Bobby at 12 Months

bobby...wow...one. and boy are you ever a ONE year old! you just decided to start walking a couple of weeks ago and now you are pretty much a pro! you run. its sad to mama. in fact mama is quite upset that you do not seem to understand that your role as youngest child is to be the baby and also a mama's boy. nope. not in your cards. you are all about exploring EVERYTHING and do not want to be held or kept from that by no means! you are such a happy child. you bring so much joy to everyone who has the pleasure of seeing you. even perfect strangers cant help but be charmed by you. it definitely makes up for the fact that you do not want any part of baby-hood.

you are by far my easiest child when it comes to sleeping. you take 2 amazing 1 1/2 hour naps and prefer to go to bed at 6:00. i love it. please dont change that ever k? you like to do everything yourself, including eating. you are not a fan of someone trying to shove a spoon in your mouth. its just not okay in your mind. you like all types of food and will generally eat everything we put in front of you, which is also very unlike my other children. please dont change that ever too k? 

right now your favorite toy is remote controls and dvds and combs. but more than that you like playing in the dirt with your brothers and riding your new little push car (thank you grauntie stephanie and gruncle darrol!) or chasing the cat or jumping into pillows. you are the hardest baby in the world to change still...it goes all against that whole wanting to be out exploring everything bit...

i love you so much bobby b! we are so blessed to be your parents and as much as it saddens me that this house will not have another baby in it again, it makes me so thrilled watching you grow up - you are so fun and i can't wait to see your little personality blossom!

kindergarten

i have been a bit of a cliche mess this last week with kindergarten starting for bryson. i have so many conflicting emotions and thoughts on this subject and just needed to jot them all down...a part of my process...if you will...

its not surprising to you, if you know me, that i dont believe in public schooling. its all very political and boring and i dont want to write an essay about that, but the idea of public schooling as an idea - i am opposed to and i think what is happening now in California schools is such a result of that. so here i am about to put my own child in a public school and i feel super hypocritical about it in many ways. my husband and i talked about our alternative options and the two main ones being private school and homeschooling. one we can't afford with money and the second with time.

also - with homeschooling - i love it...bryan was homeschooled for a period and we have an amazing support system with our church and i know a grip of moms who do it and do it amazingly and were i the type of mom who could juggle teaching and working and somehow getting two kids three and five years younger than my kindergartener out of the way...i would totally do it. i still haven't ruled out the idea and it is definitely something i think we will revisit at some point, but for now it would be too much.

so anyway...here we are. and the saving grace in all of this is that bryson's school is just about the best thing you could ask for in a public elementary school. i have been blown away by the office staff, teachers and principal (who goes to our church as well).

one of the reasons this is hard for me is that the weeks leading up to kindergarten were so wonderful. we had hit our stride as a family and bryson has been doing really well and was calming down and just super fun and amazing. the other boys have been really easy too and it was just these couple weeks of an amazing end to a summer. so part of me sending him off was feeling like its all the end. its the end of the summer, but also the end of playdates and our own schedule. for the past 6 years i have taken my boys and had to answer to no one (last year bryson was in pre-school, but only 3 days a week) - and now - if i drop him off late to school he gets a tardy slip...totally forgot about those!

so it all kinda hit me dropping him off - sending him off to class - that this is the rest of his childhood. here. at this school (if we choose not to homeschool) and it was all very hard hitting. i have realized too that our normal routine of leaving the house after breakfast and running around like crazy to get bryson's energy out is disrupted, so that means he is out of control in the afternoon. i need to buy a treadmill for him or figure something out where he can get out his energy in a positive way....because right now - its not so positive.

so i guess my thoughts are a lot more jumbled than i realized...i have this guilt about putting him in a system i dont believe in whole-heartedly...i have this guilt that he is sitting down for 3 hours instead of doing what a little boy should do in my mind and run like mad and learn as he goes....i have this sadness that my little playmate is gone...i have this conviction that now his character will be put to test and all the "work" bryan and i have done to strengthen that character will also be put to test...and above all i have this hope that he will thrive in this environment because bryson tends to surprise me pleasantly in situations where i question his resolve.

and through it all i realize that these feelings are indeed not one of a kind...that moms all over the world have gone through and felt a lot of these same feelings and i look over as i am dropping him off and see a mom trying to hold back tears and it comforts me a bit. i see another mom's look of horror when they tell us that they don't check on who is picking our kid up from school. i see a child's nervous smile as mom is taking his picture on the first day and i realize how very normal it all is...whatever that means.

