Mark's 4 Month Visit

I took Mark in for his 4 month visit today. He is 4 months and a week old. I can hardly believe it! He continues to be such a sweet baby, and I am so incredibly thankful for this gift. Mark's stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 11 1/2 ozs. 80th percentile--he's gained 9 lbs since birth!
Length: 27 inches, 96th percentile--he's grown 6 inches since birth!

Mark also got 2 injections--4 vaccines in all, and 1 oral vaccine. He did so well, he didn't even cry during the first shot. The next one was a bit more difficult, but I calmed him down in about a minute. What an amazing baby! My mom came up to visit this afternoon since Isaac is on a business trip this week. She enjoyed holding him although he was definitely a little "off." I finally took off his outfit to check him out, and his poor little left thigh was all red and angry. No wonder he was out of sorts! We gave him some tylenol, and I fed him... and soon he was back to his normal, sweet self. He's snoozing on the couch next to me right now.

Mark has to be one of the greatest joys of my entire life. He is smiling and laughing so much now, and I enjoy being with him so much. He getting really good at holding small toys, and he's practicing getting them into his mouth. It's amazing to see the connections he is making and how much he is developing. He is growing so quickly, I can hardly believe he is the same tiny baby I brought home from the hospital 4 months ago.

We are so grateful to God for giving us this precious child. So I'll leave you with a picture we took a couple weeks ago in his bumbo chair. This outfit doesn't even fit him anymore, but it's a cute one my SIL Cathy gave us.


Have a great week all.

Day off

Hi all. It's Veteran's Day, and I have a day off! One of the luxuries of working for a bank. Mark's daycare is open, but he's at home with me... at least for now. I may take him in for a few hours later so I can get some errands done. We'll see. It's really nice just to have him home with me! : )

I've had a tough week mentally and emotionally. Every so often I go through these "crises" of thought... feeling like I'm not doing what I should be doing and that I need a career change. Seriously, I will spend hours agonizing, praying, hoping, thinking, weighing what I need to do with my life. And then it will pass a bit--either over fear, or exhaustion, or just busyness--and then I wonder what I got myself so worked up about.

We had a great speaker at church on Sunday, a youth pastor from Nashville, TN. He was talking about how the church can serve as our extended family... and how we can fill in the gaps in each others' lives. It was very inspiring. Mark DeVries has a heart for helping people bridge the generational gap. One of the things I love about my church is that there are people of every age. The church probably skews a little older, but many people my age and joining as well, and that's been so encouraging. The church has truly been Isaac and my extended family. Case in point: our pastor and his wife--also my sister's next door neighbor--baby sat for us on Saturday while we went out to dinner with some friends. I know how busy they must be. And it was such a blessing to know they would take time out of their lives to serve us.

Anyway... it all makes me want to spend more of my time and energy reaching out and loving other people. I spent a little time this morning writing some notes to people I love and am thinking about. While the internet is a wonderful thing, I don't think it replaces the art of a hand written note! : ) I'm sure I'll keep going round and round about "career" crises, but the good news is that I have plenty of time.

Well, it's time to feed the baby bird. Will write more later.

Isaac's First Marathon

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. It's been a little crazy around the Johnson household. But we've had a good start to fall.

Isaac ran his first marathon on Halloween. He completed the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC in under 5 hours with a very bad cold. In fact, I wasn't even sure he was going to run on Sunday till he woke up that morning and put on his running shoes! He did so well, and my niece Haley and I really enjoyed chasing him around the city to see him at different points in the race. Here he is at mile 17. At this point in the race, he was running along the National Mall. We were almost beside the National Monument here.


My sister Kathleen was generous enough to keep Mark for me while I went into DC to cheer Isaac on. With all the traffic we had on Saturday, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the stroller on the metro. Saturday was the rally with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert and the metro was completely packed! We waited in line for 30 minutes just to purchase a metro ticket. Oh well. We enjoyed seeing all the signs people made. It turned out the metro was just fine on Sunday. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

Haley and I probably walked 6 miles on Sunday following Isaac around the course. We saw him at mile 17, mile 20, and then again at the finish. The marathon ends in Arlington National Cemetery at the Iwo Jima monument. The finish is on a very steep hill, and it was absolutely unbelievable to see all the people finishing. I ran this marathon in 2006 but honestly can't remember much about the finish except that I was REALLY REALLY glad to be done. : )

I am so proud of Isaac's accomplishment! He got a really nice race shirt and medal. Here is a picture of Isaac at the finish line. We were separated by a huge fence to keep the racers separate from the crowd.


And here is a picture of Haley, Isaac, and me after we linked up after the race.

Haley will turn 12 years old in January! I can hardly believe it! It was so nice to spend time with Haley this past weekend. She came with us into the city on Saturday to pick up Isaac's race packet too. So we got to spend some really good time together. She is such a sweet girl, and is training for a 5k race with Girls on the Run in December. How awesome is that!?

I want to post more pictures from the weekend, but for now I'll leave you with a very sweet picture of Mark with Isaac. This was taken at Kathleen's house in Burke, Va. I LOVE this picture!!!

