#7

OK, I want to preface this blog by saying that I am not in the breeding business. Now you all remember that C.J.'s first present was a basketball. Now, I did not get her a basketball to train her young. Honestly it was the best gift in the gift shop. My options were limited. I am into sports and when I relax with C.J., I can not help the fact that basketball is on a lot. We enjoy our time together and we get excited from the action. The dribbling, the passing, the defense, the scoring and the electrifying dunks. You all should see C.J. get excited by the rapid moving colors across the screen. She really enjoys herself.

So today C.J. had a doctor's appointment. We all know that with a visit to the good old doctor, there comes vaccinations. Now in the past C.J. really did not take shots too well. She fussed a little bit afterward and the tears would develop in her "Pretty Brown Eyes". Today was totally different. She took two shots, one to each thigh and did not even whimper. Mommy asked if something was wrong. Daddy flexed his muscles and said C.J. is a tough cookie. Then, Mommy asked the doctor was that normal? He told her "impressive but could be normal". That just led me to believe she is developing her Clydesdale like thighs for stamina and jumping. He then let us know that C. J. is on the tall side. You know me..I immediately said, "Yes!" #7, C.J. Johnson is in full effect!

People, I am not going to force C.J. to do anything she does not want to. I fully understand that all the basketballs, attending games, watching games on television and buying her all the Kobe Bryant sneakers in the world will not lead her to be the starting small forward for the Lady Blue Devils, Lady Longhorns or Lady Volunteers. (She will never play for UCONN or RUTGERS, even though I love C. Vivian Stringer, TCNJ is where Daddy and Mommy met.) Basketball is something that we have in common right now and it continues to strengthen the bond we are forming.

So my little #7 is fast asleep now. Resting and growing all at the same time. C.J.'s daddy was proud of her today, she had a great visit with the doctor. Even he said that she is developing quite a personality. I am just thankful to God that C.J. is healthy and strong. God is good and worthy of all my praise. So as we watch the snow fall and stay up a little later tonight, since Daddy's job is closed tomorrow. C.J. and and I will have a fun filled day! You all know what to do. Continue to pray because prayer changes things! Stay warm and be safe on the roads if you must go out.

NOTE TO C.J.: Your Jersey and Warm-Up are coming!!!!!

The Car Ride Home

Usually I can recount an entire day for you. Today is very different. The period between 4:20pm and 4:45pm was the highlight of the day. Both Mommy and Daddy had decent days at work. Not even the little traffic that Daddy hit on the way home could put a damper on it. That would all change once we got in the truck to come home.

The ride home usually is filled with Mommy and Daddy recounting their days. Sometimes Michael Baisden is on the radio or Daddy is singing at the top of his lungs along with one of his many CD's. C.J. is usually asleep. Today that all changed.

About 5 minutes into the ride C.J. began to cry. Now normally we could give her a pacifier and she would be OK. Sometimes she will soothe herself with her thumb. However today nothing helped. The crying got louder and louder. She started to develop phlegm. Never have I had to pull over to see if we could calm her down but today I needed to make a pit stop into the Walmart parking lot to chill out and get her calm. After about 5 minutes we strapped her back in the car seat and then the crying continued. It seemed like the 2 mile drive would take forever but we finally arrived home. Mommy grabbed her up and carried C.J. inside. It seemed like the moment we entered the house, C.J. stopped crying. Whatever it was, Daddy was glad because the crying needed to go.

We did manage to end the evening with C.J. in her Daddy's arms as they watched the Duke versus North Carolina Women's Basketball game. Mommy came to see about C.J. and C.J. all but told her that she needed to move because she was in the way. Before you knew it C.J. was dozing off but she had to wake up because it was bath time.

Tonight we are trying a sippie cup with her. She has done well with holding the bottle so we are going to see how she does with a cup. You all pray for C.J. and her parents. We are still learning and we know that prayer changes things, people and situations. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

C.J.'s 1st Super Bowl

Usually Daddy is real excited for the Super Bowl! Today was different though. I did not look into a place to view the game. I did not want to leave Sunday dinner early. I did not look for a new appetizer recipe to create. I did not even care what the outcome was. The only thing I did was take the time to sit C.J. down with me to at least watch the 1st quarter together. After that I cared so little that I pulled out the remaining applications that I brought home and completed those.

C.J. was attentive as I knew she would be for the time she watched but then she needed to go get bathed and dressed for bed. I will let her know who won the game but I know she will not care since we only care when the Giants win.


