Family Photos 2010

All photos taken by Shonda Barlow Photography.

Little Helpers

Phaedra loves it when I let her sit on my lap while I sew. She seems to have finally learned that she quickly gets put down if she plays with the dials on the sewing machine. Right now, she can’t resist the pins. She loves reaching into the box I have sitting on the sewing machine for pins I remove. I even paused now and then to let her take the pin out of the fabric I was sewing.

I love sharing these moments with my girls. I remember going to my Grandma Wallace’s house as a girl and seeing all the things she and my Aunt Kathleen were making. If I got bored, they would hand me some aida cloth, a dull needle, and thread and let me make whatever I wanted, stopping their project to help me from time to time. I so hope my girls get interested in making things.

Phaedra doesn’t have an extremely long attention span for watching me sew, which is probably good. I have a hard time having her on my lap while I work on some of the more difficult parts of a project. When I stopped to take her picture on my lap (hence, the extreme close-ups), she thought I was trying to take pictures of the pins she was holding. She would hold up pins, one by one, saying, “Take picture of diss one, Mommy?” When she isn’t on my lap, she is nearby, playing, dancing, reading a book, or singing a song. I love how she likes to play near me, so I feel as if we’re spending time together even if I’m not completely focused on her.

Eleanor is quite attentive when I work on something, too. I haven’t taken pictures of her helping me. (I think she’s sick of my camera.) She hovers when I cut fabric, asking me for scraps. Then, she wants to hand me the pins when I pin the pieces together. And sometimes, when she’s really interested, she asks me to hand her the pins when I take them out while I’m sewing so she can put them in the box for me.

I am so excited for our homemade Christmas this year. I’m trying to make all the gifts we give except for Santa and what the girls give each other. Maybe on a year when I get an earlier start, I can help them make each other presents. That would be fun. I have a few projects done, but I still feel like I have a mountain of work ahead of me. I have some doubts as to how much I’ll actually get done. I’m mostly worried about the ones I want to do for Grant and the girls, because I’m not sure when I can actually work on them.

The Loot

Saturday, after trunk-or-treat and visiting grandma, Grant took the kids home to bed, and I went with some friends to the “Nightmare Factory” here in town. The Oregon School for the Deaf has been putting on a haunted house as a fundraiser for years. This year, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition swooped in to help update their basement and their haunted house. Read more about the Extreme Makeover visit HERE, or watch the episode featuring the Oregon School for the Deaf HERE.

As I was driving to the haunted house, I got a text from Grant, who was in the process of putting the girls to bed, saying, “Your youngest has a death grip on her bucket. She is telling me at the top of her lungs, ‘I need mine bucket!’” I laughed so hard! I can totally picture her little face as she told her daddy to back off.

While it was really fun to go, I think it would have been scarier if it hadn’t been quite so crowded. With the people in line so close in front of us, there was really no guess work about where someone might jump out at you. No element of surprise there. The 40min. we waited in line in the rain is the reason my friend, Laurie is sporting the slick hairdo and I look like I’ve been drooling (some rain dripped under my jacket). The pirate behind me is Lindsay, the friend from Grant’s work who invited me (through Grant volunteering me) to go to the haunted house, and next to her is Marcus.

After that, hot chocolate was in order. Laurie and I went and got hot chocolate, and it wasn’t until I was back in our driveway that I remembered I was going to go buy some toys to trade the kids for their candy.

The girls didn’t get much time to munch their candy on Saturday because we had so many activities going on, and then it was time for bed. So we decided to let them have as much candy as they wanted to during the day (as long as they weren’t going to make themselves sick), and then we would trade their candy for a new toy.

I had heard of this idea from my sister in past years, but it just didn’t sound as fun to me. In past years, Eleanor would have some candy here and there the first few days, but then I would put up her bucket and only give her some if she remembered to ask or if she earned it in some way. Usually, she forgot about it quickly, and I didn’t have to worry about her eating way too much candy (plus, her daddy ate a bunch of it for her). This year, Eleanor was much less likely to forget about her candy, and Phaedra just wanted more, more, more!

After breakfast on Sunday, we let the girls have their buckets and told them the deal we were going to make. I had some fun taking pictures of them going through their loot. (Daddy had let them spend the night in their costumes as jammies.)

They both had said the first candy they wanted to eat was a sucker.After the first picture I took of Phaedra with her suckers, she kept asking me if I wanted to “take picture mine sucker?”Eleanor loved asking me what each candy was called.

They had plenty of candy. Phaedra kept asking for suckers, sucking on them for one minute, and then putting them in the garbage. Their candy-fest was interrupted by church, so they weren’t stuffing down candy all day. When we got home, we ate lunch and then told the girls they could choose five pieces of candy to keep in their buckets and the rest they put in a bowl. Eleanor got a My Little Pony in exchange for her candy, and Phaedra got a ballerina princess doll that is similar to one Eleanor got for her birthday that she’s been coveting. She calls it a “bannoweena.” I love it!

