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Meera turns 8 months old today. This feels like a big milestone for us because Kyle and Owen were 8 months old when we brought them home. The newborn baby baby infant stage that we missed with our boys was so wanted by us with this third child. We are sad to see this phase go. We wish Meera could be our baby baby baby girl forever and ever. And yet, of course, every new day and every new stage and phase is an awesome discovery along the way. We recognize things about Meera now that we remember from our early days with K & O. And it feels familiar sometimes — familiar is a feeling we did not have for the first 7+ months of Meera’s life. Our time with her has, so far, been so different from our time with Kyle and Owen when they were babies. But now little things remind us that she is reaching the age that her brothers were when we became parents for the first time. Like, when I’m cutting up whole-grain bagels and putting the pieces in the freezer for Meera to gnaw on later. That is something I did so very often when K & O were little. Or like when Meera stands up slapping her hands upon, while holding herself up on, the ottoman in the family room. We spent hours watching the boys do that when they were babies. It is all bittersweet and full of emotion. Some of the feelings are similar and yet the whole entire experience is so incredibly, incredibly different on so many, many levels. We feel profoundly blessed to have been able to have a newborn by birth and to have been able to adopt by choice. And while Meera is sooooooooooo easy in comparison to K & O as babies (just simply having a singleton is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo easy compared to TWINS!!!, and that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of comparisons between her and them)… we feel truly grateful for the opportunity to parent both a single baby girl and two twin boys. What an amazing journey we find ourselves on. Milestones like this — the 8 month mark — make us pause and reflect on it all. And it all astounds us. Still. It still just keeps astounding us. Day after day. As for Meera~~~~~ what a sweetie pie this baby girl continues to be. This month has been another biggie for her. She got three new teeth on top, so she now has five teeth total. And she likes to use them for serious eating! She wants little to do with traditional baby food (i.e., pureed things). She refuses to eat applesauce, but loves to chew on fresh apple. She pushes away pureed bananas, but adores pieces of fresh ones. She whole-heartedly rejects pear from a jar, but can’t get enough of a fresh raw pear. She likes to suck on fresh pieces of cut-up orange, and — like her brothers — loves mandarin oranges from a can too. Her favorite snack, by far, is Gerber Wagon Wheels, carrot flavor. Meera is pretty much an all-organic baby, but we do make an exception for this snack and Little Miss couldn’t be more appreciative! As for ‘baby food,’ she still likes green beans and rice, and she loves sweet potatoes. Otherwise, she’ll take ‘real food’ over ‘baby food’ any day. Physically, Meera is still 100% uninterested in rolling over!!! But she wants to stand all day long. When you hold her hands and get her to ‘walk’ standing up, she laughs like crazy. She can sit on her own now for prolonged periods of time. She can stand holding on to something for stretches of 5-10 minutes. She’s done with her playmat and her swing and her bjorn chair. But she’s loving the johnny jump-up thingy and her new jumparoo that her brothers bought her. At Meera’s 8 month pediatrician appointment she measured 27 inches, 20 pounds. This is the 75th percentile for height, and 95th for weight. A big deal this month has been Mommy going back to work. Meera is one tough little cookie and seems to be handling it well. And she is building a strong bond with Margie, and vice-versa. But man, oh man!, does she ever squeal with delight, and laugh big belly laughs, and cuddle like there’s no tomorrow, when Mama comes home from work!! [and let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing better than that at the end of the work day!!!] She loves her Papi too, especially when he just calmly hangs out with her — which he is so good at doing. But still Meera’s soft spot is for her big bro’s. My goodness gracious does this girl ever adore her brothers. Her favorite part of the day is when she goes to get them at school at 1:00 (Margie confirms this to be true when Meera is with her too)… she could not be more excited and huge-smiley-happy-faced when she sees K and/or O approach her as they come out of their classrooms for pick-up. Oh my oh my! Just watching her get so excited is enough to make your day. Meera still rarely fusses and rarely cries. She definitely knows what she wants and lets it be known, but she chooses her battles carefully (which means that she basically gets whatever she wants when she does want it since it is so rare for her to assert herself!). The biggest development this month, though, has been Meera talking. She says “hi” (sounds more like ‘haaa,’ but it is clearly recognizable when you know what to listen for) and waves ‘hi’ with both hands. She says “Hi Kitty!”, “Hi Book!”, and starting just yesterday… “Hi Baby!” (to a special baby doll that she got for Christmas from MorMor and MorFar). She also waves ‘bye bye’ when someone is leaving her presence. Meera still loves the bath, the stroller, and toys toys toys. She is a happy, happy, happy 8-month-old girl!

First, we dress up!!!…

…and then, we make lasagna.

