18 Months

Yesterday was Barrett's half birthday.  I can't believe he's 18 months old.  He has grown up so much these past few months.  There's definitely no baby left.  He is all boy and busy all day long.  So far this age has been fun.  A little trying at times but mostly fun.  Getting your picture was a nightmare!

• You weigh 26lbs (75th percentile)
• You are 32" tall.  (50th percentile)
• You run everywhere.  
• You love to give kisses.
• We started the Early Intervention program to teach us how to teach you.  We've been so pleased so far.

• You're wearing 18 month clothes.
• Size 4 diapers still, although I think we'll be moving up to 5's soon.
• Your size 4 shoes are getting a little tight.
• I feel like you outgrew your clothes over night. 

• You say three words consistently.  "hey", "yeah" and "no".
• You've said "Mama", "Daddy", "work" and "cookie"
• You're trying to talk all the time.  
• You really try to imitate us when we ask.
• You can wave "Bye-bye" but don't do it on command.
• You sign for "more" and "all-done"

• You sleep great at night.  12 hours if I get you down early enough.  You really need that but sometimes it's hard to get you to bed at 7:00 and you don't sleep late.  You're almost always up by 7:30 unless it's storming or dark out.  You're down to one nap a day it needs to be from 10:00-1:00 but sometimes you don't get it until later.
• You're so sweet and love to "love on" your stuffed animals. 
• You also try to "love on" Ally but she's not a fan.
• You still love anything that rolls. ball, car, bottle you don't care as long as it rolls.
• You play so well by yourself.  You can entertain yourself for hours.

• You are loving the water this summer.  
• We've been to the splash pad some and I love watching you interact with other kids.
• We've also been to toddler time at the library once and you liked it.  We'll be going back more 
• You like books.  You'll bring them to us to read to you.
• You love to be outside.  We've been playing outside in the evenings and you just can't get enough.

• You love to eat. You would eat all day long if I let you.  You're more picky but still not to bad.  You'll try anything we put in front of you.  You pretty much eat whatever we're eating.
• Some of your favorites are blueberries, french fries, bananas, chicken of any kind, sweets of any kind, raisins, grapes, goldfish and any kind of bean. 
• You're drinking 2-3 cups of whole milk every day and you love it.  You also drink water.
• You love to people watch when we go out to dinner 
• You've had your first haircut and it's time for another one.
• You've also started getting upset when we leave.  Just a little separation anxiety, completely normal but still makes me sad.

I can't believe that you are 18 months old.  A year and a half.  Time is surely flying right by us.  I find myself stuck in this limbo of loving watching you grow into each new stage and missing my little baby.  You are so much fun right now.  I love hearing your little voice try to repeat us.  I love the big sloppy kisses that you love to give.  I know that all too soon it won't be cool to kiss your Mama and I'll be heartbroken.  Some days bed time can't get here fast enough.  I feel like I say "no" about a thousand times a day.  It's hard work.  You're constantly testing your boundaries and it can be exhausting.  For every exhausting, boundary testing moment, there's something adorable that you'll do.  You love to sit on the hearth and just look at us to see if we're looking at you, when  we are you just smile and giggle!  You have starting spinning in circles to make yourself dizzy.  Its so cute to watch.  You get so tickled.  Watching you discover the world around you is so special.  You are so laid back and go with the flow.  You have brought us so much joy.  It's hard to remember life without you (I have vague memories of sleeping late on the weekends but that's about it.)  I hope you always know how much we love you and support you. 

Thank you for making our lives so much brighter over the last 18 months.

I love you!

-Mommy

LIVE with the Characters

I've  We've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now.  I'd been hearing about this event for months and I couldn't wait to take Barrett.  I've been begging Patrick to take us to Disney World, so far he's not giving in so this was the next best thing.   A local non-profit, Just Keep Smiling, put on a fun, family oriented, affordable event right in our community.  It was called LIVE with the Characters and it was adorable.  Our favorite characters were there including Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto. Plus Dora and Diego, Jake and Captain Hook, Doc McStuffins, the Princesses and Princes, the Chipmunks, some minions, Cookie Monster, Elmo, some superheros and Anna, Elsa and Olaf.  It was a star studded event.  I wasn't sure how Barrett was going to like it.  I was afraid he would be scared.  He loved it.

This was before the show started. The Clubhouse gang.   Patrick took these of Barrett's face during the show. He wasn't sure what to think.  We sat with some of our playdate friends and it was so much fun to see how the boys reacted.  We also sat with Lorie, Joseph and Elise.  Elise was not impressed with anyone other than Elsa.  She loved Elsa, she also informed us that "Princesses don't dance." The show was so cute and had some interactive songs and I loved seeing all the kids and families have such a great time.  The kids sang there little hearts out.  After the show they had pictures and autographs with all the characters.

