4th of July

Not much to blog about lately, just kind of sitting at home-- but I thought I'd put up some pictures we got on the 4th, just for the sake of keeping this updated.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag..."

(This was the outfit from GiGi that Isaac was GOING to wear on the 4th... until he had a massive spit-up incident all over it. )

Ben's first sparkler!

Benjamin actually seemed to be having a good time with the fireworks-- he had a couple of his own boxes of pop-its, which he enjoyed immensely, and then he shared a sparkler with his Papa, and even watched, with interest, some of the louder firecracker types-- but, unfortunately, at some point, he seemed to realize his deathly fear of fireworks, and we were confined to the house, at times with him trembling in apparent horror at the louder ones. Poor baby, I felt so bad for him, he was really scared. Fortunately, having the fan on in the bedroom at home drowned out the noise, at least enough for him to sleep.

Isaac's two-week Well Baby check-up

...was today. I, not surprisingly, was running late, but we made it just on time (well, with a minute or two to spare before it would have been too late, anyway)!


The basics: He's already quite a bit past his birth weight, weighing in at 8 lb, 7.5 oz already, and he's apparently grown a half inch in length (barring, of course, measuring discrepancies)-- and his head now measures an inch bigger around than at birth. Hey, I'm just glad he came out when he did, instead of waiting until a week past due, if it would have made that big a difference!

The jaundice is slowly but surely fading away.

His umbilical cord stump had fallen out two days ago, and I'd noticed it looked a bit odd, there was a little circle right in the middle of his bellybutton where it was still the same raw-looking yellow of the cord. Turns out it was a piece of the cord that should have come out with the rest of the stump, and his doctor had to chemically burn it out with silver nitrate.

Beyond that, Shellee, you were right about his tongue, good eye! I asked about it, and she said that while it looked like he could stick it out far enough, the frenulum was definitely still attached. So, we have to make an appointment with the specialist surgeon (way out on the west side of Portland, of course), so he can take a look and clip it if it needs it.

Other than all that... he's a healthy, happy two-week-old!

And, what would a blog post be without some pictures? :)

I love that little kissy face!!

And, of course, another gas smile (or whatever...)-- they're irresistible!

Benjamin ate a hamburger "like a big boy"!

No, he's not allowed to stand on the chair like that... stinker.

Awwwww.....

One week old!

Isaac was born a week ago today, and he's doing great! Not much to write about, except he decided to mark the occasion by explosively pooing across my legs while I was sitting on the floor, changing his diaper this morning... Other than that, though, not much going on.

Oh, he went on his first "outing" yesterday! Juli and Natti brought dinner over, and we went to the park down the street to have a picnic! Natti was so sweet with Isaac, she kept wanting to hold him, and she wanted to know "Is it okay that baby Isaac can sit next to me?", and when I was getting set up to nurse him, she even wanted to know if she could feed him! I told her that that wouldn't work very well... but that, when Isaac is older, if we ever start bottle-feeding him, she can try feeding him with a bottle.

After we ate, Ben and Natti swung for a while. Benjamin would have been happy to never get out of that swing, he was having so much fun! After a while, though, we went back to the blanket, and Natti and Benjamin just burned energy running around and around. Anyway, it was fun!

Well, my big boy is about done with his lunch, and my one-week-old is waking up, and looking hungry (but nothing new there), so I better finish up!

My budding artist!

"Dinosaur", by Benjamin Johnson

I set Benjamin up with crayons and paper at the table earlier this afternoon, and let him have at it. He had fun (and bonus for me, it kept him entertained for a good 20 minutes)! When he was done, I was telling him what a good job he did, and how nice his picture looked, and I asked him, "What do you want to call it?", and he said, "Shyshore!" (dinosaur).... yes, I'm sure it could well have been affected by the fact that he was wearing his dinosaur pajamas (and yes, he's been in his pajamas all day, as have I).

I wanted to upload a video, but it was 144 MB, and the max allowed on blogger AND photobucket is 100, and I don't have any video-editing software, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to use it... so oh well, this is it!

