High School Musical 3 STARRING Mulu & Aaliyah!

I just found this at JibJab today - and it couldn't be more perfect as Mulu & Aaliyah are both HUUUUGE HSM fans! They have been eagerly waiting for the 3rd movie to come out in theaters and have been revisiting the songs and dances. Aaliyah, Aria and I will all be in Colorado (meeting our new neice, Evie) when it opens, but Brian got him & Mulu tickets to see it opening weekend.

Enjoy! I think they both look great - but especially Aaliyah when she is smiling in the crowd - she really looks like she "fits"!

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Waterpark weekend!

Last weekend the Johnson family had a wonderful couple days together at an indoor waterpark. We met 6 other families up there for a fabulous time of running, swimming, watersliding, catching up and laughing. It was such a total blast - with all 3 Johnson kiddos having a wonderful time.

Mulu went on every single ride that he was tall enough for - asking to go again even before he was done riding the first. He is a naturally cautious kid when it comes to taking risks - but has found that the being scared feeling can also be fun. There were a couple that he was nervous about (one that was pretty fast and the other that was covered) - but he slowly worked his way up to them and loved them all! He loved the fact that he could scream as loud as he wanted (which is quite a sound if you are ever in ear shot) and although he ran as fast as he could up all the steps over and over and over, he never ran out of energy.

And Aaliyah - who has turned out to be a total fish in the water - loved all the new things in the waterpark to try. She ran around, eyes almost popping out of her head, pointing to all the things she wanted to do. She started out slow - but peer pressure (or sibling pressure) is sometimes a good thing and she couldn't let her big brother show her up the entire time. She was so proud she went on the "big slides" (telling people about it all week), but wanted to spend most of the day in the hot tubs.

and baby Aria - always along for the ride and had a blast like her big brother and sister. She is a mover and a shaker - eagerly crawlig through the water (not even stopping when it was over her head - cue Mama & Daddy) and loved the little slides. She did her best to keep up with the other kids around her and minus the breaks we made her take (to eat or warm up - after too long in the water she would be so cold her lips would be blue - but that didn't stop her!) she climbed and splashed and laughed. We planned ahead and brought a pair of Brian's old wrist bands from drumming to put on her knees so when she crawled her wet knees wouldn't get raw from the cement - and they worked great!

Aria is one!!!

September 13th was baby Aria's first birthday - can you believe it has been a whole year?!?!

She has been an amazingly wonderful addition to our family and I am very lucky to be her Mama. Its been wonderful watching her grow and learn this past year - amazed at each new trick and milestone. She has always been a pretty "easy" baby (minus the sleep thing) and has added oodles of joy and fun to our life. She has a very even temperament - just goes with the flow of our busy days - although recently she has been more assertive communicating her wants and dislikes. She is rarely fussy, smiles all the time and has a contagious laugh that gets others giggling. I refer to her as a "velcro baby" - always attached to me somehow - and as long as Brian and/or I are in the room, she is content and playfull. She adores her big brother and sister, loving to wrestle and follow them around. She is not a fan of koosh balls, is a Baby Einstien junky and eats grapes by the dozen. She crawls super fast now, can get helself standing very easily and is starting to cruise on furniture. She loves to be outside, is a big fan of slides and falls asleep easily in the car.

We had a nice celebration on her birthday - she was a perfect little birthday star all day long - smiling, laughing, and waving at people - loving all the attention (as long as noone besides Brian or I tried to hold her).


Here she is concentrating on opening one of her gifts.



She must have been moving too slow - b/c here is Mulu & Aaliyah opening up the rest of the gift for her.




Her with her birthday bib, birthday crown, birthday cake and birthday smile. She had the whole group of adults in front of her with cameras and big smiles watching her with her cake - and you can see she loved all the attention!



post birthday cake smashing - she didn't eat much of it - but loves squeezing it through her fingers.


and some of the other kids at the party enjoying the cake too (yes, they are sitting on the floor in the kitchen - I didn't like the idea of chocolate cake all over the carpeting and our table was being used for the real food)

Giraffe feeding

We had an awesome opportunity as a family to go to our local zoo and have a private feeding of the giraffes. It was such a great time! There were three giraffes (2 adults and 1 baby) whose names are Sweta, Jabari and Zawadi and they would walk right up to us and reach down for the crackers. All three Johnson kiddos got into the action and had the privilege of my mom (Nana) coming with to take video for us - which will be really fun to watch someday.


Here we are cautiously walking up to the giraffes (you can see the personalities of the kids coming out in this photo - Mulu: all about it - ready for action - curious, Aaliyah - cautious but curious - wanting to participate, especially since her brother was doing it - and, as you will see later, participating in the end and Aria - just along for the ride - happy to be held - and watching everything happening around her.




Say cheese!



