Head over heels

I am completely and utterly in LOVE with this little boy!I never thought I'd be so head over heels in love with anything like I am with Cole. I just can't help it! I love his hair. I love his long, creepy "water skis" (aka toes) as Jeff calls them that remind me of a little monkey who can grip things with their feet. I love all the grunts, growls, and groans he makes at me.... it reminds me of Tim the Toolman Taylor and his arh, arh, arh, arh grunt. I love how he stretches and arches his back every time he has to wake up. I love that he sleeps 3-4 hours at a stretch at night. I love how he takes naps in his crib, unlike his sister. I love how easy it's been to nurse him and how we cuddle in the middle of the night when all is quiet and it's just us. I love how he curls up on my chest and his little butt fits in the palm of my hands. I love how he refuses to burp most feedings. I love his skinny arms, legs, and bum... the little baby wrinkles until they plump out. I love his "nipple lip" callous. I love his long fingers and sharp little nails that I have to try and keep covered with mittens at night so he doesn't scratch his beautiful face. I love how much he looks like his Dad. I love how he is a spittin' image of Pearl when she was born but with blond hair (and more of it) instead of black. I just love, love, love everything about my beautiful, adorable, baby boy!

It's different this time around than it was with Pearl. I mean I love that little girl with all her spunk, stubbornness, and imagination (I couldn't resist posting some pictures of her too) but when she was born it took me a little while to really believe she was mine. I think I was in a bit of shock about the whole thing. With Cole, I was instantly twitter-patted the second I saw him. But can you really blame me?
Oh and I have to give a BIG thanks to Uncle Bob (Robert Dyer Photography) for the beautiful pictures! We have a zillion pictures but none compare to these gorgeous ones!

"Look at those cute fingers"

Cole Royal Johnson

Born Tuesday, May 18, 2010
11:30 a.m.
7 lbs. 10 oz.
20 inches long

Every nurse has one. A phrase that is code for an ugly baby. Now don't get me wrong, all moms think their kids are the cutest and they have every right to believe this after growing them for near 10 months but deep down we all know there are definitely ugly babies out there. Jeff and I were quite concerned that we might be some of those parents who go around telling everyone just how cute our babies are when behind our backs everyone was snickering and saying yeah right, your kid is an ugo! We were ok with having an ugly baby as long as we knew the truth. So when Pearl was born we told the nurse we knew there had to be something she'd say or do that would give us an indication that we needed to zip it with the cute factor. Pearl's nurse told us she says, "It's a girl!" and no more. For "Ricco's" arrival we again asked the nurse to tell us honestly if our he was cute or not. Her phrase... "Look at those cute fingers." Well, with rock-star hair like this kid has, we definitely DID NOT hear anything close to this!
It all began Tuesday morning at 3 a.m. I woke up to (finally) contractions. They were kind of "shallow" but anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart. By 4 a.m. we decided to call my sister who I'm pretty sure has been sleeping with her phone waiting for the call. I just didn't dare chance it since I was already dilated and effaced. We got to the hospital about 5 a.m. and I got my epidural.... yeah for medicine! I progressed fairly quickly until I was about 8 0r 9 centimeters dilated and then nothing. My contractions grew further and further apart and "Ricco" wasn't in the mood to drop. I swear I could feel him spread his arms and legs out and hold on for dear life! So they gave me some pitocin to finish things off since we had all figured I'd be done by 10. By this time my epidural had begun to wear off and unlucky for me, the anesthesiologist hadn't given me the magic button to push when I needed to up the dose. I told the nurse it was getting really, really uncomfortable and starting to hurt but by this time it was too late to really help. My doctor told me he wanted this kid out in one and a half pushes to beat my record with Pearl. Well, I'm pretty sure had I not been able to feel anything I could have done it but the ouch factor meant I pushed for what I've been told was about 12 times. I really don't know how long it was... all I know is women who do this on purpose without meds are crazy! Thank heavens my labor and deliveries are fast and easy.

