The Economy

My dear friend, Natalie, was just laid off from her job. Not that long ago, Seattle was on the national news because economists were saying that the city wasn't being affected by the recession. Just yesterday, the city made the national news again with reports that it finally caught up to us. Scary times, people.

A Stomach Flu

A flu to the stomach is no good. I'm just glad it's over and neither of my boys caught it. I can still only eat bland food. Mal was worried about me on my sickest day (Friday) but it seemed that he understood that I needed to lay down and rest and couldn't play with him. He didn't complain and spent most of his time entertaining himself and making a huge mess of the house. He visited me often to nurse but never asked me to get out of bed to play with him.

We recently got Mal a new car seat:


He wasn't too happy to be strapped down in it, but that's because he wanted to play. I wasn't feeling the love for this car seat at first. I had a hard time installing it properly and it made me swear a lot (and I rarely swear). After much trial and error, I finally installed it and I'm liking it OK. There are only 2 things that I do not like about it: the latch strap is too short to put the seat in the center and the knobs to tighten the harness are placed so close to the front of the seat that they are difficult to turn because the actual car's seat is in the way. The latter problem won't be an issue when Mal's forward facing, but that's not going to be for some time.

It's a Glorious Day

Mal's 17-month-old photo with the Ugly Dolls:


I didn't realize how long it had been since I updated until I thought to check today. Nothing new has been happening with us, I suppose. Our friend, Sunny, who is 7 months pregnant, was laid off from her job. That really sucks! I bought my plane ticket to San Diego for our visit next month to meet Buddy. I had a dream that Jenn & Piet will name him Oliver. I found out that another friend of mine is pregnant. I currently know 6 women who are pregnant. My friend, Clare, had her little guy last week. It seems that as soon as one of my friends has her baby, I find out that another is pregnant. Keely is due any day now so my guess is that I'll find out another friend is pregnant next week :)

I skipped the gym this morning to watch The Inauguration of President Barack Obama. What a glorious day it is! He has got a lot of hard work ahead of him.

Mine!

Ah, the sound of possessiveness. It has caught us both off guard. It started this week and we can only guess that Malcolm learned the "Mine!" thing at the childcare at the YMCA. While there on Monday, he got really upset and they couldn't console him so they came and got me from the gym. I originally thought that he was overtired, but Tony thinks he had an altercation with another kid that upset him and it had to do with the "Mine thing.

We pretty much just ignore him when he says it since we're not really sure how else to respond. If, during play group, he has issues with sharing, I'll address it then.

We're in the process of refinancing our home. When we first purchased our home, we thought we'd be selling in 5 years. Now we're not so sure that's going to happen. The rates are so good right now that we just couldn't pass the opportunity up. It's still a little scary, but I'm not sure why.

Hi Button!

Malcolm has started saying "hi" and "bye" to everything. When he first sees something, he says "Hi Kitty!" or "Hi Daddy!" He started doing this while we were in Florida. It started with, "Hi JoJo!" He's also trying his hardest to start talking in sentences. It goes like this, "babblebabblebabbleWORDbabble". It is all so very cute.

Family Photos

Malcolm turned 17 months old today. Holy guacamole!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our travels in December. Not many photos were taken while in San Diego because everyone felt craptastic. To see all of the photos, visit my Flickr page.

Boys love remote controls:


Cameron pretending to be pregnant like his mom:


Grampa & Mal:


JoJo, PopPop & Malcolm:


Aidan taking pictures:


Cute Cousins:


Aunt Sally & Malcolm playing the piano:

Setting Goals

My darling husband mentioned to me the other day that he'd like to set some family goals for our household. Want to help me come up with some good ones?

One goal: look into refinancing our mortgages. First step accomplished today: I finally called the mortgage broker that came highly recommended by Julie & Sunny. The rates are excellent right now and they are both refinancing. He'll be calling me back tomorrow with the low-down.

Another goal: call the company that holds our home warranty. We mistakenly thought it was only one year but it turns out to be a three-year warranty. I need to give them a ring to see if they will reimburse us for the electrical work we had done recently.

The Garage Goal has been looming over our heads since we moved in. We really need to get off our butts and install shelving, organize and purge. The biggest reason why we haven't made much headway on this goal is because it would be best if both of us were doing it at the same time. Thing is, one of us always needs to be watching Malcolm. Our garage is less than childproof and he could get himself into some trouble down there if we let him.

Happy 2009!

After a looooooong day of travel yesterday, we made it back home to Seattle from Florida. We enjoyed our travels in December, but it's good to be home. I'll update with pictures and stories soon. Right now, I'm working on getting settled back in. Our sleep is all out of whack which is to be expected. I was in bed before 9 PM last night and Tony went to bed before me! Granted, I had been awake since 12:30 AM PST, but still. Mr. Malcolm decided to wake up at 4:30 AM this morning. Tony got up with him so I could sleep a little longer. Both of my boys are currently taking much needed naps and I'm drinking much needed coffee while making a mental list of the things I want to get done today.

2008 was a good year for the Johnston family. I'm looking forward to what 2009 brings us. In the very near future, I'll have a new nephew to fawn over, a new brother-in-law to joke with and a new place to visit if things move quickly for Dad & Carolyn. I already know of 3 trips we'll be making this year: San Diego to meet my new nephew, Atlanta to celebrate the union of Betsy and Sarah and Houston to visit Dad & Carolyn. I'm sure we'll also be going to Utah, but no clue when.