Loungin'

Here is Henry hatching his escape plan from his kiddie pool at the Memorial Day bash. We have since invested in "swimmer" diapers. The regular ones take on about 148 ounces of water and look very comical once completely saturated. Eventually we just let him go skinny dippin'.

Happy Ten Month Birthday to the Master of the Sippy Cup

Most sincere apologies to my readership (all 11 of you) for my lackodaisical blogging practices as of late. Kinda busy lately.


Henry is showing true mastery of the sippy cup. We have trained him to say "ahh" after he takes a pull of water from his sippy cup. It is dang cute, too.

As you can see, Henry is still just rocking the two teeth.

Tonite, after I stripped Henry down for his evening bath, I took nude Henry out into the living room to say hi to mama and said "Hey, Henry has something to say to you" -- just then Henry peed all over the living room floor. I laughed so hard that it startled the little feller and he stopped mid-stream. Good times...

Henry Spends Evening at Cabin with Friends, Wins Hearts & Minds

We took Henry on a little overnight trip up north at a friends cabin last weekend. All things considered, things went pretty well and Henry was a well-behaved young man. He is a good little traveler. Here are a couple more pictures...

The boys went fishing and the girls... ate bacon... and Cheetos.

A Young Hugh Hefner...

Henry got this terry cloth smoking robe from Grammy Judy. I am not sure if there is supposed to be bottoms for it or what the deal is exactly, but Henry is free as the breeze in this thing. As you can see, the photo has been slightly manipulated to obscure his bits and pieces. The look on his face is priceless. It's like he knows he's being mildly exploited for our amusement and he doesn't like it.

Here's another good one. The other day Henry was digging around in his little toy box and really had his heart set on a peek-a-block way in the corner on the bottom. He kept a-reachin' and a- stretchin' and then his feet would leave the ground and he would teeter back and forth. He never quite got that peek-a-block but I could not help but admire his tenacity and zeal.

He is getting just plain dangerous with his constantly pulling himself up to a standing position. He hasn't figured out what to do after he is standing, which has resulted in many bumps and bruises.

Coming Soon: The New Johnson Family Compound

Henry has demanded more suitable living conditions. Some of you folks might not know -- but we are building a new home (aka the compound) this fall on ten acres yonder north a bit from Chisago City . There is no turning back now, since we just put our house up for sale and it sold on the first showing. To make things worse, I will serve as the general contractor in my "free time". Things could get ugly. Here are some pictures of our "spread".

It is about half wooded and half pasture and it even has a large permanent puddle that could be confused for a pond. It has a bunch of different types of trees -- lots of cedars and some maples. Here is a picture of a big old Tim Burton-style maple tree that is in our woods:

This is the field. I have been tossing around the idea of getting some livestock. Possibly a chicken or two, maybe a turkey named Gobbles. We own clear back to the tree line, roughly 1,320 feet.

The house will feature timber framing enclosed with structural insulated panel walls. Timber framing is an age-old technique utilizing mortise and tenon joinery and really big timbers. It looks sweet. Below is a picture of a timber frame similar to the one we will have, except ours will have a two car garage and a little mud room attached so mama doesn't yell at me to take off my shoes. The structural insulated panels are sweet because they offer an R-value 40% to 60% higher than that of a conventionally wood framed house. Basically, that means I could produce enough gas to heat the house for a year if you gave me a case of Natural Ice Light and a jar of pickled fish. But seriously, really low heating bills.

This is kinda what it should look like looking up from the great room...

I hope Henry and mama like it and I really hope this whole deal doesn't drive me to the point of dementia or financial ruin.

In other recent developments, Henry boasts an astounding two word vocabulary. He says "dada" or "dad" quite a bit, although I still don't think he means it. He also says a word that sorta sounds like "fish sticks". This is strange since we don't recall ever saying fish sticks to him or within earshot of him. It could simply be a testament to his genius.

Also, on the traumatic side, mama was feeding him zwieback toast the other day and he started choking on a little piece for about ten seconds.

In conclusion, we sold our house, are building a new one, and are getting a turkey named Gobbles. Also, zwieback toast is a total menace and is being considered for banishment from our house.

What a Wookie...

I thought it was time to start Henry on his vintage T-shirt collection. Here is Henry looking sophisticated and extravagent in a Chewbacca Return of the Jedi shirt circa 1983. He thought it was too cool to even wear -- but I insisted.

Is it just me, or has his nose taken on a permanent orange tint from extreme consumption of squash, peaches, sweet potatoes, and all things orange?

In other recent developments, Henry has begun to show his mastery of the sippy cup. He also has been really keen on the thingie in the picture below. You cram-a-lam little fruit chunks and what not in it and he gnaws on it.

Henry has been a little bit crabby and snotty the past few days. All indications point to his first cold. Poor little dude. As a result, Henry and I have struck a gentlemen's agreement regarding alternative temperature taking practices. No can do, no can do.