Lots has happened since I last wrote!  Thanks for the happy birthday notes!  I had a nice day, with Tom bringing me a pot of flowers and a yummy meal when he came home for lunch (he knew that would be less stressful for me than going out to eat.  Michael doesn't like to sit still in restaurants!). 

In early March, Rachel and Rebecca (my two sisters) came to stay with us for a few days.  It was a blast to have them here!  During their visit, Rachel did a whole lot of cooking for us, and packed away bunches of casseroles in our freezer for when our new baby comes!  Rebecca did some cooking, too, though her main job was to keep Michael out of mischief (not easy!!).  I still can't believe how much they got done while they were here!  The extra freezer we bought is looking quite full!  Hopefully I won't have to cook very much for awhile after Bethy is born--yipee!  Now that they're gone, it's hard to say who misses them most--Tom, Michael, or me!   Michael probably can't believe how boring his parents seem all of a sudden!   

I'm getting more and more eager for the baby to be here--especially after some embarrassing false alarms!  On the 13th (my sister Rachel's birthday), I had some very "real" false labor, with Tom taking half of the day off of work in case the baby came, and my family changing their plans for the day!  My "labor" lasted most of the day, and then completely stopped!  Argh!!  It was kind of funny that I had false labor on that day, because that was the first day that our baby would be considered full term if she was born then (I was 37 weeks along).  Because Bethy is not due till April 3rd, I had been rather lazily making preparations for her, thinking that I still had plenty of time.  I hadn't even washed the baby clothes!  We made some very fast preparations that day!  Yesterday I again had some false labor, but thankfully this time I had the presence of mind to not make as big of a deal out of it.  With all this false hope, I am beginning to feel like all contractions are false alarms!  My mom sweetly reminded me that one of these times it really will happen--really and truly!  By the time that happens, I wonder if anyone will believe me when I truly am in labor!  I feel like the boy who called wolf!

Michael seems to be taking advantage of the fact that his mama is feeling rather fat and tired all the time.  He is the most adventuresome little fellow!  Last night as Michael was attempting to fall off of our bed (!), Tom asked me if all little babies have "no fear".  Indeed, the silly little guy will chase the vacuum cleaner instead of avoiding it!!  He keeps us in stitches all the time!  Another thing that makes us laugh is how he loves to crawl right over/through whatever is in his way.  It is so funny to watch him crawl through the living room, going over one of his toys instead of around it.  He loves to crawl under our dining room chairs and is frequently getting his little body stuck.  He then cries pitifully, as if to say, "Mom, help me!  I didn't know how much I ate for lunch!"  He doesn't learn his lessons well, though, because he does it again anyway!  Another favorite pastime of his is to play with his baby food jars.  I had been storing some extra baby food jars within his reach (silly, I know!), and he would love to take one out to play with.  He'd roll it ahead of himself on the floor, chase after it, roll it again, chase after it, etc.  It is TOO funny to watch!!  He really gets into it!  It will be fun when Bethany is old enough to play with him, and they can play "soccer" together.   As Tom and I laughed at his baby food jar game, we realized that he doesn't have a single ball to play with!  Poor little guy!  His creativity must be commended! 

Finally I get a chance to write again!  I can't believe how busy these days are--and this is with just one child!

Michael has been keeping busy getting into mischief.  Today when I went to get him up from his nap, I found him lying amongst wads of diaper wipes with the container nearby.  Don't ask me how he got them!  Since he was lying on top of the wipes that he had spread all over, his clothes were all damp and needed changing. 

Our little man seems to look for things that are "no-no's".  I firmly believe that no matter how thoroughly I vacuum, Michael will still find some microscopic little thing to put in his mouth!  He also delights in looking for cords to play with, shoes to chew on, and sharp corners to play next to!  His playpen is relieving me right now, or else I would probably be getting up to rescue him about every other sentence!

We had a fun Valentine's Day.   I cooked one of Tom's favorite meals of lamb and mashed potatoes.  I also made him a card, and wrote a poem for the inside because I couldn't find any card that said just what I wanted!  Tom loved the card, but the first time he read it he didn't notice it was a poem!!   It's true that I never had time to perfect it, and some of the words didn't exactly rhyme (like say and days), but still it was rather humbling!  

This week Michael gave me a "kiss" for the first time.  His way of kissing is to touch his lips to someone's cheek for a second or two--it is SO cute!  He has kissed Tom before (he is crazy about his daddy!), but I had still been waiting for one, and this week it came.

