Patty Johnson's Blog

So, after trying to make Lily take a nap for over and hour and a half, I brought her back into the living room. I quickly found out that if you have a tired baby a good way to make her finally give in to sleep is to hypnotize her with badgerbadgerbadger. If you aren't familiar with this click on the picture of badgers below to watch their cute video

The only shows that Lily regularly watches are "Sesame Street" and "Play with me Sesame" If you aren't familiar, the "Play with me..." version is a 1/2 hour mini-sesame street with little clips from random sesame streets episodes. It's more to get your kid interacting and playing to cute songs and learning. I have my Moxi record them because they are both on way too early for us to see them. So, whenever Lily wants to watch them she'll start chanting "elmo! elmo!" and she hands me the remote.
Play me with Sesame repeats alot of the same stuff so I do have a few favorites that I get excited to see. My current top 5 list is as follows:

1. Ernie and the "Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree" (Lily dances around crazily when this one comes on) Watch here
2. Cookie Monster and Grover. Cookie monster being his usual self when Grover wants him to sing about something besides eating cookies.
   "Grover: All you do is the same old thing = eat cookie, eat cookie, eat cookie
   Cookie: Hey, what you expect? Me cookie monster. Me not macaroni monster. Me sing what me know."
3. Ernie & Bert sing "Things That I Remember" Lyrics here
4. Elmo sings "The Sound That's in the Air" about the all the sounds he hears
5. C is for Cookie Watch Here

We only stayed at Adam's picnic for about an hour and a half. It was really muggy outside and a bunch of different bugs were attacking. I spent the whole time chasing Lily up and down the stairs and the ramp and by the water and everywhere. We got to witness one of the kids games which I think was an interesting choice of the picnic committee. The game = Shaving balloons. They gave each kid a balloon and had them cover them with shaving cream. Then they used plastic knives and tried to shave the balloon without popping it. An okay game but just imagine about 30 kids covered in shaving cream. Quite an interesting site.

After the picnic Adam and I drove off seperatly, him to Stratford and Lily & I to my parents house. Nothing was on tv so we all (Mom, Dad, Lily and I) first went for a 9:30 ice cream run to Belts then to family video. We rented "Just my luck" and all watched it. Lily didn't go to sleep til about midnight because she just kept running around while we were watching the movie so she wouldn't fall asleep. After the movie I went to bed but I laid there for over an hour and just stared at the walls.
This morning, Mom, Dad, Lily and I went to Wausau. We went to Gordmans, Wal*Mart, and Sam's Club. We found lots of good deals! Lily fell asleep between Sam's Club and McDonalds in wausau which is about 2 blocks. On the way home we stopped in Knowlton for some yummy cheese curds (They take fresh cheese curds and they batter and fry em up while you wait - delicious)
Once we were back in town we stayed at there house for a little bit. I talked to Adam and it sounds like he will be waiting until tomorrow to come home which doesn't make me too happy. His dad is going to look at our car to see why the "check engine soon" light is on. Then, we returned my movie and rented "Poseidon"
Then it was time to go to a summer birthday party for Antonio who is turning 4. Lily had fun on the swings, bowling in the grass, dancing to the music, chasing a lassie-type puppy, hitting a pinata, and of course playing in the ice cubes.

Today is Adam's work's Summer picnic. I'm excited because we all get to go somewhere together and have some fun. Usually we only stay til after food and prizes but I'm hoping Lily will have fun and won't make us chase her TOO much ;) Riiight.
Otherwise not much else has happened this week. I finally watched "Pillow Talk" a movie from 1959 that I've had recorded on my Moxi box for months. It was pretty cute which was surprising cuz usually I don't like older flicks.
Adam is in a golf tournament with his Dad in the Strat tomorrow morning so he's spending the night there tonight. So, Lily and I are going to sleepover at my parentals for fun. No other plans for the weekend as of yet...

