The Johnson Family

I asked Owen to tell me a story before his nap. It was a short one and this is how it went...

"Once upon a time, a little boy lived in a house. He ate grapes and cheese a cuz he's hungry."

Do you think Owen was hungry for grapes and cheese?

I see so much of me in Owen and so much of Lesa in her little girl, Mackenzie.Whatcha think?

Saturday we drove to Pelzer, SC to celebrate Little Daniel or "Trace's" 1st birthday. Our friends Kelly and Daniel (AKA:Rold Gold) threw a great party with good food, cake and ice cream and a backyard playground fit for kids of all ages!

Today marks the first day of the last year that Danny will be in his 20's.

This morning I got up with Owen and Ben around 7 am, while Danny slept in, and we made homemade birthday cards. Paint and all! Just before 9 am (when most of the paint had dried) we went in to wake Danny and Owen sang happy birthday to him; it was really cute!

We had a mini celebration this evening that included....


Party hats, per Owen's request.
Dark Chocolate Brownies...
And good ol family fun...
Wondering who ate the "y"?

And the "r" and "a" and little balloons?


We love you Danny and hope you had a wonderful, chaos free day! Ha!

He is a little spelling machine, but anything longer than 53 seconds takes an eternity to upload, so here is just a little taste of Owen and his letters.

Danny asked me last week what I wanted for Mother's Day and when I told him I thought it would be nice to have brunch and maybe take the kids to paint pottery, he was all about it. We got a late start Sunday morning due to a very sleepless night for ALL, so when we arrived at Stoneyknob Cafe and the wait was a little longer than we were up for, we headed into downtown and decided to eat at the Over Easy Breakfast Cafe.Afterward, we walked to Fired Up and let Owen and Ben each paint a tile (with our help of course.) I really wanted both of their hand prints, but settled for Ben's footprint when his little hand wouldn't stay open long enough for a print. We did try, and ended up with a blob each time. I want to hang these in our laundry room with hooks underneath for their little coats and bags.





I had such a wonderful day with my wonderful little family! I am so lucky to have two beautiful and healthy little boys that make every sacrifice (including sleep) so worth it and a great husband who helped make this a very, very special and fun day!

I was so wrong when I thought Ben would be the calm laid back one! He should be the one with the MONKEY themed 1st birthday! I so should have picked something different or Owen.

Once Ben figured out how to get around, it was only a matter of time before he discovered electrical cords and the inside of cabinets. He's quick to want to dive out of your arms and off the furniture; gotta keep a close eye on this one!!! Now that he mastered crawling and crawling REALLY FAST, he thought it might be even more fun to start pulling up and cruising the furniture. He likes to do mini pull-ups in the window sills and on just about every other piece of furniture!

a few other monthly milestones and tidbits for the baby book:

• Opens and closes hand and says bye-bye
• 4/13 started saying mama more frequently. It’s usually when he’s upset.
• Does not like to be out of my sight
• Does not like for me to hold Ella. He'll bite my leg or head butt me if I am sitting with her in my lap.
  
• Can sit on his knees now
• Has added electrical cords to his list of things to play with and chew on.
• Grabs for the remote anytime it’s near
• Likes to crawl under things (ie: his crib, the couch, chairs, Owen’s high chair, etc.)
• 4/20 discovered the laundry room and dogs water bowls
• he is doing really well at picking up finger foods like puffs and cut up banana’s
• loves to look out the windows and glass doors.
• Plays very well by himself, but really, really wants to play with Owen.
• Started pulling himself up on the furniture, walls, bath tub, toy box, and activity tables
• Kind of “cruising”
• 5/2 started crawling like a normal baby
• is cutting his top front teeth
• hair is growing in very blonde, thick and he is sporting a bit of rooster fluff
• likes to climb in the TV cabinet
• does his arms in big circles if you ask him what the fan does
• does not sit still!!! He is into everything and is constantly rolling and chasing a ball, going after one of the dogs, beating on something, or trying to play with Owen’s toys. Gotta watch this one; he’s WILD!
• Ate a few pieces of banana and avocado this month and has started snacking on cheerios.
• Loves music, but doesn’t sit still for books much anymore. I just read them loudly and hope he’s getting something out of them.
• Takes all of his naps (10 & 2) in his crib and will sleep there at night from 8:30p-12:30a and that is when I’ll bring him to bed with us. I have a hard time sleeping w/o him!
• Only 2 months until his FIRST birthday. AHHHHHHHH!