I loved the Chipmunks.  Probably because I knew who was in the costumes, which made it even more hilarious.  They did a fun routine and were so much fun to watch.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie. (Which it turns out I knew them too but didn't know who they were at the time) 

I didn't want to be in the picture with Mickey and Minnie but Barrett wasn't real crazy about letting a giant mouse hold him.  I took him up to see if he would just stand with them but he was more interested in the balloons. 

The best picture we got with the Mice.  They had a professional taking pictures too so I'm hoping it's good. 

 Now's i'll let you in on a little bit of my crazy...you all know I'm super emotional, especially when it has to do with Barrett and my little family.  When the show finally started and Mickey and Minnie came out on the stage.  I just had these huge tears in my eyes.  Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money.  My family never took a trip to Disney World (we've all been at one point or another except for my older brother and dad but er never went together).  The only time we went to Disney on Ice was when I won a trip.  We just didn't do a lot of those kinds of things. So to have this fun event right in our community that families didn't have to take out a loan to afford made me so happy.  Looking around and seeing all these families enjoy the morning together just overwhelmed me.  Seeing the look on little Elise's face with Elsa came out to sing "Let it Go" almost made my heart explode.  I was literally fighting back tears.  (Yes, I am a lunatic) But I think the thing that really got me was knowing so many of the people that volunteered to be a part of the event.  I knew so many people in those costumes that could have been anywhere else on a Friday night (rehearsal) and Saturday morning but they chose to be there and so many of them commented on how much they enjoyed getting to be a part of the show.  They all worked so hard and it really showed.  We had so much fun.  Even Patrick enjoyed it.  We're already looking forward to next year's show. 

Father's Day

We had such a nice day celebrating all the Dad's in our world.  We went to Mass Saturday night so we were able to be lazy Sunday morning.  I got up and made a big breakfast and we enjoyed eating together.  Then we watched some Mickey Mouse.

Can you tell he was happy to be with his daddy?

Love these two so much.  I am so thankful that Barrett has Patrick as his Daddy.  Patrick works so hard to provide for our family so that I can work part time and enjoy this time with our baby.  He takes such good care of both of us.  We are so blessed.

For lunch we went to my parents.  It was just us there for a while.  Then my big brother came with his kids.  We played UNO.  It was so much fun.  As sad as it is that the kids are growing so fast, it's really fun too.  I love that they are old enough to play games.  UNO is a favorite.  Barrett was in rare form after all the little debbie cakes he ate. 

He will finally sit in this chair.  It's so funny watching him sit on anything.  He will turn around and walk backwards and just kinda fall into the chair.  We laughed and laughed at him.

When went straight to Patrick's parents for dinner.  It was delicious as usual.  Of course I didn't take any pictures.

Weekend Review

I didn't realize it'd been so long since I last posted.  Patrick is on second shift which means the days get away from me.  We've been having a lot of fun.  Second shift is getting easier the older Barrett gets.  It's actually worked out really well this time.  Patrick keeps Barrett home three days a week and they get to spend the morning together and Barrett takes a nap and then Patrick brings him to my work on his way to work.  I'm able to get more hours in at work and get a little break.  Then Barrett and I get to do fun stuff in the afternoons since we don't have to rush home to take a nap.  

We've been trying to make the most of our afternoons.  We've played outside a lot.  

I just love these pictures of him playing on the sidewalk.  He's just so cute.  I feel like he's grown so much these past few weeks.  He's getting heavy if I hold him to long.  All of his clothes are getting to small and some days he's eating me out of house and home. One afternoon we were going to go to the splash pad but when we got there it looked like it was going to storm so we just played on the swings before it started raining. Thursday night Lorie and Elise came to visit.  I just love watching the kids play together.  Barrett thinks Elise hung the moon.  They are so sweet together.  They played and played.  It was nice to get to catch up with Lorie.  I hadn't seen her since the tornado back in April so we had a lot to catch up on. Friday morning Barrett and I met Anna and Drake at the library for Toddler Time.  Drake was not a fan so they played out in the children's section of the library while Barrett and I got to hear a few stories and sing some songs.  Barrett wasn't sure about the whole thing but he sat quietly and just observed.  Our library has done some renovations since I was last there and it's so nice.  They have a nice area with a lot of toys for kids.  I think we'll be returning, especially when it's just too hot to be outside.

This boy loves Mickey Mouse.

Saturday we celebrated Harper's 6th birthday with water fun.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing outside.  I only got these two.  We had a great time.  All these kids are growing up way to fast.

He loves his daddy's sunglasses.  

I'll write about Father's day in a separate post.

Weekend Review

We had a fun weekend.  We tried to soak up as much time with Patrick before he goes to second shift for a month.  Friday night I went to the gym and grabbed some dinner and we just hung out at home.  It was raining and yucky so we didn't want to get out. Saturday we got up and I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Barrett was a fan!  He licked his plate clean.



