Turkeys . . .

. . . for Peyton, Soren, and Caleb. I started these over a month ago, and with Caleb getting sick and other life events, I just finished them. But I think they turned out cute! Peyton got a skirt to go with hers. I might be addicted to making skirts if I had a baby girl-they are so easy and satisfying. Caleb helped with the measuring.

Free Christmas Music

Check out the sidebar for a great FREE Christmas Album. I paid full price last year, and love it.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We celebrated Caleb's first Halloween by dressing him up as a giraffe, taking him to two neighbors, and taking pictures. We also paraded him around Jared's office where many people gave him candy. (for me to eat now and him to eat later?)

Here he is with his Santa Rosa cousins:

Talan was a California Raisin. He got upset when he would wear his costume and people would laugh, being unaware that he was dressed as fad no one had thought about for 25 years. Peyton was a ladybug who wanted to eat giraffes. Can you see her looking at Caleb like a leopard looks at a zebra? Caleb was said ladybug prey, and Jayden (who did a great job being the oldest cousin who had to hold the youngest cousin) was a Storm Trooper.

See Peyton attack!

Missing from this scene was the newest cousin Soren, who was the most disguised out of all of them in his pumpkin costume:
And here is a bonus adorable picture of my baby boy on a recent walk with Grandma Jacquie, Grandpa Dan and Aunt Chachi just because he is so cute.

3 Months Old Now

The little man is plumping up quite a bit, and becoming much more skilled at difficult tasks like rolling over! At three months, he is now:
- rolling halfway over (from back to tummy)
- starting to laugh, especially when you tickle him under the chin. Sometimes it sounds more like choking than laughing, but it is still super rewarding to see!
- grabbing my hair, which combined with my ridiculous shedding pretty much guarantees he always has hair stuck to him somewhere
- talking a ton, and singing with mommy or daddy
- sitting up alone in his Bumbo


We also had the first BLOOD experience last Saturday. Caleb was laying down, and he poked himself in the eye. He started screaming, so I picked him up and walked him around, trying to get him to calm down, until I noticed his tears were BLOODY. Blood coming from your baby's eye is traumatizing! I started panicking, and Jared took Caleb and told me to call the doctor. We got a hold of the doctor on call, and she told us to wait 15 minutes to see if he calmed down. Thankfully, it didn't take that long for him to calm down. If he hadn't, we would have been off to the ER! He is fine now, we figured out that he cut the little pink part in the corner of his eye.


He also refuses to smile for the camera now. He just stares at it with a look of worried awe, and he won't smile or even look away no matter what I do. It seems like every picture we have he is making this face!

Two Month Old

Caleb is two months old now! Here are some of the tricks he has learned:

- He smiles a lot! Especially in the morning, which is too bad because that is when I am least smiley. A couple weeks ago, when I got him out of bed, he just stared at the space behind me until I started talking. Then he looked over at me, made eye contact, and give me a huge smile! He has been continuing this beloved little act of his most mornings, to me and/or Jared.
- He is starting to hold things in his hand. This is a very new trick. I've been trying to get him to hold a rattle for a couple weeks, and usually he holds it for about a second until he flails his arms and the rattle goes flying. On Monday of this week, however, he managed to maneuver the rattle into his mouth, where he happily licked it.
- He is getting into a pretty predictable nap schedule. It's not the same times every day, but it's the same pattern. He will be up for about an hour and a half and then be ready to go back to bed. I swaddle him, rock him for a couple minutes, lay him down, and he usually goes to sleep without much other help. He takes a long nap in the morning, and shorter naps in the afternoon. I found him sleeping like this one day:
- He is becoming talkative. He talks to himself when he is laying in the crib awake, and has periods of making all kinds of keen observations to whoever is listening.
- He loves the playmat. Our friends Mike and Beth let us borrow their son's playmat, and Caleb loves it, especially the star that lights up and plays music. When I turn it on for him, all four of his limbs are soon swinging wildly.
- He holds his head up for several seconds at a time when he is held in a sitting position. He usually hates tummy time, which is probably because he hasn't figured out how to not be completely face down the whole time.
- He still loves the bath, and being blow-dried afterward, though it makes him more relaxed than playful.
- He still loves his pacifier, and finds his thumb occasionally. If he can't have either of those, he tries to stick his entire fist (sometimes both) into his mouth, and he DROOLS.

Some things that are disappearing:
- His crazy handmotions while sleeping (aka spirit fingers, jazz hands, karate moves)
- The quiver lip he would give us when he cried (I love that his shirt says "yay", but his face not-so-much)

A little relief

For some reason (probably because I am a person who likes to know and follow all rules about anything I care about, namely, Caleb), this post made me laugh until tears were coming down my face. Please enjoy.

P.S. Just because I thought this was hilarious, does not mean I'll be following suit.

One Month Photo Shoot

One month old and our boy is smiling!

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa DeHart

Last weekend we went to Southern California so Caleb could meet his family and friends who live down there. I didn't take any pictures of the party we had for him (hopefully I can get some from Aunt Chachi or my mom), but we had some good ones of him with Grandma and Grandpa.

Caleb got a Angels Shirt, and Grandpa just happened to have the exact same one on:

Here comes the son

Announcing Caleb Knox Johnson

Born at noon on July 16, 2009
7 pounds, 13 ounces
20 inches long

The day he was born: One Week Old: Two Weeks Old:Three Weeks Old: Four Weeks Old:

Baby on the Way

Here is a rundown of my day so far:

4:30am- Wake up feeling nauseous (not unusual) and contemplate moving to the couch so I don't wake up Jared tossing and turning.

