Rodent in the Bed

When we woke up it was gone, but there was definite proof left behind of a visitor. In previous mornings, we have had to deal with a couple small ones, but on this morning we had our largest piece of evidence yet. The worst part was that the proof was not only left in the bed of where our two year old sleeps, but on her body. What is pictured below is a record setting RAT’S NEST for the Johnson house.

To our relief, the victim did not mind one single bit about her early morning look. She even expressed interest in having some fun with the rat’s nest situation. We decided to give Lucy a “haircut”. The haircut was completed with a comb, a play hair dryer, some detangler, ok lots of detangler, her play-doh scissors, and my best scissor cutting noise.

We still have an occational rat’s nest, but now we have a plan in place on how to deal with then!

Two one item lists

During this time of year there seems to be a lot of lists flying around. There are the shopping lists that fill my pockets when I am our running errands, the packing list when we are preparing to go see family and friends for a holiday visit, the wish list for holiday gifts, and all the media types coming out with their annual lists to review the year. I have decided to come up with two lists of my own. The key difference is that each of my lists have only one item.

Lucy and I worked together to come up with the first one item list...our favorite youtube video. This video is one that we have watched multiple times together and is often requested when she sees a computer. It is known as “ABC, ABC” or “elmo” video around our house. The reason that it is my favorite is because this week we received some proof that it may be working. During a car ride Lucy started blurting out, H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P. Previously she only knew ABC and occasionally D, so we thought this was a great chunk of progress. My thanks goes out to Elmo and India Arie.

I suspect we will be watching more of this video in the new year based on my question after she blurted out HIJKLMNOP, because there is more work to be done. The question that I asked was if she new what letter came next. After taking a moment to think about it, she responded confidently…5.



From the department of "really stretching to connect two lists" I am going to use India Arie's first name to introduce, the second one item list. The second list is my Christmas wish list and it is for Lucy to develop her "inde"pendent playing ability.


I want to be clear that I love playing with her and know that the different games we play or things we pretend each day are unique. I also work hard to cherish the play because I know the time goes fast and all too soon she won't be as interested in wrestling with me or having me at her tea parties. With that said, what has brought me to have this as my one item is the combination of me feeling like she is at a point developmentally that she can handle this form of play and my growing interest to take five minutes here or there during the day to connect with outside word by reading the paper, checking e-mail, or watching the headlines.

I would love anyone’s feedback on this topic. I am interested to hear how anyone was able to develop this? If it is even something you can develop or just have to let happen. What is the right age to look for some independent play happening? Is personality a bigger influence then age on the childes interest in independent play?

Maybe if we are successful with the independent play next years youtube list with be just from Lucy!?!?!?

Thank you and Merry Kiss-mas

I wanted to take a minute to thank Jessica from www.oneswiftclick.com for creating the header for my blog. She did an excellent job of putting together some shots “from the homefront”.

Going from left to right across the header…

The first picture was taken by Libby when Lucy, Gracey, and I were playing in the fall leaves. Gracey is names after her creator, Graco, and hasn’t left Lucy’s side since she received it as a present from her Uncle Dan and his fiancé Mollie for her first birthday. Considering Lucy goes through some toys in a matter of minutes, I have been impressed Gracey has lasted over a year.

The middle picture was taken at the Hopkins' Fire Department Open House. Lucy got the yellow hat from an Excel Energy booth. Behind us in the picture is an ambulance that we had just walked through. Lucy wasn’t interested in riding in the fire truck or going up in the bucket, maybe next year.

The picture on the right is my partner in crime and I getting some laundry done. When we are getting things done around the house I use the word “helper” very loosely in describing Lucy. I guess she is “helping” me get a bit of an arm workout in while we complete laundry. Although Lucy often kills productivity, I have really enjoyed her interest in things. She always wants to know what everything is and how it all works.

Jessica is not only great at putting together headers, etc, but she is also a gifted photographer. Below are a couple shots from a sitting that she did for us this fall. Thanks for all the great shots from that sitting too.

