Christmas 2011

I don't know how, but I managed to take so few pictures over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! I'm looking back today at the ones I took and so many are blurry (side note - I think my camera needs some work), or the little ones weren't looking at the camera, or any number of reasons. Mostly, we were just so busy enjoying ourselves that we didn't focus on getting good pictures. Part of me regrets not doing a better job of capturing the Christmas moments. But my mom always says - don't spend your life behind the lens....spend it living in the photo, sitting next to your child. And so we did this Christmas.

Katie truly started to "get it" this year. She knew who Mr. Claus was, that he lives at the North Pole, that he comes on Christmas Eve to the house of all the good girls and boys. We, of course, fully encouraged all the traditions of Christmas. Actually, after all the hype, I thought Katie would be so excited to open all her toys on Christmas morning that she would wake up extremely early....and gift opening would be finished by 8.

In reality - she could settle down on Christmas Eve and the late bedtime led to her sleeping until 8. (Yah early present to mommy and dadddy - we got to sleep in!). Then once she began opening her gifts she wanted to play with them for at least 10-15 minutes before we could move on to the next. The result was that we didn't finish opening all our gifts until 11:15 Christmas morning....and it was just the 3 of us!!!

Normally Katie isn't the best at independant play. She's highly social and can make even a trip to the potty a group activity (no, I'm not kidding!). However on Christmas day, she couldn't have cared less if Matt and I were around. She was so involved in her new toys she would just disappear into the living room to play with one thing or another, talking to herself or the toy as she played. It made me think that maybe we need to rotate her toys/get new ones more often. Of course I shared this with my mother and she said "I've been telling you that for more than a month - Katie gets bored with the same old toys." Ah yes, thanks mom! :-) The problem is...my house is already overrun with toys. I'm not even sure where I'm going to put the ones from Christmas - ha!

A little video of Katie riding her new four-wheeler which she calls her tractor.

Matt was actually on call for Christmas Day. We will call it an answered prayer that he didn't get paged....he was able to spend the entire day with Katie and I. It was the first year that Matt and I spent Christmas without one set of parents or the other. For the first time, it was just the 3 of us....and it was such a special day.

Hoping you all had a wondeful Christmas...and all the best in the New Year!

Busy Bees

It is unusually warm here in Richmond leading up to Christmas day. Such a contrast to last year when it snowed on Christmas night! Matt, Katie and I are taking advantage of the warm weather with a trip to the park.Later tonight we are going to Lewis Ginter's Gardenfestival of lights. Then tomorrow morning (Christmas Eve) the Barnes Family is headed over to our house for brunch. Finally tomorrow night we will head to church for Christmas Eve service. So, so busy....having so much fun!! Finishing with some Christmas songs buy our little munchkin...

The Barnes Crew

This past weekend we all got together at Popa and Abu's house for a little Barnes Family fun. Two main reasons for the get together (not that we needed a reason). First, Uncle Jake is back from college. Second, we needed to get the annual Barnes Family Christmas Photo! :-)

The newest addition to the Barnes Family, little Fielder, slept for most of the gathering. I was impressed with his long nap....and how alert he was once he awoke. He was very nice to let his mommy and daddy enjoy a wonderful lunch (Abu the fabo chef, as always).

**Claire wanted to join in our family pic! :-)

Probably the funniest part of the day (at least for me) was when Katie set her brownie down on the table and left it for a while to go check out the piano. Claire came along, noticed an unclaimed brownie....and it was gone in about 2 seconds. Next thing I know Katie is asking what happened to her brownie and Claire is covering her mouth....chocolate stains and all! It made me think back to the cookie incident at the beach this summer. I guess our girls both have a bit of a sweet tooth. I just hope Katie didn't give Claire all her germs....since she is just getting over a cold and a double ear infection.

Katie and Claire helped me open my birthday present from Popa and Abu. I think they were practicing for when Santa arrives in a few more days.

