Hong Kong Bound

Andrew is Hong Kong-bound and Johnny and I are flying solo. I heard from Andrew that he made it to JFK just fine, and then talked to him just before he boarded the flight to Hong Kong. He isn't very excited about the trip, but I hope it goes well and he has some fun all the same.

I had a good day at work, and got all the stuff that had to be done at work done before I left, and made it to the pre-natal yoga class that I've been going to in town, which was nice. Went by the house for just a bit. I noticed it was getting darker and darker and darker outside, and finally it started raining and hailing!! It was really crazy out there. The hail was mostly pebble sized, but some of it was almost an inch or so in diameter. I hadn't seen hail in a long time. By the time I headed out to go to Johnny's day care Memorial Day party, the hail had slowed down and it was just raining hard. I headed on over there and watched the toddlers eat the cheese puffs, cheese, fruit, and oreos :) Andrew, you'll be glad to know that the Oreos were a big hit. Ellie stuffed a whole one in her mouth, and one of the other little girls took them apart and ate just the cream filling out from the inside - pretty funny. I think Johnny ate everything on his plate! He had a good day they said, and was in the same clothes and had eaten all of his lunch and taken about an hour and a half nap.

Johnny went with me to get my hair cut, and he was sooo patient. Because it had been so long since I had gotten it cut, and this woman is sooo fastidious, it took an hour! Thankfully she had a window on Main street and there was lots of interesting traffic for him to watch, and I had brought some little cars and a sucker, and she had some crayons and paper. He was starting to lose it towards the end, though, and frankly, I was getting tired of sitting still! I had told him that I would take him out to dinner, and asked him what he wanted, and he said chick-fil-a, of course :). We had to go by the house (not a full-blown accident, but in need of some drier underwear), and then we headed back out to chick-fil-a. We had a really good dinner, and he actually ate mostly his chicken, but very little fruit or french fries. He thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream from the toy trade-in :)

He had a great time playing on the play ground, and was a little hesitant at first, but must have gone down the slide 20 times once he got warmed up! A woman started talking to me, saying I looked familiar, turns out she was Rev. Gamble's daughter, Kathryn. She and her husband have moved to Fuquay, and they were there with their three kids - a 3 year old boy (or perhaps he was just turned 4?), a 19-month old girl, and an almost 5-month old boy. All very cute, but she said it was alot to handle - I can only imagine! She was very nice, and I really enjoyed talking with her.

Johnny didn't want to go home, but it was getting close to 7, so we headed on home and pretty much went straight for the bath. He kept most of the water in the tub, and we read in the corner from the High Five magazine, and then Good Night, Gorilla. He did a pretty good job sitting still. He seemed ready to get into bed, but tossed and turned for well over half an hour. I went in to check on him, and we'll just say he needed a diaper change. So, I did that, rocked him just a minute and then he was ready to get back in. He said he wanted a book, and I figured it couldn't hurt, so I gave him the Boats book, and he finally went on to sleep shortly after that. And now it's time for me to do the same. I hope when I wake up to find that your flight has landed, Andrew, and you are safe and sound on land on the other side of the world! I promise there will be some pictures tomorrow.

November Fun Video

Having a great and relaxing Thanksgiving today at the Blue's house and getting to play with Annette's new MacBook - very cool! She and I put together a video from some clips that Andrew had taken - here it is! You can see how Johnny is really starting to talk more and more :)

Late September 2010

It's been a crazy-busy week this week. We had a great time on Sunday afternoon visiting with Andrew's family at the Hoover reunion. Johnny had a rough night Saturday night with some congestion, and didn't nap well on the way to Asheboro, and he actually fell asleep on the way back at 5 PM!

We put him on to bed, thinking he might actually be down for the night - but he woke up at 7:00 - ready to go! We fed him dinner and Andrew chased him around the house hoping to wear him back out - and he actually went back to sleep at 8:30 without a fuss. We were amazed! He had some more congestion and a little coughing, but seems to have shaken whatever it was. He seemed tired all week, though. Andrew is playing softball, and Johnny and I were planning to go to a little bit of the game and to have dinner with Andrew beforehand, but the other team forfeited, so we had a picnic (in the front yard). Tuesday we had a date night, and Wednesday was Softball, and Johnny and I took a walk with the neighbors. Thursday I had a faculty meeting, so Andrew picked up Johnny and they went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. We were all pretty happy that tonight was Friday night, and have enjoyed pizza and relaxing!

A very happy birthday to Bryan tonight!

Johnny really seems to have turned a corner with daycare this week - he seemed excited to be there on Monday morning when he saw where we were. On Thursday - he asked for "Kelli Kelli" (the teacher) when we got there and hardly cried at all when I left! So relieved that he seems to be doing so good.

I have to work tomorrow, but we're all looking forward to Sunday when we get to go visit the Monroes and to see Baby Claire again!

Late September 2010

Is it already mid-September?

