Jun 17-23: Elin Kate Johnson has Arrived!!

Elin Kate Johnson

Our Baby Watch is over and our precious new baby girl has arrived!  Please allow me to introduce Elin Kate Johnson, born 6/20/13 at 1:51AM weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces and "standing" 21 inches tall!  (Elin is pronounced with a long "E": E-Lynn).  She has dark brown hair, blue eyes, long fingers & toes and looks very much like her older brother, Erik.  She is also following Erik's example in that she is rather alert and opens her eyes a good amount and she rarely fusses.  Both Erik & Elin cried initially upon delivery, but then went through the cleaning up, measuring and Vitamin K shots quietly.  I hope this is a sign of true temperament!

She arrived 3 days earlier than her due date, much to my relief!  Her delivery went super fast; she was born 2 hours and 20 minutes after we got to the hospital.  I had expected the epidural to slow down the labor as it did with Erik, but Elin had other ideas and nearly delivered herself!  I couldn't believe how fast this delivery actually went - it was over almost before I convinced myself that I was actually in labor. That's not to say it didn't hurt like mad - I was desperate for the epidural and sooo happy that I hadn't progressed beyond the "no epidural for you" limit!  According to the labor & delivery nurses, this has been a very busy month for the hospital with lots of crazy stories of Moms walking into the hospital in the pushing stage or Moms who ended up having their baby en-route to the hospital.  They blame all the storms that Central Florida has been having lately (something about the low barometric pressure affecting the uterus water)!!

Big brother, Erik, is thrilled with his baby sister and has actually paid more attention to her than I expected when he came by the hospital to see me and Elin.  He loves to hold "baby si'ter" and rubs his hands over her head and cheeks.  He also likes to give her kisses and hugs.  He really wants to hold her on his lap with no support from Kent or I.  He throws a fit when we take her off his lap and begs for her to be given back to him.

First time Erik sees Elin - just after this shot, he practically dive bombs into the bassinet!

A very happy Erik holding his baby sister!

Both sets of grandparents were on hand when we brought Elin home from the hospital on Saturday, June 22.  This baby girl is certainly getting the royal treatment for her first few weeks of life!  Elin and I are working on setting up our daily & nightly routines of eating and sleeping.  She is turning out to be a great nurser - we've had very few problems with latching on which is a huge relief to me.  She has her nights/days mixed up right now, but I hope to start shifting her long naps to the night in the next few days.

Here are a few pictures that were taken by the hospital photographer - love what they do now!

A baby yawn!

Snuggled in Daddy's hands

Pretty in pink

The turtle is a gift from Erik; he named it "Flower"!

How can you choose a favorite picture?!

Jun 2-Jun 16: Erik Photos & Baby Watch

It has been a hectic few weeks for us - and I feel like I always am saying that!  Thankfully, we are starting to finally feel ready for a new baby to join the family!  Which is a pretty good thing, since we are officially on Baby Watch based on my last doctor's appointment.

Today is Day #4 of our Baby Watch.  At my last appointment on Wednesday, I had an elevated blood pressure reading and the doctor was very, very concerned about it.  By the time I left the appointment, my blood pressure was back to my normal ranges, but I was also on bed rest!  I now get to visit the doctors every few days and they are ready to talk induction - if I want to go that route.  I spent Thursday and Friday on my couch, working desperately on my computer to get some projects done at work and trying not to freak out at every little twinge and movement the baby made.    My parents, who were scheduled to arrive on Monday, bumped up their trip and drove all night to get here at 4:30AM Sabbath morning.  Of course, since they have gotten here, the baby has completely calmed down.  I've spent a good portion of today walking around and doing physical work trying to get something started!    Please let Baby Girl come soon!!

I've got a mix of pictures to share this week - hope you enjoy them.  On some of the photos, we tried some color tinting options that were on Kent's phone - I think they look pretty cool!

Too cute not to share!

Testing some boundaries

Erik the Gymnast

He stole my phone and then pretended to take pictures!

Erik with some fancy frogs.  He has taken to carrying footballs around with him everywhere!

Trying on Daddy's hat

Another football and another hat.  I sense some brain-washing on Kent's part!!

38 1/2 weeks - the day I was put on bedrest

May 26 - June 1: Memorial Day

I may sound like a broken record, but this has been an exhausting week for us.  It was very nice to have a long weekend for Memorial Day, since both Kent and I wanted to work on our Baby Checklist.  I was able to take a day off work last week after the baby shower to spend time with Kirstin & her girls.  Kirstin actually helped me get through quite a few items on my list - all the baby laundry has been completed with clothes put away and most of Erik's stuff was moved from the nursery to his big boy room. With those chores out of the way, Kent and I were able to concentrate on actually finishing Erik's new room and officially moving him out of the nursery!!

Erik seems to love his new room; he hasn't had any issues of going into the nursery looking for his stuff.  Whenever we tell him to go to "Erik's room", he heads straight to his new room.  I think he really likes all the extra space that he has in the new room; he goes in there and spins in circles!  He also loves the blue La-Z-Boy that we moved in there as his rocking chair.  My fears that he wouldn't sleep well in the new room were, thankfully, mostly unfounded!!  He has been sleeping like a champ every night - in fact, he has actually been sleeping later in the morning which is just lovely on the weekends!  His day-time naps have been more hit-or-miss, but the extra time at night makes up for it!!  I will try to post some pictures of his new room soon.

Kent's work had its annual convention this week and he had to give a presentation on Friday.  In addition to the annual convention, Kent also had his regular board meeting presentation earlier in the week.  Getting ready for those presentations meant that he had some late nights and/or early mornings.  Thankfully, he did an excellent job on his presentations as I learned from a few co-workers who attended the various meetings!  By week's end, I'm not sure who was more exhausted between Kent & I!  I can tell you that Kent fell asleep on the couch on Friday night in the midst of a conversation, so I guess he wins this week.  :)

My pregnancy is fast approaching its end.  I've just finished week 36 and have entered the slow-moving phase.  I can't seem to do anything quickly and changing positions from sitting to standing, for example, must be done very cautiously and with one hand on a supportive surface!  I can still bend over and pick up Erik, but I run out of breath really fast.  Erik is getting better at walking with me & holding my hand instead of being carried, but this week he did run away from me in the parking lot at daycare which forced me to run after him.  I figure it is just easier to carry him rather than risk having to sprint after him to pull him out of the way of a car.

I don't have any pictures from this week, so I am attaching some pictures of Kent & Erik in the pool from last week.  Notice how Erik never lets go of his favorite football!!

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.