Counting Calories

3 weeks down and I've yet to miss a point on our fitness challenge!

This week our extra challenge is to count our calories. As a result of several recommendations, I am using livestrong.com to track my calories. It is a great tool and makes this challenge a little easier.

I find myself eating much less while having to count calories, but not for the reasons I thought. I've come in significantly below my allowed calories each day, no problem. Every time I think about eating a snack though, I think about the effort it will take to measure the food (for an accurate calorie count) and then come look it up and add it to the website. Even that little bit of extra work keeps me from those extra calories I would be eating. The no desserts allowed also makes the calorie limit easy to meet.

I'm hoping that, come this weekend, my scale agrees with livestrong.com's numbers after all this annoying counting!

Victory!

About two weeks ago I got a letter from my local newspaper saying that my account was about to be sent to collections. Of course I called in to debate this. I had signed up for one year of $1/week newspapers (for the coupons). What I didn't realize (although I should have assumed) was that they would continue my subscription at full price after that. I was no longer receiving papers and assumed it was because my year was up; really it was due to non-payment.

I conceded that I couldn't really expect them to forgive my "debt" just because I didn't read the fine print, but I should have received a notification of the change in rate, or at least a bill at some point before the collection letter. Even the supervisor I spoke with was unable to say I had been sent a bill. She told me my only recourse was to write to the accounting department who would make me pay if I had received the paper.

I don't give up that easily, so I wrote the accounting department explaining that because I was not sent a bill or notification of rate change, that my balance should be forgiven, or at least decreased to the $1/week rate I had agreed to pay.

Today I received a letter of apology stating that my account balance had been forgiven and that it was never sent to collections, etc.

$16 saved! Plus, now I can get the next year of coupons for $.75/week.

Victory!

Singing Time

Ethan loves to sing with us and do the actions. Now he can request his favorite songs in the following ways.

Old MacDonald: eieio

Itsy Bitsy Spider: hands together like a spider above his head

Beehive Song: hands up in a questioning position

If You're Happy: clapping

Wheels on the Bus: arms around and around like in the first verse

ABC: raising a fist and wiggling fingers because I sign the alphabet when I sing it. He'll also say something kind of sounding like ABC and holds out eeee at the end of each line.

And my favorite:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: up a ba, as in up above. This one took me awhile to figure out, but it cracks me up.

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes: hands on his head

Popcorn Popping: open and close fists like popcorn popping.


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Wrong pictures

The first four pictures on the last post were wrong, here are (hopefully) the right ones.
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Hello There

Busy week, but I'm sitting in a van riding back to Arizona, so I have time to update on what's been going on at my house.

On Tuesday, my twin sister Lisa came into town with her two kids-hooray!

On Wednesday we went to the Tempe splash park and dropped by my mom's office to say hi.

Thursday we went to the zoo and played in the splash pads there too.

Friday was spent at the children's museum. We also got to go out to Mexican with my mom and Gary.

Saturday we spent all day poolside at Grammy and Art's house. My brother and his wife and baby were also there-I finally got to meet my adorable new nephew Joseph the 7th, otherwise known as Seven. My Uncle Rob and his son also got to be there. We had an awesome time hanging out with family all day long.

On Sunday morning Lisa did a photo shoot of Ethan at South Mountain before we went to church for Seven's blessing. Then we loaded 6 adults, 4 kids (3 and under), and a dog into a rented 12 passenger van and headed to LA. Over a year ago my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he recently took a somewhat sudden turn for the worse. Since we were all already in Phoenix, we decided to drive out and let him see all the great grandkids, and us, at least this once more (he'd never met my niece and hasn't seen my sister in a long time). My Uncle Jimmy, who has always been very close to the kids in my family, was also able to come out from Indiana with his family, so we had a lot more quality family time. It was sad to see Grandpa so weak and sick, but fun to be together as a family.

