May 17-25: It's Raining Baby Showers!

Wow - this has been a busy 2 weeks for us.  Starting on May 16, we had a houseful of company that arrived to attend the May 19 baby shower that was hosted by several of my wonderful friends.  The first to arrive were my friends from Maryland, Tom & Lauron Henkel.  My sister, Kirstin, and her 2 daughters arrived late on Friday night, May 17 and finally my Mom arrived on Sabbath afternoon, May 18.

The first of three showers was held on Friday, May 17.  This one was hosted by my office; it was a joint shower with a coworker of mine, Grenadette, who is due just 4 days before me!  Ironically enough, Gren and I were pregnant at the same in 2011 with our first babies and had a joint shower for that pregnancy as well!  Our sons also attend the same daycare and are in the same room together!  It is so nice to have a friend go through all these experiences at the same!  We forgot to take pictures at this shower until it was all over, so I've attached the only one we have.

Laura Kelly (due Sept), Me (due Jun 23) and Gren (due Jun 19)

The second shower was held on Sunday, May 19, at the home of our dear friend, Loretta Hauck.  This shower was hosted by Loretta, Heather Cochran, Lisa Deininger, Melody Huffman and Amy Zbaraschuk.  The decorations were lovely with butterflies, pom-poms and birdcages; it was a celebration of pink!!  There was also a candy bar (my favorite) and pink nail polish as shower favors!  I received all the baby bedding for the nursery at this shower, which I'm so excited about so that I can soon put some finishing touches on the nursery.  I made sure that I stood out completely at the shower by wearing a blue dress rather than finding something pink!  Oops - clearly, I've been focused on boy colors the past 2 years.  I'm going to have to start adding some girly colors back to closet!

Me and my Mom! 

Lisa D and me

"Chalker" girls - Kirstin, Kaeleigh, me & Baby Girl, Lauren & Mom

Katelyn & Karli Pettijohn - 2 of Erik's favorite people!

Loretta Hauck & Melody Huffman - they can't wait to get meet the newest Johnson!

Kirstin, me & Mom

The third and final shower was held on Friday morning, May 24.  This shower was hosted by Kent's office; they expressly requested that Erik attend the shower, so we brought him.  It made sitting and chatting with people a bit impossible, but it was fun to see him experience something new.  Kent totally set us up at this shower by requesting that it "not be embarrassing" - as you can imagine, his office was then honor-bound to make it as embarrassing as they could.  Kent had to play the Diaper Game, which is where you melt various candy bars in diapers and then make someone guess what candy bar it is.  The main point of the game is to get the new Dad or Mom to smell or taste the "poo" in the diaper.  Yuck!!  Kent and I also had to play charades and act out various words related to babies.  Sadly, neither of us was very good at this, so I'm pretty sure that everything we acted out looked exactly the same!!  And no, I won't be sharing any of those pictures!

Cake made by one of Kent's co-workers, Alanna

Erik kicked me out of my chair and then started to eat my breakfast!  Kent is working on the Diaper Game!!

Erik wearing a sticker that says "Awesome Big Brother"

Not sure what is happening here, but he's so cute, I had to post!

Erik had a great time with all the company here for the baby showers.  He loved playing with his cousins, Lauren & Kaeleigh, and would follow them around to see what they were doing.  We spent a lot of time in the pool and Erik is getting more and more willing to get into the water beyond just his toes!  He is a great mimic; he would carefully watch what his cousins would do and then would try his best to emulate them.  Both Lauren & Kaeleigh have done some gymnastics and they demonstrated how they could do handstands.  Erik was super cute when trying to imitate that - he would lay on his tummy, put his hands on the floor and then hold his legs up in the air behind himself!  Erik also loved playing "Git Her" - which is a game where Kent would hold Erik and then chase Lauren & Kaeleigh around the house, tickling them once he caught them.  Some days, Erik would announce "Git Her" in a loud voice with facial expression to match as soon as he woke up!!

