School and Firetrucks

School update:
This week was so much better than last. Matt and I decided that Barrett might transition better if Matt were in charge of dropping him off. I've started saying my goodbyes at the house, and Matt is responsible for taking him to school.
After Monday, Barrett became less and less upset about me leaving. Same thing with Matt leaving him at school. Monday he cried a little, but by the time Matt checked out at the front office and peeped into the window of Barrett's classroom (yes...they know us a being stalkers), B had quit crying and was eating his breakfast at the table.
By Friday, Barrett didn't even cry when I left the house, and at school, Matt said he made a face and tried to fake cry, but when out of sight, Barrett turned back into our happy little boy!
Each day Ms. Amber would give me a thumbs up upon my arrive at the door! That's a great feeling, especially when she told me that he was laughing and playing with the other kids!!!
I doubt you can really see it, but here is his first report card from this week and his cuddle gram from Friday.
And you know where the classwork is going to go, right? Yep, it's already up on the refrigerator! ha ha

Barrett has a book with all types of trucks, tractors, and bulldozers. In our neighborhood, there is a huge excavator (I refer to it as a bulldozer because it is that yellow color), and every time we go strolling, Barrett yells out, "bull doze". We've also seen tractors and love them. Papa Barrett, Grandad Shepard, and the man across the street from us, all have tractors for Barrett to see up close.

Lately however, he has been noticing fire trucks and ambulances. With that being said, I thought he might like to visit a fire station. Caiden, Rowen, and Addie all came along too. It was fun seeing them interact with one another. All three friends tried to take care of Barrett by holding his hand or helping him up and down the steps. They were all so cute exploring the fire station and trucks inside.

Debbie and I heard the best news too. The firemen suggested having birthday parties at the station. What a GREAT idea!!!!

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha

Barrett loves taking a bath and brushing his teeth. He has learned to lean his head back when he is washing his hair, and insist on leaving the facet running the entire time he takes a bath. I know it's a waste of water, but he is so entertained by it. Forever, he was throwing fits about getting out of the tub, but now all I have to mention is brushing his teeth. That gets him out quickly.

My child loves to brush his teeth. He's such a big boy about it. However, he was screaming and crying when I would try to take the tooth brush out of his hand. To solve the problem (and it's actually worked pretty well so far), I went out and bought a timer. Yes, it sounds crazy, but it works. We set the timer for 1 minute and 30 seconds. When the timer beeps, Barrett knows to it's time to put the tooth brush down and get ready for bed.

(There isn't much video feed because my battery ran out. You get the idea of how much he enjoys it though.)

He also loves shoes and has been saying the word: SHOES for a while now. Just recently, he started trying to put on my flip flops and Matt's shoes. It's funny because he can actually get in them, but bless his heart...he trips and falls every time he tries to walk in them. I guess our shoes are too big and too heavy for him to pick his little feet up.

These last few shots were from a night we went out to dinner with our friends in Allen.

Cool and School...

Saturday, Matt and I took Barrett to a nice spray park (thanks Amanda for the idea) in Allen. I was so impressed with the place, that I took Barrett back there on Monday with my friend Debbie and her son Caiden. It was a nice two days to cool off from this Texas heat!!! Plus, I felt like Barrett deserved a small reward for being such a big boy at his school.

We provided a little picnic for the boys since they don't eat very well at school. You can bet they were hungry!!!

School Update:

We've had pretty good successes with leaving Barrett at schoolthis week, but it seems like he is really catching on to the fact that this is a long term thing. This morning was the worst. I literally wanted to go back, pick him up, and quit school. It took everything I had in me not to turn around and go back inside until he was calmed down.

It's okay though. I know he would have done this wherever I had left him. We've just been best buddies all summer long and he's not happy about the separation between us.

It's a big step for him. He is having to follow schedules, structured times, new foods, and he is still warming up to his friends and teachers.