My girl C.J. was not herself this morning. She whined all the way to church. Half of the way was because she was hungry but the other half she was just being a diva. The same way she has been acting all weekend. Hopefully she got this little diva stuff out of her because that will become tired quickly. I do not know folks, maybe she wanted us to celebrate her being 6 months old which happened today. I can not believe how time has flown by so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital waiting for her to come into the world. Well today she let us all know that C.J. Johnson is alive and kicking and demands that her Daddy and Mommy pay all of their attention to her.

So the night is upon us and I am listening to C.J. and Mommy snore in unison. Mommy is about to be upset because I will ask her to come read my blog. I do it every night so she should be OK with it now. Now C.J. and Daddy will continue watching the NBA and hopefully Kobe brings us another ring! He'd better since we just brought his sneakers. We will also wait around for Spring Training to come and go, so the Mets 2010 campaign will start. We have high expectations for them this year simply this, stay healthy. Now before you ask, Yes, C.J. will have a whole lot of Mets attire to wear!

So as I go interrupt Mommy's sleep you all continue to always pray and pray for me. ( I will need it after I wake her up) We know prayer changes things, people and situations. Have a great evening.

NOTE TO CJ - Who really care that the Saints won the Super Bowl, not Daddy. We only get excited when our teams win. We will watch the game and even go to a party or two but the game will always have half of our interest unless the mighty Giants are involved! Oh yeah, just so all the fans know Sean Payton once was a part of the Giants Franchise, C.J. always let folks know the history too!

A Snowy Day

The Johnson's kept sleeping as the snow fell down. When I went to sleep last night the snow that was promised to hit us by noon, then by 4pm, them by 10pm had not begun to fall. I thought as I got int he bed my weatherman philosophy continues to be correct. The more wrong they are the more they get paid. So this morning when my alarm woke my up at 5:30am I looked out the window and saw the good old white stuff coming down pretty heavy. I shut my alarm off and went back to sleep. On a Saturday when I normally would be out and about early, i took advantage of the canceled meeting and stayed in be as long as I could. We even put CJ in bed with us to get her back to sleep when she too woke up at her normal time. Mommy fed her and she eventually dozed back off.

So how do you spend a snowy day? You watch every basketball game on ESPN and you do work! that is right folks knowing on Friday that my Saturday meetings would not take place and figuring I would be snowed in I decided to bring home a mail bin of files to read. I am happy to report that I have knocked most of them out already i still have 18 more to read and input but I will do those while the Superbowl is on. (See how much I care about that game huh) CJ will be in her chair I will be on the couch and we will be watch it enough to know who wins the game other than that who cares.

CJ did catch up on basketball too. The game we enjoyed the most today was Georgetown putting a whooping on Villanova. both teams were good but the Hoyas looked unbeatable today. Daddy's favorite team won today as well. Way to go DUKE! That is what CJ and I did and enjoyed each others company. Their is a but coming.

But other than that, CJ was in rare form. I was trying to complete file and cook dinner. Mommy was preparing CJ for tomorrow and washing her clothes but CJ was not satisfied at all. She whined and whined and whined until one of us came to pick her up. We pick her up and she stopped. We put her down and she commenced her whining ways again. Both Mommy and Daddy were a little annoyed but continued to play the game. usually CJ does not get like that but today I guess she wanted all the attention anyone around her possessed. I even told her at one point, "You know it is not good to have both Mommy and Daddy not happy with you.) She smiled of course in her sly way. Usually it is Daddy teaming up with CJ but today I had to along myself with the Mommy! She finally went to sleep after her bath and nightly prayer time.

So now I am sitting here really tired with The Iron Chef in on in the background. My neck hurts and I am getting sleepy. The good thing is that I have accomplished all I set out to today and that will be beneficial in the grand scheme of things. So as I go to join my ladies in la la land, I remind you all to keep praying because prayer changes things, people and situations. I am a living witness to that! It is about to be Sunday and that means I get to get my Worship on, can really sleep when your focused on that! You all take care.

NOTE TO CJ: As you grow you will try to master your parents temperament, all children do. I will share this with you, just like you were unpredictable when you were a baby it will be our turn as you grow. Just keep this in mind, we love you and we run this and you will be OK!

