BABARNARD.com Blog

Mommy's Little Cleaner

Deacon had his 18 month doctors appoint today, just a couple of weeks late. He had grown 3 inches since his last visit 3 months ago bringing him to 34 inches (95%). He had only gained 1 lb putting him at 23 lbs 6 oz. The doctor said at lease he is going up but would like to see him gain more. He is usually a fairly good eater, but he is constantly on the go so he burns everything off BEFORE he eats it.

Before we took Uncle Landon to the airport Deacon played outside with him one last time and he HAD to sport these very cool sunglasses.

I'm not sure who was more upset that Landon was leaving...Landon or Deacon. When Landon told him bye at the airport Deacon threw a bit fit. Landon seemed to handle it well but I am sure he threw a little fit in the airport, ha!

When we got home I had to catch up on some much needed cleaning and of course I had a little helper.

He helped wash windows,

then his tool bench

and finally his car. Hopefully, he will clean my car tomorrow, ha!

Sometimes I wonder how I ever cleaned the house or did laundry without his help.

1 Afternoon, 2 boys

Today Deacon had his friend Reed over this afternoon after Mother's Day Out.

The boys had so much fun playing together. They played so hard they needed a snack.

Deacon wanted whatever snack Reed had, so I did what any mommy would do and tricked him into thinking they were the same.

AFter snack time we went for a walk. Deacon, Reed and Maggie were all very excited to get outside.

I realized with Reed here just how big Deacon is getting. He is getting to be such a big boy. He is totally losing the baby in him and is now a little boy. It is kinda sad to me. I wish I could keep him this age forever. He is so much fun right now.

It looks like the rest of our night will be filled of watching the radar. Stormy weather...YUCK!

Good-bye Contacts

I have wanted to get Lasik since my mom had it done 10 years ago, but being that no doctor would give me Lasik at the age of 16 I was out of luck. For the last few years I have really been wanting it but because of several reasons I couldn't. But today I went for a consultation!

They told me to expect to be there 2-3 hours and I was there for almost 3 hours. Everything imaginable and even beyond my imagination was done to my eyes. First I had an eye test (you know reading the little eye chart) without my galsses on. Oh, and I should note I have been wearing glasses for the past 10 days...I hate wearing my glasses. Anyway back to the eye exam, I take off my glasses and the nurse asks me to read the chart...probem #1 I can' see it. I tell here all I see is a big white blog. So she says, okay how many fingers am I holding up...problem #2 I can't see your hand. Then she proceeds to tell me that I have very bad eye sight. I laughed, because I really wanted to say...thanks for info. At that point I thought, oh no, my eyes are too bad to be a candidate. After a few more eye tests on machines, I headed to get a CAT scan of my eyes. I didn't even know there was such a thing. Then I was told they were going to take measurements of my eyes that would determine the settings for the surgery. For some reason this made me extremly nervous. After this I finally got to see the doctor. He did more testing and told me that I have dry eyes. Who would have known?

Thanks to that I had to do a tear test, seriously uncomfortable. They rubbed a q-tip with something on it inside my bottom eye lid, then place these little tabs in your eye that hang out and measure how many tears you make. Thankfully this didn't last too teribbly long.

He did informed me that there was an issue with my left eye and I needed to be out of my contacts a little bit longer for more accurate measurements. So, next Thursday afternoon I will go in for my surgery! I am very excited at the thought of not having to wear contacts or glasses! I have already worn my contacts for the last time a couple of weeks ago. That is so strange for me to be saying this since I have had contacts for 15 years.

For those of you who have are awaiting to hear my review on this doctor, I will let you know sometime after next Friday. After the surgery, I can't use my phone, computer or watch TV for a day.

On another note, after I got done at the doctor today Deacon, Landon and I made a last minute decision to go play on the tubes. Deacon showed Uncle Landon how fun it was to climb up to the top and go down the slide. Deacon even went down the slide all by himself!

Playing Outside with Uncle Landon

Landon is here visiting this week and Deacon is having a ball with him. Deacon stayed with Landon while we went to small group last night and even though I tried to give Landon tips, but he didn't want any. Nonetheless, when we got home, Deacon had been bathed and put to bed!

Today we soaked up the beautiful weather.

We played outside and once again Deacon had lots of fun playing with Uncle Landon.

One way to this boys heart is to let him play with your cell phone.

Recipes

I am terrible at keeping all of my recipes together so I decided to make a recipe blog to keep them all together and to share some of my favorites with friends and family, you can check it out here.

I am always asked for the recipe for these soft chocolate chip cookies so that is why I started with that recipe. I also started with that one because it is wrote on a little notecard and I know that I am going lose it one day.

I am always looking for new recipes so if you have a one that you would like to share please do.

Our Typical Day

I am getting some great ideas here from mothers who are sharing what their "typical day" is like.

