Johnson Household

So, I shared our Macy’s Parade experience and now the rest of the weekend.

After we got home from the parade we were all pretty tired.  I put Dagny down for a nap and wished I could joined her, but felt guilty doing it.   So, I sucked it up and went back downstairs to hang out with the family.  It was nice for all of us to be under the same roof catching up.

Here are some photos from the day.

My Bro

Yum

Emerson and his little lady

We celebrated Dagny’s birthday.  Here she is all shy as we are singing happy birthday to her.

She was in his arms a lot

Dagny got the Dora backpack along with tons of goodies from her aunt and uncle. She was in heaven.

Awesome cash registor from Uncle Tim.

Little girl made out good.

We drove home Saturday and had all day Sunday to regroup and get ready for the week.

Barbara

We can check that off our list.

My girls

We had six tickets for the parade courtesy of my in-laws.  We had the option of going last year, but we thought it would be a good idea to wait a year for Dagny to get a little bit older.  I am sure she isn’t going to remember any of it, but I am pretty sure our her experience was tons more enjoyable then if we would of gone last year.

We woke up at 5 am and to my surprise Dagny got up with no problems at all.  In fact she asked me “Are we going to the Macy’s parade?” Too stinkin cute.  We all ate some breakfast and my superhero brother drove us all into NYC and dropped us right at the entrance for ticket holders.

Get ready for tons of photos.  There is no way, this post can be anything other than photo heavy.

Emerson waiting in the cold for the parade to start.

Tim handling the cold a little better.

A lot of this was going on.

Kermit!

This was our favorite float from the parade.  Dagny was beside herself, as was I.

Sesame Street!

Out of all the “celebrities” he was the coolest by far.

Jimmy Fallon!

Dagny was super excited about seeing Shrek after we told her he would be there.  This is her seeing the big guy up close.

Dagny

The man, I mean ogre.

Dora, another hit.

Balloon wise, this was perhaps my favorite.

Spiderman

Okay, maybe it really was this.

SMURF

Here is Dagny seeing Santa.

Seeing Santa

I think it was so nice of Santa to come all the way from the North Pole during his busy time of the year.

Santa

The big man looking right at us.

Santa!

I really didn’t expect it to be as fun as it turned out to be.  The weather held out, which up until the day before it was suppose to rain. We were very, very lucky.  And to end a perfect morning, my superhero brother picked us up after it was done.  He rocks!

Barbara

Baby girl is going to be in for a rude awakening when she realizes that birthdays are actually a 1-day celebration.  It all started with Dagny’s birthday party this past Saturday, that’s 1.  Sunday, was her actual birthday, that’s 2.  Monday, the preschool had a little celebration for her, that’s 3.  So, D’s birthday turned into a 3-day festival purely by coincidence.   The kicker is we are not done.  Next week when we go to NYC we will be having her “family” birthday party.

I had so much stress fun planning her birthday.  I just want to give a big shout out to Craig who allowed his estrogen side to shine through by making all the poms.  Yet another reason why he is a great dad and life partner!

POMS a la Craig

Last year I made Dagny’s birthday cake, but this year I decided I didn’t really need to win the Mother of the Year Award.   I figured second place still gets me on the podium, so we did the next best thing, a cake and cupcakes from COLDSTONE.  Due to the success of the cake, I might still be in the running for first place.

Yummy

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl

It was Mommy Bear’s birthday too.

Mommy Bear

After the party.  Someone is tired.

Long day

I already posted about Dagny’s actual birthday, so I wont recap.  Monday, Craig and I met at Lil D’s preschool after lunch to join in on the celebration.

Adorable

This is when her friends were singing “Happy Birthday” to her.  She has gotten so shy lately.

Shy girl with a big crown.

I promise that I am done with the birthday posts… well, until NYC.

Barbara

Dearest Dagny,

You have changed so much this past year.  You are officially a little person that can convey her thoughts and emotions.  It’s so nice to start to understand what your feeling and thinking.

There has been many changes during this year, but you handled them all like a champ.  We moved this past April to Brighton for the “right” school district.  You have adjusted wonderfully to your new environment. You especially love your new in-ground pool, just like your daddy.

You started at Doodlebugs in their Preschool program this past September.  You love it!  It’s as simple as that.  You love your teachers and your new friends.  When I drop you off in the morning, you literally get swarmed by your friends.  I like mornings like that, it makes having to say good-bye to you tolerable.  I hate when you’re not with me, but I love it when you’re happy and preschool makes you very happy.

We had our first parent-teacher conference.  Your teacher, Miss Rachel, shared your evaluation with us. It breaks down to this, you are smart, far advance for your age.  I am not saying this because I am bragging, but because I am so proud of you.  In your short 3 years on this earth, you have gone through so much that most people never even come close to.  You started your life in a different country without mommy and daddy.  But now, you are where you were always meant to be.  You are home with us.  We love you so much. When I look at you and see how happy and content you are it brings tears to my eyes.

You have started to be far more emotional in good and bad ways.  The not so good ways first.  Up until now, we thought we had escaped the whole terrible twos.  I am not saying you didn’t have your moments, but all in all you were very well behaved.  Then about four weeks ago, this other child came to live with us. I have never seen this side of you, you were simply put, bad!  Daddy and I started to worry because it was out of character for you.  We have heard that 3’s could be worst then 2’s, this doesn’t make me terribly excited.  Yikes.  I will say that I have noticed yet another swift in your behavior these past few days, for the better.  It seems you’re getting out of your funk, because you have improved your listening skills.  You’re a kid and with that comes the ups and downs.  I think you just wanted to remind us of this fact.  I also think you wanted to make sure that your dad and I didn’t escape your two’s without some terrible two incidents. For the future, no need to hit all the milestones for us, we can do without these kinds.

Now for the good emotions.  Holy smokes, you show so much more affection. You love to cuddle with us.  You run to me and simply give me a big hug with a huge smile.  Sometime out of the blue, you say “Mommy, I love you!” One day when you are a mom, you realize how precious these moments are.  Nothing beats these moments, nothing.

We went to your 3 year old well-visit and you did wonderfully.  You did great by answering Dr. K’s questions with thoughtfulness and accuracy.  Kiddo, you grew 4 inches in one year, holy smokes.  You are 90% for height.  Hello!

This was another year of wonderful changes for all of us.  You are a sweet little girl, that brings so much joy to us.  I hope you sense that when you get older.

I am so proud of the person you are becoming.

I love you very much.

Mommy

Our little girl turned three today. She is growing up so fast.

This morning, Dagny opened her gifts from us and her Agi Mama. (Birthday party post coming shortly.)

I just really like this photo.

Getting right to business.

Dagny is always taking photos, so we got her first digital camera. I think she likes it.  As you can tell, we also like to coordinate Dagny’s shirt with her toys. We’re cool like that.

Look at that smile.

(Excuse the mess in the background.  We are still in party mode.)

Reviewing the photos.

Dagny playing with what she calls her “computer” that she got from Agi Mama.  She is really picking up on how to use the different things offered on it. And, of course the camera is not too far from her.  This scene was pretty much the whole day.

Our little techie in training!

Barbara