Well, not sure how that happened. July and August were a blur between teaching Summer Session and then all the traveling for work and pleasure in August, along with a sick Johnny and Dada at the end of the month so we were pretty happy for September to arrive with some cooler days and more of a routine. I thought I'd try to make posting pictures and updating the blog a new Friday night routine! I usually don't have enough energy on Friday night for anything besides laying on the couch anyway - so why not do it with the laptop in my lap?

We've been enjoying the cooler weather with lots of playing outside, swinging, playing in the sand, stroller rides, and "mowing" everything. After being not-so-interested for a while, Johnny is back in love with the swing! He is talking more and more and is really getting the hang of riding around on all his riding toys. He knows his name and has changed from calling Andrew "Dada" to him being "Daddy". He loves using his little stool and climbing up on the couch and just hanging out.. and coloring Oh coloring! Enjoy the pictures! :

Early September 2010

Post for Andrew while he's in Ireland

It's been a crazy month, with me going to Texas, us all going to the beach with the Blues, and now Andrew is in Ireland for work! This has also been the first week of classes for me, so it was a crazier schedule than I normally have. Mimi has been here and has been a huge help, and I think she and Johnny have had a lot of fun together!

Johnny has pretty much mastered climbing on lots of things and running. He wants to jump, but can't quite seem to get any air :) He seems to really be concentrating on talking and is repeating all sorts of new words! He is also cutting 3 new teeth in the back. He also had his 18 month check up this week and was so brave for his shot and was in the 85th percentile for height and weight - pretty much tracking right along where he has been.

Mimi and I haven't gotten too many pictures this week, partially because Andrew has our camera, and partially because I haven't been home much! Here are a few pictures from yesterday afternoon and last night in the tub :)

August 2010

August 2nd 2010

I know how much I always enjoy seeing blog updates and pictures while I'm away so this is for Liz!

Liz went to a conference near Dallas and left on Saturday. Johnny and I have been bachelors for 2 days now and we haven't burned the house down yet!

Liz left before Johnny took his nap on Saturday. He took a good nap. Right at 2 hours. After he woke up we played around inside because it was kind of rainy outside. We had a good supper and then Johnny went right on to sleep. I think Johnny slept better than I did Saturday night because I missed Liz!

Sunday we woke up and messed around inside before going to church. Johnny had a good time playing in the nursery and then we came home and had some macaroni and cheese with deviled eggs for lunch. He took about an hour nap and then we went for a walk down to the Mexican grocery store to buy some lettuce and hamburger buns for supper. Johnny played outside on his sand and water table while I got everything ready to cook for supper. I cut up a watermelon, cooked some rice, and got some tater tots ready to go in the oven. Johnny helped me light the fire in the grill and then continued to play while I cooked the hamburgers. Grammy came up before the burgers were done and ate supper with us. Johnny played for a while after supper and then took a good bubble bath and went to sleep.

He woke up this morning around 6:15 and we did a dry run of getting out of the house on time while Grammy was here to help. We did just fine and got out the door in plenty of time. Johnny had a Nutri-Grain bar and some yogurt for breakfast and I carried some watermelon to school for him to have as a breakfast desert when we got to his class. He apparently had a good day at school. He was playing with a little girl in class giving her hugs and apparently both of them were laughing and having a good time. At some point, the little girl bit Johnny although he didn't notice it! He also apparently had a good time throwing his duck-duck around the room with his friend Roscoe. Grammy picked up Johnny around 3:00 and cooked us an awesome supper of BBQ chicken, green beans, rice, and squash. Johnny ate a good supper of mainly Rice-A-Roni and green beans. Then we had a video call with Liz over Skype. That went OK. Johnny seemed to get upset that he could see Liz but not touch her. He's been fighting some bad diaper rash for a while now and it flared up again today. He got upset towards the end of the call when it was time to go change a dirty diaper. He had a good time in the bath tonight though. We read Goodnight Gorilla, said our prayers, and he went on to bed with no fussing. Grammy left after Johnny went to bed so I'm out on the screened porch now enjoying the nice weather and working on this blog update!

I'll try to do another blog update tomorrow. Dennis is coming over to help me bottle beer. Wednesday Grammy is coming back so I can go to softball practice if it doesn't get cancelled.

Now for the pictures!

Too long

It has been waay too long since I have posted and much too long since we have put any pictures up. Things have been crazy-busy all summer, although we have had a lot of fun. Johnny is growing by leaps and bounds, and doing so many new things every day. He is pretty much running and playing new games and starting to say more and more words everyday :) Andrew and I are doing well, but seem to always have too much work to do and very busy, but fun weekends!

I kept Johnny home with me for most of June - although we kept the road and rails hot to Carthage and Marion to get some doses of grandparents!

Johnny started a new day care when I went back to work, and things were not going so well at first, but he seems to be doing much better this week, so hopefully he will like it!

Andrew took Johnny to get his first "real" haircut at his barber's on Friday - and he did great! It looks much better than my totally unprofessional halfway haircuts :) You'll see the change about mid-way through the pictures.

Here are some pictures from June and so far in July - we will fill in the backlog soon, I promise! I have a week "to myself" in Denton, TX at a conference in early August - so I will try to "catch up" then!

June and July 2010