Happy Birthday Zane!

Wow...Zane is 4 years old today!!! It's really hard to believe that that much time has gone by and that this beautiful, wonderful, energetic, incredibly smart little boy is the baby that I first held 4 years ago. I have to brag about my son - it is his birthday after all and I am feeling somewhat sentimental. Zane constantly amazes me with how quickly he grasps onto concepts. If he doesn't understand something he will often question me about it and then will sit there and mull it over and re-explain it to me in the terms that he understood it. Most often he gets it right and the times that he doesn't he's not far off. He loves to do mazes! I bought him a preschool book that had 32 mazes in it and he did them all in under 45 minutes. He just sat there and did maze after maze. He is amazing on the computer. He knows exactly how to get to the games that he likes to play and can do things in our paint progam that amazes me. He loves to play the games that reinforce his letters and counting and stuff like that. His thirst for knowledge somedays takes my breath away. He loves books! It has been so fun lately to see him grow more and more interested in books and to watch him "read" his favorites to Rhett. Of course he loves all the boy stuff too. He loves to build these amazing creations with his blocks and is constantly guarding them from Rhett - something that continues to be a source of frustration for him. But he builds buildings, cars, boats, roller coaster and of course - shooting things as he calls them. Cars and trucks are always a big part of play as well and lately anything pirate is a big hit.

When we first brought Zane home and Cliff went back to work and it was just me and him there were several days where I just sat in the chair and watched him and would wonder what in the world I would ever do with a boy! I didn't know how to make truck noises or shooting noises and we all know that my athletic ability is severely lacking! But I have since learned that boys are so much fun! They look at the world in such a different way then girls and he teaches me something new everyday. I am so lucky to be his mommy and I hope that he will always love me the way he does now. The best part of my day is when he looks at me and says "Mommy - I love you a 10 today!" And he holds up all his fingers to prove his point. Does it get any better than having the unconditional love of your child? I don't think so.

From the Mouth of Babes!

Wow - it's been 2 weeks since I last posted - it doesn't feel like that long but it does feel that long. It's been an eventful 2 weeks as Rhett rolled into his 5th ear infection which prompted our doc to refer us to an ear specialist. We saw him yesterday and will see him again in 6 weeks. The good news is that the current infection is gone and he's hopeful that Rhett will outgrow the infections. The other bad news is that he still has some fluid in there. We go back in 6 weeks and I think he'll be following us throughout the next year or so. He's not a tube pusher which we like 'cause neither of us is eager for surgery for Rhett. He also is cutting 4 teeth - 2 have broken and the other 2 won't be far behind - that will bring his total to 6! He is also getting more brave with trying to walk - he's down to holding onto one finger for the most part when he walks with me and just wants to go all the time. He's learned how to wave bye-bye and loves to practice with me throughout the day and is starting to recognize voices on the phone. I think his favorite is Uma - how he refers to my mom at the moment - his face just lights up when she's on speaker phone. Wow - he's really done a lot!


Zane goes between being the most delightful almost 4 year old I know to the most stubborn, attitude bearing, can't reason with him - almost 4 year old. But mostly the first scenario. He has developed a fear of the dark recently and also a fear of 'dark cows' - which from what I've been able to put together stems from the little robot dude with the THX and cow sounds at the beginning of some Disney Pixar movies. After a couple of tearful bedtimes I suggested that we pray and ask Heavenly Father and Jesus to help him. He agreed and tearfully followed my prompts. After we finished he was so much calmer and said that he felt better. He slept fine that night and the next morning I overheard him telling Cliff that Jesus had come and made the Dark Cows go away. Unfortunately, this experience hasn't been quite enough to rid him of fear totally but I believe it is building his faith - he goes to sleep at night with a flashlight pointing straight on the picture of Christ in their room. He also comes up with little phrases that crack me up all the time. His latest is "I hope so!" I often get this response when I ask him if he can do something - like pick up his toys or pick out some clothes. Something to that effect.

Did I mention that it is trying to be spring here? I know that all of you in Southern Alberta are thinking - so what? But please remember that we have had snow for 6 months - that's half the year! We have to fit 3 seasons into 6 months - and 2 of them are my favorite ones. Sigh. Anyways, I'm really happy to see grass again and the big puddles and the snow piles slowly starting to disappear. I don't even care that I washed my van on Staurday and it didn't even stay clean for 2 hours.

I haven't been taking as many pics this month - been too busy trying to keep Rhett happy but I got these ones today of him eating mac and cheese. I couldn't resist - too cute!
I also took these ones the other day of Zane being a pirate. According to him his name is Pirate Zane Markus Johnson. As soon as Rhett saw me go for the camera he got as close to Zane as possible....I have two camera loving kids!



What can I say...I'm a sleep deprived mom who loves her boys and wouldn't trade staying at home with them for anything! I'm so lucky to be married to Cliff - he spoils me and loves me and cherishes me. What more could a girl ask for!

Mum's the word

Our visit to Raymond and Barnwell went well and we had a lot of fun....minus all of us being sick! The boys had minor colds when we left Red Deer and by the time we hit Raymond both were running low grade fevers and coughing like crazy. Rhett ended up with double ear infections and Zane a cold. Yuck. Grammie claims to still have enjoyed us but I think she's had much more fun at our house this week now that everyone is pretty much over the sickness and happy once again.

Rhett has his first word - it's mom. It took me a while to make sure he really knew what he was saying but mom helped me confirm. He's also working on 'more' - especially when there are popcorn twists involved.

Zane is almsot 4 - I can't believe it. The time has certainly flown and my fun 3 year old is suddenly morphing into this very willful 4 year old who doesn't want to do anything that doesn't work well with his own personal agenda. Needless to say we have been having a few battles as we both adjust to this new dynamic. I remember it being like this when he was really close to being 3 as well and thinking that I would never survive 3. As it turns out 3 has been one of my favorite ages. But he is so keen to learn new things. He has been learning about rhyming words and will out of the blue look up and say "mom - cat and hat - they rhyme" or something like that. We bought him some books that he can trace numbers and letters in and he really likes thoses - they're like a white board so the pen just wipes off right after he's done and he can do it as many times as he likes. He also loves books. We've been going to the library once a week and he has a lot of fun picking out new books to bring home and read.

Rhett is trying to cut more teeth. Hopefullly they will be in soon and not be as bad as his first two. He is growing like a weed these days and I can't believe that we are on the verge of toddler hood. He's starting to get brave and take falling steps between us - mostly towards mom so it probably won't be much longer now before he's running around after Zane. He already follows him and just tries so hard to be as tall as Zane so he can touch everything that Zane does.

All in all life is really good right now and we are hoping for spring soon. It will be really nice to see grass here again.