Woke up kinda early today and had about 45 minutes of Patty time til Lily woke up at 9:45. Then we went to the bank and to Copps to get something for lunch. Then, when I was doing some dishes I looked out the kitchen window and saw Adam drive up and get out of the car. Turns out he didn't feel good so they sent him home. He basically just laid around all day and refused to throw up. He's weird about that. Lily and I went to my parents to eat italian beef leftovers. While we were gone he finally threw up. I was so proud. Then he tells me it made him feel better (what I'd been telling him all day) Boys never listen. I watched some tv tonight, gave Lily a bath (and after when she was wrapped in a towel she peed on me), and then put her to bed (which was easy for a change besides her super crazy grip on my hair)
New show review of the day: "Vanished" Vanished is a show about the disappearance of the Senator of Georgia's wife. They are at a big party honoring her and she steps out to take a phone call and disappears. This show might be okay but I kinda found one of the first scenes a little disturbing. They are trying to give a backstory of the main FBI Guy (played by Gale Harold of QAF fame) who just had a case involving a little boy. He goes to give the kidnapper ransom money then another FBI guy shoots the bad guy in the head and he reaches for a button and you realize the little boy has a bomb strapped to his body. KABOOM! Little boy = dead. Besides that there is alot of weird things like the woman who is missing was seen at a coffee shop with her husband's ex-wife. The daughter who is apparently running away to get married to her boyfriend (possibly because she might be pregnant) but then she finds a shirt of his covered in blood and a backpack full of money, and the son who says he didn't know his mom was in town but then email's her if they are on for tomorrow. Then they randomly find another senator's wife who went missing 10 years ago and was frozen til now. And the last scene: A guy sees the news bulletin about the missing Senator's wife and says that he proposed to the woman when her name was Nicki 12 years ago but then she disappeared from him. Now, with this crazy complicated drama I don't think it will last long but you never know because people seem to like crime dramas these days.

Steve & Lori had to pick up the kids from camp in the morning and then came to Point. So, we went to my parents house at like 2 o'clock and they were there when we got there. We hung out there for a while and Steve & fam went to visit an old friend of his who was having a garage sale. Then, we all went to visit Grandma for a while. Then, we all talked about what we wanted to do for dinner and we decided to go to this "mexican restaurant" called Segoras that we've gone to in the past in Nekoosa and now it was in Rapids. Becky, Nick and Braeden met us at the parentals and we all caravanned to Rapids. We got there and were pretty surprised when we looked at the buffet. It wasn't Mexican at all. Sure it had tacos and Chimichangas but also spaghetti, ribs, french fries, fish, soups, chicken etc. And when you look at the menu there was only like 4 mexican dishes mixed in with a ton of normal stuff. When we asked about it they said they change their buffet all the time. okay. So, not really worth the trip and for the same price we could have hit up the Corral.
The rest of the night we basically just hung out at the parentals and chit chatted. At about 10 we went home and Lily and I went straight to bed while Adam stayed up late.
Sunday we woke up later than usual and then went over to my parents again. Becky, Mark, Nick, Matt and Danny went bowling and the rest of us went to visit Grams again. Most of the time we were taking turns chasing Lily and Johnny around the place. After that we went back to my parents house to have yummy italian beef and sausage and a bunch of sides. After a while Steve and fam and Becky and fam all left and Mom and Dad & Adam and I fulfilled our Ice Cream craving and went to belts. Adam got a large blue moon shake and we got Lily a dreamsicle shake. Adam gave Lily a sip of his and she decided it was now hers. Every time after that when he offered hers to her she said "No" and then pointed to his mouth (like no, you drink it) Then the top came off the Blue Moon shake and her white pants turned blue. Then we went to the Billy Goats house. Adam and Rick wanted to watch the Red Sox/Yankees game and Lily and I hung out with Aaron, Vanessa, Eric & Ian. We only stayed there until like 10 because Lily was tired from a long day of playing.

So, you know how you've secretly wondered where Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie from Full House) ended up? Tonight I was flipping channels and I saw her hosting "Pants Off Dance Off" on the fuse channel.
Besides doing random other things as herself she has only done three actress roles since Full House ("Brotherly Love", "Party of Five", and "Yes Dear")
*The More You Know*

Well, Lily has gotten to her terrible twos early I think. She's been absolutely crazy the last couple days. Tonight we tried to put her to bed at 10 and she JUST finally fell asleep. She'd lay down and almost fall asleep but then think of anything to do to wake herself up. Then she decided her nuk was 'ucky' and wouldn't put it in her mouth (most likely because she knows it will make her tired) So, we even gave her a different nuk but that didn't work either. Then, we tried to let her cry it out for a while. Yeah, I don't know how people do that. I read 'Five Little Monkeys' a couple more times and we shut off all the lights again and then she finally gave in to exhaustion. Ugh.
On top off all the Lily insanity I'm having some sort of allergy situation. my nose and eyes are so itchy I want to gouge them out. I don't know if it's something in the house that is doing this or the windows being open or what but my nose hurts when I touch it so it's not to happy with all the rubbing to stop my itching. Woohoo.