Backstory: Since school started back up after the Christmas break, K & O have been sledding at school every day. We love this about their school — they are outside a ton, every single day, rain snow sleet or hail. Their daily sledding at school this winter (despite the fact that we don’t even have what I’d consider ‘real’ snow on the ground, just patchy crusty icy spots of “snow” that doesn’t even fully cover the ground) has been a serious highlight of their lives of late. They talk about it non-stop and we hear lots and lots about the sledding every day. Even though K & O are in separate classrooms, the two kindergarten groups often play together outside. I haven’t blogged about it yet this year, but K & O are still good friends with Wil (see this post from last year). This year Wil is in Owen’s classroom, but I’ve noticed on a few occasions that both K & O keep a special eye out for Wil and they don’t let anyone mess with him. Wil’s mother has mentioned to me more than once how appreciative she is of this (she’s noticed it too). On the playground, K & O are definitely each other’s #1, but Wil is surely their #2. Driving home from school today in the car…

K: Owen, why was Wil and Joshy not sledding today?
O: Oh, you know.
K: No, I don’t. Please tell the story.
O: Oh, you know!
K: No I don’t!!! PLEASE tell the STORY OWEN!
O: Well, o.k., but it is a pretty short story.
K: O.k.
O: We were sledding even before you came out. And Wil and Joshy weren’t listening to the teachers. They weren’t listening. Not at all. So they had to not be sledding. And that is the story.
K: Oh.
O: See Kyle, it was a short story. {at this point I notice that Owen looks at me in the rear view mirror when he says this… and I begin to suspect there is more to the story but that he is self-conscious that I am listening and doesn’t want to spill it while I’m around}
[silence for a moment]K: But the rest. Tell me the rest. Tell me the whole story Owen. I didn’t know what happened. About how Wil was sledding.
O: Oh. {I notice him look at me again in the rear view mirror but I quickly divert eye contact and act like I’m totally oblivious}
K: COME ON OWEN! COME ON!!!
O: Oh.
K: COME ON OWEN!
O: O.k., o.k., o.k. Well, I snuck over to Wil when Miss Joyce wasn’t looking and quickly told him to get on my sled before Miss Joyce sees him and I got him on it and I got on it and I pushed us down and Miss Joyce was running after us but she couldn’t catch us.
K: Oh! Did she get mad?!
O: No, actually she was laughing!
K: What did she say?
O: She said ‘Wil has a pretty good friend!’

Oh gosh, I love this picture. Click to enlarge. Every once in a while a photo shows up that just sits exactly right with me. This is one. Can’t really explain it all (and don’t really want to try), I just love everything about it. This was Friday night during supper (chicken & veggie stir-fry with rice; mandarin oranges for dessert). We had a Family Weekend this weekend. Unfortunately this Family Weekend had to include running errands and doing some stuff around the house (we try to avoid that on these weekends), but we made the best of it. Here is our Weekend Wrap-Up.

Friday night I took the boys to see Step Afrika at Lehigh. Braydon stayed home with Little Miss. The show was stellar!!! And the whole entire night was truly a Top Ten night. The performance started at 8pm, which is super late for K & O (who usually are in bed at 6:30). It was very, very, very, very, very special to be going out to something so late. Even driving in the dark is a rare thing for K & O, and thus very exciting. And to be out on the town with just Mama. It was all very special. Step Afrika was an awesome show. The boys were the youngest people (by far) in the place, but nonetheless, as usual, they ended up stealing the show. They tend to do that. When they asked for ‘audience participation’ Kyle stood up and raised his hand as high as he could. We were in the third row. They spotted him. They called him up. Of course. He brought his brother (two for one). And that was that. I’d be shocked if there was one person in the crowd (a crowd of a 3 or 4 hundred at least) who wasn’t in love with my boys by the end of their time on stage. And me, well, I just fell in love with them all over again. They were so So so SO SO so sO So darn adorable, up there, shaking their booties, earnestly trying to learn how to step, two gorgeous little bambinos with enough charisma to light up the entire state of Pennsylvania. Seriously, I know, I know, I’m bragging (I try not to), but this was a Top Ten night people. A Top Ten night. They were SO DARN CUTE. Another highlight was that we got to sit next to Calvin. Kyle was so sweet I thought my heart was going to melt all over the floor — holding Calvin’s hand, leaning on Calvin’s shoulder, scooting up onto Calvin’s lap, snuggling as close to Calvin as he could get, mimicking everything Calvin did (if Calvin clapped, Kyle clapped; if Calvin yelled ‘woot woot!’, Kyle yelled ‘woot woot!’; if Calvin hooted and hollered, Kyle hooted and hollered). It was really sweet. Anyway, the whole night was just spectacular… it is not very often that my boys behave perfectly… ever… let alone both at the same time. It was like everything just came together brilliantly for this one night and they made me feel like the happiest luckiest mama on the entire planet. On the way home we went through the McDonald’s drive through for french fries and chocolate milk. Now that topped off the night for them. They were on Cloud 9 already and that just put them on Cloud 10. We got home at 10:45 and Braydon helped me carry them in and get them into bed… sound asleep with smiles on their faces. If you ever get the chance to see Step Afrika go!

