One Week Old

Can't believe it's already been a week since this sweet little boy joined our family. I also can't imagine our family without him already.

Here are a few things I love about Caden at one week:

His adorable baby toes!

He found his thumb!

I love that when I hold him on my shoulder he curls up his legs and arms into a tiny little ball and snuggles his soft little head into my neck!

I love that he already has grown a pair of sideburns better than his Uncle Weston!

I love that he can snooze anywhere and that he cuddles in for naps!

I think it is funny that he is already too big for the newborn Huggies that we bought for him, they just weren't doing the job!

I am amazed how big my 2 year old got in 1 week! He is huge now! He is talking more and has so much personality - he grew up this week a lot!

Memorable Memorial Day

Little Caden had his first outing today. We went to Union Park for a picnic and a ride on the Heritage Carousel.

Sweet Little Guy slept through the whole day!

On our way home Ethan was worn out! Poor Grammy has a tight ride between the 2 carseats now! She has to crawl over the front seat to get back there.

And the highlight of the day: Ethan decided it was time to hold his little brother!

Brotherly Love

So we are making a little progress with Ethan accepting his little brother as part of the family.

(As close as we have to a brother photo at this point)!

Today he gave him a few kisses, but then a little while later he was traumatized when we were changing his diaper. Caden was screaming, Ethan was distraught at the crying and at the umbilical cord ("owee") - he ran inside his closet and closed the door. I asked him where he was going and he said, "home."



While all of us were in the kitchen getting lunch together, Caden was snoozing in the pack n' play in the living room. Ethan was running back and forth playing. After lunch, I looked in the pack n' play and saw this:

Ethan gave his brother his most favorite friend in the world, "Brown Dog," to sleep with. What a good big brother! We were all relieved it wasn't the metal tractor he had been ramming into Clark's foot earlier in the day!

I forgot how much fun it is to have a newborn in the house. This baby is seriously so sweet and chill. He only cries during diaper changes, he is constantly starving - it takes a lot to keep 10 pounds of baby full! Besides having his nights and days reversed he is pretty much perfect. I can't get enough of snuggling this little sweet boy.

(Thanks for the fun hat/package Linda)!

(Thanks for the cute outfit Kri! We thought he looked like a little thug with his hands in his pockets)!

The Prayer Dance

Last night during family prayers, Ethan was kneeling on the ground, I was sitting in my "recovery chair," and Clark was standing up doing the "baby bouncing and swaying dance" to keep Caden from crying.
About half-way through the prayer Ethan stood up and started doing the same dance as Clark. It took me a minute to figure out what the heck he was doing! It cracked us up! Having a new baby at home even makes prayer time more exciting.

Welcome Home

Today Caden graduated from his glass bassinet to his car seat.

We spent our last couple of hours in the hospital taking a wonderful nap.

His cute little going home outfit!

We are yet to take a picture of Ethan with his new little brother, Ethan's world was a little rocked today, and I think he is in a stage of denial. It was quite the afternoon!

We are loving having this little guy home!

This sweet little boy

finally has a name!

Caden Clark Johnson

Nothing Better...

There is nothing better than snuggling a new baby all day! He is just so sweet, I can't get enough of him! He is such a good baby, just snoozes and cuddles.

Love this head of hair that has a mind of its own!

Little Buddha Buddy! Yes he really is 10 pounds!!!

Poor Ethan and poor Clark are sick, so they had to stay away from this little guy today. And he is hard to stay away from!!!

Ethan did get to come peek at his brother through the nursery glass today though, and left nice lips marks on the glass giving his baby kisses.

A Big New Bundle of Joy

Baby Boy Johnson #2 - Born at 10:47 a.m., May 24, 2010.

10 pounds, 1 ounce

22.5 inches long

He has a good head of hair, it's a mix of red, blonde and brown. It's thickest in the back.

Both Stephanie and Baby are doing well, and we're very thankful for the wonderful blessing that he arrived healthy and BIG! Apparently there really is something to this Iowa corn!

We'll post his name as soon as we decide on a middle name. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.

A special thank you to Margaret for watching Ethan today so Grammy Tammy could come to the hospital.

Ethan can't wait to meet his little brother tomorrow. He'll be bringing this giraffe as Baby's first gift.

Ready Or Not...

Tomorrow morning is baby time! We are excited to meet this little guy! And I am SO READY!

Grammy made it to town...

Clark welcomed her with his new dental work...

Ethan got a huge red goose egg on his forehead this morning that matches perfectly his red cheeks...

And my house is clean (enough anyway)...

What more could we need, so ready or not, here he comes!

Dear Ethan,

I really hate it when you are sick,

but selfishly I love all the extra snuggling that means for me.

Love, Mom

Perfect?

So yesterday at church the speaker said, "Now I'm not going to ask anyone to raise their hand..."

Ethan immediately raises his hand,

Speaker continues, "but how many of you are perfect?"

