Apr 17: A Princess Party and Kent vs the Lizard

This post is coming at an odd time since I'm posting it on a Thursday night, but we were out of town for the past 5 days, so I missed my "normal" (ha, ha) post time of Sunday night.  I'll tell everyone more about our trip on my next blog post, which is scheduled for this next Sunday night!

Last week started out with a double birthday party on April 7th for our friends, Ella & Lily Fuentes, who are the daughters of Kent's fellow Union graduates, Edman & Michelle Fuentes.  Kelli & Michelle also used to work together at Florida Hospital a while back.  Ella & Lily's birthdays are just weeks apart, so Michelle & Edman decided to do a combination party this year.  Erik is just a few months younger than Lily and they attend the same Sabbath School class.  Both girls are super cute.

I will admit to some trepidation when I found out that the theme of the joint birthday party was a Princess Party!  I wasn't quite sure how my little boy was supposed to fit into that picture.  We were very pleasantly surprised to discover that the party was actually a laid-back affair with a bouncy house as the main attraction.  Kent braved the bouncy house with Erik and after a few minutes of somberly checking out the new digs, Erik was pleased as punch to play inside the house or go down the slide - provided Kent was with him, of course!  I got to sit & relax with the other Moms.  I've included some pictures from the party below - some from the bouncy house and some from playing in their backyard after lunch.

Lily & Erik - got Erik looking at the camera

Now we have Lily looking at the camera - couldn't get one with both!

Loving the slide! 

Hitting the barrier at the end of the slide - Erik couldn't be happier!

Cheesy smile

My guys!

A crazy incident happened just yesterday (Apr 17) to Kent, which is what is prompting this mid-week post.  I generally do not mind geckos, but when one is in my room and very much alive & active, I do mind very much!  The next part of this post is in Kent's own words:

Tonight after I got home from work I was playing with Erik in my car letting him roll the windows up and down etc. when I saw Kelli come outside with a look on her face that indicated all was NOT well.  She strolled up to the car window and explained that a gecko had gotten in the house.  A gecko, which is the technically incorrect term assigned to the common little lizards we have in Florida, had made its way in the house and was using our master closet as an obstacle course leaping from one thing to the next. 

I have never been a person that relished touching reptiles, fish, snakes, or really anything without fur.  When presented with such situations there is always an internal groan trying to figure out how I am going to trap these things without touching them.  A couple weeks ago I had the pool net in the house with its 8 foot handle in a 3 ft wide hallway trying to scoop one off the wall.  I was successful in trapping this lizard in my net until 2 seconds later it heroically leaped 10 feet in the air from my net and scurried on the floor under the closet door only for me to have to start all over again.  The next day I came back to the hallway and he was back on the wall.  This time I successfully nabbed him with a hand towel and proudly escorted him back outside, happy that I had extricated the reptile without having to touch him or resort to clotheslining myself with the pool net!

So presented with yet another lizard challenge…Erik and I searched for another hand towel in the garage and made our way in the house.  We moved things around and made noise but there was no sign of any lizard in the closet.  Then Kelli came in to explain the last whereabouts of the lizard…a little more looking revealed nothing.  Then a lucky (or unlucky) glance on my part to the top shelf of the closet revealed Mr. Lizard sitting on top of Kelli’s duffel bag.  Kelli let me hold Erik a little longer to make sure the lizard didn’t leave our sight while she fetched a chair.  Upon her return she took Erik, wished me luck as I mounted the chair with my patented towel extrication plan.  These little guys are fast so you can’t be tentative.  I slowly moved the towel closer and closer to the lizard…planning my snatch.  The time came when I thought he’d spook so I quickly sprung the towel on top of him.  It’s like an accident, you don’t really remember what happens and you just hope for the best.  Unfortunately I didn’t feel him wriggling in the towel (which is tolerable but disturbing).  

What I noticed next was a lizard tail disappearing between the buttons in my work shirt!!!  At that point, whatever rationale thought processes I had were immediately lost and SEVERE panic set in.  I exclaimed to Kelli loudly that “ITS IN MY SHIRT!!!!!”  I couldn’t decide whether to take off my shirt or run outside to get the lizard out of the house… so I did both.  With speed that may have qualified me for an place on the US Olympic team, I begin sprinting towards the front door as I removed buttons on my shirt.  Every time the lizard moved as I sprinted down the halls I would shriek in horror with a corresponding body shiver that no doubt was not flattering to my manhood.  I was worried that it was going to climb on my head or worse yet end up in my pants!!!  

