Almost the End of March

I meant to wish Mom & Paul a happy anniversary earlier this month but, obviously, I didn't. The days slipped past me as they often do.

My plan was to do some yoga while the little man napped today but, obviously, I'm not. Instead, I'm drinking a cup of coffee and farting around on the internet. There is a long list of other things that I could be doing and I'll likely get some of them done before he wakes up.

Our good friend, Sunny, is currently in labor. I'm thinking the little guy will be showing up any minute now. Last update I got was early this morning and she was 3cm dilated. After today, I will only have 6 friends in Seattle who are pregnant. I think the baby boom is slowing down and will be surprised if someone else tells me she's pregnant.

Malcolm has been a bit of a grump this week. Tony thinks the cause is from the hours of separation from me over the weekend. I'm not so sure of that. He's started counting to 10 pretty consistently. He was skipping 9 for a couple of days but found it somewhere. He's also singing and it is the cutest thing. His newest is, "Do, a deer, a fee..." and that's as far as he gets in that song. He sings all the time. Probably because I'm always singing to him :)

New Neighbors

In December, our old neighbors moved out. Since then, the unit next door has been blissfully empty until this weekend. While we were enjoying the snow in Whistler, people moved in next door. I realized this fact this morning as I heard lots of running up and down the stairs. However, we should have been clued in last night when we came home and our main floor had the aroma of fried food.

The joys of living in a townhouse. I honestly thought the soundproofing and smellproofing would be better.

Whistler Weekend - Wahoo!

My dear Mom reminded me that it had been awhile since I posted an update. Although I have been keeping this blog for over 5 years now, I still forget to write in it often. How long does it take to establish a habit, anyway?

So! We went to Whistler this past weekend! Months ago, Julie told me that they were planning a trip to Whistler in March. We had a long list of reasons why we couldn't commit at the time. As the trip got closer, our friend, Jill, offered to take care of Malcolm so Tony and I could snowboard. And then, we found out that we could still cross the boarder with just a birth certificate for Mal (this changes in June). And THEN, the currency exchange rate has been fantastic and Whistler's been running great deals on lodging to boost business. I just couldn't let the opportunity to snowboard pass us up and convinced Tony that it would be a good idea for us to make the trip. He was nervous about how Mal would do in the car and with being away from us for several hours.

Our drive up on Friday took a looooong time. Our plan was for me to pack everything up and leave the house by 3 PM and then pick up Tony from work. It was hard for me to get everything done and take care of Mal and meet the deadline. We left the house by 3:30 and picked Tony up by 4. Traffic up was terrible through Everett (always is) and then we met a friend of ours for dinner in Bellingham. We then had an hour wait at the border. Ugh. We didn't roll into Whistler until 11:30 PM. Due to the late arrival, we didn't leave our condo until well after our intended time. Lots of boring reasons why we were delayed. Short story: we only boarded for 3 hours on Saturday. Lots of fun and the snow was great. Saturday night, we had dinner with the whole group (10 of us) excluding the babes and Julie's mom who was taking care of the kids.

On Sunday, Jill and her clan headed out in the morning. My wonderful husband stayed behind to take care of Malcolm so I could snowboard with Julie & Fes. It was another bluebird day with soft snow. We headed down from the mountain around 1:30. We took off for Seattle around 3 PM. Tony gets extra super husband points for having lots of patience with a grumpy baby who slept poorly the night before and really wanted his mommy.

It was really great to get out to the mountains. I sure do miss snowboarding. Strangely enough, I'm not sore at all. I guess the time I put in at the gym paid off!

Blueberry Man

Malcolm would eat blueberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let him. Sure, he'll still eat other fruit, but he's on an extreme blueberry kick. His poops are blue-purple in color. And no, I'm not kidding.

A long-time friend is in Seattle this week for a conference. She arrived a couple of days early to have some vacation time so me and Malcolm played tour guide yesterday. We first went to Ballard to visit the Nordic Historical Museum and the Ballard Locks. We then had lunch at Blue C Sushi in Fremont before heading up to the top of Queen Anne hill to check out the views. We've had gloriously clear weather here so the views were great. Fun times.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to Dad & Carolyn. 18 years, no?
And happy 19-month birthday to my little Mal!

