Long overdue update

I know it's been a while, but life has been very busy. I'm finishing my master's degree program (I am officially done Dec. 19); Steve is finishing his fall class; Midterm grades were due this morning; Jack is eating real food; Jack is walking with his push toy; Thanksgiving was a blast; I took students to St. Louis for a journalism convention; and I am sure a few more things happened or are going on that I can't think of right this second.

Since it's officially the holiday season, I will start with news of our 2008 Christmas Tree. For the second year in a row (now called the Annual Christmas tree Outing with the Nustras) we went to Richardson's Farm with Susie, Peter, Nicky, Cathy, Connie, Kim, Pepere, Nancy, Nick, Paul, Brent and Dawna. Steve found our tree right away; in fact, I think he spotted it before we got off the tractor. Jack seemed to approve with lots of smiles, so Steve cut it down. The good news this year, it was quick and Steve did not freeze to death. After that five minutes, we spent the next half an hour helping everyone else pick out their trees. The weather was great, which made the entire day nice. We girls even walked back to the main farm instead of riding the tractor. Part of this was so that we didn't get knocked off the tractor by all of the trees. Self-preservation is fairly strong with an infant.







Check out the reflection in Steve's sunglasses!


The other big news around here is that Jack is starting to eat real food. Last night we had our first Barrett family dinner, all four of us. Steve made spaghetti and meatballs. Jack had some plain noodles along with a Biter Biscuit and some baby food veges. Breyer got Jack's leftovers. It was lovely. He successfully eats graham crackers and other such cookie items. Tonight we tried some adult vegetables: sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots. He liked chewing on them, but he didn't swallow much.





The end result


Really, there is no place in the house that he can't get to on his own. I caught him tonight trying to go downstairs to the basement without me. He got down the first stair without me realizing. Ahh! He can go up and down the stairs safely on his own (even though is scares his grandmas). I can't believe Jack is just about 11 months. We are starting to think about his first birthday and how we will celebrate. Where did the time go? Here are some more cute pictures of the guy getting around.





I know this is becoming the longest post ever, but if you are still with me, I will make it worth your while.

Before the snow hit, Steve was busy clearing the leaves from the yard. Not to let a fun sensory activity pass us by, we took Jack out to play in the leaf pile.





My favorite




In case you are wondering, yes we have taken Jack out to play in the snow. We went out this past Saturday and lasted all of about 2 minutes (It took us a good 15-30 to get bundled up to go out). As Jack and I sat in the snow, he tumbled forward and face-planted. Turns out babies don't like faces in the snow. Before he fell, he was enjoying the snow falling around him, so I think there is still hope that he will like the fluffy stuff.

For his 10-month photo, I didn't get the bear. However, I am still happy with the result:



Here's another action shot.



Okay, so here is where I make it worth your while. One of my grad classes this fall was an advanced photography independent study. I did a documentary project on downtown Dundee, IL. I have published my first photography book. If you are interested, you can check it out (and order it!) at this link: Dundee by Karen Barrett. If that doesn't work, just go to www.blurb.com and search for Dundee.

Okay, I think that's it. Hopefully I will be able to get back to posting more regularly after I finish one last paper for grad school. Until then, enjoy this holiday season!

Crawling and climbing everywhere

I think we have finally kicked the nasty cold and ear infection. We go back to the doctor on Tuesday for a follow-up. The only things we are still a little worried about are a rattle in his chest and a productive cough that haven't gone away. We'll see what the doc says.

In the meantime, Jack is super mobile. He is climbing stairs and is trying to figure out how to get down stairs too. He pulls up on just about anything. And he loves to dance. We went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to meet Cindy, Brian and Olivia. The literary magazine from WHS was having a fundraiser with all kinds of kid-friendly activities. We saw the band Haggis play. Jack loved them. He sat in the front and stared at the band members intently the entire time. He pulled himself up in the stage and danced. He even tried to sing along some of the time. Hopefully the band will release its children's album soon.