After Kelli’s initial scream of horror, she proceeded to laugh in disbelief as she followed me outside carrying Erik.  Given the speed at which I arrived outside I had not finished unbuttoning the shirt.  Even though I had stopped running now I still twisted and turned wrestling with the shirt to remove it.  Finally I got the shirt off and frantically scanned for the lizard…not knowing if it was in the shirt or still on me.  Somehow I thought constant turning would help.  My behavior was so abnormal and psychologically disturbing to watch that poor Erik got scared and couldn’t process the scene.  He was sobbing loudly!!!  Finally, to my great relief I spotted the lizard on the inside of the shirt I had taken off and I unceremoniously tried to flick the lizard into the bushes.  Somehow my shirt ended up on the ground.  Not surprising.  I’m not sure if any neighbors witnessed this, but if so, the official word is that I was on fire.  So collecting myself and resetting the panic button, I went to comfort Erik who thought perhaps that I had gone mad.  He calmed down after a few minutes.  So, not sure how to nab the next one.  Not looking forward to it.

Later tonight Erik and I were riding the plasma car around the house and you guessed it, we spotted ANOTHER gecko.  After four days out of town they have apparently taken over the place!!! This one was much smaller.  Kelli gladly fetched the towel again.  However, this gecko eluded my advances and I have had enough gecko hunting for today.  Better luck tomorrow.

This is Kelli again.  I so wish that I had caught at least part of the whole scenario on camera or video.  It was priceless.  I am still laughing after re-reading what Kent wrote.  The funniest part to me was the look of horror on Kent's face as he was standing on the chair in the closet and announcing that the gecko was in his shirt!  I had thought that it jumped down onto the floor, so I was busily searching for its next hiding spot to tell Kent.  I glanced up to see Kent frozen in place and then he tells me where it was!  I know that I jumped a little bit and screamed.  Then I just started laughing and screaming as I chased Kent through the house, watching him cavort his way to the front door - he really was doing body "shivers" or twists as he ran!  I was halfway down the hallway to the front door (not sure why Kent bypassed the garage door to the outside) when I realized that Erik wasn't laughing with me but rather was crying.  By the time we got to the front porch to watch Kent do his little dance, Erik had tears pouring down his face and both arms outstretched to Kent crying his name.  He must have thought Kent was in terrible pain and it upset him horribly.  I tried to comfort him & stop laughing, but wasn't too successful.  Erik never really let go of Kent for the rest of the evening.  He truly is a Daddy's boy!

Apr 7: Happy Easter

This past week has been a very busy one for the Johnson's; and suddenly, I cannot think of anything to say about it!!  Ha, ha.  Let me see if I can reconstruct the week.  We celebrated Easter this past weekend with lots of friends at the annual Hilliard & Bergherm Easter Egg Hunt.  This year, Erik was able to walk around and collect eggs with only minimal directions. He also took pictures with the Easter Bunny that always appeared at the party.  A good friend of ours was inside the Easter Bunny costume and he told us that he barely escaped with his life when the older boys decided to try to jump the Easter Bunny!  There's a funny story about the 2nd picture below of Kent & Erik next to the Happy Easter sign.  While I was taking the picture, a friend was standing next to me so that he could take a picture with me in it with Kent & Erik.  However, as soon as I told Kent that I got a good picture, he stood up and walked away!!  He clearly didn't hear the offer from our friend!

The Easter Bunny and his posse - Erik is trying to figure it out.

Johnson Guys 

And out go all the eggs!

I love the expression on his face in this picture!

In a hurry to somewhere

Erik's daycare was closed on Monday & Tuesday for Passover and unfortunately, it is month-end close at work, so it is a very busy time to Kent and I.  Fortunately, a recently retired friend of ours was able to watch Erik for both days!  He had a great time showing her around the house and taking her from one toy to another.  She said he was a very easy little boy to watch and he was on his best behavior.  What a relief - I'm always worried how he is going to act when we leave him with someone new!  He fussed a little bit the first morning as I was leaving, but the next day, he walked me to the door and waved bye-bye!  What a funny kid!

