Happy Fathers Day, my love!
Every day when Eric gets home, I hear the jingle of his keys, then the turning of the doorknob, and then finally the front door opens. This is a highlight for both Emily and me, as we look forward to his arrival home most of the day. When I hear the door open I typically call down to him “Hey Baby!”. Then I say “Daddy’s home”, and Emily runs to the baby gate to greet him as he comes up the stairs. I guess Emily has picked up on this little routine. Today when Eric got home from his soccer game, she and I were playing on the couch together. I heard the jingle, the knob, then the door, and I yelled down to him, “Hey Baby”, which came quickly followed by Emily yelling “Hey Baby!” to him too.
It was adorable, and it gave Eric and me a great laugh.
This little girl just continues to fill our lives with joy. She seems to be learning something new every day, adding to her vocabulary, and keeping us on our toes (literally). Her favorite words right now are up, nonono (with a scolding finger), bird, Elmo, bottle, blueberries, paci, water, walk, outside and flag. Mind you, none of these sound quite like the actual words. For example “flag” its actually “alickylickylicky” – no idea why. Paci is “Pssss”. And “bird” is “Bbbbba”. What matters is that we know what she’s saying. She’s also doing a great job with her sign language. She’s becoming a very polite little lady with her “pleases” and “thank yous”.
Her personality abounds. Here are some peaks into her latest favorites.
Graham crackers and fishy faces
Building Lego towers
Hanging with her cousin Camryn
Playing dress up
Doing it on her own
Swim lessons and play time with her best friend Bailey
After bath time robe, sippy cup and Elmo
Playing piano
Snuggling with Henrietta and Dotti
Playing catch-and-kick with her big pink ball
We participated in an End of School Bash this weekend. The first of many events this summer in what our church, Rock Harbor, is calling South County Project. Weekly events, celebration services, prayer, and mentoring forums to come alongside neighborhoods in South County in need of God, community and fellowship. Eric and I are super excited for this opportunity to be a part of a sub-church in our area that is actively pursuing spreading the word of God – not in another city, state or country, but rather right where we are!
Eric and I got to help out at the “Bash”, among loads of other red shirted volunteers. I got to make sno-cones and Eric manned the Princess bounce house. They had tons of games: water balloon toss, steal the bacon, red rover. They had a golf cart maze that the kids got to drive, face painting, balloon creations, tons of bouncy contraptions, free chick-fil-a for everyone, sno-cones, popcorn, cotton candy…it was a huge hit for kids and adults alike.
There are going to be lots of events throughout the summer. Come join us! Details below, or go to the church website for info.
the schedule
all events are happening at lake hills church
23331 moulton parkway, laguna hills
family/community nights
throwback 4th of july bbq: saturday, july 4, 1pm
movie under the stars: saturday, august 1, 6:30pm
forums
tuesday, june 23, 7pm: marriage & sex forum
tuesday, july 21, 7pm: marriage & communication forum
tuesday, august 25, 7pm: parenting forum
celebration services
sunday, june 14, 10am
sunday, july 12, 10am
sunday, august 9, 10am
prayer
wednesday, june 17, 7pm
wednesday, july 15, 7pm
wednesday, august 19, 7pm
Em and I went to Costco today. She seems to love everything about going to Costco
• Getting out of the house
• Seeing all new faces
• Waving at the passersby
• Filing through each row and celebrating anything that gets plucked off the shelf and placed in our cart
• Anticipating what sample might be at the end of each aisle
• Revisiting the favored samples
• Being in the cart when it gets passed behind the check stand so that we’re a little distance apart
- she plays a cheerful peek-a-boo with me, then acts like we’ve been reunited after our items have been paid for.
• And now I know she even loves the over sized boxes that they pack your groceries in.
This one became her new favorite toy today as she pushed it around the house, then started adding her favorites items to it and pushing it some more.
When I left the freezer open and unattended for a moment, I turned around to see her grocery shopping off the bottom shelves and putting her selected items into the box.
Lastly she crawled into the box with everything inside and snuggled with her blanket. So precious.
Hooray for Costco!
I felt very loved on Mothers Day. Eric got up with Emily and let me sleep extra long. I even got to shower in privacy without Emily trying to open the sliding glass door so that the water would spray her in the face.
We walked to Starbucks (my favorite weekend activity) to indulge in some mochas and breakfast burritos from Taco Mesa. Emily was in heaven because pretty much every other family there had a dog with them and the birds were in full effect collecting the scraps off the ground. She LOVES animals.
