Vivian Reese, Camille Sofia, and Charles Dale

Vivian broke through her lower left 2 year molar. She got a little fussy and we thought it may be an ear infection, but after further inspection, we found a new tooth :)

Yes, you read it right...she is 36 5/8 inches tall!! Daddy is thinking Knoxville, TN for a basketball scholarship and Papa is thinking golf :) She is very healthly and had an excellent check-up. She talked to the doctor, sang songs to him, and was cracking him up (and mom too). She is such a good girl!!

Quick update...Vivian has named the baby..."Hoosier"! Also, we had an ultrasound for Hoosier about a month ago and everything was great and on schedule! Healthy little baby girl or boy! Mommy is not feeling very good this pregnancy, so updates have been very slow and I appologize. I keep hoping to turn the corner, but unfortunately I keep hitting the wall :) Vivian is doing great! She is a smart little girl, too smart for her own good sometimes, but she is very sweet. I will update pictures and more info after her birthday next weekend. We are also going to get 2 yr pictures in the next 2 or 3 weeks and will get those posted as well.

Have a great weekend!

Well, many of you have already heard the word, but in case you haven't...Vivian is going to be a BIG SISTER!! As you have noticed, I have been slacking on the updates, so this is officially my excuse :) I didn't feel great in the beginning, but now I am feeling a lot better. So, hopefully with the holidays and all, I will keep the updates better. I hope to start up the belly pictures soon, but I haven't taken one yet and I am 16 weeks!! Time is really flying the second time around.

As for Vivian, she is really growing up right in front of our eyes. She is talking very well these days and starting to really show that little attitude of hers. She can count to 13 (skipping 4 and 5 most times), knows all her colors, some shapes, and even a few spanish words. She sings all the time. Mommy really thinks that is cute!

Well, back to mommy duties...bath time! More to come later and the ultrasound is scheduled for December 5th!

A very belated entry, but over the past 2 weeks, Vivian got all four I teeth. They seemed to be painful, but she was a trooper throughout the process. It is funny to start to see the spaces fill in and begin to see a full mouth of teeth :)

We went to the circus on Saturday with a friend from work and Vivian really enjoyed that. We got to sit in the suite so that she could run around a bit. She really liked the elephants and all the music and noise.

On another note, she is singing all the time and it is so, so sweet. Even if she doesn't know the words, she pretends. She knows all the main colors (except we struggle with Red). She is also starting to recognize some numbers and letters. We got to daycare this morning and she was waiting for me to get her out of the car and she said "momma see 2?" I looked up and on the front of the garage was my daycare's address "1822". I said yes momma sees the number 2. She was so proud of herself and she kept telling me that she saw 2. She is really growing up faster than you can imagine. If you haven't seen her for a while, she is really turning into a little girl.

More pictures soon, I hope :)

I can't even keep up with all the updates anymore! She really is a big girl now (tear, tear). Her teacher at school tells us that she is very gracious and respectful for her age. Don't get me wrong, we still throw good fits, but most of the time she is very sweet and polite. Everything now is thank you momma, thank you dadda, thank you baby, etc. She is really starting to put words together more and they are starting to make sense! Yesterday, she told me to "take pink lid off momma" and she had the color right!! She is also starting to sing a lot and I think it is so cute. She goes to her vanity and sings itsy bitsy spider, puts on her sunglasses and says "oh yeah, oh yeah". Not a ham at all...

Back to the colors, I think she actually knows purple, pink, red, and possibly blue. It is amazing how much she is learning right now. She also continues to love animals. We went to the state fair on Saturday and she loved the horses. We watched the gallop and prance and she said "i want to ride mamma". She also liked the llamas. I kept asking her if she was ready to leave the llamas and she kept saying no. Eventually, she looked a me and said "bye, bye llama" and blew them a kiss. Before we left, we watched the parade a bit and she waived at the princesses. Pretty cute :)

We started dance lessons tonight at mommy's old dance studio. I put some pictures up...it was really cute. I was worried because you basically take them in a room and leave them for a 1/2 hour and you can't even watch!! I thought this may be bad, but she gave me a kiss and said "bye mamma" and started chasing other little girls around. She never cried and they said she did great. She listened and did all the dance moves, but especially loved the shake-it dance. We will get to watch in 2 weeks and hopefully I will get some pictures.

