The John Family Blog

no pics - but I thought I'd give an update on our day - Went and got Zach in the morning. His foster parents sure love him - it was a hard day for them. We took some pictures of the three of them (parents teary) and I sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so Zach would look at the camera and smile. I stopped at McDonalds on the way back through town - Zach asked for fries but the meal time Nazi's at McD's wouldn't do it 5 minutes early. Love that. I got him a biscuit instead, he loved it and shared a lot of it with his carseat.

Besides a few toy battles and a stealthy ripping open of a few presents under the tree, (those will be hidden till Christmas) - our day went pretty well. I'm learning how to hold two boys on one lap - I just love that they both want to cuddle - And I'm trying to practice patience - pray for me! Bath time was interesting and fun. Zach asked for a bath almost as soon as we got here. He's used to a quick bath by himself without toys. He had two baths with Mikey last weekend and you'd think we took him to Disney land. I told the boys no pee or poop in the bath and they followed the rules - a little too well. I got Mikey in a towel first and sent him out of the bathroom. Within 30 seconds he came back to tell me he peed on the rug. I stood him on the step stool to try and finish in the potty and Zach immediately started going on the floor next to the potty. So I got Mikey down and put Zach up and Zach actually finished in the potty. He was pretty proud of himself. That's a first for him. With the transition coming his foster parents didn't potty train him. Anyway, so I cleaned up what I hope (but doubt) will be the only double potty training mess. Apologies to those without toddlers - I hope I didn't gross anyone out.

Boys are asleep now. House is...cleaner than before I put them to bed. Josh had to work late - Ha! He gets them in the morning for sure.

We are adopting again! Zachariah will be 3 in January. We feel like we've been doing visits forever, but Zach is coming home for good this Friday, after his last therapy session. His foster parents have done a really good job of getting him caught up developmentally. Zach was slow to babble and crawl as a baby and really hard to feed, but he's worked really hard and now runs and climbs, gets into trouble, talks in sentences, and likes to count everything.

He came for an overnight visit this weekend, and did amazingly well. He's calling us Mama and Dada, and his favorite thing is to follow Josh around the house and yell, "There he is!" He and Mikey are both great sleepers and they play together really well too. I seriously love both my kids and I couldn't be more excited to finally be a family all together. Here's some pics!

Big Green Eyes

Sitting with Dada


Here are my helpers putting up the Christmas ornaments. I didn't count on them wanting to take them all off again when they were done.

Zach's foster family is between Apache Junction and Queen Creek - we've had a lot of long drives in the past two weeks. Mikey's been a trooper.

My morning boys

We went back to Tolmachoff farms this year, and it was great except for Mikey's big tantrum at the end. When he calmed down after I dragged him out to the car, he told me he was mad that I wouldn't let him chase the chickens. Sometimes its nice that he talks so early.

They give you a stamp when you come in, and it really made Mikey look like he had an arm tattoo for a couple of days. I think it enhanced his costume as a car mechanic.


Playing in the corn

He loved the train ride.


Mikey with Dada after the trunk or treat. He was all about the candy this year. On Halloween, we trick or treated with Josh's family.

Cousins and friends - Mikey the Mechanic and Harmon the cowboy

Mikey and Nana

I asked Mikey a few random questions the other day while we were playing legos. Here's what he said:

What makes you laugh? Dada
What's your favorite color? Purple
What is your favorite animal at the zoo? Giraffe
Who is funny? Mikey funny
What do you like to eat? Food
What kind of foods? Bananas
What are you afraid of? Frank (From the Cars movie), Cats
What do you like to do? Play cars
Who is your best friend? Daddy
What do you think Camels eat? Grass
Who is smart? Mikey's smart
Do you know anybody who's nice? Mikey's nice (And humble)
What's something that's loud? Mikey's loud
Do you know anything else that's loud? Mama loud
What do you like to make with Mama? Towers

Mikey's obsession with the Cars movie has gone too far....He used to be afraid of the tractor tipping scene in the movie, now he's finding ways to reenact it.

Takes me back to Junior High choir... ha ha ha

It's later than I wanted to post, but here is my results. 6.2 miles in 1 hour 31 mins and 38 seconds. Pretty pitiful, although I almost ran the whole thing. I realized within about the first quarter mile that my sister Amy's pace was too fast for me. I wasn't ready for the elevation change, running through the woods, watching for rocks, sticks and piles of pine needles, plus all the up hills. That first mile sign I went, "you've got to be kidding me!" and then at mile 2 I thought, "I'm in trouble" - all these old people walking we're passing me up, so I gave up on the whole, 'I have to jog the whole thing' and started power walking up the hills. Then I got to a down hill section and started sprinting. I must have missed the three mile marker, because I shouted for joy when I got to mile four. I ran all of mile 5 and 6, but by then my knees and hips were aching and I couldn't lengthen my stride. It was kind of nice to be in the back of the pack. There were a lot of sections where I was by myself and I could sing along with my mp3 player. I feel like a big whiner after reading about the marathon my brother and bro-in-law just did in St George, but this was the farthest I've ever run. I'm going to do the 10k at the Turkey Trot in Mesa and see if I can shave about a 1/2 hour off my time.

Sorry its been 3 weeks since I've posted. I'm still here. My sister Amy and I are going to run a 10k this weekend for the first time. If I survive, I'll post about it next week, and maybe have pictures. Does anybody have any music suggestions of what to add to my mp3 player? What's good to run to?

Did I mention that Mikey loves the zoo?

