Thursday, July 28, 2011

Walk like a man

Shortly after Miles and I got to Colorado (when was that, a month ago?), he started taking small steps between people. At most he would take three steps before falling into my arms on purpose. Sadly, Chris was still in North Carolina for these steps.

Luckily Miles decided to hold off on walking farther until Daddy was here. I walked out of the bedroom one day to see him let go of the dining table and walk toward something in the middle of the room. And after a few more days, he has gained a lot of confidence. My brother likes to make fun of him for walking with his hands in the air, but I’m more worried about the tongue in his mouth; surely this will result in some accidents.

And so far walking has definitely brought some minor damage to his face. I’ve had several people comment to me that they can tell he is “all boy” from the wide array of scrapes and bruises on his face and legs. Hopefully he’ll get a little bit more stable soon.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Ralph Lauren ad anyone?

Miles didn’t really realize that Independence Day was any different than other days (especially because Chris and I left him at home while we went to watch fireworks), but I did seize the opportunity to get some genuine Americana pictures in the backyard.

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‘Nuff said.

Miles: 14 months (plus some)

I’ve been a bit busy lately, what with graduation, packing (or watching others pack for me), moving, and crashing in my mom’s house for about two weeks now (story to come), I just haven’t found much time to blog. And since I got my new iphone, Angry Birds and Words with Friends have been top of my priority list.

But so that everyone can look at adorable pictures of my baby boy, here is the 14-month update.

Since his first birthday, Miles has been working really hard to walk. When my mom got into Charlotte, he was pulling up and cruising  along on the couch or the entertainment center, but not much else. If you held his hands, he would immediately bend his knees and go limp until you put him down. I just don’t think he sees the need to walk since he can move so dang fast while crawling. I was pretty sure that Miles was really busy, but my mom confirmed it for me once she got to spend lots of quality time with him.

In the process of the move, we stayed a night in our friend’s house to make things easier. Our friends have a daughter just slightly younger than Miles, so they’re house is baby-proofed, making things much easier. But I think their daughter must be much less interested in pulling things over, etc. Within ten minutes of being there, he had nearly pulled a potted plant over on the floor; luckily, I caught him early enough to only have to sweep up some dirt. Their house also had more furniture than we do, so he got much braver about letting go of one thing in order to get to another.

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And once we got to Denver, he took his first few steps in between people. Chris was pretty disappointed that he missed it, but tried to convince me that Scout going through the dog door by herself was just as cool. I have some video of those steps, but I don’t know where my camera is and don’t have the patience to wait for videos to upload.

Climbing has also entered our world. Yippee. Within five minutes of getting to my parents’ house, my mom showed him how to get onto her miniature rocking chair. We put it in the basement immediately after this.

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We also had to institute a house rule: do not open anything in front of Miles that you don’t want him to get into. He has only broken two things so far. But he also figured out how to control the tv and stereo system by touching the big button that clicks when he touches it.  And I’m pretty sure he knows what it means when we say, “No,” because he turns around and smiles before continuing whatever it is he was doing.

I’m still pretty sure that he is consistently saying, “Da-da” when he sees Chris, but he sometimes says it to me, too. But I know he says, “Ma-ma” when he is whining. So great. He doesn’t really have any other words down, but he recognizes and points to lots of other things. He knows cat, dog, grandma, grandpa, Uncle Steve, and the ever important, nose.

Since arriving to Colorado, he has been able to spend lots of time with his cousins, and he loves it. They have been very good about playing with him and introducing him to new things, like the trampoline.

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He liked it.

And since it’s summer, he has discovered his absolute love of fruit. He spent a few days loving watermelon before moving on the mandarin oranges (fyi—five cups of those are not fun the next day), then grapes, and now strawberries. And he definitely loves lemonade, limeade, and just straight lime juice.

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And pickles. Not a fruit, I know, but he loves them nonetheless.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Dr. Christopher Nathan Johnson, M.D. (for reals this time)

In an attempt to catch up, let’s start with Chris finishing his Emergency Medicine residency at Carolinas Medical Center after three, long, hard years.

Now allow me a moment to talk about how awesome my  husband is.

Because he’s pretty awesome.

When I met Chris at the end of his (super) senior year at BYU, he had already been accepted to Baylor for medical school and knew he wanted to specialize in Emergency Medicine. This was literally the first time I had dated a boy that was actually more of a man. And I don’t mean in age, but I mean by his actions and plans and purpose and goals….etc. I actually remember having a conversation with him at Dairy Queen in Provo in which he expressed his desire to go into a field that allowed him to challenge himself and to provide for a future family. Pretty sure my heart melted right there.

After dating for only a few short weeks, Chris moved back to Texas and began school shortly thereafter. And since then, he has worked and worked and worked to get where we are today. I’m actually glad that we weren’t married (and not even dating for some of it) during his first year of school because that was by far his busiest time. He and his study partners often studied well past dinner time. And during the three years of medical school that we were married, he worked very hard to prepare himself to become a doctor while still being active in his church duties and being an excellent husband to boot.

And in the three years of residency, he worked even harder to make sure that he was doing everything he could to learn as much as possible to be the best doctor he could be. He often came home from long hours at the hospital only to spend more time studying at home. And as a chief and father in his last year, it was definitely challenging for both of us, but I’m happy to report that we came out of it alive.

Since arriving in Colorado, it has been great to see how happy he seems to be with the knowledge that we are done with the hardest part of his career (hopefully) and are now moving toward a new chapter far different than anything we have known so far.

But I wouldn’t want to do with anyone else.

And now I better become a true trophy wife.