On our walk back Emily fell asleep in her stroller. I managed to get her unhooked, pulled out, up to her room, changed her diaper, put her in a new pair of sleeping clothes, and laid her down in her crib without her ever stirring or opening her eyes. She was completely limp, it was so precious.
During her nap Eric gave me a full body massage. I fell asleep while he was massaging my feet, so he tucked me in and let me nap for an hour. Ahhh heaven!
After Emily woke we headed over to his parents house for some ladder golf, a pork chop dinner and gifts. Eric and I had made each of our moms’ a scrapbook containing each of Emily’s monthly pictures along side her monthly blog posts. We also made DVDs of all the movies I’ve made of Emily in her first year, which we included in the backs of the books. They turned into the most fantastic, comprehensive little books. They were actually really hard to give away, so I set on making myself one too.
We headed home before Emily’s bedtime, laid her down and enjoyed a quiet evening together. A simple day that made me love the life I live.
Eric and I enjoyed our first weekend away from Emily. We headed up to San Luis Obispo for a relaxing weekend and a Campus Crusade for Christ reunion with a bunch of Eric’s college buddies.
I must admit I cried for a second, but was totally fine before we made it to the freeway. We stopped off at my favorite little cafe in Westwood on our way. Its French, but it means The Daily Bread. Its a tiny little vegan place that makes the best daily soups, served with the most fantastic bread. We contained ourselves and did not splurge for the Diddy Reece ice cream sandwiches before getting on our way.
Eric and I love this drive to SLO, especially from LA on. It’s beautiful, and mellow, and being in the car together for so long often lends to some fun conversations.
When we got to SLO it was drizzling a little bit and our first plans were to hike Bishops Peak. The rain didn’t stop us and we got to enjoy a 2 1/2 hour hike – just the two of us getting our recreational companionship on.![phot[1]](http://laderajohnsons.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/phot1.jpg?w=112&h=150 "phot[1]")
After our hike we showered up and headed to Firestones for the best tri-tip we know of. There was a long line so Eric got us a slice of Woodstocks pizza to share while we waited. Which achieved eating at our two favorite restaurants for the same meal. Since it was raining outside every seat was taken inside and people were even eating in standing up. A little case of “right place at the right time” got Eric and me a little table right in front of the TV showing the 9th inning of the Yankee game. We had a great meal and the Yankees won – It was our night!
Our plan after that was to go to a bar for some drinks and dancing. But that didn’t sound like fun at all. Instead we mozied around town holding hands, and ended up in a coffee shop playing cribbage and sipping mochas with lots of whipped cream.
The reason why we were up in SLO was for a Campus Crusade for Christ reunion with a bunch of Eric’s college buddies and their families. We went to a BBQ in the afternoon with everyone and got to visit, catch up, eat etc. Then we went to eat some more with Eric’s college roommate Bubba, his wife Andrea and their little girl Emery (she’s 11 days older than Emily). We had a great time with them, and being with Emery gave us our fill of kiddo time as we were starting to miss the bean a bit. That night they had a night of praise and worship led by the old Crusade worship team. As much as we missed Emily, especially being with friends and their kiddos, it was amazing to be out at night worshiping God without any distraction or agenda: such as thinking “Emily’s probably crying in the nursery”, “I hope they remembered to give Emily her bottle”, “we need to hurry up and get home to put Emily to bed”, etc. All to say, we had a great night worshiping God together. The whole night was a real blessing to us.
![phot[2]](http://laderajohnsons.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/phot2.jpg?w=133&h=178 "phot[2]")
The next morning we slept in until 8:30! Then we had breakfast at our hotel with Bubba and Emery. Our hotel had those make-your-own waffle stations and they made some fantabulous waffle goodness. I can’t say quite as much about the coffee.
On our way back home we stopped off in Corona Del Mar to go to the beach since we weren’t expected back home to pick up Emily until later that evening. We laid out our towels, dipped our toes in the water, and then proceeded to take an hour long nap on the sand. It was bliss.
When we got back to Betty and Lyle’s to pick up Em she saw us and screamed and then started climbing down the stairs at super speed to get to us. It was so rewarding.
Emily started swim lessons last week. Her first lesson she was very clingy but didn’t cry or resist the exercises. She did awesome. I dunked her under the water and helped her to float on her back. I was very proud of her.
Since then, going to the pool has become our favorite activity. She gets in her swimmy diaper and her cutie patootie bathing suit. Gets all lathered up with sun screen. In the water she squeals and kicks and splashes, she sits on the edge of the pool and falls into my arms. She’s very brave and open to new experiences. I think she’s crazy cool.
We both have gotten some excellent base tans. Lucky girl has mommy’s skin. Its going to be a very fun summer.