On a good note, I've noticed him really happy in the afternoons. One day the teachers were blowing bubbles and Barrett was right in the mix of all the kids chasing after them. Another day, I caught him playing on the floor with trucks, and today they all had just finished smearing Cool Whip (little scribble activity) all over the baby table (kind of like we do with Shaving cream at school). He loved that! Matter of fact, he didn't even notice me when I walked in the room.

Tomorrow is pj/movie day. Ummmmm, I wonder what he will get to watch.

Barrett's 1st Day at School

Barrett's first day of school went great! Matt dropped him off around 8:00 this morning, and after giving him a big goodbye hug, Barrett ran off to play. The only hiccup he seemed to have was when he was trying to take a nap, and all the other kids wanted HIS pacifier. That kind of upset him (which I guess it would me too, if everyone decided to charge at me wanting my most prized possession).

Overall, he really did seem to have a good day. I'm very proud of him.

I couldn't have asked for a better 1st day!!!!

Playdate with the Girlzzz

Barrett and I were invited to play with his favorite girlfriends last week at an indoor bounce house. It was so much fun. We are definetly going to make this place one of our top choices of fun things to do (on a rainy day, too hot or too cold day, or any old time).

A Fork?

I was impressed last night when Barrett started to use a fork to pick up his macaroni! I guess you never know if you can do something until you try, right? I laughed because he wouldn't just settle for one piece at a time, but tried to pick up all the noodles with his fork at once.

Hopefully, it is a start to him being a little bit more "neat" when he eats. Yeah right!


Attention!!! - Okay, as I was sitting here typing up all my posts...I peeped in to check on Barrett (nap time). This is how I found him asleep. I'm not kidding, he was (still is) in there snoring away in that exact position! It's crazy.

Tomorrow is the BIG Day!

Tomorrow is our BIG Day! It's the beginning of school for Barrett and back to school for myself. I'm excited for this new adventure that Barrett is about to begin, but as all mothers do...I worry about his adjustment to the being on a new schedule, and adapting to new faces around him.
I'm reassured all the time though that God is watching over us and I've prayed that he keeps an extra close eye on my baby boy tomorrow.
I'll keep everyone posted on Barrett's first day.

Buying school clothes has been a blast!!! Here are a few of our back to school outfits. Boys are easy, khakis and denim shorts usually match just about everything, so all I had to buy were shirts. Jeans and jackets will come later (it's too hot to even think about that), and I still need a few new pairs of shoes.

Man...all of these things look so big. Maybe it's true about cameras (making things look larger than they really are) ha ha I would certainly like to believe that when it comes to taking pictures of myself!!!

Multi-post in One!

I've been meaning to put this little video clip of Barrett up for a few weeks now. On our most recent visit to Throckmorton, Barrett had his first big mud bath! We literally couldn't get him away from the watering hose. The most comical part was when he found the hole where the water came out of it. He kept sticking his finger inside of it, causing it to spray him in the face, and everyone around him as well. Then, he tried drinking from the hose and that was pretty funny too.

I took a lot of pictures, but as you will notice, the diaper ended up coming off, and so the best video, I can't show.

Here is a little of the action!

Our neighbor down the street has a little girl that is finally getting old enough to really socialize. While Barrett and I were hanging outside, we saw Miss Riley down the sidewalk and decided to pay her a visit. I think they really liked one another. Before long, they'll be riding their tricycles up and down the street together.

And finally, Barrett had his 15 month appointment today. Although we had shots, he didn't cry long and found the doctor's pen, rolling chair, and bright orange band aid a distraction from all the pain.

We had wonderful responses from the pediatrician about Barrett's growth and development.

He weighed 27.4 lbs and was 35 inches tall (almost a yard -haha)

I was anxious to know how tall he was because I've been trying to stock up on school clothes for the fall. Yep, most of his clothes have a big ole T next to them!!! As of now, he is in a 2T, but at the pace he is growing, I'm thinking a 3T might be the thing to buy soon (for his length anyway).

