More Lilah

I was nursing Jonas Henry in the kitchen this morning.  Mom came in dressed in her robe and told me she was going to "jump into her clothes" really quickly.  Lilah overheard and said, "Ooooo!" 
Nana said, "no Lilah, it's something I'm going to do on my own."  Lilah responded, "But I love to jump into piles of clothes!"

And something she said several months ago that I've been meaning to write down:
One morning as we were getting ready for the day, Lilah asked, "Where are we going today?  Nowhere or yeswhere?"

And again this morning, I was upstairs getting dressed while Lilah was in the bathroom with me.  She noticed my wedding ring on the countertop, and this conversation followed.
Lilah:  Oooo, I love your ring!
Me: Isn't it pretty?  Daddy gave it to me when we got married.
Lilah:  While Hannah was watching me? (her babysitter)
Me:  No, it was before you were born.  He said, Laura Pascal, will you marry me?  And I said yes!  Then I was Laura Johnson, like you.
Lilah:  It's very pretty.
Me:  Yes, he did a great job picking it out.
Lilah:  He saw it and said, this would be perfect for my kids' momma.

She sure keeps us laughing.

Eight Weeks!

It's been a tradition for the Johnson kids to hit milestones while visiting their Nana and Papa.  Lilah learned to sit up here and Emma learned to crawl and walk, so I was thinking Jonas Henry would follow suit.  Of course, at six weeks you can't really not hit milestones.  I don't know it was the six-week mark or the North Carolina air, but Jonas Henry went from 3-4 hour stretches at night to a consistent six hours a night.  He also woke up!  He had been sleeping for the past six weeks, so we were happy to finally interact with our little baby.  He is very smiley and growing so much. 
He is 8 weeks old today.  I tried to do a little measuring here for our monthly numbers.  I did a rough weight on my parents scale, and it looks like he's up to 14 pounds!  I'm interested to check that with our home scale though.  I was able to measure his lenght accurately though, and he's up to 24.5 inches, too.  So big!  Jonas gets to see little JH on Wednesday and I know he won't believe how much he's changed.  This week too he decided to grow back the hair on the top of his head that had all fallen out.  It is pretty short, maybe a quarter of an inch, but it is hard-to-see blonde and sticking straight up.  Adorable.  He's lost that newborn look, and is full-on baby.  What a sweetie.

Christmas in North Carolina, Part I

I'm being ambitious putting part I in the title.  Maybe that will make me more inclined to write more while I am here...
The girls kids and I bravely flew to North Carolina two weeks ago. Luckily, we had my sister and her boyfriend traveling with us, which really made for a nice kid to adult ratio. The best, actually.  This is the first time Emma had her own seat, and it was quite nice.

 

 

We also had the boyfriend's iPad traveling with us.  In fact, he even sat with Lilah in Katie's seat, so Katie and I could sit together with the littler ones.  So nice!

 

 

Katie was able to get some nice snuggle time with Jonas Henry, and I was able to ride with free arms for a bit.  That never happens!!

 

 

Jonas Henry did great on his first flight.

 

 

Everyone has really enjoyed being at Nana and Papa's.  The girls are loving outdoor time.  It's like they never left.  The weather has been amazing, even on the cold days.  We are all happy to be away from the rain for a while. 

 

One Month Old!

Oh boy, how the time has flown.  Jonas Henry has already changed so very much.  I weighed him last night for an official one-month weight - 10 lbs 15.5oz!!  His knees are no longer the biggest parts of his legs, he is long out of newborn clothes and diapers.  Makes me a little sad.  On a happy note though, he smiled intentionally at me for the first time several days ago, and now makes eye contact for more than just a second.  He is smiling a lot with his eyes and you can see that the big smiles for everyone are just around the corner.  Just in time for Christmas!  

As he's hit the one month mark, I see more and more of one-month-old Lilah in his expressions.  I see Emma when he cries, but the funny faces are Lilah's for sure (for now at least). 

Family Pictures

Family pictures!  Poor Jonas Henry was crying the whole time, but it looks like she managed to catch him in a calm second.  

Big Girl Lilah

We had family photos taken a week and a half ago, and recently received our CD of pictures.  I was so pleased with the pictures she took of Lilah.  She seems so very old to me.  What a beautiful girl!!

Well-Checks

Today we had a family trip to the doctor's office.  The girls went for their two and four year well-checks, and Jonas Henry had his two-week well-check.  I'm not sure that I'll schedule it this way again after the crazy 2 1/2 hour office visit we had.  However, everyone is done for the year, except for Jonas Henry, that is.  He's only just getting started.  

