More Fun With the Cousins

A few weeks ago Uncle Brent, Brenden and Emily made a trip to see Nana and Pop, and we were fortunate enough to host the band of merry travelers for a couple nights! Nicky was so excited to get to see his cousins again, and to finally get to meet his uncle. We all got up early Saturday morning and piled into the car after breakfast to head to the fire station to visit Daddy/Uncle Kris. The 3 munchkins had mixed emotions about the visit - they would've rather stayed home and played with toys, but we told them it would definitely be worth the trip. We were right...the second we got there, all of us developed huge silly grins on our faces when we were told a ride in the fire engine was in store for us! Don't know what it is about that big vehicle, but getting to ride in it is so cool!!! I mean, firemen get to do it every day, but when you're just an average Joe (or Joanne, like myself and Emily), it seems like a cool ride at a carnival! Kris drove us around the block and on our way back, he honked and turned on the siren, which elicited several "again!" comments from the back!

Emily testing out some oxygen...

All aboard!

There's just something about a man in uniform!

After our trip to the fire station, we had some lunch at a Taco Bell, which was situated directly across from another fire station in the city. The kids loved watching the fire engine and ambulance come and go. From there the 3 banshees took short naps in the car, on our way to a bounce house play place. Nicky had never had the pleasure of partaking in this type of activity, and was super excited to check it all out. He loved going down the slides and chased after Brenden as fast as his Fred Flintstones would take him...that Brenden is pretty quick! Although Nicky enjoyed himself, there were moments of intense frustration as he was unable to climb some of the things (thank you for showing up that day, Sensory Processing Disorder - to be explained in a future post).

The fun didn't end with that excursion. We got home, donned our swimsuits and jumped into our ghetto blow-up pool where Momma/Aunt Liese, Nicky, Brenden and Emily sang songs, chased and splashed each other, and had a down-right good time! We all got changed, then dined on some fine cuisine - McDonald's! The fun didn't stop there...outside in the sweltering heat we went, where Nicky, Brenden and Emily drove Nicky's fire engine. Then to the couch we all went, with Uncle Brent in tow, to watch the movie Aladdin. After we got the kids to bed, I couldn't believe that only one day had passed...haven't done that much in a single day since Kris and I did our European vacation a few years ago!

Alas, the fun had to come to an end. Sunday morning after breakfast, Uncle Brent, Brenden & Emily loaded up the car to continue their trip to see Nana and Pop. As we watched them drive away, waving and telling them we loved them and would miss them, Nicky broke down into tears. He kept calling for Brenden, and was only consoled by watching the Lion King. Good thing the rest of the day was spent swimming at our friend Gina's to cheer him up!

Thanks for coming to see us Uncle Brent, Brenden and Emily!!! We hope to see you all soon!!!

Nicky the Fish

Being the responsible parents we consider ourselves to be, we decided the, well, responsible, thing to do with the arrival of Summer, would be to give Nicky swimming lessons. As with most things we try to teach him, he's resistant and will typically do the complete opposite of what we say/do, so we knew right from the start we would have to enlist an outside, well-trusted individual with this task. Enter our college-bound, well-mannered neighbor Luke Franz. Nicky has spent time with Luke ("uke" in Nicky-speak) on several occasions, when his parents and sister Shelby ("dolby" in Nicky-speak) have babysat him for us. Luke is working as a life-guard this summer and is trained in teaching little guys to swim. Since we are lacking the underground pool, the Franz's were gracious enough to let the little banshee partake in lessons at their house. Luke came over at 5:30pm and took Nicky, and we met up with them a half hour later. He said the best method tends to be to teach the child sans parents so they would actually participate without distraction. It worked! Prior to the lesson, Nicky was hesitant to float with us and he wouldn't even attempt to paddle his arms or kick his feet, much less try to jump into the pool from the side. He made loads of progress in that one little half hour, and even showed off his moves with Kris and I at our friend Gina's pool this past weekend!