The first thing we heard about "Ricco" was "I've never seen that much blonde hair on a baby before!" Every nurse who came by commented on the hair and let's just say, he takes after his daddy and is a total ladies man! It was hard to pry him away from the nursery to feed him with all the nurses waiting their turn to hold him. It looks like he was busy getting his hair frosted at the salon and that's why he decided to come a few days later than anticipated. But seeing how adorable he is, I'd do it all over again! I still can't believe how incredibly cute my babies are!!! And there's no denying who their father is... both Pearl and Cole look just like Jeff.
Pearl wasn't too sure about her new brother until after she got to watch him have a bath. Then she wanted to sit by him and give him a big smooch. I'm sure over the next few days she'll be more interested in him. Or worse case scenario tell me he isn't her friend - seems to be a running theme at our house with either Jeff or me on her non-friend list depending on who's told her no the most that day. Oh and for the record, yes, you can still call him Ricco. We had a poll for the nurses and doctors to vote on their favorite names. After a day, we narrowed it down to two and finally decided to go with Cole. We seriously decided about 10 minutes before being discharged and having to turn in all the social security and birth certificate paperwork. I almost wish we would have had twins because Jeff had picked out another awesome name. Royal is my Grandpa's middle name and his dad's first name. Cole doesn't have any family meaning but it does sound nice with Pearl, right? Got to stick with the "precious gems" theme.
I still can't believe this precious, beautiful boy is all mine! I love him so much and I love Jeff so much for giving me such adorable babies! He is an awesome dad and I almost love watching him hold our babies more than even when I get to hold them. I'm so blessed to have my little family! We're all home, well minus Pearl who is spending a few days playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house (my in-laws are lifesavers), and doing good. Cole has pretty bad jaundice so he gets his own personal tanning bed for a few days. I'm praying it clears up soon so we can cuddle more and keep him warm in our freezing house! But other than that, life couldn't get much better.

I want to talk to Jesus!

First off, no Ricco today. The only contenders left in my office pool are my boss and Teresa. Apparently he is content to just stay put for some reason. I promise I'm not THAT bad of a mom... I mean I kept Pearl alive for almost three years.Whew, glad to get that over with so we can avoid a slew of phone calls asking if he's here. It's like our family doesn't think we will call when he finally does decide to start this whole process. Today my uncle Bob, aka the world's greatest photographer, had an awesome deal for kids photos at Temple Square. The tulips and flowers were amazingly stunning, absolutely gorgeous, and picture perfect. So we let Pearl pick out a dress and headed down for a photo shoot. I'm not sure Uncle Bob is looking forward to another one with Pearl because she NEVER looks at the camera but he said we got a few real winners out of the nearly 200 pictures he took. It did make me feel better that it isn't just me that can't get that kid to smile at the camera. We will post pictures as soon as we see them or you can check out Robert Dyer Photography on Facebook (should be up on Tuesday). Pearl loved breaking all sorts of rules on the temple grounds - like picking the flowers and sticking her feet in the fountains. And she was totally mesmerized by all the pretty brides getting their pictures taken. She kept saying "they married?" and asking Jeff and I if we wanted to get married. Hence, the daddy/daughter marriage shot.
Pearl kept begging us to take her inside the temple. She still remembers the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house we went to where she did get to go inside (I think it's the cookie afterward that really made the impression) and figures she can walk right into any temple. We tried explaining to her that not everyone can go inside but she refused to accept that answer. Mainly because she has decided all temples are her temples, Jesus loves her (a big step for us considering she usually tells us that Jesus isn't her friend), and Jesus lives at the temple, and therefore she should be able to go in. When we got to the doors, Pearl knocked on them, hoping Jesus would answer and let her in. She was quite upset that He didn't answer the doors and couldn't believe that He wasn't there. She kept asking what He was doing and that she wanted to talk to Him. It was pretty cute but at the same time I felt really bad that she couldn't go in. I felt I was damaging her little spirit by not being able to answer her question about why Jesus wouldn't let her inside. Jeff decided to take her to the visitor's center to see the statue of Jesus in hopes that she would be satisfied. Well, she was excited to see the statue but still upset that she couldn't talk to Him in person. We tried to tell her that she could talk to Jesus anytime she wanted by saying a prayer but she wasn't buying the idea. Luckily the sister missionaries were able to distract her for about 15 seconds with a pass-along card that had a picture of Jesus on it. I sure hope my inability to answer Pearl's questions doesn't do lifelong damage. But seriously, what are you supposed to say when this innocent little face looks up at you in disbelief that Jesus didn't answer the door?

