Pics & Video Update

Here are some pictures and videos, as promised. In this first one, I had given him some lunch meat to eat and he decided to throw it all over himself...

The following were part of a set of pictures I took trying to capture the cute shirt Aunt Heather got him...

Here is a video of Tyler having quite a bit of fun playing the piano...

And although Tyler is walking quite well all by himself, here is some earlier video of him practicing at Grammy's with his walker-toy.

Update...pictures to come

Family & Friends,

I'm so sorry to have neglected my blog for so long - can you believe it's been a month. I still feel like we're recovering from the holidays...the busyness has not died down and we can't even really figure out why!

The latest and greatest Mr. T updates include,

#1 He's walking! Christmas eve he was standing at an ottoman and I was in a chair a couple steps away. I sat down with his bottle and told him to "come here", while shaking his bottle. He looked at me, smiled real big and then took 4 steps over to me! He can now stand up from sitting where ever he is and walk around. It's still pretty wobbly but very effective!

#2 He's signing. We haven't been working very hard on this, but every once in a while, we'll sign "more" or "all done" and he usually just smiles at us. Grammy had him Wednesday morning and was feeding him yogurt. After about 2/3 of the jar, he turned his face and signed "all done". So, knowing that, last night we were feeding him and when his food runs out, he arches around and squeals. We haven't figured out whether that means he's done or if he's just upset that his food is gone and wants more. So I asked him, "Tyler, are you all done (sign) or do you want more (sign)?" and he signed "more" (below). We were really shocked because, as I said, we hadn't been real zealous to work on it. So we gave him more and he gobbled it up, I asked him and signed more again and again! He was a hungry guy! :)

I have lots of pictures and a couple videos I want to put up this weekend, so be watching for that!

Much love,
The Johnsons

Christmastime is here...

We've finally gotten "with it" here at the Johnson abode. This is a Christmas of "firsts" in many ways...Our first REAL Christmas Tree:

Our first time with 3 stockings:

Remembering the First Christmas

Our first time decorating gingerbread men:

And Tyler's first time at CALM (the California Living Museum). He was less than thrilled to be there, as you can tell by the very few smiles in the following pictures. For those of you who have seen "A Christmas Story", he was so bundled up, I felt like he could say in a whiny voice, "I can't put my arms down", so I'm sure that contributed to his mood. :) He was good, though, just not very smiley. (hahahaha)

Tyler's first Carousel Ride:

Where we want to live:

Tyler's First Santa Clause Picture (all he would do is look back at him like, 'who the heck are you?') :)

And his second meeting of Santa - We'll try to scan in the real picture, but here's one I took with my own camera...

He did really great and even smiled for us. Hope your holidays are blessed!

Mr. T's First Thanksgiving

Here at the Johnson "ranch" we are very thankful for many things - our home, each other, our health, our jobs, our nation - who can count the blessings?!? We had one more special thing to be thankful for this year, however, as Mr. T celebrated his first Thanksgiving. Here he is with Andy in his "My First Thanksgiving" shirt!

While we were hanging out in Mr. T's room, Andy remembered a blow up light saber he had stashed away for him before he was even born! We pulled it out and blew it up and he had a ton of fun with it. Here he is looking very much like Luke Skywalker, attempting to use the force. :)

Later that day, we went to Grandma C's and also got to see Aunti M and Aunti K! Mr. T had turkey, mashed taters, sweet potatoes, & stuffing, but we forgot to get pictures until...

We went to Grammy's the next day! Here he is with a plate of green beans, taters, stuffing and turkey!

He must have liked it because here he is near the end of dinner. :)

After dinner, we went outside, as is tradition, to play with the remote control cars. Here's Andy and Doug looking very serious!

Here are the women and children, dutifully cheering them on...

It was a great two days! We hope you had a very happy thanksgiving - love, the Johnsons :)

Meeting Grandpa

Well, the craft fair is over now. If you want to see how my booth looked, you can click here! Now that the chaos is over, I hope to take a few days to rest and maybe over the 5 day weekend, clean my house, including reorganizing the sewing room, listing my unsold items on Etsy and 1000 Markets.

Last weekend my dad came to meet Mr. T for the first time. It's been a long time coming! Before he came, Mr. T became facinated with the hat Andy was wearing so we placed it on his head to see what he would do:

Then we remembered that Mr. T had a hat that was brown, just like his daddy! Though it was a little big, it was much better than the other. :)

When Grandpa H came, we went out to eat for lunch and then came back to visit at the house. Here are some pictures we snatched.

Mr. T's newest tricks include standing on his own, which he's been doing, but now if he hears a song he will put his hands together out in front of him (like he's hugging someone) and twist from side to side. I say he's been watching us do tootae bo too much! HAHA! Also, while he's eating, he will hold his hands and lift them above his head like he's going to take a dive into a pool! It's pretty hillarious because it makes his head look huge and I can't for the life of me figure out why he does it, but it's very entertaining. We got these pictures of him doing it the other night.

So that's the update! Blessings until next time!

Thoughts from Mr. T about Veterans Day

Today mommy told me about something called "Veterans". She said that's the reason we're home today is to celebrate them! Mommy said the U.S. wouldn't be the same if it weren't for our veterans and that we should thank God for them, not just today - but all the time!

Because God gave us brave men and women to fight for this country, I can sleep peacefully at night knowing I'm in the land of the free.

I can enjoy living in my own home and going to church and making all kinds of choices that mom says people don't have the opportunity to make in other countries.

So thank you, every veteran, for making America so great. I hope me and mommy and daddy can make you proud in the way we fight for America's future. You are our heroes!!

For Grandma C & Auntie M

For Halloween, Grandma C got Mr. T some new shirts - one he could wear now (Peanuts) and another for the future (Star Wars!). Even though the Peanuts shirt said 12 months, it looked like it might fit Mr. T so we tried it. Here's the rather wiggly results of that photo shoot:

Back before (or right after?) Mr. T was born, Auntie M (not to be confused with "Auntie Em")gave us this adorable beanie (with matching socks). Before Halloween, when we were trying to figure out costumes, we tried the beanie on Mr. T and that was just too cute for words, so once again - a photo shoot! :)

Mr. T's latest tricks include standing on his own for quite a long time while, many times, holding a toy. He also feels grown up enough for finger foods, so we've been trying pieces of cheese, bread, Gerber puffs at Grammy's and whatever else seems appropriate. He's VERY good at picking up the pieces with just his thumb and one or two fingers and only a few chunks land in the chair.

So that's our update for this week! I'm about to finish a pair of the children's jeans I'm making and gearing up for that craft fair on the 22nd. I'll post pictures from that and the pants sooner if I get them done. :)