The Johnsons: 2014

Monday, 18 August 2014

6 Months!

Ruby hit 6 months this week! WHAT?? That time has gone by so fast. I feel like I blinked and summer has already passed us by. I have been majorly slacking in the blogging department...but life gets busy with a cute & wiggly baby! Here are some updates (I'll try and keep it short):
-Travis worked with a roofing company for a few weeks this summer, did odd construction/reno work, helped with his Dad's sod out in Barnwell and is now working with a landscaping company. He has been working so hard all summer and comes home stinky and dirty every day to prove it! I am so grateful he is willing to work & work hard for our little family!
-Lethbridge Fire & EMS had a job posting a few weeks ago...so Travis applied. We figured since he still has 2 practicums left before finishing his Paramedic (which we still have no idea where they are...and August is half over. UHH!), there is no way they would hire him. We figured he should apply anyways just to get his name out there. Travis received an email basically saying thanks, but no thanks. We were not at all surprised. Moments later he got an email saying to book a fitness evaluation for the interview...what? Then he got ANOTHER email saying: Sorry for the mix up. You were not originally selected, however someone declined the invitation to compete for the job and you were first on the reserve list...interested?
Whoa!
Since he was invited to compete, Travis had to go up to the UofA to do a firefighter fitness evaluation. I was literally exhausted just watching Travis. It was the craziest thing. He had to do all of these exercises with full firefighter gear. Pulling a charged hose, dragging a 150lb dummy, going up and down a ladder numerous times, carrying the jaws of life and more! I'm not going to lie...I was pretty sure he wasn't going to pass because he hadn't really prepared physically and he thought he was going to pass out towards the end. But he passed (the test) with flying colors! But even though he passed the physical, did't mean he would get to go onto the interview...it all depended on how many people passed the physical portion. Anyways...he got the call! So now we wait...the interview is at the end of August and I am surprised & excited he has made it this far seeing as he isn't even finished school yet. Fingered crossed!!

Future fire fighter! (This was before the test. He was not so cheerful after!! Haha)

-At the end of May we sold most of our furniture and left Medicine Hat. We are now back in Lethbridge.

We were without a bed for a week before we moved!!

-Ruby had her extra finger removed last month. It was a quick procedure and she only screamed when they were putting in the freezing. I was glad that Travis & I were able to be in the room during the procedure...she was so good! I miss her dangly little nub sometimes...

RIP little nub.

-Ruby is 6 MONTHS! I am having a hard time wrapping my head around that. Here are a few milestones she has reached:
*Still fitting into her 0-3 month clothes and a few 6 month outfits.
*Started eating solids at 5 1/2 months. So far she has had rice cereal, green beans, carrots, butternut squash, peaches, sweet potato,yogurt, ice cream and whatever else she has managed to get her hands on. So far she loves everything. (But I'm convinced she would like her socks if I let her eat them)
*Rolling front to back and back to front. She scoots and pulls herself around the room. I have a feeling crawling is in her very near future.
*Still sleeping 8-10 hours straight every night.
*LOVES her bath & the hot tub. I need to sign up for some swimming classes ASAP.
*Can sit unsupported and play by herself for quite a while. It is so cute to watch her interact with toys all by herself!
*Laughs & giggles
*Tries really hard to get words out...instead it is A LOT of babble and yelling.
*Drinks water from a sippy cup
*Very observant and alert to her surroundings
*Can stand by herself if she it holding on to something.
*Weighing in at a whopping 15lbs 12oz

That's about it! (Or all I can think of at the moment...)
Nothing new with me...just staying busy with my cute little girl & busy husband!

Now some random pictures:

It will be a sad day when these giraffe PJ's don't fit...

Obsessed with her Jolly Jumper

Almost falling over at the park with Dad.

Canada Day

Add caption

New hot tub at Mom & Dads. It's a monster. Ruby loves it!

Caught pulling her clothes off.

Quick family picture. Ruby was SO mad. I'm surprised this turned out.

She is just the cutest & sweetest little girl! I am so blessed.

Saturday, 17 May 2014

Ruby's Newborn photos

I loved the way Ruby's newborn pictures turned out! Here they are:

3 months!

