A new kind of teaching

We are just starting our third week at home. I should probably stop counting the weeks now. This is the new normal. It's definitely interesting to see how we are all adjusting to the new lifestyle. I'm slowly relaxing and realizing that I don't have to hurry up and do stuff. Jack is starting to realize that he has a LOT more time with mom and dad, so he's not acting out as much for attention. Reid is figuring out a nap schedule, and a nice one at that. And Steve, well, he's trying to get over a rotten cold that has not been helped by traveling for work.

Last week I planned out a week of activities around the theme of Ocean Animals. With the help of Pinterest, it was lots of fun to plan and do. I'm really following the model of Little Wildcats Day Care. They do such an amazing job with kids, and we miss our friends and activities there. Monday was Octopus Day; Tuesday, Jellyfish; Wednesday, Sponges; Thursday, Fieldtrip to the Shedd Aquarium; and Friday, Sharks. I'm pretty sure both Jack and Reid enjoyed the week.

In case you are interested, here's a rundown of what we did each day, with some pictures thrown in.

Monday - Octopus
Steve was off for President's Day, so we took a family trip to the library in the afternoon.  But we started the day with Octopus math and making a paper plate Octopus. We picked up an octopus book at the library that we read later in the day. The library was pretty cool. We found all kinds of fun books about the animals we were going to "study" as well as an Iron Man book. There was also a Fun with Frogs program going on, so we stopped in there to see some Tree Frogs, Toads, and Frogs.



Tuesday - Jellyfish
We read our Jellyfish book and learned about feeding arms and zapping tentacles. I also found a fun little song about 5 little plankton and a jellyfish. I think Jack had already learned it at Little Wildcats. He sang it with me to Reid, much to Reid's delight. For a craft, we made cool paper bowl and ribbon jellyfish that I found on Pinterest. It was a little hard for Jack to put together, but he liked the painting part.



Wednesday - Sponges
Jack had preschool in the morning, so we saved our sponge activities for after our rest time. We read a book about sponges and made sponge balls. Jack had fun creating patterns with the sponge sticks. Later, he had fun with the sponge balls in the bath.





Thursday - Fieldtrip to the Shedd
We invited Pepere to come along with us as we headed for the city. The Shedd has a special exhibit on Jellyfish right now. It was pretty cool to see lots of jellies, although the exhibit seemed pretty small overall. We walked through the whole thing in about 10 minutes. We also saw the sharks and stingrays, beluga whales, penguins, and even the arm of a hiding octopus. I think the most exciting thing for Jack was seeing the scuba divers cleaning the tanks in the Wild Reef exhibit. He loves scuba divers. It was a pretty fun trip. Jack loved the jellies and the penguin play area. Reid loved the neat light coming from the exhibit tanks. Pepere and I loved the quiet ride home.



Friday - Sharks
I think this was my favorite day. I had set up play stations on our table all week, and Jack would kind of check them out, but he wasn't really that intrigued until Friday. I found a shark chomping letter game on Pinterest. I made the shark while Jack was eating breakfast. He loved the game. He picked up and named every letter and letter sound before feeding the letter to the shark. If he didn't know the name of the letter, he would trace it with his finger and then I would tell him what it was. He stopped me from telling him until he had traced the letter with his finger. He told me this method would help him remember. I love this kid!

 

We also set up a shark bean bag toss. A simple poster board and the old Nemo lovey made for lots of fun. We played the bean bag toss all weekend!





We also made an ocean jello snack: blue jello with fruit snacks suspended in it. The fruit snacks got a little too hard and didn't maintain their flavor. But that didn't stop Jack from enjoying fishing them out. I think next time I'd use a real fruit instead.

To top off this day, it was Jack's first snow day from school. I don't think it meant much to him though since he doesn't go to school every day any more.



Overall, a pretty fun week. I also had some other fun letter tracing and recognition activities on the iPad and on the table. But I think I've bored you enough already with the details! I'm really enjoying turning my teacher brain focus to Jack and Reid. It's reminding me that I am a teacher at heart, no matter who or what I am teaching.

Happiness Project Update

Part of my New Year's Resolution this year was to restart my happiness project. For the month of January, I focused on Energy. I had three goals:

1. Go to bed by 9:30 p.m.
2. Exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 3 times a week.
3. Act the way I want to feel.

I feel that it is good practice to reflect, and now that January is over, it seems to be a good time to reflect on the Energy focus.

Overall, I definitely feel more energetic. The days after I go to bed by 9:30 are much better than those when I miss my bedtime. I also learned that wake up time is just as important. I had a few days when I would go back to bed after feeding Reid and we would both sleep until 10 or 11. I found the extra sleep on those days actually made me feel more tired, and then I had missed out on time to get things done. My ideal wake up time is between 7:30 and 8. But Jack's ideal time is between 6 and 7. So, as long as I get to bed by 9:30, the 6 a.m. wake up is tolerable.