I can't believe he is already 15 months!!! He is so much fun! My best little friend.

The Who Knows How Many Nights CHALLENGE

Here we are! Our introduction to the toddler bed!!!! We've prepared ourselves by knowing that this probably won't be the easiest transition, nor will the training happen overnight...but we're going to stay positive and try to have some sort of game plan for the nights we find Barrett venturing throughout the house...or near our bedside.

The set up. He seems excited. I think he senses the freedom within a few inches away (see the gap in the side rails?)

Practicing night-night time. Upon the first practice I told him this was his new bed for night-night. He thought I was telling him to go night-night, and laid down on the floor. Poor guy.

Practice #2

Since I don't have anything to really compare it to, I felt the first night Barrett slept in his bed went pretty well. Here is how it went down:

We went through our normal bedtime routine and Barrett was fast asleep in no time at all. Then, 4:30am hit and we heard crying. Immediately, Matt and I both ran to his rescue (mainly to see exactly where and what he was up to). We found him trying to climb into his rocking chair. I guess he planned on rocking himself back to sleep! ha ha

Being somewhat prepared for this to happen, I laid him back down onto the bed and told him that it was still night-night time. He seemed to be very sleepy rolling onto his tummy, so I continued patting his back and humming to him. That seemed easy...right?

After a few minutes, I decided to leave the room, and his little head popped up like he was wondering, "Hey...where are you going?" He followed me out of the room into the hallway where he ran into his big, tall Daddy (who he knows means business when it is night time and has to work the next day). Matt tried rocking him to sleep and Barrett put up his best fight. I sat on the couch in the living room praying, while Matt had to suffer through Barrett crying and trying to break free.

Not too much longer, and Barrett had fallen back asleep.

Matt and began to do our victory dance a little too early though. We saw Barrett's shadow soon appear in the glow of the hallway nightlight.

As fast as we could, we froze in our places on the couch just waiting to see what Barrett would do. We heard him scurry across the carpet, with his stuffed monkey in his hands and suddenly he came to a dead halt at the end of the hallway. He peeped around the corner and noticed all the lights were off. "Hmmmm," he thought to himself. He dropped his monkey on the floor, and hauled booty back to his room. I could hear him crawling back onto his bed, then OUT again. What???? Poor little guy was crawling back out to come get his monkey that he had dropped in the hallway. We saw his little shadow scoop it up and then run back to his bedroom for the 3rd time.

If only Barrett knew that we were right there, camping out watching the entire thing. It's a story I'll have share with him when he has kids of his own

Okay...so we were set. We heard him visiting with all his little stuffed animal friends (tiger, monkey, and lion). I knew eventually he would talk himself back to sleep.

Then I messed it all up. Ugrrrr

I couldn't help but tiptoe around the corner to check on him, and when I did...he saw me. He ran after me this time. By this point, I knew the poor child was completely confused, so I picked him up and rocked him until we both fell asleep.

Better luck tonight. I'm not giving up...but I am going to wait a bit before we decide to get rid of the paci. I've got to keep my sanity to some degree! ha ha

(I know the post is more than you probably bargained for...but I had to write all the details so that Barrett could look back on it someday)

News FLASH!!!!!

Well, the inevitable has happened. First thing this morning, we heard Barrett whimpering through the monitor. He never wakes up crying, so my first thought was that his leg or arm was caught between the slats (huge fear since our friend Camdyn experienced this...and the fact that Barrett usually has a leg or foot hanging through anyway).
Matt and I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to Barrett's room, only to find him STANDING on the floor next to his crib.
By this time, he wasn't crying, but seemed a little disoriented.
We couldn't help but laugh because he had managed to make it out safely with the pacifier and his batman pajamas all in tack!
Ya know, I sure wasn't ready for the toddler bed yet...but I guess it's ready for me!

My guess is that he was doing something similar to this on the other side...although I don't know what he used to launch himself over the top.