Our family pretty much hates running errands. We try to limit it as much as we can. Except for the grocery store (which is a weekly trip), we try to only go to stores every 6 weeks or so. This weekend we had to do some things so we tried to make the most of it by going out to lunch, etc., etc., etc. Saturday one of the things we had to do was to go to Babies-R-Us for some necessities. Good thing we don’t go there often. We came out with this (above). K & O spotted it in the store, knew instantly that it was the “perfect!!!” toy for Meera, insisted we let Meera try it out, and then begged us like they never begged before to buy it for her. We could not resist their incredible sweet big-brotherness. Plus we knew that indeed she would LOVE it. So, there it is. She does love it and has already spent much time in it.

Meera is just as bored with errands as the rest of us. This was at the grocery store.

Playing in the kitchen sink: still one of the boys’ absolute favorite activities. Water ends up everywhere and mopping it all up is a serious pain. But it is worth it. They’ll do this for over an hour at a stretch. I can’t think of any other indoor activity that K & O will do for that long.

These boys are exhausting on even the best of days. They are just so incredibly busy-active-in-motion-going-going-going-rambunctious-precocious (how many other ways can you say “challenging” in a nice way???). They just are that. They push us to our max. And Meera, well, she is just along for the ride, as mellow as can be, thank God. By the end of a Family Weekend like this — when it is all five of us all the time — we are truly tired (all 5 of us, actually). But these weekends hold us together unlike anything else (except a family vacation… which, in the dead of winter, we’re now fantasizing about daily). Times like these are the glue that holds this family together. And so it goes.

So, we’ve made it through our first week with Margie (she does not come on Fridays, so today was her last day this week). It went better than I ever would have expected. Yay for us! I cannot even articulate the relief and happiness this gives me! Today Braydon worked from home. Here is a little email correspondence between us from late morning:

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:59 [11:29 AM EST]
From: Heather Johnson
To: Braydon Johnson-McCormick
Subject: ?
How is it going there? I’m *so* curious what you’re observing w/ Margie.hbj

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:29 [11:29 AM EST]From: Braydon Johnson-McCormick
To: Heather Johnson
Subject: Re: ?
Hi –
I have to say – it’s going great here. Meera slept for 2 hours and happily chatted in her crib for 20 minutes. While she slept Margie cleaned. Like really cleaned. Dusting, moving things, cleaning behind. Like she lived her. Like what we would do if we were cleaning for a couple hours a day. Taking it easy, but doing it right. It’s great.
And Meera is very happy. She’s smiling and comfortable with Margie. She was delighted to see me when I went out and saw her after her nap, but she seems really happy and comfortable.
So far I am feeling really good about it all!

Meera did splendidly all week, napping for Margie every morning and afternoon without any issues. The boys are struggling to adjust to a new set of rules and a new style, etc. but they already show much love toward Margie and the bond is growing by the day. They have done as well as any two four year olds could be expected to do during their first week with a new Nanny. Margie seems to truly love all three kids already. Which seems, to me at least, like a miracle. And our house is cleaner than it has EVER (ever!) been. For real. As for Braydon and I… we’re on Cloud 9 and very, very optimistic.

Tonight after Margie left we surprised the boys and announced that we were going to go out to Carrabas (their favorite restaurant) for dinner to celebrate “End of First Week With Our New Nanny.” They were beside themselves with the thrill of this (we very rarely go out to dinner with them these days because their bedtimes — and Meera’s — are so early). These pictures are terrible (taken with Braydon’s cell phone), but at least they are something, and hopefully they show a bit of how fun it was for us and what a celebration it was. End of First Week With Our New Nanny and all is well.

