KA-BOOM-EEE!

Okay...so I'm about to overload you with a windfall of blog updates....so prepare yourself.... I haven't stopped writing this whole time...just to lazy to upload the pics that go with my writing and hit the post button. Judge not please. Happy Reading!

Tuesday morning started off as any ordinary day. I woke up, turned on the coffee, and went to go get my bug out of his crib. After changing his diaper, we started our trek down the stairs. Kelly and I have been working with Jude on going down the stairs on his belly. Just in case the little guy slips, I always walk backwards in front of him. Well, it all happened rather quickly, so I don't know cause of the event. Just the effect. I, Anna Marie Johnson, tumbled down my stairs. Did you know that the name "Anna" means "one of grace". A curse, I tell you! I'm talking Scarlett O'hara in Gone with the Wind, fall down the stairs. I couldn't stop myself, just flew right down my hardwood steps. Our metal baby gate at the bottom of our stairs broke my fall. Well, my tailbone actually broke the metal baby gate. Score: Baby gate zero/My butt 1. I was kind of knocked silly and Jude was still at the top of the steps crying "Momma." Poor baby was probably scared to death. I hurried and hobbled up the stairs where he was still sitting, because fear immediately set-in. I didn't want him falling trying to get to me. I mean who does that?....falls down the steps stone-cold sober....ME...I do! I have a cut on my arm, a knot on my head, and two big bruises on my rear. Jude keeps pointing at my arm saying momma "boo-boo" and when we go up the stairs he'll say, "momma fall down." He's probably thinking "I'm not so sure you should be carrying me up these things lady!"

Well, I entitled this blog Ka-boom-ee, because that's what Jude always says when he jumps on the bed, wrestles, or pushes a matchbox car off the edge of the table. Now, mommy is a Ka-boom-ee too. Jack of all trades, I suppose.

In other news, Jude was under the weather again this week. So, we forwent Mother's Day Out on Thursday for Mother's Day In. Whenever Jude is sickly, he doesn't eat much. In an effort to get some food in his tummy, I took my baby to his favorite place to eat.... PERKINS! Jude is a local celebrity at the Perkins in Collierville. As soon as we walk in the door he screams, "Pancakes!" The excitement is just too much! Our Perkins happens to have their fair share of retirees (probably because of the allure of the 55 plus deal menu). All the Grannies and Grandpas always eww and ahhh over Jude telling him how beautiful, cute, handsome he is. And my son, just eats it all up, batting those eyelashes, smiling and saying "Hi Friend." On Thursday, in addition to his meal, the Perkins ladies had a surprise for him. Jude always plays with the claw machine with the stuffed animals in it, trying his best to get a toy out. (even though no quarters have been inserted.) While he tried to win his prize, the waitress went to the back and pulled out a stuffed toy for Jude..... a Jeff Gordon NASCAR stuffed man. (How appropriate, right?) Jude ran towards it, hugged it, and just to turn the "charm dial" up one more notch....he then said "T-ANK you." All the hearts in Perkins melted (including mine). So, in case you have any difficulty getting into the Perkins in Collierville, tell them you are a friend of Jude Johnson. You will surely be seated immediately. Love to all~ Anna

Exhibit A- The Jeff Gordon doll in all his glory

LITTLE HIGH, LITTLE LOW

As life goes, it is full of highs and lows. Last week was no different. My husband was hardly at home due to his ever increasing work demands. Last Tuesday, his company scheduled a national conference call and announced some "restructuring." Which is an annoying, impersonal way of saying, "people are going to lose their jobs." I swear I had heart palpitations all Tuesday waiting to hear if my husbands job was going to be affected. Luckily, we survived this round. But, it makes me so sad that people continue to be laid off. Families having to worry about how to provide for their children. It also makes me wonder, if we (and by "we" I mean my husband and our kiddos) are going to survive this changing health care environment. Pro-Obama-care peeps talk about the good that "could" come from the new health care laws. But, from my chair, our friends are just losing their jobs and my co pays, labs and insurance are sky-rocketing. Not trying to turn my blog into a political forum as I truly believe only time will tell how this will all shake out.....BUT this is my family's new reality and fear.

