First Road Trip!

Last weekend we ventured north for the first time as a family of 3. Thanks to our good friend Kelli, we only had to worry about figuring out how to travel with a baby, not a baby and a dog since she stayed at our house for the weekend with Simon. [THANK YOU KELLI!]

I really failed at taking very many pictures but I did get a few...
Smiles for Grandma on Saturday morning
I feel like if she could talk (like a baby gangster), she'd be saying "Yeah, you know... I'm just chillin here with my homie...me and my Gramps..."

The whole point of traveling to Minnesota this weekend was really for the Carey Golf Invitational. My family is crazy (about golfing) and my parents got both Jed and I new golf clubs last year for Christmas. I haven't put mine to much use but Jed has become quite a golfer! He sunk a 30some-foot putt on the final hole and said he golfed the best he's ever done! While everyone was golfing, Lainey and I hung out with my Aunt Barb who couldn't golf because of a back injury. We had a great time! After 18 holes, we all gathered at my aunt and uncle's house for some yummy food. Lainey obviously missed her Dad...
And her Grandma...
She got to meet the whole Carey clan....
Overall, I'd call the weekend a smashing success. Lainey did really well in the car and only had a very brief 15 minute meltdown on the way there. Otherwise, she was a champ. It's a lot different traveling with a newborn baby though -- lots of stops to feed her, change her, etc. so it took a bit longer than normal, but it was definitely manageable. And I think Lainey LOVED the busy-ness of the weekend. I think she was really glad to be home on Sunday night but I felt like she kind of looked at me on Monday like, "Mom, you're kind of boring. Where are all of those other fun people?" :) I guess we'll have to make the trip again soon...!

Video Debut!

I know every parent thinks their child is especially special but this video is just too cute not to share. Lainey already knows how to wave hello! Enjoy!

Uncle Bud

Lainey had a special visitor come to meet her this week come alllllll the way from Jacksonville, North Carolina, over 1,200 miles away. Her Uncle Bud! My brother-in-law (Emily's husband) is a very special guy and I am so glad that Lainey got to meet him before his deployment. Bud is a Sgt in the United States Marines and he will be deploying to Afghanistan in October for 7 months as an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). He took a long weekend to travel from NC home to Minnesota and visit his family before he leaves and kindly spent the majority of his day on Thursday on I35... driving down to Iowa to meet his first niece, Lainey! She spent the majority of his visit sleeping but did wake up to play before he headed back to Minnesota.


Please feel free to keep the Thomas family in your prayers ... that Bud and his team would be kept safe, protected and encouraged during the entirety of their deployment, that time would go quickly for Emily and Claire and they would enjoy their girl time together while Bud is away. I have a hard time thinking about their circumstances without tearing up. Thank you to Bud for sacrificially serving our country and to Emily for being a supportive military wife so that Bud is able to do his job and do it well. We love you both very much!

Sweet little...

baby burrito...

1 month!

Miss Lainey Charlotte is now 1 month old! I will say with confidence that this has been by far the FASTEST month ever in my whole life. The hours, days and weeks have flown by. We have loved welcoming Lainey into our family and are so thankful for her. We have both learned A LOT and more importantly how much MORE there is to learn about babies and being parents. I am thankful too that I don't have to rely on myself or even on Jed for wisdom in how to be a good mom, but that I can go to the Lord for wisdom and patience in figuring these seasons of life out! Here are some of Lainey's likes and dislikes as of 1 month...

Dislikes:
Pacifiers!
(We have bought 3 different kinds and she is not a fan of any of them. Advice? Should I try other kinds? We've tried the soothie, nuk and mam. I don't want to give up but I suppose it's possible that she'll never really take one...?)
Bottles
(She took a bottle well the first week of her life but has not since...)
Baths
(Getting better though!)
Being swaddled
(She does not love this but I feel like she sleeps better if she's wrapped up a bit so I wait until she's almost asleep to swaddle. I'd say the success rate with this is about 75% and I'm hoping it gets better...)
Sleeping before 11 or 12pm
(I am trying but failing a lot at getting her to go down in her crib before 11 or 12. It seems no matter how awake she is in the evening, she still fights sleeping before this time of night. For some this wouldn't be a big deal, but we Johnsons are NOT night owl type people...)
Likes:
Laying on her changing table! This is definitely where we get the most smiles and coos!
Hanging out in just a diaper
Eating - she is a good little eater
When Dad holds her like a football
Tummy time
Being outside
KISSES! She LOVES when we kiss her sweet cheeks!
When Dad calms her down after bath time
Dad's silly songs
(Fortunately, Lainey sounds a lot like the word "lady" and every song with the word "lady" in it can be adapted accordingly)

We LOVE you Lainey! I can't wait to see how much you grow and change during the next month!