Anyone who’s been following this blog for long knows that K & O are huge Obama fans. This is, of course, in large part because we’ve socialized them this way. But they do seem to have a genuine appreciation for all that “Baracko” (as they call him) represents. Seriously. And they (K, especially) is genuinely interested in the whole political process, the presidency, the White House, etc., etc., etc. Owen is mostly interested in Malia and Sasha (hmmmmmmm….?!), but still, he’s genuinely interested in his own right (!). They (again, K especially) will still, months after the election, ask strangers they meet who they voted for. They make sure that friends and relatives are Obama supporters whenever possible. And they question (like, deeply and directly and repeatedly question) our neighbors who had McCain signs in their yards during the campaign about why they like McCain better than Baracko, ETC. One of our neighbors recently told me that Kyle’s questions regarding her support for McCain made her think more about the election than anything else had in the past year. He’s that serious about it. Anyway, the morning of the inauguration Kyle woke up, ran into our bathroom, opened up the shower door (I was showering) and with a huge grin on his face said, “Today’s Baracko’s ‘Inn-ogg-nation’ Mommy?????” Yes! It was a big day. After school and work, and after Margie left (her first full day as New Nanny), we had a big J-M celebration. Balloons and all. “Congrats to You” the balloons said (a balloon for each kid), and strawberries (a rare treat in winter), tortellini (one of K & O’s favorite meals), and a “Baracko Cake” (complete with candles) were enjoyed by all. (Note: this was Meera’s first balloon, ever, and she LOVED LOVED LOVED it). Per Owen’s request we sang “We love you Barack Obama” to the tune of “Happy Birthday to You” and then blew out candles. The biggest treat of all, though, was the rarity of having the television on during waking hours on a week day. We watched the inauguration news coverage throughout our celebration. A big, huge, awesome historic day. I wonder if K & O will remember it… it is possible… and I hope that they do.

Be sure to click the “full screen button” (next to the word vimeo) to see it large!

The Johnson-McCormick celebration of Barack’s inauguration from Braydon Johnson-McCormick on Vimeo.

Margie is our new nanny! It was time for us to bite the bullet and go down the ‘Nanny Road’ (with a capital ‘N’ and ‘R’). While we definitely weren’t wanting someone to live with us, we knew that we need someone who can take care of us full-time and be here at our house during the week. Due to some stars aligning in some seriously amazing ways, we found Margie and Margie found us. She’s had her own in-home daycare for over 15 years, she’s a serious professional with a ton of experience… and we’re feeling quite honored that she’s chosen to trade in her in-home-daycare career to take on us. In addition to being way over-qualified in every possible way, she’s also experienced dealing with some of the stuff we worry about most — like, living in a predominantly white area; being Hispanic herself, having grown up here, and having raised her own two bi-racial daughters here, Margie comes to us with lots of wisdom to offer our young and unusual family. She also hit it off with Meera, Kyle, and Owen right from the start, which is, of course, key. Oh, and she has an incredible amount of (much needed) energy. All this, combined with her 50+ years of wisdom (yes, can you believe it? you’d never know it from looking at her, but she’s 50~something years young!!!), make her quite possibly the perfect Nanny for us. Of course we don’t want to jinx ourselves, so we’ll see how it all goes in the coming weeks, but we have reason to believe that this just might work out in a real way. For the past six weeks she’s been coming over for a few hours here and there. We’re pretty well acquainted with her now, and she with us. Today she was here for the day with me, and tomorrow is her first day flying entirely solo with all three kiddos. She’ll be with Meera all morning and then the two of them will go to pick up K & O from school. Margie and the threesome will spend the afternoons here at home together. This scenario is the best possible. Meera can keep her home routine in tact, and K, O, and M can all stick together during the hours that Kyle and Owen aren’t in school. I’m feeling very, very, very good about this childcare (and, let’s be honest, family-care) situation. This afternoon I watched as she captivated K & O with a story of a humpback whale and whale-baby. And then a few minutes later I watched Little Miss squeal with delight on Margie’s lap. We’ll see how it all unfolds, but really– I could see this lasting for the long haul. A girl can hope!

My first week back to work is ending on a high note. Shockingly (only to me, who was the only one stressed out about it), all of us are intact. Our family life has, apparently, held together a-o.k.. The twosome (K & O), the threesome (K, O, M), and the “growned ups” (that is, supposedly, H & B) have all their bonds holding strong. All’s well that ends well. As usual, the anxiety and anticipation (again, for me only, — none of the other four were concerned) leading up to it (the end of my maternity leave) were a lot worse than when the rubber actually hit the road. Everybody handled this week just fine. Meera showed only slight signs of distress (manifested in her sleeping~~ i.e., refusing to nap unless I put her down & waking up every 2 hours throughout the night last night), which is, I think, to be expected, and is, I think, minor in the grand scheme of things. The boys were their happy wild normal selves all week. Braydon is more relaxed than I’ve seen him in a long time. And I’m feeling quite a bit more well-rounded than I have in many months. We’re grounded and we’re tight. All’s good. It is crazy, but good. Next week will be big for us. Week 2 of Mommy-Back-To-Work and… … … … …Our new nanny (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) officially starts Monday. This is big. We plan on spending the weekend regrouping and rejuvenating before our big week begins. As for now… TGIF.