Well, I think that is all for now. I will try to update as much as possible. She keeps us very busy these days!

Just a quick update and then more next week...or maybe tomorrow. We had our 18 month check-up yesterday and she is doing great! She is very, very tall and thin. Viv didn't gain much weight, but grew about 2 inches!! No wonder we can't dress her. Everything is so, so short when it fits her little waist :) She is doing well developmentally, too. She is saying almost anything you say these days and speaking more clearly every day. We hear a lot of "mine", "no", "Vivian's", which I guess is to be expected of this age. She loves for us to sing and some times she joins in too! She is a little jabber mouth. Her favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pretty Baby, Apples and Bananas, and 10 little monkeys. However, she will listen to pretty much anything you are willing to sing.

Well, I need to post some more pics and add a little more, but I am beat. She ran me around all day!! More to come soon...

I am way overdue for an update...but I added some pictures from the weekend. First, the greenwood fireworks on Saturday night and second, a play date with Abby Judy. We had a very fun weekend and we thank everyone we spent time with :) I will update more details this week. She has changed so much lately!

Vivian has had a little run of bad luck with viruses lately, but has been a trooper through it. She has had a few colds, with nasty coughs and sore throats :( She seems better this week and we are ready to enjoy the nice weather this weekend! She is growing up too fast, but we are enjoying all the new things she can do. As always, she is very independent and now doesn't want to be carried at all. She says "walk, walk, WALK" when you get her out of the car. She is also starting to sing a lot. She can do the spider song and dora song. According to Mrs. Baker, she can also do the motions to the Blues clues song. When you stop singing, she says "more, more".

She started eating at a table at daycare with the big kids this week. She absolutely loves it and they tell me she is doing great. What a big girl.

We went to the doctor a couple weeks ago for a check up and she is growing like a weed - 23lb 10oz and 32 3/4 long! Many have weighed in on what the future holds - Daddy says soccer or volleyball, Mommy says Tennis, Grandpa says Golf. We'll see what the princess has in store for us someday. After our last photo shoot, we just hope she keeps her clothes on someday :)

Well, thanks for checking in and have a great weekend! Happy belated Mother's Day to all the great moms reading this update!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Vivian is feeling much better the past few days and enjoying the awesome weather we have had. She went to Grammy and Grandpa's house on Sunday morning to run wild in their big yard. She really enjoyed all the free space. Then we played with our neighbor friends in the evening with the water table. A big outdoor day!! We played outside last night too. She likes everything, except for coming inside at night :)

She continues to be a chatter box and is learning more words all the time. Her newest words are sit, step, more, dora, mo (elmo), shh...at least these are the ones I can remember! She is a little sponge. We think she might even know the color yellow!! She definately knows that dandelions are yellow, as these are her new favorite thing when we take walks!

Anyway, we will go see how much she has grown on Friday and give another update then. Thanks for checking in and have a wonderful week!

Quick update...

On Thursday early morning, Vivian woke up with a pretty high fever and screaming about it. She also was making weird noises with her throat?? Since our neighbor's girls just got over strep throat and a virus (also with a sore throat), this was not overly surprising to me. I decided that with the strep throat "threat", we would probably just head to the dr. Then, she sort of vomited (poor baby). Luckily, this was the only time, at least so far. We went to the dr and have a red and swollen throat, but no strep. So, we must have the virus.

Anyway, Thursday and Friday were very challenging as Vivian ran a very high fever, which peaked at 104.5, and wouldn't drink or eat much of anything. She was also having trouble sleeping. Finally this morning, she started to feel better and her fever broke this afternoon. She has started eating and drinking better this evening and as far as the sleep, we'll see how tonight goes :)

We were still able to enjoy long walks and a little park time this afternoon. Our little girl loves the outdoors! Hopefully tomorrow she will be back to our happy little girl. We hate to see her so sick :( Have a great rest of the weekend!