On our way home today, Tuesday, we got stuck in a 3 hour delay caused by a semi tipping over and blocking the freeway. We let the kids out of their car seats as we essentially parked on the freeway. As the delay got longer, I got claustrophobic and realized I would be getting home too late to get my 30 min of exercise in for the fitness competition I am doing, so I went for a 40 minute walk on the shoulder. I tried jogging, but between 100 degree weather, street clothes, no hairtie, and borrowed tennis shoes with no socks, I mostly walked. I got back to the van and had stained the inside of my sister's shoe with my blood, oops.

Through all of this family hoopla, I still haven't missed a point on my fitness challenge, which means I haven't eaten any dessert or eaten past 7:30, among other things, except on Sundays. I've also been exercising at least 30 min/day. This has required a little resourcefulness like walking during a traffic jam and running stairs at the motel, but it feels great to not be going home with big fitness regrets.

And now you're caught up on the first half of my family's visit to Phoenix!

*posting from my phone means I don't know where the pictures are showing up, but here are a few glimpses of the fun. More pictures to come when people who actually carry their cameras send me some.
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More Improvised Fun

As I was moving the furniture we're not using from our guest room to the garage (Lisa is coming tomorrow-YEAH!!!) Ethan and I came up with the idea of turning the printer table Grammy and Art gave us into a little fort. Here is Ethan coming out to say peekaboo! Extra table+old pillow cases+string+hot glue=free fun!

(I didn't think of this all on my own; there are forts like these in the fort room at the Phoenix Children's Museum.)
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The Best of Both Worlds

Ethan's new game is to put as many balls as he can find into the dump truck and then dump them out, "uh no!" getting to play with a truck and balls at the same time-the best of both worlds for him.

Ethan is 20 months old today! This age is the best of both worlds for us too. He can fall asleep all by himself, but he still likes to be held and rocked before we put him down. He can communicate well, but his communication is still adorable and not yet defiant. He can stay awake long enough to go on fun outings, but he will also take two naps. He can understand directions now, but doesn't know to argue them. He knows where things belong and it's not yet a burden to put them there. He can feed himself, but isn't prejudiced against the healthy stuff.

Ethan is getting so big, and yet he's still our baby! The best of both worlds!
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Improvise

Ethan love love loves driving cars so I thought I'd make it a little more interesting for him and make a track...
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Pleasantly Surprised

I'm impressed with how Ethan can use the signs he sees on Baby Signing Time, or that I teach him, at the right time.

Today when he was shopping with my mom, they were in the toothbrush aisle, so he started signing "brush teeth".

When he saw cups in the center of an aisle he signed "water please".

Then at her house my mom got out a tricycle to try and have him ride, and he signed "bicycle".

Just a few minutes ago Ethan found out that his little toy chicken works in his ball popper, so he smiled really big and signed "laugh".

The signs for bicycle and laugh are both taught on Baby Signing Time and I have reinforced them, but both of these instances were the first time he used the sign and he did so without any prompting.

Happy!

This afternoon I got to go to the temple and I got an iPod Nano! So, I'm in a great mood!

When I was training for the Ragnar Relay, I started listening to books instead of music because it helped me block out the long runs better. So, when I decided to train for another long race, I started looking into iPods so that I could download books from the library and/or download Podcasts. I'm amazed that I was able to find a great deal on Craigslist and the person, who met me only 20 min away, actually responded and didn't back out!!!

More cool features that will help my training: a stopwatch, and the Nike pedometer thing that I don't know much about, but will be getting free of charge from my brother and sister (they've both upgraded to GPS watches, so the Nike thing will be passed to me).

As a side note, I felt really stupid sitting in the parking lot freaking out that I had been duped because I couldn't move the menu bar. Turns out, I have no idea how an iPod works. Between the flat screen TV and the iPod we bought this week, I'm feeling like I've joined the 21st century (and I'm very excited about the awesome deals we got)!