Patience is a virtue

Whoever coined the term "patience is a virtue" must have been a man because any pregnant woman in her right mind would never come up with something so ridiculous! OK, so up until yesterday I was trying really, really hard to take this in stride but no more! Last week at my doctor's appointment, thinking that nothing was happening as usual (which is what it was like with Pearl than WHAM), he surprised me by saying he didn't think I'd make it through the weekend. I was shocked to say the least considering the week before my body was perfectly content to keep cooking Ricco. I never thought I'd write this on a blog, but I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced without feeling a single "real" contraction. I kept telling myself that it could be days before he came but deep down was excited to think one, this pregnancy was over and two, I finally get to meet this little guy who can almost knock me to the ground when he kicks and squirms. So now that the weekend has come and gone, I'm getting well I don't know. Discouraged, yes. Sad, yes. Disappointed, yes. Tired, yes. Annoyed, yes. Fearful that if he doesn't come by Friday I'll have to start "nesting" again and clean and do all the laundry!

I knew having a baby last week would really throw a kink in Jeff's schedule at work - it being month end and all. (For all you none financial types, including me, basically this means May doesn't start until Jeff closes out the books for April or in layman terms, Jeff works looooong hours everyday and really can't take time off until it's over.) He had a firm talking to Ricco earlier in the week that he couldn't come until today. Well, it's today and I'm still here! I haven't decided if Ricco is actually that obedient, considering his sister's listening skills some days, or if he is just trying to suck up to his dad. I'm leaning towards the latter idea at this point. Even our Sunday bike ride - well in my case waddling behind Jeff and Pearl on their bikes - didn't get things started. Although I was pretty sure there were a few times Ricco was going to fall out of me!
It's sort of funny too I suppose that he didn't come this weekend as we anticipated because ALL the family was in town for various things and hoping to visit us in the hospital. Oh well. We ended up having an impromptu bar-b-que with my family on Saturday to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday and try to induce my labor with the "labor inducer" pizza from Cafe Trios (guess I didn't eat enough of it... but with garlic cloves the size of my eyeballs all over it, I was a little scared of the consequences if it didn't work). Then Sunday Jeff's parents came down to spend a few days at a hotel for his mom's birthday. Pearl got to spend two days at the "hotel, motel, Holiday Inn" as she says, or rather sings, with grandma and grandpa. Jeff was such a good dad to take her swimming both days she was there, despite the "heated" pool that must have been filled with hose water. So here we are. I was going to blog about this last night about 4 a.m. when I couldn't sleep but figured I better get it over with just in case. I know it's not even my official due date yet but Pearl spoiled me by coming two weeks early and I let myself become one of "those women" who actually got their hopes up after their doctor's visit. All I know is I'm sick of going to work with no projects to work on - finished those up last week - and can't wait to meet this little guy. I wonder who he will look like, if he will be a good baby, how big he will be (and how fast he will get here once things start rockin' and rollin'), and if Pearl will like him as much as she says she does now. It's super cute because she is always kissing and hugging my tummy and talking to Ricco, telling him "he's so cute" in this little high-pitched voice. Pearl has all sorts of plans for the two of them. Like eating popcorn (how do you explain to a two-year-old that babies don't have teeth?), giving him a bath, taking him on a bike ride, going to the park, reading him stories, and my personal favorite playing mermaids with him (Jeff has already kaboshed that idea). She keeps asking if it's his birthday today and eventually I'll get to tell her YES, it's finally Ricco's birthday today!

