NASCAR Race and Visit from Logan

Pretend this post was from the weekends of June16 & 23...not because that is when I started writing this post but because that is when these events took place :)

The weekend of June 16 really doesn't have anything to do with Andrew or the nature of this blog, but it was a lot of fun, so I feel it deserves a mention and some pictures!

As many of you know, my husband has become a diehard NASCAR fan, that's right...I said NASCAR! The weekend of June 16, the races were at Michigan International Speedway, so we deemed it appropriate to gather our friends, rent a bus, drink a little (or a lot...depends on who you are referring to) and pretend to be rednecks for a day.  Except we do not do NASCAR redneck style, we do it right...full hospitality, meet and greet with celebrities (if you actually know who they are...if not, you say things like "Ohhhh, you are on TV, right??," up close and personal with the cars and teams, etc. It was a blast, and I think we turned a few people into NASCAR fans that weekend!

The following weekend, we had a visit from the Friedleins, including Andrew's buddy Logan. I am so lucky in the fact that within a few months of Andrew's birth, my cousin and three of my friends also had babies. This has been incredibly helpful for those "Is this normal?" or "Am I doing the right thing?" questions!! Anyhow, the weekend of the 23rd, the Friedlein's brought Logan for a visit. He and Andrew had a great time playing and wore themselves out while Lindsey and I went for a walk.

The walk was exhausting!!

 Stink eye!!

 

 

Visit to Memphis

Pretend this was in early June as that is when I started writing this post and saved it to drafts :)

Last weekend, Andrew and I took a trip to Memphis to visit the family. I was terrified to fly with him by myself, but he was a rockstar. On the flight from GR to Detroit, he was awake and socializing with the people sitting around us, and on the flight from Detroit to Memphis, he sacked out and slept from 10 minutes before take-off until 10 minutes before landing. He was a bit fussier on the flights home, but he ended up sleeping through most of them.

We had such a great time visiting with the family and especially seeing his cousins!

Sick, Teething, Flooding, Crawling

April and May were pretty crummy months for all of us. I was still very busy at work, yet Andrew was ensuring that we all stayed pretty sick. We seemed to be passing the same cold back and forth, which resulted in a grumpy, sleep-deprived household.

At the end of April, Grand Rapids had record setting flooding. Fortunately, the flooding did not impact our new house, but the condo was not so lucky. The building was evacuated for 3 weeks, and our poor tenant couch-hopped during this time. She came to stay with us for a few days near the end of the 3 week period and we had a lot of fun sitting on the deck in the evening, drinking wine, and chatting! =)

Flooding in Rockford - Rogue River at 12 mile and downtown Rockford.

Flooding in Plainfield Township - Grand River at West River Dr & Northland Drive. Beneath the building is a parking garage...

 Flooding in Grand Rapids - Turner & Ann Street.

Flooding downtown - Grand River. You can see our old building on the left. This picture was taken the day before it was evacuated. 

It was finally warm enough to get outside and get some fresh air, which was especially helpful since we were all sick! Andrew enjoyed his first time swinging...and yes, he was still in his pjs...it was just one of those days!

7 month picture - always trying to eat his feet!

Sweet ride in the laundry basket =)

Another day outside. One cool cat in his sunglasses. He ripped them off his face approx 2 seconds after this picture was taken!

 

This is when Andrew started becoming mobile. He was not crawling yet but he had started scooting. When I walked into the kitchen, he was laying on top of the playmat which was on top of the blue blanket. When I walked back into the living room with his bottle, he gave me a very guilty look...

Trying to crawl. It wasn't long after this video that he figured it out.

Happy Baby!

6 Month Pictures

We took Andrew to see Erin Bokhout (Erin Alies Photography) for his 6 month pictures. She also took his newborn pictures. He was very serious during his 6 month photo shoot so we weren't sure how the pictures would turn out, that is until we put him into the golf bag =). Chris was pretty excited that those pictures turned out so well.

Time to Catch Up

It's been a while since I've posted, so I have a lot to say but I will try to keep each section short and sweet :)  I'll start from mid-February...since my last post.

This winter has been LONG and snowy, or at least it seems that way to me (I have no idea what the actual averages are...this could have been a mild year for all I know, but it seemed brutal). Anyhow we had one sunny day in February so we decided to bundle Andrew up and take him out for his first snow adventure. He did not seem impressed with the white stuff, but I imagine that he will be singing a different tune next year when he is mobile and can sit in a sled! The Johnson family is ready for springtime - golf, sun and pool! Bring it on.

In one of my previous posts I discussed the fact that baby cereal tasted like cardboard, and I thought Andrew was starting to embrace it...I was wrong. He never embraced it. A few weeks after we started the oatmeal cereal we tried out some veggies, sweet potatoes to be specific. He was a little skeptical at first and I think the vast majority of the sweet potatoes landed on his bib, hands and clothes, but I believe some made the journey to his little tummy. After sweet potatoes, we tried carrots and then green beans. He did not love any of them; however, he tolerated them and got better at eating off of the spoon.  We hit the jackpot when we tried the veggie and fruit blends (thank you to Aunt Lizzie for that suggestion). Now he eats like a champ, and I have tasted each one, and I have to say that they taste pretty good. I never would have thought to mix butternut squash, carrots, apples and prunes or sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apples, and blueberries, but he loves it all! Sometime during this period, he moved from the bumbo seat to the highchair for meals, and that helped as he was able to sit up straighter and wasn't so distracted.

He hit the five (and six month) mark during this sabbatical from blogging. I would say that over last month (probably two) there is always at least one person in our house who is sick. Mostly this is Andrew, but Chris and I have had our fair share of the bug too. We have all visited Dr. McCarthy more than we would like to in a two month time span, so again we say, bring on the warm weather!!

With the sickness, sleeping through the night went out the window. The typical night now goe a little something like this: Andrew sleeps soundly until between 2-3, then he starts coughing, then he gets mad that he is coughing so he starts babbling and fussing. Chris and I lay there for 20 minutes, listening to him babble and hoping that he will go back to sleep when ultimately one of us ends up having to get up and rock him for 15 minutes to calm him down so that he will go back to sleep. Then we wish we had just gotten up when he first started babbling and maybe we could have gotten back to bed 20 minutes earlier (even though we know you are supposed to let them try to get themselves back to sleep!!). He usually wakes up one more time coughing and we repeat the process all over again except this time the other parent gets up with him :)

Just after he hit five months, his first tooth popped through (Feb 23) and his second shortly thereafter. He now has two bottom teeth and usually drools like a faucet. Teething was not pleasant for any of us, but it could have been worse, and he looks pretty cute with those two little teeth popping through! I don't have any pictures of that...have you ever tried to take a picture of tiny baby teeth? It isn't easy!

We bought him a jumperoo recently because he loves the one at daycare, and his exersaucer just wasn't doing the trick for him anymore! He loves the jumperoo, and sometimes I think he is going to bounce right out of it. He will jump for 30 minutes and wear himself out. Mom and Dad love it too!!

 

On March 14, he hit the six month mark. It is hard to believe he has been in our lives for six months (well outside of my belly...he was in our lives long before that!). We are having more fun with him every day, and I am so excited to watch him grow up into a young man. 

And last, but certainly not least, we have been watching a lot of basketball lately with March Madness in full swing. Andrew has been sporting his Sparty gear and we are hoping to watch them win it all this year (that might be a little optimistic), but they are playing well so far so hopefully they can hang on for a little while longer!!