The exercise goal was much tougher to meet. I am back at Jazzercise class when I can get away from the house. So far, I've made it about once a week. I only had one week when I got all three workouts in. I did that by going to Jazzercise one night and then walking on the treadmill on two other nights. Not my ideal workout schedule, but I did it. I think in order to make this work, I have to get up on weekend mornings and hit the early Jazzercise class. I always feel good after them; I just hate to miss out on time with the boys and Steve.

Acting the way I want to feel worked out pretty well too, when I remembered to do it. This is actually what helped me conquer the earlier wake up time. This is a hard one when you've had a bad day or others around you aren't feeling so good. I think I still need to work on this a little too.

So energy-wise, I think I am on the plus side of things. I can't just give up on these goals, but I think I have the ideas planted well enough in my brain that I can move on to a new focus.

And that's a good thing since it is a new month, and a new month brings a new focus. I've decided to work on Time this month. With the major change of careers for me, this seems like a good time to look at how I use and manage my time. Here are my goals for Time:

1. Be reasonable about what I can actually do
2. Create a to-do list and use it every day
3. Update Google Calendar to schedule to-dos and events each day
4. Tackle the nagging task

Wish me luck!

A few things are going to change around here

Sometimes when things change, they really change, and they change quickly.

A year ago, we thought we would be the happy parents of one child, I would be the newspaper adviser at WHS forever, and eventually we would sell our house and move closer to the city.

Now, we have two wonderful boys, we refinanced our home and plan to stay for a while, and I am a stay-at-home-mom for at least a year and a half. 

Change is good.

After Reid was born, Steve and I began to talk seriously about me taking a leave of absence from WHS. We crunched the numbers, and with a little smart budgeting, we realized we could make it happen. So I put in for a full-time leave of absence for next school year. The admin at WHS came back and said, sure, and if you would like, we can even let you take the rest of this year. A little more figuring, and now I am focusing on my family and figuring out my new lifestyle.

It's amazing how happy and free I feel with this change. I love thinking about cool activities to do with Jack and Reid. Today, I found a recipe to make butter using whipping cream and a baby food jar. Jack's going to love it! I love having lunch with Steve when he works from home. I love that every night has family time. Trust me, even on the bad days (which I know there will be), I am going to cherish this.

Because of this major change, Jack has a change ahead too. He will be leaving Little Wildcat Day Care next week and starting at a local preschool the following week. We are all pretty excited about this. He will only be in school for 2 1/2 hours each morning, which will leave us all afternoon to play and have adventures. His new school is about 5 minutes from our house, which will be a marvelous change from the 45 minutes one-way we are traveling to get to WHS.

Even with good changes, there is a little sadness. Both Jack and I are going to miss seeing our friends at Wheeling every day. We love our friends there, and we have a lot of fun with them. Luckily, this does not mean that we will never see them again. We will have to be much better about scheduling play-dates.

Reid is not one to be left out. Of course, his changes are much more developmental. At 2 1/2 months, he is smiling and interacting a lot now. He loves his play mat with a little cow and a little pig that hang down for him to punch and kick. He loves diaper changes. He smiles and coos the entire time. He could screaming and overtired, you put him on the changing pad and he starts to smile. 

Overall, change is good.

Playing on the play mat

A little blurry, but a shot from some family time bowling

2 months old

Jack's Birthday!

We can't believe that Jack is already 4 years old. When people say the time flies by, they are so right!

We celebrated his actual birthday (Jan. 11) by having waffles with whipped cream for breakfast, followed by a day of fun. He went to school and celebrated with his friends. They read his book "Press Here" and ate cake pops. Then we went out to dinner at "Big Door Pizza" as a family and had cupcakes made by Grandma for dessert. In true Jack fashion, he only ate the fruit on top of the cupcake. But that's okay with me, I finished his!

As he has gotten older, Jack loves using my camera to take pictures. In the interest of keeping my camera in good working order, we got Jack his own camera for his birthday. He loves it. He took it to school that Friday for show and tell, and he took a bunch of pictures.

We then had a birthday party for Jack on Jan. 21. It was his first "friends" birthday party. We invited 22 friends to play at Kids and Company (or Kids' Town USA) and they had a blast. They had scooter races, obstacle courses, parachute play, play houses, freeze dance contests, and all kinds of fun stuff. Of course, there was also cake and ice cream. For only 90 minutes, Jack was pretty worn out afterwards. Luckily, Auntie Bubbles and Uncle Mike came over and helped with the presents and dinner. It was a pretty fun-filled day.

Steve and I are constantly amazed at what our oldest boy says and does. A few weeks ago, he went through a stage of telling me about all of the "classes" he had gone to and what he had learned. He learned about clouds (rain and all) at cloud class. When we saw the power lines along the highway, he told me he learned about them at electricity class. It was pretty funny. Anything we talked about, he had gone to a class about that. He also loves to ask questions. While this can get tiresome at times, this is also the trait we wished for our child. We want him to question things and learn. And boy does he! He wants to know how the toll booths work and whether they take our picture every time we drive through them. He wants to know how we know he got out of bed at night. He wants to know what words are in the books we read. It's fantastic!