Holiday Spirit

Nothing gets me in the holiday spirit more than getting things checked off the list. While this is a bit sarcastic, it really does feel good to get some stuff done. Some tasks are completed much more efficiently than others. For example, I would say this year's Christmas card and letter went pretty smoothly. While my wife deserves the majority of the credit, there is some footage below of Lucy and I completing the final step in the process, getting the letters mailed. I would say only a couple people where weirded out by me having a camera at the post office.

After mailing some Christmas letters we headed home to bake some cookies. We started with the peanut butter cookies with the kisses in the middle. These cookies went pretty smooth, mainly because the dough was made while Lucy napped. Rolling the dough into balls and eventually putting kisses on the cookies proved to be a manageable task.

When we moved on to the cut outs, this is when we started to get a bit off course. I think it all started with Lucy’s outfit. They say if you want to be professional, you need to look professional. Lucy opted for the Elmo t-shirt, no pants, one red sock, and one white sock look.

Although her dress wasn’t professional, she did come prepared with two main principles she wants to stick with…independence and safety.

She first showed her independence with the spatula. It is a miracle that any of the cookies even closely resemble Christmas Trees or snowmen with the way she was scooping the cutouts. The second independent act was her performance with the frosting and sprinkles. It is currently about 11 hours since I ate my last cut out cookie of the day. It had about an inch of green frosting and another quarter inch of sprinkles on it. I am pleased to say my blood sugar is almost back to a normal level.

From a safety standpoint, she was a self appointed taste tester (an important job for any cookie operation), and she took her job very seriously. As you can see from the pictures below, she even attempted to taste test some sprinkles before they were out of the container.

When it was all said and done we had created some cookies and a lot of memories. Extensive clean up was required and I am sure we will continue to sweep green and red sprinkles out of various crevices in the kitchen for another couple of weeks, but it was all worth it.

After baking, when we were all sugared up, we stepped outside to do some sledding in the backyard!

At the post office

Getting our roll on

Taste tester extraordinaire

Ms. Independent with the Spatula

Various shapes, some even look like snowmen or Christmas trees

Sprinkle taste test

Frosting taste test

Ms. Independent with the sprinkles

Someone had to blaze a trail

The circus was in town

Step right, step right up to view some visual proof that the Johnson house, at least for a day, had the circus in town. The visual proof that I am speaking of is below. It was captured during a rare moment when the bearded lady allowed a photo to be taken.

During October I grew out my beard in preparation for deer hunting. One morning, when my growth was starting to become noticeable, after breakfast Lucy and I were doing some water color painting. We were doing the traditional circles and other various scribbles. I was trying to keep up with the requests for a painting of mom, Dora, Boots, a tree, a house…you know the usual. While I was focusing on my to do list, Lucy was changing her focus from the color of pink, which she likes to paint with 95% of the time, to black.

After I helped her with the order of brush into water first then color, versus her preferred method of the other way around (which typically leaves her going to the paper with only water on her brush), instead of moving the brush toward paper she went to her face. She was saying beard and dabbing the black water color on her cheeks. We decided to go for it. I took over the painting and Lucy sat still for a whole three minutes, which meant to me that she really wanted her face painted.

After we finished painting on the beard, mom took a quick pictures and Lucy and I did what seemed to be the natural next step…we went into the bathroom to play with shaving cream and I showed her how to shave!?!?!

Purpose and Plans

Fully understanding that I am risking taking myself and this blog too seriously I wanted to take a minute to post my purpose and plans for this blog. As I set out, there are two main purposes of this blog. The first is to document and share the stories of my life as a stay at home parent. The fact that I am a stay at home dad, the fact that my two year old daughter thinks she has the world pretty much figured out, and my general ability to leave the house without any diapers or snacks on Wednesday for Tuesday morning swimming lesson should make memorable stories abundant and entertaining.

