Welcome to The Family Baby Brad

Jumpin' James has a new cousin, Baby Brad!!! He was born today at 12:36pm and weighed in at 8lbs and 9oz!

He joins J plus his other big cousins, Cailey, Harvey, Jackson, and Wyatt in joining the Johnson clan!!! Congratulations to Hannah and Deano!!! There's definitely a family resemblance, don't you think? Or maybe it's just their cone heads ;)

J is so excited to meet you Baby Brad!!!!

Quality Not Quantity

Living in a condo means we don't have a huge front yard to play in but to Jumpin' J the front yard we do have is a vast wonderland to explore! With the snow and ice and cold J and I have been stuck inside quite a bit lately and I knew that we both could use a little fresh air even if it was frigid! So despite the -5 degree temperature (with the windchill) I made the decision to go out to play for a little while. We bundled up in ski pants, hats, boots, gloves, coats, and scarves. And boy did J have a great time!



We stayed outside for as long as I could stand it and J stood at the window looking out until I offered fishy crackers for a snack, he wanted to go back out! Another day I promise!

Looks as good as it tastes

Berry Yogurt that is! Jumpin' J eats yogurt every morning with his blueberry waffle. Lately he has decided that it is time to start feeding himself the yogurt. And he does a pretty good job but I have learned not to get him dressed until after he eats it because about 1/2 of it ends up all over his face, including in his ears, and all down the front of his pjs.

Penguins

Isn't it funny how kids pick up on everything?
Jumpin' J even makes his penguin waddle from side to side!
And then he generously feeds it from his plate.

Dinner and a Movie

You feel it coming... another blog about someone other than Jumpin' J.... this one is about my loving and soooo-wonderful-I-can't-even-believe-it husband! He is so great I can't help but write about it for all the world to read!!!!!

He is the biggest lover of surprises that you could possibly imagine. Admittedly I hate them so it makes him all the more determined to make them wonderful! And I have to say that he's had some really great ones over the years, from the surprise cruise, to getting engaged on the cruise, to my baby shower, to my 30th birthday. But for how great all of them were this one was by far the best.

He took me into Boston for the evening and we went to a fantastic 5 course meal at The Melting Pot where we started with spinach and artichoke cheese fondue, continued with cesear salads, mixed in a little lemon sorbet with strawberry sauce, dined on spicey "Moho" fondue with lobster, shrimp, and filet mignon among other appetizing choices, and then topped it off with their signature yin yang chocolate fondue for dessert where we both agreed that the oreo covered marshmallows were to die for! It was almost two hours of pure pleasure for my stomach.

Then to top off the evening we headed back towards the Loews movie theater. We used to be very big movie goers but now that we have Jumpin' J we just don't get out that much so I was excited to just hold his hand in the dark theater and maybe smooch a little. But.....

Turns out we were off to see the new production of one of my all time favorite movies, Dirty Dancing. We had some of the best seats in the house, third row of the balcony center stage!!!! And the show was awesome! It stayed pretty true to the movie and my heart pounded at all the right places while watching the drama of Baby and Johnny on stage. It was great to sit there with Sean and squeeze his hand at all the good parts!!!

And just to really prove what a wonderful fabulous and understanding husband I have let me tell you that he even bought me a ridiculous $10 magnet in the shape of a watermelon that says "I carried a watermelon" on it! I am one lucky lady to have such a great hubby and I didn't even have to carry a watermelon to get him to notice me! Biology notes on the other hand are another story all together...... Happy Valentine's Day!

Ice Dam Brings Company

When I went to bed one night last week I heard dripping in the living room and unfortunately discovered that we had an apparent ice dam on the roof and the water was leaking in our window frame and dripping down. There was also water marks in the ceiling of both our bedroom and the living room, yuck yuck yuck. So a call to the condo company was placed.

Jumpin' J was fascinated watching the men from the snow removal company get up on their tall ladders and bang/sweep the snow and ice off the roof. He pretty much stood at the sliding door the entire time and chatted to them through the glass and waved. He even got out his hammer from the puzzle he got from Nana and Pop Steve so he could bang away with them.

Even now he goes to the back window to look for the "guys"! So far there's no more dripping but I'll be J would be psyched to see the guys again.

