Life with the Johnstons

It is unbelievable that Adelynn just celebrated her half birthday! These last 6 months have gone way too fast and it’s amazing that time continues to speed up. Dave and I cannot imagine our lives without her or even remember what it was like before her. In fact, just the other day I was walking, only carrying my purse and it was such an odd feeling. I am now used to carhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrying Addie, diaper bag, purse, and whatever else we might need for wherever we are going. But of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dave is still working and going to school like normal. He gets to graduate in May! Yay! His classes are all pretty good, except his Networking teacher is ridiculous. That class is proving to be more challenging because of the teacher. He is still donating plasma twice a week and playing paintball on the weekends. If this is the first you have heard of him donating plasma, you are probably surprised because of how he feels about needles and blood. You all know the flu shot story… And on top of that, when I got my epidural, he almost passed out and he couldn’t even see it! (He loves when I tell that story :) ) He has overcome that fear because for 2 hours a week now, he sits with a huge needle in his arm. In his downtime, he watches Futurama since it is on the air again, and Halo Reach has been the game of choice.

Things are good for me, too. I am still doing a little work for Rachel, although not as much. She needed a lot of help from me to start up her big website and now that it’s up, I have less to do until the next big thing comes around. Work at Stifel is always good, but I will be cutting my hours down starting next week. There is just so little to do at work right now and it’s a good way to spend some time at home with Adelynn. Plus, I will have Fridays off so that will be nice.I have joined a Mom’s group called Little Apple Mommies. It is to meet other Moms and kids and organize play groups. Adelynn mostly watches the other kids, because they are fascinating big kids, but we both enjoy going to the meet ups.

We have been church searching basically the whole time we have been in Manhattan. For the last year or so, we have attended a church we were happy with, but it’s not our “home” church like South Hutch is. We decided to keep searching and decided to try Vintage Faith church. It is small, but we had heard good things about it. We have met at least a dozen people in the few weeks we have attended. We also joined their young marrieds Bible study on Sunday nights. There are 2 other baby girls there, Addison – 3 months and Alexis – 11 months. Adelynn was the only quiet baby last week. The 3 month old was fussy, and the 11 month old was rowdy. The only noise Addie made was a random burp :) Our good friends Ally and Travis go with us to both church and Bible study and they enjoy it too. The group does a great job of helping us get involved. We have brought snacks to one Bible study already. We are even greeting this Sunday! Even though we are nearing the end of our time here, it is nice to finally have a “home” church in Manhattan.

And now, the part you have been waiting for… the bragging…and the pictures :) Adelynn can now sit unassisted for short periods of time without her hands. She sometimes topples if something is beyond her reach. Or she will just lay down and “Army crawl” to go get it! She is getting fast, too! She sure got a double whammy with the stubbornness inheritance.



At her 6 month check up, the doctor said great things about her. She is 16lb 5 oz (57%), 27 inches tall (89%) and her head is 40cm (60%). The doctor calls her “the tallest kid in the class”. She said she is advanced to the 7-8 month stage with sitting and supporting herself. While we work with her to do new things and are proud of her for all of her achievements, she does not need to hurry to grow up! She is at the 9 month stage with her stranger anxiety :(. Dr. Klingler said to reassure everyone that her being upset is not personal! So if you hold her and she cries, she doesn’t hate you.

We all went to a dairy farm a couple weeks ago, and Addie had the chance to see the animals. She wasn’t sure about touching them, but she enjoyed watching them. She also really likes our cats. She sometimes sees Bruce and just starts laughing. Although, one time she grabbed his tail and he wasn’t too impressed with that. We have video of her sitting by herself and petting Bella. (She is usually gentle, but luckily we also have 2 tolerant cats!)





Adelynn has started solid food now twice a day. It is always fun to feed her the food and she enjoys it too. She really likes to rub it all over her tray. She wasn’t a fan of cereal, but she seems to like it mixed with carrots, mango and squash so far. It is amazing that one little person and 4 little carrot-spoonfuls can make one giant mess! When eating is over, you clean her face and she grabs it again with a dirty hand before you can clean them. It is an endless cycle! (Sometimes I think she does these things on purpose. You know her Dad, right?:) )



She also wants to sit up too much now to use her baby bath tub anymore. We got her one that goes in the bath tub that she sits up in. It is like a boppy with a seat that hangs in the middle. She puts her arms on the sides and looks like she is in a pool float. She tries to drink the water all the time and she loves kicking and splashing, too. Maybe she will be a fast swimmer like her Dad someday, or enjoy relaxing baths like her Mom, or maybe both!



Dave and I laugh so much more than we ever have before. Who knew dirty diapers and other messy events could cause so much laughter? We laugh at eachother’s antics to make her giggle, silly mistakes made caused by lack of sleep, and at her new tricks. It seems like she does new things every day now.

One new thing is how she “sings”. She kind of yells this really long “aaaahh” sound when she is playing in the carseat. We can barely hear each other talk in the car. We wait until she is done, start talking again and then she “sings” again. We usually end up laughing some more and waiting to finish conversation until we have reached our destination. She has “sung” herself to sleep in the car a couple of times. We look in her mirror and see her “singing” with her eyes closed when she suddenly stops. She is out!

She has started blowing raspberries and squealing… A LOT. She is a vocal child, we all know which parent that came from. She also loooves books. We read to her every day and she used to actually listen as we read and let us turn the pages. Now she likes to bang on the books and chew on them. She has certain books she really loves and certain pages she likes best. She giggles all the time and she responds when you say “Adelynn”… sometimes…if she feels like it. From reading this, you can tell she is developing own fun personality It’s so fun to see her blossoming every day and we love every minute!