New Blog

Guess what?  I have officially uploaded too many photos.  Blogger is cutting me off!  So, instead of paying for an upgrade and more storage space, I opened a new account.

Presenting: The Johnson's blog, part II

http://ejandchildren.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

William

William is a Hoot.  He makes me laugh multiple times a day.  The way he phrases things makes him sound older than he really is.  Here are some of his common phrases:

 

"Actually, I'd rather. . ."

"NO!  That's not supposed to be like that!"

"I don't understand what you're saying." (no doubt he has begun saying this one to us because he hears us say it to him all the time)

 

William is pretty solid on vocalizing vowel sounds and not so good with the consonants, but we can generally understand him pretty well.  He speaks more clearly as the days go by.

 

 

William is in the middle of a major car phase.  He goes to bed every night with about fifty million little cars (or so it seems).  He takes the time to line them all up on the bed next to him, which is covered with a quilt that has a green grid pattern on it and is perfect for roads.  Often I stand by the door while he is winding down for a nap and listen to the dialogue between his cars.  "Helicopter, to the rescue!" Sometimes it can be quite elaborate. 

"Do you want to go to primary with me?"

"No, I have to stay home."

"Do you wanna stay home with your Mommy?" 

 "Yes, I stay home with Mommy." 

"Which way is primary?" 

"This way, over there." 

"Ok.  See ya next time."

"Ok.  Bye."

(and so on, for much longer than I'd expect for a two-year-old.)

 

 

Several times a day, William sweetly asks, "Do you want to play cars with me, Mommy?"  I try to say yes as often as possible, even when I'm busy and can only play for two minutes, because I know he is just asking me to love him. So even though William expects that I will agree to play with him, he laughs and dances with excitement anyway. He gives me a car he has picked out ("ok, Mommy, you be this one!") and we go on an adventure together.  William's cars all fly, and they all talk, and their favorite game is tag.

 

Some day William won't ask me to play with him anymore and I will feel a little sad.

 

 

William is going through a Daddy phase.  When he hurts himself or feels disappointed, Joel is the one he asks for.  William waits with great anticipation for Joel to walk through the door after work, and he especially loves when we get to take Joel some lunch during the day.  More times than not, Joel is also the first one William asks for when he wakes from his nap.

 

 

 

And, as of last month, William is potty trained!  I know, I know, I'm a little crazy.  He was just barely two-and-a-half when I started with him.  Even though my other kids were about that age when they were potty trained, I didn't expect William to grow up so fast.  But I knew that he had the ability to control his bodily functions, and I knew that this coupled with his natural gift of obedience and compliance, we would have a pretty easy time.

 

Fortunately, I was right (mostly).  William, for whatever reason, was scared of the toilet.  Neither of my other kids were, even though I trained them at the same age.  William watched Everett and Ashley use the toilet with no bad consequences many times but that didn't sway him.  He was genuinely frightened.

 

Since I didn't want something like that to stop him, I did what I swore I'd never do: I bought a little potty chair.  Fortunately Walmart has a cheap-o one that turns into a stool. 

 

William helped me pick out some Thomas the Train underwear and we were set.  I set up the potty, asked Ashley to demonstrate (which she did with pride) and let William see that she earned a marshmallow.

 

He sat right down and used the potty succesfully a few times (yes, #1 and #2), stayed dry, and I cheered within myself.  This is going to be so easy!  I thought.

 

I was wrong, sort of.  William is extremely sensitive.  I was as careful as I possibly could have been to not pressure him and to never let irritation creep into my voice, but somehow he decided that the whole potty thing was too much pressure, and he clammed up.  The second day was awful.  I played game after game with him.  I read books.  I sang songs.  I fed him fluids.  We watched movies.  But he didn't go to the bathroom for EIGHT HOURS.  Not in a diaper, not in his underpants, and not in the potty.  He didn't cry, he didn't whine, he didn't get mad; he just sucked his thumb and refused to talk about it.

 

I felt terrible for his poor little bladder, and I almost gave up several times (he is too young! I'm scarring him for life! Are my expectations too high?) but I knew he could do it.  I let him play in a bowl of warm water.  I tickled him.  I tickled him some more.  We watched more shows.  I got absolutely no housework done and I think we had eggs for dinner.  Finally, I tried a bowl of warm water again, and he relaxed and smiled proudly as it all came out.

 

After that hurdle, we haven't had any trouble.  He went right from wearing diapers all the time to wearing his favorite underwear all the time and stayed dry during naps and overnight with no trouble. 