Well, I've written a lot here; I think it's time for some pictures.

On his birthday at home with his birthday crown from school


Just being his cute self


Celebrating with his friends at school


I'll post more pictures of his party later.

Adjusting to maternity leave

It has almost been three weeks since Reid was born. We're now in that weird transition time when I feel almost normal but we can't quite be "normal" since I still get tired pretty easily and Reid doesn't have a real schedule yet. I'm also feeling a little cabin-fever-ish.

Reid is growing nicely. At his two-week appointment on Monday, he weighed 9 lbs. He's also starting to stay awake for longer periods of time during the stretch in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening. He usually sleeps for about 2-3 hour stretches, which is nice especially at night.

So far, we have ventured out to pick up Jack from school several times. We even went in to introduce Reid to Jack's friends (only looking, no touching). Jack was a very proud big brother. Reid and I have also taken short excursions to Starbucks and Caribou Coffee for hot chocolate and such.

Our usual day consists of lots of home improvement shows, laundry, and playing with Breyer. We're trying to get started on Christmas shopping and thank you cards.

In the meantime, Jack and Steve have been keeping very busy. Jack has been having lots of fun at school every day. He's also a very proud big brother. He takes his nap every day at school so he can come home and play with Reid and me. Steve has been very busy working like normal and also being the "mobile" parent. Since Reid eats so often right now, Steve gets stuck making the Trader Joe's/Target runs and taking Jack to family parties and outings to keep his schedule as normal as possible.

Now that it is December, we are getting into the Christmas spirit. Thanks to Jack and Steve, we have a beautiful Christmas tree. Jack was a big help decorating it this year. He LOVED putting the ornaments on the tree, and for the most part, he was very careful with all of the ornaments. Jack has also been having fun trying to decide what to ask Santa for Christmas. Most often he'll name whatever toy he saw  most recently.

And just because it's fun, here are a few more pictures that we have taken recently. Enjoy!

Reid Jeffrey Barrett

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Reid Jeffrey Barrett, our second son!

Reid was born Saturday, Nov. 12 at 9:06 a.m. I woke up at about 3 a.m. for a normal potty break and realized that "real" labor was starting. I woke up Steve and we timed a couple of contractions at 3 minutes apart. We decided to get our stuff together and get to the hospital.

Luckily, Jack was great about being woken up so early in the morning. I don't think he quite realized what was going on until we got to the hospital. The three of us pretty much had the highway to ourselves, so Steve had to set the cruise control to make sure he didn't speed too much. We got to the hospital by 4 a.m. Since we were so early, we got to valet the car and go through the Emergency Room entrance. After just a short wait in the ER waiting room, we were taken upstairs to the labor and delivery room. There, we waited.

My mom and dad (Grandma Sue and Pepere) arrived shortly thereafter, and Pepere took over care for Jack. I think that involved pudding and some adventuring around the hospital, but I was busy so I could be wrong.  Steve's mom (Nama) and my sister Cathy and her husband Mike made it in pretty early too. And even my sister Connie and her friend Kim made it before Reid did!

So between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., I progressed through labor, although sometimes seemingly slowly. Our first major decision was if and when to get the epidural. After a nice discussion with my doctor (who was fantastic about explaining all of my options and what the likely effects would be), Steve and I decided to get the epidural going before the doctor broke my water. As great as the numbing effects of an epidural are, the process of inserting the catheter is still a bit unnerving. Again, I am very grateful for a fantastic and calm anesthesiologist. She explained everything before she did it, and she was very kind and soothing in her bedside manner.

With the epidural flowing, Dr. Stone came in and broke the water. I can't remember what time that was, but I remember it happening and then hanging out and watching contractions on the monitor. It's interesting to be able to sense the pressure of a contraction but not feel the pain. At about 8:30, the nurse came in and checked my progress and said it probably would be within the hour or so that I would be ready to push. She told me to call her if I felt the pressure to push before that. About 20 minutes later, I was feeling it, so we called the nurse back, and she said we were ready. In fact, she said the baby would probably be out in just a couple of pushes! We were very excited.

In the delivery room for the actual delivery were me, Steve, my mom, Steve's mom, Dr. Stone, Joanne (the nurse) and a patient care tech (I don't remember her name, but she was very nice too!). Just like Jack's birth, it was very calm and quiet during delivery (just the way I like it!). I started pushing at about 8:55. After a couple of pushes, Reid's heart started to skip beats. Dr. Stone didn't really let on to the seriousness of the situation, she just had me push again, and that seemed to get him out of distress. On the next push (or maybe it was two) his head came out, and with one final push, Reid had arrived! I could hardly believe it only took 10 minutes of pushing. His cord was wrapped around his neck, which is what caused the distress. But what a great baby! Steve got to cut the cord again, and then they immediately placed him on my chest to say hello.

