Such a good helper!

Nothing like a little help from a toddler to make you smile....it had kind of been a crazy day, running here...running there. Becky and I ran errands after work: picked up our taxes to be signed, stopped by the grocery store. She was good in the store, but getting hungry and impatient. There were way too many people there and too many distractions. Anyway, was feeling frustrated when I got home. Becky was starting to cry because she was hungry. Al took her so I could carry in the groceries. He was struggling to get her something to eat because she was standing at her booster seat making her "I want up to eat" noise. (I don't know how to blog the noise she makes, but I'm sure you can all relate! kind of a cross between a whine and a growl.) I open up the fridge to start putting things away. I put one thing in the fridge. I turn around, and Becky is squatting down by the grocery sack. She takes the yogurt out of the bag and hands it to me! She did that with everything in that bag and one more. What a big help she was being! Sure made me smile and just wanted to share!

Not a baby anymore

Hard to believe Becky is 15 months old today. It goes so fast! All is well here. It has been a slow couple weeks with Al recouperating. He went back to work today after two weeks off. While he was ready to get out of the house, I'm not sure work was what he really wanted to be doing. Good thing he is going to start nursing school in the fall! He got his acceptance letter a week ago that he can start the nursing program at DMACC. Going back to work at his desk job today helped reaffirm that, yes, he wants to go to school!

Becky has had a busy couple weeks. She got her first "injury." She fell on her face at day care and got rug burn on her nose. Ouch! She slipped on a toy trying to get to the lunch table. She sure is her mother's daughter, she loves to eat!!!

As you can see, it really didn't slow her down much at all!

It was so warm yesterday, we took her outside to play in the snow. She lasted long enough for two pictures before we had to pick her up. Just not crazy about the snow.

Today, the reason for my post, actually...Becky started transitioning to the toddler room. While Al and I are glad that she's doing so well and is ready for the activity of the toddler room, it really makes you face the fact that your little girl really is becoming an independent person all on her own. She has been sleeping on the cot for a week now. They tell us she just lays down and goes to sleep and gets up after her nap like a big girl. Hard to believe how much she has grown and how much she has learned. She is walking all over the place. She is still very cautious, and when she does fall down, she is usually graceful enough to land on her bottom. She is also saying a few words. She knows where her nose is, but hasn't really gotten any other body parts figured out. She loves reading books and is always bringing a book to Al or I to read to her. Sometimes all she really wants to do is turn the pages but after reading through the same books over and over, that's okay with us!

Here are just a couple pics I wanted to share of Becky eating a sucker and some pudding.

We're home!

Thought I had better get a post out to let you know that we are home. Al was released from the hospital at about 2:30. He has a prescription for Vicadin to help with the pain. He is only in moderate pain though, and that's only from the strain on his abdominal muscles during surgery. He seems to be in good spirits and is looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight. He also seems a little too excited about his weight restrictions. The only thing he is really sad about is that he can't lift Becky or the cats. I don't think he's too heartbroken about not being able to vacuum or take out the trash or carry in groceries or ..... wait a minute! Did he just write down everything that I couldn't do after my C-Section? Nah. (His eyes did light up when he realized he wouldn't be able to change the litter in the cat's litter pans for at least a couple weeks though!) He really does have a weight restriction of 15 pounds for 6 weeks. That is likely to go down if his recovery continues to go well. He has a follow-up appointment to see the surgeon on Wednesday.

Larry and Donna came to visit this evening. It was nice to have them here. Well, hope everyone is having a good night. Thanks again for all your prayers. I'm going to go hang out with my honey :)

Where's Al?

Thought I'd better let those of you curious know where Al is (see below for details on why). He is at Methodist in Room N679, bed 2. The phone number is 241-6568. I really don't think he will be there much past noon, but wanted to give that information anyway.

PRAISE GOD!

Praise God for all he has blessed us with. I wrote this while at the ER with Al tonight and thought I would share my thoughts:

Writing this while waiting for Al to come out of the recovery room. Why is this always the hardest part? Seems to last forever. Had to have an appendectomy. How crazy is that? Everything went well. No problems at all. Al is such a trouper...I think he was a little in denial about the pain. "If I deny it, it can't be appendicitis!" I said to him, half-joking this morning about the pain in his side, "I hope it's not appendicitis." Well, 8 hours later, it is. Actually, more like 12 by the time he went in for the actual surgery. Thank God for a successful surgery. Thank God for Brenda. She picked Becky up from day care and fed her and watched her so I could be with Al. It sure helped to ease my mind to know she was safe and not at the hosptial. Even though I could do nothing for Al, it was a good hour and a half before we ran out of things to talk about and turned on the TV. (we did just spend the whole weekend together!) Praise God for the nurses that took care of Al and the doctors and the anesthesiologist. Praise God for the people who talked to me in the waiting room. Praise God for all our family and friends who prayed for us tonight. Now if I could just see him. This is agony!