 

BUT, there was one last issue.  William was still scared of any life-size toilet.  This was a problem.  I didn't consider him fully trained if we couldn't even leave the house!  So I took him to the store, let him pick out a pack of hotwheels cars, and told him that if he used the big toilet he could choose his very own new car from that pack.  He took a breath and climbed right on.  That was all it took.  He quickly used up his supply of cars and I was worried that he'd feel he needed more, but he never even asked.

 

After one week he hit that magical sweet-spot where he asked to go when he needed to go without waiting until the last minute, and I didn't have to remind him all the time anymore.

 

The main drawback to potty training a two-and-a-half year old is that he is too short to reach very well when he is standing up (I had the same issue with Everett at that age), so I have to lift him whenever he needs to use the bathroom.  But that is a small price to pay.  He is awfully proud of wearing underpants just like Everett and Ashley, and he is proud of what he can do in the toilet.  He even comes in sometimes while I'm using the bathroom.  "Good job, Mommy!"  He'll say as he hands me a piece of toilet paper.

Overall, it was a success.  If I could do it all over again, I'm not sure I would do anything differently, seeing how well he really got it down.

That's my William.  He is doing great and I am really enjoying him right now, and even though he has observed Everett and Ashley's angry habits and taken to yelling when he is mad, he is genuinely sweet and easy to please.

Fall Leaves

The kids have been enjoying Fall so far, I think.  Everett enjoys the fact that I don't make him walk home from school with me every day anymore.  It isn't ever too cold for me (yet), but some days are chilly enough that I worry about the little guys in the stroller with the wind in their faces.  But, we still do go out when the wind is not too nippy.

 

We've also been raking leaves.   Our city comes by to collect leaf piles by the curbs of all the homes.  It is fun to watch; a large beast of an orange machine creeps along the edge of the roads while maintenance workers move an enormous vacuum hose which sucks all the leaves into the deep cavity of the truck.  William is always fascinated by it.  I think he is also slightly worried that those men might suck him up the tube, and actually, that hose is definitely big enough to fit him through.

 

One day, after William watched Joel painstakingly move all the leaves to the front yard, and after William had run through them, jumped in them, and rode his scooter into them for days on end, he was extremely disappointed to see that the monster leaf-eating truck was back.

 

"NO!!!!" he yelled.  "They are taking my pile!!!!"

 

 

 

And so, the leaf piles are just a memory.  We have a few leaves left but not enough to make a big enough pile to have this kind of fun in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(You know you've been having fun when large amounts of leaves hitchhike on your shirt.)

 

 

 

William's favorite activity was riding his scooter through the piles and feeling wave upon wave of leaves crest over his knees and crash under his back wheels.

 

And then he'd do his best to rake it all up again.

 

 

 

James, our little eat-everything-within-reach baby was confined to party in the swing.  He still seemed to enjoy watching everyone else have fun!

Last Bits of Summer

The end of summer is not a painful event for me.  I anticipate the crispness, the foodie-ness, and the sweater-ness of Fall all year long.  But I will miss watching the kids do some of the things they loved so much this year.

 

 We planted a few vegetable plants this year.  I am a horrible gardener, and I do not say that lightly.  I don't have the patience for it (which may or may not have something to do with the fact that it is monopolized by four little beings in my house, heaven help us).  What I mean is, I love having the plants in theory, but I am not meticulous enough for much to flourish.  As a side note, I did have four lovely little herb plants that were doing great, until I went to Utah for five weeks during a blistering Iowa heat wave, which effectively turned them into very usable tinder.

We began Summer with twelve tomato plants.  Yes, I realize that is overkill.  But I was hoping that after losing 1) the ones I neglect, and 2) the ones our local critters eat, we would still have enough for me to can a few quarts of stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, or salsa.

After one month, the deer ate all but four.  One of those four never really took off.  Another turned into a behemoth monster which uprooted its sturdy cage and grew large, beautiful, green tomatoes that only began to think about ripening after we experienced our first frosts.  What we had left was a cheerful cherry tomato plant, gangly and awkward as a fifteen year old who is not yet used to his stretching body, and a grape tomato plant which half-heartedly produced some delicious bell-shaped fruit.

What you see here is our dandy cherry tomato plant (this picture was taken at the end of September, so the plants have declined significantly from their peak).  I did not expect it to grow so well.  Apparently the deer aren't as interested in plants so close to the house, and the soil conditions must have been perfect.  I am hoping that one day Everett doesn't come to me and explain that this was the spot he used nature's restroom when I wasn't looking (but all the neighbors were, of course).