Here are some of Erik's other most recent achievements:
 - He can consistently catch a ball (small or large) all by himself!
 - He has figured out that the 2nd step in our pool was shallow enough for him to stand on and spent a lot of time walking around all the alcoves with bench-seats.
 - He practiced kicking his feet in the water while being held (something he was never willing to do before!)
 - He is getting more vocal every day and stringing multiple words together

The week of baby showers ended with the Deiningers bringing supper over for us on Sabbath evening, May 25.  Lisa had been telling me about their favorite beach that several families would be going to on Sunday and that they always stopped at Red Robin on the way home from the beach for root beer floats.  Now, root beer floats just happen to be one of the few things that I crave with this pregnancy - just the thought is enough to make me feel a little crazy!  Lisa felt bad that I wouldn't get to enjoy root beer floats, so she offered to bring them to us!  We spent some time in the pool and then had a yummy supper of grillers, potato salad and watermelon, followed by delicious root beer floats!  Erik had a great time with Adam & Luke, who took turns pushing him around the house on his ride-on toys.  We may have found some potential future baby-sitters in those two!!   

Erik and Nana

Erik and I with Tom & Lauron Henkel (Erik had seen his fleece in a closet and insisted on wearing it)

May 5-16: Maternity Photos & Mother's Day

On May 5, we had the required (at least in my book!) maternity photo shoot.  This one was a bit more complicated since we had a nearly 2-year-old to contend with and keep occupied while we tried to take some shots.  The shoot was actually a combined maternity and family shoot since I couldn't leave Erik out and we've not had a big professional photo session done since he turned 1!  I kept meaning to do a 18-month session, but that didn't quite work out since that fell during my busiest time of the year at work.  We did take some 20-month photos at JC Penney, but I don't own the digital files from that session.  Anyway, we had Tim Putt do this maternity photo shoot (he did our last one as well) and we chose the Portofino Bay Hotel as our location - interesting scenery and close to home!

We were super lucky to have clear and sunny weather on Sunday for our photos - it had been raining nearly the entire week leading up to the weekend.  I was mentally preparing myself to being cancelled and having to find a new time to reschedule before Baby Girl arrives (and before I'm so uncomfortable that I look sick in every photo)!  While we were very thankful to not to have to contend with rain, we were surprised to discover it was a rather cold & windy Sunday morning when we arrived at our photo location!  I had chosen outfits more suited to the typical Florida weather in May (aka HOT) and we were all cold during our pictures.  There are some photos of Erik doing his motions for "cold" - he hunches up his shoulders, brings his hands up to his chest and says 'old!!  He usually likes to say "hot" and "cold" back-to-back, but not that day!!  He says "hot" with one hand outstretched, palm up while saying "hot" in an exaggerated whisper.  Too cute!

I've included some photos from our session with Tim at the bottom of this post.

Lately, our weeks have consisted of late nights as Kent and I struggle to complete all our to-do items for both work and home.  Kent is busy getting Erik's "big boy" room ready for him so that he can move out of the nursery in a few weeks.  Unfortunately, that has meant many late nights for Kent as he works on the room.  This house has some very interesting drywall issues which we have discovered every time we try to complete a new project.  Erik's new room most likely had wallpaper in it previously and therefore, there is very little texture on the walls, which makes the fact that the drywall is uneven more pronounced.  There is a double chair rail that runs around the room and Kent had to spend considerable time caulking, prepping and taping the chair rail to make the paint job look good.  Then, wouldn't you know it, in several places as he was peeling off the tape, the drywall just lifted righted off with the tape.  Yeah - repair and touch-up time!  Hopefully this project will be done soon so that Erik has time to adjust to being in a new room before Baby Girl arrives.  I don't want to have him associate his baby sister with being ousted from the nursery!

For Mother's Day this year, we took it easy since we've both been so busy with all the projects and deadlines.  We went out for breakfast at a popular breakfast cafe; we did learn our lesson from last year and got there earlier than the huge mass of families taking Mom out for breakfast.  We did have to wait about 30 minutes, but when we left, the wait appeared to be over an hour!  The rest of the day was spent quietly with only a few chores and after Erik's nap, we decided to finally "open" our pool for the season.  We don't have solar panels to heat our pool, so our pool is typically cooler than most pools.  But it was a hot day and we want Erik to like the pool.  Erik currently most enjoys walking around the edge of the pool while kicking or throwing the beach ball in and waiting for it to come back to the side.  Of course, he can get impatient waiting for the ball.  He actually fell into the pool with Kent standing behind him and with me sitting next to him.  Thankfully, I was very close and just had to reach over and pick him up.  He didn't even really cry about it.  After his dunking, his hair was all slicked back off his forehead and when it dried, it stood straight up!  I had to include some pictures of that hilarious hair of his!  We are slightly tempted to try to recreate the style with gel and send him to daycare like that one day!!