One of the best parts of Reid's birth was what happened next. Instead of rushing through introducing him to me and Steve and our family and then taking him to the nursery, the staff weighed him and cleaned him up a bit, and then gave him back to me and Steve to hold and begin breastfeeding. I think we stayed together for about an hour before the nurses took him to bathe him and evaluate him. It was a wonderful time. Our family, even Jack, got to come to the L&D room to meet Reid.

Here's a couple of pictures.

Happy July!

July 4th always sneaks up pretty quickly for me. This year was no different. I think it's because school doesn't get out until the middle of June, so it's only about 2-3 weeks in that July 4th hits.

We took a little trip this past Holiday weekend up to Wisconsin with our friends Kurt and Amanda and their dog, Murphy. We had a great time hanging out by the lake, playing golf, going to a ski show, and just generally having a good time. Jack's favorite part of the trip was "playing with Murphy." My favorite part was watching Jack and Steve play together on the beach and in the lake. Jack would run and jump in the water landing on his bottom. Then he'd turn around and say "did you see that guys?" It was very cute.

Unfortunately, we missed the fireworks at my parents' house this year. We got home Monday afternoon, but after 3.5 hours in the car, the last place we wanted to be was in the car again. Instead, we had a very subdued July 4th evening at home.

So now I finally feel like I'm on summer break. The weight of work is not hanging on my shoulders, and I am really enjoying getting into a routine at home. I need to remember this next summer: it takes about 3 weeks to get into summer mode. It's either that, or we need to go on vacation the minute school gets out.

I am now turning my focus on me a little. I'm trying to get back in the Happiness Project as well as into a routine that keeps a tidy house and food on the table. I have lots of projects! First off, Steve and I decided to try to limit our eating out. We took a look at our budget and where we were spending the money that could be reduced. Eating out definitely fit the bill. So we planned our meals for the week on Monday night, and Jack and I hit the grocery stores Tuesday morning. So far it is going well. We'll see how week two goes. I feel a lot better about what we are eating now since it is homemade and such. It's also not as hard as I anticipated, planning and cooking meals.

Project 2: tidy house. I'm getting back in touch with my inner Fly Lady. For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been very good about cleaning my sink (kitchen) at night and following a morning routine to out away dishes and get a load of laundry done. Jack loves to help clean the toilets; he thinks it's pretty fun to swish the bowls and make bubbles, so that has been a big help too. Having guests over helps keep the clutter under control, so here's your invitation: let me know when you want to come by and hang out!

Project 3: happiness. With the loss of journalism and Spokesman at work, this seemed like an absolute must as far as projects go, so I'm getting back to the Happiness Project. I left off after only one month of a resolution: time. That had gone well. I was setting realistic expectations for myself and using my calendar. I think I'm still doing those things pretty well too. Now it is time to start resolution #2: energy. For July, I'll be working on getting to bed by 9:30 every night and exercising 3 times a week. Jack and got started on this today with a 3-mile walk along the river. It was very nice!

I'd like to finish off this post with some fun facts about Jack. He's such a great conversationalist, and I would hate to forgot some of the great things he says. So here's a few gems.
His favorite time/number is 39 10. You can ask him how long something is, what time it is, how old someone is, the answer is usually 39 10.
"I can make an idea" this is the phrase we hear most often when he negotiating activities or bedtimes, etc. The nice thing is that he does have some good ideas that follow this phrase!
"can you tell me?" this is a response to us asking him a question that he either doesn't know the answer to or wants us to tell him the answer anyway.

Ahh, the sweet days of summer

They have finally arrived, the wonderful, long summer days.

And with these summer days come a few more blog post from yours truly.

It's been a busy spring around the Barrett family home. Steve has been to South America and back; I've been to Anaheim and back; Jack has been becoming more independent each day with an increased vocabulary and an increased desire to explore anything and everything.

In other good news, we are also expecting the next addition to our family. Baby Barrett #2 should arrive around Thanksgiving with a due date of November 23, 2011. We are all very excited. Jack asks about the baby every day, and I think he now understands that November is a month during the year.

So our summer is still pretty busy even with me not officially working every day. Jack is finishing up swim lessons tomorrow. While he's not quite ready for the 500 free, he does like playing games in the pool and he actually put his face in the water today. I think it helps that most of the lesson is taught using ice cream metaphors.

Steve is also pretty busy with his last two classes for grad school. He will officially have his MBA in early September when this summer quarter ends. I know we are getting close because when we talk about our family budget, he throws out phrases like cash and accrual like I should know them. Luckily, he is a good teacher too!