Everett and Ashley came out here almost daily to pick and savor the juicy sweetness of a sun-ripened tomato.  Sometimes they'd pick a small bowl-full but interestingly enough, it was usually empty by the time I got to it.

They never tired of it, as far as I could tell.  It was these moments that made pulling weeds (all three times, ahem) worth it to me.  I had grand visions of Everett pulling weeds to earn money this summer, since we haven't yet started him on an allowance.  As it turns out, there is nothing Everett wants badly enough to have to pull weeds for it.  

Everett is holding a red pepper from another one of our plants.  The peppers did well but were a little slow to get going.  We had red peppers and purple peppers and rarely did any of them make it all the way into my kitchen.  Somehow, I didn't mind.

Occasionally, when William was not napping and when he was fast enough to compete with the older kids, he'd proudly score a treat as well.  

The kids loved to goof off with the veggies.  We grew yellow squash, zuchinnis, and cucumbers as well. (I use the term "grew" loosely.) Someone tell me:  Why do so many people have these veggies coming out of their ears but we only ended up with a few?

Oh, right.  My horrible gardening skills.  I will have to sharpen up and plan better for next year.

The kids also had fun digging, burying things, and making rivers and fairy villages in this huge dirt mound.  

Joel spread a lot of mulch in our yard but I never wanted him to cover up this pile.  The dirt that abundantly seasoned my kids' hand-picked veggies, worked its way under their fingernails, and turned to sludge at the bottom of our bathtub was too valuable to lose.  

Mostly, though, I loved the dirt pile because William loved it for playing cars.  He could entertain himself for hours out there on any given day; making car tracks, moving construction vehicles, and burrowing buses never stopped giving him a little thrill.

Homecoming Parade

We are lucky enough to live within walking distance of our local high school.  So when it was time for the homecoming parade, which Everett had heard all about at his school and was dying to see, we trekked on over and found a good place to watch.

I painted the school colors on the kids' cheeks.  They thought this was fantastically cool, even though my lame attempts at face painting are really not all that fancy.

Everett was thrilled to be there.  The air was brisk and it was one of the first days we could really smell autumn in the air.  

We had a few minutes to wait before the parade came by, so the kids had fun playing catch with various items.

We also had fun being a little silly!

William brought along a few cars (surprise, surprise!) and was happy to play with them for a little while.

The parade floats were not intricate or fancy or expensive, but the kids didn't mind and everyone still cheered when the homecoming royalty came along in their corvette and mustang convertibles.

Of course, the parade floats were nothing compared to the excitement of discovering the participants threw candy out to the spectators.

We were at the end of the route, so our kids didn't score much candy, but they were unaware of the inequality and were thrilled anyway.  And, when I heard later that some kids came away from the parade with pillowcases full of candy, I was relieved I didn't have to contend with so many sweets when we got home.

James was pretty happy the whole time.  I will be sad when my kids are all too old to snuggle with me when we are out .

James was pretty intent on watching all the big trucks come by.  It was fun to see him so interested.

Of course, other than the times William was sucking his thumb, no one could match him for enthusiasm.

The police cars were his favorite.  William loves to point out police cars wherever we go.  His exuberance is contagious.

I think the parade made the biggest impression on our little William.  We went home, had some hot vanilla milk (it was a pinterest experiment but wasn't great), and the kids went to bed happy.  It was the perfect start to fall.

Miss Ashley Goes To Preschool

Ashley started preschool last month.  It was an exciting day for her!  Unfortunately, Ashley's first day was everyone else's third day.  She woke up vomiting early in the same morning she was supposed to start school.  I had to keep her home for two days, which meant that since they started on a Thursday, she had to wait until the following Tuesday to experience her very first day of school.

By the time we actually got to that morning, she was quite annoyed that I felt it was necessary to make her stand for pictures.

This is the best picture I took.

All the rest look more like this.

William misses having Ashley around, and tells her so every day when we pick her up.  "I missed you, Ashley!" he giggles jubilantly as she climbs into her car seat.

Ashley seems to really enjoy preschool.  She greatly dislikes discussing the details of the day and will expel a groan of exasperation anytime someone asks her what they did that day.  But she is always happy to go and is proud of the projects she brought home.

I strongly considered keeping Ashley home this year and doing preschool lessons with her myself, the way I did with the kids last year, but I knew the socialization would be good exercise for someone who is so naturally an introvert.  I've had a couple of conversations with her that really illustrate this characteristic of hers.

