Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Barrett - 22 months

I still call Barrett "Baby," but he's far from it these days.  Even his momma can no longer deny the fact that he's a toddler, through and through.  I hold tight to the moments when his baby-ness appears, when he's nuzzles up into my neck, when he lets me cuddle him when he's tired, when he gets a boo-boo and lifts his arm to be comforted.

But most of the time, he's too busy to take a second for any type of cuddles!

He loves to make us laugh.  He puts on our shoes and walks through the house, exclaiming "mommy's shoes!"  He does little dances in his booster seat while he's eating, bouncing and bobbing his head to imagined music.  He makes up little songs and sings away in the backseat of the car.

 He has fallen in absolute love with trains in the last month or two.  It's so funny.  We hear "choo-choo" constantly.  He loves playing with trains, watching trains, holding his toys trains, crossing train tracks, the whole works.   He's definitely all boy.  Not just the train thing, but he loves cars and planes too.  One of the most exciting things in his life is Daddy's car.  He gets very excited when we pull up to the house and he sees Daddy's car in the driveway. "Daddy cahr!"  He also makes sure whenever we're in parking lots that he finds and points out Mommy's car as soon as he sees it.   I can't imagine where he got this love of motor vehicles...  I think he must be like his father and have blood that's half motor oil.  Oh boy.

He's feisty and shy at the same time.  He is saying so many things and it's awesome to have conversations with him and to know what he's thinking.  He's very talkative and says a million words and sentences.  He loves to point out whose item is whose.  Mommy's water, Daddy's coat, etc.  Mealtime hasn't gotten any easier.  We're still battling the throwing of the food vs eating it.  I'm trying to crack down on ending mealtime as soon as food gets thrown.  This past month we've really had to up the discipline, which is the hardest part of parenting for me.  We're working on consistency and time-outs.

One thing that has gotten easier is the teeth brushing!  He never minded brushing his own teeth (meaning biting down on the brush and sucking off the toothpaste) but cried when we took over.  But with the help of an electric train toothbrush and special train toothpaste, teeth brushing is, for this week anyway, a breeze.  We ask if he wants to use his choo-choo brush to brush his teeth and he runs straight for the bathroom.  

Barrett's favorite books right now are Goodnight Moon, a lift-the-flaps book about Elmo and his blanket, and The Monster at the End of this Book.  He's obsessed with Elmo and thinks Grover in the Monster book is Elmo so that's why he's liking that book.

He is funny and wild, sweet and loving and it's so much fun watching him grow up.  I can't imagine a more perfect little boy for our family and we're so lucky that he's ours! 

Just chugging along

We had an amazing weekend.  It was the most fun weekend that we've had in a long time and I enjoyed every moment.

It started Saturday morning with a trip to the local children's museum.  I had bought a couple passes on groupon so it was a good excuse to check it out.  Plus, there was a new train exhibit that I thought Barrett might like.  Boy, did he!  I have never seen this child have such a long attention span to anything like he did to this train set. If I had a dollar for every time I heard the word "choo-choo" this weekend, Barrett's college would probably be paid for.

 

 While we were looking at the train set, a real train went by.  Funnily, B was the one to notice it, when he shouted "choo-choo!!" even more enthusiastically than he had been. 

 finally, a family picture!  We are averaging one of these every 6 months, so I'll choose to ignore the fact that B refused to look at the camera.

Once we were able to tear him away from the train exhibit, we could check out the rest of the museum as well.  There was a music room:

 

 

a building center:

a bubble room:

 

Someone got a little bubbly...

 inside the bubble

 And then the day got a little long and someone hit a wall.  I'll let you guess who that was.

This was after a car ride that was about 7 minutes or so.  I think he may have had fun!

 

Saturday night Tim and I went out for a too-rare date night.  We had a great time.  It was fun to get dressed up and have a wonderful meal.  We don't go out just the two of us very often so when we do, we really enjoy it.  It is funny though - when I used to babysit, the parents would stay out until 12 or 1.  Now, we are back home by 9:30 or so, yawning.  We are just too tired to stay out any later!  Will this change when the kiddos get older or are we just big party poopers?  

We had a pretty low-key Sunday.  We made breakfast, went for a long walk, watched football and Tim and Barrett went for a bike ride.  We also made a Thanksgiving dinner.  Since who knows what will be going on for Thanksgiving this year (since I'm due the Friday before) and it's Tim's favorite meal of the entire year, we celebrated a month early with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls.  Yum!  Below is the finished product.  It tasted just as good as it looks.  I wanted to get a picture of the entire meal, but it was devoured before I could.  We also have lots of leftovers, which I'll use to make turkey & wild rice soup and turkey minestrone soup to freeze.   

 

And that sums up the weekend!  From here on out, our weekends are pretty jam packed until the big baby day.  We're trying to cram in a lot of fall festivities, hanging out with friends, and preparing for baby in just the next few weeks!

Morning reminder

This morning, on the way to work, we got stopped by a train.  As soon as I saw those flashing red lights and the gate coming down, I got annoyed and muttered under my breath "Are you freaking kidding me?"

Then as it starts to go by, I hear a little voice from the backseat "choo-choo!!"

He was so happy.  I rolled down the window so he could hear it.  And as the caboose went by and the gates went up, he said "bye-bye choo-choo!"

What a great reminder to not get so annoyed by life's little inconveniences but to look at them through Barrett's eyes!

Boys boys boys

My sister and her family came to visit recently and in 2.2 seconds the house turned into a boy playland!  This is funny for us, since we came from a female household.  Trust me, there were no trips to see trucks or soapbox derbies or train restaurants when we were kids!  Poor Caroline was along for the ride.  But when another girl cousin joins the ranks, the activities will have to be a little more balanced.

So we started out with a trip to see the vehicles.  There was a street sweeper, a fire truck, a police car, and a ton of others.  B's favorite thing to see were the police dogs.  He kept saying "doggy!" and petting them.  Not as much interest in the vehicles as his older cousins. 

My sister's family - love the entire family in a row and amazed how they manage 3 kids.  Tim and I sometimes feel overwhelmed with just one!

B in a police car - better the front seat than the backseat, kiddo!

 

For dinner, we went to a local train-themed restaurant.  Heaven for little boys!

Barrett was mesmerized by the train running around the ceiling of the restaurant.  He kept pointing at it and saying "choo choo!  My choo choo!"

 

A train brought the food.  Not exactly an award-winning meal, as you'd imagine, but the kids loved it!

  

Relaxing Sunday morning - 3 little boys, all in a row

 This was pretty much Payton's expression all weekend - a desperate "save me!" expression.  That is, when he wasn't hiding upstairs or under the couch.

 

Off to the park

So that sums it up!  Barrett picked up all kinds of "fun" ideas from his cousins, like how to push his toys around the floors and how to stand on the family room chairs and rock them backwards.  He wanted to do everything his older cousins did.  Loved seeing them and we had a great time!