My birthday was on Thursday this past week and so we had a little celebratory supper at home after work.  Kent picked up supper from Cheesecake Factory, including chocolate cake for dessert.  It was delicious - I've been craving chocolate cake for a few weeks, but nothing was quite right until that Cheesecake Factory cake!  We celebrated more birthdays (with more Cheesecake chocolate cake) on Friday evening with the Cochran's, Deininger's and Zbaraschuk's - April is a big birthday month for our group - with Kelli, Kent, Zachary, Kaleb and Luke all having birthdays this month.  I forgot to take any pictures at that function.  We ended the week with another birthday party today (Sunday) hosted by our friends, the Fuentes, for both their daughters.  Their birthdays are about 5-6 weeks apart, so they hosted a joint party in the middle of their birthdays to celebrate.  I'll write more about that party & upload some pictures next week.

To end this post, I've included a few pictures of Erik and I that were taken this past week.  Since I'm usually behind the camera, these photos are rare!

Erik & I after church - couldn't get him to sit still or look at the camera!

Erik & I on my birthday.  He's all ready for bed and I'm anticipating the chocolate cake!

Mar 30: Bookworm

Much to my delight, Erik has developed a love of books!  He will carry his books with him from room to room, so we have books stashed in several rooms of the house.  Erik will sit for long periods of time asking for "more, more" as you finish one book.  He will also bring a book to Kent or I while we are getting ready for work in the morning and beg for one of us to sit down and read to him.  He can get just a tad bit fussy if we can't sit down right then and read to him.   His love of books has ebbed & flowed over the past several months, but he is currently in full swing again with his books!  We have also learned that Erik will read his books in just about any place!  I've attached some pictures below of Erik with his books.

In the same vein with Erik loving books, Kent and I have compiled a list of Erik's current words.  He seems to learn and try out new words every day, so this list is already out of date, but it was fun to put it together as a reminder of where he is at verbally at 20 months!

English Word       Pronunciation

Dadda                   Dadda                  

Uh-oh                   uh-oh                  

Mamma                Mamma          

Shoes                    Shoos

Socks                    Saw

Fall Down             fa don

Boom                    Boo

All Done               All Dune               

More                     More                   

No                        No

Yes                       ‘es

Erik                      aye ick (varies)

Up                        ups                     

Down                   da

Dog                      Dog                    

Diaper                  Diaper         

Boo                      boo

Book                    buh

Excuse Me           Excuses

Banana                 nana

Slipper                 sipper

Water                   wateh

Trash                   trass

Bubble                 bubba

Fish                      fiss

Elephant              ella

Bird                     bird

Bottle                  bottle

Sheep                  bah

Chicken               bawk bawk

Ball                      ball

Bye bye               bah bye

Fall                      fah

Hi                        hi

Hello                   hello

Donkey               ee ah

Owl                     ohl

Horse                  horse

Cat                      ‘at

Cow                    ‘ow

Wolf                   ahhhooooo (with head tilt)

Off                      off

Frog                    frah

Mar 24: Catch-up

It really is a good thing that I don't do resolutions every year.  Here it is the end of March and I'm only on my 4th post of 2013.  So much for my weekly updates!!  This has been an absolutely crazy 2013 so far for the Johnson's!  Every year in Jan & Feb, my work load and stress level pick up dramatically and I spend most of those months wishing that I had chosen any profession other than accounting!  Sadly, it seemed that the annual audit, which is my primary source of extra stress, was non-ending this year.  I find myself very thankful that Kent is no longer an auditor - I wouldn't be too pleased to have to deal with them both at work and at home!!

There hasn't been too much happening in the Johnson household other than work and more work, which means not too many pictures!  We have had a few get-togethers with family and friends this year, including the Reinke's, Ying-Tsin Chen, Aunt Margaret & Guy-Robert and Tara Schammann.  We also had our annual work/ski conference near Park City, Utah.  This year, Erik wasn't too sure about the snow; he loved to go outside, but he wouldn't really play in the stuff.  He was willing to touch it, if prompted, and he would throw snowballs, but that was about it!  We took him tubing at the same place we went to last year, but he didn't seem to have as much fun this time.  He liked watching the crowds on the big hill more than going on the kiddie hill.