My computer has been acting crazy lately. Rebooting and Shutting down whenever it feels like it. I thought I had a virus or something but I ran the virus checking program and everything was fine. Turns out I had the computers plugged into bad power strips. I figured it out when Adam's computer shut down by itself today after lunch.
I've started potty training Lily today. Well, in reality I've started already doing the basics: getting her familiar with the potty and potty terminology. Today, we were out of diapers so I switched her to the Pull Ups that I got a while ago. She likes to sit on the potty but nothing has happened yet. I've been surfin' online for tips but I don't know which ones I'll really use.
Otherwise not much else has been going on. Trying to organize clothes and clean my house when Lily is busy or sleeping but she's been kinda a monster lately getting into everything. She is also going through a phase where she doesn't want to go to bed at night at all. She has always been more like me in not wanting to sleep but now we will get her in bed and she'll fall asleep for like 5 seconds then wake herself up by yelling or sitting straight up.

Felt better today but my stomach wasn't too excited about all the time in the car. We left MN at about 11ish. Lily & I slept about 1/2 the way to Stratford. Hung out at Adam's parents for a while eating super yummy chicken noodle soup. Then back in the car we went to go home. Adam wanted to take a nap so Lily and I went over to my parents house. Today Nick and Braeden got baptized this afternoon so everybody went back to my parents house afterwards (Cindy & Fam, Becky & Fam, Ron & Billie, Grams, and Mom & Dad) We had fun hanging out, chatting and watching the kids play.
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Woke up today for breakfast at 9:30. It was pretty cool they had eggs, waffles, cereal, bages, juices, etc. Then, we got ready and went to Adam's grandma's house to visit. After only about 10 minutes (where Adam's Dad and uncle Rick were getting locations on stores) we were back in the car. I was starting to feel icky as if I was getting car sick...but I don't get car sick. We stopped at the 2 computer stores Adam's dad wanted to go to but one wasn't what he thought and the other was closed. We ended up going to circuit city and I immediately went to the restroom and threw up. I felt better and we only had one more stop to make, some sort of winemaking store. While we were there I felt icky again so I sat outside by the street. I ended up walking around the corner of the store and got sick again. So, then we decided that we wanted to go back to the hotel. Adam let me go ahead while he got Lily and our stuff out of the car...good thing because I barely made it to our room before getting sick again. Not a fun day. We all took a nap and the reunion dinner was at 5ish so we went down there. I had to leave in the middle to go to our room but then I came back long enough to eat some food and pose for the family photo. Now, I'm in the room with Lily while Adam finds out what the rest of the crew are doing tonight since I'm in no condition for any fun.
This totally sucks because I was really looking forward to this trip and swimming with Lily for most of today which obviously didn't happen.
UPDATE: Didn't ever make it to the pool tonight but Adam, Lily and I hung out in our room watching tv. Lily is really good at entertaining me and making me feel better

We traveled with Adam's dad to Minnesota today. Lily and I slept from Stratford all the way here. Adam's grandma had a cookout tonight with yummy steaks. Lily had lots of fun playing with the other kids and a bucket of ice cubes.

After food, cake and homemade ice cream we went back to our hotel to check in. Then we went swimming for a while. The pool is open til 1AM which is awesome!

Adam and I are hungry right now so we ordered a pizza from the hut. Adam is by the window right now watching for the pizza man.

Well, our internet wasn't working again today so after a day of phone tag with the techs someone finally came over at 5 to fix it. They had to fix and replace some stuff but we have internet again. yeah! I'm hoping not to have to waste valuable pre-paid cell phone minutes on charter for a while.
Cindy came back to town today after spending most of the week in lovely Minocqua. It was cute watching the kids play today...my favorite was when Zach would put his blanket over his head and we'd say "where's zach" and then Lily would remove the blanket and giggle.
We encouraged Lily's Elmo obsession today with getting her 2 new Elmo toys. One is a cute soft book called "Where is elmo" and the other is a really soft Elmo.

I got to see the Billy's Goats house yesterday (Aaron & Vanessa, Eric, George, Rick & Kristin, and Justin) It's a very nice duplex but I can't imagine living with 6 other people! Eric and George have to share a room with a homemade 'wall' which includes a sheet and some totes. They have a sweet room with a DVD Projector which I'd love to watch flicks in.

