Random March Report

Thank you for all of your feedback on the "H" situation. I have decided to go with the H. I still have a little anxiety over it. We got his birth certificate and insurance card in the mail this week and seeing Jonathan without the H but knowing we're doing Johnny with the H stressed me out a little. Plus, I saw a guy I had a crush on in college on Facebook and had forgotten he spelled Jonny without the H. Needless to say, it will probably plague me for the rest of our lives, but at least the majority of people will spell it right and it won't come up on spell check.

So here is the most recent batch of pictures. In the correct chronological order this time.

He spends the majority of his time in here. THANK YOU to all who recommended the side to side swing. And THANK YOU to all who pitched in for it! He LOVES it and it is a lifesaver for me!

I love how peaceful they are when they're asleep!

Auntie Laura got to visit again for the rescheduled conference she came for in December. We didn't plan to all wear purple this day, but that's how it worked out! This picture was taken with the timer on the camera, hence, it's poor quality.

A better purple picture.

Loving her 3rd nephew.

Elizabeth always wants in on the picture action.

Laura likes to sleep. She and Johnny have that in common.

Kelly sent these cute month by month cards to take pictures with. Here's month 1.

He's quite alert at night.

He's staring at his Daddy. He has smiled for Nate several times (supposedly -- I've only witnessed one of them). He has only smiled for me once. Yes, I'm bitter, considering I'm his life source and all.

I do love watching them together. Nothing like seeing you hubby with your babies.

So for the past two years I've done a St. Patrick's Day "Green Lunch" with friends. Harrison was on a field trip that day, and I didn't want to do it without him (and more importantly, I had a much needed hair appointment that I had trouble scheduling and couldn't bear to reschedule). So I changed it to a dinner and we invited the Jensens. It was so Nate to give thanks for "The Irish" in his blessing on the food.

Menu: St. Patrick's Day Soup (vegetable soup with lots of spinach, blended up so that it's quite green), green bread, Ceasar salad, grapes, green jello, limeade, and chocolate chip cookies with green M&M's.

Harrison's teacher is having a baby, so the day before Spring Break was her last day. A mom who is also in our ward organized a going away party and invited all the moms to come. It's always fun to observe Harrison in the school setting.

We have loved Mrs. Liesemeyer! They were tears all around (her, me and lots of the moms, and later that night, Harrison) about saying goodbye. She'll be back for the fun end of year stuff and thankfully the much loved student teacher, Mrs. Kazmata, is the long term sub!

All we are saying. . .

. . .is give peace a chance.

Speaking of peace.

Seriously.

I loved Harrison in these overalls. Harrison loved Johnny in them. He called him Johnny Overalls. Of course, I loved Johnny in the overalls too. If you haven't noticed, I get a big kick out of handing things down. Especially really cute things.

In typical Colorado fashion we have had spring-like 70 degree weather one day followed by a blizzard the next. A few times. This is March. It's okay, I forgive Colorado, because I adore Colorado. But I won't complain when Spring really comes and stays.

What the H?

I have a dilemma. Keep in mind I am a major over analyzer and I have A LOT of time on my hands to over analyze these days (someone still wants to eat every two hours all night). Speaking of that someone, the dilemma lies in how to spell his nick name.

We spelled Jonathan without an H because 1)we like it better that way 2)it's already a long enough name and 3)that's how it's spelled in the bible. So we thought that we should also spell Jonny without the H. I was worried that if we did Johnny, then people would assume there's an H in Jonathan. Well, I am having major second thoughts.

Here are my reasons:
1)I think I like it better with the H

2)Everyone assumes there is an H and I don't want to spend the rest of his life telling people there's no H. He will ALWAYS have to spell out his last name, he should at least have one name that people can get right. I like to set people up for success when it comes to name spelling. I am not into creative name spellings like Ashleigh and Jaxon. I like traditional names and traditional spellings. I don't like how Jonny comes up on spell check. Johnny doesn't.

3)All the famous Johnny's have an H. Carson, Depp, Cash, Appleseed, "Johnny Be Good," "Johnny Angel," the mean guy in Karate Kid and my personal favorite, Johnny from Dirty Dancing. As in, "Oh Loverboy, and if he still doesn't answer, I simply say, 'Baby. . .'"

Here's one of my drawbacks (don't worry, I know it's a little crazy). My friend Jenni went out of her way to be sure to spell Jonny the way we were spelling it on the darling nightgown she had made for him with his name on it. I love the nightgown and I love that she made sure to spell it right. Because spelling people's names correctly is important to me. As much as I love the nightgown, I don't know if it's a good enough reason to leave his name spelled that way. Nate assures me that it is definitely not. He is the one who came up with the spelling of Jonny in the first place, but he says he doesn't care how we spell it. I'm sure he just wants me to decide and quit talking about it. Seriously, can you imagine being married to me? I can't.

So that's my dilemma. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it. When I think about it I get a pit in my stomach and when I go to write it with the H I can't bring myself to do it because I haven't officially decided yet. I'm sure you can see which way I'm leaning, but I'd love your feedback. I really wish I had thought about all of this BEFORE he was born.

Jonny Boy - Month One

So as of Monday, Jonny is a month old. This has been one of the longest and shortest months of my life. What have I been up to in the last month? Definitely not sleeping. Mostly feeding this child. He likes to eat every 2 hours. 24/7. Which means I spend about 6 hours feeding him each day. Thankfully the last two nights he has extended his sleeping stretches to 3 hours and he goes right back to sleep after. This is a huge improvement. Up until then, he was usually up from 3 AM to 5:30 or 6 AM and by then my day pretty much started. Needless to say, I'm tired. Upon considering whether or not I would want to trade him for a child who sleeps better, I decided that I was too in love with him to trade him and that I can deal with it until he grows out of it. These are the kinds of things that cross your mind when you've been up with for several hours during the night for several nights in a row. Not that trading them in is an option. But I wouldn't.

I'm not the only one who's head over heels in love with this little guy. So are the kids. They adore him and can't resist kissing him whenever possible. Of course, Daddy loves him too.

At some point I might go back and post the rest of the pics from the hospital, but for now, here's Jonny's first month of life in photos. Please scroll down to the bottom of this post to view them in chronological order. It's been so long since I posted pictures that I forgot to upload them backwards, and I'm not going to take the time to fix it. I'll put the comments for the pictures under them instead of above like I usually do.

We feel like he really started to come into his own look this weekend. He definitely looks like his siblings, but is starting to become more distinct.

I love this darling personalized nightgown that Jenni had made for him!

He's getting more and more alert.

He likes to suck his thumb in this manner.

When the light catches his fuzz it looks blond. Relatively speaking.

She's a sweet big sister and likes to try to make him happy.

Love how they are looking at each other.

Don't know why this picture came in wrong.

Why is the most sleep deprived person in this picture the only one who is not sleeping?

Notice the layer of fuzz that he has on his cheeks. He is a hairy little guy. He still has lots of hair on the edges of his ears.

Harrison is especially smitten.

One day he'll be as crazy as his siblings!

Looks like he's missing the womb.

I love the little drip of milk on his cheek.

Help My Little Bro

So my little brother, Andrew, has had a pretty charmed life. But, he's a pretty charming guy, so we continue to indulge him. His latest ambition is to win a travel internship this summer. Please go to this link and vote for him as many times as you can. If you want to watch the video, you'll get a glimpse of how we grew up. Keep in mind, being one of the older kids in the family, I only got to partake in about half of these trips.

Please excuse Andrew's toplessness in much of the video. He has a tendency to take off his shirt a lot.

Click here to vote!
http://www.worldtravelerintern.com/member/andrew-harrison/

Thanks!