Summer Recap via Phone Pics

Camping in Doheny withy my bro and his fam

lots and lots of this

bobby goes in the backpack...and our hair matches

and he loves the slide

and he walks now

lots of "treasure hunting" aka: geo-caching

a date with my oldest...so fun!

lots of this too...

my dance competition

jam on it

bodie and bryson truckin at the fair

yogurtland!!!

Bombed

bryan is watching the boys this morning. he just sent me this picture with the caption "they bombed it" underneath. i wrote him back the following:

1. are they okay?
2. why did you let bryson wear those sweats...gross!?! (he told me this morning he wanted to dress like a ninja...)
3. please tell me bobby didn't go too.

these plasma cars are currently the coolest thing. they have ruined 2 pairs of vans, but they have provided hours of non-stop entertainment for both of them. thanks auntie mandie...or annie mannie as is the correct pronunciation.

Barnes Boys - Where They At

An update post...since I haven't updated in a while...which is probably due to the fact that i have hardly breathed this summer. i think those relaxing summers eating popsicles all day and napping at the beach is still a ways away...and really...as long as we are pool business owners i can give up those fantasies as well. summer is a whole nother bag when it comes to our business. i am whining...and making it sound like my summer has been awful...it hasn't - not in the slightest...i think it is just this overwhelming blanket of stress we carry in the summer that tends to cloud the vacations and picnics and fishing trips. its that and also the fact that i can not sit idle for one minute with the boys and the ages they are this summer. its pure chaos. chaos and dirt and energy and loudness. for instance...today i had to tell bodie not to play with maggots. not once. not twice. after 3 hand washing and a spank on the hand he finally listened...i think...i hope...am i the only mom on the planet to have to tell their children not to play with maggots? i have a suspicion that i may be...i like to think i am not alone...but its true...i was cleaning up the other day and came out to discover their "maggot farm" as bryson deemed it - they collected them and put them in a bin to stare at. its so gross. i can't eat rice now for like ever.

anyway - i am hoping that chapter is behind us all and we can move on to less disgusting things in our yard...but i am also not fooling myself...they have a disgusting radar...especially bodie...oh i have some stories...but that is not the purpose of this post...and i have a minor tendency to digress for paragraphs and paragraphs and so i will refrain...but did i ever tell you he has on more than one occasion chewed gum he found on the ground? seriously...gross...he is so gross. okay...moving on...i promise...

bryson barnes...the eldest...this boy is awesome and i love his spirit - he is the kind of kid you know is going to go places and i can't wait to see what unfolds in his life. i have been struggling with kindergarten and public school in general and entertained ideas of home-schooling...and then i took bryson out of pre-school for the summer and had him around. all. the. time. seriously - those fantasies are whittling away day by day. i still have some amazing ideas - but am content with supplementing his education for now. juggling working, sewing, a *new toddler* and a 2 year old and trying to satiate bryson's curiosities are more than enough. i think having to structure school and find a way to entertain the littles is too much right now. i am not poo-pooing the idea completely...just back-burner-ing it for now.

in this picture he is holding up his hand to show the bee sting. you can't very well see it, but this boy went down this slide in this park and there was this bee on said slide. and wouldnt you know he got stung? this boy has been stung about 7 times. so excuse me if i forgot about it when he went to bed. the next morning he woke up and his hand was soooo swollen. like if you took a latex glove and blew it up. like scary swollen. i called my sister and she said if it starts spreading or getting hot, looking infected to bring him in.

i waited about an hour and sure enough it started swelling in his wrist and slightly in his forearm. so i packed up the boys (by myself can i please add?) and took them to my sister's office.