Cool Dudes

When Jumpin' J first put on a pair of sunglasses I told him what a "cool dude" he was and thus they are no longer sunglasses in our house they are Cool Dudes! J's had a couple of pairs of cool dudes in his young life but just recently would he actually leave them on for any length of time. And he is just such a cool dude wearing them, don't you think?

Playing with Trains

We had another train playdate at our house recently! It is so good to see some of our WMM friends and get to relax and just play!
Jumpin' J and another redhead who we'll call Cheeks because they're so cute!

And here's J with Lightening, Babydoll, and another new visitor, Rosie (because she loves trains too we'll give her a Thomas name)

Double Greats

One of the best things, for me at least, of going to Florida with Jumpin' J and Sean was getting to see my family. I was very lucky to not only get to see all of my grandparents but also to see some of my great aunts and uncles, or Double Greats for J.

Grandma Johnson's sister, Norma, and her husband, Morris, live just a hop, skip, and a jump from Grandma and Grandpa's house. We got to go over to their house to visit and J was psyched to see Uncle Morris' train set!! He even borrowed their grandson, Vaughn's, engineer's cap for a few minutes while watching the electric trains. And Aunt Norma generously fed J all the grapes his little belly could hold.

And then when we were at Grandpa Kimball's his only sister, Corrine, and her husband, Harry, drove quite a ways to come have lunch with us and meet J. They live in Daytona Beach so it was a little bit of a haul for them but we really appreciated it. J was fascinated with Aunt Corrine's merry-go-round necklace! And he loved the dish set that they brought him!

Thanks to all of our relatives for taking the time to visit with us, we really had an awesome time! We hope to see all of you again soon!!!

Junior Flyer Club

On the way to Florida Jumpin J and I had a rather lengthy layover in the Dallas airport. Fortunately they have two sections of the terminals called the Junior Flyer Club (by Gates B12 ad C14). They are walled with benches, a padded floor, and lots of things to play on and with. It definitely was a godsend for me because I could put all my things down, let J run around, and still keep an eye on him. And he had a blast. If I was an airport designer I would definitely put one of these areas in each of my terminals!!!

His face in this one is just too hysterical!!

Pools Galore

I think that if Jumpin' J could go swimming every day he would. His favorite time of the day is tubby time and he loves "swimming" any chance he can get. So two of the days we were visiting Grandpa Kimball and Arlene we went over to one of the family pools and took J swimming. He had a blast and would have stayed until he turned into a prune had we let him!

Here's one of the benefits of swimming with Daddy!

Gampa Kimba and Arlene

Next on our tour of the middle of Florida was a trip to The Villages to see my Grandpa Kimball and his girlfriend, Arlene in their new house. While Grandma and Grandpa Johnson have been in FL for over a decade, Grandpa Kimball and Arlene are relatively new converts to the pleasures of the state. And they decided to buy a place in The Villages. The Villages is this amazingly huge planned community for 55+ residents with golf courses, shopping, country clubs, restaurants, and every club and activity you could possibly imagine.



Jumpin' J loved to ride in "Gampa Kimba"'s bright yellow golf cart and was thoroughly entertained by the ship playground they have in the closest community center to their house. We all got to eat honeybells which are soooo good that we actually had some shipped home!! Honeybells resembles a naval orange, but are actually a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. They are only available during the month of January so we just caught them. They are super super juicy and sweet and they are sooo yummy!

We got to try out a bunch of their different restaurants, my favorite being this great Spanish style restaurant right on the golf course where we ate lunch one afternoon!

Catching Up

So I have to admit that this blog is not specifically about Jumpin' J but I hope you'll indulge me. Anyway, I am self admittedly very bad about keeping in touch with people, I just run out of hours in the day. I still have thank you letters to write from Christmas and it's almost Valentine's Day. So needless to say I have lost touch with a lot of friends over the years, friends that I wonder about and hope that they're doing well.

And then along comes this little internet page called Facebook and like magic I can find so many old friends that it's kinda crazy. And I have to say that I think it's great! I have found so many that it's almost nuts. And then the best part is when you then take it "off-line" and meet up for real and get to catch up face to face!!!!! In the past month I have met up with...

a high school friend, Brandi, when I was in Florida....

elementary school friends, Heather...

and Katy and her daughter Riley...

and a high school friend/fellow-New Hampshirite, Julie, who generously brought her twin beauties to our house to play.