Oh, and I didn't see a single crayon with a bite out of it! :)

Also, as you may have heard, Ben's been working on learning the alphabet-- so far, he gets excited, and repeats up to around "G"-- but he knows A, B, C, and D pretty well. He hasn't said them in order by himself yet, but he'll repeat them perfectly, and when I say one, he'll usually say the next one if I wait for him. So this morning, while I was changing Isaac, Ben was playing with the wipes container. He started pointing at the word "HUGGIES" on the top of the container, and, pointing at individual letters, started saying, "Ay! Dee! Bee! She!(c) Ay! Bee!" Okay, so they weren't the right letters, but he knew they were letters!!

I'm so proud of my smart boy!!

Day #5, in pictures

Benjamin has been so sweet with Isaac so far. There have only been a few times when I had to really tell him to be gentler, in general, it seems like he just knows. He's been helping me with Isaac's diapers, too: he'll sit next to me and watch, and pull a diaper out of the basket to hand to me, then, if his attention is still engaged, he'll hand me wipes (okay, so sometimes it's a few too many wipes, but it's something!), then when I'm done, he'll take the dirty diaper to the trash. He loves pointing out Isaac's body parts-- I've been trying to discourage pointing at his eyes, in particular, but he also knows his head, his cheek, his nose, his chin, his arm, hand, toes, etc.

He was tickling his foot here-- unfortunately, it turned out a little blurry :(

...And holding his hand while he slept (awwwww)...

I absolutely love moments like this one, just holding him against my chest while he sleeps so contentedly... there is nothing in the world so relaxing, I think.

Cute little profile! (And, as you can see, his eyes are no longer oddly puffy)

These next three make me laugh! Those are tickle smiles, I was feeding him, and he kept dozing off, so I was trying to get him to latch back on, and it made him smile, by some reflex-- he was doing it for a good five minutes before I thought to grab the camera!

Isaac's first doctor visit

I took four-day-old Isaac in for our Mother-Baby visit at the hospital today... He's gained back almost all of the weight he'd lost in the hospital, he's 7 lb, 9 oz right now, so just shy of his birth weight! Mild jaundice, but nothing even on the charts for risk, so no big deal.

That's really all that the appointment was... it felt a lot more rushed, I remember Benjamin's first visit was a lot more comfortable, as if the doctor was really interested in how we were doing and trying to offer help with all the little things, and this time it was just the technical stuff.

Oh, and the doctor also felt the need to let me know that I am "WAY too young to have two children these ages!" (with a smile, though, whatever that means). I never know quite how to respond to things like that... "Thank you!" "No, I'm clearly not, or I wouldn't have two children, hmm?" "Okay...?"

I always just end up resorting to a polite smile and half-nod. Eh, it was just kind of funny.

On another topic, Daniel's really not feeling well... :(
He's been throwing up, and just generally feeling icky. He's sleeping now... I hope he feels better soon. I need him! ;)

Seriously, though, he's been so awesome, I literally could not have handled the past few days without him taking care of Benjamin (and me!) so that I could focus on Isaac, and get some rest. I love you, babe!

Awww... I love this picture... <3

He really is so cute!!!

...And more pictures!

Look at those loooong fingers/fingernails!

I thought this was cute... one of the t-shirts the hospital provided-- "This side up!" (kind of funny, too-- I was at a Kaiser hospital, but the shirt is a Providence one...)

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Here's a cute little picture sequence-- I was just holding him, and took all of these pictures within the space of a minute or two. I LOVE his expressions!!

(This one's my favorite, I think!)



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Tiny baby toes! :)

Picture post!

This'll probably be overload... but oh well. Enjoy!

This little series of pictures was taken by Juli (Daniel's aunt), and put together in sequence by Daniel's grandpa. I had to steal it, because it really does just perfectly sum up the whole thing, beginning to end-- just a whole lot shorter!

(It was technically actually 5:55, this was taken just a minute or two late.)

Father and son...

He makes the funniest expressions!!
See the little tufts of red? Like father (and big brother), like son.
He's had so many of those little fake gas smiles, they're so cute!!
Me and my boys...

Welcome, baby Isaac!

Well, I did it! 39 weeks and two days of pregnancy, and 28 hours in the hospital, and we've got a beautiful baby boy to show for it.

Isaac Otto Michael Johnson

born 5:55 pm on Friday, June 20th

7 lb, 11 oz

20 inches

I'm sure this will be the first of many, many blog posts written at night, while nursing, so expect plenty of simple, quickly-written, flash updates like this one.
I do have plenty more pictures, so I'll try and put up a picture post within a couple of days here-- but I'm thinking it's just about back to bed time...