Busting out the moves

Jenni already posted about the trip to the Grand Canyon and as she mentioned Charlie loved the singing on the train ride. He even busted out the dance moves all on his own, and it had us all laughing.

He was first working on reading his book, but then decided to put the crayon away so he could start wiggling and dancing.

His next trick was to show of his little "Thumbs Up" move.

Then he really started shaking. Well, at least until he realized that everyone was watching and went back to the reading.

Fortunately, he came back for an encore and finished it off strong with the "Zombie Baby" dance. Maybe he should remake Thriller.

Christmas 2009

Jenni and I have been married for almost 7 years and this was the first year that we decided to stay home for Christmas. Yesterday, while we were putting the last decorations on the tree, Jenni made the comment that being here made all the decorating and preparation feel a little more worth it, and I would have to agree. We've had lots of fun preparing for the big day and attending all of the fun events leading up to it. So here's the run down of some of the fun things we did (with links to the pictures, if you want to see them).
You could say that the season began right after Thanksgiving. Charlie got all dressed up in his new Winter Church outfit and wasn't happy to see Grandma and Grandpa Johansen leave. But a few days later we got all bundled up and checked out the Lights at the Zoo (it's technically called Zoo Lights, but there wasn't a single animal in sight and so I think "Lights at the Zoo" is a more fitting name). (PWA, Facebook)
Then Jenni talked me into dressing up as Santa when we went over to the Iversons' house. I was still a little nervous about the whole thing and didn't do the best job of being jolly and disguising my voice, and I'm sure I could do a better job next time (I guess that means that Jenni won't have to do as much convincing next time). But everyone had lots of fun taking pictures on Santa's lap. (PWA, Facebook)
Rancho Sahuarita also put on a little Christmas event down by the lake. It had lots of fun things for kids to do, but most of them were still outside of Charlie's interest level. However, they did have a train (which Charlie LOVES to ride on) and a Santa giving out candy (who Charlie likes to give bumps to, but HATES sitting on his lap). (PWA, Facebook)
Then we had a group over on Christmas Eve for dinner, a white elephant gift exchange (in which I "won" a game back that Jenni and I gave away in another gift exchange a year or so ago - I felt a little jipped), and a special appearance by Santa (which this time was played by Brian). All of the kids had lots of fun getting gifts from Santa and shooting the dart guns that Brian and Mindy got everyone. The only hiccup during the event was when Charlie puked all over the floor in the front room. He had kept crawling up on the table and eating hershey's kisses and one time one of them went down a little funny and I guess the rest of them decided that they wanted to join the party and that Charlie's stomach was not the place to be. But in true Charlie fashion, he got a drink of water and started scrounging for more candy. (PWA, Facebook)
And finally, the big event, Christmas Morning. Charlie's old enough to recognize Santa but still not old enough to realize what Christmas is, so we were able to actually get him to sit down and eat before opening his presents. When he first walked in he wasn't sure what to think, but after a bit he made his way over to the car that Grandma Lynn got him and made himself right at home. It took some coaxing to get him to open all his presents (he kept wanting to play with things he had already opened), but we eventually made it through and had lots of fun in the process. I think that everyone would have guessed that the Cozy Coupe was his favorite present, but Jenni and I were both surprised that the box of Charlie Brown band-aids was his next favorite present. Kids, go figure. (PWA, Facebook)
So that's the story of our Christmas season. We have had lots of fun and hope that all of you are having a great Holiday Season and that you are enjoying this wonderful time of year.

Here are some videos from this morning:

Charlie checking out his presents for the first time.

Charlie's still warming up to the idea of Elmo moving on his own.

15 Months and Counting

So as a pseudo-follow up to my recent post about Charlie growing up so fast, here's an up date on what Charlie has been doing lately.