As for me, I'm in a period of transition. I was removed from my position as adviser of Spokesman on the last day of school this year. I still have a job teaching American Literature and as one of the academic technology coordinators at WHS. But as I know that teaching and working within the journalism industry is my passion, I am searching for ways to stay connected to that world. I am still active with my NJPLC (national journalism professional learning community) and that definitely helps. I am very lucky to have so many journalism teacher friends across the country to help me. I'll keep you all posted as I figure out where I find my journalism fix.

As journalism is my passion, I am working on passing that on to Jack. So far, he has taken up photography with as much zeal as I have. I'm actually considering starting a photoblog for his work. He loves to use the Nikon D40 with the strap around his neck and then just shoots. Some of the pics have turned out really well with a nice depth of field included! Now if I could just find a moment to download them from the camera, we'd be set.

So that's the update. I definitely have more to tell, but I don't like these posts getting so long you have to invest an afternoon to read them. Instead, I'll just write some more tomorrow about the happiness project and the books that I'm reading.

Happiness Update - End of Week 1

There is something ironic about me posting this at 11 p.m. since my focus is on managing my time. But I just now took a look at my progress for the week, and I was pleasantly surprised.

My main time-related resolution was to be reasonable about what I can accomplish. And for each day that I tallied my resolutions, I completed that! I didn't tally my resolutions every single day this past week though, only 5 out of the 7 days. But accomplishment is accomplishment.

I still have room to grow. I need to be better about tackling the nagging tasks and using my calendar and to-do lists. I've already started tonight by trying to layout my week with all of my nagging tasks. (Don't worry, I didn't over-schedule myself!).

On the home front, we had an interesting weekend. 3-year-olds are definitely a challenge. Jack loves to push the boundaries, to test us. Saturday was very hard. We had a decent morning doing chores (which Jack loves. He cleans out the vacuum cleaner like it's the most fun activity he's ever gotten to do). But he didn't want to go to hockey skating, and he didn't want to take a nap. And he didn't want to do ANYTHING we asked or suggested. Everything became a battle. Lots of yelling ensued. By the end of the night, we were all exhausted and Steve and I were tired of feeling angry and frustrated (I think Jack was too).

So we embarked on new parenting strategies today. Steve did some researching Saturday night to guide us. We don't like spanking, although we have tried it. We don't like yelling. Neither of these strategies are effective with Jack. So today, we set out to stay calm, redirect, and be patient. It worked pretty well. The hardest part for me is being patient (I know, big surprise). I found that in order to be patient, I have to have the time; I can't be in a rush or running to get somewhere. That worked today since we had nowhere to be.

The other part of this strategy is trying to challenge and engage Jack. That's no easy task. But by simply asking Jack what he was interested in and suggesting a few activities, we stayed busy, and happy, all day. There was play-doh, fixing the engine toy, reading books, watching Fireman Sam, and eating a picnic lunch in the basement at the Handy Manny table.

On the fun side, Jack and Steve went ice skating today. They hit up the public skate from 1:30 to 3 and had a great time. I hit up the library and graded and lesson planned. I also had a good time (I'm serious!).

So that's the update. I know it's been a lot of writing here lately and very few pictures. Let me get my time under control, and then the pictures will return; I promise.

Time is on my side, yes it is

So my first focus for the Happiness Project is Time. I have set a couple of resolutions for my approximately month-long Time goal. Here they are:

1. Be reasonable about what I can actually accomplish
2. Tackle the nagging task
3. Use a to-do list each day
4. Use my google calendar each day

I'm also tracking my resolutions Ben Franklin style. Yes, I am an English and journalism teacher geek. Yes, I thought Ben Franklin's pursuit of moral perfection was quite admirable. Yes, I like google and I am using a google form to track all of this.

So far, so good. Today I truly benefited from my resolutions. I was flitting around like I normally do, jumping from one task to another based on whatever I was focused on at the second. However, as I normally do, I would find myself, all of a sudden, with no direction. It was in these moments I turned to my to-do list, picked something and did it. By the end of the day, I was shocked at all that I had actually accomplished. Hooray!

On a more Barrett Family Life topic, Jack has really been enjoying Little Wildcats. However, he had his first sick day yesterday. We've been fighting some kid of bug. He ran a low fever yesterday morning and had been coughing, so Steve stayed home with him. Not to give too much info, but today he was back at school, but he was fighting a tummy ache all day. No fever though. Weird.

Steve is busy prepping for South America. He is an amazing balancer of school, work and life. Between his two classes a week, working downtown, and putting up with me and Jack, I am amazed at how he has the energy to get up onSaturday mornings to take Jack to skating lessons. I think our next vacation might be somewhere we can just sleep.

Speaking of, it's way past my bed time!

Happiness project

Drum roll please....
I am officially starting a happiness project. I just finished reading the book "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. I think Gretchen might actually be a version of me living in New York as a writer. But that is a post for another day.

