I thoroughly dislike Christmas shopping!), errands, playing and chores and ended with a train ride in Tavares, Florida!  The train ride is normally a 30-45 minute loop and, during the holidays, includes singing, cookies and a visit from Santa.  However, there is some repair work being done to the track and as a result, the train was only able to go forwards and backwards on a 1-2 mile stretch of track.  I found that a bit annoying, but Erik didn't notice anything was wrong.  Thankfully, we got vouchers for a future train ride to compensate!

 Our week ended with Sabbath School and a quiet Sabbath afternoon.  Kent is still sick with his cold and elected to stay home to rest, so Gramma Mary and I took the kids to Sabbath School.  It was a packed house!  We got there a few minutes late (of course) and had to split up in order to find chairs.  Mary got the easy assignment and sat with Elin, who promptly fell asleep and napped throughout the rest of the class!  I sat with Erik in a cramped little section of the class and proceeded to spend the rest of the class chasing him over chairs, picking him up off the floor and dragging him back to his chair from the center of the classroom.  Normally, Kent does this part, which I am VERY thankful for.  by the end of the class, I felt like a sweaty, limp rag.  A friend and I were joking that we should just come to class dressed in spandex, tennis shoes and headbands since it is such a workout!  Elin wore a new Christmas dress from Nana Chalker; this inspired a photo session after we got home. :)

Dec 8 - 14: From SeaWorld to the Sea

I've decided that the reason it is so hard for me to update this blog is that I can't add entries to the blog just by thinking of them!  If only that would work!!  I promise you that I spend considerable time during the week thinking of what I'm going to write on this blog; unfortunately, my thinking is generally done outside the vicinity of a computer!

We had a very busy week this week starting with Kent's Christmas work party that was held at SeaWorld on Sunday morning.  It started with a brunch at one of SeaWorld's pavilions and then we had free tickets to the park for the day.  Kent and I surprised ourselves by leaving the house with plenty of time to arrive before the breakfast began.  We made it all the way through downtown Orlando before realizing that we had left our tickets and parking pass on the kitchen counter.  Oops!!  Back home we went and subsequently arrived at the breakfast in our usual fashion - late!  One of these days, we will get it figured out.  Erik had a wonderful time at SeaWorld; we started out on the Polar Express experience (where we met Santa) and then spent quite a bit of time in the Happy Harbor children's area.  Kent got to go on all the rides with Erik while I took Elin to the Baby Care house and spent some quality time in the Mother's room.  We watched the Clyde & Seamore show (always a favorite) as well as checking out the shark exhibit and feeding the seals & sea lions.  Has anyone ever been "targeted" by the mime/clown at the start of the Clyde show?!  I had sent Kent & Erik into the stadium while I stayed with the stroller since Elin was napping.  Since she woke up before the show started, I grabbed her and the diaper bag and walked in to try & find the guys.  I assumed that they would have just walked in and found seats right away on the edge of the stadium, but I couldn't find them.  Then I see the mime approaching... uh oh, I hate being put on the spot and being the target of someone else's humor.  I thought briefly about turning around and running away, but decided I was made of sterner stuff.  The mime pulled me into the stadium and "helped" me look for Kent - by taking my cell phone and listening to Kent talk.  I'm frantically scanning the audience for Kent & Erik, but can't see him due to all the other men that have now stood up, holding their cell phones to their ears.  When I finally got my phone back, Kent gives me helpful tips on how to find him - like "Turn this way" and "No, look further this way" and "I'm over here".  Hello!!!  I was hoping for literal directions - right, left, past the pole, behind the guy in the purple polka dot shirt, something to work with!!!  I finally did find Kent, but I was sweating it for a bit.  We attempted to see the penguins at the new Antarctica exhibit, but the line was too long.  Then it was time to head home for naps.

On Monday, Erik's school was closed for Parent-Teacher meetings.  Kent & I both made the meeting (Kent was only 1 of a couple Dad's that were able to attend, which pleased the teachers); we learned that Erik is overall a good kid at school but has some trouble sitting still during circle time or assemblies - he gets distracted easily and often has to sit next to or in between the teachers!  Thankfully, we didn't hear anything too earth-shattering; we were told that the next PT meeting would include a more comprehensive overview of his skill set and abilities.

