More pictures!

Pictures!

I know, these are WAY over due. :) Here's a collection from our 8 weeks at home so far!

Chesterbrook

Somebody posted on the blog today asking why I call Chesterbrook a preschool and not a daycare. I wasn't going to post the question because I thought it would bring a level of maliciousness to an otherwise incredibly joyous site. But then I thought maybe she didn't mean it that way and really wanted to know. I prefer that option. :) So here ya go Peggy...

1. I don't always refer to Chesterbrook as a preschool. I have referred to it as both a daycare and a preschool.

2. Chesterbook is a private school in Naperville that takes infants all the way up until 8th grade. We can keep Maks enrolled for the next 11 years Full Time if we want.

3. All of the lead teachers in the classrooms have Early Education degrees from a four year University/College.

4. Those lovely teachers (and yes they're called teachers) work with the kids on different lesson plans. They have themes that revolve around touch, smell, sight, words, letters, colors, seasons, etc...

5. There is a Principal and Assistant Principal at the school who put together and approve the curriculum. There are periodic parent-teacher nights to go in and review the curriculum as well as the childs progress.

6. We have worked with a Speech Therapist who has sent several additional lesson ideas for a child like Maks to help him with his word development and catch up to the other kids. He is repeating everything these days and has so many more words than before!!

The bottom line is that you can call it whatever you want. Maks is adjusting very well to his new life, including his teachers, his new friends, new language and new Mommy and Daddy. Thank you to all for showing so much concern. :)

Life with Maks

Obviously I've been a little busy lately and haven't had time to update the blog. I wanted to update it though with some little things that have happened lately. I'm worried that I won't remember all of these little quirks or stories with him when he gets older.

Maks is an unbelievable joy in our family. Not always easy, but an unbelievable joy. The other day I was in the car on the way home from somewhere and thought to myself, can anyone really be this content in their life? I feel so blessed to have a husband that I love, a son that I adore and a little girl on the way. Our first days with Maks were so difficult. I cried and cried that first week thinking, will this ever be different? I can say without a doubt, yes it is different. We still have tantrums, he still hits himself in the head, he still hates going to bed, but as I get to know him those things are so much easier to handle. He went potty in the big-boy potty a few times last week. He was SO proud of himself! Sometimes when he is sitting in his high chair eating he puts his hands out to me for a hug. I always lean in and he wraps his arms around my neck and pats my back. He gave me a kiss for the first time a few weeks ago! Most days when I pick him up from his preschool he looks at me when I first walk in with a bewildered look wondering who I am. A few seconds later he realizes I'm me and he breaks into a big smile and runs to me. (Sometimes calling me Da-Da, oh well I'm working on it) He has started dancing. :) Its the cutest thing. One day in the car he started clapping to music and then starting head-banging to a rock song. It was so cute that I had to whip out my cell phone and video tape it. When I sent it to Jason he wondered if I took while I was driving. No...:)

Maks loves his cousin Rylan. This past weekend we went to my Grandma and Grandpa J's house for dinner and Rylan came over. They spent some crazy time running around through my Grandma's house (who puts a room full of crystal next to the toy room?? we have NO idea how it survived our childhood!), racing lawn mowers across the farm with Papa and Jason (yes we are a little country), and screaming everything they "said". When we got back to my parents house Rylan came in and Maks went running over to him to hug him. He held on to Rylan in a big bear hug while Rylan tried to get away. :) So cute.

His new words are "kitty-cat", "all-done", "Hi" and "Up". Okay, they don't all exactly come out sounding exactly like that but its close!

Overall I am so proud of our little guy. I am such a blessed Mom, he makes my life so much better than it has ever been before. I'm such a gusher now, but I don't care. He's amazing.

I will post pictures soon! I have to find time to connect my camera to the computer without Maks trying to eat it. :)

Busy Week!

Maks did fairly well toward the end of the week at school. He had some big days of going outside to play in the water, riding a bike (sort of), hanging up a picture of himself on the wall (and looking at it a lot), having rice krispie treats... it goes on and on. I was so worried about nap time but apparently its no problem. He averages an hour & a half or so of sleep every day! Yeah!

Last night we went to Erin & Jims for a cookout. They have a super-big backyard that Maks could run around and a very cool swing set to climb and slide down. Owen gave Maks a ride on his Jeep. As you can see, Maks loved it!