Love love love...

I know it sounds silly and cliche but I just can't get over how much I love love LOVE this little girl and how much I love being her mommy! I go back and forth between being sentimental (and almost sad) in realizing that she'll only be this little for a very short time and then being so excited about watching her grow, teaching her things and doing girly things together.

She looks less than enthused to be in this picture with me, but I'm pretty sure she loves me too...

Busy Bees

That's what I feel like we have been over the past week. Miss Lainey is 4 weeks old today. Her 3rd week of life was full of family, new friends and FUN! I now understand what new moms are so busy doing all of the time. Taking care of a newborn is a lot of work! Yes, they do sleep a lot but not always for long periods of time and there is just a lot to figure out. I feel like Lainey is only slightly less of a mystery to me today than she was the day we brought her home. Some things about her and tendencies she has are getting more consistent... but not always. She's predictable about some things (crying when she's hungry, liking to hang out in just her diaper, etc.) and really unpredictable about others (sleep schedule, eating habits, etc.). This week I felt a little more comfortable taking her out and doing more things with her. So here's a recap of all that we did...!

My parents came down to visit over Labor Day weekend. They just can't get enough of their grand-daugheters ... understandably! Lots of baby holding and baby watching on Saturday, then church and on Sunday we went to Knoxville to my Grandma Charlotte's for Sunday dinner with some more family!

This was so cute - my Dad was rubbing her sweet chubby cheeks and she was LOVING it!
Sleeping with Great Aunt Barb
Snuggling with Great Uncle Bill

On Monday, my parents stopped through on their way back to Minnesota and then in the evening, Lainey made her first trip out to Jordan Park camp for grilling and volleyball for Andy's birthday. She LOVED being outside and watching the sky and the trees and watching people look at her, ha.
On Tuesday, we visited my friend and former co-worker Angela and her boys Troy and Wesley. Little Wesley was born 6 days after Lainey. On Wednesday, my friend Julie came over with her little man Oscar to play. Lainey mostly slept. Then, we headed to the hopsital to meet Lainey's new friend Mia Rude who was born on Tuesday! Yeah! On Thursday morning, we went over to the Richey's to play with Kaisa and JJ. JJ is 10 days older than Lainey. Thursday evening, we went to the hospital to meet the third Bible study baby, Lainey's other brand new friend Penelope Laehn who was born on Wednesday. This was very exciting and so surprising - all 3 of the babies in due in our Bible study were GIRLS (we only knew that Mia was a girl)! As previously mentioned, I was convinced Lainey was a boy and Tim thought their baby was also a boy. We were both so wrong. And now we've got 3 girls to add to our Bible study fun! Finally, this morning we rounded out our busy week of fun with a nice long walk outside with Kristy and Amaia. Sadly, I got pictures of zero of these events! I will have to get better about that!

We did take a few pictures at home last night...
Lainey's new toy! I really wanted a fancy one from Target that I found online, but I stopped into Once Upon A Child and found this one for just 12 dollars. Considering how long she'll probably be entertained by it, I think I made the right choice.
Playing with Mom
Lainey watched her first NFL game last night. Much to my dismay and Jed's excitement, it was a Packer game and yes, the Packers did win. He is bound and determined that she will be a Packer fan.
Sometimes when Lainey has a belly ache or is fussy in the evenings, Jed holds her like this and funny enough, she really loves it. I think she just loves being held by her Dad!

To continue the busy fun, we are going to a wedding tonight - our first as a family of 3. Congratulations to Yvonne and D'Angelo! We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Cousins

One of the first thoughts that I had when Lainey was born was how fun it was going to be for her and our nieces Claire and Jaylen to be so close in age! Holidays with the family will never be the same! Lainey is also blessed to have lots and lots of clothes passed on from Claire as well! It's fun to put her in the little outfits that I remember seeing Claire in not so long ago! Jed and I stopped at Kohl's this week and of course I just had to walk through the baby girl clothes! It's so fun to do that now that she's here. I will say that we saved A LOT of money not finding out the gender, not to mention the excitement in the delivery room, but truly all we bought before she was born was one boy outfit and one girl outfit! We were handed down some gender neutral things and then Emily brought TONS of girl clothes the weekend she was born so we were really set! Anyway, I've only bought her 3 things so far, summer things on clearance. This yellow romper below is just adorable. It's a 3 month outfit so it's still pretty big but I just had to put her in it to see what it looked like! As it turned out, Claire has the same one! How cute are these cousins?!?
We also Skyped with Em and Claire the other morning. It was so fun! Claire LOVES to Skype and she was very excited to see Lainey and blow her lots of kisses! Thank goodness for technology!