Shawn at Letters to My Daughters has invited everyone to participate in a very informal group writing project.  The topic is “Someday I will…” It can be about anything…motherhood, fatherhood, selfhood, nohood…anything at all. Leave her a comment with the link to your post. The deadline is Friday at noon EST - get busy guys!!!!

Once upon a time mine would have started “Someday I will be a mom”…..words cannot even express how it feels to have my someday be now.

There were many, many things I want to do, some long term, some short term…here are a few.
Someday I will:

¤ Move to another country

¤ Learn another language

¤ Learn how to play the guitar

¤ Make money taking photographs

¤ Lose 13 pounds

¤ Get the hell out of Vegas

¤ Vacation in Europe

¤  Teach my children how to play the piano

¤  Walk for a cause

Your turn!

I can’t believe that my little clams are 1 year old today!

Time moves by very quickly, no matter how much I wish it to slow or stand still. It doesn’t seem more than a few months since we brought you home, and even shorter still since the nights spent watching you open your eyes and start to take in the world around you. Long nights of walks around the house, holding you, falling asleep sitting up with your head on my chest, listening to you breathe. Your mother and I watching you sleep, talking to you for hours when you couldn’t sleep or didn’t want to eat. Finally, you started to get to know us - Heaten, the first to smile, and Shenzie, who could say everything she needed to with just her eyes. Those things have stayed the same - but everything else has changed so quickly it seems like an optical illusion. Now you see two tiny babies who barely open their eyes, and then Abracadabra, presto-chango! Two small people who want everything, who ask to be picked up, who kiss and laugh and talk and dance. While the time between has passed far too quickly, we can’t wait for it to happen again, to see what’s next, and who our little people have become the next time this day comes around.

Happy birthday Shenzie and Heaten - I love you.

Dad.

Happy Birthday Shenzie Weather Echo Barr!!! I love you little girl!

Happy Birthday Heaten Grey Myrick Barr!!! I love you little boy! 

I can’t believe my little tiny babies are one. The year went by so fast.  They went from little lumps to these big, beautiful, fun, little people. I feel so many things all mushed together. Sadness that my babies are not babies anymore. Happiness that they are big and healthy. Anticipation for what’s next. It is definitely bittersweet. Having two newborns was really, really hard. Now that they are older things are much easier. We survived! We survived NICU time, sleep deprivation, juggling with feeding two babies who couldn’t eat and breathe at the same time, TONS and TONS of dirty diapers, lots of crying, fussing, screaming, a couple of bumps and bruises, RSV, colds, and a heart murmur.

Things I will miss:

¤ Tiny hands and feet ¤ Tiny butts ¤ Little meow cries ¤ Sweet baby breath ¤ Having babies instead of toddlers ¤

Things I will NOT miss:

¤ Formula ¤ Bottles ¤ Baby food ¤ Spit-up ¤ Bibs ¤ Hand mitts ¤ Swaddling ¤ Sleep deprivation ¤

Things I look forward to:

¤ Having toddlers instead of babies ¤ Walking ¤ Talking ¤ More laughs, giggles, smiles, and screams ¤ Watching them grow and learn new things ¤ Hair for Shenzie ¤ Teeth for Heaten ¤

Things I am scared of:

¤ Walking ¤ Teeth for Heaten ¤ Tantrums ¤ Biting, hitting, scratching, pushing, pulling, and hurting ¤

This has been the best year of my life. Thank you to my wonderful, helpful, supporting, loving, husband for everything you do including putting up with me! I am so blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful family and perfect babies. Thank you to my sweet, perfect, beautiful babies for making me so very happy. I love you both so very much, forever and ever for.

I wish you both a fantabulous birthday and I hope you get lots of good presents! =)