My Best Boy

Wow, I need to post more often!  This is just a bunch of pictures taken from the last few weeks.

He was so excited when he got this many stickers at Smith's.  And even better was we finally got a car cart- those things are hard to come by!

He played so cute with this baby the other day.  He's going to be the best brother :)

He got a couple seeds from his sunbeam teacher a few weeks ago so we planted them and have been watering them each day.  I hope something will grow!

He takes a lot of pictures of himself and things around him.

He built this awesome tower one day with LaLa.

Too tall!

We went to Taste of India one night for dinner.  As soon as we were seated, the waitress brought him an iPad to play on.  I think he'd like to go back to that restaurant every night!  And he actually does eat the food quite well too.

He was given this piggy bank when he was born (or probably at a baby shower before he was born).  We found it looking through some stuff in our storage shed so he finally has a place to put his money.

We went to free cone day at the DQ. YUM.

This is one of Bear and Neil's favorite things- laying together playing games or watching light sabers on Daddy's phone.

We woke up one morning and Taylor and Bowie were over!  Bear was so excited.  Bowie was too although you can't tell in these pictures.  She loves coming to our house and didn't want to leave, Taylor had to carry her out to the car at the end of the day!

Barrett just wanted to cuddle her and be by her all the time. A month or two ago he asked why he didn't have his own dog.

This isn't a great picture, but it was so funny!  I came upstairs one morning and didn't see Barrett anywhere, my mom said to look for him (he likes to hide). He was just sitting in this box eating his cereal waiting for someone to come find him.

He's gotten a couple of little neighborhood friends recently that will come over and ask if he can play.    It's super cute and I love for him to have friends but as a self proclaimed helicopter parent, it makes me nervous for him to just be out playing unsupervised.  Most the time either me or Neil will go out with him, but this time I just watched from the window.  Baby steps!

Play Dates

Barrett loves when he gets to play with friends!  On Saturday, we met with Missy + kids and Kelsey + kids at the Castle Park to play.  It was way hotter than I expected it to be so I felt pretty bad that I dressed Barrett in long sleeves and pants!  

This is the only picture I got of all the kids, just resting and having a snack that the super moms thought to bring (Obviously that wasn't me!) Colton, Brinley, Bear, Rylee, Tyce, and Kelsey's nephew Cohen.

Monday it was rainy so Kelsey and I took the kids over to Boondocks to let them play.

Rylee is a year older than Barrett.

They played the little bowling game and it went quick enough to keep their attention for the most part.

When Bear saw that Tyce was doing pretty well throwing the ball, he decided he needed to do that too.

We let them run around and play on some of the arcades before we left.  I think they would've stayed a lot longer if we weren't all starving to death!

Cristi's Wedding

My friend Cristi got married last week to a cute guy named Dallas.  I didn't get any pictures of them together, but they're really cute and so happy together.  Jeanette and I got to the reception at the same time and wanted to get a picture with the gorgeous bride.  Jeanette's pregnant too (I know, you can't even tell!)  She's due like 3 weeks after me.

Then Missy came, so we went through the line again to get another picture with all of us.

Something I think is funny is Cristi's maiden name is Johnson and her new last name is Christensen and that's the opposite of me!  We traded last names!

St. Patrick's Day

I don't dislike St. Patrick's Day, I think it's fine, but I feel like doing more than just wearing green to avoid being pinched and maybe eating some green food is overkill.  It seems like it's turning into a major holiday for some reason and I'm just not onboard with all the leprechaun catching and whatever.  Call me Scrooge if you will.  Maybe that'll all change when Barrett is older, who knows.  But for this year, all we did was wear green and eat some green food and we were thrilled.  

We had our normal breakfast, which included Lucky Charms, although it almost always does.

Bear and I made some mint chocolate chip cookies.  You can see he has a little bit of batter on his face in this picture.  

For lunch I had my avocado smashwich, which I have everyday anyways, so that wasn't too festive.  But for dinner, I made spinach pancakes, gave Bear some pickles (he loves pickles!), gave him his green juice, and he had a green sippy cup for his milk.  That was the extent of our holiday but it was perfect for us!

Speaking of making cookies... For Valentine's Day, I had planned to make these cute and delicious peanut butter cookies, but there were SO many treats that weekend that I didn't want to add more.   A month later, I finally got around to wanting to make these Valentine's cookies.

3rd Trimester!

How Far Along:  28 Weeks

Size of Baby: The size of a head of cauliflower (I’m just writing what my app says, that seems like an odd shaped comparison)  Doc says she weighs 2 lbs 6 oz if I remember correctly.  The last 3 or 4 appointments, she’s been measuring about 3 days behind.  So instead of being 28 weeks and 3 days on ultrasound day, she’d measure at 28 weeks.  Not a big deal, but it’s been consistent and I thought interesting.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely yes.  I’ve been on the search for some black skinny jeans my whole pregnancy and I’ve ordered probably 5 or 6 different pairs but none have worked out.  I just ordered another pair the other day and if they don’t work out, I’m just giving up on that.