Yeah...we got our last molar (at least for now)! We had a little bit of a cranky girl over the weekend, but not bad considering how much those little molars must hurt coming through! She is enjoying all of her new teeth and eating more new foods. She loves Gerber fruit chews and tortilla chips are her new fav :)

She is also learning new words and sounds every day. It is amazing. She has embraced "please" and "thank you", as she knows that mommy and daddy cannot resist the cutest little request in the world. Today at school she was trying to say her own name (this may be a challenge for a bit, but at least she is trying). Vivian trys to repeat everything, but it doesn't always come out right. It is really cute to see her speech develop :)

Vivian loves water and enjoys baths even more now. We tried to sign her up for Mommy and me swim lessons, but they are full for this session. We will try to get in again in June. For now we will use the bath and water table to play in the water.

Vivian is still loving her daycare and all of her little friends there. About a month or so ago (right after her 1st birthday), she "graduated" to the big kids class. She is taking one nap a day and doing school with the older kids. She loves school and is learning colors, music, and lots of other stuff. She really loves to hang out and be a big girl. Last week she was trying to sing and do the motions along with the bible verse for the week. How cute? She also has learned to do the itsy bitsy spider and dance like crazy. She woke up this morning and stood up and said "dance". We danced and she loved it!

Lastly, Vivian is giving hugs and kisses like the sweet little girl she is. She tells mommy and daddy (and her babies) "bye, bye" and "night, night" and gives us kisses and waves and we love it more than anything in the whole world :) She is really growing up fast and we are trying to enjoy every minute of it!

Another new tooth...only one more molar and we will hit 12 teeth. I think it will come in the next week or two.

Another molar...yikes! At least we are getting them all out of the way at one time!!

We enjoyed a fun day outside today. I think we are going to hit the zoo tomorrow. New pictures to come soon. The whole family is on antibiotics now and is glad to be on the mend. Not only did Viv have ear infections, but so did Mommy...and Daddy had pink eye and a sinus infection! Ahhh...will we ever be healthy again?? Can't wait for spring...oh, yeah, allergies :)

Well, mom and Vivian are spending some extra time together today. We went to see Dr. Smith and he told us that we had a double ear infection and pink eye in both eyes!! Poor little girl :( Lots of TLC this week!!

Another new tooth!! This one is a bottom tooth...about time they starting catching up :) So, the total count is 9 and I am sure that we will have at least 3 more before we get to 15 months!

As for other news, Vivian loves being outdoors. She loves to be free and run with the wind. It is very tiring for Mommy and Daddy, but fun to see her run and play. She is starting to add more words everyday. Today we were watching a bit of Dora before bed and she said backpack when it was on tv. Also, we were reading color books and she would repeat blue, green and yellow when I told her which page it was on. She is growing up way too fast...literally. The girl is wearing 24 month shirts (only 18 month pants) and we may hit 2T by mid-summer!! She is a string bean!

Anyway, Happy St. Patty's Day to all and have a great weekend.

Our second molar came through today. What a bad week for me :(

Mommy noticed my first upper molar yesterday - ouch!!

Well, just a few notes from the weekend...on Saturday, Vivian's friend Carter, his mom (Tracy), and Mimi came over along with Vivian's Grammy (Susie). We had a lot of fun and took some pictures which you can see in the March pictures. They ate lunch together, played hard, and then got really sleepy (you can see them in the chair). They gave hugs and kisses (very cute). We all got quite a kick out of it :)

On Sunday, we went to the Children's Museum with Grandpa Kay (pics are also in March pictures). We loved the Glass exhibit and the Clifford slide! We stayed for around 3 hours!!! Obviously having tons of fun, we might have to do this more often. After the fun, we took a big 3 hour nap...another reason to do this more often ;)

Well, pretty much it for now. We are still enjoying all of our new goodies from the birthday party. Thanks again everyone! We are looking forward to spring...walks outside, playing at the playground, and hanging out with the neighbor kids. Have a great week :)

Happy Belated Birthday!! After 2 rounds of the stomach flu, we finally celebrated our baby girl's birthday. It turned out to be a perfect day for Vivian, as she was in a wonderful mood and enjoyed the party. Weather...another story. Thanks to all of you that made it over in the nasty weather. We had a great time and Vivian did too!