5:00- Roll over, and feel the baby give a big kick and my back pop simultaneously. Thank you, Baby J, I no longer need a chiropractor!

5:03- Get up to go pee. Feel a stream of something run down my legs when I get up..... Realize, hmmmm, maybe that wasn't my back that popped.

5:04- Try to figure out what to do now...

5:06- Grab my pillows, a blanket, and the bed wetting pad I purchased for precisely this reason, and move to the couch. Try to sleep for a while.

5:30ish- first contraction

5:37- Hear Jared get up to use the bathroom, and tell him the news. No work for him today! Encourage him to try to sleep.

5:40ish- 2nd contraction. They continue about every 10 minutes for quite a while.

6:15- Decide I am not going to sleep, and turn on the Tour de France. Become thankful for the fifth time this month that there is something interesting on to watch this early in the morning.

6:30ish- Jared joins me watching the Tour.

8:00- Jared decides to go into work to change his phone and email messages, etc. Contractions still coming every 10 minutes.

8:45- Tour is over. Mark Cavendish wins his forth stage this tour, and I am happy that George Hincapie's team is doing well in sprinting. Decide that I am going to get up, pack, and take a shower, and anticipate my contractions speeding up a lot because of all the movement.

9:15ish- Jared comes back home, and plays the new video game he got yesterday, which he is very happy about. No recent contractions.

10:30- Contractions have basically stopped. Decide to be more proactive.

10:45- Jared and I go on a walk. I get sweaty, but only have one contraction while we are walking. Lame sauce.

11:30- Finish walk. Take a shower to cool off. Call doctor to ask about getting labor moving again, and am told to come to the hospital at two.

12:05pm- Sit on couch. Have a contraction!

12:15- Still on couch. Have another contraction! (repeat every ten minutes until 1:00)

1:00- Bored-move from couch to computer. Decide to blog, and continue to have contractions about every 10 minutes.

1:55- Time to get ready to go to the hospital! The rest of the story is yet to come....

I want these prints. For my bedroom or for the nursery.

10 Days and Counting

Ten days until Baby J's due date... I had a Ob appointment this morning, and I am about 1 cm dilated, 30% effaced, and my cervix is pretty anterior (pointing toward the front of me instead of toward my tailbone, which is where it points through all pregnancy until the end). My doctor said this was more progress than he expected, though nothing that says labor is imminent. I reminded Baby J today that if he came tomorrow, he would have a very cool birthday (07/08/09), but that he would have a more stressed out daddy than if he waited a week. Then he gave me a good kick--only time will tell if he was feeling sympathetic for daddy, or showing that he wasn't going to be deterred from his plan...We shall see! I only hope he doesn't hang out inside of me after next week.

In other news, it was Jared's birthday on Sunday, and we had a casual little party that he enjoyed a lot. This year he got a new TV, after he saw our friends nice TV and decided he couldn't possibly have a newborn without a new TV. There went our (loose) plans for our kids not to be exposed to TV before they are two....

Here is our old TV: (29")

Here is Jared happily putting together the pieces for the new TV (notice he is wearing his suit pants--he didn't bother to change before he opened the box and got everything out).

And here is our new TV: It will get put on the wall as soon as we get the mounting brackets, but for now, it is taking the place of our fireplace. It is a 50" 1080p Panasonic Plasma, if anyone reading this cares. The biggest purchase of our married life so far, surprisingly, besides the house. I am glad Jared feels like he gets a reward for all the work he does.

mobiles

I finished making two mobiles recently. I think they turned out pretty cute. This elephant one is for Baby J's room:This butterfly one is for our friends' baby girl, who is due two weeks after Baby J.

Any Thoughts?

We have a ton of extra dirt in our yard now, and we've been brainstorming ways to get rid of it inexpensively. However, now I'm considering leaving at least some of it and shaping it into a nicely landscaped hill, or dry riverbed looking corner. Here is what it looks like::

Counting Down

Here I am, 37 weeks (full term!) as of yesterday. I also got my hair cut, which I am pretty happy about...it feels good to have it off my neck, and it's a lot easier when it's that much shorter!



I have my list of projects that I am trying to get done before Baby J arrives, but starting about two weeks ago, Jared and I got caught up in one we were not planning on, but are excited about--our back yard! My friends Emily and Brittany showed up one Friday morning to see what they could do with my "garden," and Emily and Jason came back the next day (and the next, and a few more after that) to make things happen. Now we are hopefully not too far away from changing our low maintenance, rock-and-juniper back yard to one Baby J will want to run around in in a year or so! Here is the before picture (taken before we moved into the house, which was definitely the best its looked):




Here are Emily and Jason chainsawing some junipers--the very last of many!

And here are some after pics. We (really Jason, Emily, and Jared) ripped out a ton of bushes, scooped up about 1000 pounds of rocks, and moved dirt around trying to make the yard flatter. Emily and Brittany also transplanted plants, and planted vegetables and herbs. Check out the very cool rock wall Jason started building.

The belly-it's growing

Today I am 33 weeks, but here are some pictures from the last week (when I was 32). It seems like the baby is going through another growth spurt. (Last time I thought he was going through a growth spurt, I was right, and the doctor sent me in to get an ultrasound to make sure everything was alright. Everything looked great; he's just huge.)













Most of the time, Baby J is good to his mommy, and makes me like being pregnant. But sometimes he enjoys spending his days pressing his butt into mommy's rib cage and making it uncomfortable for her to sit down or leaning on mommy's sciatic nerve and laughing when she hobbles around like a 75 year-old.