Swimming Lessons

Otto has started taking Water Babies with mama and daddy.  The class starts at 6:30 which is a bit of a challenge for our Otti since he usually goes to bed by 7.  Although he loves the water, he spends a large portion of class yawning and floating.  Such a cute, tired, little floater;)
                                                                                     

Tricks

Otti has a lot of new tricks these days…

• Clapping hands for any celebratory event, including eating, playing, and hearing "good job" or "yay Otti"  It has also become the favorite action for 'good bye' instead of the boring waving that is just not as fun these days.

• Words.  Ot now says, "Momma,"Dadda," and "ball."

• The 'so big' is also a very cute trick of Ottis.

• Saying, "ooooo" with the perfect rounded lips for any light or fan or other fascination that he sees.

• Racing up the stairs.  Up, down, up, down.  What a game we play all day…

• Shaking his head 'no.'  I don't think it is relative to the word 'no' but he loves to do it. (reminds me of Auntie Liv when she was a baby)…o:

• Swiping on my cell phone.  How he knows how to do this I do not know (watching all the adults I'm sure).  I play Pandora's Raffi music for him on my phone and he is always trying to hold this 'marvelous music box.'  All of a sudden he starts swiping the pic and changing the songs!!!???

• Making the "vroom" sound whenever he sees a truck or is pushing a truck.

• Gram is teaching Otti to use a fork.  If I stab the food on the fork he will take the fork from me and put it in his mouth.  Baby steps, but we are making progress.  Everything still falls off that darn spoon.

• The discovery of cupboards and drawers.  Most days there are cookies sheets, cutting boards, garbage bags, etc out on the floor after an exploration event by Otto.  My only issue is those fingers getting pinched.  So I stay by his side for 'owie' prevention purposes.

• Still one of my all time favorites is Otti kissing the babies we have.  I am preparing him for baby cousin coming in July.  Although, we still have to work on gentle kissing rather then full on mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with a little nip on the chin for good measure;)

He's just so much fun!  Everyday is something new that we marvel at and celebrate!  I'm just so lucky!

Walking

May Day, May Day! We have a walker!!!

Changes

I survived my first entire week without seeing Otto last week.  It was a strange experience since I usually see him everyday or at least several times a week.  I missed him and it was great to have him back at Gram's Daycare on Monday.  I've noticed quite a few changes in our boy that shows he's growing and learning at a healthy rate!

Word/Object Association:

Otti is definitely making associations with names and objects.  Say, "Where is the baby?" He goes and gets the dolly from the bin and gives it a slobbery kiss.  Momma's phone rings, he says, "dada."  (They do a lot of FaceTime with Daddy when he's in Indiana).  "Puppies?" Searches for Lily and Nyko, closes his eyes and sticks his tongue out for a kiss (I call him 'Jungle Boy' because he has two animal friends and he crawls around with a small dog ball in his mouth;)  

Performance:

Ot's doing some very funny things when Momma comes around.  He can be perfectly happy, then Momma comes and his eyes squint, his head tilts back and he lets out a long moan/fake cry. I give him credit, it's quite a performance!  I believe this is what they call "parent manipulation."  Unfortunately for Otti, his Momma just rolls her eyes and chuckles at him.  I get the impression that's not the affect he was going for.

Talking:

There's a lot being said, we're just not sure what he's saying;)  "Dada" remains the all time favorite word!

Laughing:

Otto is making some entertaining laughing sounds.  He is doing a very funny "hehe" to himself when he or someone else does something that cracks himself up.  Momma and I are convinced it is a sign of his future sarcasm;)

Walking:

Otto is still taking about 4 steps alone and cruising the furniture at a rapid pace but he actually now prefers that he hold your finger with at least one hand.  He has decided that it is way more fun to go fast with the aid of an adult as well as safer.  I appreciate this, because when he was letting go and taking off when he wasn't coordinated enough it was scary.  This is the brain finally saying, "Otti, you need them… slow down!"

Photos:

It is beyond a challenge to get a photo of Otto right now.  He is always moving and if he isn't, he beelines it to me as soon as he sees my phone up or a camera.  This results are incredibly close photos where he looks like one of those balloon animals floating in the Macy's Day Parade!

Naps:

Momma tells me he has now given up one of his naps.  Otti is still taking a nap around 11 at my house, but I guess the afternoon nap is history.  That makes a long afternoon for a not quite 10 month old.

Food: 

I've noticed that Otti doesn't really have a shut off valve with the food.  He'll eat and eat and eat until there isn't any left.  I'm afraid this is a genetic flaw from the Johnson side.  I can only imagine how he'll be when he finally gets to taste the goodies…cookies, cakes, etc.

Growing:

Otti continues to grow, but he is leveling on the scale.  At his 9-month checkup he was 50% ht and 60% wt.  He is now in 12-18 month clothes.

Our boy is getting so big and so fun and his personality is definitely starting to show!  Every stage of Otti is thoroughly enjoyed by all his "people" especially Gram:)

Holidaze

Otto has experienced his first Christmas festival.  As of today, New Years' Day 2016, he has celebrated 5 christmas' in the past week.  Oofta!

Gram and Otto enjoyed Christmas Eve with the Johnson/Sampson Clan, then Otto celebrated a couple days with the Francisco/Schroeder family.  A few days later we had another Johnson Christmas with Momma's family.

Otto also got to go to Great Uncle Harry's and tour the very first year of Present Valley and Candy Cane Forest.  A magical tour in winter wonderland that Otto will look forward to every year!

Lastly, we ended the festivities with a looonnng car ride to Duluth to see Great Grandma Karen on New Year's Day (we thought of Cousin Sara and how in the world she traveled with crying children from the cities). Poor Ot cried for an hour and a half straight in the car, so we had a very exhausted baby and fellow car riders by the time we got to Great Grandma Karens…on the flip slide, Otti slept all the way home!  

I understand Otti's exhaustion. The holidays are fun, but quite possibly 5 celebrations in one week is too much???  Otto has more teeth coming and fluid in his ears, so between that and too many celebrations he's done, done, done with this holiday business!

Although it is always a crazy time of year, I feel blessed that I get to spend so much time with our boy and all of our family that I love so much.  Otti got to share hugs with his cousins, Declan, Quinn and Fiona as well as the rest of the crew. It is so fun to have little ones to celebrate Christmas with!

Not every 9 month old receives a South Park Kenny doll for Christmas from their Great Uncle with a card that says, "Will you be Kenny's friend?  He has no friends and his heart is made from a potato" lol!

We also celebrated Gram's birthday during the holiday season.

Gram is off for a little holiday break to regroup and refresh for a week before opening Gram's Daycare for 2016!  I can't imagine how much I'll miss Otti and how big he will look by the time I get back.