I think her favorite thing, besides the blue icing, was singing happy birthday. She grinned ear to ear and loved every second of it!! SO CUTE :) She dug right into the icing and liked it so much she really didn't do much with the cake. However, we have found that she likes the cake too. Yesterday I was having a piece and she saw the icing and wanted it! She opened her mouth and started yelling at me, so I told her to ask nicely the next time. So, then as soon as she finished that bite, she opened up again. I told her to say "more please" and she did!! Everyday she seems to be adding more words and sounds. What a fun time this is!

We had to add more rooms to the house to get the new toys and books in and Vivian is loving them. I don't think she has a favorite new toy, she just likes having some new stuff around. We had a lot of fun yesterday exploring all the new stuff.

Well, gotta get back to work, but just wanted to THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!! Vivian was glad to share her special day with you all :)

We had a well baby visit today and that went really well. We got 3 shots :( but otherwise all was well. She is still a "big girl" at 95% in height and 85% in weight.

GO COLTS!!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the birthday girl is getting better. Much more herself today...the fever broke this morning - YEAH! We are rescheduling the party for February 24th and we'll get the info out soon. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers!

For all that have not heard, I am getting to everyone as fast as I can...the party scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed. Vivian has a nasty stomach virus and she does not want to share this with her birthday guests. I am shooting for rescheduling the last week of February (either Sat or Sun). I will get something in the mail as soon as I can.

Keep Miss Viv in your thought and prayers...she is pretty miserable today :(

Happy Birthday to our beautiful baby girl! We will have a party this weekend and post pictures of the fun. Have a wonderful day Miss Vivian!!

Well, a lot has happened over the past few weeks and we haven't updated...so here are the highlights! We have one new tooth on top and probably another in the next week for a total of 6 teeth. This isn't a very fun process and we look forward to having all of our teeth soon :) We are dancing a lot, climbing (not Mom's favorite new activity), and drinking only from a cup - YEAH, no more bottles!! And no more baby food either!! We are eating like the big kids. We have also moved to soy formula and now onto organic whole milk. So far so good... Some of our favorite foods are banana, shredded cheese, "yo baby" banana yogurt, honey shredded turkey, and toast. We are also a big fan of cereal bars in the morning.

We had a wonderful Christmas and Vivian had a great time opening and playing with all her new toys. She really loves her new baby dolls. She kisses, hugs (loves), rocks, and drops the babies on their heads! She likes for us to wrap the baby in a blanket and then she rocks the baby. Very sweet. She continues to love reading books and riding her rocking horse, dora car, and anything else she can make a little vehicle.

She is starting to talk a lot more and it is mostly jabber. Occasionally it will sound like words, but it is hard telling. She is definatley saying ball, da da, dog, meow, ba ba (for her cup), and dider (for her diaper). Notice, no ma ma yet :(

Well, I gotta run, she is sick today and waking up. Catch up more later...enjoy the new videos!

Vivian went to see Santa for the first time today. She went to the Children's Museum and was a very big girl!! The girl right before us, who looked to be Viv's age, was screaming and we thought this was a preview for us. However, Vivian liked Santa, looked up at him and even smiled at the end...all very cute. We had a fun day at the museum and Mom will put some cute pictures up later.

Vivian is feeling much better and has her appetite back (times ten)! She is eating and drinking better than ever. We are down to 3 bottles a day (no morning bottle) and will probably be down another bottle after next week. Yeah, but a little tear because she is growing up so quickly!

Well, we will take lots of photos at Christmas and post them next week. Until then, have a very Merry Christmas!

