Nic in WI

Christmas celebration with the Remfreys

On Saturday we had an early Christmas celebration with the Remfreys. Nic made the rounds and kept all of us entertained!

Nic's Wisconsin Adventure

Nic and I headed back to Wisconsin this weekend to celebrate an early Christmas with family and friends. At first, I was apprehensive about traveling alone with a 12-month-old, but after he managed to charm the flight attendant into letting us have our own row on the plane, I realized that things were going to turn out better than planned.

Snow Flake Lane

Last night we met Dyanna's whole family in Bellevue to watch the little dummer boys and girls perform at Bellevue Square. Nora saw a snow princess, Roudolph, and a penguin. We had a blast!

More fun with portraits

Nora was in charge of the tree

Decorating the tree

Nic watching the decorating

Nic stayed in his pack-n-play while we decorated the tree. You can see his two little teeth starting to poke out when you look at the full-size image.

Getting ready for Christmas

Now that the kids are healthy again, we are catching up on the things that we were supposed to do last weekend like getting the Christmas decorations up.

Tonight we got a nice Noble Fir from a nursery down the road and a beautiful handmade wreath to hang on the door. Nora was in charge of hanging the ornaments on the tree, a duty she took quite seriously. I was busy documenting the event like some crazy paparazzi. I have a long way to go before I figure out how to get everything right on this camera but it has been a lot of fun to play with so far.

Last Day with Mommy Home

Our Little Man is back to his ol' self and loving bath time.




























Yes, he is painfully skinny at this point :-(

DyDy

I'm sure many of you have heard us talk about Dyanna, the kids' nanny, but here she is, in the flesh.

He's baaaack

Nic is getting healthier with every passing day. Although he still isn't 100% recovered from his bout with RSV, tonight he was up to his usual monkey business.

Daddy has a new camera

Our (early) Christmas present to each other was a new digital SLR camera. We started playing around with it tonight and it has been FUN!!

I have already taken dozens of pics of the kiddos...here is the first one of many!

HOME

We are all home as a family! Brian brought Nic home from the hospital at about 11:30 this morning and the kids were so happy to see each other. They quickly started with the sounds they make back and forth to each other. It was so wonderful to see them together again.

It is also wonderful to have Mommy and Daddy in the same place for more than a minute or two! When we would pass the torch at the hospital, we'd put the sides of Nic's crib up, run to the elevator, and meet the other in the lobby. After a quick run down of the logistics needed at that moment, the other parent would make a mad dash for the elevators (cleaning the hands with sanitizing lotion of course). I would usually take Nora out for dinner at some horrible burger joint and quickly regret the need to spoil her with a place that has waitresses on rollerskates.

Dinner together, followed by baths and bedtime books will be a welcome routine tonight.

As a follow up to last night's triple puking episodes, Nora kept everything down today. Hopefully the Remfrey family is on the mend and you won't see anymore posts related to illness in quite sometime. Now all we have to do is start fattening up Nicky! I'm going to get started on a fat laden cheese sauce to drizzle on EVERYTHING!

Good news from the hospital

Nic is coming home tomorrow after four long days in the hospital fighting off RSV. He is looking better and getting stronger every day and should be back to his usual self very soon.

There is just something about the Thanksgiving holiday that makes things a bit chaotic in our family. I recall the day before Nic was born: April started having contractions, and on our way to the hospital we stopped at the house to pick up some clothes. Just as we were about to leave, the Safeway truck pulled up to deliver all of our groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. I ran up to the driver and told him we needed to make it quick! The image of the wild-eyed truck driver hurtling down our driveway with a frozen 20 lb. turkey cradled in his arms is something I will not soon forget.

This year's Thanksgiving had its share of adventure too.

Nic had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks, and the cold-like symptoms started to become really severe. He was feverish, wouldn't eat or drink, and was coughing and vomiting every few hours. We finally brought him in to the emergency room at Children's after dinner last Thursday, an unfortunate end to what had otherwise been a fun evening with our friends and family.

April and I spent the first two nights in the room with him on the pull-out bed, watching the stream of masked nurses come and go, keeping a careful eye on the monitor above him to make sure his little lungs were doing their job. As far as hospital rooms go, this one was fantastic. Seattle Children's is a very modern facility and the staff here have taken great care of Nic.

He has come a long way since that first night...he is smiling again, sitting up on his own, and cramming fistfuls of Cheerios in his mouth just like he used to. April and I are both exhausted but extremely grateful to everyone who helped take care of Nora while we were in the hospital this weekend. We are very lucky to be surrounded by such great people.

Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods yet...I just got word that Nora lost her dinner in the back seat of my car on the way home tonight. When it rains, it pours!