The second purpose (and this may be the part where I am taking myself too seriously, but I truly believe it) is to celebrate parenting. As a parent, raising children will most likely be my most important contribution to the world. As “intense” as the last sentence is, I am comforted and inspired by the idea that millions before me have raised children, millions currently are going through what I am going through, and that some day it will be our kids raising kids. In other words, what is so special and unique to each parent, ultimately is very familiar to many. Sharing these commonalities and learning from other people who have or are going through the same thing as us is exciting to me. I am not the first stay at home dad in history and what I am blogging about isn’t breaking news, but hope to find a way to capture the beauty of raising children in my own unique way.

To put the last rambling paragraph in a much more concise way…My second purpose to discuss, enjoy, and laugh about the common things that all parents go through.

The plan for the blog is unknown; I just didn’t want to have a post titled only Purpose. Seriously though, I hope to expand not only beyond the stories of poop, pee, and swear words (although you probably haven’t heard the last of those topics), but also expand beyond Lucy and I. Is a blog that is a virtual smorgasbord of valuable topics, with contributors from around the globe too much to ask? We will see, but between now and then we will just keep typing and see what happens.

Introduction

I thought I would step back from the poop, pee and swear word stories to introduce myself. Knowing full well, with my blog in its infancy, that my current audience is my mom, wife, sisters, and mother-in-law I will keep the introduction short.

My wife Libby and I met in college and have been happily married for just over five years. A little over two years ago we had our first child, Lucy. In March, we are expecting our second. Parenting has been a life changing experience for both Libby and I. The fact that parenting changes you is obvious. What wasn't so obvious to me was the true depths of the fatigue, frustration and love you feel, the highs of the joys, and the extent to which unconditional love can been extended. (This is probably a good time to sneak in a quick apology for the depth and extent of my sappiness)

During the past two years we have had a variety of day care setups with Lucy. After Lib’s maternity leave, Lucy started out at a day care center. It was a great place and we felt very confident inthe individuals who were taking care of Lucy. During her time there Lucy got sick a lot, and at the end of the day it just didn't feel like the right spot for us.

Our next option was an in home day care. It was our next door neighbor and she has been a nanny before having a daughter of her own. The opportunity to have Lucy get 2 to 1 care right across the street seemed great to both Libby and I. As with the first set up, we were confident in the care Lucy was receiving. Ultimately two forces made us make a change here. The first was that my sister, Aunt Beth, was looking for some summer employment and having Lucy spend three months with family was very appealing. While this may sound sort sited (changing providers with only a three month plan in place) Lib and I were both getting the sense a bigger more permanent change was on the horizon. The second force was simply put we had a different parenting philosophy then our neighbor. Again she was a great individual, and probably a great parent, we just had differences.

As we moved forward with Aunt Beth for the summer, which by the way was a great bonding experience for both Lucy and Beth, we needed to get something figured out for the fall and beyond. After much discussion, and really a deep feeling between Libby and I that one of being with the kids was our ultimate preference, I resigned from my medical sales position at the end of August 2009. Let the journey begin…

Before I conclude with what I am sure to you the reader is a much more detailed account than you would like, I want to say a couple of things about day care set ups. First, because me staying at home is what works for us I am in no way saying this is what everyone should do. There are tons of great options out there, and my hope to all parents is that they find a form of care that works for them and their children/child. Secondly, I will likely share a lot of stories on this blog about the odd or bad days, but make no mistake I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to stay at home.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I am not only excited to share some of my stories, but to build a sense of community through reading others blogs. I look forward to hearing and learning from all of you about all things parenting and beyond.

One day...Two pants wetting experiences

With a two year old in the house, you can guess the first person and cause of one of the wet pants. Slowly we have started to work with Lucy on potty training. To date we have mainly been talking about using the bathroom. To our initial surprise if we ask and she needs to go, she is fine with going on the potty. She enjoys the cheering, clapping, and occasional candy after she uses the potty. We have started let her wear real underwear around the house. She feels like a big girl and we figure that is the natural next step. Eventually I want to get to the point where she tells us when she has to go, but we aren't there yet. When she forgets she is wearing big girl pants we occasionally get wet pants, and the fateful Sunday I am writing about was no exception. I would love to hear any training tips or stories you would be willing to share.