Luv, the Johns' family

Well, this isn't a doctor's visit today, but I have been very bad at updating the past few weeks as Vivian has been feeling pretty bad :( She started getting sick about 2 weeks ago with a cold and then last Thursday she was diagnosed with RSV (a respitory virus). She was home with us until Tuesday and during that time she was also diagnosed with pneumonia. So, needless to say it has been a rough couple weeks for the little turkey. Vivian has been a champ throughout all this (breathing treatments, lots of drugs, etc.) and we are happy to say that we are on the way to being a well baby soon. Hopefully this will make a happier holiday for Vivian's 1st Christmas!

Well, hopefully more pictures will come soon. I haven't been taking any (it is hard to take pictures while holding a sick baby)...Now that she is back on the mend, she is back to smiling, laughing, and growling a lot, which we missed greatly over that past few weeks. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. We will update with Christmas pictures this weekend and next.

Merry Christmas!

Another new tooth today...that makes 4! I think we are working on a few more on bottom.

Well, I should be fired on this updating...it has been forever! Since she started walking about a month ago, the world was turned upside down. She is into everything and it is fun - but challenging! For all those out there pushing for your kids to walk, enjoy those last few days, weeks or months where you can walk away for a few seconds because as soon as they walk, those days are over! She literally finds everything on the floor...every crumb, leaf, ribbon, paper scrap, etc, etc. Needless to say, the dust buster has become our friend. We sweep the floor constantly. She is also into every cabinet, drawer, nook and cranny :) We have some locks on, but not all of them, so this is very challenging.

She is also getting teeth, which makes her a little grumpy :( I can't wait for these teeth to be done...this is not a fun process!!

She enjoyed thanksgiving and ate some turkey, sweet potatoes, and noodles...she really enjoyed the noodles. She got to hang out with lots of family and we had a good day. Oddly enough, she also got to play outside a lot this weekend because it was so nice. She loved walking around in the grass and chasing leaves...it was so cute (of course until she started trying to eat the leaves).

She is babbling constantly these days and she is close to actually making some words that mean something to us. She knows da da and knows ma ma, but doesn't always say it. She is trying to say cat or kitty cat. She also started clapping this week. It is cute, when you clap and say "yeah", she starts clapping and saying it too. Quite the little ham she is becoming...

Well, we are gearing up for Christmas (can you believe it?) and can't wait to see Vivian open her presents (or play with the boxes and paper). Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing many of you soon!

We finally got another...top front left tooth came in....left to follow shortly I am sure!!

Happy Halloween!! Our little fish did awesome tonight! She went to 10 or 15 houses and made our neighbors smile. She was so cute :) She then came home to play with our neighbor's daughter (the bunny) and hand out candy to other kids. They liked shaking the Mike & Ikes and chewing on the Twizzlers (in the wrappers, of course).

She is super tired and crashed out a little bit ago. We had a great time...enjoy the pictures!

Ok, so I think we officially have a walker!! At daycare today Mrs. Baker informed us that she is walking 75% of the time and crawling (or some other mode of transport) the rest of the time. I could hardly believe it, but when we got home, it was true! We video taped her new thing last night...DANCING. Mommy is so proud :) We also got a few pictures of the walking...tomorrow night we will video tape the walker and hopefully upload for all to see. I really can't believe it...9 months yesterday and walking?!? As many have told us...we are in for it! Wish us luck:) Many bumps and bruises to come...

Another weekend to practice my walking skills...this is what is apparently going through our little Vivian's head. She is taking more than 10 steps sometimes!! She also stops, picks up things and continues to walk. All very cool, but very scary. Vivian also will stand up in the middle of the room and just start walking. At this pace, she can run the mini marathon with daddy this May :)

She has also mastered waving bye-bye this weekend. Not only will she wave if you are leaving and waving at her, but she will also randomly wave when you ask her to go bye-bye. So it is our new entertainment...we just say bye-bye and she starts waving.

She still doesn't say much except for dada and various other babbles; however, she is starting to try to mimick what we say. She was trying to say "cat" this morning. I am sure we have a ways to go here...but we are continuing to teach simple words every day. Tomorrow we will be beginning our new word and gesture - TOUCHDOWN. Hopefully there will be a lot of practice during the Colts game (only for Colts TDs of course).