And for sentimental reasons, here are some pictures of the flowers Pearl gave me for Mother's Day. I opened the door to a cute little voice saying, "Happy Mother's Day" followed by a big hug. It was "so cute" as Pearl says.

Honey do list (yes, this post has pictures of Ricco's room)

I admit Jeff has had A LOT more to do than me the past few months. His "honey do list" was about a mile long and seemed to keep on growing. Luckily for me, he's been a good sport with the whole thing and checked off just about everything I've put on there.

So besides putting up with a wife who is ready to be done being pregnant, here's just a sampling of all the projects Jeff has finished.

Honey do #1 Pearl's room
Build (and buy!) new bed for Pearl. Check.
Build and paint new bookcase for Pearl. Check.
Hang new coat hooks on Pearl's door. Check.
Fix the drawers on Pearl's new dresser. Check. Jeff still doesn't like the color but I love it. I found it at a little consignment shop and begged Jeff to go with me to see it. It was a good thing we were both sick and tired of trying to find a dresser because Jeff let me buy it. Now if we could just check off the "fix Pearl's closet" honey do then we'd be all finished with her room.
Honey do #2 New sink
Replace the leaky (and ugly) kitchen sink faucet. Check. (Jeff didn't even curse while doing this project!)Honey do #3 Date nights
Enjoy tickets to the NCAA tournament West Regional Finals and take prego wife on two basketball dates. Check. (OK so this really wasn't a honey do but it did get Jeff out of several honey do projects for a couple weekends.)

Honey do #4 Outside projects
Build two new planter boxes for the garden. Check.
Till everything... finally with the cooperation of Mother Nature for about a day. Check.
Plant about 100 bulbs in the flower beds. Check.Honey do #5 Ricco's room
Move all of Pearl's crap into her new room. Check.
Build the crib again. Check.
Move all furniture out of Ricco's room and into the dining room. Check.
Pick out paint. Check.
Paint over Pearl's adorable purple room and keep asking wife if you can just keep it purple to avoid painting. Check.
Paint ceiling navy... er, excuse me, Aggie blue. Check.
Put up with wife's indecision about what bedding to buy for Ricco. Be a good sport about her taking back the first set of bedding and coming home with the bedding originally suggested to her. Check.
Pick out more paint to match new bedding. Check.
Paint walls baby blue. Check.
Paint closet doors Aggie blue. Check.
Re-paint shelf to match Ricco's room and convince wife that shellacking stuff is better. (Look at the attention to detail with the green showing!). Check.Put up with wife's ideas about what to paint on the walls so it isn't so "boring." Ex-nay the tree idea. Approve wife's idea to paint stripes but only because she had a formal plan drawn up with measurements. Check.
Re-figure wife's measurements because the walls are crooked (how do you spell this?) and she can't hold the level straight. Check.
Tape everything, multiple times. Check.
Paint stripes. Check.
Go back to Lowe's for more paint. Check.
Convince wife that you're sick of painting so she paints final coat on stripes. Check.
Move furniture back into Ricco's room so family can eat at the dining room table again. Check.
Put up with wife's whining that she can't find a cute lamp for the room. Convince her the $20 lamp at Home Depot will work just fine. Check.
Let wife buy vintage car/truck signs to hang on the walls. Spend a good hour making sure all the signs are hanging straight. Check.Stand back and admire how adorable Ricco's room is! Listen to wife's constant "thank you's" and "it's so cute." Check.
Honey do #6 New job
If all this wasn't enough, get a promotion at work. Check.
Work two jobs for the past month or so, working crazy long hours because you are now a supervisor. Check.
Move into a new office building, where you are on the moving committee and have to work more crazy long hours. Check.
I must be married to Super Man!