This weekend started off with Totnastics at our new community center (which sucks….for anyone in Las Vegas the Mirabelli Community Center is the BOMB….Cimmaron Rose, not so much). The instructor is pretty lame, the “gym” is a tiny, dirty room and class is crazy. BUT, the babies LOVE it so we’ll suck it up until we can register at Mirabelli again. I woke up grouchy so the day just sort of went downhill from there. I was mean, tired, and moody. Heaten was crazy. Daddy was crazy. And of course Shenzie was her normal crazy self. Naps went well so when they woke we had a do over with movie night. We watched The Incredibles which Heaten LOVED. He would yell at the TV…NOOOOOOOO, gentle robot and do the gentle sign to the robot. It was SO cute.
Sunday morning I woke bright and early to try to beat the heat for a one year old photo session. The little girl was a doll, but we didn’t beat the heat. At 8:30 it was already 92 degrees. Ugh. Luckily she was awesome so I got some great shots and then headed home for a nice cold shower. We hit up the library stayed indoors to keep cool. Jeff had an old friend and his family drive thru from Canada on their way to California so we spent the afternoon eating yummy bbq and hanging out with their family. Heaten didn’t nap so he was kinda cry baby, but all in all it was a great time. Would you believe I didn’t take ONE photo of Jeff and his friend who he hasn’t seen in YEARS and probably won’t see again for many more years?!?!? Duh.
The evening ended with the babies putting their tired Mommy to bed. It was just about the cutest thing I ever saw. Heaten grabbed my hand and walked me into my room. He then started singing Row Your Boat. Shenzie joined him and together they rocked back and forth in front of me singing Twinkle Twinkle and then gave me good night kisses. Awww, melt my heart.
Last month I started a “good behavior” sticker chart. Really it is just a magnetic pad of crayola paper that the babies add stickers to.
Every time they help me clean up, share, have a good day, do something nice, eat their fruits and veggies….pretty much anything positive they get a sticker. Once they get “a lot” of stickers they get to choose a prize from the goodie bag. Bubbles, chapstick, balls, stickers, color pencils, water shooters, plastic dino’s, etc. Mostly stuff from the dollar bins or the dollar store.
So far we have had pretty good success. More with Shenzie than with Heaten, but he is starting to get it. With everything being SUCH A STRUGGLE these days this is something positive to focus on…I’m hoping as they start to understand it more it will become even more of an incentive to have good behavior and do nice things. I’ll keep you updated - for now I’ll take what I can get!
My favorite reads for the first half of the year are in bold. By far my favorite was The Hunger Games. I cannot wait for the sequel this fall!!! I enjoyed the Uglies Series- I liked the creative idea of the series. I liked the fresh take on Confessions of a Contractor. A sort of romantic comedy (term used very loosely, but I’m too tired to come up with a better one) written from the males point of view by a male. I really enjoyed the sarcastic writing of my TV boyfriend Hugh Laurie with The Gun Seller. Of course I love anything by Charlie Houston and Marshall Karp. And last but not least….one of the scariest horror novels I have ever read. I LOVE scary movies and scary books, but very rarely find them. Joe Schreiber’s Eat the Dark’ was awesomely scary! If you’re into scary books this one is for you. I am reading his other horror novel Chasing the Dead next and can’t wait to be scared again!
January
Say Goodbye ¤ Lisa Gardner ****
The Broken Window ¤ Jeffrey Deaver ****
Just One Look ¤ Harlan Coben *** ½
Every Last Drop ¤ Charlie Huston *** ½
February
The Bodies Left Behind ¤ Jeffrey Deaver ****
Salvation in Death ¤ J.D Robb *** The Gun Seller ¤ Hugh Laurie *****
The Brass Verdict ¤ Michael Connelly ****
Peeps ¤ Scott Westerfeld **** ½
March
The Book of Dalia ¤ Elisa Albert *** ½
Confessions of a Contractor ¤ Richard Murphy *****
Boy Toy ¤ Barry Lyga *****
The Hunger Games ¤ Suzanne Collins *****
The Uglies ¤ Scott Westerfeld ****
The Pretties ¤ Scott Westerfeld ****
The Specials ¤ Scott Westerfeld ****
Safer ¤ Sean Doolittle ***
April
The Mystic Arts of Erasing all Signs of Death ¤Charlie Houston *****
Until It’s Over ¤ Nicci French ***
Reconstructing Brigid ¤ Lee Nichols ***
Mr. Clarinet ¤ Nick Stone ****
May
Promises in Death ¤ J.D Robb ** ½
Dawn Patrol ¤ Don Winslow **** ½
June
Flipping Out ¤ Marshall Karp *****
The Little Sleep ¤ Paul Tremblay *** ½
Bad Things ¤ Michael Marshall *****
One Fifth Avenue ¤ Candace Bushnell ** ½ Eat The Dark:A Novel ¤ Joe Schreiber *****
Lately the babies have been battling me with naps. Actually I won’t say the babies, I will say Shenzie. Heaten naps 99% of the time and if he doesn’t get a nap, OMG watch out!!! He is not a happy child when he is tired.
