Water Park Edition:

My sisters, sister in law, and Mom enjoyed a night out on the town last weekend. We went down to the strip and had some yummy food at the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian Hotel. After stuffing our faces on delicious food we walked part of it off at The Grand Canal Shoppes. We went into the most fabulous gallery by the photographer Peter Lik who is simply amazing. His work is stunning. Then of course all of us moms had to shop in the kids store where I found this wonderful piece of tutuism. Imagine how cute Shenzie is going to be for our upcoming photo shoot wearing this!

Although Heaten liked wearing it more than Shenzie (Jeff is going to kill me for posting this…sorry Daddy, I couldn’t resist his cuteness).

For those of you that inquired…

The Monkey Backpack thingies are from Target. They are made by Eddie Bauer and I think I’ve seen them at Walmart too.

The Baby Blog Book was made at Lulu.com. Their site is pretty user friendly and it wasn’t hard to do. If you are hosted through blogspot (I am not so thats why I went with Lulu) you can try Blurb.com. I’ve heard it is super easy. They take your blog and extract all of the entries pretty much doing all of the work for you.

Twins + One = CHAOS!

I thought the twins kept me very busy. Between the feeding, holding, cuddling, bathing, playing, reading, singing, refereeing, cleaning upping, crying, yelling, fighting, showering, laundrying, typing, reading, and eating there isn’t much time left. I realized that I had no clue what busy was until we added another baby to the mix. Enter cousin Haylee who just turned one.

I had the pleasure of babysitting her last week for a couple of hours and let me say three kids is A LOT to handle. Between the jealousy, crying, and crazy I was busy non stop. And Jeff wants another baby.

Pulease…..not with this tired lady!!!!

The next week and a half are super busy here at the old Barr Casa so be prepared for an onslaught of photographs until I can actually write again.

Awhile back we bought the monkey backpack buddy thingies. The babies HATED them. Cried and cried until I took them off. I recently took them to the mall where they wanted out of their stroller. Enter monkey backpack buddy thingies. They LOVED them. They walked right next to me holding onto the monkey tail. Yay! We are on our way to stroller freedom!!!

There is much drama surrounding the monkey backpack - or leash as I’ve heard it called. A lot of people including many mothers have said that they would NEVER leash their child. How inhumane! How horrible for the child! Blah blah blah. And maybe I used to feel that way, I don’t know because to be quite honest I never thought about baby leashes..I mean, why would I? So anyway….to all of those backpack haters all I can say is the backpacks keep my babies safe. They are not going to be snatched up by some maniac, they are not going to run into a busy street and get hit by a car, they are not going to run in two opposite directions which is very dangerous if we’re in a parking lot or busy store. They are not yet old enough to understand the consequences of running off but are old enough to love the freedom they get with the backpacks. They get to walk next to me like little people and explore the world from a different perspective. The babies and I both love the backpacks and the freedom they allow. The babies are much safer while walking in a crowded area with them on and I don’t have to worry about all of the dangers they could be getting into. Safety is my main concern and if that means they have to wear a backpack for awhile until they are old enough to understand all of the dangers then I am all for it. Monkey backpack haters begone!!!

Back in the day when I was making all of the babies pureed foods they would pretty much eat anything I cooked. Well, they really didn’t care for broccoli or eggplant, but can you really blame them. =) When they started finger foods they weren’t all that picky. They loved tofu, soy dogs, soy chicken, even soy meatballs.

Shenzie has always been a great eater. She will try new foods and if she doesn’t like them she just spits them out. So far there are few food she doesn’t like. Of course veggies are always a problem. She will eat carrots and peas but that’s about it. I thought for sure she would like corn on the cob, but is was a no go. I can’t complain though, she eats a big variety of foods and isn’t scared to try new foods. Her new food process is first to smell it, then to taste a nibble. If she likes it she immediately does the sign for more, if she doesn’t the food usually ends up on the floor.

Heaten is an entirely different story. He has a handful of foods he will usually eat, but even those sometimes end up on the floor.