Today we met Aunt Leslie and Cousin Rylan at Portillos for lunch. They both ended up with the same bib (not planned). It was so cute. We went over to Aunt Leslie & Cousin Rylans playland (their house) for a while too. Rylan is so great with Maks. Hes so much bigger and could really just roll right over Maks if he wanted to, but he's always very gentle and lets Maks pretty much do his thing. The only thing that will make Ry crazy is when Maks tries to take his keys away. Rylan ALWAYS has to have keys. I think he's going to be a locksmith. Not a bad thing I guess. :)

Tomorrow is Easter. We got Maks and Ry coordinating outfits. :) Can't wait to see them! I'll post pictures of course!

Chesterbrook Full Time- Yikes!

Monday was another big day. Maks's first day at Chesterbrook for the full day. I was so nervous and so anxious. When I went to drop him off that day, I'm sure he could sense the nerves. He did not want me to put him down. He started crying and holding onto my next when I took his coat off. Ms. Ashley and Ms. Jenny weren't in yet so I'm sure that didn't help. Finally one of the other teachers who did know Maks came over to help. She took him from me and tried to get him to play with some toys. The last image I had was of him crying and holding his arms out to me. Walking down the hall I started to cry and ran into the Assistant Principal. What a sweet girl. She stopped to give me a hug and tell me I was perfectly normal.

The day was difficult at work. All day I worried about him; how we was eating, was he crying, how did nap time go, did he expect me to come back for him after lunch like the other days... Jason was the one to pick him up. I guess nap time went fairly well. The one teacher rocked him for just a few minutes and then he wanted down to sleep in his cot. He slept for over an hour. I find that amazing considering the fact that he will never lay down on his own at our house. Even when we rock him to sleep and he's snoring! As soon as we lay him down he starts crying again. If anyone has any other ideas, let me know.

Weekend Update

Lots of fun with Maks this weekend, lots of firsts too!

Saturday- Maks woke up in a crankier than normal mood so while Jason went out to show some houses Maks & stayed home and played here. Erin stopped by for a while and then Jason & I decided to take him to the Riverwalk downtown Naperville. It was a nice enough day and Mommy was getting cabin fever. He did pretty well in the stroller, loved to see the dogs walk by, and was pretty happy at Coldstone Creamery (see picture). I think we asked a lot of him on Saturday. We decided to take him to his first ever church service. Pastor Gary was preaching on Saturday evening, the number of people who attend that service is usually smaller and 5:30pm is usually a good time for Maks. It was the Palm Sunday service and Maks was thrilled to waive around his palm. Mommy & Daddy did their best not to have their eyes poked out by one (see picture). The service was about 45 minutes and he did really well until the last 10 minutes. Pastor Gary announced Maks's arrival in church and a few families stopped by to meet him. This is the point in the night where Mom & Dad made a poor decision, we decided to go to dinner to meet Atiya and Darius. Maks had a long day, we'd already asked him to sit down for nearly an hour, he was tired, crabby and restless. A great time to take him to a restaurant! We went to a Greek restaurant so at least it was loud! Not as many people could hear him screaming. He didn't want to sit at all, didn't want to eat at all, wanted to run all over the place, wanted to hold all of the knives and forks... you get the picture. Luckily Atiya and Darius were gracious and helped as much as possible. They capped the night off well with a bunch of presents. The golf set and basketball are already doing some damage to our walls but at least he's having fun. :)

Sunday- We decided to torture Maks a little more and take him out to look at some houses. Erin came along as our 3rd party adviser and on-the-spot Maks charmer. He did fairly well. He even let us stop by a restaurant for some lunch without a major tantrum! Tonight Grandpa J and Uncle Luke stopped by after Mom & Ang left for Spring Break in Palm Beach. Nice for them!! Maks had his first small piece of pizza and a tiny bit of popcorn. Its a Johnson tradition every Sunday night, pizza & popcorn. We're breaking him in a little at a time. Maks was thrilled to play with Uncle Luke's Cardinals hat. Poor Jason, not sure if Maks is a Cardinals fan or just like the hat. :) Lets hope for the latter.

Tomorrow is a BIG DAY. Mommy's first day back at work. Not sure how either of us will handle this one.