Pictures from the Maternity/Family Shoot:

Boys being boys!

Oops - were we supposed to be looking somewhere?!

What a belly!

One of Erik's new favorite poses

We did this same shot with Erik's maternity photos.  I even used the same ribbon with a pre-tied bow  - proof that I'm the same size, even if I feel bigger this time around!!!

Cutie Pie

Giving big hugs

Photos of Erik's crazy hair:

The man with the crazy hair!  I love his little pose here!

Another crazy hair shot.  

Random Photo to Share:

Erik loves being pushed in his car, on his scooter or even in empty diaper boxes!

May 4: A Quiet Week

This has been a rather quiet week in terms of activities, which has been a very good thing since Kent and I have been up late nearly every night this week working on projects that have to be done before Baby Girl arrives.  Since there aren’t any events to report, I thought that I would talk about some of Erik’s recent accomplishments.

Erik has recently taken a keen interest in dressing & undressing himself.  This is both a good and a bad thing!  Good in that he is learning new skills and becoming more independent; but Bad in that he gets frustrated if it doesn’t work, won’t always accept help and can melt into a temper tantrum if he doesn’t get to wear what he wants!  He has been successful in putting on his own shoes; though he really only wants to wear 1 pair of sneakers that are too big!  His latest attempts are to put on his own shirt - he often tries to put it own through the sleeve!!  He is also getting very good at saying the names for all the various articles of clothing - he is figuring out the difference between “shurt” and “shorts”.

He continues to love bath time and will often take one of our hands to lead us to his room to start the fun!  One of his new favorite phrases is “Arms up!” which is what I always say when I need to take off his shirt.  He also likes to get his towel and put it by the tub.  For some reason, he finds this highly amusing.  At the end of his bath, he always give me a huge hug and puts his head on my shoulder - but ONLY if he is still soaking wet!!  So, I always end up rather damp at the end of bath time!

Erik continues to become more vocal and express himself through words.  He is getting better at putting 2 words together to make phrases, such as “Sit down”, “Stan’ up”,  “Git up” - which is used in the morning if we stay in bed too long and “Erik’s turn” or “Eh-ri’s turn” - which is used when playing games with Kent.  He is getting very good at identifying various animals and matching animal sounds to the correct animal.  We are working with him on multi-syllable animal names like elephant, alligator, armadillo, etc.  It is hilarious to see him try to say the words after us - he still struggles with the “phant” part of elephant, but has alligator and armadillo down pretty good!  Other new words are chip, sauce, breakfast (“brefass”), home (“ommmme”), work, school, belly button, AMEN!, phone and chair.

One of my favorite new things that Erik started this week is that he hugs us hard around the neck, lays his head on us and snuggles in.  It is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world!  He also is attempting to say “I love you” but it comes out more like “I wub u” - I will take it though!

Erik is still a big helper and loves to assist Kent and I with our chores.  He loves to drag the laundry baskets or bags from the closet to the laundry room and sort clothes.  He also thinks it is great fun to help load the dryer - I put the wet clothes on the door of the dryer and he pushes them into the machine.  I think his favorite part is slamming the door closed, so I have to be super quick to get more wet clothes onto the door before he can slam it closed!  He also insists upon helping Kent with yard-work - using the John Deere “trac-tor” is his favorite.  He is quick to throw “trass” away for us and so far, has correctly identified what is trash and what isn’t!  He will also point out “durt” and ask us to clean spots off the kitchen floor!!  We are working on making “pick-up toys” time fun for him - he will sometimes help but most often will just grab what we just put away and throw it on the floor again!

Two of his favorite activities, besides playing with Kent, is throwing a ball and jumping.  He will come out of his room in the morning looking for a “ball, ball” and then practice throwing or catching it.  He will sometimes walk around just practicing the throwing motion.  He has lately started positioning me in a certain spot before he will throw me the ball and then chant “Catch it” as he tosses the ball.  He is pretty good about throwing the ball in the right direction.  He does love to toss the ball under the stove, table or cabinets, though so that Kent or I have to lay down to reach it.  Erik will lay on his stomach and grunt as he “tries” to reach the ball, then look over his shoulder at one of us to beseech our help!  As for jumping, Erik will walk around the house, then crouch down and stand back upright saying “jump, jump”! We’ve tried to show him how to jump up in the air and he is getting closer to getting his feet off the floor - his heels come up off the floor now!  He absolutely loves to stand on steps or stools and “jump” off onto the floor; thankfully, he always wants to hold our hands while he does this.  His jumps are more like steps, but he is very proud of himself!  He will frequently ask Kent or I to take turns jumping with him!