Lilah measured 40 3/4 inches tall (65%), and weighs 38 lbs (75%), fully clothed with shoes.  Poor girl got three shots.  We talked about it in advance, and she was actually excited about her shots, which in hindsight makes me think I didn't explain things very well.  She did not like the shots at all, and has sworn them off for the rest of time.  The strawberry milkshake afterwards made things a bit better though.  She is an amazing artist and LOVES to color and draw every day.  She is very interested in writing, and is pretty good at writing all of our family names on her own.  She's been the best helper the past few weeks, never hesitating to help me out, or run upstairs for something I forgot, or calm her brother down when he's fussing.  She started school this year on Mondays and Tuesdays, and tells me pretty often that she'd really like to go every day.  I'm glad though that I get to have her home for two more years!

Emma measured 35 1/2 inches tall (80%), and weighs 25lbs 14oz (35%).  At two years old, Emma surprised me every day.  Just today we were working on the final things on her checklist for her appointment.  One of the questions is if she can drink from a cup without spilling.  I don't know if she's tried that outside of the bathtub, so I gave her a cup with a little water in it this morning for her to try.  She pretended to drink it without picking it up.  When I asked her to pick it up and drink from it, she shook her head no, and said, "no... spill, me"!  At least she's honest.  

Jonas Henry measured 22 inches long (90%) and now weighs 8lbs 11.5oz.  So big already!  I had forgotten how much a newborn sleeps.  I am really enjoying his snuggles!  He is a good night sleeper so far, too, even having a night or two of five and six hour stretches.  That makes for a happy momma!!

He's Here!

Okay, so I don't even think I mentioned my pregnancy on the blog so far, and now I'm not even pregnant anymore.  Needless to say, I'm a bit behind.  So, instead of trying to make up for lost time just yet, I'm just going to start from two weeks ago.

WE HAD A BABY!  Jonas Henry Johnson was born on Saturday, October 20.  He was coaxed out by induction on his due date.  Originally we were aiming for October 17, the day after his Nana and Papa came to town, but we were turned away due to a super busy department.  The same doctor that delivered the girls was on call again for the weekend, so we waited semi-patiently until Saturday rolled around.  We arrived at 7:15am and started the ball rolling about 8:30am.  Little Jonas Henry came along at 4:10pm after 3 hours and 25 minutes of active labor, and 8 minutes of pushing.  He weighed 7 lbs 11.9oz, and was 20 1/4 inches long.  We had a bit of excitement towards the end of labor with some decelerations in his heart rate, and after he was born discovered he had a knot in his cord.  Dr. Mallory said he sees a true knot only twice a year.  Warning: picture below, not for the faint of heart.

Emma was a little unsure of her crying brother when she first met him, but has come around since.  Lilah has been thrilled from the get-go, soothing Jonas Henry from her first moments together.

The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur.  My daddy left the Tuesday after Jonas Henry was born, and my momma stayed until the following Tuesday.  What would we have done without them!!  It was so sad to see them go, but it helped to already have plane tickets home for December (more about that later).

I have tried to take a few pictures here at home, mostly without success, but they are cute nonetheless.

  I love a wrinkly newborn...

So sweet! 

Maybe one day soon I'll get a picture with them all looking....

Home Again

I'm trying this from my phone. Will see how this goes. I'm adding some new pictures from our trip to north carolina. we've been back for a week now, but it seems like ages since we were there last. I've got more pictures to add, but I want to add a few just to see how they do from my phone. it was hard to come back to washington but the weather has been fantastic, and we have visitors coming next month so that has made it a little easier.

Family Photos

Our church is making a new directory, so they had a professional photographer come in to take pictures of all the members. We were excited to have a family photo taken, since the last one we had professionally taken was when Lilah was two months old. Up until last week, that picture was still in a frame in our foyer. We are updated now!










** I love Emma's expression. As you can see, Emma did not trust the photographer even one tiny bit. Just after this picture was taken, he blew a raspberry in her direction, trying to get her to smile. She burst into tears instead.

18 Months!

We had Emma's 18 month well-check last week. I can't believe it's already been that long. She did great on her little checklist, but I am realizing how much less I know about what she's capable of, compared to Lilah at the same age. The doctor was asking about her speech, wondering how many words she says. The checklist asked if she just said more than eight, but I didn't know an exact number. I guessed, and told the doctor more than eight, but probably not more than fifteen. Later that afternoon I was trying to think of the words she says now, and so I started a list. Within about an hour I had come up with nearly thirty. I guess I underestimated a little!