Kent decided to participate in the annual Diabetes Ride for the Cure 101-mile road bike ride.  Since the ride starts super early and Kent wouldn't finish until about 2PM, Kelli and Erik stayed home to make sure that Erik stayed on schedule and took his nap.  Therefore, no pictures of this year's ride and no proof that Kent actually did ride his 101-miles!!  HA, HA - only teasing - I'm sure he did the ride - he was trashed when he came home.

My pregnancy is going very well - it is very similar to my pregnancy with Erik.  We have found out that baby #2 is a GIRL!  We are very excited about our new little addition and am trying to work through the seemingly endless to-do lists that accompany a pregnancy.  Time seems to be flying so much faster this time around.

In the interest of time, I'm going to add a bunch of pictures to this post and then consider that I am caught up!  Hopefully, I'll become more faithful with regular postings.

Testing out how to hold 2 kiddo's at the same time - Jan13 (FL Christmas Party)

Kent's first time holding baby Addison (I tend to hog her when we are around the Z-family)-Jan13!!

Erik getting suited up for tubing-Mar13

Ready for tubing on the kiddie hill

Erik with his cool shades!

The Johnson Guys

In a tube on a ride - he didn't like it - wonder why?!  He looks a tad uncomfortable!

At the park in March -he loves the slides

The "roller" slide with Kent - look at the air that Erik has at the end!!

Jan 22: A Visit from Pops

Kelli’s Dad came down and spent a week with us in January to help get us through crunch time at work (year-end and audit season).  His visit coincided very nicely with Erik’s daycare being closed this past Monday for a teacher’s professional day.  Both of our last 2 babysitters are now away at college, so getting coverage for Erik during the work-week is going to be a challenge going forward.  Thankfully, Dad was available to assist.

We had a great week with Dad cooking us breakfast every morning and having supper ready every evening when we got home.  He even went out and did some of the grocery shopping during the week!  We are completely spoiled now.  Pops had a great time playing with Erik and getting to enjoy some warmer weather.  Dad sends out daily devotional emails to family members and friends and he always starts out with a comment or two about the weather.  Lately, the comments have just been pitiful with comments about how cold, windy, snowy or wet Ohio is.  Well, he got a vacation from that here in Florida and was able to enjoy 70 degree temperatures.  We did get a cold front last Friday where it got down into the 50’s, but he was still wearing shorts!  Probably just to prove that he could.  :)

While Dad was here, we took him to a nearby neighborhood park where we were all surprised to see a small black bear curled up in a tree.  We also wore Dad out playing soccer and catch with the Bergherm, Cochran, Hilliard and Zbaraschuk children (we had to let Pops use the hot tub after that!).  We spent Sunday watching football games and seeing any remaining teams that we liked get eliminated from the SuperBowl.  Stupid football.  You spend all season rooting for your favorite teams or players just to see them implode at crucial moments.  We played 3 games of Mexican Train (dominoes) where Kelli decided that Dad hides dominoes in his pockets and that’s how he wins.  Erik took his Pops on a lot of walks around the house and up & down our street.  They investigated lots of sand piles, sticks, driveways and whatever else catches a 18-month’s eyes.  Erik slept really well while Dad was here!

Look for the black bear in the branch, 2nd from the bottom on left.

  

Unfortunately, I didn’t get very many pictures of Pops and Erik playing together.  We did have a mini photo shoot the morning Pops left, so I’ve included some of those pictures.

Cute Erik story:  The first morning that Dad was here, Erik watched as first I went to work and then Kent went to work.  After Kent picked up his computer and headed out the door, Erik stared at the closed door for a moment and then ran into our office.  He picked up an old modem that was sitting in a box, tucked it under his arm like Kent had tucked his computer and then Erik headed to the door and asked Pops to let him out.  Dad tried to get his camera out in time to take a picture, but wasn’t successful.  Erik is becoming quite the copy-cat.  I guess we have to start watching what we say and what we do now!