Mikey had no problem eating his cake this year. We made the mistake of giving him cupcakes a half-hour before bed time. He would not fall asleep!

I'm still working out to the same cheesy video, and while Mikey is usually trying to sabotage my efforts, sometimes he can't resist the rhythm.

Its a fun coincidence that the bottom video was taken a few days before his first birthday, and the new one is within two weeks of his second birthday. We love this dancin' boy.

I love the splash park at Tartesso, but I never remember to bring my camera. Besides, Mikey always wants me in the water with him. Here are a few pictures my friend took when our play group met up there.

I find myself trying to solve mysteries like how to remove petroleum jelly from hair, how to remove toy animals from dishwasher vents or dryer lint screen places, how to baby proof a piano, or my personal favorite... how to explain to a little boy throwing a tantrum that we can't pick out whatever car we want from a parking lot and drive it home. "This one Mommy!" (He seems to like the SUV's)

No pictures yet. Maybe when my mouth stops hurting. For those who haven't heard, I got braces put on yesterday. My teeth are pretty much straight already, but my teeth are angled wrong top to bottom so that they don't hit each other right when I bite down. When the dentist called them 'sagging arches' man did I feel old. Anyway, supposedly this is supposed to help my gums which are receding too fast and stop bone loss. I blame mom. :) If you're still reading at this point you must really love me. I'm so tired of talking about teeth. Just try not to point and laugh when you see me.

Its been over a month since I posted but today's as good as any. Josh got me roses for my birthday which was so nice and I discovered that the only people who appreciate roses more than wives are toddlers. Mikey wanted to sniff every one and accidently snapped one of the stems so he got his very own to carry around. I put it in a glass of water for him.

My sister-in-law Tara told me about this park a long time ago, but because of the distance, I had never checked it out until now. Mikey and I were getting a little stir-crazy in the house and it happened to be a little overcast so I figured it might be the last day to go before summer when it would be too hot (We went about two weeks ago).

This place did not disappoint. Despite being around Indian Bend and Scottsdale Rd, it only took me about a half-hour in mid-day traffic. It is really well kept. Huge trees, picnic tables, some great playgrounds, ice cream shop, etc. In the office you buy tickets for the carousel and train. 12 for $10. That was plenty for the two of us. The carousel is one ticket and the train is two tickets. Kids under 3 ride free. So we went on the train 4 times, the carousel 3 times and went to their little museum with our last ticket.

The train ride is about 10 minutes long and goes through the entire park. There are jackrabbits, quail, and squirrels everywhere and Mikey's favorite part is the tunnel at the end.

The snack shop was great too, and not overpriced. I could barely get Mikey to eat though, because he was so busy playing with their Thomas the Train table. We ended the day staring through the windows of their hobby classrooms. All the middle-aged Train nerds...ahem enthusiasts...sit inside and play with their train collections. I have to admit, they were awesome, and Mikey was pretty ticked that he couldn't touch. He crashed out on the way home. It was great! So anyone up for meeting there in the fall?

This is what Tuesday nights look like at our house. (It was Disco Night on American Idol after all.)

Apparently our yard is popular for other creatures besides ladybugs this season. I was freaking out yesterday because I saw a bee in our yard go into a hole in the ground and I was afraid we had a whole hive on our hands. After a little google research I found out that 90% of bee species are solitary bees, not part of a hive. The males can't sting and the females are not aggressive unless provoked. (Maybe I'm dumb, I just always assumed that all bees live in hives.) I've seen them burrowing and mating. I'm pretty sure if they had a queen she would have rules against that kind of thing. I would prefer they chose someone else's yard to live in, but they seem to be all over the neighborhood so I guess we'll just live with them for now. At least our flowers will be happy.

Between colds, flu, and now two times biting through his lower lip (Mikey bonked his lip on a bar at the playground two weeks after the first time - see post below. They used Durabond to close it up this time - great stuff - and can I just say I love the urgent care at Litchfield/Thomas Rd) Needless to say we are spending more time in the house. I thought this water activity would be a disaster, but even with all the splashing, the blanket absorbed everything and Mikey had a ball.

Mikey and I discovered yesterday that our backyard is a popular hangout for the ladybugs in the neighborhood. Josh calls it our happy infestation.

Mikey wanted to hold all of them.

Yesterday I took Michael to the park to meet with his foster family and play. I've always been mystified by all the other moms that can let their kids run loose on a playground. I tend to hover over Mikey, never more than a few feet away. The moms at play group can attest to that. So, for the 20 seconds that I was not watching Mikey yesterday, he goes down a slide and face plants in the sand, biting through his lower lip. Ouch. I called Josh and we met up at the nearest urgent care.
Mikey slept on the way there and was running around laughing in the waiting area. He has a really high pain tolerance. He was totally fine until they had to give him a shot to numb the area. They had us wrap him up like a burrito and hold him down while they stitched him up. The doctor said he must be a good healer because it had pretty much closed up on its own before we got there. I take him in on Monday to have the stitches removed.

A few minutes before it happened

Josh entertaining Mikey while they prep

Our cute model

Mikey and I took it easy today - We tried painting. Mikey was a little more interested in painting his face and hands than the paper.

I've been following the blog cleanreads for awhile and they just moved. Awesome site for reading suggestions. Anyway, for their most recent book giveaway they wanted a shout out so that's why I'm posting this. The book is Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. I've been meaning to read her stuff. I hear its great. Here is the link: homespunlight

I don't know about you, but the economy news lately is really stressing me out. Maybe we should just let our toddlers run congress. At least their sense of fashion would be better...