• I think one thing that everyone knows about Charlie is that he loves food, and that is definitely evidenced by his hiding to eat food, the eating of spilt Cheerios off his feet, and the nutella and yogurt mess all over his face.
• He had his first major ow-ee (is that how you spell it?) when he nose dived off of a curb and scraped up his forehead.
• His favorite thing to do is to put things together. He loves putting lids on anything he can find and has even made a hobby of breaking the top piece off our phone, hiding it somewhere for a few days, and then putting it back together.
• And last but not least, he now LOVES when we let him have a fork or spoon when eating dinner, and even he has also started holding the fork in his mouth using his two bottom teeth for some reason.

He gets more and more fun each day and we are always amazed by how fast the little guy is growing up. Now, if we could only get him to stop poking other kids in the face...

Oh, and for any of you who may still be doubting that Charlie's a little boy version of Jenni, then here's the final proof:

And of course it wouldn't be a post from me if you couldn't see all the pictures on Facebook or PWA.

Adventures in the snow

One of the things we did over Christmas break was to go up to my parent's property in the Sierra Nevada mountains to take in a little snow. It was quite the change from the experience we had had only 4 months earlier, but it was a lot of fun.

So this is going to be a LONG post with a LOT of videos, so rather than make the post even longer by continuing to yammer, I'll just caught right to the videos.

Charlie wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow at first, but he kept scratching at it to try and figure it out. (Facebook)



As part of Charlie's first experience in the snow, Grandpa worked on teaching him how to throw a snowball. Unfortunately, it was at me, but I guess he's got to learn somehow. (Facebook)



So he looked more like a puffed up bug than a baby, but this is Charlie making a snow angel (with some help from Jenni). (Facebook)



And we gave him one last chance to get all cold and wet in the snow. (Facebook)



Then we decided to do a little sledding and we started by dragging Cody up the hill, well, until he ate it. (Facebook)



But he got back on and finished the ride back up. (Facebook)



Then Cody and I were racing down the hill, but the bottom of my sled was all jacked up, I swear. (Facebook)



And even Jenni got in on the racing, but apparently her sledding skills were a little rusty. (Facebook)



So I finally decided to pass Jenni and try to catch up with Cody. ...and then Pops starts speaking for Charlie. (Facebook)



Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa watched Charlie after Jenni and I took off down the hill. (Facebook)



At the bottom of the hill, Jenni was still trying to figure out the turning thing, but fortunately for Charlie and Grandpa, she knew how to stop. (Facebook)



And even Charlie got in on the sledding action. (Facebook)



Then we transitioned over to the hill by the pond/pool, and Cody showed everyone how it's done. (Facebook)



Even though it took a try or two, Jenni didn't give up and made it all the way down the hill. (Facebook)



And we're not sure why, but the Old Man rode two sleds down the hill. (Facebook)



And here's a view of how much everything had changed in just a few months. (Facebook)



After I threw a small rock onto the pond, Cody decided that he would risk walking out onto the ice so we could see if it was sledworthy. (Facebook)



And even Jenni decided that she would give the hill a try, and on her first attempt almost makes it up and over the edge. (Facebook)



Despite Pops talents with the slowing down skills, it still hurt his back. (Facebook)



Cody was so helpful that he was even willing to help out those that didn't even ask for it. (Facebook)



Then Pops decided that he'd has enough and headed back in. (Facebook)



And Jenni decided to return the favor and give Cody a little push (I was sure that someone was going to get hurt during this, but fortunately no one did). (Facebook)



It finally all made sense and Cody and I decided that we would make it up and over the ledge before we left that day. (Facebook)



Only a few inches from clearing the top on this one, but I was able to leave happy because I made it later even though it wasn't captured on video (I swear). (Facebook)



Cody was finally able to get the best of the hill and celebrate the occurrence by doing a little jig. (Facebook)



And as the final video, I was able to catch a little air and almost make it up over the hill. (Facebook)

A will of his own

I'm still working on catching up from Christmas and such, but Jenni and I have been enjoying the experience of watching Charlie start to express interests in things and discover ways of making it happen (if it makes you feel any better about the blog slacking, our Christmas lights are still up outside). So this is a couple videos to show off Charlie's new found abilities and interest in the world around him.

