My Boys Waiting and Playing

2 Days have passed since our due date! I know that doesn't sound like a long time, but we are getting anxious to meet our little Cupcake. We have taken advantage of the extra time to do some extra special fun with Johnny as a family.

On Friday we made a full day of fun! We took Johnny to Jump On It, a local place full of bouncy houses and all kinds of fun stuff like that. Aunt Natalie and Uncle Tommy got Johnny some sessions for his birthday. Each session is 1 and a half hours long, which was just a little to long, by the end he was wondering to each place and laying his head on it, but didn't really want to stop playing!


This was his favorite thing to do, this slide was super tall and he could basically do the rung ladder alone!
Really this slide was so steep that by the end he was a little scared, but always wanted to do it again!
I have a lot of pictures of Johnny fall on his face, he would build up speed and then trip right into the bouncy floor, laughing!

After the fun of the bouncing we took Johnny to Friendly's for a special Due Date lunch, my intent was to get him some ice cream....

He picked his lunch out, I would list all the options and he told me what he wanted, his biggest want was the broccoli and he ate so much good food that he was too full for ice cream! Oh and see his adorable big brother shirt, it has "John" all around the circle, we won it on a Facebook give away! Johnny has SIX big brother shirts!

Yesterday we had another labor false alarm and it was disappointing for Momma, so today we planned a special, but small picnic at the on post park...

The park is huge, there are actually three parks in one, each one made for different age groups. This park is within walking distance of our house, but we drove, Momma swollen ankles can only handle so much.

Aren't they cute? Shawn has been amazing with Johnny this week end, right there in everything he does playing with him side by side! He is an amazing Daddy!!! This morning he spend 2 hours this morning right on the floor playing dinosaurs and dragons so Mommy could take a nap!

While my boys ran around the playgrounds Momma enjoyed her own little rest spot! Chocolates, knitting and some wonderful shade. It was really hot on the playground, but in Mommy's shade it was perfect!
Every few minutes Johnny had to run back and check on Mommy, I love the way he runs!

After some sandwiches, chips, and fruit we had a little dessert of Mommy's chocolates, and then Johnny gave messy kisses.

He got Daddy with a messy chocolate kiss right on his nose!

Look at those cheeks! and those EYES! I just always wonder how he got so beautiful!

These guys have been wonderful, the last two days have been very frustrating as Mommy over analyzes every pain waiting to go into labor. Johnny has been sweet and helpful and Daddy has been taking great care of Mommy! I actually feel pretty good today, thanks to my boys! Oh and here they are pretending to be dinosaurs and eating Mommy's shirt.

First Trip to the ER

Yes, you read the title right...at 26 months Johnny had his first trip to the emergency room!


Though this wasn't a serious trip it was still an ordeal, our poor monkey had to watch his morning shows in a hospital bed.

Shortly after waking up Johnny was washing his hands in the upstairs bathroom while standing on his little stool, not 8 inches off the ground. Some how he lost his balance and went down, hitting his chin on the counter on his way. Immediatly he started crying out and we noticed the blood on his hands and his face. We really couldn't calm him down but we could glance at what was injured. There where wounds on the inside and outside of his bottom lip, we weren't sure, but it appeared that he had bit through his lip! The bleeding stopped but he still seemed to be in pain and the lip was swollen and tender, so 8 am we headed off to the emergency room. The entire thing took just over two hours but wasn't anything special. Everyone there loved his shoes and his dinosaurs, he was angry that he couldn't eat and didn't want anyone touching or messing with his mouth. But didn't throw any fits or anything horrible like that.

He did not bit through his lip, but instead bit the inside with his bottom teeth and the outside with his top teeth. The physicians assistant used dermabound and glued the one centimeter cut on the outside closed, but said that the inside wasn't too bad and would heal on its own just fine. The only instructions we got where to not let him eat anything that hurts and to not let him pick the dermabound off, simple enough! So far strawberries hurt him! Poor baby, but I am really proud of how well he did with the entire thing and that he stayed perfectly dry the entire morning!
We stopped by to see Grams and Pops and play for a little while! Johnny was as excited and happy as ever, however he seems extra careful, not wanting to walking up or down stairs without a hand...who can blame him!

Strawberry Picking

Last week during a visit to Grams and Pops house Papa suggested we take the kids to pick some strawberries. It was the first day of the strawberry picking so there where TONS of bring red, super sweet berries and we all had a great time!

It took Johnny just a quick second to realize what was on the vines and that he was allowed to take them off and eat them!

But Ella knew just what she was doing and she was looking for strange strawberries.

Isn't she so big and adorable?

We had to keep telling the kids not to pick the green ones, only the red ones, but they where really good.

We ended up walking out with 15 pounds of strawberries!

There is nothing yummier then a sweet warm strawberry right of the vine...really none of us could stop eating them!

I have some of my best memories with Gramma Nancy picking strawberries in Ohio. She always loved them. My mom tells a story about when she was born my Grandfather bought her some strawberries as a treat and my aunts and uncles wanted them, but weren't allowed. When I was a kid and we would pick strawberries with Gramma she would take them home, cut them up and sprinkle sugar on them making a yummy strawberry sugar goo that I have never been able to recreate the way she did. I would like to think she would have loved taking her great grand kids to pick strawberries!

