Dinner time at the Johnson
house (mandatory self-feeding pictures). Pictures galore today.
Now I get a few days off, right?? :)

I just pulled myself out of a
half hour MySpace daze. I discovered that not one, but
both of my sisters now have MySpace lives
and I thought, “Hmm… maybe I need MySpace…” After reading
their pages though, I decided that I’m just not cool enough. Oh
well. Not sure I have enough time to answer all those survey’s
anyway! I guess I’ll just stick to Lex’s space instead.

We went to a really nice
outdoor playgroup today. They have a giant sandbox and lots of
toys. Lex usually makes a bee-line for the sandbox and doesn’t
leave for an hour and a half, but today he actually played with
the other toys too. It was exciting (the sandbox is boring!).

Here are a few other random pics. From
top to bottom:

1) Lex showing off his
new kicks from Grandpa Tom and Uncle B. They are two sizes too
big, but he loves them anyway.

2) He
then tried to hide under the highchair :) He’s hiding skills
are actually improving, but this wasn’t one of his best
efforts.

3) Helping me pack.

4) Breakfast time. Lex recently figured out
how to sit on these chairs by himself. These days we frequently
find him sitting at the table.

5)
Playing with a toy car at playgroup.

What a day. I spent 2 1/2 hours
entertaining a 1yr old at a construction site. Talk about
draining! I was also torn because there is so much to do at the
house and I really wanted to get a few quick things done, but
alas, that rarely happens with Lex around. I was able to get
one thing done and then we spent a lot of time outside, playing
in the leaves, chasing the neighbor’s cat and detouring Lex
back into our yard. We met a new neighbor in the last 1/2 hour.
Her and her 10-ish yr old son came over and played. He asked if
he could rake our leaves and play in them. We have a ton of
leaves. Lex loved it! The boy made a big pile and then took
turns with Lex hiding in it. It was cute. I was kicking myself
for not having the camera. I even thought about bringing it on
my way out, but was already so loaded down I decided not to
bother. I could have taken some really nice autumn photos today
:/

And, after all of that, the cable
guy never even showed up! I ended up leaving 45 minutes past
the time-frame I was given and he hadn’t called or showed up :(
Things are always complicated.

Geez… leave the men in this family alone
in the kitchen for a few hours and look at what happens!! Yes, that is the stove and
fridge in the dining room. :) I was actually amazed at how
quickly they got the whole place torn out. Poor Lex, the
littlest man, was stuck at the fabric store with the women. He
was none too pleased :)

We had an
electrician come out today to see what we need done. He’s going
to come over a few more times this week to actually do the
work. Not surprisingly, the project grows every day. We keep
reminding ourselves that it’s better to do it right now (while
the whole place is torn apart anyway) than to try and do it
right later after we’ve already moved in.

I’m so excited though. The closing went smoothly, the work
started promptly, and they are making great progress. Yay, we
have a house!

PS. When we left
the house this afternoon, Lex said “bye house.” It was so clear
and well spoken :)

Here is the first glimpse of
the newest addition to our pumpkin patch. In the second picture
baby’s near arm is lying at its side and the far hand is on
baby’s forehead. Looks pretty comfy, huh? Silly baby doesn’t
know yet that it’s gonna get pretty snug in there.

The whole appointment thing was actually kind
of annoying today. Since it was a short-notice schedule, we had
to take a 2pm appointment. I generally try to do first thing in
the morning because they aren’t running behind and Lex is well
rested. Two very good things at a doctor’s appointment. Sadly
2pm is smack in the middle of naptime and apparently quite busy
for the docs as well. The ultrasound itself went smooth enough,
and confirmed my existing due date — to the day! The midwife
was worried that their estimate was off, so she wanted this
early ultrasound to confirm. I guess the earlier the better
when you’re trying to determine conception. As the baby gets
bigger the normal size variations start to develop and it’s
harder to determine the due date. So, anyway, to the day, the
ultrasound confirmed March 25th. Which makes me (according to
the tech) 14 weeks and 3 days pregnant. How precise. The
annoying part was the follow up appointment. Alan went back to
work, so a very tired Lex and I waited (in the little examining
room, not the big comfy waiting room) for 25 minutes for the
midwife. Then she finally came in and said “Well, everything
looks fine. Any questions?” I said “no” and that was the end of
it. A 25 minute wait and a 2 minute appointment. Thankfully Lex
is an angel, even when tired. He did escape from me once at the
end when I was booking my follow-up appointments, but a
friendly nurse grabbed him and brought him back :) One other
nice thing is that I was able to schedule my next appointment
immediately following Lex’s 18 month check up in November.
Actually, I have another ultratsound (normal 18wk one) in
October, but my next, next appoinment is after his in November.
I’m hoping there are no delays with his, but it’s at 8:30 in
the morning and they are usually pretty prompt then. I always
go for the 8:00 or 8:30am appointments :)

Ok, gotta clean and get ready for another busy day. Just
two more days until we are homeowners again!!!

We went shopping yesterday and I got the
mail on the way out. In the mail we had a Craftsman catalog so,
just being silly, I handed it to Lex to read. He loved it! The
whole way to the store he was turning pages and saying “wouw”
(he throws in that extra ‘u’ a lot). At one point he had thrown
the catalog off to the side, but had some sort of pull-out
feature that he was wowing over and perusing carefully.

I also jinxed myself last week. I was telling
someone how Lex knows how to climb, but hasn’t really
discovered a love of it yet… The next day he started pushing
chairs over to the counter and climbing up to “help” me. If I’m
near a counter for more than a second he’s right there with the
chair trying to help. He also now uses the chair to get on the
table and more. Silly monkey. We’ve begun a whole new phase of
childproofing.

We discovered on our trip this weekend
that all three of Lex’s plugs have become dangerous. The
silicon nipple started separating from the plastic base,
creating a good choking hazard. Alan and I debated last night
about what to do, and decided that today’s the day we toss the
plugs. I got them all cleaned up so Lex could give them a final
suck and he and I sat down this morning to say goodbye. I told
him he’s a big boy now (16 months today!) and too old for plugs
so we have to throw them away. We normally don’t let Lex put
things in the garbage can, so when I held up a plug and asked
him to put it in the trash, he was thrilled! He took each one
from my hand and happily threw it away. Silly boy had no idea
what he was really doing. I kept a close eye on him for the
rest of the morning, half expecting him to go over and try to
get them back again. When I put him down for a nap he cried and
asked for his plug, but I reminded him that we threw them away
and he is a big boy now. The crying lasted for just under 1/2
hour and he’s sleeping peacefully now. Yay! I think throwing
away was necessary for both of us — he knows they are gone and
I can’t be weak and give in to his crying.

This is how I
found Lex after his nap today.

The good news of the day is that there’s a
baby in there with a good strong heartbeat. The midwife is
still unsure of the due date estimate though, so I get an early
ultrasound next Wednesday. Cool, huh? It’s gonna cost me a
fortune (crappy insurance), but I’m excited to see baby a
little earlier than originally planned. This early one will
allow them to set a more precise due date, then I’ll also have
the routine one at the 18 week mark. I’m excited.

The neat (and weird) thing about this
pregnancy is that, because it follows so closely behind my
first one, I find myself a little less excited about
everything. Don’t ever tell baby two, of course! :) I remember
when we first heard Lex’s heartbeat Alan and I were so excited
and eager. This time around we knew what we were listening for
(the helicopter sound) and waited patiently. I even found
myself watching Lex to see how he’d react. I’m just as happy to
have another, but I guess the thrill of newness just isn’t
there anymore. Weird. Now the newness is how Lex will react to
everything :)