Here's the deal. I have a wonderful life. Those of your reading this blog are nodding your heads and saying, "duh, that's all you write about on here, Karen, your wonderful life." However, I don't always appreciate it. In fact, I have found myself complaining, being negative, even getting angry about things in my life way too often lately. It's actually to the point where I was bringing myself down even when good things were going on around me. Hence, the happiness project. As Gretchen writes in her novel, "I want to change my life without changing my life."

So over the next few months I'm going to work on setting some resolutions and following through to get myself to feel happier about the wonderful things in my life. Over the next week, I am going to plan out my happiness project. I'm going to figure out what areas I want to focus on and set some resolutions. I'll post some updates here in case you are interested in what the heck I am actually doing.

So, here goes nothing!

Happy night, all!

A year in Review

2010 is quickly coming to a close, so it really is time for another post.

You will notice something new about this post. Instead of a bunch of photos clogging up the entire post, I'm trying out slideshows. Let me know what you think! I've also included a couple of videos just for fun.

Since this is only my fourth post this year, I felt it fitting to truly do a year in review. Let's start with last January...

Jack turned 2. We had a Thomas the Train birthday party with our family. There's actually a post covering this if you are interested :). We also went skiing in Lake Geneva with the Mortensens and Nama.

Somewhere around February, Steve took a new job at a company in the city, Model Metrics. He has re-entered the world of consulting, but this time the company focuses on cloud computing. He's had a very good year there meeting lots of new fun people, learning new things, and even traveling a bit. He's been to D.C, Kentucky, San Francisco, Minnesota, and a few other places. Luckily, they don't usually ask him to been gone for more than a night or two. We miss him too much then!

March, April and May were busy with work and school for all of us. Jack started in the two's room at Bright Horizons and was working hard at potty training. Karen was busy planning a STEM for ALL Conference for Wheeling High School and coaching the journalists for their IHSA competition. Steve was busy learning the ropes of commuting to the city and home while juggling a new job and two classes for grad school.

Then June came... summer.

Karen was still busy with the conference planning, but also got into high gear helping Cathy finish her wedding planning. She and Mike were married in early July in a beautiful ceremony. The reception was pretty fun too if I remember correctly!

July brought vacation. Steve, Karen and Jack took Grandma Sue and Pepere with us to Florida. We ventured south despite the ranging oil spill in the Gulf. And boy are we glad we did! We spent an entire week on vacation starting in Ft. Lauderdale, staying in Marathon Key for most of the trip, and finishing in Miami Beach. We all loved it.

August brought us back to school. Steve has been taking two grad classes at a time each quarter this year. And he's doing an excellent job. Not to brag, but he earned all A's last quarter :). He is beginning to see the light at the end of the Kellogg tunnel. He is on schedule to graduate this coming August. Of course, he has a lot to do before then. He will be traveling to South American for a class this spring. Karen and Jack are a little jealous.

This past fall we worked hard to incorporate a lot of fun family activities. We realized we had been working and schooling so much, we were missing out on the fun stuff. So, we went apple picking, pumpkin picking, christmas tree harvesting, and sledding (well, sledding is on for tomorrow!). We went on a ride on the Polar Express with grandmas. We visited Santa at the Mall. It's been a very fun-filled fall and early winter.

So we are ready for 2011. As much fun as we have had this year, next year has much more in store. Happy Holidays!

Love,
Karen, Steve and Jack

Florida Vacation


Emmett's 1st Birthday


Connie and Mike's Birthday


Aunt Connie visits with her Wee-Woo


Apple Picking


Pumpkins


Halloween




Polar Express


Just for Fun


Family Photos

I'm a lucky mommy

We just got back from our Florida Family Vacation (more on that a little later). We got home a little later on Sunday evening, so Steve picked up hot dogs for dinner. As we sat at the table eating, Jack said to me, "I eat my hot dog; that make you happy Mommy?" I said yes, and then I asked what makes Jack happy. His reply: "Cupcakes." So this past Tuesday, Jack and I made cupcakes (yellow cake, chocolate frosting - who wouldn't be happy?!) After we ate the fruits of our labor, we were getting ready for nap. Jack was bouncing around and being silly. I commented that I am a lucky mommy. His reply: "I'm a lucky Jack." It's good to be home.

I finally have that summer feeling. The workshops for work are on hold. My main priority is my family. And best of all, I'm spending a lot more quality time at home.

Steve is still very busy with grad school, but he was able to take a week off of both work and school so we could go on a real vacation. We decided to go to the Keys. We also invited Grandma Sue and Pepere to come with. We took off the Monday after Cathy and Mike's wedding (more on this later) and stayed away for an entire seven days.

We spent our first night in Ft. Lauderdale right on the beach. We were able to get up and have the beach all to ourselves Tuesday morning. This was definitely my favorite beach of the vacation. The water was crystal clear and the sand was so soft. And the beach was free of seaweed! On Tuesday afternoon, we climbed into the rental car and Steve drove us down to Marathon Key where we settled in for the next four nights and five days.