This has probably been his happiest and most playful month! We have LOVED every minute of it!

(Hopefully I can get a better picture sometime today...)


It's so hard to believe Owen is 2 1/2 already, not that he doesn't act like he's a two year old. We are so proud of him and how interested he is in learning. For some reason, he would rather play with letters, letter puzzles, draw letters and spell words, over playing with trucks and cars (not that he shouldn't be doing that too, he just seems more interested in learning as a game.) He has been able to recognize, pronounce and sound the alphabet since before he was two, but now he is actually putting all that together and spelling words. A few of the words he can spell (that we know of) include, Owen, Ben, Ella, baby,pig, cow, cat, dog,duck, jet,pool, moon and fun. He's interested in learning to write. He wants me to write letters and words while he holds onto the marker with me.

He talks very clearly and you can actually have a conversation with him now. He listens and follows directions really well and because he knows his colors, shapes and so many words, it's really easy to communicate with each other.

Owen has a very vivid imagination that I assume comes from books and TV. He still loves to read (that is once you catch him long enough to sit still and read with him.) He watches a little more TV than I am proud to admit, but sometime you gotta do what you gotta do. I do control what he watches. Some of his favorites are Word World, Super Why, Dora, Wonder Pets and Backyardagans. He does still ask for Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins from time to time.

He is such a good big brother and other than not wanting to share his toys with Ben, you can tell he really loves Ben! I can't wait for them to be able to run around and play together!


He is really into doing floor puzzles! Maggie got him a set of Melissa and Doug Beginning Skills puzzles for Christmas that he LOVES!!! There are 4 12 piece puzzles and he can put all 4 together by himself (or "All by self," as he would say.) He also has a few farm scene puzzles that he likes to put together. Danny bought him a 48 piece Melissa and Doug dinosaur puzzle today, that once he does it with us a few times, he'll be mastering it by himself too!

He is ALL about playing outside. He can open all the locks now, which is VERY scary!!!! We put master locks on all the outside gates to try and keep in the backyard if he does get out of the house. I have to set the full siren alarm on the security system now when I shower to make sure I know if he opens a door.

He and our neighbor kids play almost every night. It's so fun to watch him get so excited and run around with them. The oldest girl is so patient and she has been trying to teach him how to play catch. He would rather chase her with the ball and give her hugs, but she's working on it.

I am sure there is a WHOLE lot more I could write, but Ben is demading some attention right now, so I might have to work on this more later.

Till then....

My mom and grandmother came up Saturday to visit for a few hours. It was a lazy rainy day and we didn't really do much but sit around and watch Owen do all of his "tricks," but I think we all needed a chaos free afternoon!

Mom brought me a Mother's Day gift that I just love! It's a Willow Tree figure with a mother and two children. The funny thing is, it actually looks like us!

We had dinner at Crackle Barrel and then we all went separate ways.

When we got home, Danny and the neighbor kids hit golf balls in the backyard. We have three small golf clubs that Danny's grandfather (Bobo) made, so each kid took a club and started swinging. It was a wild and crazy! Golf balls were flying everywhere and it was a wonder the boys didn't knock each other out with their wild swings!!! I so wish I had a video clip to share, because I don't imagine we'll suggest such activity for a 2,3, and 4 year old again for while. Danny and I figure they had so much fun that they will probably ask to do it again, though.