July 2009

Another fun summer month has flown by! Hare to believe that we are already in Aug...hopefully summer extends into September or this summer will be way too short! Erin & Jay (friends from high school) came up to visit over July 4 weekend and Kate & Ken (Paul's sister & husband) were here visiting from San Diego as well. We went to the Cubs game and had great seats so it was so fun.

Johnny is loving the summer weather and being able to be outside more. He would live outdoors if we would let him. He loves going on walks, playing at the park, and getting in baby pools. He goes crazy with excitement when he sees a dog, tractor, or big truck. Typical boy! His vocabulary continues to grow....ball, dog, bubble, hair, nose, eyes, baby, bath, hat, book, shoes, hi, bye (lots of "B" words!), and lots of animal sounds (see the video post right before this). He is always entertaining and has never met a stranger. He waves and yells HI at everyone when we pass them on a walk whether they are looking at him or not. Too cute! He's a big flirt with the girls and loves to blow them kisses. : ) My Aunt Addy & Uncle Mike were in Paxton visiting so we went down to spend the day with them. All the kids got to play in the pool at Dad's and they love being together so it was fun.

My sister and 2 of her friends were up to vist at the end of July. We did some shopping downtown, went out for tapas at dinner, and then met up with Erica and a couple of girls that I went to school with (Lyndsy & Lisa) who we hadn't seen in 15 years! We had a blast and it was great to catch up.

Moo, Baa, La La La!

This is one of Johnny's favorite books and it's the cutest thing ever to hear! He was a little distracted by the camera so not his best performance but you get the idea : )

Johnny Outside

Thought I would add a recent video of Johnny because 1) you can see how big he is and 2) you can see how well he listens to mommy! ; ) Sorry I can't figure out how to turn it....you'll have to tilt your head to watch! Ha ha.

June 2009

Another month has flown by and our baby boy is definitely turning into a toddler. He's walking a lot now and babbling all the time. I turned around in the car today to look at him talking in his carseat and my heart sunk wondering where his baby face went?!? No stopping him now....he's just going to continue to get bigger and older so I better get used to it! : ) Anyway, we had a wonderful June. We went to Starved Rock with my mom, Jim, Aunt Jackie, Shell, Jeff, Grayson & Aleigha to celebrate my mom's 60th bday. We stayed at the Grand Bear Resort in a beautiful cabin and everyone had a great time. Aleigha & Johnny definitely got some bonding time and now they like each other.....as long as either both of them or neither of them are sitting on Grandma's lap. Otherwise they each get a bit jealous! ; ) There was an indoor waterpark and all of the kids loved it. It was a great weekend.

Aleigha & Johnny's 1st wine tasting outing

Johnny was baptized in June. Aunt Shelly & Aunt Kate were the Godmothers and Johnny did great during the service and the actual baptism. I must say that Johnny looked like a little angel in his outfit and think he would have jumped right into the holy water if the Pastor would have let him! We had a cook-out afterwards with some family and after the cook-out, Kate, Paul, Shell & I went out to meet up with friends so it was a fun day.

Johnny made a hand painted tie for Daddy on Father's Day!

1st!

Johnny took his first steps today....several times!!! Exciting : )

Birthday Month!

I honestly cannot believe that it's been a year already!!! What a wonderful addition our little Johnny has been to the family and this year has been such a great experience and a great start to a new chapter in life. He is truly pure joy every single day and makes every day fun (and of course stressful some days...ha ha!).

Johnny had his 1 year doctor appt on Friday and he is 23 lbs 3 oz (50th-75th percentile) and 31 inches (90th percentile). He screamed the whole appt and hates the doctor. Not fun but what can you do?!?

This month Johnny has been "fake laughing" like crazy. He's been doing it for a while but now he does it often and with a big smirk on his face. He's getting close to walking but not there yet. Now he says "HI" and refers to anything with wheels as a tractor (prounounced ta-ta). He loves playing with toy trucks and tractors and makes the noises to go with it. He's still loving books....I would assume that stage lasts for a while now, though.

We had his bday party over Memorial Day weekend at Paul's parents' house. It was a beautiful day and we all had a blast. We did presents and cake and then cooked out for both Paul & Johnny's bdays. Paul turned 30 on the 26th. Johnny's daycare had a party for him as well and then Paul & I took him to the park and had a quiet day at home on his actual bday on the 31st.

Johnny made me these flowers w/his picture at daycare for Mom's Day : ) The next pics is Johnny admiring the new flowers on the deck with daddy.

Pics from the bday party



And pics from later in the night celebrating Paul's bday

Paul & I went to the Cubs game on his actual bday.

Johnny with his girlfriend, Lily, at school (see last month's post if you haven't already heard about her) and his bday hat for his party.

And finally.....Johnny on the day of his bday....officially 1 year old!

