Family and 1 year photos

This past weekend we had Barrett's 1 year photos/family Christmas photos taken. Our photographer sent us a sneak peek of her favorites and I am very pleased with them!

We managed to get full cooperation from the little guy too, which sure beats the last time we had them done, with teething and tears. Below are some of the shots we got. But not all - some will be included in this year's Christmas card (if I ever manage to get around to actually getting them started), so those shots have been excluded.

However, just because I got these 1 year pictures taken does not mean that I am allowing this whole 1 year birthday thing to happen. Can I please continue to leave in my safe and happy world and pretend that in a mere 10 days my baby will NOT be turning one year old?

Counting down the days...

One year ago tomorrow was my due date. One year ago I was still at work, hoping every night when I went to sleep that *that* night would be the night. I envisioned waking up with contractions, taking a warm bath, then waking up Tim to say those two anticipated words: "It's time." But it wasn't to be. Every morning I woke up and laid there for a minute, making sure that I still felt perfectly normal and there were no contractions to be felt. Then onto rolling myself out of bed, waddling around the house to get ready, drive to work and here those three dreaded words: "You're STILL here?" Ugh. It was kind of cute the first time but by the 312th time, I wasn't so amused. Although it was a little funny when people asked when I was due and I said "last Friday." Funny now, although I'm pretty sure my 41 week pregnant self wasn't laughing.

I did everything I could think of to get this kid out of me. I spent hours walking around the mall with nothing to show for it but blistered heels and swollen feet. I bounced on an exercise ball every night. I tried evening primrose oil. I ate buffalo wild wings every weekend for a month. I ate an entire pineapple by myself for pete's sake.

This was one determined child. Even after 20 hours in the hospital, 12 days late, I remember the nurse telling me he was so far north he was practically in Wisconsin. I had visions of him clinging to my lungs with white knuckles, holding on for dear life. But out he came, though not willingly, by doctor's scalpel and prying hands. When I was laying on that table, I could feel the pressure as the doctor pushed and pulled, way up under my rib cage, to pry him out. He had a will that was not giving in!

It's funny now, but he still has that will. He's generally a pretty mellow-ish little one, but when that will comes out, boy does it come out. As he tries his hardest to flip over and crawl away during diaper changes and squirms and cries and struggles to win the fight and get away, I tell him "do not get into a battle of wills with your mama, because that's one battle you're going to lose."

It's hard to even remember one year ago. It's hard to picture myself being 40 weeks pregnant, now that my body has returned to its normal self again. If it wasn't for that scar on my belly, I'd wonder if the entire pregnancy was some dream, it seems so foreign now. Sometimes I miss that little body in my belly, rumbling and tumbling around inside me but I sure do love that little boy, tumbling and crawling all over me when I lay on the floor!

A very St Louis Thanksgiving

Yes, this is a very belated Thanksgiving post. What can I say, I am beyond swamped with Christmas, a very special upcoming birthday, and incredibly busy times at work.

Nonetheless, we had a great Thanksgiving and had so much to be thankful for this year. This was an especially meaningful Thanksgiving because of the little guy in the below pictures and how much he has blessed our lives this year. It's surreal to think that last year my parents came up to see me, because I was only 2 weeks away from my due date, and I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner with a belly that barely allowed me to reach the stove. This year I celebrated Thanksgiving with that squirmy little sweetheart seated to my right, munching away on turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, and rolls. Crazy what a difference a year makes!

It was especially fun to get together this year because of the two little cousins. Caroline is 8 weeks younger than B and so it is always fun to see the two interact. 8 weeks is such a difference at this age.

Eating breakfast together


Barrett definitely was in awe of the bigger boy cousins. Here he is mesmerized by Jack (nearly 5) playing the Wii


But not too mesmerized to not play with Caroline also


A new house = lots of things to get into. He has entered the phase where he realizes it is tremendous fun to pull things off of shelves, to sweep them onto the floor and throw food/cups onto the floor. What a great game!

Here he is checking out the drawers


And playing his favorite game - making a mess, we call it


Lots of yummy pies. I realized we didn't take any pictures of dinner or B in his "first Thanksgiving" bib. Oh well
The pies were, from top to bottom, pecan, apple, pumpkin turtle (graham crust, bottom of pecans and caramel, topped by pumpkin, and finished off with layer of cool whip topped with caramel drizzle and crushed pecans) and Apple/oat pie (apple with a oat/strudel topping, drizzled with caramel).
There was unbelievably good food and I think I gained 5lbs that weekend. YUM.


More playing time


Mimi and her grandbabies


Next up is Christmas - I have so much to do and am starting to think I overcommited myself this month!

Barrett - Eleven months old

Dear Barrett

Well, angel, we are in the home stretch of your first year. Wow! I cannot believe you are going to be a toddler in just one short month. I am seeing so many glimpses of the little boy you're turning into. And it's so exciting to see.