I have some new pictures of Jack to post. Enjoy them. We have been having lots of fun watching this in real life :)







Jack enjoying the California sun

Mini update

I know it has been a while since my last post. Things have been hectic to say the least. Here's a run down of what we have been up to. I hope to post more either next weekend or the weekend after.

Phil and Nikki are married! We traveled to Manhattan Beach, Calif. for a beautiful wedding and weekend of fun. The best part: Jack was a pretty good flyer for a 9-month-old. Okay, the beautiful weather and the great cake were pretty awesome too. Did you know that there is a baker out there who makes Tollhouse cake? Yep... pretty awesome.

Crawling and climbing and standing! That's right, the little guy crawls on all fours everywhere now. He even climbs up the stairs and heads right for the electrical outlet (thank goodness Steve already put in the outlet plugs). He also started pulling himself up to a stand. He did this for the first time while we were in California, but he really got good at it this weekend while playing with Grandma Sue and Pepere.

Colds suck. Jack and I have both been fighting colds for the last two weeks. Knock on wood, we're on the tail end here. I've never seen so much snot in my life (sorry for the visual Auntie Bubbles).

Another thing that sucks... separation anxiety. Steve and I are pretty sure we're to blame for the latest onset of this because we spoiled Jack pretty rotten in California and right after we got back by letting him sleep with us. But now we're trying to get him back to his own bed. Tonight, it took a half hour of crying before the little guy settled down to sleep. He's there though! He cries anytime he is left alone in his room. He used to play by himself pretty well, even in the mornings before we would come get him. I'm hoping this is just a stage.

Final exam time - grading hell. I'm knee-deep in essays and stories to grade right now. Not to mention all of the grad school homework I have to do (photo shoots are time consuming). Luckily, we have family around to help. Although, I really wish I could just spend that time with Jack instead of having to ask someone else to play with him while I work.

I think that's about it for now. With Halloween coming, I'm sure I'll have more exciting things to write about at the end of the week!

9-months old

Jack is now 9 months old. Ahh! Where did the time go?! He sits up on his own now. He army crawls everywhere. He climbs on the furniture (end tables and book shelves). And he has even started to break his dad's stuff (he knocked over the PS2).

He weighed in 17 lbs 9 oz at his appointment on Saturday. He's in the 10th percentile for weight. I'm not sure how this happens since he is eating way more than the other kids his age! His "height"/length is 29.25 inches. He's in the 80th percentile for height. The other big news from this appointment is that he is officially off of the Zantac! Yea for outgrowing baby reflux.

Here are the 9-month photos that we took this weekend.












I know that's a lot of photos, but he's just so photogenic!

We also celebrated Steve's birthday again, this time with my family. We made tacos and tortilla soup on Saturday night. Luckily, everyone was able to come. The best part was watching Jack and Nick play together. They are finally getting old enough to interact with one another. It's awesome!





And just because my nephew is also the cutest thing ever, here are a few more shots of him!






check out Steve's face in that one!


I love it when the boys dress alike!

Alrighty, that's about it for this week. Next week will be exciting! We will be off to celebrate our friends' Nikki and Phil's wedding. More on that later!

What a week!

Last week was action-packed here at the Barrett household. Steve turned 30. Jack got his first pumpkin. Okay, that doesn't sound like much, but really, it was.

I had the day off on Tuesday. So in the afternoon, Jack and I met up with the Carro's for a visit to Goebbert's. It was so much fun. Jack just loved playing with Olivia. I loved hanging out with my friend.

Thursday was Steve's 30th birthday. We celebrated first thing in the morning with the opening of cards and presents. Jack was so happy to celebrate too. He woke up smiling and laughing. I think that's what got Steve to be happy to open cards and presents at 6 a.m. On my way home from grad school, I picked up the second part of the celebration - the Chocolate Cake Shake from Portillo's. If you haven't had one of these, you need to. It's liquid chocolate cake goodness.

The birthday celebration didn't end there. On Saturday, after some hard playing around the house (and Jack starting to scoot/army crawl around the house) we headed off to City Grandma's house. Jack got to play with Nannie and Papa Pete while Steve and I had dinner with Phil and Nikki at Kuma's Korner.