World cup

Hard to believe it was four years ago that I was sitting in classrooms in the Clyde Building at BYU watching the World Cup with a handful of other students who cared (mostly foreign of course). If I remember correctly, of all the games I watched, there was maybe 1 point scored in regulation time. That was my first experience watching soccer, and I was not impressed. Needless to say, I'm glad another guy in our ward has offered to host anyone who wants to watch the games this year so that I won't have to watch many with Mike. : )
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Late

I'm running late to go clean the church, but I have to tell this story before I forget.

We're getting ready to go and Ethan is wearing the outfit you see pictured here. He knows we're going to put shoes on to go so he brings in his red and blue plaid sneakers. I told him we weren't going to wear those because they didn't match, and then I went along with getting snacks ready for him. A few minutes later he is standing in the family room babbling at me and then he nods his head a few times very intently at me. I walk over and he has brought the green sandals you see in the picture. I asked him if he wanted to sit down and put on his shoes, "mmm hmm" and he sits down making sure he is situated to face me directly.

After I put his shoes on I went to get my shoes. He walked into the master bathroom and started babbling at me, but now he has added "umm" for the first time. Babble babble babble ummmm babble babble babble ummmmm babble babble mmm hmmm, dye! and he walks out backwards and closes the door. I love this "kind of talking" stage. As I'm typing this he is walking down the hall towards the office saying, "bow, bow, bow". It sounds like bow as in take a bow, but it means ball. Such a cutie!

Hard Words

It impresses me the words Ethan will say: bubble, elbow, flower, purple, apple, and all of these clearly. He has also started saying wow a lot. He says ball (ba) and blueberries (ba ba ba) now too. But the thing that cracks me up are those hard words he says so well.
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MmmHmmm

Ethan's new most common thing to say is "mmm hmm," always with a nod. He answers questions, like in this video, but he also encourages himself in my place. For example, this morning he was trying to walk around in my tennis shoes after I got back from running. He said, "a-shoes? mmm hmm" and nodded his head. He also uses this phrase a lot when talking on the phone. He holds the phone on his shoulder, always with the speaker facing away from his ear, and holds a conversation that goes something like this, "Daddy? Hewo? babble babble mmm hmm babble babble mmm hmm dye dye."

He woke up early this morning so he got to watch Baby Signing Time while I was running and Mike was getting ready. When the bubble song came on he saw the bubbles on the counter and started asking for them. If you watch carefully, you can see him subtly sign "bubbles" while he says it in this video. The sign for bubbles is making an "o" with each hand, raising them one at a time, and opening the "o" like bubbles floating up and popping.



New words: apple, bubble, elbow
New signs: hot, ice cream, grandma

Lisa: I wish I could capture the huge grins I was getting while he was playing with my shoes and the bubbles this morning--maybe you can help with that next week? Have you ever thought of using a bubble machine during a photo shoot? You have a bubble day coming up right? I bet you'd get some great smiles and cool shots of the bubbles!

Two for the Price of One

Two stories for you tonight:

Oh Geez
Ethan's had a rough few days probably due to teething, irregular naps (Utah trip last weekend), and the close to 11o degree temperatures! So, I've made a goal to try to get out somewhere reasonable cool every day so that he can still have fun this summer and be a bit happier.