Shortly after the first day of school, I asked Ashley how it was.
"Fine," she replied, then said, "There are too many kids."


"Who do you like to play with at school?"  I asked one day.
"Nobody.  I just play by myself,"  Ashley answered.
"You do, huh?  Do you like to play by yourself?"  I wanted to know.
"Yeah."
"Does it make you feel happy or sad to play by yourself?"  I further questioned, hoping for a clarified response.
"Happy," Ashley answered matter-of-factly.

That was enough for me.  If she was happy, I wasn't worried.

One day I dropped Ashley off late for school.  When I opened the door to the playroom so she could join her class for their beginning segment, I heard a few girls shout excitedly, "Ashley!!!"  I asked Ashley about this later.

"Who were those girls who were so happy to see you this morning when I dropped you off?"
Ashley gave me an exasperated sigh.  "Nobody."  She stated decisively.  A shy smile played at the corners of her lips, betraying her real feelings.

Another time, when I was talking about Ashley's day with her as I tucked her in bed, she told me soberly, "All of those kids in my class make me feel frightened."


All of Ashley's comments have given me great opportunities to discuss some of these issues and set small goals with her.  Ashley's goal this morning was to find out someone's name and report it to me after school, and she was so proud of herself when she said not one, but two names.  We were able to talk about what to do when Ashley told me one of her classmates rubs Ashley's head all the time ("It's so annoying to me, Mom!" Ashley had said.).  Or what to say when you want to play with someone you don't know very well--something that isn't difficult for a lot of people, but which scares Ashley enough that she prefers to just dissociate from the situation completely.  We've been able to talk about how as you practice playing with people and become more familiar with them, that feeling of fear begins to go away.  We have discussed a lot of things.  Ashley has loved being able to complete small goals, and I have learned how to better phrase questions so she is more willing to answer them.

Hopefully we will be able to achieve our ultimate goal, which is what I wrote on the information sheet the teachers gave me at the beginning of the year.

"What is your goal for Ashley this year?"  It queried.  I wrote that I hope Ashley learns to be more comfortable about asserting herself in group situations.  That is something I cannot teach her at home, and that is a major reason preschool is going to be so good for her this year.

It will be fun to see the progress she makes this year.  She is so vibrant and smart and creative and strong, and I hope she learns to have the gumption to show it when the time comes.

Bike Riding, Again!

The kids are just starting to get old enough to do real activities together away from home.  Going on walks or to the playground used to be about our only options, but we have added bike rides to the list, and now that they are becoming more interested in sports, I'm sure we will have fun with that as well.


There is a really nice pathway behind the softball fields in our small city.  It is long and relatively flat, and usually we are the only ones using it.

It is really peaceful.  The kids seem to always feel carefree and happy when we come here.  

Usually by the time we make it to the park, the sun is low in the sky and casts a gorgeous golden light over everything.  If you look at the river when the sun hits at just the right time, it flows like luminous gold, as though you could dip your hand in and pull back out a lustrous, molten glove.

We've come to this place several times over the past few weeks and I feel treated each time.

Like I've said before, Ashley is queen of the balance bike.  She loves it.  I've tried to time how long she can glide along without putting her feet back on the ground, and I've gotten well above twenty seconds.  She is amazing.

William really loves to get moving on this scooter, and he can work up quite a speed.  The poor guy has banged his head a few times when he watches the road and not where he is going, but he is not worse for the wear and still looks forward to his next ride.

One of our favorite features of the pathway is this gorgeous willow tree.

The path stretches casually along a little river and is visible for quite a distance, so I feel comfortable letting Everett ride ahead of us.

He loves it.  He was nervous to learn to ride a bike with no training wheels, but he caught on extremely quickly and even learned to start and stop on his own.  His steering has been great from the start.  And he has really learned to love feeling the wind in his face as he works up to hair-raising speeds (hair-raising to me, anyway).

William sometimes takes a break to push James in the stroller.  I am including this picture because I snapped it a split second before William decided it was a great idea to hang on the handles of the stroller.  Over backward it went, and William smacked his head on the asphalt, the poor guy.  It is amazing we have never had to take him in for stitches or a busted noggin. 

James is content to watch the kids zoom around him.  He is always pretty calm in the stroller and it is nice to have a way to bring him happily a long with us on these outings.

I am not very good about taking videos of my kids, so I decided to remedy that.  The subject matter is not very exciting, but that's how it goes!  And, if anyone can tell me how to fix the wretched noise my camera's autofocus feature makes, I would really appreciate it.  

Password for both: bikes