Charlie has discovered mirrors and he doesn't seem to realize that it's himself, so Jenni and I joke that he's playing with his "brother". It's always fun to re-discover the little joys of the world while watching the little guy. (Facebook)



As Jenni already talked about, Charlie was more interested in the paper than the present, so it was fun to watch unwrap presents and make sure he didn't eat any of it. (Facebook)



This is another video of him unwrapping a present, but he accidentally got a hold of someone else's present to start off with. (Facebook)



He also got the chance to hang out with his Aunts and Uncles from the Johansen side of the family. (Facebook)



And he really liked all of the attention he got. (Facebook)



He also got a chance to play with his second cousin, Morgyn (her Dad, Mike Schmidt, is my cousin), and he was still working on figuring out how to crawl. (Facebook)



The little guy also got quite a bit of love for everyone who couldn't resist squeezing his chubby cheeks. (Facebook)

Old News

So this is actually stuff from about a month ago, but I just wanted to be sure and write about this before moving on to the Christmas stuff.

But the first set of pictures is a series of stuff that our little Charlie has started doing. I'm not sure why, but he loves biting his bottom lip. He actually doesn't do it quite as much as he used to, but I'm still baffled as to why the little guy does it. He started rocking back and forth and we knew that crawling was soon to come when he started lunging and scooting, but he's still our own Dr. Seuss character. He also started picking his own sleeping positions with his new found mobility and always entertained us with the weird ways that he would sleep. You can check out all the pictures on PWA or Facebook.

Another fun activity was when we went to the 4th Street Fair in Tucson. I hadn't even realized that something like that even happened so close to home, but it was fun to get out, check out all the stuff for sale, and enjoy the beautiful Tucson winter weather while eating some good food. They were also letting people ride the trolley for free, so we hopped on and enjoyed the ride while waiting for Brian. It's wasn't anything too special, but it was fun and Coralee got some bunny ears on Charlie. You can check out all the pictures on PWA or Facebook.

And finally, here's a video of Charlie playing with one of his new favorite toys and showing off his new found ability of falling over to reach things. Here's the link to the video on Facebook.

Recent Happenings in Action

So in the theme of my last post (a really long post with all of the recent happenings in the Johansen family), here are all of the videos that we've taken over the past several weeks.

Charlie decided that it's time to become mobile and here's a video from the first day that he really started to figure it out. He would roll across the room until he bumped into the wall and then would look at us to move him back to the middle so he could do it again (he was quite impressed with himself). Unfortunately, by the time we got the camera out, he was starting to get wore out, but it was still cute to see the little guy. You can also check it out on Facebook.



Charlie and Payson Lewis had their first play date together. Jenni said that Charlie loves playing with Payson and just watches every little thing he does the whole time he's here. Unfortunately, this is an experience that I miss out on while I'm at work, but here's the little glimpse into the moment that we can all see. You can all check it out on Facebook.



We have also started the nightly tradition of feeding Charlie solids and that means that we had to get the little guy a high chair. He actually picked it up pretty quickly and has become a good little eater. This is a video of the first time that I fed the little in the high chair. You can also check it out on Facebook.



One day when we were hanging out, Charlie decided that it would be fun to start panting (or at least that's what we assume, because he just started doing it and laughing afterwards and then he's never done it since). Here's the video, and you can also check it out on Facebook.



One beautiful Sunday afternoon, we went to the park with Brian, Mindy, and Co. All of the Burns grandkids were in the swing at the same time, and it was nice to enjoy the wonderful weather now that the Arizona summer heat has worn off. You can also check it out on Facebook.



Obviously, on that same day, Charlie got to try out a swing for the first time, and he enjoyed it a lot more than I expected him to. I thought that he'd start squirming and that we'd have to pull him out, but he actually enjoyed the experience quite a bit. You can also check it out on Facebook.