Nic health update

Nic checked in to Seattle Children's Hospital late Thursday night. He's been diagnosed with RSV, a nasty virus that is camped out in his lungs.

The staff at Children's has been doing a great job looking after him. April and I are appreciative of everyone's help and positive thoughts. We hope to bring him home in the next day or so.

Nic's first b-day

Nic's 1st Birthday

We had a small celebration for Nic's first birthday today. Check out the video to see how he did with his birthday cake.

Butt Up

In true Johnson fashion, Nic prefers to sleep with his butt sticking up in the air!

Nora still loves our trips on the ferry!













Nora and Daddy participated in the pumpkin carving contest at Karina and Paige's Halloween party last weekend. Nora used a new Light Bright technology that only requires the lid to be cut. She got runner up for best funny pumpkin! You can see Brian sporting his bee keeper costume while the rest of us in the family were the bees.

Houston, We Have a Tooth

Finally, after months of waiting, Nic has produced his first tooth along with hours of fun-filled screaming. He isn't letting us get anywhere near the tooth, so you'll have to wait patiently for pictures. I have a feeling the second tooth will be rearing its head soon as well!

Nic on his own two feet

Loyal readers of the blog may recall this post from October, 2005, when Nora first tried out her walking car--a gift from Auntie Nessa on her first birthday. Now, three years later, it's Nic's turn to play with it.

He hasn't quite figured out how to keep it in a straight line yet, but he is awfully proud of himself when he is able to move on his own two feet!

Halloween Preview

Look out, Cottage Lake! Nora tried on her halloween costume today...this is Amber's old bumblebee costume, circa 1985.

No More Baby Food

Nic has just informed us of a very important decision: "Get that damn baby food out of my face! I won't eat it anymore!" At least that is what I thought he was saying when he pushed away the spoon for the hundredth time this week. He has officially graduated to eating anything he can pick up and shove in his mouth. And I mean shove. We learned quite quickly (how did we forget this in 3 short years) that we could only put a few pieces, of what ever he may be eating, on the tray at a time.

This morning Nic ate a whole applesauce pancake for breakfast. We have obviously turned a corner. Baby fat here we come! Stay tuned for the pictures of the rolls on his arms, legs, and tummy. Don't hold your breath too long. For some reason, we make skinny kids and it just isn't in the cards.

Nora's Four Year Stats

Nora had her 4-year checkup this afternoon. She courageously made it through three booster shots without crying. Sparkly band-aids seem to help.

Weight: 35 lbs. (50%)
Height: 41 in. (75%)

Happy traveler

Nic and Nora had lots of fun in the back seat of the car on the way home from the orchard today...

A day at the orchard

What a weekend!

Yesterday we celebrated Nora's fourth birthday with 42 of our friends and relatives. The theme of the day was "butterflies," and we had lots of butterfly-related activities for the kiddos. They made butterfly charm bracelets, butterfly ornaments, and even butterfly suncatchers to hang in the windows. It was a lot of fun to introduce some of our friends to others that, prior to the party, they had heard about only through stories.

After yesterday's huge celebration, today was decidedly low-key. We met Matt and Renee this morning at Cafe Flora in Montlake, a vegetarian restaurant which has become our new favorite brunch place. The food was absolutely amazing. Nora's pancake was shaped like a fish, complete with fruit fins and gills. The eyes were made of bananna slices with little raspberries on top.

With happy tummies, we got back on I-5 and headed north to the Skagit Valley. It's apple season in Washington, and we were on a mission to find the best ones we could. Our destination: the Jones Creek Farm, a "U-Pick" farm near Sedro-Woolley.

We were greeted at the gate with cups of hot apple cider and dispatched to the orchard with a cart and lots of plastic bags. There were hundreds of different varieties of apples, on trees that were low enough that Nora could pick them without any help from us. One of the most fascinating varietals that we saw today was the "Pink Pearl," a yellowish apple with a pink flesh inside.

The farmers encouraged us to eat as many apples as we wanted while we picked...and we certainly obliged. Nic rode along with me in the Baby Bjorn, and with every apple I tasted, he would crane his head up to look at me with his mouth open like a baby bird. I gave him little bits of apple and he did the happy food dance, smiling and kicking his legs up and down.

As we made our way up and down the rows we were treated to beautiful views of the Cascades to the south. Despite a gloomy forecast, the sun peeked through the clouds every few minutes.

At the end we filled up the truck with 64 pounds of apples and pears, a bag of beautiful tomatoes, and squash. What in the world does one do with 64 pounds of apples, you may ask? Stay tuned. We have quite a few ideas already...do you have any you would like to share?

Happy 4th Birthday Nora!