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Saturday, June 18, 2011

New looks




The little monsters do now have an abundance of new summer jammies. I started to realize we have about 30 feeted long sleeve jammies, but now that it is 100 degrees outside that doesn't cut it. I might have lost it went the other day I ordered EACH kiddo 5 sets of summer pajamas a piece. Yes I know 10 sets! We needed it!

Also, I couldn't resist these little glasses and shirts from gymboree. I couldn't resist that they have the words chief and tribe, since they are from a tribe. Yes they are more TIKI then Ethiopian, but still pretty ironic and silly for them to wear!

New Talents



WE have new talents at the Johnson house:
Zeke now uses his food and bowl to build pyramids.
Taft now sits on a basketball and bounces as though it is a yoga ball.

Zoo Photos





Friday, June 17, 2011

Swim date






Our dear friends the Payne Family invited us over for a swim playdate. The little monsters and both families had a great swim and lunch playing together.
Francine took some adorable photos!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Dog Days of Summer

One the weather comes on and every single day of the 10 day forecast has a high OVER 100 degrees I can officially declare we have hit the dog days of summer!

Bully
Lately I have seen the boys playing together and hear Zeke says "uhoh" and then Taft whine, then "uhoh" then whine. Finally I realize Zeke is taking away a toy Taft has and throwing down and then saying "uhoh" like Taft dropped it. What a bully?

Naps
A few days this week Taft would wake up from his nap after only laying down for 10 minutes crying. My solution take his to my bed and snuggle him. Of course he falls right asleep and Mommy gets to snuggle him for a long time. These moments are good and bad I know, but I love every second of it!

Foot rest
As most of you know we own 2 wooden high chairs, 2 plastic high chairs and 2 booster chairs with trays, yes that is EXCESSIVE! Then the food therapist realized the wooden ones don't have a tray but have a foot rest, and the other sets have a tray but no foot rest. the boys need both due to their sensory issues, some of which are food related. Therefore, the goofy parents we are bought pvc pipe and plastic framing for a door and made our own little foot rests for the plastic high chairs. Can we say high maintenance children?!

Brushing teeth
Zeke's new thing is to watch me brush my teeth and open his mouth begging to brush his for a second, then mommy, then Zeke. Yes with my tooth brush and big people toothpaste! Yuck!

Cars/Trucks
I am tempted to rent Cars the movie and let the boys watch it. Taft is now officially obsessed with trucks, which are really cars, but he calls trucks. He searches every page of his books looking for trucks then comes running to me to show me the truck he found in the corner of the 5th page or so. He even realized one of their bath soaps has a picture of a car on it and wants to carry it around. In the car is the worst; I look in the mirror at him and he literally hollers "truck" and points at every single car that goes by! Michaels had a display of car paraphernalia and he literally was trying to jump out of the stroller to get to the "trucks"! I don't let the kiddos watch TV at all, but I might make an exception and rent the movie CARS to see how thrilled he gets!

Tyler's Travels and address

Look at the trips my world travel has taken in just the past 2 weeks:
Louisiana to Tucson
Tucson to Indiana
Indiana to North Carolina
North Carolina to Maine
Maine to Ireland
Ireland to Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan to Bagram
Bagram to Salerno
Salerno to Gardez...this leg was a helicopter ride so made my hubby excited!

Now he is safe in Gardez, his actual deployment location..FINALLY


For those interested his address is:

Capt Tyler Johnson
PRT Paktya/Engineer
FOB Gardez
APO AE 09364

He loves notes and any reminders of home. So if you have a moment drop him a line.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Trauma for Zeke and Mommy

At church today it was promotion for the boys! They left the much loved nursery and moved up to the movers and shakers room. Our friend and volunteer Mr. Mark moved up with them for the day because he adores them and they love him more than almost anyone! That was sweet of him to keep an eye out on them for their first day in the big boy room. I was warning the teacher how Zeke is a wild monkey lately and I turn around to show her the differences in features between Taft and Zeke(since everyone still thinks they look the same :( ) and go figure Zeke is crawling UP the slide while other kids are trying to go DOWN. Was I surprised...unfortunately NO! The new class has all sorts of climb and tumble equipment so I am sure they were all over the place. Church was great, and he is where the trauma comes into play...

After church we run to the grocery store. I thought I was getting a few items so took the stroller to stack the stuff on the top. Well a few items turned into $140, or a MOUNTAIN on top of, under, inside the stroller! I am cruising along and a 12 pack of Diet Coke falls and starts spurting all over, get a replacement, that one falls a few minutes later, no spurting just cans roiling every which way. I look in at the boys while picking up the cans and see that Taft is holding Mr. Cow and Zekey's lovey is GONE/Missing/Heart attack for Mommy is starting! I went up and down each aisle, alert the manager, ask customer service, get them to make an announcement. A million thoughts run through my head of how in the world out life is going to continue with out that little lime green satin rag. After 40 minutes I start to have an all out panic as Zeke screams and screams. I realize I might never again sleep until this is found. I told the manager I was sleeping at the store until it turned up, he thinks I was kidding..I AM NOT!!! I loose all self control I have left and start shouting to people in line, asking if they have seen it. I go up and down the aisles warning customers to be on the look out. At this point I am sure people wanted to put me is some asylum. Finally woman hears me and says "oh what color is it?" "I have it, I put it in my cart a while back when I saw it getting run over and planned to turn it into the cashier when I checked out. I ran over an hugged her, and then started crying like a baby. Yes with an audience of about 20 grocery shoppers I was crying! All the middle aged people comforted me and explained they totally get it, their kids all had a special comfort item too! Mommy's and Daddy's understood, the teens and singles thought I needed a straight jacket!

