It's a Party!!!

Or, a little gathering..... or something.....

Isaac is turning 1 year old on Saturday! I can't believe it. This has been by far the busiest, and most fun year of my life. We should definitely celebrate!

I am not entirely sure how to organize a proper party for a 1 year old, but one way or another, it is sure to be a cake smashing good time! This, by the way is your official invitation:).

What: Mr. Man's (aka Isaac's) 1st Birthday Shindig
When: Saturday, May 24th 2008 3:30 PM
Where: Our House (call me if you need my address. I probably shouldn't post it on the www....)
Why: Because you love Isaac, Cake and Ice Cream, Kids, and mingling with new and interesting people, and maybe even showing off your WII Sports and Guitar Hero Skills, and run-on-sentences, and.... sorry...

So give me a call and let me know if you will attend. We would love to see you, especially if we haven't seen you in a while. 801 867 8477.

Sacramento

So Ashley's comment a couple posts ago reminded me that I need to offer a little update on my life. I haven't done this because things are still so up in the air with so many things, but we have been able to figure out a couple of things, so here goes.

After a lot of thought, consideration and prayer about the job thing, Bryce and I both knew that it would be best for everyone (especially Isaac) if I stayed home to be his mom. The trouble was that we still knew that one income just wouldn't work. I continued to look for and interview for positions, hoping that the right thing would finally come along. I wanted to somehow get an offer that I felt great about, even though it would mean Isaac going to day care. Not necessarily a money thing, just a good fit.....

I actually wound up with a few offers. That almost sounds snobby. I don't mean to sound that way. I know there are a lot of people who have a hard time getting a job. But, its true. I got a few offers, and they were pretty good. I just didn't get a good feeling about any of them though. Neither did Bryce. The last offer I got, I actually did feel good about. I liked the company, the pay, and most importantly, the co-workers. Everything seemed to fit, and although I still didn't feel good about leaving Isaac (who would feel good about that?), I think I finally felt ready and that this was the offer I was waiting for. At the same time though, my father in-law called with an offer from his company that would allow me to work PT from home doing HR/Benefits/payroll for his company. That is the ideal situation. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to help my family with extra income and still take care of my son. It was a little hard to turn down the other offer, but I think I made the right choice.

There will be more adjustments to be made in the months to come. We will almost certainly be moving to a smaller more affordable place closer to Bryce's work, and probably looking for a more fuel efficient vehicle. We have made a lot of sacrifices, and there will be more to come, but I think that we are headed in the right direction.

So, last week Isaac and I went to Sacramento so that I could spend some time in the office getting set up for my new position, and Isaac could spend some time with his Grandparents and his Aunt Jennie. We had a wonderful time. Isaac had some mommy issues as this was his first time really being away from me for more than a 3 hour stretch. He did great with Grandma all day, but when I would get home in the afternoon, he did not want to let me out of his sight. He is doing better now that we are home, but I think separation anxiety is just something we will be dealing with for the next few months as part of his age.

Isaac Playing with Aunt Jennie. We loved going on walks with her every night!

Grandma Barnett has the best toys!

Isaac got to open some birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Barnett early. He especially loved his new books. As you can see, he is also a proud Jazz fan. It is required of all family members. On this particular day, he was supporting D-Will in an at-home victory over the Lakers. Isaac is disappointed that the Jazz are out of the playoffs, but he is already focusing on next season.

Pay it Forward

This is a fun little thing called PAY IT FORWARD!!! Here is what you do the first 3 people who comment to this post will receive a homemade gift from yours truly (within in a month). Then you have to do the same! Post it on your blog, a make a homemade gift for the first 3 people who comment!! Let's keep Payin' it forward:)

P.S. If you are not in Utah, you can still participate, but I should warn you in advance that your "homemade gift" will probably be something like an MS Paint picture that I do for you. It will look very etch-a-sketchy and will probably be of a flower or perhaps a portrait of you. I promise to get the shading on your upper lip just right:).

Where's Isaac?