This is the place for metal heads who like burgers. The rock music blasted while our thoroughly tattooed (and very knowledgeable) waitress waited on us. Just to give you an idea of how hard-core this place is, Steve's burger had a fried egg on it. My cousins Scott and Andrew, as well as my sister Connie, will love this place. We can't wait to go back.

We then headed down the street to Chief O'Neill's for some drinks. It was nice to feel like we lived in the city again, if only for a few hours.

Sunday was nice. Steve got his homework done. I got to catch up on sleep. Jack practiced maneuvering around the living room.

Alright, that about covers this past week. Here are some photos from Goebberts!

My baby loves pumpkins!

DSC_0053
Originally uploaded by kar.barrett

Okay, I know this is a middle of the week blog. And to be honest, I should be grading or at least cleaning up the house. But I had to download my pictures for grad school anyway.

So isn't Jack just the cutest here? I think he looks pretty excited about being at the pumpkin farm. However, the reality is that he is trying to eat the pebbles that he is sitting on. Darn the phase where they like to put everything in their mouths!

Okay, back to work!

When will it end??

I apologize to my loyal readers for not posting last week. I should probably apologize too for this post being so short. However, life is too overwhelmingly busy right now. Jack and I were both sick last week. I think we're getting over it. There's nothing like being sick to totally throw off every routine you have keeping your fragile existence going. We made it through though.

Steve started back to grad school last week too. He's taking a math class now. He seems to like his teacher a lot.

Let's see, what kind of cool things did we do last week? I took some of my students to U of I on Friday for a great journalism conference. Steve was white-water rafting last weekend, which was probably the coolest thing a Barrett has done lately. The video is even cool. Jack is almost crawling. I know I keep saying that, but it's true. This week he got up on his knees a lot and rocked back and forth. He also pushes himself up on his toes (straight legged) and then hops down to his knees. How he does that and isn't crawling is beyond me.

Okay, I think that's it for now. I'll try to be better next week.

I'm exhausted

It's been a very trying week. I went just about 3 days without seeing Jack awake, save a few moments in the morning before I left. It was hard.

He survived though. And so did Steve. It's not fun to be the single parent, especially for days on end. I really hope that we don't have to do this again anytime soon. This week will be hard too, but not to last week's extent. I won't be home until late on Tuesday and then I have grad class on Thursday. Steve is getting a little fun in though. he's leaving on Friday for Phil's bachelor party weekend. It promises to be lots of fun.

I really don't remember much of this week to be honest. It's been rainy and way too busy. We didn't get Jack's 8-month photos done because it was yucky outside, and that yuckiness meant bad lighting inside. I tried, but I'm not happy with the results.

I was also a pretty bad flybaby this week. I'm not stressing over it though. It was a bad week and I plan to get back on track this week with babysteps. This nice thing is that all of my hard flylady work in the past made it not a disaster this week. I was able to get the kitchen back in order with Steve's help. The laundry is back under control even without spending an entire day doing it. I'm feeling pretty good.

Alright, last week I didn't post any photos. I didn't get any up on Flickr this week, but I will still post a new one here because I don't think this blog is as much fun to read without the pics. So, here's one of the disappointing 8-month shots. Jack is still cute, so that's all that really matters!

Weekly update

I couldn't think of a better title, I'm sorry!

This week went by in a blur. I had my first day back at school when I didn't get to spend time with Jack while he was awake. On Thursday, I started my grad school photography class. I'm really excited about it. I'm going to do my project on Dundee. That's about as far as I am right now. But over the next couple of weeks, that should get more detailed.

We made it to Irish Fest on Friday night. Auntie Bubbles came over and we met up with the Carlsons and their friends, the DeMarsh's. We didn't stay for Brigid's Cross, which really is the entire reason to go, since Jack was sleeping and the boy needed his rest. The food was a little disappointing, but very delicious, this year. The only Irish food we could find was corned beef. Instead, we went with pupusas and funnel cake. I can't pass up funnel cake.