Happy Belated Birthday, Buddy!

On Sunday, February 22nd, Buddy (aka Baby Piet), was born at 3:40 PM. Me & Mal arrived in San Diego on the 24th for a 5-day visit. There was an unexpected stay in Children's Hospital for Buddy, but he was discharged the day before we left. If you would like to see pictures, please send me an email or leave a comment (I don't like to plaster pictures of other people's kids on the internet w/o their permission).

He's a doll. Jenn & Piet are so happy to have him home. Congratulations, you guys!

Malcolm at the Computer

I sometimes (OK, maybe often) give in to the struggle to let Malcolm bang on my laptop. One day, he just happened to take a screen shot. I have no clue how to do this myself. My 19-month-old has already surpassed me in using the computer. Click on the picture to enlarge it - you can see he was taking pictures using PhotoBooth and chatting using iChat. I was checking out the preschool I'm hoping to enroll him - you can see their website in the background.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

From our visit in December:

It's Time To Come Out and Play

Dear Buddy,

The World is waiting for you. Your mommy, daddy, big brother and grandma are there, right now, wanting to meet you. Listen to your Auntie Kris: it's time to come out now.

Love,
Me

18-month letter

Hey little man!

So it's been quite awhile since I wrote you one of these letters. Once you started walking, I got a lot less uninterrupted time on the computer. Plus, I'm lazy. I admit I have a lazy gene or two in me. Wait...let's not call it lazy. We'll just say that I like to relax.

Anyway, back to you. You have become a little talking machine. It's no surprise since you've always been a big talker, but you catch us off guard all the time. You are now stringing two words together pretty consistently and have recently started doing three. The first thing you do every morning is point to everything in the room and tell us what it is. If there is more than one of something, you state that there is two even when there is more than just two.

Your fascination with cars and planes is a little nutty. You are such a stereotypical boy in this respect. Your grandma Sherry recently sent you a few belated Christmas presents and we've never seen you react to toys this way. Once you discovered that you have your very own train set and Hot Wheels, we couldn't get you to eat, bathe or sleep (at least for that first night).

Screech Kitty is your buddy and he is so tolerant of you. He's always been a bit of an ornery cat so this has surprised us. You often sit on him and proceed to bounce and, for whatever reason, he puts up with this. You love Persephone but only get occasional sightings of her; she is still very weary of you (with good reason!)

You are a good-natured kid who's easy-going. Lately, though, you've been prone to frequent tantrums. I've read that this is a normal thing for your stage of development and that it will pass. Both me and your daddy are really looking forward to seeing you grow out of this stage.

Things you like: giving & receiving kisses, looking at pictures of airplanes on Daddy's computer, going for walks outside so you can touch every car that you walk by, riding your 4-wheeled bike, pestering Screech, talking, taking baths, running around naked, playing chase, being outside in general and playing with friends. Your favorite foods are blueberries, broccoli, grapes, cheddar cheese and applesauce.

You amaze us every day. We love you, little guy!

Love,
Mommy

Still Six

Keely had her baby last week and another friend found out that she was pregnant with twins. It happened just as I predicted.

Jenn is the next in line to have her little boy. I wonder who will be the next to announce that she is pregnant? And no, it will not be me.

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.

Snopocalypse in Seattle

Seattle's weather is making national news. We just aren't equipped to deal with this much snow in the city. Typically, when it snows here, it melts within a day or two. Not this time. And, they're predicting more snow tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our flight isn't cancelled on Thursday. Many, many people have been stranded at the airport due to cancelled flights.

Patti reminded me that I never reported the results on the quinoa recipe. It was tasty! I halved the recipe and we had leftovers for days. I'd only make the full portion if I was taking it to a potluck with lots of people. I didn't have any of the vegetables on hand that the recipe called for, so I omitted those and added fire-roasted green peppers instead and it gave it a great kick. Now I think I must make it again soon...