This has become a constant concern for me lately. Isaac is not quite walking yet, but he has turned into a little explorer. I keep a pretty sharp eye on him, but it is amazing how quickly he escapes. He usually gives himself away though. He likes to start crawling away as fast as he can, and he lets out a huge squeal as he does it and he will stop briefly to turn and look at me to make sure I will chase him. It is one of his favorite games. Something that takes a great deal of my time each day now is replacing all things he pulls out of drawers and cabinets. I have resisted the baby proofing thing because I thought I could simply teach him boundaries. Ha! I am such a fool. I think it might be time to get those annoying cabinet latches. It is so much fun to see him learning and discovering new things, but it was not fun for Bryce and I to spend a half hour last weekend trying to figure out how to dislodge two balls and a squishy alien thing from a speaker.

The trapped toys, posing atop their temporary prison post rescue.

Just a few of the devices used in the rescue. Yes, that is gum. Not pictured-the kabob skewers.

Today I was getting ready in the master bathroom while Isaac was supposed to be in the room right next to me watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But I noticed it was quiet... too quiet. I went out of the room and heard noise coming from down the hall. When I checked the half bath, I discovered this:

He is just too cute for me to be angry. I try to keep the doors shut wherever I want him to stay out, but Molly's bed is in this bathroom and I want her to be able to get in and sleep when she wants to. Oh well, there plenty of worse things he can get into than toilet paper.

Key Lime Pie!

Key Lime Pie is Bryce's favorite desert. I have never met a pie I didn't like, so I sure don't mind making it and eating it. I have made it a few time in the past few months, but I was psyched to make some this week because the grocery store had ACTUAL KEY LIMES for the first time ever! I usually just make it with normal lime juice, and it is still really good, but using key lime juice made a huge difference. This is the best it has ever turned out.

The recipe is not a secret or anything. It is the one in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. If you don't have it and you want it, let me know and I will email it to you. I don't want to get sued or something for posting it here. Here are a couple of Key Lime Pie tips though:

1. Maybe you all already know this and I was just dumb the first time I made it, but graham cracker crusts burn too. Make sure to put foil around the edge for best results.

2. I am kind of against eating green stuff. Key Lime Pie is only green if you put green food coloring in it, so that's up to you. I leave it out.

3. Your Key Lime Pie should chill in the fridge for at least two hours and is then good for up to three days. We have found that the pie is at its peak of tastiness about 12-24 hours after cooking. It gives the lime time to "calm down" a bit, so the flavor is still nice and limey, yet sweet. Sometimes when I have it the day I make it, the lime is still really strong and it makes my tummy hurt a little.

I just love summer food, and I love to bake. I am not going to turn this into a recipe blog or anything, but I am sure I will post a few more tasty treats in the coming months.

Nice Day for a Picnic

It seems like Winter just won't end this year. Every day I wonder where the global warming I hear so much about is, and why can't we have some around here. So finally, we had a couple of nice, average temp for April days. Of course, they came in between a bunch of unseasonable cold and super windy days, but I am still so glad we had just a bit of sunshine. Today we celebrated the great weather by taking Isaac to the park for a picnic.

Isaac LOVED playing outside..

But it was a bit bright.....
What a cool dude!

Yep, he can stand all by himself! I can't wait for him to start walking. This is going to be such a fun summer!

For all the Mommies....

I have to give my friend Misti credit for this post. She wrote a great blog today about being a mom, and some of the great things that we take for granted when we are just trying to get through the day with our kids. She referenced an article by Anna Quindlen that I have always loved, and so I wanted to re-post the article for everyone here. It makes the email rounds, so you have probably read it before, but I never get tired of it.

I actually read it for the first time shortly after Isaac was born. I had a pretty severe case of baby blues, my mom was in Europe, and I just knew that I was already the worlds worst mom. I was blessed with a beautiful, healthy child, who actually got to come HOME, and I felt helpless. I couldn't figure out how to get anything at all done while having a baby, didn't know how anyone else did it, and I was sure that every kind word and well meaning piece of advice I heard from everyone was really just them telling me what a bad mom I was. This article really helped me relax and enjoy the experience. I hope we all can. Here it is:

By Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author:
All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past. Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, have all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all. Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome.
To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China . Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the, "Remember-When- Mom-Did Hall of Fame." The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?". (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less. Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life.
When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.