She weighed in at 23 lbs 10 oz, and 32 inches. One is 55% and the other is 45%, I can't remember which is which. She's the funniest little girl. Emma is learning better and better every day ways to annoy her sister the best. Lilah and Emma fight a lot, but it is magical when they play happily together. Emma loves baby dolls and kitty cats. She has a bit of a temper, and loves to throw things when she's angry. Yesterday, I had told her no for some reason, and she threw her baby doll several feet. Then she started crying, "baby!!!!", she was so sad her baby had taken a spill. Crazy girl!!!

More Lilah

Lilah has created a couple of words in the last few days, and I think they're pretty clever.
Jonas was moving some equipment out of the office from when we were working on the bookshelves. Lilah was asking what different things were, including the air compressor. All afternoon, she was talking about Daddy's air oppressor. Still sort of accurate....
We watch Wizard of Oz yesterday, which we hadn't seen in a while. Lilah kept talking about the twirlnado that took away Dorothy's house. I like the new name.

More Lilah

Our sweet 12-year-old cat, Bess, died today. She's been losing weight for several weeks, not eating and drinking, etc, so I knew it was coming. Long story short, she passed away in her sleep last night, and we found her curled up on the sofa this morning. Jonas buried her out in the yard and later this morning Lilah asked about Bess. I told her she had died but was all better and in kitty Heaven. Lilah said, "Oh good, God loves cats." We'll miss you, Bess!

Piggies!

Emma let me try pigtails in her hair today! She wasn't a fan of the process, which is why she's sucking her thumb in the photo. She probably won't let me do it again for a while. It is super cute from the front, but the back looks pretty silly. Emma still had all of her hair in the back hanging down. Still cute though. I love how they stick straight out!

Northwest Girl

It's raining today. The girls and I made a little run to the grocery store before lunch to pick up a few things. As we were leaving, I asked Lilah if she wanted to pull her hood on. "Nah." As we were loading the groceries into the back of the car, Lilah asked, "What's that over that lady's head?" An umbrella, Lilah. "Oh," she said, "that's right..." Poor girl hadn't seen one in so long!

Date Night and Updates

We had a Johnson girl first this weekend - A full-on paid babysitter! Nearly all (except one that I can remember) of our date nights have fallen when a parent or two are in town. One of our playgroup moms suggested that the moms and dads go out together on a group date night. We picked a day, and I called around for a sitter. Strange, because I hadn't done that before, but the girls I talked to were really great in telling me how things go now-a-days. We had the best time on our date, and the girls did so well. Lilah talked all morning about her new friend Hannah. So cute!

Emma is sick again though, starting with a high fever on Friday. She's been pretty steady with fever except when on the Tylenol/Motrin train. She only had a runny nose to go along with it, so I didn't feel bad about leaving her with a sitter. Should I have felt bad? Emma did great with her, although her sleep schedule was off. She had slept most of the day, so she didn't go to bed until 10:30, just before we got home. Hannah said Emma wasn't fussy, she just wasn't sleepy either. Today(Sunday) was a bit different. She was super cranky this afternoon, but perked up tonight and actually ate a bit of dinner. I hope I don't have to take her to the doctor tomorrow!

Emma amazes me everyday with the things she does and understands. Tonight she ran laps around the downstairs carrying a cat toy calling "kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty..." FOR FIVE MINUTES. I asked her earlier (no gestures) to wink at daddy. After a few seconds, she turned to him, and squinted her eyes closed. It was so cute.

New words this week: Again, Fishies, Baby. She's crazy about her dolls. Emma had three of them lined up tonight and they were all taking swigs from her milk cup (Emma included).

When we are getting ready to leave the house, and I tell the girls it's time to go, Emma goes running for her coat with her arms outstretched to slide it on, and then sits down nicely on my lap to put her shoes on. She gets so excited thinking we are going outside. When I open the car door though instead of heading to the yard, she completely breaks down and tries to buck her way out of the seat. "No no no!" Maybe I should change my warning to 'it's time to get in the car' instead?

Lilah has become obsessed with time lately. She asks the time all day long. She's been waking up early (before 8am, sometimes before 7am) and I usually just bring her in to bed with me and turn the TV on until Emma wakes up about 8. We have a no TV before 7am rule, to try to encourage her to stay in bed, but she doesn't have a clock in her room. So, she comes in our bed and fidgets until 7am. Yuck. This week we bought her a Tot Clock, with colors that help indicate if it's okay to get up. We have it plugged in the the kitchen right now. It's analog, and she asks about every half hour "what time does that say now, momma?" I'm hoping it'll help keep her in bed a bit later...

