Bowen Barrett - 8 months old!

WOW. Here we are, another month milestone for my baby! I am about a week behind, but we were still in the midst of RSV on February 14th. So everything just had to wait. I feel like we have taken a few steps back this past month, in terms of his weight and developmental milestones, but I feel like now that we are well, he will get back on track. And to be quite honest with you, a slow-down is okay with me. I got lots of extra snuggles and rocking time this month, and even though it was because he was sick, I treasure it. It doesn't happen very often otherwise.


Bowen, you are still in size 3 diapers and wearing some 6-12 month clothes, but they are all short on you. I have gotten all the 12-18 month clothes out now and they fit you pretty well. I took you out of your nap nanny after the flu, but when you got RSV, Dr. G suggested we put you back in it. So, we have taken it away AGAIN, and are starting from scratch. You are only sleeping about 2 hours at a time, which is killing me, but I think you will slowly stretch it out once you are used to your crib again. Nights have never been your thing anyways, but I would love it if we could work on that :) You are still working on your top 2 teeth. They are right there, we can see them, they just aren't through yet. I think this is part of the problem too. You are also on the verge of crawling. You get up on all 4's and will rock and move backwards, but you haven't quite figured out how to go forward. It won't be long. You will be into everything, so I am enjoying our last days of immobility :) You are the happiest baby. You don't like it when you cannot see me, but you will still go to just about anyone with a smile on your face. We kind of quit baby food while you were sick. You had no interest in it. But now you are eating with a vengeance! I will give you fruit for lunch and a veggie for dinner. You seem to like most of it. You still make a HUGE mess and slap the spoon out of my hand constantly. Drives me crazy, but makes you laugh :) You are a VERY talkative little guy and love to hear your own voice. You will shriek and make lots of different sounds and you LOVE to say MAMAMAMA!!! (You said this 1st :) and a couple of days later we heard DADADADA!!!! We were both SO excited and love to hear you say either word (even if you are not sure what you are saying! HA!) Your big brother is your best bud. He is very protective of you and you think he is hilarious. I love to see you together. Melts my heart. Especially when Crockett puts his arm around you and says "Momma, Look at us" with his funny/serious face. These are the days.

You are changing so much every day and becoming your own little person. You have the sweetest smile and it is the most contagious smile I have ever seen. Watching you blossom and grow is the greatest thrill of my life. I am so lucky you are mine. We love you, Bowen Barrett

This 'photo session' was MUCH MORE DIFFICULT  that the previous ones. I think you can tell by the pictures that my subject was not very cooperative. If he wasn't eating the blocks, it was the sticker. He was pretty determined :)

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We didn't really do anything and it was pretty much just a regular day, but with a little more sugar :) The candy and kisses kind! My sweet husband brought me flowers and a sweet card, which is always so wonderful. I am a lucky gal to have such sweet Valentine's in my life. They make EVERY day so special and there is never a shortage of kisses, hugs or I love you's in this house.

C-R-O-C-K-E-T-T

This year, Braidy, my nephew, learned how to write his name at school. Every once in a while, he will draw Crockett a picture and sign his name on it. Crockett thought this was VERY COOL and decided he wanted to learn how to write his name like Braidy. We have been working on it, and he still needs a little help, but he wrote this (almost) all by himself! I was SO SO SO proud of him, and I think he was pretty proud of himself!

I Like You S'MORE Everyday!

I love being able to go watch and help with Crockett's parties at school. For the Valentine's party, we (I made his Valentine's. He couldn't have cared less, except for eating the chocolate!) made some cute little Valentine's that I found on pinterest. He LOVES S'mores and I liked that they said "like" and not "love". Weird, I know. They turned out so cute!! At the party, the kids got to eat pizza and then decorate cookies. We gave each child a small cup of icing and another one filled with sprinkles. All the moms had a little bet to see who's child would eat just the icing first.... And guess who WON!?!?! Crockett ate his pizza and immediately dumped his sprinkles on his icing and began licking it until it was all gone. Of course he wasn't the only kiddo to do it, just the first. Mrs. Ford has never been so excited to send them all home :) They were all a bit wired! They all got balloons to take home, along with all their valentine's from their friends. It is so fun to see how they have all grown and become friends over the year. It was a very fun, sweet Valentine's Day party!!

Sick... Again.