Mulu getting a turn - he loved this part - where he could feed them on his own - getting more confident and daring each time (even petting their noses a couple of times)



Daddy and baby Aria having a turn. Check out how long the giraffe's tongue is! Shortly after this was taken the giraffe picked up his head and took a big lick of Aria's head - making the little bit of hair she has stick straight up. She was a bit confused - but didn't seem to mind.


and at the last second (we were down to the last cracker that I broke in half for her) Aaliyah fed the giraffe herself - super nervous and giggling with anticipation. She was very proud of herself. I missed the actual feeding - but this is the moment right after (you can see Mulu was right there suggesting her to go ahead, and ready to grab it to do himself if she changed her mind)

School starts - and a bit more.

This past week school started for two of the three Johnson kiddos.

Mulu started 1st grade. He was super nervous in the weeks leading up to it - asking lots of questions, having bad dreams and overall increased anxiety. He was especially upset when he realized that his Kindergarten teacher was going to have a new group of Kindergartners - that traitor! Even walking up to school that day he held onto our hands tight - but once he got there he was excited and didn't look back. He had a great week and is pleased to tell people that 1st graders get to check out TWO library books!!!

Mulu in front of our house on the 1st day of 1st grade!



Daddy and Mulu walking up to school.

1st graders get lockers!!!


And Aaliyah started a preschool this week. It is a class at our YMCA that meets twice a week from 9-11. The night before she started I got our her backpack, packed some extra clothes - just in case - and put it by the door. Before we left that morning I noticed it was a bit more full so I peeked inside. Aaliyah had gotten some carrots and celery sticks from the fridge, put them in a bread bag (I still don't exactly know where the bread went) and put them in her bag, along with two juice boxes and the handsoap from the kids' bathroom. When I asked her about the soap she replied - very matter of factly "well I thought it would be a good idea to wash my hands at school." She got a bit nervous walking in, but quickly acclimated herself to all the new toys and by the time she sat down to start painting (see picture below) she looked up and said "ok Mama - you can go".


she insisted on having a picture with her brother (his 2nd day of school)


Aaliyah at the sensory table. (she was not impressed that I was taking pictures)



Aaliyah painting


One of Aria's favorite activities is coloring on the easel with crayons - I never would have thought to offer an 11 month old coloring stuff - but she watches what her big brother and sister are doing and copies - most of the time she does well NOT eating them, but as you can see here, Aaliyah sometimes eggs her on.



And last week Aria had tubes put in her ears - after numerous infections (9 since Jan. 1st) and not being healthy in the summer, the doctors thought it would be her best bet. The surgery went great - and quick! - and the surgeon said it was definately what she needed. The best part is that it can help her not have infections for up to two years!!! She has been a totally different baby since the surgery - sleeping better, more independent and overall happier.

Here is a photo of Aria in her little gown before the surgery.

Aria's tricks!

This past week the Johnson kiddos and their fabulous parents went on a week long vacation at a family cabin in northern WI. We had a rockin' time and have lots of fun stories (I have a separate post going with details of the trip). For a week it was just the 5 of us - being together, and spending oodles of well deserved quality time. One of the positive outcomes of this is demonstrated really clearly in the list of new "tricks" that Aria picked up our week gone. She turned 11 months up north - and came back home a whole new baby.

She learned how to do the following things while at the cabin:
*So BIG (raising her hands up when asked "how big are you")
*the sign for all done (& using it correctly)
* the sign for more (& using it correctly)
*washing hands (rubbing hands together when someone mentions washing hands)
*blowing kisses (she's been working on this for a bit - but does it automatically now when saying goodbye or I love you)
* crawling on hands & knees (she's been doing an "army crawl" very functionally for a while - but is now a pro on her knees - even outside in the dirt, on the beach and into the water")
*clapping (when you say "yea" or when she does a trick)
*giving hugs (snuggling in when you ask for a hug)
*a sound when you ask her what a dog says (an "fff" sound for woof woof)
*climbing up objects to standing

below are some videos I took for you to see (and I even remembered to keep the camera the correct way)

here is Aria clapping - yea for her!



washing her hands



here is her demonstrating the "soooo big"!



and blowing kisses



her army crawl - check out the transition between crawling & sitting - right through the splits! and you get some Mulu and Aaliyah action in here too.



"real" crawling

Ethiopian fun!

A bit ago now (I'm farther behind on posts than I would like to be) one of our best friends came to play (a little 3 year old from the same orphanage as Mulu and Aaliyah) dressed in a beautiful dress from Ethiopia. This inspired the Johnson kiddos to whip out our Ethiopian attire and have a party. We have Ethiopia intergrated into many parts of our life - music, food, decorations, clothes, books, language - but this was extra fun to just have a impromptu celebration with our friend.