The Johnson's: May 3-10: Celebrating Motherhood

This week in May was a relatively quiet one, as we tried to recover from our weekend at Camp Kulaqua and prepared for a visit from Nana & Pops Chalker, who are coming to stay with me while Kent has a weeklong business trip. On Sunday, after getting home, Kent washed the cars & started to teach Elin the fine art of wheel washing (never too early to start that skill-set), as well as mowing the yard & playing in the pool with the kids. During the week, we did our normal errands along with a monthly library run to stock up new books for Pops & Nana to enjoy reading to the kids.

Elin has developed a "lovely" sleep habit on our last few trips where she will wake up between 1-3 AM & start screaming. That girl has got some lungs, let me tell you (it may be her Castleberg genes coming to life)! She will then only go back to sleep if I'm holding her - and by holding her, I mean she is sleeping on my face or neck. Super fun times. By the end of our trip, I'm usually completely trashed & ready for a real vacation (or dark, quiet cave). Since we have been in close quarters on our last few trips, I haven't let Elin cry it out when she wakes up. She will carry-over her lovely sleep pattern into the next week or two after we are back home, as well. However, this week I decided the gloves were coming off and we needed to stop this nonsense. It took awhile (read, into next week after Kent was gone & my parents were here), but she finally started to sleep a full night through again. I had to turn off the monitor volume and close all doors between her room & mine. I still heard her, but it wasn't so loud that I couldn't go back to sleep after making sure she was physically okay on the monitor! I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but Elin can now reach from her crib to the pocket door for her little room. When she wakes up, she will open it up and then (depending on time of night/morning) call or scream for us. I will often wake up to "Mommy, where are you? Awake! Get up!"

On Friday, Erik's school had a special Mother's Day program that Elin & I attended. We had story-time & treats in his room and then we all traipsed over to the gym for a large program. It was jam-packed and all the kids were hyped up on sugar from the treats & excitement that their Moms were there. It was pure pandemonium and, if I can be a bit snarky, a rather unique form of torture for Mothers (who were trying to get their kids to behave) & teachers alike (who were trying to get kids & Moms to be quiet so we could hear the songs & speakers)!!! My kids did okay on the volume part, but not so great on the sitting still & leaving other kids alone part. Elin especially began to rove around our immediate vicinity to look at the other kids & then found a small flower on the floor & begin to tickle another mom in front of us with it!! She would take the flower & lightly tough it to the woman's shoulder, arm or head. I pulled Elin back to sit with me several times, but she would always escape & go back to the same lady! Thankfully, when the mom looked around to see what was happening, she laughed & said it was okay. Another funny moment happened near the end of the program when I overhead a mom furiously whisper "this is my day; it is supposed to be about me!" to her little boy who was pestering her about something. Ahh, the sweet moments of Motherhood!!!

On Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day, we went out for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, Keke's. We thankfully arrived before the huge rush. No family photos this year (except the rather bad one at the bottom of this post) as neither kid was cooperating. Just before we sat down to eat, Erik tripped & skinned his knee. His day was toast from that point on - as well as his ability to walk!! He certainly loves to milk an injury for everything he can get out of it. He was hobbling, limping & carrying on about it for days; you would think the poor kid had broken his leg or something! Kent totally won the prize on Mother's Day gifts this year! He got me a canvas poster titled "What a Difference a Day Makes" that has all our birthdays, as well as our anniversary date on it. He, along with the help of Erik, also got me a beautiful butterfly necklace. The gift I am going to treasure throughout the year, however, is the Coupon Book that he made me with coupons for Dad does dishes, 1/2 Days Off, Date Nights, Family Weekends Away, etc!!