The final video is us singing Happy Birthday to Charlie when Mindy and crew made him a cute puppy dog cake for his Half Birthday. Of course he had no idea what was going on, but he still enjoyed the cake. You can also check it out on Facebook.

Something to scare the Grandparents

As I've discussed previously, I feel that it's my personal responsibility as Charlie's dad to mess with the little guy every now and then and to bring a little excitement to his life. So my new thing to do is to wrap him up in a blanket, swing him around, and then play with the little guy. Obviously, it makes Jenni get a little tense and I'm sure I'll be hearing about it in a phone call, but the little guy loves it and it always gets a good laugh out of him. You can check out the video below (or on Facebook).

Sac Town

So Jenni got sick of me being lazy and already posted about our trip to Sacramento, but I wanted to chime in with links all of the pictures (the plane ride (PWA, Facebook), boating (PWA, Facebook), The Mountain Fortress of Solitude and Fun (PWA, Facebook), everyone dressed up (PWA, Facebook), and rocking out with the old PVille crew (PWA, Facebook)).

I also wanted to post some videos of the "slide of death" that my parents made. So there's actually no death involved, but you do pick up a pretty good clip. I guess I should just show the videos and let you be the judge (we took more videos than any human should be forced to watch, so here's the highlights).

Jenni gives the quick tour of the pool and slide (Facebook)


Cody is the first to jump in (Facebook)


Maybe the running start wasn't the best idea for my first time down the slide (Facebook)


There are a bunch of people in this one, but my bonehead move in the middle is good for a laugh (Facebook)


Cody riding Mike down the slide (Facebook)


It took some peer pressure, but even Jenni went down the slide (Facebook)

Our own Dr Seuss character

I don't know if it's the outfit, the look on his face, or the way he's standing, but I just think that Charlie looks like he should be in a Dr Seuss book in this picture.

But anyway, Charlie hits the 4 month mark on Saturday and he's still growing like nobody's business. We'll get the official numbers at his doctor's visit on Monday, but I'd be willing to bet that he's well over the 50th percentile that he was at for his 2 month visit. But for anyone interested you can see the most recent set of pictures on Facebook or the PWA.

Also, here's the latest set of videos that we've snapped of the little guy.

Charlie's starting to learn how to laugh and it's usually pretty funny to see how excited he gets (Facebook):

He's also gotten a LOT better at the Jumperoo compared to tiny little movements that we were so impressed with before (Facebook):

And here's a video of him playing in the "hanging jumper thing" with his cousins, Carter and Wyatt (Facebook):

More videos

So here's the next wave of videos of Charlie that I had promised. There's nothing too groundbreaking here, but they show off a bit of Charlie's emerging personality. But here goes.

Charlie in the "hanging jumper thing" (Facebook):

Charlie getting rolled around the bed (and I'm not sure what kind of crazy noise I'm making) (Facebook):

Charlie in his favorite outfit (just a diaper) (Facebook):

Charlie giving Mom a kiss (Facebook):

Not quite nunchuk skills, but close

Charlie has started to develop some new "skills", and here are the videos for him to show them off to the world.

Charlie sitting up and showing off his smile (Facebook):

Giving his Mom a kiss (Facebook):

And swinging like a madman (Facebook):

Charlie and the Jumperoo

So while we were in LA, we noticed that Charlie was starting to want to stand up a little and he was definitely getting a lot better at holding his head up, so when we got back we stuck him in the Jumperoo and watched him go. He's still figuring it out a bit and can't completely support all of his weight for too long, but he really enjoys it. You can see the video below (or on Facebook).

Here's a video of him standing (Facebook).

And here's a video of him showing off his dance moves without my help (Facebook).

Dancing, Dancing, Dancing

So as Charlie's Dad, I feel that it is my responsibility to mess with the little guy on occasion and bring a little excitement/adventure to his otherwise calm life. And one of these activities is helping Charlie "dance". I basically just make stupid noises and move the guy around like a goofball. It really is as funny as it sounds, but don't take my word for it, you can check out the video below (or on Facebook).