End of story: Zeke and Lovey have been reunited for good!!!!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Praise and our lion cub

Today the Officer's wives sponsored a little Mommy time out for the deployed wives...basically they just paid the childcare on base to open for a few hours on a Saturday. When I dropped them off I explained how Taft had a muscular disorder so he doesn't walk..blah blah blah as usual. They asked which kid I was referring to since I turn around and they both are walking toward me. I love those boys! When I went to pick them up I was told EVERY SINGLE OTHER KIDDO took an afternoon nap EXCEPT Taft...surprise surprise, the only toddler who doesn't ever sleep! Tyler might be right, he is part lion cub! The preschool teachers asked if I stayed home with them, when I said yes this was their comment: " We wish you didn't stay home, because these 2 are by far the best behaved and most fun children we have had in a long time and would be a pleasure to have in our classroom regularly!" I love when others recognize that my kids ROCK! Does that make me want to put them in Daycare..no..not just no, NO NO NO NO NO WAY NO!, but does it make my heart smile, YES!!!!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Back to life as a single mom








A few events have already occurred in my short return to life as a single mother.
Ear infection
After Tyler left Sunday I was bathing the boys and saw what I thought was a raisin in Zeke's ear. Oh great...Daddy has been gone a few hours and I already have an emergency of stuffing a raisin in his ear. I slowly try to pull out the raisin and I realize it s no raisin at all. The end seems like it, but as I pull the other side is gross and not totally solid. I push on his ear afterward and out pours like a Tablespoon of nastiness. I make an appointment for first thing in the morning. Not only is that ear severely infected, but so is the other one. Poor baby!

Private Swim: Canceled
Until we can cure the ear infections our private swim instruction which was to start this past Monday will be postponed.

Sign Language School
We started sign language on Monday and it is fantastic. It is semi-private so we are one of four families. The boys are the oldest and much more rambunctious than the other "babies". Taft was more interested in sticking his fingers in a hole drilled in the wall then the teacher. We were using signs to show body parts on baby dolls and Zeke was dragging/hitting/basically abusing his baby doll. Then the teacher was having the boys sign "Mommy More please" to get a few cheerios. Zeke Aced the test, Taft then thought this is worthless I will just got knock down a little baby and steal his cup of cheerios out of his hand. The class itself continued that way, but since then we have mastered about 15 signs used properly at home. Taft of course would rather just say the words, but little Zeke like to just sign, hence the reason we are taking the class. I love the books, and the literature explaining how kiddos desire communication and understand long before they can physically form verbal communicate, but have the fine motor skills to sign. I think Mr. Zeke is the perfect example of that!

Therapy
Slowly progressing....blah blah blah

Mommy and Me Zoo Trip
The Mothers at our church planned a trip to the zoo and we had a blast looking at the animals and enjoying good fellowship. The highlight of the day was the giraffe feed. Zeke handed the carrots to the giraffe and died laughing as his tongue touched his arm, cute. Taft then was HILARIOUS! He held the carrot out and waited until the giraffe's tongue literally wrapped up his entire arm then would jerk the carrot back and laugh. He must have done this little "trick" to the poor giraffe 10 times. Mean little bully of a baby harassing a giant giraffe.

First Blood
Today at the gym I drop the kids off, go work out, check on them, then head to the showers. I am in the shower and hear a panic scream "Taft and Zeke's mom!!!". I literally jump out dripping wet stark naked reaching for my clothes and towel. The child watch helper is the one screaming for me, I run with her to the room. Zeke was carrying a wooden puzzle with big knobs and tripped and fell onto the puzzle. He slammed his face into the knobs. His little nose was bleeding and he had a busted open lip. Our first ever blood!!! We calmed his down, had first aid assistance and then were required to fill out an incident report. My little baby!

Desert Oasis
We decided the patio was to slick to have the water table, pool and basically anything wet on for the little ones any more. Therefore, I took the challenge into my own hands! I purchased and "professionally installed over a 100 sq ft of AstroTurf in the side yard so that the little men can have a little water and play area. I have giant blisters peeling back and all bloody in multiple places on both hands, and yes I was in the yard with porch lights on at midnight cutting the turf, but I think it looks great. Everything went smooth except moving hundreds of pounds of crushed granite and rocks all over the yard and laying sand to level the turf, but a few hours later I think it looks pretty good for a home alone little Mama!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A united family!
















The past week was a euphoria for all 4 of us, since we were united as a solid family unit. We were able to swim alot, go to parks, great dinners out, grill out alot, lunch with buddies, play groups, therapies, and for the first time in ages 3 meals together every day. So many details from each day come to mind, but don't want to bore anyone with how elated we were to be together.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Take that muscular disorder!!! and THE QUAD!

We have so many exciting event to share, but have not had a second to post. Therefore, I had to take just a second to post our big guy learning to walk. I love that he over comes his struggles and literally knocks down that muscular disorder diagnoses by taking his first steps..before all the therapists predicted!!!!

We bought the kids a little quad for memorial day, yes we might be loosing our marbles!