i need to mention that while in the car i wanted to prepare bryson for all the possibilities so i told him there was a chance he might need a shot to stop the swelling. okay...good intention...bad idea...he started obsessing over the shot...like crazy. then when the doctor looked at it and agreed he needed a shot he flipped out. seriously. flipped. went nuts. i have never seen him like this before. i tried every mom trick i had...cajoling, threatening, bribing, nothing worked...he was in crazy land. it took 3 of us to hold him down for the doctor to get the shot in his buttocks. afterward he belted out of the office and outside into the parking lot...poor guy. meanwhile i had handed bobby off to one of the ladies in the front office and bodie started freaking out in the room because bryson was screaming, kicking, punching...so that was super fun. i just apologized to every one that i could. i should probably send them cookies or something...it was bad. i even apologized to the people in the waiting room.

so now i get to carry an epi-pen around with me all the time. i also need to purchase one for his school, church and wherever else he stays. we are hoping/praying it was swelling due to infection and not an allergic reaction...but these things are not so clear.

he is doing fine now. he is somewhat excited to start kindergarten. i got his uniform today (navy or white polo with navy bottoms) and still need to get a backpack! backpack! school supplies! ack! so exciting!

 

Bodie Barnes - the middle. this kid has changed a lot this summer. he is talking SO MUCH! and pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth makes us laugh. partly because of his deep voice and partly because he is such a goofball! He is also potty-training this summer. it is so sporadic and totally up to him, but tonight he went poop on the toilet for the second time and totally on his own, so i am claiming a small victory and hoping that he nails it before his pre-school starts in a couple weeks. you can do it bodie!

my challenges with this kid is that he is 2. the end. the biggest of that right now is him dominating his little brother. i catch him pushing him down often. but he is very quick to say sorry and hug it out.

Bobby Barnes - the littlest. how funny is this picture? bobby...poor bobby. i apologize to him every day. i'm sorry bobby. i'm sorry you are the youngest of 3 boys. this kid is so tough though. he can take a kick to the head like no one! its sad though. we are working on it. we probably will be working on it for the rest of their childhood...and most likely after that. so again, sorry bobby! 

bobby just started walking a week or so ago. he is a full-fledged cutie patootie walking little thing. it is so fun to watch. he is learning how to go faster and will be running by his 1 year birthday i am sure of it! bobby is as sweet as can be. he smiles at everyone. waves hi at strangers on cue. people obsess over his (and bodie's) blond hair and tan skin and remind me that they are going to be keeping the ladies away with sticks...which i can picture since sticks are their favorite toys. bobby has 6 teeth right now and just got over a cold, which he powered through like a champ. he says little words and the cutest thing is when he gets on the plasma car with bryson he says "Go!" you would hear "guh" but mama hears "Go!" 

so...that pretty much sums up where these little turkeys are at. man oh man, are they so fun...seriously - never a dull moment...but man oh man are they a lot of work. im sure you can imagine. oh..and please don't repeat that story about the maggots...unless you hear another mom tell you their kid plays with maggots...then please let me know so i can find a new BFF...thanks!

Bobby at 11 Months

Bobby! so you are taking your first steps now...you will be walking in a couple weeks...which terrifies mama! i no longer have my sweet baby Bobby B. - i have a toddler! ack! but you are so proud of yourself whenever you take steps...you actually clap for yourself.

you love it when your biggest brother takes you on rides on the plasma cars - and when bodie plays peek-a-boo. you love to eat...by yourself! not so much a fan of mama feeding you :) (just like your other brothers...hmm...big surprise!) you love olives and turkey and cheese and blueberries and blackberries and eggs...goodness...you eat at least a whole egg until you start throwing it everywhere...which is your little sign to me that you are done. thanks by the way. 

you are getting some teeth! which is not your favorite part of growing up :( - you have 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom - and more coming! hurry up and come little teeth so i can have my sweet, happy baby back!

you are so silly and love to play, but no where is this more apparent than when mommy or daddy try to change your diaper/clothes. holy stuff baby! you are the hardest baby to change...you roll over so strong...you scootch away and bomb my pillows on my bed and look at me and laugh...such a fun little game and its hard to stay mad at you with your goofy little toothy grin! i love that little bobby face! here are some silly pictures mama took of you! goofball!

Cache me if you can!

i had a playdate with a dear friend...a friend that was made when we were in the third grade...and now her daughter is that age and it was quite bizarre because her daughter happens to look JUST like her, so it brought back floods of memories of our childhood friendship - so fun! we met up at a park and went caching and as we were just reading all the description of this cache and trying to find where to begin, out comes bryson saying, "is this it?" ha! he has an eagle eye that one...love it!