Right after breakfast this morning (while the temperature was still in the double digits) he played on the back porch with his cars. Then we loaded up and headed to Walmart. I had to get a new broom because our old one had been used to sweep pieces of bird off our porch-thanks for that Kiwi-and was no longer suitable for indoor use. I also decided to get some new nail polish since I've been using the same two colors for the past year. There was one bottle of one color I liked in the less expensive quick-dry brand. I tried to pick it up in a way that would not interest Ethan, but was not successful. He was whining for it, so I gave in and told him to make sure he didn't drop it because it could break (that is what we call foreshadowing my friends). The next aisle over as I was looking at cat food (please stop eating animals Kiwi), Ethan drops the bottle, the neck breaks off, and nail polish starts pouring out. I quickly picked up the bottle, looked around for anything to wipe up the mess, and headed over to Customer Service to report the mishap. They thanked me for reporting the mess and refused to let me pay for the bottle. Meanwhile, Ethan wanted the nail polish glob that had gotten on my finger, and I didn't know what to do with it, so I stuck some on his finger. He promptly stuck it in his mouth (I'm sure you experienced moms out there are shaking your head at all the dumb things I've done in just one Walmart trip). Anyway, when we finally get out to the car to I notice that Ethan has a nice shiny purple lip. I sarcastically muttered, "oh geez" and then laughed a myself for getting into this whole situation. I didn't know how to get the polish off his lip, so he got to keep his pretty lip through baby time at the library. There's still a little left in this picture, see it?

I'm happy to say that after baby time Ethan took a great nap and woke up almost back to his happy self. I then put him down for a power nap at 4:30 and had to wake him up at his bedtime (7pm) to feed him dinner, silly kid.

Now That's Love
I told Mike my nail polish adventure and he responded by saying that he was doing an inspection near a Walmart and could stop to see if they had a better selection of nail polish (since Ethan broke the only bottle I liked at our store). So he did-what a thoughtful guy! He made a special trip and got me two bottles of nail polish. He said that at the cash register the person behind him put her items down without the divider, so the cashier wasn't sure what Mike was buying. The lady behind him chimed in and said, "it's the nail polish." The cashier held up the two bottles and said, "you're getting these?" Mike replied, "What, you don't think they're my color?" with a totally straight face. The cashier stammered a little and was left a bit speechless. Mike never broke and left her confused.

P.S. Speaking of love, tonight we had a family home evening lesson on temples and how our family gets to be together forever because Mike and I were married in the temple. This topic was on my mind because today my friends' three month old son passed away after complications during chemotherapy (he was diagnosed with brain cancer a few weeks ago). I've had trouble thinking of much else since I heard the news. His parents are great examples of relying on the Lord. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that Caden's family will get to be with him again. I'm grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves us and has a plan for each of us. I'm glad that Caden can now rest from all the pain he experienced in his short time here on Earth. Still, I hugged Ethan a little tighter today, and thanked the Lord for my family's health even more fervently. Please keep the Johnson family in your prayers as they cope with this tragedy.

12 Weeks

Today I started a 12 week fitness challenge/competition with some friends (exercise 6 days per week, no dessert 6 days per week, etc.) and a 12 week half marathon training program. 12 weeks from now I should be healthier, more athletic, and hopefully $440 richer (1st prize in the fitness challenge). Although I wish I had that money at the beginning of the challenge to finance an ipod for these long runs plus a haircut and nice sunglasses for the Phoenix summer! Oh well, patience is a virtue!
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Worn out

This was supposed to post yesterday:

Swim lessons=great naps for Ethan! This is him all tuckered out on the way home.

I can't tell who he looks like here. Me in the upper half of his face, but definitely Mike's chin/jaw I think.
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The end

To finish off the post-swim lesson series of posts, here is Ethan after a few minutes in the rocking chair. He must be dreaming of talking on the phone because this is how he signs phone.
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Learning Every Day

Today Ethan floated all by himself at swim lessons! I let go for several seconds and he stayed a float. Then, with arm floaties on, he stayed afloat for a whole verse of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Also, Papa babysat Ethan while I was working yesterday. When I picked him up, Ethan showed me how he could sort all of the blocks in a toy at papa's house by color! And when Papa would ask him for a certain color, most of the time he would grab the right one. I've never gotten him to do that for me.
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Michael Abegg, PE

Mike passed the PE!!! I wish I weren't working in Tucson today so that Ethan and I could drive over to his office and celebrate right now!!!

For those of you who don't know, the pe is like the CPA or Bar exam but for civil engineers.
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