I’ve included some pictures of Erik helping Kent in the yard and looking under the bathroom cabinets at the ball he deliberately rolled underneath.

April 21-27: Virginia Fun & More Parties

I decided to not post a blog entry last week so that the story about Kent & the dragon (aka gecko) would get more attention!

We flew up to Virginia on April 12 for a long weekend to visit my brother, Kurt and his family, who live near Shenandoah Valley Academy.  My sister-in-law is a dentist and opened up her own practice on April 1.  Kent had provided some assistance during the business plan phase and we wanted to see the practice now that it was up & running.  The practice looks great and is off to a great start!  We are very proud of Kurt & Jen for following through on their dream of owning their own dental practice!  If anyone is in need of a dentist and lives in the Shenandoah Valley, look for Dr. Chalker, DDS!!

In addition to seeing the practice, we got to spend 4 days with Kurt, Jen, Jake & Caden, as well as my Dad who came down late Sunday night.  Erik had great fun playing on the play-set in the backyard, figuring out how to move on a trampoline, seeing all the birds in the yard ("birda", "birda"!) and following their dog around the house.  Erik is a particular favorite for everyone in that family, so he never lacked for attention while we were there.  Kisses from Erik were in high demand!

Erik on the play-set at Kurt's

Our little fireman

All the guys - can't believe I actually got a photo of everyone looking in the same direction!

One of the days that we were there, we took Erik to a Pump-it-Up location.  This was the first time for Kent and I as well, so we really didn't know what to expect.  The owner told us that Erik was probably too young for the bouncy-house things that they had, but agreed to let us try it out before paying.  We ended up paying and staying for nearly 2 hours!  Erik was enthralled with the huge slide and begged to go on it again and again; he actually didn't want to try any of the bounce houses.  Kent was a real trooper and hauled Erik up the slide numerous times (Erik couldn't manage the ladder on his own).  I've added some photos below that should show a smidgen of Erik's glee with the slide!

So happy - he would wave at Dad & I as Kent carried him up the ladder

I braved the slide once just so that I could get photos of Erik at the top of the ladder!

See how far back Kent is leaning?  That slide was STEEP!

At the bottom of the slide where Kent & Erik blew past the safety barricade.

The weekend after our trip to Virginia, we attended the 3rd birthday party for the Isidro twins, Madelyn & Kohlden.  Erik & I went by ourselves; we left Kent at home so that he could work uninterrupted on various projects around the house (with our due date for baby #2 quickly approaching, my stress level is reaching the "freaking" out phase)!  Because I was at the party without Kent, I was on full-time duty; I tried to take a few pictures, but they were rather blurry.  I'm sharing them anyway just to prove we were there!!  There was another bouncy house at this birthday party which Erik was super excited about.  Kent has always been the parent-on-call when it comes to bouncy houses, so I wasn't thrilled to see the bounce house in the Isidro's back yard.  I tried to get Erik distracted with other toys or kids so he wouldn't want to go in the crazy thing.  No such luck.  I had to follow Erik into the house of torture on 3 separate occasions to make sure that he didn't get accidentally smashed!  Once I was able to squeeze my way into the bounce house (the openings are way too small for pregnant Mamas!), I tried to keep Erik in the main part and away from the slide.  I was only partially successful in that as I did go down the slide 3 times!  The ladders in those things are NOT designed for pregnant Mamas either, especially ones that have a 1 1/2 year to try to get to the top as well.  I was wearing a maxi dress, so I had to hike it up to my knees and then support Erik on either my arm or knee as I tried to teach him how to use the hand-holds and "steps".  I'm sure it was quite the picture.   I tried to only attempt the ladder when there were no other kids around, but we were so slow that there was always a long line behind us by the time we got to the top.  It was rather humorous that on our 2nd trip up, a little girl behind us was commenting to everyone else that "Great, we got behind the slow ones again"!!  It's funny now, but while I was struggling up the ladder, sweating in the Florida humidity, I didn't think it was too funny!!

Yeah - got him out of the bounce house for a little bit!

Playing with Molley

One last picture to show how pregnant I am these days!

31 weeks pregnant

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!