Despite Tuesday's lay-off scare and my hubbie's schedule, I really tried to make the most of every day. Ever since sweet Evie's passing, I have promised myself to cherish all the time I get with Jude (no matter what life throws at me). So last week, we went on a lot of Jude and mommy dates. Monday we went to the Collierville Town Square and had lunch at Silver Caboose. Jude was mesmerized by the model trains chugging around the restaurant, which makes for a pleasant dining experience with a 21-month old "active" child. The weather was nice Thursday night, so we headed back to the square to run off some energy. Jude's friend from school, Bennett, was there too, so they picked up sticks together. Adorable and such a boy activity. We then joined my mom for a little Thai food at Bangkok Alley. They have a great outdoor side porch that calls my name every time we have nice weather. Friday, we met my friends Meredith, Laura Beth and Ronnie (with all their kids in tow) at SEGA gym. My old gymnastics coach Pete (my coach for 9 years) owns the gym. I haven't seen him since I was 17. I had to tell him my name....He didn't recognize me which made me feel crazy old. Do I really look that different? I still have the body of a 17 year old cheerleader, right? (Don't answer that) Then, Coach Pete followed up our reunion with "WOW, that was a life-time ago." AWESOME. Balloon. officially. popped. Any-who, SEGA has a pre-school open gym Friday mornings. Pre-schoolers can run around like Tasmanian devils on a padded surface and jump on the trampolines until utter exhaustion sets in...making for a great long afternoon nap and happy mommies.

Jude staring at trains at Silver Caboose

After a long week of missing my husband and Jude missing his daddy, I woke up Friday morning to a little happy. A sweet note from Kelly. In all his busyness, he started my coffee, laid out my fave coffee cup, and made Jude his milk before heading onto work. It's little things like this that remind me of how blessed I am to have married such an amazing man. Love to you and yours~ Anna

Our morning note :)

PRESIDENT'S DAY TRIP

Since we moved to Memphis, one of our biggest priorities is to make sure that Kelly can go visit the kids in Florida as much as financially and physically possible. So far, it has worked out that either the kids come to Tennessee or Kelly goes to Florida every month. I (of course) love it when they come here, because that means Jude and I get to see their sweet faces too.

In February, Kelly went to see fantastic four over the President's Day 3-day weekend. Daddy and the crew had a wonderful long weekend together. The kids love staying in a hotel, it's kind of a mini-adventure for them. Rece had a basketball game where he scored 4 points and was a defensive machine! And Bryce hit a home-run at baseball practice! My husband being a big sports-fan and athlete, was over-flowing with so much daddy-pride. I adored getting the phone calls and hearing the excitement/pride/happiness that filled his voice as he explained what the boys had done. Precious daddy.As usual, it was a beautiful weekend in Florida. They enjoyed the sunshine taking a nature walk on Castaway Island and playing basketball at Sunshine Park.

Below are some pictures from the weekend.

Playing dress up at the hotel

I sent them this pic message reminding

them to remember to brush their teeth

They sent this one back :)

At Castaway Island

Monday night, we headed to pick Daddy up from the airport. Jude was so excited to see him and immediately started his sweet happy giggle. As we approached the house, Kelly was greeted with a surprise. While he was gone, I was a busy, busy wife cleaning out and organizing our garage. You might think this is kind of a lame surprise. But, to my slightly OCD/neat husband, it's heaven on earth. He talked about his surprise for days, which made up for all the manual, manly labor I had to endure to complete the garage.

For now, I am just counting down the days (4 weeks) until the kids come to Memphis for Spring Break and we are all together again! Love to you and yours~ Anna

BIG BACK YARD

Sunnier, warmer days! My wish has been granted! Now if my wish for a skinnier butt would come true the world would be perfecto! On Friday, my old college roomies/besties and our mini-mes hit one of my fave kid spots in Memphis to enjoy the fresh air. Our kids played their hearts out at "My Big Back Yard" at Botanic Gardens. I have been friends with Mere and LB since crop tops and bangs. So 15 years later, it's pretty surreal to watch our little ones playing together. Here are some cute pics for your viewing pleasure. How can you not smile at these munchkins?! Love to all!~ Anna

Riley & Jude splashing in the fountain.

Jude, Riley and Hunter climbing thru the worm holes

Jude doing what he does best....making noise!

Weeeeee!!!

Don't you just want to nibble on Hannah's chins! Delicious baby!

Riley playing hard to get. Jude just loves "A-Ry"!

He follows her everywhere. I think she was annoyed at this point. Ha!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

The valentines festivities started this week with putting together a care package to send to the fantastic four. I had already ordered some Valentine's books and other goodies, but no Valentine's Day would be complete without handmade Valentine's from the Jude-bug, right? So, I set off to make these cute Bug Valentine's for Jude to send to his brothers and sister. Side Note: Used"washable"paint. Oh contraire. Jude's hand was pink for 48 hours and I was afraid I was going to remove his top dermal layer from all the scrubbing! I compare washable paint to low-cal cookies. No. such. thing. Anyways, here are some pics of our Florida-bound care package. Hope it brought a smile to the munchkins' faces!

Bug Valentine's cards from Jude

Care package

I am all about activities. I want Jude to have a childhood where he is experiencing fun new things every day. It's such a magical time for him right now. It seems like every detail of life makes him smile. His favorite activity is going to the zoo! He is currently a little obsessed with hippos. Jude loves him some big ole hippos. So, we took him Sunday to the zoo to celebrate Valentines weekend together with his hippos. It was a sunny, beautiful day! I captured some great photos of our handsome sweetheart.