Our Little Muscle Man

We went and had some pictures of Charlie taken on Saturday and did some family pictures while we were at it (I'm sure they'll end up on Jenni's blog as soon as she gets some time). But after taking the "naked pictures", we joked that it looked like he had little muscles when I held his arms up, so I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the little guy showing off his stuff. It's also funny to see how the little guy is all belly, and he's definitely inherited my long arms and legs.

But the most exciting occurence has been that the little guy has already learned to roll over from his front to his back. I got home from work yesterday and Jenni said that she decided to give him a minute or two of tummy time to see how he'd do, and the little guy rolled over (with a small nudge from Jenni). She thought it was probably just a fluke and that her nudge made it possible. But then we gave it another try and he pulled it off, so we decided to bust out the camera and see if he could pull it off again and luckily he did. It wasn't quite as good as the first time, because he had his arm underneath him, but it was still pretty impressive. Here's the video, or you can check it out on Facebook.

We then tried to get him to do it a third time, but he just wasn't going for it. He did however pull off a push up near the end of the video. It probably doesn't sound like much, but you just have to remember that most kids his age are just working on picking their head up (or check it out on Facebook).

His first day without Dad

I had been fortunate enough to be able to take most of this week off of work, but I ended up having to go in for a full day today. That meant that Charlie would have to face the dark and dreary world without his Dad for the first time. Luckily, he's got a GREAT Mom, and his Grandma was able to take the day off of work to help out as well.

The day started out with Charlie getting all cleaned up by taking a bath. It all went really well, but it wore out our little pharoah.

He then had to go and get his foot poked for a blood test. Jenni said that the nurse guy was pretty harsh with the little guy and that it upset him quite a bit. Mom helped the little guy calm down and brought him home to tend to his little foot. From the picture account, it turned into a sort of spa day for the little guy that he seemed to really enjoy.

As usually you can check out the rest of the pictures on the Picasa Web Album or on Facebook.

And here's a video we made of when we were messing with the little guy trying to get him to smile (Jenni said that he had been cracking some really big smiles during the day when I was gone, but unfortunately he wasn't up for putting on a show).

More Charlie

Nothing too amazingly ground breaking to report, but I just wanted to add the latest batch of pictures and videos of Little Charlie. I gave the little guy a bath for my first time, and despite the fact that he wasn't a huge fan of it, everything went well and the little guy is all the cleaner for it. As usual, you can check out all of the pictures on the Picasa Web Album or on Facebook.

Like new parents that are so fascinated with every little thing, we took a couple more videos. Nothing all that special, but there's still funny nonetheless.

Charlie gets the hiccups

Charlie having a little snack

And Charlie gets the hiccups again

Another (not so) Lonely Day

Man, I really need to find my Ben Harper CDs, but anyway...

I'm sure that it will start to be a lot harder to take so many pictures and such since I'm going to start going back to work tomorrow, but it's been a REALLY exciting and fun week for both Jenni and I. Luckily, my boss is VERY understanding about the whole situation, so I'll just be working part time for the next week or so, but I'm sure that the whole Charlie experience will only get better has the little guy gets bigger and bigger.

Well, onto the fun part (at least for a picture/video junkie like me). Yesterday, Jenni decided to dress Charlie up in the little baseball outfit that we got from my Mom (it's one of her favorite and despite the fact that I don't really like baseball, I have to admit that it's a pretty cute outfit). Unfortunately, he got a little fussy/tired before we were able to get a really good picture, but it was still a fun experience (that wore out all parties involved).

We then decided to venture out into the world for the first time. It was actually a little better/easier than we expected. I don't know why we thought it would be hard, scary, or bad, but I guess it was just the newness of it all. We stopped by Brian and Mindy's and really enjoyed getting out of our self imposed quarantine for a little while.