Here's Nicky showing us his dog paddle. If you look in the lower right-hand corner of the picture, you can see some dark objects in the pool. These are leaves, which blew in the night before when we had several terrible storms. Well - to Nicky, they were "alligators"! Luke said he was so preoccupied with them when they first started the lesson, they had to skim the top of the pool to make sure that the top of the pool, at least, was clean and alligator-free! I have NO idea where he got the alligator notion, but it sure was cute to hear him tell us all about them!

here's Nicky kicking...

this is just after going under the water and getting ready to do it again...

jumping from the side. sidebar - Nicky didn't jump out quite far enough, and instead of landing IN the water, he landed on the side of the pool :( luckily Luke semi-caught him, so he didn't hit his booty too hard, but good thing I got this shot instead of the one of him hitting the pavement...owie!!!

Nicky telling Daddy thank you for his lesson...

Even with the "alligators" and the little incident of hitting his booty, when asked if he wanted to go back and swim with Luke again, Nicky gave us a big smile and a "yes please"! Looks like we've got a fish on our hands!

Nicky's 1st Girlfriend

Tonight as Nicky and I were saying his prayers before bed, I asked him if he had any of his friends he wanted to "bless". We always say Momma, Daddy, Nicky, Blitzer, Bailey, both grandparents, etc; he usually doesn't add anyone other that who Kris or I mention. However, when I asked him this time, he told me "Grace". Up until recently, he's only randomly mentioned a few of his friends from school. There have been a few of the boys that he points out when we happen to pull up to school at the same time (Ben & Jude); one little girl in the class below him, Ella (sidebar - if Kris and I had a little girl we were going to name her Ella, so it's weird that this was the 1st little girl that he ever mentioned to us!); then there's the big bad Darlet; and of course he's mentioned his teachers. Last Friday, he was to bring a book to school to share with his friends, and as we were picking one out, he asked me if he could read it to "Grace". This was the first I had heard of her, and to my knowledge there wasn't even a "Grace" in his class. Lo and behold, there is a "Grace" and he has mentioned her a few times since. Tonight after telling me "Grace" at prayer time, I asked him if she was his girlfriend. He got all smiley and said "yes" (I'm sure he doesn't know what that means, but it's still fun to ask!). I then asked him if he liked her, and once again, he said "yes". So I pulled out the big guns and asked him if he was going to hug her, and got a big, squirmy, embarrassed "noooo!". Not one to stop at that, I asked "Well, are you going to kiss her?" He immediately replied with an even louder, more squirmy "NOOOOO!". We both laughed as I asked him "why not?". He then grabbed my face, one hand over each cheek, and said "Nicky kiss Momma!", and proceeded to plant a big, long smacker, right on my lips! So - take that Grace! You've got nothin' on this Momma! :) Oy vey...I'm already feeling this twinge of jealousy - what's gonna happen when he's actually old enough to date?!

Introducing Nicky Miles Johnson

Just like we wondered how long it would take Nicky to begin saying "yes" instead of "da", (about 7 months) we have also wondered how long it would be before he would begin referring to himself as "Nicky" instead of "Nikita". He's all about speaking in the 3rd person: "Nikita want it"; "Nikita do it"; "Nikita fire truck"; and so on. No matter how hard we try to get him to say "I" instead, he still says his name. And, it doesn't make it any easier for us to stop doing the same - I constantly find myself saying: "Momma will get it for you"; or "Momma is going to fix dinner"; etc. No wonder he still does it! Anyway - we've been home 9 months now, and "Nicky" has emerged! His "official" name is Nikita Miles Alexander Johnson - his given name was "Nikita Alexandrovich" - you can see why we changed it up a bit. We figured he was old enough that he knew his name "Nikita", so changing that too much was out of the question. We were already confusing him enough by taking him out of the orphanage and bringing him to America for goodness sakes! We also wanted him to keep a bit of his former life, and it was important that his heritage was remembered. However, we figured "Nicky" was not only more "Americanized", but it was more fitting for a little tyke than the big name "Nikita". His teachers at school have all been calling him "Nicky", however, due to his speaking in the 3rd person, all the kids call him "Nikita"! I've gotten quite a few questions about that from the kids, especially when they hear us calling him "Nicky" instead of "Nikita"...try explaining all this to a 2 or 3 year old! Not only does he know that his name is "Nicky", but he gets so excited to say the whole thing "Nicky Miles Johnson", and does so with a big smile! He can learn the Alexander part as he gets older...baby steps and all that - we have many other words he needs to learn before that! Not to mention - as he gets older he'll probably want to just be "Nick" or maybe "Bob" - or not, but Bob's just a fun name to say! :) Whatever he decides, for now it's nice to know that he's feeling more and more comfortable with us, and more of a part of our family every day!