After a few months of Lilah calling Jonas Dad instead of Daddy, he's finally remedied the problem. He corrected her every time for the first two months, but that didn't work. Eventually, he just ignored her when she called him Dad, and would respond again when she switched to Daddy. She fixed it all on her own. I was getting tired of it, so I'm glad that's over. "Look at me, Dad!"....... "Look at me, Dad!"...... "Look at me, Daddy!" Yes, Lilah?

Took about two days. Pretty neat experiment overall.

Quick Emma and Lilah Updates

I was thinking of a few things this evening that I've been meaning to keep track of officially. Somewhere in all the shifting of rooms I misplaced Emma's calendar of events, so now I try to be better at posting them. (I suppose I could have purchased another calendar)...

- Emma's speaking a bit more. (Pardon me if any of these are repeats). I got an unprompted 'thank you' the other day! "Get down" And of course my mind is going blank as I'm trying to remember the words she says.... Excuse me (s'cuse), Please, Cheese, Kitty (getting really good at saying that one). We are working her answer to what a kitty cat says. Right now, she says "hello". She does a pretty good "Raaaa" for a tiger though, and "Mmmmm" for a cow. Her dogs also say bark, bark ("Ba! Ba!")

-She thinks bodily noises are so funny. After making one of her own, I'll ask her to say excuse me, and then she laughs and continues to make a similar noise with her mouth. Pretty funny. **See video below

- Emma's also pretty darn good at using a fork to eat. I haven't tried a spoon yet, because I'm too afraid of the mess. Solids seem more safe right now. I should try a spoon this week...

Lilah is giving up her nap. :( I know I've been fortunate to make it this long. She does play quietly during naptime for a couple of hours, so I still get some quiet time for myself. If we have a super active morning, she'll still take one, but right now it's only about one or two a week.

Lilah is also crazy good at doing puzzles. She's got a new one for Christmas that she loves with Pooh and friends on the front. As of about two weeks ago, she does the whole thing by herself. Granted, I'm sure it's intended for 3+ (24 pieces), but I didn't expect for her to be able to do it totally on her own. Way to go Lilah!

Hand in Hand

We've taken a few walks outside to the mailbox since the snow. Emma's been a little timid for some reason, and it has taken her a while to warm up to the idea of trusting the ground again since the ice. She just stands there, reaching her hand out for someone, but when I go to help her, she grunts a 'no' and points to Lilah. She'll only hold Lilah's hand, and won't usually walk without holding her hand. It's pretty cute. I took a little picture with my phone, but it was dusk and they were in action, so it's not great. However, you get the idea. Pretty darn cute!

Spaghetti Night

We pulled some of Nana's special spaghetti sauce from the freezer this weekend. It was super yummy, as usual, but we had a new taster in the family this time. It was a huge hit!

This Old Man: Lilah's Version

We've been singing this song for a long time. Lilah loves to make up words to familiar tunes. Maybe she gets that talent from her daddy, who can't ever remember the right words and makes them up all the time. I just love the "waddy pack" part. Enjoy!

TOGETHER!!!!

Lilah and Emma are friends! I'm not sure if I should give the snow all the credit, but seeing as we were trapped together for the entire past week, it may have had something to do with it. Maybe it's finally Emma's age, too. Whatever it is, I am so so so very happy! Starting on Sunday afternoon, the girls started playing with one another - having a picnic with play food, taking turns (NICELY!!) riding the push toys, playing in the kitchen, playing music on the piano while the other dances, and on and on! And it has continued on since. They are so cute! I really hope this is just the beginning. I can't express how happy it makes me, or how my heart explodes when I see them enjoying each other. Yay for sisters!

Snow Days

Boy has it been cold! We got our first bit of snow on Friday night. It was really just a dusting, because it was mostly gone by Saturday afternoon. Saturday night it snowed again, and Sunday, and Monday! I think we were up to about 8 inches or more. Tuesday the temp dropped into the upper teens, and then last night and most of today (Wed) it was between ten and thirteen degrees, not considering wind. Dang. I can't remember the last time it was so cold. The poor chickens haven't left their house in four days! We're beginning to feel the same. We have gotten some good snow playtime in, but poor Emma is too short to enjoy walking in it now that it is so deep. We are hoping to leave the house tomorrow!
I went a little crazy loading snow pictures from Sunday.

Lilah thought the snow was so tasty!!

Love that goofy grin!

I want to go over there, momma! This is too deep!

Love her little red nose!