We got Lily a Humming Elmo last night. It's pretty cute it sings a song "Guess who lives on sesame street, Guess who is a monster, Guess who has two furry red feet, that's right it's Elmo!" and it's a baby Elmo and has a pacifier so when you put that in his mouth he hums the tune. So, yeah that's going to be stuck in my head for a while I'm sure.
My dad has been sick lately. Kidney stones are aparently not fun. He's had them before but this time they aren't going away. He went to the doc today at 10:30 so I'm hoping there is good news.
I actually got to do some laundry last night. The night before I was going to do laundry but I spent most of the late night hours working on a myspace page for Dad's Computers. I'm crazy.
We are going to a family reunion this weekend with Adam's Dad's side of the family in Minneapolis. Unfortuneatly Adam's Mom and Michelle aren't going with us because she's really not up to long travels yet. So, we are driving to Stratford to meet Adam's Dad and taking his truck to MN. I'm so happy we don't have to drive between gas prices and my super bald tires. It should be fun...sounds like mostly hanging out by the pool in the hotel :)
This has been a crazy month with driving. The only weekend we aren't going to Stratford will be the week after this one. Steve & Fam are probably visiting here so that's cool. The week after that though Adam will be going to the Strat to play his annual gold tourneyment with his Dad and his Dad's friends. Lily and I are going to stick around here though and I'm probably going to be volunteering to sell brats outside of Wal*Mart for "Brats for Babies" Come buy a brat from me!

Yesterday in the Strat was okay. We didn't do all that much really. Adam and his dad went to go help some people move 4-wheelers off a trailer and a truck. They were gone for a while and Lily was upset that they left. We ended up playing outside for a while and also went for a walk down the street. Adam's mom got me a disposable camera so I got to take a couple pics of Lily outside. It's weird how when you have a digital you can just take 20 pics of one thing and pick the best 1 but with a old-school camera you really have to hope that the one pic you take ends up being good. I really need a new camera...
Michelle was having problems getting comfortable last night so she wanted to go to Wal*Mart to get a contour foam pillow at like 10:30. Adam, Lily and I went with his mom and Michelle for a nice road trip to Marshfield. We got the pillow and some random groceries. Lily was upset that there was no all night ICEE machine like at our Wal*Mart so we ended up going to a gas station in Stratford for some Alligator ice. Lily was asleep in the car but when we got back to the house she woke up and was excited to see some red slush.
Today we hung out and Lily and I took a nice long nap before having yummy spaghetti dinner. Then we watched some football (ugh) and drove home. I drove for 1/2 of the way because Adam was feeling nauseous for some reason. Then, we went to my parents house to drop off beef and see Cindy and the gang. Cindy and I also went on a trip to belts to pick up ice cream for everyone. It was pretty cute watching Lily and Zach play with all his baby toys and Lily was showing off her dancing skills.
Now that Lily and Adam are asleep it's time for me to tackle some laundry...

We are spending the weekend in Stratford. We are visiting Michelle who is finally back at home & also Adam's dad is going to fix my weird sounding brakes.
Yesterday we all watched "V for Vendetta" right when we got here. Then, Adam played FIFA soccer for a while and we went to sleep at like 10:30. There is something about this house that always makes us want to go to bed early. It is so weird!
This morning we got to watch some CLASSIC cartoons on the Boomerang Channel. Smurfs, Huckleberry Hound and this weird Octopus one. I wish we had this channel mostly cuz I love SMURFS!
Now Adam's mom is at work, Michelle is napping, and Adam & his dad went to get stuff to fix my car. So, Lily is watching "Elmo in Grouchland" AGAIN and I'm bloggin'. Funtastic. I also scanned the picts from Shaun's party from my disposable cameras so now I just have to get that disc from my friends. BTW, I need a new nickname for them. When they lived at the Village Apartment they were the villagers. When they were on Franklin Street they were the Frankliners. Now, they live on Billy Lane and I can't think of a cute name to change them to...the only thing I've got so far is the Zaners because when I think Billy Lane I think Billy Zane. Weird, yes.

Woke up Lily today early so we could go the the movies. They are having these special "kids days" on Wed/Thur where you can go there at 10am and see some oldish cartoons for only $2.50. This week was Ice Age 2 which we haven't seen yet. So, I get there a few minutes after 10 and I see about 10 people walking out so I asked them if it's sold out. Yep. So, Lily and I went to Family Video and rented "The Shaggy Dog" & "Elmo in Grouchland" We had to wait at home from 1-3 because the cable guy was coming to fix our tv/internet. So, we watched Elmo in Grouchland 4 TIMES! She is addicted to Elmo these days. Elmo toys, Elmo on Sesame Street, Elmo on cups, Elmo on diapers...
Oh, and by the way I don't know why I had to be home for them to fix my cable because the guy never came in...and when he was done he had some girl call me to ask me if it was all fixed. Ridiculous.