We didn't head home until around 2:00 - way past Katie's normal naptime. Poor thing was so tired she passed out COLD in the car on the way home. Really - how does she sleep like that??

Christmas Pictures

Just pics today! We took Christmas pictures this week...just wanted to share.

Legendary Santa

The Big Guy.....Mr. Claus. You know - the one with the long white beard, big round belly, and bright red suit. In Richmond, he's known as Legendary Santa. And this year is the 75th annual Legendary Santa. The past 2 years we've gone to Willow Lawn because the lines for Legendary Santa can be 1-2 hours....not fun when you have a 4 month old, or a 16 month old.

This year we decided to bite the bullet and wait in line (only 45 minutes - due to some good planning and fortunate timing). Katie was pretty content waiting in line. Granted, she got to see the Christmas Mouse and Frostly the Snowman while waiting so that helped. Not to mention a short photo op with the Christmas Bears. And finally it was time to see the Snow Queen and Legendary Santa.

As always around new people she clammed up and barely said a WORD! Well, she did tell the Snow Queen her name. Mostly she just stared at everyone like "what is going on here?" Here is a video of her visit with Mr. Claus.

After she got off Santa's lap I asked her what toys she asked Santa for. She proceeded to tell me that it was a "secret." Ha - right!

Potty Training - The Real Deal

We have been working on a little bit of potty training the past couple of months. First we let Katie sit on the potty before bathtime. She would sit, read some books, and every once in a while actually use the potty. She was interested and asked each night before bath to sit and try....so we stuck with it. Eventually she started asking to use the potty at other times during the day and things progressed.

Katie's preschool teachers have also been working on potty training - its just part of the routine in her class. By the way - that is one of the things I love about Katie being in school.....the teachers help you through major milestones and often have terrific tips/tricks. Anyways, at first Katie told her teachers that she only went to the potty for her mommy. She eventually got more comfortable and started showing interest at school too. About a month ago one teacher suggested switching over to pull-ups instead of diapers. We did - both at school and at home (except for night time) which seemed like a natural next step.

The week before Thanksgiving - during the parent teacher conferences - Katie's teacher mentioned how much success Katie was having with potty training (dry pull-ups even through nap time). I asked if she thought Katie was ready for the real deal and her response was "Yes, definitely." Since I had vacation scheduled for all of Thanksgiving week I thought that would be the perfect time to make the big switch from pull-ups to big girl panties.

Overall the week went well! Don't get me wrong - it wasn't accident free. But there were 3 full days when we had no accidents (today included) which I considered a success. I still have to prompt Katie every 45 minutes or so with a "Let's go potty" or "Do you need to go potty?" If I don't she gets distracted and waits until the last possible minute to tell me she needs to go. Amazingly she didn't have any trouble during the car rides between Woolwine and Richmond.

I am a little nervous to see how Katie does at school tomorrow when I'm not there with her, but I'm hoping its not a problem. I'm packing an extra change of clothes just in case....

Thanksgiving in Woolwine

We spent Thanksgiving week in Woolwine this year and had a wonderful time. Katie loves her time at Nana and Papa's house. She gets to experience so many things - like feeding carrots to the horses, throwing rocks in the creek, playing in the leaves, going on long walks, and spoiling Maddie (the dog). Katie even got to play on the elementary school playground - the same one I played on as a child. That was especially fun for mommy!!

I'm struggling for words tonight, but wanted to post some hpictures. We hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving!

A couple videos...

School Update

Last week we had a parent/teacher conference with Katie's preschool teachers. Yes - believe it or not - they do PT conferences for 2 year olds. It amazing actually. Her teachers have a 2+ page checklist of items which they use to evaluate each child. The list includes categories for cognitive skills, social/emotional skills, gross/fine motor skills, etc.

I'm always nervous for these sorts of meetings. One of my greatest fears has been that Katie's physical health issues would spill over into developmental delays. As parents - Matt and I think Katie is doing great - on track in every possible way. But we are her parents, not exactly an unbiased source of assessment.