Ethan of course keeps hand high in the air.

Hey, I'm not one to argue with perfection!

HAPPY

I love that lately when Ethan is content with his situation he says, "happy...Ee-ee happy." He just says it so sweetly, and I love that he tries to verbalize that emotion when he feels it.

So what makes us happy around here this weekend?

Finishing a big project/presentation for his Master's degree this week makes Clark happy.

All day Friday Ethan was happy with anticipation that when Daddy got home we were going to go to the park and "fly kite high to the night-night moon."

Realizing that you just aren't quite big enough to fly a kite (run the string, throw it in the air, and keep it up ALL BY YOURSELF) can be quite devastating.

But replacing the kite with a trip to the swings makes Ethan just as happy!

And me, I'm just happy when Clark is home all day during the weekends! I'm happy watching how much Ethan loves to play with his Dad. I'm thankful that on top of his really busy schedule right now Clark helps me with dishes, laundry, cleaning, taking care of Ethan because I just can't quite keep up with it all. I'm happy spending the morning outside doing yard work and just being with my favorite boys! I'm happy to get hugs and kisses from a cute 2 year old all the time. I'm happy my mom will be here a week from today! I'm happy we will be meeting our new little boy in just over a week!

I think Ethan summed it up perfectly tonight while we were tucking him in. He said, "Ee-ee home, Momma home, Dada home...Ee-ee happy, Momma happy, Dada happy." He's got it just right! Together is the happiest place to be!

Tricky Toes and Cheerios

Ethan has his Dad's exact hair color and his Dad's eyes, some people say he's a little mini me of his Dad...but Ethan has my toes!

I've always used my toes to clean up and move things. When Clark and I first got married I drove him crazy constantly moving and touching him with my toes (I didn't even realize I was doing it)! I've worked very hard to control my always roaming toes to save our marriage!

From the day Ethan was born he used his toes to work, he took off his super duper high security anklet in the hospital (that no one can get off) with his toes.

A few weeks ago during dinner we pulled the high chair up to the table and all during the meal Ethan kept pulling at my skirt and pinching my legs with his toes. He thought it was hilarious! After 15 mins. of toe pinching, I said to Clark, "this is rather obnoxious!" Clark felt very validated!

A few days ago I was upstairs getting ready, when I came down Ethan said, "oh no, Brown Dog." Going into the kitchen I quickly saw Cheerios spilled all over the floor and Ethan's favorite stuffed animal laying face down in the mess. I said, "oh no, did Brown Dog do this?" Ethan was quick to put all the blame on his little dog. I told Ethan he needed to clean it all up. So he started cleaning and I started doing something else. A few minutes later he came walking up to me very slowly saying, "toes, toes." Sure enough, he had decided the most efficient way to clean up the mess was to pick up every Cheerio and put it in a bowl with his toes. I just cracked up! The last couple of days he has thrown a few Cheerios on the floor after breakfast just so he can pick them up with his toes. (And no, we don't eat the toe picked Cheerios I promise).

It will be fun to see what wonderful genetics we pass on to our next child!

Baby Name Generator

A week and a half (or sooner) until we meet this baby and we are still trying to figure out a name. Last night I was looking at a website: www.behindthename.com
It has a random name generator that keeps coming up with names for you, we had a pretty broad search just limiting the names to English names. It is pretty entertaining, here are a few of our favorites from last night:

Rudolph Bertie

Goddard Marmaduke

Garland Stevie

Gayle Max

Riley Happy

What do you think? Baby Marmaduke does have a nice ring!

When We're Helping We're Happy!

Today has been a wonderful Mother's Day! Clark and Ethan have really spoiled me with good meals and doing all the chores all day long (and yesterday)!

Today at church all of the primary children had a special song prepared for the moms, they also invited the nursery age kids to sing with them. When Clark and I heard that Ethan would be singing on the stand in front of the whole congregation we were a little nervous! All week he has been singing the song, "When we're helping we're happy." So we knew that he knew the song, but we also know that our little Eee-eee loves to sing LOUD and we know he loves to RUN!

He did so well though, he marched right up to his spot, he was just tall enough for his little head to peek over the stand. His huge blue eyes were opened as wide as saucers and he just sat there staring at everyone like he was scared to death. When all of the kids started singing I think he was shocked again at the volume he turned around and looked at them, "who are you guys?" We kept waving to him and smiling, but he never moved a muscle or made a peep...in fact I'm pretty sure he didn't even blink! When it was over he ran back to us down the aisle with a huge grin super proud of himself. We thought it was pretty cute, it made my day!

I tried to capture a little video of him singing the song tonight, but he is a bit distracted as you can see:

Little Ethan does love to help his momma! Yesterday he was helping Clark vaccuum. If only he could keep the vaccuum on the floor this would be a good system.

He cried when Clark took a turn, I hope he is still that eager to clean the house when he's 12!

Helping with the cookies tonight! He is especially good at eating chocolate chips!