The most wonderful thing about this weekend was all of the rest that we got. I let Steve sleep in (somewhat) on Saturday. Breyer had a vet appointment at 8:40, so we had to wake him up at 7:30. But hey, it's better than getting up at 5:30 like he had to this morning. We all got naps today, which was nice. Jack's been off sleeping-wise lately. He doesn't nap like he used to while he's at school, so I think we spend the weekend "catching up". Today, he took a 2-hour nap this morning and an hour and a half nap at 3 p.m. He would have slept longer for the afternoon nap, but I wanted him to get to bed at his normal bedtime, so I woke him up.

We did take some photos this week, but I haven't downloaded them yet. So no photos on this post. I'll get some up next week!

A wonderful end to summer

I figure Labor Day weekend is pretty much the official end of summer. We enjoyed every last second of it.

My cousin Rob married Vita on Saturday. It was a beautiful, and very fun, wedding. I'll post a photo of the cute couple below. You can check out some more on my Flickr site. I took over 300 between the rehearsal and the wedding, so there are plenty to look at. I will warn you though, I'm not posting all 300 as many of them are not publishable quality. I am so happy for these two. It's really fun to go to weddings of couples who are truly happy together. We've been really lucky this August to attend three such weddings.

After the partying, we decided to rest up. To be honest, after the first week of school and the wedding on Saturday, I couldn't keep my eyes open on Sunday. Poor Jack must have been so frustrated with his boring parents. We made it up to him though. We took him for a walk along the river and had lunch at Emmett's. Then today, Nanna came over and we played outside in the pool and went for a walk around the neighborhood. He's going to be pretty worn out for school tomorrow!

Speaking of my son, he's suffering from a pretty persistent diaper rash. So today, since we were playing outside, we figured we'd leave his diaper off to let him "air out" and rinse off in the pool. He loved it of course, he loves being naked. He then proceeded to pee on his Nanna, Breyer, the pool, and the grass. I like to think of it as marking his territory. He loves his Nanna, and his dog, and the pool, and the grass.

On another happy note, I made it through my first week of school with my flylady routines intact. So I'm going to keep this blog post short so I can get to my bedtime routine (it's the habit of the month, don't you know!)

Enjoy some photos!

The most dreaded night of summer

So it's here... the night before school starts. Yes, I've been back at school every day this week, but it was of my own choosing and I wasn't on any one else's schedule but my own. Tomorrow that all changes. It's Institute Day.

For the first time in nine years, District 214 is having two institute days before the start of school. Why they choose to start on a Friday, I don't know. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

So, here are the new "initiatives" that I am imposing this year.

1. FlyLady routines at home and at school. The control journals are in place; keep your fingers crossed!

2. Sharing a room with my best bud and publications partner, Sandra.

3. Writing on my Spokesman blog once a week.

I think three initiatives are plenty to keep me busy. I will also be continuing my SCRUM sprinting that I started last spring. My bulletin board is up and ready for post-its.

Not only am I starting something new, but so are Jack and Steve. Jack started daycare on Monday and has done quite well. His teachers told me today that he's a smiley guy and very laid back. That made me happy since that is what he is like at home too. The big downside to daycare is that I am now boring to him. Apparently seven other children his age are way more exciting than mom singing Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Fire truck for the 8 bazillionth time.

Steve will be starting his second grad school class. Okay, so this is technically new since he's taken one class already. However, I am counting it as new since this summer the only thing we really had to work around was his class. I think it's going to be a little different with all of us on busy schedules.

Okay, I think that's all that I have for now. Blogging is part of my weekly routine, so hopefully this blog won't suffer as I start back to work!

Beer Update

The Beer has been opened! And the best part is, it's really good, and I'm not just saying that because I helped make it!

My cousin Kelly came over this past Wednesday to help me out by watching Jack and then stayed to play with us for the day. I promised her dinner, and we (Steve and I) decided to open the beer with her for dinner since it was time to try one out to see if it was done. I took some pictures to mark the occasion. Kelly liked it, so I feel justified in saying that it turned out well. I liked it so much that I am kind of excited about brewing again (look out Sam Adams!)