I was a little worried about the exchange, but they seemed really happy. We weren’t exactly prepared for trick-or-treaters that day because we usually skip out on Halloween to a grandparent’s house. (Halloween is one of Grant’s less enthusiastic holidays, to say the least.) After all the fun on Saturday, we just felt like staying home, so we actually passed out some of the girls’ candy to trick-or-treaters. It didn’t phase the girls a bit; Eleanor was excited to hand it out. We only had about 4-5 groups stop at our house, so there was plenty left for Daddy.

Halloween Recap

We had a fun Halloween this year. For the first time ever, I made the girls’ costumes. I was pretty unsure of what I was doing, but I had Eleanor patting me on the arm the whole way through, telling me, “Mommy, you’re so clever.” That certainly helped me to keep going even when I had no idea what I was doing.

Eleanor wanted to be Word Girl, and it wasn’t too hard to convince Phaedra to be Word Girl’s faithful sidekick, Captain Huggy Face. I think they looked so cute!

I got their costumes done on Friday and let them model for me a bit just before it started getting dark. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, we did our celebrating on Saturday. We went to the church for a carnival followed by trunk-or-treat. My mother and Grandpa Gary met us there to be in on the fun.

What really made it feel worthwhile that I made their costumes was watching Eleanor at the carnival. She had been waiting so long to dress up as Word Girl, and she was enjoying it so much. Even with all the fun activities they had, each time we finished a station, she had to zoom around in a big circle like she was flying. I think she enjoyed flying around the gym floor more than she did playing the games and winning prizes.

It cracked me up to watch her try to eat the doughnut on a string.Phaedra liked choosing prizes.

I know this picture is blurry, but I had to have an example. She was supposed to be trying to throw the beanbags through the holes of a jack-o-lantern face cut out of a big board. She didn’t even really look where she was supposed to be aiming. She just plopped the beanbags in a pile about 2 feet in front of her and then went over to choose a prize. She did this twice. The third time she dragged me to this station, she just went straight for the prize bucket without even feigning interest in tossing the bean bags. I guess we won’t be signing her up for softball anytime soon.The one time I got to take their picture together while they were posing for Grandma. I think I need to have Grandma there the next time I want them to cooperate for pictures. My thumb-sucking Huggy Face.

Eleanor won these vampire teeth and was really curious to see how they looked.

Eleanor wanted her face painted. Grandma tried to talk to her about what she was going to have painted on her face, and Eleanor told her, “I already know what I want, and I’m going to tell her” (indicating the girl painting faces). When it was her turn, she sat up there and said, “I want it to be pink and make a circle.”After watching her sister get her face painted, Phae decided she wanted hers painted, too. This picture doesn’t really capture the look of trepidation she had on her face the whole time it was being painted.

Cute little ladybug.

I didn’t take any pictures of trunk-or-treat. It was dark and raining, and the kids wore their jackets over their costumes. I was glad we had been able to show off their costumes at the carnival at least. Phaedra wouldn’t let anyone touch her bucket until it started getting too heavy. Then, she let me carry it for her, but she was really conflicted about it, changing her mind over and over.

After trunk-or-treat, we went to Studio Grandma and Grandpa’s to show off costumes and enjoy some celebration there.The girls got to decorate their own cookies. Phaedra was so impressed that she got to hold the knife to spread her frosting.Eleanor loved the yellow sprinkles and covered most of her cookies with them.

Phaedra just loved shaking on those sprinkles!

Happy Halloween!

Eleanor

She’s getting too big for our little rocking chair.

She is full of questions; that hasn’t changed.

She is riveted whenever I work on a crafty project, especially sewing. She loves to hand me pins or put them in the box for me as I work. She pats my arm, tells me she loves me, and cheers me on the whole way.

She is really excited about the Halloween costumes I’m making for her and Phae. It’s starting to feel worth all the trouble when I see her jump up and down over it almost being finished.

She had a part in the Primary program a few weeks ago. She delivered her part perfectly; she was really excited to talk in the microphone. The rest of the time, when she was supposed to be singing, she goofed around with a boy in her class. I realize we’re really tactile at our house, playing around by tickling, wrestling, and pestering each other. I just didn’t realize how much it carried over into her interactions with friends. She and that boy were poking at each other, tickling, and teasing each other the whole time. Their Primary teacher was right next to him, and I saw her lean over and talk to them a time or two. It didn’t do much good. I practically had to restrain Grant to keep him from going up there and telling her to behave. I thought it was kind of funny. It was distracting and irreverent, but still, kinda funny.

She loves nature. I took the girls for a walk the other day, and they started collecting fallen leaves. Eleanor picked up so many, she could hardly hold them. She was so proud to have more leaves than Phaedra. When we got home, I told her we needed to keep them outside, but she could find a safe spot in the back yard to put the leaves. She fretted over where to put them and stalled at my many attempts to get her inside so I could start dinner. I had planned to let her help make dinner, something the kids always enjoy. Eleanor came in and said, “I have a great idea. Why don’t I play in the back yard while you get dinner ready?” So I decided not to fight it. I only wanted their help as a fun activity; it wouldn’t be fun if I was going to have to make them do it.