The second pair of wet pants (or at least nearly wet pants) was provided by Drew Brees and my wife. My wife started playing fantasy football in a work league last year. After a successful season last year, she has come to believe that she should win every week. Not to bore the non-fantasy football players among us too much (I told myself to stay focused when I started this blog and here in post #2 I am off talking fantasy football), but Lib's opponent had Brees as her quarterback. After he threw his fourth touchdown of the game Lib said the F-word. Lucy then proceeded to yell the F-word four times. At least she is expanding her vocabulary right!?!?!?

Libby and I were both working very, very hard not to laugh, but it was just too much to take. When I was able to get my air back I was about to tell Lib that she needs to start watch her mouth, but I was interrupted by Lucy shouting "F-ing A, F-ing A!" This happens to be a phrase that is occasionally/frequently heard from Lucy's father (me) when things aren't going well. At this point it was noted by both Libby and I that we need to clean up our language around the house. When Lib was able to get her air back from laughter, she announced that she may have wet her pants!?!?!

Adult Art Class and a Prized Possession

Lucy and I signed up for an art class called, Two-osy Doodler. It is for children 20 months to 4 years old. We have enjoyed the class so far. Lucy seems to like the interaction with her five classmates, I like the new ideas the class provides, and with the recent weather we have both enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the house. I would recommend a class like this to anyone with the only negatives being that it does cost $100 for six classes and ultimately the art projects could be created at home.

To start the first class we read The Very Hungary Caterpillar, a Johnson family favorite. After the story we received directions on how to make a caterpillar out of clay and some other materials. Including cutting out some food for the caterpillar, gluing it on, putting antlers on the caterpiller and of course adding glitter I calculated that this would be a 25 minute project for Lucy and I. The next calculation was 25 minutes minus Lucy's attention span of 5 to 7 minutes on a good day. This left me with 15- 20 minutes of unfocused time where I battled to keep her seated.

It turns out I was not alone. I am not sure if it was when I was folding our piece of swiss cheese in half to cut a couple holes in it or when I was looking for pink construction paper to make a strawberry, but I looked up and Lucy wasn't in her seat anymore. She had found her way over to the play kitchen where she was unloading the dishes from the play sink. She was accompanied by 3-5 other "artist" at any given time. All of us parents seemed content to try and make a bit more progress on the project and after our artistic visions where mapped out try and get our child back to the table. I even over heard a couple moms exchanging some clay to make sure the eyes of their caterpillars turned out. I am sure this is because it is what the kid wanted!?!?!?!!

After successfully getting Lucy back to the table twice with the promise of attaching the antennas and using glitter, I was out of tricks and she was back in the kitchen. It was during this trip to the kitchen (while I put the cherry on top of my artistic sundae by writing LUCY with glue and glitter) I heard a female classmate of Lucy's start screaming, "I got it, I got it." All six parents snapped out of their projects, with the assumption that two kids would need another reminder on sharing. The scene was different thought. It was just a girl standing there and her mom, knowing exactly what she was talking about, headed to their travel bag. Shortly thereafter, it became clear to the rest of us what her prized possession was, when she announced, "I got poop!" She was really selling it too, "I got poop! I got poop!" The other kids weren't quite sure why she was so excited, but I could sense they all wanted one too. As I worked to convince Lucy that it wasn't that great of a prize I thought I saw a couple kids even grunting!?!?!?!

After two weeks we have a caterpillar and a windmill painting in the house. Over the course of two 45 minute classes, Lucy has logged at least 30 quality minutes in the kitchen and I have learned that operating a glue stick is just like riding a bike.