Gender: They haven’t been able to get a good look the last couple of appointments, but today I had her check again and yes, she’s still a girl.

Name: I have a list of names I like and Neil has some that he likes too but none of them crossover at this point.  That’s okay.  I’m not worried this time!  If you ask Bear what her name should be, he's been answering with Juicy Juicy Boxy for the last few weeks.

Movement: She is a wiggler!  I like to use Will Ferrell’s line from Wedding Crashers, “What does she do all day!? I never know what she’s doing in there!”   

Sleep: Oh my gosh- I slept SO good when we were on vacation in Indian Wells (Palm Springs)!  I’ve mostly slept really crappy since we got back, but the last few nights have actually been a lot better.

Exercise/Activity Level: Even though I only have about 3 things to wear to the gym, I’m still going almost every day. I can still do body pump, step, combat, and occasional gfit workouts.  I was getting a calf cramp in my leg during step on Monday and I’m really hoping that wasn’t the start of those each night!  I’ve been lucky so far and haven’t had any night cramps, those are the worst!

Weight: 144. Yep, that’s for real. 

What I Miss: Having energy. I’m so tired!

Cravings: Dove Promises.  I bought 2 bags of them when it was Valentine’s Day- I ate one bag and saved the other to make cookies for Neil but there’s still a few left that I’m definitely hoarding.  I also had a major craving for Sprite the other night.

Symptoms: Luckily, most symptoms seem to come and go for me. I’ve been getting some heartburn/acid reflux (are those the same things?).  I was having a super itchy belly for a while even though I bought a couple new types of oil to use on it.  I’ve started being hot more often.  The most annoying thing lately is my constantly stuffy/runny nose; I think I blow my nose about every 5 minutes.  The last couple weeks I’ve gotten some Braxton Hicks contractions.  I’ve been getting really bad round ligament pains off and on (at least that’s what I assume it is), it’s always on the right side too.

Weird Things: I don’t know if this is a pregnancy thing or what, but there’s something very weird and painful happening with my right collarbone.  It kills any time I move my arm/shoulder or put pressure on it in any way.  It just started hurting one afternoon when I picked up Barrett, it’ll get better for a day or so and then start bugging again.

Worries: I’ve been worrying about my abs.  They used to be the best part of my body and then after Barrett they were spread about an inch apart and never went back together L  I’m worried they’re going to get even more spread apart.  I know there’s nothing I can do about it, so no point in worrying, but I do anyways.

Best Moment of the Week(s): Our anniversary getaway!  Seriously the best moment of my year so far I think!  All that sleep and sun and awesome food J

Appointments This Week: Went in today and baby is growing great.  Today was my 2^nd appointment with Dr. Houpe, haven’t yet decided if I’m going to stick with her or try one more guy…

What I’m Looking Forward To: I’ve recently found out that a ton of my friends are also pregnant.  It’s so fun to get to go through all this with other people.  I don't see most of these other pregnant girls too often, but it’s still fun.  Georgy was pregnant, she had Lara back in December, so even though we were only pregnant together for about 3 months, it’s great that our girls will be so close in age (although 8,000 miles apart). Courtney had her baby boy in February.  Jeanette is due just a few weeks after me. Kelsey is due in September.  A girl in my ward, Ina, is due with a girl a few days before me.  Heather White and Brittany Hyde from our dinner club friends are both due in May I think.  Annie Williams, a friend I used to teach with at Legacy is having a girl in September. Brittany Larsen and my cousin Chelsea are both due in September as well. There’s a huge groups of girls at the gym who are all due in September- Annie, Shelley, Heather, and some that I don’t know as well.

Something I've Learned/Realized: I thought of a really good way to describe how I’m feeling most of the time.  Ya know how when you’re getting sick, your whole body just aches and you’re super tired and just feel kind of awful?  That’s pregnancy in a nutshell.  You feel like you’re on the verge of getting the flu for 9 months.

Pictures:

This is super funny to me because I'm wearing the same shirt.  I can't be bothered to take another picture this week in a different shirt.  The 2nd picture was taken St. Patrick's Day so I had to wear something green.

26 weeks

28 weeks

Some Other Stuff

Neil and Bear were matching a few weeks ago for church.  Gray pants, white shirt, and blue tie.  Handsome as can be.

Livvie asked him what his dad's name was and his response was "honey."  Even though I know he knows his dad's real name, I almost never call Neil, "Neil" so I can see why he thinks his name is honey instead.

My parent's home teachers were over recently and were asking Barrett about the talk he gave in primary.  She asked him what he spoke about and he said Jesus.  She said, "What did Jesus do?"  Barrett said, "He died for our sins."  I was blown away!

He has been using funny words lately such as totally and super.  That totally hurt me!  This is super hard!  He also tells me to "check this out!"  And responds with "You betcha baby."  He also says dude- I'm not sure where some of these things come from.

Barrett has been super into taking pictures lately.  He just goes around the house with either the camera or someone's phone and takes pictures of whatever.  I found some hilarious ones on my parent's camera of my mom changing her clothes and some on my phone of me changing (I quickly deleted all of those ones)!  Also about 100 selfies.  He was very adamant about getting a picture of him with this rope a couple weeks ago.