So my story starts last month when Shenzie was sick with a cold. She was stuffy, sneezy, and just couldn’t get comfy to sleep. She missed a few naps and was relatively ok. Every week or so it seemed she would just not want to nap for a day or two which really sucks because then I can’t work. I enforce “quiet time” on my bed while I try to work, but that usually only lasts 30 minutes. I suppose this could be the end of naps which I’m sure will be a long, tortuous transition, but I just don’t think so. When she isn’t being crazy she naps for like 2 hours and sleeps all night. I think she still needs naps, she just doesn’t want to take them.
Then she started fighting going to bed. We have been really, REALLY consistent with bedtime at 8 with the same exact routine since the babies were actual babies and sleep *knock on wood* has never really been an issue. I can’t remember the last time I had to get up super early in the morning or was woken up in the middle of the night by the babies. This behavior is highly unusual and I’m sure is just a phase that will soon be replaced by the next crazy toddler thing.
I had a brilliant idea one night at 10:30pm when Shenzie just flat out refused to go to bed and was screaming and crying like a banshee.
**We interrupt this post to say that Heaten is at this moment getting put back to bed an hour after bedtime after he conned his way out of bed. He scratched his knee and needed some TLC before he could go back to bed.**
Ok, on with the story. My brilliant idea. And yes, I will be the first to admit this is one of those times I didn’t really think my plan through. I asked Shenzie if she needed me to lay with her in her crib to go to sleep. Whoa! You would have thought Santa came in the room with 100 dolls. She was SO excited and jumped all over that idea.
I’m sure you can guess what I do every nap and bed time now. I climb into Shenzie’s crib and lay with her while she gets settled in. Some nights she demands tickles on her back and arms. Some nights she tells me to close my eyes and then pokes my face with her finger. She then laughs like crazy when she sneaks touches my eye because she knows that I hate it (yes, she is a little antagonizer). I have to threaten her with leaving to get her to stop. Tonight she made up the fun game of putting her ‘babies’ ears in her nose and saying her nose was stuffy then laughing like a loon. Good times I tell ya. Most nights I’ll tell her this is her “one more” because she is two and there is ALWAYS a “one more” involved. She will squeeze into me as tight as she can and throw her arm around me holding tightly while saying “No Mama, cuddle”. How could I refuse that! One more and one more and one more we do this until finally I say the right thing and she lets me escape.
A couple of days last week I was actually able to put her down without climbing in. I told her I would come back in 10 minutes. I actually felt kinda bad about lying to her, but I figure she won’t actually remember that I was supposed to come back in 10 minutes because she’ll be asleep. We hope anyway.
Most days I don’t mind climbing in with her. Especially those days I am not the most patient and nice Mommy. It feels so sweet to lie with my daughter and know that she loves our cuddles as much as I do. This quiet cuddle time is what I missed out on when the babies were newborns, so I’m going really try to not worry about what I ’should’ be doing and enjoy our special time together.
I love them even more when Jeff makes a bet, loses said bet, and I get an extra sleep in day!!!
Friday started out with breakfast at our favorite place. Yumitty yum!! I love our family breakfasts and I’m glad we have “our” place and our fun breakfast traditions. While the babies napped I ran some errands and grabbed an iced coffee. Mmmmm. Heavenly. That night we had Movie Night (although Heaten cried when he realized we weren’t going to the movie house, but staying home). He quickly got over it when we had candy and ice cream while watching Wall-E. We love us some kids movies at Casa de Barr, but this one did NOT impress either of us at all.