Friday Flicker

Good day all, I will be very brief tonight. Not because I am lacking material but because I want to enjoy a Friday evening relaxing and watching television. This morning we woke up and Mommy had to be convinced to go to work despite a bad storm heading our way. Daddy promised her that she would not be left in Perth Amboy and that he would not get stuck in traffic with no gas. He let her know that at the first sight of snow he would leave work. Well 1:00pm came and Daddy received a text that read,"I guess I was paranoid for no reason." Not a drop of snow to that point. Now I am sitting here at 8:27pm and counting and no snow is visible. I canceled two meetings because people were concerned with the weather. All I kept saying is that, they mentioned this storm could go in two directions. One that would dump snow on us and the other would miss us. At this moment I am thinking the latter.

There is one good thing that comes from this. That is that I get to spend a lazy Saturday with C.J. and Mommy. C.J. will be up too because I followed Mommy's lead and put her to bed, even though I usually let her stay up until she feels like going to sleep on Friday nights. So tomorrow I am primed and ready to hang out with her. Have some tummy time, some basketball game time (She has to catch up) and some rest time. As we look at the anticipated snow fall through the windows we should be like Peter in Ezra Jack Keats' Snow Day...enjoying the time together as Daddy and daughter.

So I will go now, but make sure you remember to pray because prayer changes things, people and situations!

We Cool

Today was a good day for C.J. and Daddy. We followed our normal routine by getting up before the sun even began to shine. Daddy went to work, Mommy went to work, C.J. went through her long day at the babysitter, and then the day came to an end. Daddy left work, Mommy finished up her school work and C.J. was picked up. As usual God made provisions of safe travel for us, and we are so very grateful for that.

When I picked C.J. up today, I was glad to see her in the same clothes that I dressed her in this morning. This meant that all her food went in her mouth, and she did not get too messy. I like what we put on in the morning. It is usually hooked up and with style. We all know how much into style Daddy is, and he is training C.J. to take after him. (I think I will need a raise before she gets older and has a hand out for my wallet) Mommy is definitely the mild one when it comes to dress. I will not say conservative because Mommy has her ways. Daddy, on the other hand, likes to coordinate and be innovative with his style.

So C.J. came home today and wanted to be her usual loud self. While her Mommy was on the phone, C.J. let her grandmother know that she was alive and kicking. She made her funny sounds, she laughed and laughed some more. It is really exciting to see her so happy. I enjoy it because that means she is like her Daddy, full of charisma, spunk and energy. I have said this before but I can not wait until she is walking and we can get into trouble together.

Finally it was Daddy bath night. Today was fairly easy. We are getting much better with that. I did not even have to call Mommy in for help. I bathed her, dried her, greased her up and then dressed her for bed. The reading tonight was from a book entitled, "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History" by Jeffrey C. Stewart. I figure since it is Black History Month, that should be the theme. I will have you know that we do not isolate our history into a month in this house. I am a history buff and we celebrate our heritage daily. We ended our bath time with prayer. Tonight I asked C.J. to pray. She made a sound of some sort so I know she communicated with the man upstairs. Then, I continued for us both. Tonight was the first time I really felt a spark when we prayed together. It is something C.J. and I will begin to do more often together. Maybe when she wakes up we will pray together as well.

So tonight C.J. went right to sleep once she hit the crib. Now Daddy will prepare for tomorrow himself. Now before I go, I will urge you to always pray because prayer changes things, people and situations!

What is CJ's Favorite Snack?

Daddy enjoys eating. For snacks he will have peanut butter and jelly. Some times popcorn is my option. However, my favorite snack of all is raw chocolate chip cookie dough. Now C.J. prefers a rather weird snack. No it's not a bottle of milk. It is not a jar of baby food, and it is not even a teething treat. Princess C.J. prefers to snack on her toes.

Every day I watch her, and it gets more and more humorous. She will bend her legs up and try to eat both sets of toes. One day she will share with us what the fascination with her toes is. Until then I guess we have to make sure her feet are clean so she does not put anything funky down her throat.

One day C.J. and I will snack together. That is when snacks for Daddy will consist of carrot sticks, cucumber slices and celery sticks dipped in peanut butter. We will always have fruit snacks in the house, and water will be the drink of choice. I want to make sure she is healthy and well balanced. Daddy is doing better with it now...he even bought some salad to eat the other day. For C.J. to be healthy, she must see healthy lifestyles, and Daddy will be an example.

So that is it for today. I am snacking now on some hot tea that calms me so I can sleep comfortably. C.J. is fast asleep and hopefully will not wake up for a snack. We will have to synchronize our watches when she gets older to sneak into the kitchen for snacks while Mommy is sleeping. Until tomorrow my friends, continue to pray because we all know that prayer changes things, people and situations!