Gramma Nancy cutting strawberries with Uncle Tommy when he was kid.

On a potty side note I was so proud of Johnny at the strawberry field because he asked to go potty and I told him to just go in his waterproof cloth training pants since I wasn't even sure if there was a potty out there. But he kept asking over and over again and wouldn't let it go! So I ran him to the porta potty and he pooped in the potty and only a little in his undies! Even though he had a rough week end with accidents yesterday he did not have a single accident or leak and for the first time ever he ended the day in the same pair of underwear that he started the day in!

26 Months so Some Cute Pictures

26 months have officially passed since last time Momma had a huge belly! I was organizing some pictures this morning and realized how many cute pictures I had not shared here recently. It is hard for me to find a good balance of frequency of blog posts. So today I thought I would post some back logged pictures from the last month and a run down of Mommy's big boy.

These two pictures are actually from last month when we where potty training. I am not sure why I didn't upload them then because they are some of my favorites of him! He was so sweet this day and cuddled with me a lot!!! He curled against my belly and just laid there for a while, I have this great memory and feeling when I look at these pictures, they are printed and in pink frames to take to the hospital for when I go into labor. They remind me of how exciting it will be to watch Lily and Johnny grow up together and how they will impact each others lives!

And he is just cute and happy here!

This is why Johnny is no longer allowed to eat in the car! That is an entire bag of Craisons! Which Johnny loves, but also thinks messes are super funny.

Johnny's favorite game is now anything to do with dinosaurs. At Grams and Pops house there are TONS of dinos and he can name most of them and knows what they do and even what some of them eat. He likes to chase the cat and some times his parents around the house with the bigger "sharp tooth" pretending that the dinosaur is eating us. Or he pretends to be a dinosaur running in circles roaring and calling out "I sharp tooth." I believe his favorite dinosaur is the triceratops, because likes to get the big one and little one so he can have a baby triceratops and a Mommy (or Daddy depending on his mood.) His favorite TV show is Dinosaur Train on PBS at 9 am (right before Sesame Street.) Mommy also loves this show since it focuses on the real names of the dinosaurs and what their real habits where. He picked up "sharp tooth" from Land Before Time which has become a special treat or for when he is sick.

Ella hasn't been coming over as much this month, stuff just keeps getting in the way of our visits. But this evening both girls had come over to play and Johnny and Ella where watching Super Why and apparently they are both really concerned about the show, and as usual adorable!

With Lily's arrival getting so close we have been trying to clean out the house and get rid of what ever we can. Johnny discovered an empty container and decided it was perfect for a hid out, notice the dinosaur in his hand....he doesn't do anything without at least one dinosaur in his hand.

More dinosaur play! The triceratops and sharp tooth where fighting for Mommy's entertainment. Oh and these tiny little dinos are all over the house, Johnny get excited every time he find one where he doesn't expect to.

For Mother's Day last week end the entire Dennison clan headed to the beach to spend some time together and celebrate Mommy's and Grams Birthday. I actually have a ton of pictures from that week end and need to do it's own post. We had a lot of fun playing in the water and riding rides on the boardwalk. But mostly we loved spending special time with our family. Wyatt is growing fast and since he lives in Ohio now we miss him all the time, but it makes these time even more special. Look at these boys, just nine months apart, I hope they grow up to be great friends!

Mommy is in her last month of pregnancy and there for we have a midwife appointment every week. Johnny has become a regular hit at the office, but still needs something to entertain him while Mommy and Lily get measured and checked. This last week it was this foot pop that Papa got Johnny at the beach. YUM!

In the past month Johnny's sleep has been a little off. He has been waking up early and not wanting to lay down for bed or naps, but he is super tired. We discovered a new tooth coming in in the front of his mouth where his gap it. The spot if not nearly big enough for any tooth and therefore the tooth is coming in the opposite direction that it should be coming it. It looks painful! We will be seeing a pediatric dentist soon!

Finally Johnny's poo has become solid again and lactose has been reintroduced (actually by accident) and he is handing it just fine! After nearly a fully month of diarrhea and stomach pains he seems to be back to his old self! But potty training is a long process, especially with the stomach flu back lash, and he still spends some of each day in just underwear. But every day does better and better! He is now pooping on the potty and on normal days has no big accidents and few leaks. However taking him too far outside of his comfort zone does lead to accidents, but that is part of learning!

Just this last week end our great friend Tara and her daughter Kat came down for a day long visit! We headed to the Maryland Faerie Festival for a few hours on Saturday. I felt for my manly boy who was all by himself amongst a ton of little girls in wings and frilly dresses. But he still had lots of fun, especially running through this tunnel and sharing a virgin Margaretta with Mommy. It was so much fun to get to see my old friend and how much her pretty little girl has grown!