Saturday we got up and headed back to The Lied’s Children’s Discovery Museum. Of course the babies had a blast as did Jeff and I. Here is the famous “hurricane wind tunnel”:
Sorry the video is sideways. I uploaded it before rotating it and am too lazy to do it again. =)
During the babies nap I once again ran some errands and got another iced coffee. Too bad Starsmucks is SO expensive - I would have these daily if I could!! Saturday afternoon the babies/kids helped me make cupcakes for Auntie Stacey’s and Uncle Jimmy’s Fourth of July party (Stacey, I thought you were going to FINALLY update this weekend!!??!!). Jeff and I tried to talk up the fireworks thing to the babies, but having never seen them, they had no clue what we were talking about. I bought some “little kid friendly” stuff that turned out to be very UNFRIENDLY!! The sparklers didn’t sparkle, but flamed and burned poor Heaten’s foot and caught his hair on fire (ok, more like singed it, but still)!!! The black wormies that I remember from my childhood didn’t just grow, they had actual FIRE coming off of them, and the supposed kid friendly poppers would have taken the poor kids fingers off. I don’t know where I bought this stuff, but clearly it was NOT for kids. Sorry guys!
The party was awesome - Thank you Sissy!!! Heaten had a love/hate relationship with the fireworks. He loved them at the same time as being scared to death of them. Shenzie didn’t like them at all, the loud noises scared her so Daddy and Shenzie went inside and watched a little Kung Fu Panda which she DID like. We left at around 9:30 which is the latest the babies have been up and away from home. I would have thought they would come home and crash, but they were wide awake and ready for more play.
Sunday Jeff took Shenzie on a date out for lunch while Mama and Heaten stayed home and looked for bugs in the sandbox. Good times. Heaten was VERY bummed he didn’t get to go out as well, so next date day will be under stealth mode. We ended the weekend with Daddy cooking us a yummy dinner of bbq chicken, corn on the cob, and fresh fruit followed by double fudge brownie ice cream and a mini movie night!! Ahhh, this is what life is all about!
*I realize this is a total cheat since I posted this on my blog last week, but
A. I love the photos THAT much
B. I want them on this blog for my book
C. I have been Busy with a capital B and have nothing else for you - so you’ll have to forgive the duplication.
When I look at my babies I do not see babies anymore. They are full on little kids with minds of their own. I am enjoying this stage to the fullest and cannot wait to see what the near future holds. It is true that time does fly and they grow so fast. I am a bit nostalgic of times past so I set out to capture what last little bit of “baby” they still have.
Shenzie Weather Echo Barr at 2.8 years old.
Heaten Grey Myrick Barr at 2.8 years old.
When I take photos of other peoples babies/children I start off with about 300 images and have to narrow it down to the ones that I will edit and show in their gallery. I always tell the parents that I pick the photos that “speak” to me. These first two photos speak to me in a way that brings tears to my eyes.
My two little love munchins.
This is why I love what I do. To capture those special moments that make your heart hurt with love. Of course I love to take photographs. I really, really love to photograph newborns, but I think young children are my very favorite to photograph. They are so sweet, innocent, and true. Their expressions, smiles, pouts, tantrums are all from the heart. To be able to freeze those moments and give them to you is the best part of my job.
Every nap and bed time since the babies were like 4 months old we’ve sang them the ABC’s. They now sing along which is SO fun, but I didn’t really think they “got” that they were actual letters. A couple of weeks ago while I was reading my book Shenzie came over and pointed out the O on the page and said O. I was shocked! Since then we’ve practiced with a couple of letters. Years ago I got this magnetic board from Ikea. I found $1 magnetic letters from Tar*get - presto mundo - letter central!
Shenzie and Heaten can identify the letters S, H, M, D, and sometimes T.
S is for Shenzie
H is for Heaten and Haylee
M is for Mama
D is for Daddy
T is for turtle
and O is for O’s (cheerios)
I really need to be better at working with them so I’m going to start a letter a day (more like every couple of days).
Today is brought to you by the letter A. A is for apple, ambulance, and alligator!
