Merry Christmas!

So much has happened since my last posting, I can't even believe it. But I suppose it would be lame to talk about anything but Christmas, so I will start with that. I apologize in advance for the weird collection of pictures. We somehow never managed to get a decent family picture, or even many normal ones of Josie! But I will try to give a sampling here.

I'm sure many of you were dying to know if we bought Josie a train set for Christmas. And yes, we got a train. But fear not, I did find a bargain! I was an unbelievably successful online shopper this year, and actually found a sweet train set on Craigslist! Feast your eyes on this:

I found a train set that had guys that could ride in it, and it also came with a police car, fire truck, and Russ's personal favorite, the CHIPS style police motorcycle! It also came with, randomly, a farm with a crazy farmer in lederhosen- he looks straight out of the Sound of Music. Awesome!

Anyhoo- Christmas was the best ever this year as the Johnson's stayed home on Christmas Eve for the first time. We took Josie to Church in her cute Christmas dress (which I stupidly never got a picture of! I hate myself!), then set up cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. After she went to bed Russ and I spent all night getting the train and dollhouse set up in the living room and reliving all of our favorite Christmas mornings and coolest presents. Being a parent on Christmas is the best! Check out our Santa display:

Josie was just as excited as we hoped she would be. She was kind of in shock when she came out of her bedroom, but then immediately started to play with everything and hasn't stopped since. It has been so much fun to see her playing with these big girl toys!

Ah, but whenever I start to take this dollhouse stuff too seriously, I have Russ there to bring me back to Earth. Check out the picture he took while I wasn't looking. I hope he remembered to put the seat down.

Later in the day on Christmas, we went to Sycamore for the full Johnson extravaganza. It was really fun to see everyone and get a little attention for my belly, too! Josie got one more big present- a new kitchen from Russ's parents- awesome!

All in all the holiday was great. It was fun to have time off from work, fun to play with Josie and hang out with Russ, and really fun to see our family. It was a very Merry Christmas!

Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever, Ever Try Wrapping Christmas Presents With A 2 Year Old

In preparation for a Plank family Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration this week, I wanted to wrap a few presents. As Josie likes to help me with pretty much everything I do, I thought we could do it together. You know, we like to cook together, fold laundry together... what's different about wrapping presents?

I'll end the suspense and just tell you: 50 YARDS OF RIBBON.

I thought Josie would busy herself with looking at the actual gifts I was wrapping. Instead she wripped 3 different gift bags, crumpled paper, and unwrapped and walked on several different roles of wrapping paper. Then I tried to distract her by giving her a marker to draw on some of the gifts, "writing" her name and wishing them Merry Christmas. Instead she got marker all over my pants. But this was too much:

I left the room for two seconds to get some more tape, and Josie had begun to unroll my jumbo pack of ribbon. That's right folks- 50 yards of ribbon.

I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. Or call Russ and beg him to come home and help me. Or strap her to a chair. Or.... this could go on and on.

I finally just tried to be cool and go with it. My family will probably think the crazy looking presents are cute because she "helped." And the ribbon.... well, I can always buy more ribbon. Besides, she looks so proud, doesn't she?

A Free Train Agreement?

Yeah, I know. Bad pun. But I guess I'm sick of thinking about trains, and got a little desparate. Which brings me to the topic of my new poll, and I really need everyone's help.

I am very excited about Christmas this year because Josie is so excited about Santa. And this year she will actually play with the toys she receives, rather than the past 2 years when presents were basically just things to shake. Oh, so boring.

This year Josie has declared she wants a dollhouse and a train and train tracks for Christmas. This is all she will talk about. Just like with her Halloween costume, we don't know where she came up with the ideas, and we can't change her mind. We even brought her to a toy store to show her all the amazing other options, but she still wants a dollhouse and train set.

Well, we found her a dollhouse on the cheap which was a miracle. We bought it used from a second hand toy store (don't judge!) and were therefor able to afford the whole kit and caboodle. But now I'm looking for trains and coming up short. There are none to be found on Craigslist, and they are EXPENSIVE to buy new. I mean, come on! One train- not the track, not even the whole train, but one car- is $14.99. Ouch.

So I have a dilemma. I really don't want to buy a train set. So let me review my list of pros and cons:

CON:
1) I am not convinced Josie will even play with a train. I think she saw something about it on Barney, and now thinks she wants one, too. Josie tends to play with more traditional girl toys, and I have never really seen her play with things like cars and trains.
2)I really don't want to spend a fortune on presents for a two year old. I sort of feel like at her age, I could spend $5 on a new container for her rock collection and she would be in heaven.
3) Train sets take up a sh*tload of space. I'll probably spend the next year tripping on trains.
4) If we get her everything she asks for, are we creating a spoiled brat?

PRO:
1) Russ thinks- and he's probably right- that because she is so obsessed, on Christmas morning she will say "Where is the train?!?!?!" For anyone that knows Josie, she can be totally OCD (just like her Mommy, how sweet) about things and I'm sure she has it burned in her brain that she is getting a train.
2) Since she has only actually asked for two things, Russ thinks there is no harm in getting them for her. (But see my point #4 above...)
2) I found a generic train set for $30 on sale at Target...