About once a day (and usually at like 3 or 4 in the morning), Charlie decides to wake up, relax, and just look at the all the "amazing" things around him. It's the moment that makes how ridiculously tired I feel worth it. Even though I've experienced it, I still don't understand how people function when they're so sleep deprived, but I guess some extra hormone or something must kick in when there's a newborn involved.

If you're interested, here's the link to all of the pictures on the Picasa Web Album or on Facebook, and here's one more little video of me messing with him during his play time.

NOTE: None of the sleeping pictures were framed, planned, or posed for. They were all 100% legitimate "pass outs" (what I have started to call the level where sleep deprivation finally reaches a threshold that the parent passes out and just sleeps), but I guess that those ones just end up making good pictures.

It's the little things

About a month ago, I heard a Mom in our ward say, "My baby slept for 6 hours last night and it felt SO good to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep." It totally blew my mind and just didn't make any sense to me at the time, but last night I laid down and said to Jenni, "Hopefully, Charlie will sleep for 2 or 3 hours so we can get some good sleep." How my definition of "good sleep" has changed in the last week. But anyway, onto the interesting stuff.

So the last two nights have been a whole new type of experience. There's been a LOT of fun and smiles, but we are SO VERY thankfully that we've had Grandma Lynn here to run some errands, help out with meals and the house, and most importantly step in with some MUCH needed relief when the little guy is just wearing us out. We're hoping to finally get him to be more active during the day and sleep longer between feedings during the night (instead of his nocturnal creature schedule that he has going right now because the kid seems to only poop and pee in the middle of the night and wants to wake Mommy up every hour or two), but I guess we'll just have to be patient for at least a few days.

I also made my first rookie Dad mistake at home and got pee all over the couch. I was changing the little guy and left him without a diaper for about a minute and he ended up deciding that he wasn't done. He scared the living daylights out of himself and startled Dad as well. I guess that the good thing that came out of it was that all of the couch cushions are looking a lot cleaner since the experience prompted a much needed washing of the covers, but I hope that I've learned that lesson and that we won't have to repeat the experience.

And to finally wrap up the post, you can check out the latest batch of pictures on the Picasa Web Album or on Facebook,or here's some videos that we made of the little guy in action.

Charlie having a little play time with Mommy and saying hi to Grandma and Grandpa Johansen:

Charlie really enjoying a meal (it may be hard to appreciate this without having seen his normal balled up and squirmy eating habits):

Charlie doing his "tricks":

It's a boy!

Jenni and I went to the doctor for her ultrasound and we found out that our little baby is a boy (I had been saying that I thought it was a girl, but Jenni got it right). We're both really excited and we went out and bought some clothes for the little guy, but you'll have to wait for Jenni to post about all of that (which I'm sure she'll do as soon as she gets a chance). But the doctor said that he's about 6 ounces and that everything looks great.

The top left photo is how we know he's a boy. You can tell because "the twig" is on the left and "the berries" are on the right. It's pretty tough to tell what's really going on in that picture, but we'll take the doctor's word for it. The top right photo is his foot. I'd guess the right foot, but that's just a complete guess and it probably doesn't matter. The bottom two photos are shot of him "smiling". The one on the left is just the original shot and the one on the right is one that I labeled to try and help people tell what they were actually looking at.

We were also lucky enough to be able to get a video of part of the ultrasound (I guess you could say that this is our very first home video of The Johansen Family) and fortunate enough that Lynn (Jenni's mom for those not in the know) let us use her DVD recorder to digitize the VHS tape. Unfortunately, there's no audio, so I went through and overcompensated by adding a cheesy newspaper theme to the video. Hopefully, it makes the video a little easier to watch and helps people understand what's going on, but you can check out the video on YouTube, on Google Video, or you can just watch it in the embedded player below.

If you're interested, you can also download the original version of the video that I uploaded to YouTube and Google Video here:

Original Version (26 MB)
Medium Version (14.5 MB)
Small Version (2.9 MB)