I really feel so lucky to have had the chance to see all of these old friends and hear about their lives and really feel like we connected again. I promise to TRY to keep in touch better but at least there's Facebook!

Disney Adventure

Since J's dad was able to take a day off of work while J and I were still in FL we decided to spend the big bucks to take in Mickey and the gang for a day. After forgetting about the almost $175 just to get in the door we were able to really enjoy our day. The end of January is a good time to visit Disney since it is one of their slower times of the year and we got to ride on all the rides we wanted to.

Some of J's favorites were Indy 500, Peter Pan,
Pooh's Adventures, and the merry-go-round.

But the best ride was the Mad Hatter's Teaparty!

We waited in line for a while to get to meet Mickey and Minnie
and it was totally the highlight of the day!

We made it from Tomorrowland to Adventureland in one day!

It was just starting to get dark when we headed out
but we caught a short fireworks show over Cinderella's castle,
all in all a dream come true day!!!!

Memories Shared By Generations

As a kid I remember visiting my grandparents in South Carolina. I went several times with my parents and once with my cousin Hannah. And each time one of my clearest memories is of swinging in their wicker hanging chair. So it was with great pleasure that I saw that they still had it in their kitchen. While it's not the original it looks just like it! It was so great to see J swinging in it and know that another generation had now realized the fun of that chair.

And Grandma had to get a picture of J with the bell that my father had bought for my grandparents when I destroyed theirs when I was about J's age. I don't remember doing it but can imagine how it happened.

Thanks for all the great new memories Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Grrrrr Alligators

Grandma and Grandpa took us to one of their favorite and very yummy restaurants, Stumpknockers. Everyone but me had their world famous catfish and Sean by-passed my father's previous record on the all you can eat catfish!

Outside the restaurant is a super huge statue of an alligator. First Sean fed J to the alligator and as soon as we let J go he climbed right up to ride the thing. Look at the pure unadulterated joy on his face, grrrr!!!

Poo Poo Pee Doo

I'm not sure who exactly sang this song originally but as far as Jumpin' J is concerned it's the bear in Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's porch. He would listen, watch, and dance along with that bear 'til the cows come home!

It goes like:
I wanna be loved by you
I wanna be kissed by you
...
Poo Poo Pee Doo!



But really the only part that matters is that last line and J loved it so much that he is still running around shouting "Poopeedoo" at the top of his lungs! It's so hilarious that I can't even admonish him for being so loud!

Poo Pee Doo!!

So Many Roosters, So Little Time to Crow

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson both have many fun and entertaining collections but it was sooo funny to see Jumpin' J when he would see another rooster. Grandma has collected roosters for as long as I can remember so there are a lot of them all over the house. And J was just so excited every time he saw a new one. He would say "cocka" and point, so cute! He also discovered that the little Mickey and Minnie that Grandma gave him could ride the two cockas that were in the kitchen, pure enjoyment right there!

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's

Our first stop on our Florida Grandparents Tour was my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. They were superb hosts!!!

Grandpa very generously gave up his office so that Jumpin' J could sleep. And Grandpa's Porche and lighthouse collection were both sources of constant interest to J.

Grandma didn't cringe too much when J dropped the vase her mother had given her. We are soooooo sorry Grandma. And all the cockas (roosters) in Grandma's collection were great fun!

J quickly figured out how to open the door to their garage and had a great time sneaking out. J charmed both of them with his chatty ways and inability to sit still during meals even when completely hog-tied to the chair ;)

We loved visiting them and hope we can see them this summer if they can make it up to NH!

Florida Vacation

The flights were fun and the trip was even "funner"! Here is Jumpin' J at the start

and the end of our great Florida vacation

I promise to post more pictures and details soon.

Happy Engage-Aversary

Six years ago today Jumpin' J's dad and I got engaged on a Caribbean cruise!!! It was a wonderful trip.

And on the cruise J's dad won a putting tournament! Since he's going on another cruise this week and there's another contest he's competing in, here's to hoping he wins this one too!

Happy Birthday Auntie Fruitcake

To a fabulous friend, Happy Birthday! We hope you visit again soon!!!