So, this my not be as interesting a problem for all of you, but it is bothering me. So if you could offer some insight and, even better, a vote on my poll, it would be greatly appreciated!

Obama Rama!

Needless to say all the Johnson's are VERY excited about the recent election. With the big Obama rally in Grant Park in Chicago, just a few blocks from where I work, I didn't have to go to in to the office that day. So Russ, Josie and I all headed to the polls to vote together!Josie gets into the spirit before voting by dressing patriotically and kissing her Obama doll.

Since we voted in mid-morning, it was pretty much us and a bunch of old people. One woman in her 70's was so excited about voting for Obama that she asked us to take her picture in several different locations. She said she wanted to be able to prove to her grandchildren that she had voted in this historic election!

Josie was very patient while she waited for Russ and I to vote. Except for when she kept yelling "Where is Barack?!" and we had to explain that he wasn't actually there, we were just voting for him.On our way out, the older woman- who was still busy snapping pictures- took this of us with our "I voted" stickers.

Yeah, Josie's first election!

Worlds Biggest Frog

Happy Halloween!

Josie was determined to be a frog this year, so Russ and I went old-school and created a frog costume out of green clothes and felt. I was mildly humiliated, but as long as Josie could hop and say "RIBBIT!" she was psyched! Josie takes off for some intense Trick-or-Treating! Note felt "frog feet" cut out and taped on her shoes by Mom.

What a difference a year makes-- last year Josie could barely talk and could hardly get up the steps. This year she ran up to everyone's door saying "Trick or Treat! Ribbit!" She corrected a few people who thought she was a turtle, but otherwise her frog costume was a hit.

Temporarily distracted by some cool rocks...

In this picture Josie is oblivious to the HUGE trick-or-treating blunder she has just committed. Some crazy neighbor was actually giving out FULL SIZE candy bars. She had a whole bowl to choose from of king size Reese's peanut butter cups, Hershey bars and butterfingers. There was also a cup of pencils. Josie chose the PENCIL and walked away, leaving Dad and Mom in tears.

One last action shot. Josie was a trooper and made it around two full blocks! In this picture you can kind of see next year's second Johnson trick-or-treater...

Project This!

This has been a very exciting week at work! Ever since John McCain trashed the museum during the debates on Tuesday, the local and national media has been everywhere. We held a press conference on Wednesday and it was like a debate in itself. The reporters were asking really hard questions like "why do you even need a new projector" and "doesn't $3 million seem like too much money?" Yikes!

First of all, we are hardly asking for a new "overhead projector." For those of you that didn't see the debate, check out this clip with McCain's comments and a news station's response. (Don't worry, the clip is only a minute and a half long.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ullQiM5Tmg


What has been really cool, is that despite our worries, people from all over the country have been calling and emailing to stick up for us! Our phones are ringing off the hook. Even more, an NBC science blog started telling its readers to send us money so we wouldn't need an earmark. Overnight money started flooding in from all over the country!

Here is a link to that blog in case you're curious:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/08/1518907.aspx


One of my Republican friends said "look, John McCain is already doing good things for America!" What a loser! But it has been really touching to see all of these people that have never heard of us, and clearly will never visit the us, willing to part with their money just to tell us they don't think our museum is "a bunch of pork." Oink oink, McCain!

Tag, I'm It

I got tagged by my friend Jon today. So although we are engaged in a political argument at the moment, I figured we are pretty much always in a political argument, so I might as well participate. I hope you find some of this random information interesting!

Here are the rules:
1.Post the rules on your blog
2.Write 6 random things about yourself
3.Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4.If you are tagged, just do it, and pass the tag along!

1. I am totally superstitious and it sometimes gets ridiculous. For example, tonight I was making garlic bread and cut 5 pieces for me, and 5 for Russ. I was going to make 3 for Josie but realized that would mean 13 pieces of bread- unacceptable. So I cut 14 and figured Russ could eat the extra. Now that is random.

2. I am afraid that if I talk about something scary, it will happen to me. Again, sort of in the superstition vein. But I am deathly afraid of worst-case-scenarios, and if I start talking about something that scares me- especially if I'm joking about it- I am afraid karma will make it happen to me. I would give some examples, but then I would be afraid it would happen to me.

3. I am fascinated by weird actors that are secretly amazing singers. For example, I love Kevin Spacey. I heard him singing some old 40's music on a movie soundtrack once and fell in love with the way his voice sounds. Another example is Jon Lovitz. He is a really great singer, who knew?

4. When I was growing up my Mom never let me eat pickles because they were too salty. So now I consider a pickle to be the world's greatest secret treat.

5. If I could start my life over and learn any talent, it would be to play the violin. I think it sounds so beautiful. Josie's quarter-Grandma Sharon is a professional violinist and it is awesome to listen to her play. I wish I could do that!

6. I have never had any athletic talent whatsoever, despite my best efforts. I love watching sports and I think its exciting to see athletes being really aggressive and pulling off difficult plays. If I could be great at any sport, it would be volleyball. It always looked really fun, but whenever I tried to play it I was scared of getting hit by the ball.

So there. Does it get any more random than that? And since I don't really know anyone with a blog except Heather, Heather-- you're tagged!