Backyard Fun

Since we don't have an underground pool in our backyard (which is really a must-have for summers in Texas), I decided to go out and get us an old-school, ghetto-fabulous, blow-up pool that would be fun for all the Johnson's! I couldn't believe how many choices there were at our Darget (Target in Nicky-speak). They had ones with jungle scenes and attached elephant slides; ocean themed with a whale slide; super-duper slides with small pool area; splash-tastic ones with all kinds of squirters; rectangle ones; round ones; blue or green; you name it! I went with your typical, garden variety round one - color: green; special features: cup holders (for water or lemonade, of course), and a built-in bench seat thingy. Not too shabby for $29.99 (sidebar - I just love that stores make things one cent less than the next dollar amount so that, in this case, the item can be "under $30!" - like saving one penny really enticed me into buying this particular one! In reality, the cup holder part is what sold me!). Anyway - Nicky's Granny and Poppa also brought us one of the splash-tastic variety of "pools", therefore, we really needed something we could all float around in, and something that Momma could lounge in during nap times! Nicky is still undecided about the splash-tastic pool, but he loved that the turtle from that one was removable and brought it into the "big pool" with us. Here are some pictures of our fun this past Sunday...

snack time al fresco...

checking it all out...

testing the waters...

turtle time!

where the heck is all this water coming from?!Nicky & Daddy chillin' in the ghetto-fabulous pool...jumping Nicky...

Nicky learning that the bottom of the pool is a bit slippery...

Well, we might not have the awesome underground pool of our dreams, but I think this will do for now. Nicky seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself and that's all that matters! Any wagers on how long it takes to bust a hole in this thing?!

The House of Poo...

Warning: this post is not intended for those easily grossed out...and is possibly TMI...but, whatever...consider yourself warned!

As far back as I can remember (meaning back to the days when I was just a wee little tyke) I've had poo (aka "ocaccalo" in Russky-Nicky speak) issues, and like Nicky, was subjected to the random testing of said poo by military doctor after military doctor - all without ever finding any solid (LOL! love me a good pun!) medical diagnosis to explain my "issues". Either I go, or I don't go. This changes on a daily basis, and can be quite frustrating, not to mention uncomfortable at times! Now that I'm older, I've developed more of an obsession with poo. I find that I tend to talk pretty freely about it (hence this, and previous blogs), and have spoken to enough females to realize that most women understand where I'm coming from in this department. I mean seriously - why is it that a man can have his morning coffee and all is right with his GI system for the rest of the day?! Yet I take laxatives, stool softeners, enemas, fiber supplements, and colon cleansers and can still go weeks without being regular? So not fair - darn you Eve and your having to eat that silly forbidden apple! I'm so obsessed at this point that I regale poor Kris with stories and descriptions of the types of poo I experience - whether it was a successful trip to the potty; amount; shape; effort involved; etc...so NOT right! I'm telling you - I've got issues!!!

Well, it's no wonder that we've ended up with a child that has poo issues as well...he fits right in! We've been home 9 months now, and to this day, he's only had 2 semi-solid poo's. The good news is I've figured out his "timing" so instead of the morning clean-up shower, we put him on the potty (for no less than 15 minutes) and he does his thing. The bad news is, it's still chronic, explosive diarrhea (at times it even frightens the little guy during the process), and about every second day we're experiencing "2 a day's"! Blech!!! In fact, the night before we left for St Louis is when this new enjoyment began - and just so happened to occur in the bath tub - with Nicky "hiding" it under his floaty toys, and Momma freaking out over how to deal with the situation (sidebar...Daddy's always at the fire station when these fun things happen...grrrr!)! His GI Doctor, after all the invasive testing a few months back, told us we should re-examine the situation if (after a given period of time) we were still experiencing these issues, so I'm guessing with it getting more progressive we'll be revisiting the "Assman" (gotta love Seinfeld!) at some point in the future. Ah - the joys of parenthood...they just keep on comin'!