Just when we thought we had conquered this nasty winter sick season, my poor little Bowen got sick again. I took him to Dr. G thinking he just had some upper-respiratory something, a runny nose and congestion. I was wrong. RSV. Those 3 little letters every mother DREADS hearing. He was on about day 3 or 4, we figured. He didn't ever run fever, although, I could tell he didn't feel very good. Dr. G told us to do breathing treatments every 4 hours and that it would get worse before it got better. She was right. It did get worse. He has been up 6 or 7 times every night. Not fun. I think Crockett got it too, but luckily, it doesn't affect him in the same way. So every 4 hours, one after the other, we do breathing treatments. And we find many ways to occupy our time ALL DAY LONG. It is not so easy when you can't get out of the house at all! After a few cough-filled nights, I think we are almost back to normal. Crockett went back to school Wednesday and I think by next week, Bowen can venture back out. It has been a VERY long month and I have gone a bit crazy, but Chris, my mom and Les have all helped me tremendously! It is hard when I can't get my babies around anyone else's babies! It is no fun with sick kiddos but I am always reminded how fortunate we are for mostly-healthy babies. Now, GO AWAY SICKNESS!!!

SHOW TIME!!!

It was Show Time at Little Gym this week! Crockett and his buddies have all been going since October and they have learned some AMAZING skills and tricks! All the mommies and siblings got to sit in the gym and watch them put on a special show for us. I am so proud of Crockett for all he has learned and for being so good for Miss Jenna and Mr JD. He has really learned to follow instructions (for the most part :) and have fun too! We love Little Gym! GO CROCKETT!!!

And by the way, he was the ONLY little boy today, so it was a good thing we wore our BEST Valentine attire :) And that little pose at the end... that was ALL Crockett! Ha! A little wink for the ladies :) SO SO funny!

Special Friends

The Curry's were lucky enough to get to host two little boys from Uganda, Africa last week. We were lucky enough to get to spend some time with them! Bernard and Jeremiah and their Auntie Justine (their chaperone, who is from the Phillipines) all travel together with the Children of the World choir. They have been traveling the U.S. for 5 months and have 5 more months to go. We got to hang out with them on Sunday and Monday. LuLu took us all to lunch at Blue Sky, where everyone had a blast playing in the sandbox and then later, we went to the park. It was a beautiful West Texas day and they all had such a fun time! The park was a bit crazy with 7 (!) little boys, but the giggles, smiles, and chatter made the craziness all worth it! They were such wonderful little boys, very well-behaved and friendly and Justine was such a beautiful, smart, kind girl. I didn't get to spend much time with them, but Bernard, Jeremiah and Justine each left a mark on my heart. I wish they could have stayed longer. They did put on a special musical performance at The Curry house, and it was AWESOME! They were quite the performers, especially Bernard. It was impossible to watch and not feel so much joy in your heart and a huge smile on your face. There was something very special about each of them, and we were so honored to be a part of this wonderful experience. Thanks, Curry's for sharing your special friends.

Bella's 1st Birthday!

On January 19th, our cousin Bella, turned ONE!!!! We were so excited that they decided to have a birthday party in Holliday to celebrate! Sara, Chad, Rich and Bella live in Burleson, so we are not always able to make it to parties there. Holliday is our half-way meeting point :) Everyone came over to Mummer's house to eat some YUMMY Branding Iron BBQ. It is everyone's favorite! Bowen decided he couldn't take anymore fun and took a little catnap in the middle of all the madness. (Actually he pretty much passed out on Kylee :) But that didn't stop all the little/big kiddos from playing! Nathalie and Crockett were up to their usual mischief. Those two are DOUBLE TROUBLE! They have so much fun playing together, though! And they really don't cause that much trouble! Emily was Crockett's horse, Barbecue, for a little while. He is such a funny kid and she is such a great sport! Rich and Crockett danced to some bulldozer music (HILARIOUS!!) and Kayleigh kept everyone in line, while catching all of us up on her crazy, busy schedule! I love all these kids so much and love the fact that they have such a great time together! We all had birthday cake. It was really for Bella, but Brenda was sweet to put mine and Casey's name on there too! We had such a great time celebrating sweet Bella Maree! It is hard to believe she is already 1!?! Happy 1st Birthday, Bella!! What a FUN celebration!