11 months

Johnny is 11 months and having a blast! He's actually felt pretty well this month so we're hoping for a good summer free of colds for once. He's full of belly laughs, LOTS of talking, and giving out hugs & kisses like crazy. He loves to wave bye bye and blow kisses to people. He also loves music and bounces with the songs. He's very in to reading books at night now before he has his bottle and picks out what he wants to read himself. For some reason, every time a book has the word tractor, he tries to repeat it and really thinks about it before saying it like he's trying so hard. It's pretty funny. Maybe he's a farm boy at heart! ; ) He also loves to repeat Uh-oh. His crawling speed is very fast now and definitely keeps us busy. He understands so much of what we say like bottle, books, bath, and of course....NO....which he likes to test us on but what child doesn't ?!?

He still loves daycare and hops out of my arms every morning to get down to play. When we buzz in and the teacher says hello through the speaker, he yells out like he wants to tell her he's there rather than me saying it. LOL! He has a girlfriend at daycare now and the teachers say that they chase each other with their walkers, always try to touch each other, and sometimes hold hands while they eat in their highchairs! Too cute. But this past weekend he met another girlfriend who surprised him by giving him a kiss, but then Johnny was open mouth ready for the 2nd one and I got it on camera (pic below). We were all dying laughing! He's quite the ladies man : )

We had a great Easter visiting with family. My mom also celebrated her 60th bday in April and Aleigha got baptized the same weekend.

Some pics from the month and some videos from this past weekend are below.

10 months.....time is flying!

Johnny turned 10 months old at the end of March. Where is time going and why is it going so quickly?!? He's so hilarious and adorable right now that I wouldn't mind freezing it for just a little bit. I'm trying my hardest to appreciate every second....whining for me, waking up in the middle of the night, crying, following him around, and holding him even when he's really heavy! I know these times pass too quickly and soon enough he won't want me all the time and won't let me hold him and I'll be wishing for these days back!

Anyway.....on to my March update : ) March was a big month....as you can see from my previous post, Johnny started crawling. I honestly thought (along w/his doctor & daycare teachers) that he would skip that step and go right to walking but we were wrong. He loves to be able to move on his own (& he's quick!) but he would still rather walk if he can get someone to hold his hands and walk with him. He's pulling himself up all over the place and knocking anything he can off the shelves. Thankfully our place is so small that we really only have his toys out and no knick knacks or anything like that so it doesn't matter if he gets into everything. He is now all of a sudden into only solid foods. He must have made up his mind one day that he was done with baby food and began turning his head and refusing it. He loves Gerber puffs and yogurt melts for snacks and is also into bread & butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, mac & cheese, and normal cheese. Lots of dairy! We tried jello one day and you can see from the attached pic how well that went. He had a blast, though! He's a very strong willed little man with an amazing sense of humor. He does everything with the intention of getting your attention and making you laugh. He's obsessed with monkeys and hugs his stuffed animals every morning. He's just turning into this little person with a very big personality right before our eyes and it's so fun to watch!

Johnny is crawling!

Johnny took his 1st crawling steps last night but I wasn't sure if he would still know how in the morning. He did and took off moving first thing when he woke up! He's pulling himself up all over the place and loves walking all over the condo when we hold his hands. He's getting to be such a big boy : ) Time to babyproof!

The best sound in the world!

Johnny laughing : )

Night Out

Johnny went down to stay w/Grandma & Grandpa for the weekend, and Paul & I went on a dive bar crawl in Chicago with some friends. It was so much fun to be out but very hard to stay out late when I'm used to going to bed at 8 : ) We had a great time, though, and was good to see everyone who came up from Paxton. Just a few pics from the night...........

9 months old!

Johnny is 9 months old and weighing in at 21 pounds and 30.5 inches : ) He's still a big boy! He now has 4 top teeth in addition to his 2 bottom teeth that he got around Thanksgiving. He's not really into solid foods yet. We're working on it but he seems to have a problem with the texture. I'm sure he'll come around soon. Johnny isn't crawling but still going from sitting to all fours and rocking before dropping to his belly. He is pulling himself up so the doctor thinks that he may skip crawling and go right to walking since his legs are so strong. We'll see?!? He's also clapping if you ask him to which is adorable. He gets very proud of himeself! Johnny has had yet another cold for most of the month and he also brought home the stomach virus and passed it to us as well. That was no fun! Needless to say, we're looking very forward to spring and opening up the windows and spending some time in the fresh air. The most exciting part of February was welcoming home Johnny's new cousin, Aleigha Clare Lan Bittner. We have been waiting 3 years for this but she was definitely worth the wait!!! We're all so in love : ) She's 13 months and Johnny & I went to visit the first weekend they were home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We celebrated on Friday instead. Johnny made us a finger painting at school and he bought Daddy a bouquet of chocolate covered strawberries. Yummy!

For a Valentine's treat for Johnny (really just because he was cranky), we let him have a bottle in the bath tub! It was pretty funny and it made him content : )