We usually don't have the same schedule everyday but this is the kinda what it looks like:

Deacon wakes up around 6:30 - 7:00. I give him a cup of milk and put him in bed with me. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes we just lay in bed and watch cartoons until we he is ready to get up.
We eat breakfast which is usually yogurt and oatmeal, pancakes or muffins.
After breakfast we get ready for the day. I usually try to have some type of "activity" for us to do in the mornings. This helps him to hold off on napping until after lunch. Some of our activities have or will include; story time, play dates, tubes at Rock Creek and the zoo.
Deacon usually wants to eat around 11:00 to 11:30 and then is down for a nap for 2-3 hours. I use this time to work, do chores, make phone calls and have computer time. When Deacon is around we cannot even open a computer with out him thinking he needs to use it, the same thing applies to the phone.
Once he wakes up we have play time and recently have been playing outside and going for a walk.
Then it is time to make dinner. At this time Deacon gets to watch one of his favorite shows, either Word World or Super Why. When that doesn't distract him long enough for me to make dinner he plays in the cabinets in the kitchen.
After dinner we have family play time, then it is bath time about 7:15 and he is in bed around 8.

My main goal is to make sue he doesn't get bored with me! I am constantly looking for things for us to do. If you have any advice I would love to hear it.

I usually have 1 day during the week to be at home all day to get everything caught up. There is a lot of stuff that I can't do when Deacon is awake, but somethings he likes to help with like laundry and vacuuming.

That is what a typical day in our lives look like. I love it!

Day with Stella

Yesterday Bryan had a meeting in NWA so Deacon and I decided that we would tag along. We ended up making the last minute decision to go up Thursday night and spend the night with the Yazwinski's.

Yesterday morning when Deacon woke up he was a little unsure of Stella. It didn't take him long to get over that once he remembered all the toys he had seen the night before. However, we did have a few sharing issue in the beginning.

But by the end of the day Stella was sharing her sacred Bunny with Deacon and he was sharing his snacks and they were best friends.

We went to the park yesterday morning and I tried to get a picture of them together, but that was nearly impossible since they were having so much fun.

Deacon loved this park. He loved sliding down the big slides

and running like crazy in the open area.

They even loved giving each other hi-fives

and knucks!

After the park we met up with Bryan for lunch at one of my favorite places that Little Rock doesn't have...Steak N Shake. After lunch Deacon was out in no time. So, while we packed up we let him sleep.

Once we got in the car he was wide awake almost the whole way home.

We had a great visit with the Yazwinski's and hope to see them again soon!

Hanging Out

Today we didn't get out of the house much. We pretty much just hung out, did some laundry and got ready for Uncle Landon's visit.

Today was the first day that Deacon was really interested in playing with his GeoTracks that he got for Christmas. When I went to grab the camera to get a picture of it he didn't want anything to do with them. So, when I told him to go play with them so I could take his picture he decided to just have a little posing session.

We had great weather today and Deacon was so excited to go play outside.

He played with the neighbor's dog.

And he played with his best buddy Maggie (he also helped me give her a bath today).

I am loving all the quality time I get to spend with this charming little boy.

Click here for more pictures.

Videos

I am terrible at posting videos so today I decided to finally make myself do it. Here are some of my favorites.

I love his laugh in this one.

Here he is "blowing over" (knocking them down with his head) the block towers his daddy made.

At this point Deacon was extremely tired, but instead of being fussy he was hilarious.

Playing blocks with Grandpa Kent.

Deacon absolutely loves music. He loves to sit in his floor with his ipod and dance. Here he is dancing to one of his favorite songs.

Mommy's Little Helper...or Not!

Today I was able to get a lot of cleaning done while Deacon was napping. Once he woke up he decided he was going to be Mommy's little helper. First he helped vacuum. I just wish this toy really worked!

He also was helping me earlier in the day. While I was folding laundry he grabbed a rag out of the basket and when into the kitchen and was "cleaning" the floors and chairs. The next time I looked over he was dipping his rag into Maggie's water bowl and "washing" the wall. What a great helper!

Then I guess he decided cleaning was too much work.

When I went to vacuum his room, he grabbed his computer and sat in the middle of the floor, refusing to move.

Maggie decided to join him.

Since he loves playing in his bed he gladly rolled around in there while I cleaned his room.

He also did some reading.

This is what I get when I tell him...say cheese. It's kinda scary!

Later in the day he decided he wanted to go for a ride in his wagon when it was time for me to cook dinner.

What's a Mommy to do when she needs to get things done? I guess only 1 thing...get creative.

This is one of Deacon's favorite games to play (his Daddy taught him this). He lays in the floor.

And then throws the ball up in the air and tries to catch it.

This is obviously very entertaining to him!

Sorry these pictures are huge, not sure what the issue is.