Last Saturday we had fun buying a crib for Michael.  He has been sleeping in a cute little port-a-crib, but now we want to get that ready for the next baby.  He's such a big boy that it is probably time to move him anyway!  We want to get him used to his new bed before baby Bethy comes, because we don't want him to have to go through too many changes all at once.  After Tom set up the big crib on Saturday, we squeezed it into our bedroom along with the porta-crib and our bed!  Things are getting rather squished in our one bedroom apartment! 

Michael turned 10 months old today!  He seems less like a baby everyday!  I'm sure that he is going to look absolutely enormous next to the new baby!  It is so much fun to see his own little personality and preferences coming out.  He is an avid thumb-sucker, loves big stuffed toys, and is extremely attached to afghans!  He loves to stick his fingers through the holes of an afghan, and bury his face in it.    Last Sunday I was trying to get him to sit quietly in church, so I let him take his afghan in and hold it.  That worked to quiet him a lot better than the fun little toys I brought in for him to play with!  

It amazes Tom and me how Michael just naturally likes boyish things even at such a young age.  His favorite toy is a little car carrier truck that comes with cars to put on it.  It was a gift from my Grandpa and Grandma Harrison for Christmas.  Grandma commented that she had picked it out because she knows how little boys like cars (I guess she has some experience!  ).

I've been having difficulty using self control in buying girlish outfits for baby Bethy!  A couple of weeks ago we went to "Children's Orchard" to look at the baby clothes that they sell.  A lot of the clothes are secondhand, but are in excellent shape--not like a lot of thrift stores I've been in.  After spending a long time eliminating some adorable clothes, I ended up with four sweet little dresses that were $4 or $5 each!  Two of them were brand new and still had the tags on them!  I tell you, it was hard to come away with only four! 

It has been extremely hot here--the thermostat says that it is over 80 degrees in the house!  Today I felt tempted to turn on the air conditioning!  It feels so funny to be feeling this way in February! 

We've had a busy couple of weeks, and I'm grateful to be getting back into routine now.  We sure have had fun, though--Tom got to have quite a few days off between Christmas and New Years!  The only disturbing thing that happened was that Tom's wallet got stolen while he was trying on suits at JCPenney's.  That added some adventure to our lives!  Tom is using his passport as his ID until he gets a new driver's license!

Christmas was lots of fun, and very crazy, too--we actually celebrated several days in a row!  On the 24th we went to Tom's parents' house and opened presents with them.  We spent the night there, and then drove to San Diego in the late morning (2 hours away) to celebrate Christmas with Tom's extended family.  On the 26th we went to the "Harrison Christmas" at my grandpa and grandma Harrison's house.  That is always my favorite part of Christmas--it has been ever since I was a little girl.  We just wish that we could be with some other special uncles/aunts/cousins that are missing from that group!   There are some fun pictures of that occasion on our website: http://www.thejohnsonfamilyadventures.com/view_gallery.asp?gallery=92%20Christmas%202005 (I would post some pictures on here, but I'm not sure how yet--oh, to be more computer savvy!)

Tom and I are going to take a little vacation this Friday and Saturday.  We are planning on leaving Michael with my family, and are going to go to an adorable bed and breakfast near Solvang (a few hours north of here).  It is kind of an early celebration of our anniversary--it would be harder to do this in June when we have a tiny baby in tow, so we're doing it now.  It should be lots of fun to get away with Tom!  My only challenge is to try to really enjoy myself without my sweet little Michael.  I can hardly bear the thought of leaving him!  He is a homebody and a "mommy's and daddy's boy", so I know he will not be pleased with this arrangement.  However, I have no doubt he will be in good hands--it's not like my mom doesn't have any experience in taking care of babies!

Michael is growing so fast--he is already starting to wear size 18 month clothes, and he is not quite 9 months!  I don't know what to make of that!

I don't know if my life is interesting enough to really keep a good blog--unless you are interested in how many diapers I changed today, and how badly my house needs cleaning!

Today I do have news, though--Michael has his first tooth!  I don't think Michael understood what all the excitement was about, nor why his mommy kept on pulling his lower lip down to look at it ("oh, the aggravation--all this joy over something that gives me so much pain!")!   I have definitely now joined the ranks of those silly new mommies that make a big deal over the littlest things!

We were so thrilled to find out a little over a week ago that we are expecting a GIRL!  Of course we just HAD to go shopping for some baby girl clothes that very evening!  Girl clothes are so cute--I just love pink, purple, flowers, etc!  I enjoy showing off the new outfits to whoever will watch as I make a dramatic presentation.  My sisters and my mom make a great audience ("ooooh!!" "awww!!").   I'm definitely looking forward to having another female in the house.  I can't wait till little Bethany Anne is here!