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  He seems to learn and try out new words every day, so this list is already out of date, but it was fun to put it together as a reminder of where he is at verbally at 20 months!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.

Dec 26: Merry Christmas!

I decided to "splurge" this year and take a full week off work over the Christmas holiday.  My work schedule is very hectic from December until mid-February(I know, when is it ever not?!), so taking a week was truly a splurge.  I did have to work remotely for part of one day, but I was still out of the office!  We spent Christmas with the Chalker family in Greeneville, TN at Kirstin & Lee's home.  All of us were able to be there, which is the first time in several years.  We were able to get a complete family photo which was one of my main goals after learning that we would all be able to make it!  The funny part of the photo-taking process, is that while we were waiting for the camera to be set up for remote shooting, Erik started kicking Jake in the back.  I tried to hold Erik closer to me and further from Jake, but that didn't work very well.  Then Erik started putting his feet on Jake's shoulder, so I decided to go with it and just put Erik on Jake's shoulders!  Jake was a great sport and actually thought it was great fun.  Erik does love his big cousins!

The complete Chalker Family!

I found that I did have the typical Florida-resident problem of packing for warmer weather than what we actually encountered, so I was cold a good part of the time we were there!  In my defense, I had looked at the weather forecast before packing and the temps weren't that different from Florida, really.  However, a cold & wet weather system came through the day after we arrived (no idea why that wasn't forecasted!!).  Oh well, thankfully, I did pack significantly warmer clothes for Erik!  I also did one better than inadequately packing:  since we flew up almost 6 days before Christmas, I decided that I would finish my Christmas shopping in Greeneville, assuming that everywhere has stores just like Orlando does!  A big oops on my part!  Greeneville has a Wal-mart, Belk's and a JCPenney's and that's about it unless you drive over an hour to a larger city.  I was flabbergasted!  How do people live like that?!!  (I know, I know, I'm totally spoiled)  Thank goodness for Amazon prime & free 2-day shipping. :)

Even with my Floridian issues, we had a wonderfully relaxing time while in Tennessee.  Due to the wet weather, we couldn't spend much time outdoors, but had a lot of toys to occupy us indoors.  Kirstin's house had 2 separate flights of stairs, which Erik absolutely loved!  Kent & I were on constant alert, being prepared to jump up from whatever we were doing to rush to the stairs to monitor Erik.  I think we climbed up & down the stairs 20 times a day.  Made me so very thankful for my 1-story house in Florida.  By the end of the week, Erik was begging to go outside to play and wouldn't want to go back in even if he was cold & wet!  Kirstin & Lee also have a terrier-type dog, Stella - Erik would follow that poor long-suffering dog around saying "daw, daw", patting it, poking it and even trying to ride it!  And no, Erik's fascination with the dog doesn't mean that he will get one of his own. :) 

Erik playing with Stella, the dog

Opening gifts-the boxes were more interesting than the toys!

Getting a hug from cousin Caden

Helping Auntie Kirstin put away silverware

So happy to be outside!

Dec 8: First Haircut

Erik has had his first haircut!  We held out until he turned 16 months old and then all three of us couldn't take it anymore!  Kent had been mentioning a haircut to me since before Erik turned 1, telling me that Erik was not allowed to have long hair!  I thought his hair was cute until probably the beginning of November and then I decided it had gotten long enough, and with no curls to make it look cute, I also was on board for a haircut.  I think Erik was ready before either Kent or I!  He had taken to pulling at his hair in the back when he would get frustrated.  It was almost as if he was saying that he was upset and this hairdo was just making it worse!!  It was especially bad during his baths; when we would wash his hair, it would hang down past his neck onto his back.  That seemed to drive him nuts and he would pull and scratch at his neck.  Poor little guy.  We were all set to get it cut mid-November, but then Grandma Johnson asked for us to leave it long so that she could see it.  Not sure it was worth it, because again, no curls!!

We got his haircut on Tuesday, Dec 4, after work.  In our rush to pick Erik up and get to the salon, we forget our camera of course.  Thankfully, Kelli's iPhone was handy so we did get plenty of photos and videos.  Erik did pretty good during the haircut, all things considered.  He is very curious, so he would keep turning his head whenever someone would walk by or a blowdryer would turn on.  He sat on Kelli's lap for the first part of the cut, but then we stood him on the floor for the rest of it so the hairdresser could get to the back and sides better.  Some of the pictures below show how we had to bribe him with snacks!  Erik's hair is so fine that the piece we saved had to be stored in Kent's shirt pocket as it fell out of both the tiny rubber band and the bobby pin that we first tried to use!  Now I just have to figure out how to save it in Erik's baby book.  With all my scrapbooking supplies, I should have something!

Here are some before, during and after pictures of Erik's hair.  Since it has been awhile since I've updated the blog, I'm opting for a short entry with plenty of photos!!

Before: Fly-away hair

Before: Long enough to have little tufts come off the back

Before: Wet, spikey hair during bath

During: Bribing Erik with snacks to get closer to hairdresser!

During: Kent giving Erik more snacks with the buzzer is being used

After: Success - we're done! 

After: Not the best post-haircut pose, but the best that I could get!