We spent a ton of time at the pool. I think this might have been Jack's favorite part. He "goes under" by putting his mouth, and sometimes his nose and eyes, under. He loved checking out the drains by walking around the edge of the pool. He also loved jumping from the ladder into someone's waiting arms. To say we have a water baby is an understatement.

We got a day trip in to Key West where we had lunch at Margaritaville and visited Hemingway's House. Everyone was awesome about doing this for me. This was probably the most uncomfortable day we had. It was typical July Florida weather: very hot and very humid. To make it more awesome, Hemingway's wife Pauline, who lived in and designed the home, traded all of the ceiling fans out for her chandelier collection. She was very into looks, not function. Jack and Steve made it through the visit by playing with just about every one of the 48 cats that inhabit the estate. Grandma and Pepere endured the tour with me. We did go to Margaritaville first, so maybe the margaritas helped!

I think I could have a nice retirement gig as a docent at Hemingway's Key West home. Our tour guide told me he didn't read Hem's books, he found Hem's life much more interesting. I did not tell him that most of Hemingway's books mimicked aspects of his life. That would have been rude.

During our time in the Keys, we also visited Pidgeon Key (the home for the workers who built the seven-mile bridge and the rest of the rail line); the Dolphin Research Center (where Jack and Steve pet dolphins); Bahia Honda State Park and Beach (where Steve and Pepere got some snorkeling in); and lots of fun restaurants. After we got Jack to sleep (either for naps or bed time), we were able to see some sunsets, and Grandma Sue and Pepere even got in a boat ride (ask them about it, it's a funny story).

Steve planned a wild night for our last night of vacation. He booked us a suite on the strip in South Beach. We had a great room at the Beacon Hotel, which is right across the street from Miami Beach. We had a nice walk along the beach before the rain hit and we went to dinner. We met up with Pepere's childhood friend, Ricardo, and his wife Nety. They are such nice people! They drove in to South Beach for us (which is akin to driving into Wrigleyville on a Saturday afternoon along with everyone else going to the Cubs' game and Lincoln Avenue Rib Fest). We had a great Cuban dinner and then headed back to put Jack to bed before checking out Ocean Drive. We had great intentions, but we all must have been pretty tired because we all fell asleep. Guess we will have to go back to see the neon another time.

I've saved my favorite story for last. Jack was an incredible traveler. I was a little worried about how he would do in the airport and on the plane. We've all heard the horror stories of the crying child on the plane. Jack was awesome though. He was so excited about take-off and flying through the clouds. On both plane rides he napped like a champ. He even was great about getting through the airport! He got to ride on Steve's roller suitcase with his little backpack on (unfortunately, no pictures of this, sorry!). The hardest part was chasing him around the gate areas while we waited to board. He just wanted to explore and touch everything. He was definitely a good enough traveler that we will fly again, and hopefully soon!

Here are some of the key shots from our trip. The whole experience reminded me of why I work. I love that we are able to do things like this, and I plan to make sure we do more of these things in the future!

Ft. Lauderdale


Playing Zappers at the Marathon Resort


Exploring Key West


Too Cute Not to Include


Playing with a Hemingway Cat


Karen at the Hemingway House


Going Under at the Pool


Playing with the waves on Miami Beach




So I mentioned earlier that Cathy and Mike got married. They had a beautiful wedding on July 9 in Rolling Meadows/Arlington Heights. I don't know that I have many photos after we got our hair done. I was a little busy being matron of honor and getting my party on. Let's just say that Cathy and Mike know how to throw a great party. I am so happy for them. So now Cathy is an Augustin, which means there is only one "true" Watts girl left. Good Luck, Connie. Carry that name proudly!

Summer is here!

So I actually "got out of school" on June 11. However, last week I was in a workshop all week, and on Monday, I worked summer school for a day. Today, Jack and I officially kicked off summer (at least for me!). We started with breakfast at Panera. Then we hit Safety Day at the library (awesome!). We took a nice nap after lunch. Then swam at the pool this afternoon. It was a great day.





I know I haven't updated since March (remember, quarterly updates :) ). So here's the scoop.

We celebrated Easter with the Watts family at Grandma Sue and Pepere's house. We prepared beforehand by coloring eggs, although we colored more on Easter.





Blowing up peeps with Grandma


In April, I went to Portland for the semi-annual Journalism Convention. But this isn't a work blog, so I won't go on about that.

In May, we celebrated Mother's Day at our house with a brunch. Pretty low-key, but very nice. I was also very busy with Cathy's wedding party fun. We had her shower at Auntie K's house.





But now it is June. Steve finished his grad classes for the quarter the same day I finished school. So we have packed a lot of fun into a week or so.

We hired a landscaper to get our yard under control. And boy did he and his crew do an awesome job. Watch your email inboxes for invites to our house now that we don't need a jungle guide to get through the weeds! We love it!