It was about another 45 minutes before I actually got to go back into the recovery room to see him. He had his humor intact, though, and asked me if the doctor told me they took a toe to help him with his balance. (of course, by the time we got up to the room, he asked me the same questions and wanted to know when I got there, but that's okay.) I felt slightly bad about leaving him by himself, but he had a morphine drip going and will hopefully be able to fall asleep before very long. I left Becky at Brenda's ~ way too cold to bring her home in the middle of the night!~ I will go pick her up in the morning. Al wants to see her, so I'll take her to say hi before we go to day care. If everything goes well throughout the night, he will be released midday tomorrow. They did a laproscopic surgery. He has two small incisions on his abdomen and an incision through his belly button. Sure not what it used to be! When they do these in the morning, the patient is usually home that same day! Since the surgery was so late at night, though, they are keeping him so the doctor can check on him tomorrow.

Thank you, God, for blessing our family and watching over us tonight. Please continue to bless us and those we love. Amen.

Faces of Becky

She's walking!!!!

Becky decided she could walk by herself this weekend! The first time was on Saturday. She walked about 4 steps from me to Al. He just picked her up, and I was like, "She just walked!" We were pretty pumped. Really didn't do much walking on Sunday. Today was a holiday for Becky and me, so we got to stay home and play all day. She walked several times. I think the key with Becky is to not make a big deal out of it. She is all smiles when she's doing it...pretty proud of herself without us making a big deal. When Al got home tonight, she walked the few steps right to him. She still crawls around too, but I would say she's officially walking. She's just going to do both for a while. Although she seems to like walking, she's still pretty cautious and slow. Just wanted to share!!!

Random pics from the last couple weeks

My first time having McDonald's...YUM! Not crazy about the fries, but what a yummy cheeseburger it was! ( Mom let me play with the fries box after I was done so she could get a picture memorialized for my scrapbook!)

My very first "real" baby. Couldn't stop giving her hugs and kisses. Carried her around all day!

I had fun playing with my cousins Kaitlyn and Becca. They sure are fun!!

Just because I like playing peek-a-boo with the box doesn't mean I want to be in it, Dad!

Grandma Donna sure loves to give me baths!

As you can see, it's been a fun couple weeks. We had three weekends of Christmas. It was fun to get to spend so much time with family. Becky is doing really well. She has six teeth now, and is working on her last two on the top. They haven't popped through quite yet, but are real close. She still isn't walking by herself. She is choosing to be pretty stubborn. She holds onto a finger for support, and then just takes off. If you let go of her hand, though, she immediately sits down and crawls. She will walk a couple steps from object to object at day care, but she will hardly even do that for us! We've decided she's just a cautious little girl and are trying not to fret about it too much. I'm sure she'll take off soon enough and then Al and I will wonder why we ever wanted her to walk in the first place!

I will try to be better about posting this year. I sure take enough pictures, I should be able to get them online. So far I've had good luck with the internet too, so that helps. Had to order all my Christmas cards while I was at work because the internet never wanted to work at home. Oh well!

We were having trouble for about a week with giving Becky a bath. It sure isn't fun to give a screaming baby a bath, especially when they're one! That only lasted about a week, and now she is back to liking them again. Have no idea what happened, but am glad she's back to splashing and having a good time.

Remember, if you want to see more pics, I have them published online at aljosjohnson.shutterfly.com. You can always view my albums there if you don't get the pics sent directly to you but want to see what crazy pics I've taken of Becky!

more Christmas!

Okay. I lied earlier. I just had to post a few more pics before I went to bed. She's just too cute! Becky wasn't really into opening presents, but she played with everything for a few minutes before she went on to other toys.
Gotta love a new touch and feel book. This one is about wild animals!!

Becky has even started to be able to pick out Elmo. Hopefully she'll still like Elmo by her 2nd birthday so I can make her another cake!
Where's Becky?
There she is!! She had more fun playing peek-a-boo with Al's shoe box than anything else she got. She sure was fun to watch. Such a little ham! I got the video camera out to catch her being adorable. If you ask, I'd be happy to let you watch sometime! Ha!