After breakfast we went to our sweet friend, Drake's first birthday party.  His mommy did such a great job.  It was nautical themed and so cute!  Barrett had a blast playing with everyone.  After the birthday party we went to the store to get some groceries. Then headed home for a long nap.


After nap time we went to dinner.  We were going to try a new place but we're such creatures of habit we headed to Mugshots in the new Uptown area.  It was good.  We had to wait a few minutes so we walked over to the fountain and Barrett was very curious.


Family selfie!


Checking out the fountain. After dinner we went sunset chasing but never found the perfect spot.  We'll have to do more research next time.  When we got home Barrett went to sleep and we watched a movie.  It was sad and I didn't really care for it.  I can't remember the name, it had Mark Wahlberg in it and it was about war and there was a lot of blood and shooting and it just wasn't my cup of tea.  But I tried to be a good sport about it. Sunday we got up and went to Mass then came home a hung out as a family.  It was a relaxing day.  We watched Miss USA.  I wasn't impressed with the pageant.  I mean it took an hour for them to announce the top 20.  I thought that was a bit much. All in all it was good weekend.  I just love summer! 

Speech Evaluation

This afternoon Barrett was evaluated by the speech therapist with the early intervention program.  Our coordinator wanted the speech therapist to come and check him out since he drools a lot and a few other things made her think he would benefit for more attention focused specifically on speech.  Once again we just want to do everything we can to get him caught up.  The speech therapist agreed that he could use the extra attention so her services have been added to our plan.  She will come to us twice a month in addition to the special instruction we already receive from our coordinator.  We have been encouraged with the progress already made and hope this is just one more tool that will help get him where he needs to be.  One thing she suggested is to spend more time around his "peers", that means more play dates.  We're not complaining.  We love play dates.  So that is where we are now. 

He was so proud of his new seat at the office.

Weekend Fun

We had a very laid back weekend.  The Color Run was the only thing I had to do so didn't do a whole lot of anything. Barrett is really into eating apples off the core lately.  It keeps him occupied for a little while and it's healthy for him.  That's a win-win in my book. Friday night I went with Brittany and Kristen to pick up our race packets.  Then I had to return something at the Galleria and we went to dinner. We also had the task of finding two more shirts for our team for the race the next morning.  It was a fun girls night.  Sometimes I just need time with the girls.  I'm so thankful for the friendships I have with these girls.   I should also mention that we made a stop at Gigi's cupcakes because we were right there and they are my favorite.  It had been over a year since I'd had one so it was time.  It was a fun night and as I was crawling into bed around 11:00, all I could think about was the early wake-up call.  Saturday morning was the Color Run.  (See previous post)


When Patrick got home from work we decided to go to dinner as a family.  We just went to Chili's.  I think that is one of my favorite things to do as a family.  Just a simple dinner out together that I don't have to cook or clean up. I can't get over how big Barrett is looking these days.  It's bittersweet for sure. 


Sunday, we went to Mass and then to my parents house for lunch.  After lunch Nana fixed everyone an ice cream cone.


I think Barrett enjoyed his ice cream cone in one hand and cookie in the other.


He stayed with them while I went home and did a few things around the house.  We picked him up and came home and just enjoyed the night as a family.  Pretty great weekend in my book!

The Color Run

Around two months ago, Brittany and I decided we wanted to run the Color Run when it came to Birmingham.  We quickly gathered a group of 6 for our team and we started training.  This is probably where I should add that I did not train.  I didn't run one time.  Everyone else did and they were awesome.  I just tried to keep up.  I was in charge of designing our team shirts and I thought they turned out so cute.  We got several compliments and I even had someone ask me if I had a business card.  I did not.

This was while we were waiting for the other half of our team. Here we are. We couldn't come up with a team name.  So I played off the color run logo and made the color fun shirts. The back of our shirts had our monogram, just as any good southerner should. I felt like we ran forever before we got to the first color spot.  I didn't really know what to expect.  I thought the color powder was going to be falling on us but there were people on either side of the road kinda squirting it on us.  It was cool. Team selfie. Of course the pink was my favorite. And I love these team selfies. The blue was the last color during the "race". I kinda loved the confetti at the finish. I'm not sure where the rest of our team was by this point.  Team after! I looked like a smurf!  The blue people got me good.  I was still getting blue out of my ears this morning. It was such a fun morning.  I loved seeing the diversity in the participants.  There were so many people.  I heard an estimate of 5,500 people.  I love that it's promoted as the "Happiest 5K on the planet"  and it is so happy!  Everyone was smiling and having fun!   I would definitely recommend participating.  Its so laid back and low pressure. It's not timed and everyone kinda takes their time.  I just wanted to enjoy it and have fun and that's what we did.