Fortunately the teachers had great things to say about Katie. She is meeting or exceeding all the items on the checklist - developmentally right on track (WOHOO!). Matt and I were so happy and pleased with the report that we wanted to share the good news.

Below is a video of our little girl studying her shapes at home.

What a Day

Yesterday was a VERY busy day in the Barnes household. I got up at 4:30 to get ready for my first 8K ever. My race started at 7 AM and I was finished by 8. Matt and Katie didn't come down to see me run because our day was just getting started.

I hurried back home, showered, dressed, and got Katie ready for her church friend Mia's 2nd birthday party at the Children's Museum. I have blogged about the Children's Museum before...let's just say she REALLY likes that place!

As soon as the birthday party games were over - we loaded Katie into the car and headed to Charlottesville. While we drove, Katie napped. When she woke up we bundled her up and headed into Scott Stadium for the Duke vs. UVA game - - Katie's first college football game. Matt and I debated for a week or more over whether or not she was ready for something like that. We worried if the crowd would overwhelm her, if she would get scared by the load noises, if she could sit still for that length of time....and on and on and on. Looking back now, I'm not sure what we were so concerned about. She was loved all the action....especially the music and Cav Man. We stayed through half-time to the start of the 3rd quarter and then left so that we would be home for Katie's bedtime routine.

Definitely something we want to try again. Next time though I want to take her to Blacksburg!!!

Our Nephew!

Our newphew, Fielder Mason Barnes, arrived on Thursday November 10th - his due date, the prompt little guy. He was 8 lbs. and 6 oz. of adorable boy.

Katie and I went by to see him on Thursday evening after I got out of work. She was very curious about her new cousin and surprisingly not too jealous when mommy was holding him.

Fielder with is proud parents. Congrats again Rob, Katherine, and big sister Claire! Looking forward to having some BLUE in this Barnes family of little ones!!!

Halloween - 2011

We had 3 separate Halloween celebrations this year. First, on Friday we went over to Rob and at's house so Katie and Claire could play for a bit. Our intention was for the girls to go to the Pumpkin Patch but it was raining and about 38 degrees outside - so the Pumpkin Patch was OUT. It didn't matter because Katie and Claire had a good time just playing together at the house.

On Saturday, our church had "Trunk or Treat." Its basically trick-or-treating out of the trunk of church memebers' cars. Again, the event was moved inside the church due to the bad weather. Can you believe how many little ones there are at our church?!?!

Finally on Monday night, Katie and I headed out to brave - once again - the bad weather. Our neighbor Noah is one of Katie's favorite playmates and he and Katie hit "the hood" together (he's the red Elmo). We only made it to about 7 or 8 houses before heading back home. For the rest of the night Katie handed out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Unfortunately, some older kids in scary masks got the better of her and from there on she was happy to let mommy pass out the goodies.

A mixed bag

This post is a bit of a mixed bag - a couple random things I've meant to blog about and just haven't gotten around to.

First, Katie is no longer in her crib. About 2 months ago we finally made the conversion to a toddler bed. For months we made alterations to her crib to prevent her from climbing out. But, once she started climbing out each time she didn't want to nap/sleep we didn't have a choice any longer. She is so proud of her "big girl bed" and shows it off to almost everyone who comes to our house.

Knowing that Katie may be our only child, it was difficult for me to put the crib away. I cried as we were taking it apart. To me it signified that our little girl isn't really a baby anymore. She truly is more grown up each day and showing her independence in so many ways. Its both wonderful, and a little sad.

Katie also had her first LunchBox day at school. She and I made a special shopping trip to pick out her lunch box. Initially, she selected a boys lunchbox which had a football, a soccer ball, and a basketball on it. I vetoed that choice thinking something more girlie would be appropriate. My mom laughed at the story....since I was the worst tomboy of all.