Sorry Hadley, Daddy Works Today

Haddie often on Saturday's will say with a grin, "Daddy no work today." When Haddie was born I took two weeks off from work. I have to admit, going back to work at the end of those two weeks was a bit of pleasure. Sometimes going back to work can be a nice break. This time won't be quite as easy. I suspect work is going to have it's challenges over the next couple of months and I would like to be able to help Amber more.

My advice to Hadley and Bode: Don't let mommy eat you!

WANTED: Mommy that Sleeps

I have to admit it. Hadley was a beautiful baby and is a beautiful toddler. At first I thought I was just a prejudice father so I kept my thoughts to myself, but with time the truth reveled itself. To this day strangers walk up to Hadley to comment on what a beautiful child she is and how they could just "eat her up." Amber and I were not sure what kind of a child we could make before Hadley was born and secretly I hoped she would be a cute child. The alternative could have been pretty bad. After all Amber and I couldn't look more different looking and I couldn't imagine the child we could produce.

The down side to beautiful is that the Hurricane didn't sleep for the first 18 months of her life. It took 6 months for Hadley to just once sleep 5 hours at night.

The second time around I didn't ask for a beautiful child. I decided the second child could be ugly as long as he slept through the night. People running in horror from my child is fine with me as long as daddy got his sleep.

The verdict still isn't in but Bode seems to have a cute side to him, but more importantly he sleeps long blocks of hours at night. Since the very first night he has slept a 5 hour block from 10:00 to 3:00. He must be a daddies boy!

The other side of the coin is a mommy who sleeps through the night. Amber has never been a good sleeper. Even when she does sleep she claims she didn't. I don't know where she got her sleep attitude but I know Hadley inherited it from her.

Being a new mommy is not easy by any means. Women go through the craziest things and giving birth and everything that happens thereafter is madness and almost unfair. The part that I can't understand about Amber is why after night after night of getting minimal sleep she doesn't sleep when she gets the chance. Bode is a sleeping gift from God but Amber seems to only get about 4 hours of sleep a night. Even now that most all of the discomfort from the birth is gone she still doesn't get more than 4 hours of sleep. It's a mystery to me.

Before I got married I use to pray for a beautiful wife. Someone that strangers would walk up to and tell me how beautiful she is. Now I'm just looking for one that sleeps through the night.

Basil!!!!

Over the last few years I've worked very hard to landscape our new home yard. I've done everything in our yard! Grass from seed, rock walls, irragation system, trees, flowers, etc. This years big project was landscaping the back hill and putting in a garden. One of the things Amber requested was some herbs in the garden. I obligied. Recently I've mentioned to her that she needed to start using some of the herbs in the garden before they went bad. I discovered yesterday a new store bought package of fresh basil in the fridge yesterday. I believe they cost about $3 each. I guess the basil "tree" in the backyard that is now going to seed didn't clue her in.

In a Guy's Defense

When my good wife decided to start blogging (crazybloggincanuck.com) a little over a year ago I was all for it. Amber is an excellent writer but had given up the professional side of prose for marriage and family. Blogging has become an excellent outlet for her and she has had a great time doing it.

In the beginning, other than some lost time, the blog had little impact. I was very proud of Amber when she was honored with the Best of MSN award for her blog. I've supported her at times with HTML work on her site, editing her copy, and giving her layout ideas. At times it has been fun for me.

THEN her blog got popular! I don't have any issues with the popularity of her blog so much as being one of the stars in it's cast of clowns. At times some of the blogs are not necessarily flattering and at other times I'm not sure the post is actually true. There has been more than one time that I've pointed out to Amber that her facts are a little skewed. She usually replies that I remembered wrong or that I actually said what was posted, but I believe there might be some liberties taken with her writing.

In response to this I have decided to start my own blog. Every story has two sides and this is my opportunity to defend myself. In this blog on occasion I reply to the comments on Amber's blog about me being an F**** A**hole. I also intent to entertain with a little bit of the other side of the Johnson "Crazy Canuck" household. Please feel free to leave me questions. Work, home, and church have me very busy these days but I will be happy to reply to every comment I receive.

I Don't Need Spelll Checking!

Mark Twain once said, "I never trust a man who can't spell a word more than one way."

To Amber and lovers of the english language out there: I was only an English minor in college and not an English major. I do not intend for this blog to compete with Shakespeare and the well written works by the Crazy Canuck. Please proceed with grammatical caution and tough skin.

I Am Not a Pig

One of the things I love about Amber is that I can just be myself. I don't have to think to much before I talk so in private conversations I can just say what I think and I know she understands where I'm coming from.

The down side to this arrangement is context. In today's blog Amber talks about mammeries. Although I do hold claim to the quote, the context is lost in the situation.

Along those lines, today's blog did spark a few thoughts that I've been working through for some time...

The greatest thing that ever happened to my wife is her becoming a mother. It was also the worst thing that ever happened. To see her working with our children on a daily basis is a WONDERFUL thing to watch. Amber is an amazing mother!

On the other side of the coin you clearly lose something in your wife when children come into the picture. The one thing that Amber lost was a personal view of herself. Before children Amber saw herself with curves that she could use. Hot and sexy. Now Amber sees those same curves as "mammeries." In other words functional lumps that she has given up to unappreciative little people that are to be covered by cold cabbage in order to gain relief from the swollen pains of engourgement.

Never did I think I would see the day that a conversation of engourged breasts could be uncomfortable to me.