On Thursday, my work group held a Farewell Party for me to make my "retirement" official.  They had a wonderful spread of Mexican food (my favorite) as well as salad, fruit and chocolate cupcakes (another favorite).  They requested that I bring both kids to the party so that everyone could see them.  Thankfully, both kids did great and Elin only fussed near the end after she had been passed around for awhile.  Erik also started going a bit crazy just before we left as he started to battle his sleepiness (he has started to walk/spin in circles when he is tired - he must think it helps to stay alert - maybe I should try it!!)  There was Christmas candy on the table that Erik desperately wanted, but we were able to divert his attention.  First, Auntie Amy made faces whenever Erik held a candy up to her asking if he could have it.  He thought this was great fun and did it long past when Amy was done with the game, I'm sure.  Then several of us convinced him to take the tin of candy and give a piece to everyone in the room.  I wasn't sure if he would do it, but sure enough, he took that tin and handed everyone a piece of candy.  It was a great way to help empty out the tin because who can say no to a cute 2 year-old handing out candy?!  We also sent Erik around the room giving everyone high-fives to keep him occupied.  While I'm glad that both kids behaved themselves and that everyone at work got to see them, I do regret that I wasn't able to have any long - or rather, any complete - conversations with my co-workers.  I know that I left at least 3-4 conversations mid-stream to deal with a child.  I hope everyone at work knows how much I value the time I spent with them and how much I miss them!!

On Thursday night after Kent got home from work, we packed up the car and headed off to meet my parents at the Atlantic Ocean for a long weekend at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm City.  This was our 2nd annual trip to Hammock Beach and I warned Kent that I may want to make a tradition of it.  The resort was nearly empty with only 20 guests there when we checked in - or they were at 20% occupancy, can't remember which. We stayed in a different part of the resort this year, the Main Tower rather than the Villas, and we were all quite pleased with everything.  We had a 3 bedroom suite with a full kitchen and a wonderful view of the ocean & golf course.  It was only a short walk to the pools or to the beach.  Erik was able to entice lots of walks out of all the adults there. The weather wasn't the greatest for a beach trip, but it only rained a little bit on Sabbath afternoon.  Otherwise, it was fairly pleasant and since the pools are all heated, we didn't have to curtail the water sports!  We had a wonderful time with my parents, especially letting them play with the kids while I napped!!  While we were together, I decided to pull my new stunt and force everyone to dress alike and take pictures. :)  My suggestions to take photos kept getting pushed back, but I finally persevered and we took some family photos on Sunday morning before having to pack up and leave.  I've included some samples below.  I think they turned out pretty well, considering that Erik cried whenever someone other than Kent tried to hold him.

Elin's favorite new thing this week is to blow raspberries!!  She has certainly discovered her tongue and loves to make noise with it.  She has frequently responded to questions or comments with a little "phssst" as well as spraying anyone close enough!!  She has also been making some "mmmmm" sounds and trying to pop her lips!  She is a very vocal child and loves to squeal, laugh, "talk" and hum herself to sleep.  It's interesting that I can usually tell Elin's cries apart in regards to hunger, sleepiness or boredom whereas I could never do that with Erik.  Elin is nearly sitting up on her own. She goes from being on her hands & knees and somehow gets onto her bum.  I've watched her do it a few times and still can't quite describe how she does it.  She also does manage to get herself around even though she is not yet crawling - she does a roll, twist, roll, twist combination to get from point A to point B.  She is extremely fascinated with all of Erik's toys, especially his legos.

The Johnson's at the Beach - look at my kiddos holding hands!!

Family Picture at Hammock Beach

With Pops & Nana - Erik is crying because Kent isn't holding him!

Nana & Pops with their happy grandchild!

A picture where Erik insisted on holding "baby sister"

The Girls - Nana, Elin & Kelli

Wave-watching

Hee, hee - one of my favorite ways to torture Kent - "get a picture of us kissing!!"

I love this picture of Elin snuggling in

Birds in motion!

Kent and his mini-me

The Johnson's at SeaWorld - a rare picture smile from Erik, but Elin is looking down

Watching the seals

Nov 24-Dec 7: Thanksgiving and a Return to Normal

Well, here I am, definitely falling back into old habits and getting behind in updating this blog.  Oops.  Let's see if I can't quickly get caught up here - this post may end up being mostly pictures!!

The week of Thanksgiving started with a holiday party at Erik's school.  Erik and his classmates enjoyed a delicious little luncheon while all of us parents stood around and took pictures of the kids eating cookies & potato latkes while wearing construction feather headbands.  The kids then did some songs for entertainment; our little angel, Erik, refused to participate and kept moving around the room and then crying when we tried to get him to focus!  Yay, what a joy.  Other than that, it was very cute to see all the kids together singing and dancing.

Erik & his headdress.  Blue lips courtesy of his cookie - the only thing he ate entirely!