Merry Christmas, Everyone. I'm off to bed now...as it's back to work for me tomorrow. Ugh!

Christmas!

Can't believe Christmas has come and gone. What a nice day the three of us had. Becky wasn't feeling the greatest, she's a little congested and teething. It was nice to spend the day at home though. Becky went to bed at 7 (has been waking up in the middle of the night because she can't have her binky in her mouth and breathe at the same time. FUN!!!) Al finally got to go downstairs and play his new X-Box game. He was a sport and waited as long as he possibly could! I had to download some new songs on my iPod anyway for exercising. Holiday is over; time to start trying to lose some weight again!!!

We had a great time with family this weekend. We are truly blessed. I know I haven't posted in forever. Have been busy trying to get ready for the holidays and trying not to be sick over the holiday. I managed with the exception of a little pinkeye, but I was able to get into the doctor on Saturday morning and get some eye drops. I think I caught it before I passed it on to anyone else! I, of course, took a few more pictures than what I've posted here. I hope to be able to get them loaded onto Shutterfly in the next day or two. I will put in a post when I do and publish them as albums so you can suffer through them if you like!

This time of year is always a litttle bittersweet for me. I am so fortunate to have what I do, but I am constantly reminded of my mom and am saddened that she's not here to share my happiness during this time. I know she is always with me. As you may know, Mom and I cherished our day after Thanksgiving shopping spree. I took Becky out for a few hours this year. I had fun. I don't know about Becky, but she was a trouper anyway! Every time a car pulls out and I get a great parking spot, I chuckle to myself and say, "Thanks, Mom!" Just my little way of being reminded that even though she's not physically here, she lives on in me and will always be here in my heart. Love you, Mom! Miss you terribly, but am thankful for the time we had together and for all the precious memories I have that I relive in my mind and heart every day.

May all of you reading this be blessed in your lives, and may you never take those you love for granted. Spend every possible moment with them you can, because you just never know when it may be their time to move on to a better place.

new tooth!

Had a nice weekend in Spencer throwing a surprise party for Larry and Donna's 25th anniversary. Becky had a top tooth break through sometime Saturday afternoon. Her other front top tooth is right there ready to pop. It looks like there might be two others on top that will come pretty quick as well. She wasn't feeling the best through the weekend, but she's such a trouper! She just kept going and going and going. She did have a bout with diaper rash, but I think that's finally over. She must have been a tired girl tonight...she fell asleep in the car a little before 6. I brought her in and laid her down in her crib. I've gone to check on her twice, and she's sound asleep. It's now 7:44 p.m.! Hopefully she won't wake up at 9 and decide she's hungry and needs to eat something!

Whew!

I just spent 15 mintues trying to get to this stage. I sure am glad I elected to switch to the new version and then couldn't remember my password and then hadn't activated my Google account... good grief! Oh well. I'm ready to go now though!

Had a nice weekend. Becky had a sore bottom due to diarrhea, but other than that, she was pretty joyful. Got to spend a couple hours playing with Bode and Aunt Brenda while Al and I went to my work Christmas party. It was nice to have a night out for a couple hours among other adults, no kids! Looks like Becky has about 4 teeth ready to break through on her top gum. She may actually have top teeth by Christmas-time! She is still only taking a few steps here and there as she lunges from one of us to the other. I'm sure it won't be long though, and she'll just take off!

I'm actually trying to get a little caught up on scrapbooking. I can proudly say that I am ready to scrap last year's Christmas pictures. It is my goal to get Christmas last year done before this year. Don't think I'll put in all those pictures I took, just the most important ones. I have actually been pretty good about just choosing a few and putting the other ones in an album. That way Becky won't have to have three albums all about her first year!

Have a great week everyone!

Becky's birthday

Here are a couple pictures of Becky eating her birthday cake. As you can imagine, I took more than just these two pictures. If you want to look at all of them from her birthday, check it out on Shutterfly (aljosjohnson.shutterfly.com) I created another album. The party was a great success. Becky wasn't sure about opening the presents, but there were a lot of people just sitting around looking at her. You can't really blame her for being a little shy. There were 27 guests in our home! It's nice to be so loved, isn't it?

I just can't believe her party has come and gone. (what's more is that it's been a week and I'm just now having time to post!) I think our holiday rush is going to be starting on November 10 every year instead of Thanksgiving! At least Becky will always get plenty of presents this time of year!