Hard to find time

Hi all. Sorry my posts have been so sporadic. I'm still trying to get the hang of working full time and juggling a sweet little baby, marriage, and other things. But I wanted to document a couple things, so I'll do it bullet style:

• Mark continues to grow like a weed. He's laughing and smiling so much! I LOVE it. And he's started to grab for things. You can tell his little brain is working really hard to get a toy from his hand to his mouth. We're not there quite yet. But, it is so neat to see him learn and develop.
• Isaac is 2 weeks away from the Marine Corps Marathon. He has been training so hard for the last 6 months and I am so proud of him. Can't wait to head to DC to spend time with Kathleen and her family, and cheer Isaac on. I did the MCM in 2006, so it will be neat to be there as a spectator.
• Not much running going on here, or exercise of any kind. I will try to revisit in a couple weeks. But for now, I'm just trying to get through our days and spend time with Isaac and Mark. I'm signed up for a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving day, so we'll see how that goes. I guess I can always walk! (It's a hilly course.)

That's all the time for now. Have a good day!

Smiling!

Mark has been smiling since about 6 weeks of age. But we've struggled to capture these smiles on camera. It's like every time we get the camera out, he gets all serious. : ) But we finally captured a couple smiles over the weekend. Here are a couple for your viewing pleasure. The first was taken at our church on Friday night. Our Sunday school class served dinner to several homeless families that spent the week at the church. Mark loved all the people.


The next picture was taken last night. Mark isn't sitting up yet, but we propped him up on the couch next to the boppy pillow. His aunt Anna gave him this t shirt, "Swimming with friends." (Sorry for the diaper in the picture... we wanted to capture the smile before he got serious on us again!)

I LOVE his smiles... truly they make our day. I know I'm biased, but goodness, this is one cute baby!

Have a great week!

Mark is 3 Months Old!

How time flies! I can hardly believe that Mark is already 3 months old. We don't have a dr's appt this month, so I don't know his length and weight... although I'm guessing he's well over 15 lbs at this point. He's also really long. We'll go back to the dr. in mid November, so I'll update you with official stats then.

I've been back at work a little over a week. I have today off for Columbus day, so I'm thrilled to have a day at home with Mark. Unfortunately, Isaac has to work, so he's missing out on the fun. : ( Working and juggling home has been really challenging. I hope it gets easier over time. Last week was really, really hard. I feel like I'm running and going non-stop from about 6:30 am to 8:00 pm each day. Pumping, making bottles, packing Mark's things for daycare, packing lunches, dropping off at daycare, worrying about him while he's at daycare, dealing with the stress of being back at work (still really struggling to deal with my job), etc. It's exhausting! I know tons of people do this every day. But honestly, I can't see myself doing this forever.

Maybe if I liked my job more this wouldn't be quite as challenging? I have been so surprised, though, that work has been so hard, so quickly. I am still struggling to feel like I am valued and liked. I know that may sound crazy to some of you that know me personally. And so you can imagine how difficult this is for me. I applied for a couple jobs within my company before I went on maternity leave. And it's definitely created ill-will with my managers, etc. They've pretty much told me that I have to rebuild their confidence and trust... and that feels so, so yucky to me. If I was happier in my job, I wouldn't have felt the need to apply for other jobs. And now I'm being punished for doing so. UGH.

I've recently started looking into licensing requirements for my counseling degree. Things have changed a bit, but it may help me in the long run. I am toying with the idea of taking the licensing exam in April (it's only given twice a year). I am definitely going to have to dust off my notes since it's been 5 years since I've studied this stuff on a regular basis. But, I'm guessing I can pass the exam if I try.

So, stay tuned for updates on the job front. I really, really need your prayers for wisdom, peace, and courage.

Back to Work

I went back to work last week, and it actually went a little better than I expected. Isaac graciously stayed home with Mark on Thursday so I wouldn't have to deal with adjusting to being back at work AND Mark being at daycare all day. I am so grateful that I have such a loving and supportive husband.

It was a pretty easy couple days at work, and I anticipate it will stay that way this week. I'll probably make it that way just so I can ease back in and not stress myself out too much right off the bat! I am really going to work on leaving work at work, and not feeling so darned responsible for everything that happens at work. Please pray for me as I try to do this so I can have more energy at home for Mark and Isaac.

Pumping at work is actually going to help me toward this end since it requires me to stop what I'm doing and take a break. This might be a habit I continue even after I finish BF'ing Mark. I reached my first BF'ing goal of 12 weeks on Friday, and am heading toward my next goal of 6 months. Ultimately I would love to make it to 12 months, but we'll take it in smaller chunks and see how it goes. I am fortunate to produce a lot of milk, and I've even been able to donate a good bit to other moms. So, I'm hoping this will work for us. Thankfully I have a very supportive family that encourages me and fills in some of the gaps while I pump!

So, this is the first full week of work for me. Mark will be at daycare all day, every day. It still breaks my heart that I can't care for him full time. But I have to remind myself as a dear friend and my husband reminded me, providing for Mark financially is caring for him. I'm fortunate that our daycare is at our church right down the street from my office. I actually walked down there on Friday to see him at lunch. He was waking up from a nap, and I got to feed him and rock him a bit. That was really precious for me, and I'm hoping I can do that periodically this week as well. I just don't want it to be too hard for either Mark or me to say goodbye to each other twice a day. We'll see how that goes.

Hope you all have a great week. I'm attaching a picture of Mark, Isaac, and me taken a couple weeks on our first anniversary. Mark came to dinner with us and was a perfect angel, and we had a wonderful time reminiscing about our 2nd year of marriage. I am so, so thankful for my family.