Foods he will eat:
His very favorite - Yogurt (favorite flavor - Banilla)
Peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwich
Applesauce
Frozen Yogurt Pops
Eggo Waffles with cream cheese or peanut butter
Blueberry muffins
Apple/Banana muffins
Mashed potatoes mixed with peas
Soy hot dogs diced small and mixed in mashed potatoes
All crackers, goldfish, cheddar bunnies, etc.
Most times he will eat bananas

When he was younger he ate ok, and then one day he didn’t like food anymore. From that point on every single meal with the exception of breakfast has been a fight. I dreaded dinners. Trying to find something he would eat was and still is a never ending battle. The throwing of the food when he decided he didn’t like soy chicken even though the night before he ate it like a champ. The worry that he would be hungry. Etc. Etc. Etc. Lately we’ve been doing ok as far as food goes, but I always worry Heaten isn’t getting enough protein since he won’t eat most soy meats and zero veggies. Fruits are iffy, one day he likes bananas the next he hates them.

+ =

I have to get very creative in finding ways to sneak healthy foods into his snacks. Our popsicles are either vanilla yogurt mixed with mixed berry applesauce frozen or our latest “chocolate/vanilla” swirl. Yum!!

Imagine my surprise when my little fussy eater suddenly started trying new foods. We have a special treat everyday - Edamame. I am still shocked every single day when he “pops” the bean into his mouth and chows away. He loves to “pop” the beans from their shell. In the last month he has eaten so many new foods including…. Edamame, Soy Hot Dogs,

Soy Corn Dogs, Chicken Enchiladas, Cheesy Bagels, Pizza Bagels, Amy’s Cheese Pizza Snacks, Oatmeal,

peas, and carrots. I really, really hope this is the beginning of a much less picky Heaten!!! Wish us luck!

Melt My Heart Edition:

I had no part in the cuddle, kiss, or seating arrangement. Having twins is the very best!

My little Angel Baby

Is there anything more precious than a sleeping baby? After a rough day I love to go peek in on the babies and watch them sleep. Bad day begone, one look at the sleeping angels melts the bad day away.

This site has always been for the babies, about the babies, all baby, baby, baby. Of course there are many things about Mommy and Daddy, but for the most part it is all baby. At times I have written things about myself that I then deleted because I felt they were inappropriate for a baby website or too personal about me. I sometimes think of making a blog for myself, but come on, let’s just be real - where would I get the time!?! I have this blog, my photography site, my photography blog to upkeep, and my Smugmug site where I store all of my favorite photos - not to mention the whole mothering twins thing.

I do somewhat censure myself here - in real life I have a pretty bad potty mouth. I try not to get too potty mouthish here since it is for my babies and I have to upkeep the whole “good mother” thing (haha). Plus wouldn’t want my Mother In Law to know how horrible my mouth really is. Hi Marg!

There are topics that are off limits here like religion, politics, and anything of the too personal variety. I’m a pretty open person, but really don’t want to even “go there” here about many issues. And then once again I think if I had my own site (maybe even anonymous) I could say anything and not feel bad that one day my babies might read it or worry about offending anyone.

I am making every year of my journaling and the babies life into a book for them (and us) as sort of a baby book. I forget things so easily and I am so happy I have kept this journal since I found out I was pregnant. So many things have changed including my little tiny babies. I often look back at my blog and read about the good old spitupping days. I really wouldn’t want to add a bunch of cussing or any other dirty mindedness to the babies books even though it is how I am. Does that even make sense? Maybe when they are older and not my tiny little tots I can add a shit, damn, hell, or worse here, but for now the shits are of the limited variety (except for the real life ones, and then they are not limited at all)!

What about the rest of you “Blogging Mothers” - are any topics off limits on your blog? Do you censure yourself in any way?

Here is the book of the babies first year that I made for Jeff for Father’s Day. I love it and can’t wait to finish up my pregnancy year and the babies year two.

Cousins Edition:

This picture was our gift to Mom (Grandma Jan) for this years Mother’s Day. My oh my how they’ve grown since April.

Back row left to right: Braiden, Alexee, Trever, Ethan
Front row left to right: Shenzie, Marlee, Carter, Haylee, Heaten

I have been struggling with what I could possibly say that would be enough. My sister said it best….Another Angel has been called home to Heaven. We will miss you so very much Alex, you’ll always be Baby Alex to us. We love you.