Here is Johnny playing with little Kat. It was hard for Mommy to get good pictures of the two of them, one was always looking away or distracted! Though Johnny enjoyed the attention and fun of having a "new friend" and liked holding her hand in the car but he was taken aback by the sudden addition of Kat and her Mommy in our house. He also seems to have developed a completly normal fear of abandonment. He is starting to get upset when people he knows well leave or walk away. At the airport Mommy stepped of the car to help Tara and Tara put her backpack on the driver side seat, Johnny lost it. He really thought Mommy wasn't coming back and that he was leaving alone with a stranger! It broke my heart, but when I got back in the car he started laughing and talking about how funny he was and that he told a joke, as if he realized that Mommy would never leave him. It made Mommy and Daddy realize that right now Johnny needs some extra reassurance that we are here and some extra time just for him with Mommy and Daddy. He loved the three of us laying in Mommy and Daddy's bed yesterday tickling, reading books and focusing on him alone.



And as a special treat here is Johnny dancing! Daddy convinced Johnny to dance to Mommy's cleaning music.

Feeding the Ducks

Daddy took a very long week end of leave for Mother's Day and today was the start! We started off with an unplanned trip to the duck pond in Bel Air (we also had a midwife appointment, but there will be more about that tomorrow.)

We had basically an entire loaf of bread and the ducks snatched it all up! We where swamped with ducks and geese. Johnny really enjoyed so many ducks, he kept yelling "see ducks" and bouncing around waving his arms while laughing. Where we nervous about letting him near some of the ducks who where very pushy about getting the bread, he even got nipped once, but didn't care!

We found a family of ducks with "baby ducks" and Johnny became attached to them. Daddy feed the big ducks so they would leave Johnny alone to feed the baby ducks.

He followed the baby ducks around throwing as much bread at them as he could.

But any animal that would come close enough to him would get some bread. But any time the pieces of bread didn't get directly to the birds he would pick it back up and carry it to the ducks to make sure every last crumb was eaten up.

Even when we ran out of bread Johnny wanted to get close to the ducks. He would pick up anything on the ground, including leaves and sticks, and try to get the ducks to eat them. He didn't chase the birds like he does the cat at home, he walked very slowly and carefully up to every duck just to see how close he could get. I am so glad we just decided to stop last minute and let Johnny "see ducks." It was wonderful to see him so happy and excited about something so simple, I have over 60 pictures!

He has more then enough energy to spare, however he is still having bad diarrhea that he can't control. I have a hard time believing that one spoonful of milk yesterday morning can cause two days of horrible poo, my poor baby!

Lactose Intolerance MIGHT not be Temporary

Poor Johnny boy still seems to have diarrhea after three weeks! Around 11 this morning he was playing like a good boy in his Yoda underwear one moment and the next moment all Mommy heard was a splash as he stood up and there was water like poo all over the floor and him. Poor baby had no idea what to do. After getting him on toilet it just kept coming and the poor thing was bent over with tummy cramps, so we called the doctor again. Though we where in there just last week for this exact same thing, all of his tests where negative, no fever and a ton of energy, we still couldn't explain why he was still having this problem.

For the past week we have been really careful about his diet, giving him only easily digestible food and no milk or lactose to try and let his system build back up. But this morning Mommy let him have less then a spoonful of milk when he asked for a bite of my cereal and three hours later his system was in chaos again. Our doctor says he is the picture of health (and was very impressed with how intelligent he is!) So our only working theory is that he might be lactose intolerant, more then just the common after stomach flu issues. For the next three weeks we are too let him eat a normal diet, but give him lactose free milk and yogurt. He can have anything else! I truly expected to walk out of this appointment with a very strict diet in hand, but this seems simple enough. Whole 100% lactose free milk and lets see what happens. We have to take him back in a month so our doctor can check his weight, since technically he lost 9 oz this past week, aside from that being perfectly okay for a child his size, that difference could just be the difference between cloths or scales. But weight lose can be a key sign of something more serious, which our doctor was very doubtful of since up until Mommy messed him up he was doing better every day.

Yesterday I felt like the greatest Mommy ever...Johnny had only one accident (poo) and stayed dry all day, he was such a good and gentle boy at Grams and Pops house and was listening so well. And I managed to get a ton of laundry done and both kids rooms really clean. But toady has not been as good.

Another Hair Cut

So this is a picture I took of Johnny this morning and it convinced us it was time for another hair cut (that and Johnny's constant head scratching lately.)

Daddy also needed a hair cut so we all went to the Military Barber Shop on post. Momma was very nervous about this hair cut, his hair was so pretty and long and the curls where coming back. I was so scared he was going to look like a little soldier, and the hair cut made Momma very anxious. But the barber was very good and took his time, even when Johnny's patience ran out, he wanted Johnny to look as good as possible.

He left it long in the front like I asked, which makes Johnny look a little like a teenager, but still really cute.

Here I asked Johnny to blow the dandelion for Momma, but he had already learned that took too much work, so he just pulled them off.

He is a big boy! So grown up.

We spent the day shopping and preparing for Mother's Day and Johnny stayed dry all day long! So we got him this special Dinosaur Growth chart, which he didn't understand but was very excited about it.

On May 2, 2010 my baby boy is just over three feet tall! I plan on going back and putting a couple more height markers from the past two years, he has grown so fast.