Jude watching the Panda. Love that swirl!

Handsome little man

Love the reflection in this one!

Later Sunday night, Jude came running into the living room with 2 valentine's cards. One from him and one from Daddy. The one from Jude's was a Dora card. Kelly said Jude saw it in Target and started yelling "Eigo" (which in Jude means Diego). Then, Kelly tried to get him to put the Dora card back and Jude threw a fit in front of the many others shopping for V-day cards.....so a Dora card for Mommy it was! :) Needless to say, I loved my Dora card and the story that went with it!

Since the hubby had a work meeting on the actual 14th, Jude and I joined Mimi for dinner at the fine establishment of O'Charleys....don't be j. After visiting with my mom for a while after dinner, I went home to tuck my sweet little valentine into bed. Then I went down stairs and enjoyed a glass of wine while watching the crazy wonderfulness that is the Bachelor. So, happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope your day was filled with lots of love!~ Anna

JUDE UPDATE

Well, we haven't been puked on in 48 hours! Who wants to celebrate? I do!

The doctor put Jude on Zantac and a strict diet. She thinks that since Jude had 2 stomach viruses in less than 4 weeks that all his enzymes and good stomach bacteria were too depleted, making it hard for him to digest any food, even after the fever had subsided. Besides a little cold (which we along with everyone in the city of Memphis currently has), Jude seems to be on his way to a full recovery.

We are pretty sure he had Rotavirus. He has been vaccinated for Rota, but there are other strands they can still catch. A nurse Kelly works with said her daughter had Rota for 11 days. Ugh! I guess it's true...someone always has it worse.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions, thoughts and prayers. We love seeing our baby smiling and playing again. So in the tune of Eminem's Without Me...."Guess whose back? Back again. Buggy's back, tell a friend." (N-E-R-D... I'm fully aware, but it's been in my head and I've been singing it to my Jude-bug today) Love to all~ Anna

WINTER BLUES

So the groundhog didn't see his shadow today, which means an early spring. Yippee. I am not usually superstitious, but at this point, I'll take any help I can get....even if it is from a large rodent. Any-who, I know this tid-bit of information because I have been in front of the TV for the majority of my time over the past month. Something I do not enjoy. I am a do-er. I like to be out and about, not stuck inside. But between the snow and the sickness, to the couch we go!

My poor baby has been sick off and on for a full month (mostly on). And I'm not talking a snotty nose here people. Bring on the snot. Snot is for sissies. I am talking vomit, diarrhea, fever....and snot. Two stomach viruses in 4 weeks. And not your typical 24 hour bug...one could only be so lucky! We are currently on day 6 of stomach virus numero dos. I wake up to vomit and diarrhea, I go to bed for a couple hours to be awoken by vomit and/or diarrhea, only to sleep a few more hours and be awoken again by our friends Vom & Di. I know, I know, TMI Anna, but I need to vent and with the hubs working so much lately. This blog is currently serving as my outlet.

The worst part of this whole nasty month is not the vomit in my hair (which is pretty gross), but the sad look on my baby boy's face. It's the worst feeling ever! I feel so incredibly helpless. I would do anything to make him feel better and to see my sweet Jude playing again instead of crying. I have done everything I can to try and get rid of this bug and ease Jude's pain. We have tried Zofran, Tylenol and pedilite. He sleeps with a vaporizer. I aspirate his nose and use saline. I have given all his toys a bleach bath and disinfected everything. And still no relief for my sweet baby.

Poor skinny baby :(

We went to the urgent care this past weekend, because I was getting worried about dehydration and on the verge of a break down. The doctor said, "stomach virus. you have to let it run it's course." Then she gave him a shot to stop the vomiting....well, guess what? we got home and blahhh....vomit. What works for some doesn't work for all doctor.

Our Saturday night. Party at the Urgent Care

I hit my breaking point tonight. We have no food in the house because who wants to take a sick baby to the grocery? Not me. So, I ordered a Milano's pizza and went to go pick it up with Jude. In and out. (Sidenote- He hadn't thrown up all day today.) As we were waiting for the credit card to go thru.....Blahhh.....all over me....all in my hair...all on my favorite leather jacket...in the middle of the restaurant. Beeee---autiful! I quickly took Jude to the bathroom and tried my best to get the remnants off of us. As we were rushing out the door....Jude was screaming...Pizzzza....pizzzahhh! How sad is that? The poor baby is starving! He just wants to eat and be able to hold it down. My heart hurts for him.

My sad bug

So, we are headed back to the doctor tomorrow morning. I am going to make them run blood work this time! They WILL DO something for my baby. If they say they "can't do anything", I am going to lose it.

Please send prayers and positive vibes Jude-bug's way. He is just too pitiful.