It is so hard to believe how fast time seems to be flying these days.

Ruby is 3 months old already!

As much as I would like her to stay a tiny baby forever, it is so fun watching her grow.

Sorry for the picture of a picture...but here is Ruby's birth announcement

Here are some facts about Ruby:

-she loves the bath

-she loves to eat her hands and gag herself all day

-she scoots, wiggles and rolls over (front to back)

-Graduated into size 2 diapers

-just starting to grow out of a few newborn clothes

-babbles & screams to herself

-sleeps about 9 hours straight every night (mommy loooves that)

-drool queen

-loves to stand (with someone holding her)

-sits/hangs in her excersaucer for short periods of time

-loves to look at herself in the mirror

-laughs, smiles & giggles

-Ruby was in and out of the ER during the beginning of April as her inguinal hernia kept causing problems. The fear we had was that her bowel and/or ovary was falling into the hernia sac and then there is the possibility of things twisting and circulation getting cut off...not good. Eventually we saw a paediatrician in the ER and we were referred to a general surgeon at the children's hospital and she had surgery on April 23. Thank heavens I used to be surrounded by surgery everyday at work or else I would have been a wreck over the whole ordeal. The day before surgery we met with the surgeon and right away she could tell that Ruby's ovary had fallen into the hernia sac. (We tried telling 2 different ER doctors this but they just kept telling us we were feeling a tendon...geez) The night before surgery was really hard because Ruby had to fast, so we had to wake her up in the middle of the night to feed her and then when we woke her in the morning she was hungry, but we couldn't feed her...so sad! We had to be to the hospital by 630am (yuck!) but she didn't leave us for surgery until almost 8am. There were lots of kids having surgery that day and it made me realize how lucky we are to have a healthy baby with something that has an easy fix. Right before the nurse took her from us for the procedure the surgeon suggested exploring the left side just in case there was a hernia on that side as well. We consented and agreed it would be better to check now while she was under anaesthetic than have to come and do this all over again in a year. After they took her into surgery they gave us a pager (like what you get when waiting for a table at a busy restaurant) and we waited. I could tell a lot of the parents in the waiting room were really nervous, and even though surgery on a little baby is scary, I was very confident that all would be well and that Ruby wouldn't be in pain much longer. We waited an hour before our pager lit up and then I was allowed to go meet her in recovery room. The nurse took me through the doors of recovery and said "she'll be in one of the beds" and left. Thanks lady.

I found my sweet ruby at the back of the room wrapped up tight on a huge bed, with her little IV sticking out of the blanket. What a relief. I'm surprised she was so calm in recovery because it was FULL of kids screaming for their moms...but she was pretty drowsy from the anaesthesia and her epidural hadn't quite worn off yet. Poor thing.

Then the surgeon came and talked to me about the procedure. She said everything went well, however her ovary and Fallopian tube were both in the hernia sac on her right side along with a microscopic cyst and they also found a hernia on the left side when they were exploring. The surgeon was able to take care of everything and her incisions are tiny.

Modern medicine is amazing.

We were only in the hospital for a short time and them were discharged by noon. I felt really rushed, but it was so crowded on the surgical floor and I wanted to get out before the next rush of kids came in. She slept practically the whole day and recovered very quickly.

Now before I post a bunch of pictures of Ruby, here is an update about me & travis (mostly Travis...I don't do much other than hanging out with Ruby!):

-Travis is done classes at the Medicine Hat College!! Yay! This means he only has about a year of practicums before he is a paramedic! Currently he is looking for an EMT job if anybody knows of one!

-We are moving! With nothing really holding us in Medicine Hat we feel like it is in our best interests to move back to Lethbridge until we know more information about where Travis will go on his practicums. (And hopefully he will get a job there down the road) We are a little sad to be leaving The Hat, but it just never felt like home to us. It was never the plan for us to stay here forever and we are so excited to be closer to family and friends. Unfortunately moving is the worst. Luckily we were able to get rid of most of our furniture so we wouldn't have to move it. Currently in our living room we have our tv, coffee table and an air mattress. Classy. At least we have our bed for a few more nights!