Elin & Kelli at the party

We hosted Thanksgiving this year for part of the Chalker clan - Kurt and his family came down from chilly Virginia to meet Elin for the first time as did Kalvin from California.  It was so wonderful to see everyone and to spend time catching up. Erik & Elin adored all the extra attention and weren't shy or hesitant around them at all, which was great.  Erik actually became quite attached to my brother, Kurt (see left side of first picture below) - while they were here, Erik wanted "Unca Kurt" to do everything with him like picking him up after his nap or helping him with supper; it was very cute to see.  Erik also loved playing with his cousins, Jake & Caden - they were very good sports about not having any "big boy" toys.  Erik spent a good part of the weekend calling both Jake & Caden by different names - his name for Jake was Zachary (we assume he was getting confused with our friend, Zachary Zbaraschuk) and his name for Caden ranged between Caden, Caleb and Kayley!!  Again, my nephews were wonderful and didn't fuss (overly much) about it, they would just laugh and correct him.  

Our big meal was held Thursday night after Kalvin flew in from California.  I hate struggle with planning & executing big meals.  I think I have it all mapped out with timing, which pots/pans are to be used, the order of food preparations, having enough serving utensils, etc.  It starts out slow and I think to myself that I can totally do this and it is going to be perfect, then the crunch part of the timeframe arrives and I realize that I am usually way off-plan and the food isn't all going to be ready at the same time, I'm missing several serving spoons, and/or I forgot to put the dinner rolls into the oven.  I may have had a teeny, tiny breakdown during the dinner preparation and there may have been a few witnesses to see this supposed collapse and hear some bemoaning of my own talents that may have taken place!  However, all the food was eventually on the table, we were able to bless the food and dig in!

Other notable events over the long weekend included a trip to LegoLand that only excluded Kelli & Elin, a trip to the beach (it was very windy, but not too cold), playing football in the yard, playing football at the beach, watching football on Thursday and on Sunday and playing more football in the yard. With six guys in the house (and 2 ladies who also love the sport), football was a very important part of our weekend!  We were very sad to see all our company leave.


The trip to LegoLand was perfectly timed as Erik is starting to be extremely interested in his Duplo Legos.  He loves to build towers; as he is putting them together, he will frequently stop, hold the stack up high and announce "Erik's Tower!!" in a nice loudspeaker-type voice.  One of his other favorite games is to play "na'night" where he pretends to be sleeping.  He really wants Elin to play this game with him.  Whenever she is on the floor, he will lie next to her, put his arm over her shoulders and tell her "ssshhh, na'night"!  Very cute.

In the world of Elin, I swear she is going to start crawling in a week or so.  When she gets up on her hands & knees, she rocks back & forth really hard and has started to lift up a leg.  She hasn't figured out how to pick up her hands yet, but she will get it really soon.  She usually just ends up lunging forward and doing a face plant on the floor.  Her current favorite things right now are to suck on her toes, doing belly laughs (especially when getting her diaper changed), and reaching for everything & keeping Kent & I are on toes. She is super interested in everything around her; I often have to take her back to her nursery to get her to nurse and definitely to nap!  She has a super sweet personality; she is very happy and mostly content with whatever is happening.  When she does cry hard, it nearly breaks your heart to hear it.

Before I end this post and publish it, I want to share some of Erik's current common phrases.  His language skills have just been exploding in the last few weeks; he is even starting to grasp the differences in pronouns and how to apply them to different people or situations.  It is so much fun to hear what new phrases he will come up with!

1. "Be nice to Erik" - spoken in a pleading or hurt tone, generally when he wants something he has been refused or when he is getting into trouble
2. "Erik no like it" - generally spoken at the dinner table
3. "Shall we open it?" - he loves when packages are delivered at the house and always wants to immediately open the boxes.
4. "It's Erik's - not Dada's!" - this phrase can be modified to suit any situation and is usually employed when someone is touching a toy or item that he thinks belongs to someone else
5. "Sala or Selah" - he just started using this one last week.  I think he is trying to say Tada as he only uses this word when his lego tower is complete and he holds out his arms to announce that fact!
6. "Is that our house? - No, Is that our house? - No, Is that our house? - We're home!" - this is a game Erik & I play when we drive home from school.  We start it as we approach our street
7. "No, Dada do it!" - Erik uses this whenever I have the gall to try to do something for him that he wants Kent to do
8. "Actually..." - this word just started to crop up recently.  Kent says that I use that word a lot, so that must be where Erik got it from
9. "Erik Awake!" - a common proclamation when we go to get Erik in the morning or after his nap.  He has also just started using this as a reason why he shouldn't have to take an afternoon nap!
10. "so cute-so handsome" - I heard Erik use this phrase with Elin last week.  He was looking at her in her crib and touched her face and kept repeating this phrase over & over.  I guess he's been told the same thing a few times!!
11. "uns one" - Erik's way to say "This one".  It took some time before I figured that one out!!

Hot Tub Time for the Guys (Erik cuddling with Uncle Kurt)

A little adoration for Elin!

Group Photo

Elin & Aunt Jenny Giggle Time at the beach

Kent & Erik at the beach

Kelli and all the kiddos at the beach

Erik & Kent on a Lego Safari

Kent & Erik on a boat ride at LegoLand