We love watching her grow-up and hopefully you are able to get a glimpse of this through our stories. Have a wonderful week!

Well, we are not officially walking...but we took 3 steps to Mommy tonight. I am sure it will be a bit until we get a full time walker - but keep a look out because little Viv is about to take off!! We will try to get video of this over the next week and post it on the web. She gets really excited and it is very cute :)

Vivian also attended a princess birthday party this weekend for Taylor Smith. She turned 3! We had fun with Taylor and her sister Kylie (who is the same age as Vivian) dressing up like princesses and eating balloons.

We also took our 9 month pictures this weekend. They turned out really cute...hopefully I can post them online soon. For the family, I will be sending them out soon.

Well, it has been a busy weekend, and Mommy & Vivian have colds, so I am off to bed! Thanks for checking in and have a great week!

Vivian has been mastering this over the past week, but she can now stand herself up without support and she thinks this is quite fun! She does it and then proceeds to grin and bounce while standing...then eventually sit or fall down. It is fun to watch :)

I also added pictures of her play date with Carter last weekend. She only made him cry once, when she screamed in his face playing with the learning table. He isn't used to the little girl "squeal" yet. Otherwise, we all had a fun time!

The bottom right tooth came in today...yeah! Hopefully we will take a little break now :) I don't see any activity right now.

Have a great week everyone!

We haven't updated lately, so a quick few notes before the weekend...

Vivian continues to "crack us up" on a daily basis. She is a real nut! One of her favorite things to do is stand up on her knees and wave her arms up and down (all while panting like a puppy dog). She almost hops across the floor while doing this and grins ear to ear the entire time. She also loves to climb the stairs. We try to put the gate up every time we come down, but occassionally, we will forget. As soon as she notices there is no gate, she makes a quick escape toward the stairs. The whole time she is smiling and looking back at us with that "I know I'm not supposed to do this" look. So cute :)

She is getting stronger and faster walking with her walker every day. She is starting to get brave and transfer from one toy or piece of furniture to another while standing. She can stand on her own for almost a minute, but falls on her bottom when she trys to take a step.

We are also finding out that Vivian is the bully at school (and around the neighborhood). She will go to other babies (of all ages) and take things and crawl away with them. She also thinks it is fun to thump (not hard, more like patting) other kids on the head. She laughs, but the other one usually ends up crying. She is a determined girl and knows how to get what she wants...I have know idea where that comes from?

Anyway, everyone enjoy your weekend. Vivian will be cheering for the Colts on Sunday in her cheerleader outfit. We will try to get some pictures!

I am a little slow on the update, but on Friday, September 8th, Vivian cut her first tooth :) We can't see it in pictures yet, but give it a few more days! She is also working on another bottom tooth, probably early this week. She has been quite a trooper, but we had a few days with bad afternoon napping (which turned to good evening sleeping), so it wasn't too bad...so far.

She is really just a very happy baby and we are so blessed!! The only time she really gets angry is when you make her put clothes on in the morning...she apparently thinks she can run around the world naked...even without a diaper. Crazy girl!!

She is really starting to get the standing and walking thing better these days. She can walk around with the walker...until she hits a wall, toy, chair or other roadblock...and then she wants me to turn her around. She'll get the hang of it sooner or later. She also is starting to try to cruise the furniture. She really amazes us with her strength every day!

Well, back to work...have a great week!

We are back from vacation (on the beach in Florida)and we had an awesome week with Miss Vivian! She loved the sand and water and mostly just hanging out with mom and dad :) Going back to work and school is not going to be fun tomorrow!

Vivian is now babbling a lot more than just a few weeks ago. She doesn't really say much that makes sense to us...but she is really happy just jabbering away. It just cracks us up! We went to the Children's Museum today for the first time and she was talking to all the other little kids (and adults). She had a lot of fun watching people and playing in Playscape (an area for little ones to roam freely - mostly padded for bruise free fun)! We will definately have to do that again soon.

Well, off to take care of the baby. Another update soon. Enjoy all the beach pictures...she is a real ham for the camera!