He's gotten really imaginative and continues to play by himself more and more.  He often pretends to be an animal or a baby lately.  Or he'll just play with some of his toys and have them talk and fight and stuff.  I think it's pretty cute and funny to listen to.

He's found a favorite pair of shoes.  These Lightening McQueen sneakers (which I realize you can't even really see in the picture) are the ones he picks every day.  They're super easy for him to put on himself and they light up at the back.  What's not to love!?

My dad handed me this page in the newspaper the other day and we thought it was so funny that the article was about a girl named McCall Christensen.  There was another one a few days after because this girl was apparently the star of Brighton High's basketball team and they took state this year.  You don't hear my name that often, but especially my first and (former) last name!

We'll be sitting around the table for a meal and he'll randomly start asking everyone questions.  What's your favorite color, favorite movie, favorite animal, etc.

This happened a while ago but I forgot to write it down.  My dad was taking Barrett potty and was just sitting on the edge of the tub while he waited for him to go.  My dad fell backward into the tub and Barrett goes, "That was not cool or awesome."

I've been doing a bedtime chart with Barrett so we can all get more sleep.   It didn't start out very well, but he improved each week. (He can earn 2 stickers per night- 1 for staying in bed at night and 1 for staying in bed til the sun comes up.)

Last week he finally got all of his stickers!

His prize was a Sally car.  For some reason the pack of Cars we got from Disneyland didn't include her.

LaLa had a piece of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. He smelled it and said, "That smells tasty!"

Jill taught him how to wink.  She took the cutest video and sent it to me while I was out of town.  This is just a snapshot from the video.

Lightsabers are still a huge hit at our house. Pun intended.  He always says the funniest things during fights.  He'll say "Nice to fight you Jedi" or whoever.  He really loves Star Wars- I think Neil only shows him the cartoon version. I hope!  He's very obsessed with good guys vs. bad guys.  He always has to have 2 toys that fight and one is good and one is bad.  He'll also tell you whether you're the good guy or the bad guy when you sword fight or play anything with him.

Barrett also invented this game with these wooden knives called Knife, Knife, Hit.  It has recently been banned.

Often when he asks a question and I answer it, he'll reply with, "ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah." Like you're just reminding him of the answer he already knew.  Which is probably actually the case most of the time.

Barrett and I (and my mom) are obsessed with Maroon 5's song Sugar.  So Bear asked Neil if he liked that song too.  Neil said it's okay. Barrett yells, "Mom, put it on, he LOVES that song!"

Snow Day

We have had very little snow this winter in Utah so when we had a big storm on Tuesday, I made sure Barrett and I got out to play in it. 

He wanted to bring the squirt bottle out and squirt the snow.  I think this picture was when he decided he was going to squirt me.

Next we got out the lawn mower and then the baseball bat and ball.

I think he had the most fun throwing snowballs at me.

We went in and had hot chocolate with LOTS of marshmallows.

He took this picture of our mugs.

Before we went to Palm Springs, we babysat Jill's kids for a few days while they went to Mexico.  Their trip overlapped with ours, so we had the kids for a few days and then my cousin watched them the rest of the time.  Can't get enough of Rocket!

Nick is the closest thing to a big brother as Bear will ever have and he LOVES playing with him.

We all piled in the minivan one night to go out to dinner.

The kids chose Granny Annie's and of course it was delish.  Nick ordered like 5 different things and basically didn't eat any of them.  I suspended his ordering privileges.  

Barrett was in heaven to be able to be with Rocket and his cousins so much!

Babysitting Barrett

Even though I know my mom knows Barrett's schedule, I left her a few notes just in case...  I wanted to post it here just because I like looking back at his old schedules. 

~7  wakes up (don’t let him sleep past 8, not that he ever does that anymore anyways…)

Eats breakfast and put stickers on bedtime chart- try to put his stickers on before he gets a show so he makes the correlation.

Wednesday and Friday give him 1 gummy vitamin. Thursday give him ½ a crunchy vitamin from the green bottle.

Turn his heat off or down to 68-69° for the day. Put Sulley nightlight on the charger and push M button.

Get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth.

Lunch between 11-11:30. Get him a little green juice.

Go up for nap between 12:15-12:30. Brush teeth, read story, sing song, eucerin on face, Vaseline on lips.

Make sure you turn on either the audio monitor in the kitchen or the video monitor which needs to be charged daily. Both will be on in his room, just turn on your end.

Wake up by 3:30.

Dinner at 6.  Needs a veggie or squeezie.

Bath on Wednesday and Friday.

Go up to bed between 7:15-7:25.

Before bed, put amlactin lotion all over body (not face), and then put the Gold Bond lotion on top of it, only Eucerin on face.  Always put on clean underwear at night.

Go potty, brush teeth, get lotion and jammies, read a story, sing a song, say prayers, Vaseline on lips.

Turn on Sulley nightlight and bathroom nightlight.

Before you go to bed, go check on him, pull his covers over him, turn his heater up to 71°.