This past month you have grown so much. You are basically out of 9 month clothes now and into the 12 month jammies. They have non-slip feet. For walkers. For big, grown up walkers. Which you are now! Well, not on your own just yet, but you just discovered the joy of walking behind the little rolling walker. You have loved pushing it while crawling on your knees but as soon as you pushed it forward, you would drop down to your knees. Well not anymore! You now walk behind it with such an expression of joy on your face! I can foresee that you are going to be walking before I know it, toddling all over the place, and getting into everything! You are so curious these days - constantly pulling toys off shelves, grabbing everything and dying to explore. But you always know the way back to your momma's arms. I think you would be perfectly happy to spend the entire day being carried around in my arms. I am so torn - I want to make sure you're independent and can play alone, but I know the time that I can hold you and carry you around is so fleeting, so I can't pass up these moments.

You are becoming a better eater. You love your carbs (cheerios, graham crackers, toast) and I think you could make an entire meal of puffs if I let you. You like yogurt, fruits, beans, rice and water but are not quite as fond of veggies, meat or cheese, but we're continuing to work on it.

Teeth #7 and 8 appeared on your 11 month birthday as tiny white slivers under the surface. After those little bottom ones come in, you'll have 4 on top and 4 on the bottom. They make you look so grown up.

You are still a constant babbler. You say "mamama" a lot, which I think means mama and either mine or more, when you are pointing at something. You also repeat bye and sometimes lift your arm in a sort of wave goodbye.

There are two favorite tricks that you do - the first is clapping. It's so cute! You will clap along to patty cake or just clap out of no where. Sometimes I'll change your diaper and you'll give me a round of applause at the end. Thanks for the appreciation, my dear!
Another favorite thing you do is when we show you a picture of yourself and you get the biggest smile on your face. My dear Barrett, you are quite vain! You love the way you look and know when you're looking at a picture of yourself that you're looking at the cutest baby in the world. And you are correct, sir!

Your laughs are contagious. There's nothing more fun to hear in this world than that crazy cackle of yours (although hearing you say "mama" is definitely a close second). Your entire face scrunches up and you just laugh, laugh, laugh. Everyone around you can't help but laugh right along.

Each month I swear is my favorite so far and this has been no exception. You are so active and are such a busy boy. Always having to crawl, to explore, and to play. I cannot believe you are going to be 1 in a month!

Love,
Mommy

And for fun, here are the 11 month rejects. I tried to take these on my own but this should definitely be a two person job. I managed to get the one good one above, which happened to be the first one I took. After that, the little wiggle worm refused to sit still and scared me half to death with his constant attempts to lunge off the chair!

trying to crawl towards Mommy


I gave him some desitin to try to distract him long enough to sit still momentarily


It did not work


nothing like a cute little diapered tush in the face


happy to be on his feet again

New showerhead - lucky me!

Sometimes luck is on my side and sometimes it isn't. Well it must have been one day recently because I was the big winner on Katie, over at Bower Power's, showerhead giveaway! 258 entries and I was the lucky winner, woohoo! It is a pink Grohe showerhead and a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the showerheads go to breast cancer research. And what a good reminder to perform self-exams.
It came in the mail a week or two ago and now we just have to find some spare time in our continuous home improvement projects to install it! (And by we, I mean Tim of course)

Skinny jeans

For the last year or two, I have been loving the skinny-jeans-tucked-into-boots look. However, last year I was in no position a year ago to be wearing skinny jeans. Let's face it, all jeans were skinny on me a year ago at 35 weeks pregnant! Well the baby weight has come off and I got my very first pair at Banana Republic recently, during a discount day, and I have to say that I'm sold! Tucked into my also new brown leather riding boots, I have to say it's a pretty cute look.

Yes, I am wearing two things I once said I'd never wear again - skinny jeans and higher-waisted jeans. I'm not going so far as to be accepting jeggings just yet though but I hear they're comfortable!

Happy Halloween!

Well someone celebrated his first Halloween - and we have about a billion pictures to prove it, as evidenced below! Our brave little lion was pretty darn cute.

We didn't make it out trick-or-treating. We were debating going with some friends of ours, but I decided toting a 10 month old around with an open bag begging for candy that would clearly go to mom and dad might be a little shameless.

As usual, we didn't get as many kids as we'd thought we might so we have a few leftover bags - which are going straight out of this house, if I have anything to do with it. We got a fair amount of use out of the costume - he wore it for the music program and Halloween parade at his daycare and then on Halloween night. When we got it two months ago, it seemed enormous but didn't seem quite so big on him yesterday!



















Fall program at the daycare. Each of the classrooms did a little performance. The infants' performance mostly consisted of the teacher singing while the kids managed not to cry - none did, so I'd call that a success!


Pumpkins - does the one on the right bear a striking resemblance to anyone??




Pooped out Pumpkin Payton!


I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween too! It's hard to believe that next up is Thanksgiving!!