Jan 20: A Big Helper

Sunday at our house is generally a day full of chores and attempts to mark items off our house to-do list.  It is always a challenge to get through chores with a toddler running around getting into things, but lately Erik has decided to try and help Kent and I get things done.  He helps me with the laundry by helping to push the laundry baskets from our closet to the laundry room, sorting the clothes and moving clothes in & out of the dryer (mostly in the correct direction).  He also likes to help fill & empty the dishwasher - sometimes a little too much, but again, mostly in the correct direction!

What Erik really loves, though, is to help Kent out in the yard.  He begs for rides on the John Deere tractor whenever Kent mows the grass.  Erik seems to enjoy sitting on the tractor as much as riding...pulling the levers and knobs and getting on and off (repeatedly).  The last time Erik went mowing with Kent he fell asleep about half way through.  It wasn't just a little eye blinking...this was a full on "there is no way I can keep my head up" nap and he didn't put up a fight when he was carried in the house.  Something about noise and motion I guess.  Erik also likes to putter around while Kent is outside doing chores.  He has a route around the house that starts with throwing things in the fountain (if left unsupervised), which mostly consists of pine bark and precious leaves from our plants.  Then he goes by the garage and circles the air conditioner a few times and finishes by stepping in a large hole that was created by a vacated plant (that was dying).  Then he goes back by the pool equipment and navigates the maze of pipes and machinery.  He picks up little rocks and hauls them around the pool equipment jungle-gym.  It's interesting to watch his routine!

Today, we finally took our 8 foot live (or rather, dead) Christmas tree out of the house.  Erik was fascinated by the whole process as you can imagine.  Kent got the tree up on a furniture mover and then slowly rolled it down the hallway to the front door.  Kent & Dad then tipped the tree over and smashed it through the door out to the front yard where we finally took off the lights (didn't want to do that inside with all the dead pine needles).  Erik "helped" with the lights and then he had a grand time helping all the adults sweep and vacuum up the pine needles that were littered from one end of the house to the other.

If we can keep Erik interested in doing chores, maybe we can get him to start changing diapers when the baby arrives in June!!  Here are some pictures of Erik helping with chores.

Erik helping to put away silverware at Christmas time!

Sorting laundry - so heavy!

"Give me the lights!"

Keeping the lines straight

Helping Daddy sweep up needles

This is going to take forever!!

"Oh good - Dad is back to help me"

All done!

Jan 1: New Additions

Happy New Year!  I don’t know about you, but I am really not ready for a new year; I do know, however, that it doesn’t matter if I’m ready or not, because it is here!!  

Do you set new year’s resolutions or goals each January?  I think that I set some official resolutions once; that was enough to convince me to never do that again.  :)  However, this year I decided to pick 1 or 2 things that I will attempt to do differently.  See - very different than setting a resolution, right?!  For 2013, my attempt at a new behavior is to be more deliberate (aka less procrastination).  If I think about doing something, I just need to get it done rather than spending the next 2 months thinking about it or fretting that it isn’t done yet.  This new deliberateness includes regular posts to my blog.  How am I doing so far?!?  Yep, it is the end of January and I’m just now posting my January 1 blog entry.  Oh well, I blame work.  You’ll note that I will make no attempt to come up with a different explanation for my poor communication habits!

In light of the New Year, I decided to post pictures of some new things that have happened at our house lately.

#1: We finally put a child-proof fence around our pool so that Erik can go out on our back deck and play without us holding his hand the whole time he’s out there.  This was done near the end of November.

#2: We hung a swing from a tree in our front yard for Erik.  This was also added around Thanksgiving time.  At the playground this past fall, Erik never wanted to get out of the swings.  Now that he has his own, he will only swing in it for about 5 minutes before he wants down!  

#3: Kent & I decided to give each other a joint Christmas gift this year - an Acura MDX!  It is a 2012 model that was a service loan vehicle and has about 6,000 miles on it.  But that means a discounted price!  I still drive the Volvo while Kent drives this. The Lincoln is for sale.

#4: This last new addition hasn’t arrived yet, but should be here this summer.  Baby #2 is on his/her way and plans to show up on June 23, provided the doctors are correct.  We are very excited, though Erik has no idea how his life is going to change.  We are working on getting him to say “Baby” now.