For Father's Day, we went to the Kane County Cougar's game. Jack actually watched a few at-bats. You have to start somewhere. His favorite part of the event was the jump-around obstacle course.





Steve's awesome photo of a baseball (don't you just love that lense!)


So Steve is back at school this week to bust through another two courses this summer. I still have lots of curriculum planning to get done before August. And we have an awesome wedding we are looking forward to in just a few weeks. Then... Vacation! We are leaving on a jet plane, so be sure to check back in July when I will update with those fun details.

Until then... enjoy the photos!

Be forewarned, there's a lot to read

Jack is with Grandma Sue and Pepere today, so I'm taking advantage of the downtime to update the blog. I have a lot to cover: Christmas, birthdays, mini-vacation, new job, and I'm sure a few other items I will think of as I write. Read what you like, enjoy the photos, and hopefully by the end, you will be caught up on Barrett Family Life.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Jack learned about Santa Claus (we are still singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town before bed; it's March!) and Jesus's birthday. I think he was pretty impressed by it all. We had our first Christmas celebration with the Watts side of the family the weekend before Christmas. Grandma Sue had a birthday cake and we sang for Jesus. As far as Jack was concerned, that was the highlight. Oh, that and the boots Grandma Sue and Pepere got him. He wears those all of the time and can even put them on and take them off by himself.




We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Reilley side of the family at Aunt Sharon's house. Since it was just us and the aunts and Nannie, Jack was spoiled with attention. He ate it up. I think the highlight of the night was watching Jack roll his new luggage from Nannie around the house. He also received "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" from Aunt Sharon, and that has become one of his favorite books.





Christmas morning was spent at our house. Auntie Bubbles slept over the night before so she could be with us in the morning. Jack had lots of fun on his new bike that Santa brought for him. He was even good about telling everyone about the new bike when they asked what Santa gave him. Christmas afternoon and evening was spent with the Unger side of the family at the Carlson's house.



Jack collecting Auntie K's candles to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.


As soon as Christmas is over, we start thinking about Jack's birthday. On his actual birthday, Steve and I took Jack downtown to the Shedd Aquarium. What a blast! Since his birthday fell on a Monday, there were hardly any people there right at opening. We felt like we had the place to ourselves! We got to see the new show in the Oceanarium, play in the penguin area, and see all kinds of fish and sharks. We all had a really great time. While we were in the city, we met up with Steve's cousin Michelle for lunch. Needless to say, Jack slept pretty well all the way home that afternoon and that night.

This year we decided to have a Thomas the Tank Engine party with family. A couple of my students from Wheeling helped me make cardboard box Thomas and James engines. Both Jack and Nicky loved them. The engines didn't make it through the entire party, but the boys had a great time with them.







And now that Jack is two, it is hard to believe that he was ever a baby who sat quietly cuddling on our laps. Now, he talks up a storm, wants to play all the time, and is just and endless bundle of energy. Steve and I got Jack a bunch of sporting equipment for his birthday: a tee-ball set, a soccer goal and ball, a golf club and ball. Since his birthday, he's been playing with the golf club (which he calls his hockey stick) inside. Last weekend, when the weather was a little warmer and the sun was out, we actually got to play outside. We actually got to play tee-ball and hockey on the drive-way! It was awesome!

In February, we had the chance to spend President's Day weekend at the Grand Geneva in Lake Geneva with Shayna, Dick, Shane, Emmett, and Nannie. We took the opportunity to get a little skiing and waterpark action in. It was awesome. Unfortunately, Jack is still a little too small to ski (next year though, look out!), but he had a great time playing with Nannie and Aunt Shayna and Emmett while Steve, Dick,and I took Shane out on the slopes for the first time. Jack really loved the indoor waterpark at Timber Ridge the next day. He just wanted to be in the big pool swimming around and watching Shane.







In the midst of all of our winter fun, Steve got a new job. He is now working for a company called Model Metrics. He gets to ride the train downtown every day, which isn't awesome, but he does like working in the city again. Of course, Jack is incredibly jealous that Daddy gets to ride the choo-choo. If he only knew!

So you can see we've been busy and having fun. Jack is growing up like crazy. He talks all of the time, and I am constantly amazed at his pronunciation. Just ask him to say enchiladas, and you'll see what I mean. He has also started to enjoy watching movies with us, so we have started the Disney/Pixar collection. He really likes Up and Monsters Inc. Those are the only two we have right now, but at least he likes the balloons and the monsters.

He has also recently learned to "fix" things. One of his Christmas presents was a Handy Manny radio repair kit (from Aunt Shayna and Uncle Dick). It came with Felipe, the phillips head screw driver. He carries that thing everywhere and fixes any screw he sees. I think I've put in a good couple of hours fixing the crib.



Okay, I'm sure there is more that I have forgotten to include here, but that's life these days. Feel free to check back soon for another update. I realize that three and half months is a long time to go without an update, so I will try to be better.