It was just so much fun in California, I had to post more pictures. There was record-breaking weather while we were there. Temperatures were in the 90s! Good thing we packed a few pairs of shorts :) It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with family we don't get to see very often and to just hang out on vacation. The only way it could have been any better would have been if Al could have joined us, but I think he missed us enough that he'll be sure he gets to go with us next time! Thanks Heidi, Brian, Jacey, and Luke for opening your home up to us. We had a wonderful time. It was great to see you Janet, Tom, Allison, and Shane. Can't wait until the next time we can see you all again!

Here is a pic of Heidi and me and one of Jacey, Becky, and Luke in a car at Disneyland. The three of them had so much fun. Jacey and Luke were pretty excited to play with Becky and only got upset a couple times when she put their toys in her mouth. I'm sure they'll both be great siblings to their new baby brother or sister!

Thought I had also better add (for those of you wondering) that Becky did wonderful flying on the airplane. She slept most of the time. She was very good while we were in Mission Viejo, too. She was a little clingy and often cried if I wasn't right there and didn't want anyone else to hold her until the last day, but otherwise, everything was great. I think she missed her Daddy something terrible and her crib too. She sure had a big smile and kiss for Al when she saw him though. Should have had my camera out and ready. Oh well. Maybe next time!

Laguna Beach

Here we are at Laguna Beach. Becky wasn't crazy about the sand or the water. She was content just to be held by me and take everything in. I think she was also getting pretty homesick, as it was our last day.

Be sure to check out my Shutterfly album to see more pics of our trip. I took a few. These are just some that my cousin took and gave me so I could just enjoy vacation without having to snap pictures all the time. Thanks, Heidi!

Disneyland

Here are a couple pics of Becky and I at Disneyland. She had a wonderful time. She really liked Minnie Mouse. She seemed to be all smiles with the rides too. What great weather we had!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures we took this weekend and tonight for Beggar's Night. Becky wasn't crazy about the costume, but she was a trouper and let us put it on her a couple times anyway! A big thanks to Aunt Dawn for letting Becky borrow the elephant costume that Mom bought for Kaitlyn. It sure helped to make it a special Halloween for me. I am sure Mom never thought she would have three beautiful granddaughters who would all be able to wear the costume, but I know she would be so proud!

We had a pretty nice weekend. Ran around Saturday and got some last minute things for our trip to California. Can't believe Becky and I are leaving on Thursday! On Sunday, we had several visitors. We got to see Dad and Patti, Donna, Larry, and Grandma Willie, plus Stew, Brenda, and Bode. Even got to see Sean and Jennie and meet Tate. What a cutie! Of course I was busy chasing after Becky and hardly got to hold Tate. Next time I'll be sure I get him a little longer! It was great to see Doug and Heather and Sydney too. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends in our lives.

Yesterday was a little hard on me. I cried for about an hour in the morning. Had to mentally relive the day that changed my life forever five years ago. After I got done feeling sorry for myself and feeling sad that Becky would never get to know her Grandma Becky, I started thinking about everything I have that I am thankful for and about how blessed I truly am. While my mom may no longer be with me, I have many other people who care about me and my family. Everyone has stepped up to try and help me feel her loss less. For that, I am grateful. While I miss Mom every day, I know that she would be so proud of Becky and all that she has accomplished in just this one very short year (can't believe it's been that long!), and that she would be proud of Al and I too and how much we have grown over the past five years. I just hope and pray that I can be good and decent like she was and get to heaven to see her again someday. What a glorious occasion that will be for me!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Halloween and don't eat as much candy as I have!

I posted a bunch of pictures from the weekend on Shutterfly. If you want to visit the link, go to aljosjohnson.shutterfly.com.

eating all by herself

Since Becky always want to eat when we eat and seems to like what we're eating as long as it's in small pieces, we really let her go to town tonight. (it was bath night, of course!) She did pretty good with the banana and the veggies. Then she decided to demolish the cookie more than eat it. She sure was having fun though!

new toy!

Becky sure likes to play with the TV and stereo!

Al and I decided to get Becky a walker for an early birthday present. She sure has been having fun walking up and down the living room/dining room this week!

11 months old!!!!!

Oh my gosh! I can't believe that MY LITTLE BECKY RAE is going to be a year old in a month. It just doesn't seem possible! I don't know how this year has gone by so quickly. It sure seems like it has been only a couple months since she was born. Not a whole lot new to report this month. She is starting to walk holding onto things, and she likes to push the little walker toy at day care. She has been a little clingy to Mommy lately. We hope it's just a phase. She even cried when Al dropped her off at day care on Thursday. She hasn't done that in forever. He was running late too, so he had to leave her there crying, and he's never had to do that before! It was a rough morning for them both!