The next day, we brought in some of her leaves and made leaf rubbings with crayons.

She loves her daddy. She loves to play rough with him, climbing on his shoulders and playing wrestling games.

She chooses her clothes most days, and I rarely second guess her choices. When I do tell her she might need to choose a different shirt or pants (mostly because of the weather), she’s usually cooperative. I like how easy-going she can be about getting dressed.

She’s still a very sensitive kid. She cries almost every time she watches the ending of Clifford’s Really Big Movie. She either cries and tells me she misses Lane, or she cries and tells me she’s just so happy (Emily Elizabeth and Clifford are reunited at the end).

Sometimes I cannot believe how very much she is like me. Some days, that can really work against us, and some days, it helps me understand her and how to relate to her.

She is such a sweet, loving, special little girl. She’s good to her sister most of the time, better than I had imagined siblings to be. She brightens my day with her smiles and her ability to find joy in the smallest of things. I’m so blessed to be her mother.

New Adventures in Parenting

Last night was another night Grant was in class, so it was just the girls and me in the evening. I thought it would be nice to make cookies together. Now that the weather is really beginning to feel cooler, I’ve been in the mood for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It was getting a bit late, it was already after five, but we had had a late lunch. Dinner was something simple, so I figured we could eat dinner while the cookies baked.

Unfortunately, I got to the point where I needed to add flour and realized I was running very low on flour. No problem. I almost always have some extra stashed around here somewhere. I looked in the back of my baking cupboard. Nope. I looked at the top of the pantry. As I was standing on the stool to look around at the top of the pantry, Phaedra was climbing up behind me. While I was trying to tell her to get down, a bottle of mayo fell. Thank goodness for plastic mayo bottles! No one was hurt, and I put the mayo back where it belonged. I got Phaedra to back off a little so I could peruse the top of the pantry undisturbed.

I wasn’t finding what I needed, and I remembered the conversation I had with Grant a month or so ago where I mentioned that I probably wouldn’t buy any more of the goods we have in food storage because we need to rotate our food storage and get some things fresh. Grant had said that we don’t have the money to replace any food storage we use right now, so I shouldn’t use what we have even if it’s getting old. Too bad I didn’t remember his part of the conversation last time I was at the grocery store! As I came to this realization and started putting things back in their place, there went that kamikaze bottle of mayo again. This time, it somehow landed behind me, hit directly on its side, and blew its top off, splattering mayo all over my kitchen and floor.

What an evening! I managed to get things cleaned up, the kids fed dinner (thanks to my mother dropping by for a little visit), and the cookie dough mixed (thanks to my food storage), but I didn’t bake any cookies. I stashed the dough in the fridge for the night, admitting defeat.

Fast forward to later that evening, after putting the kids to bed. Phaedra was awake in her bed for a long time, talking and singing to herself. She never cried out, so I didn’t bother with her. When she was still up by the time Grant came home around 10, I was starting to feel like I should go make sure everything was alright. I couldn’t force myself to go in there if I didn’t have to, and she still wasn’t crying. She fell asleep soon after Grant got home, so I figured she just had to wind down. She has done this before.

This morning, right around 4:30, Phaedra started to cry. Grant went in to get her and returned to our room with our buck naked daughter, saying, “Look what I found in a puddle of urine.” Apparently, she had taken off her zipper jammies and her diaper before falling asleep (which, I’m sure, is why it took so long for her to fall asleep). Seriously! I got the shower warm and rinsed her off while Grant dealt with the bedding. I don’t know what we’re going to do with this girl!

Whenever I’ve talked to her about it today, to try to tell her it was a bad choice to take off her jammies and diaper, she just kept saying, “Me shower.” She remembers having to shower in the middle of the night. I only hope she didn’t enjoy it too much and see it as motivation to do it again. Tonight, as I got her ready for bed (with a onesie under her jammies), I talked with her about it again. I would tell her you don’t take your jammies off. You leave them on. Then I would try to get her to say it back to me. I’d ask, “Are you going to leave your jammies on or take them off?”

She’d reply, “Take jammies off.”

I said no, she was going to leave them on, and then I tried rephrasing the question, thinking she was just repeating the last thing I said. “Are you going to take your jammies off or leave them on?”

She replied again, “Take jammies off,” a smirk growing across her face.

I tried not to smile back. I told her it was a no-no to take her jammies off. I asked, “Are you going to take your jammies off tonight in your bed?”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling with mischief twinkling in her eyes.

“No,” I corrected her, “You don’t take your jammies off in your bed.”

I don’t know if she was just enjoying messing with me, or if she really wants to do it again. As far as I can tell, she’s asleep now, so she probably didn’t take them off tonight. I certainly hope she doesn’t do it again!

Perfect 10!

Today is a day that doesn’t come along very often. Today is 10/10/10. So just for fun, I thought I’d share 10 favorite photos I have taken. These aren’t my only favorite photos (believe me, it was hard to narrow it down). And actually, these are only some of my favorites from the last 2 years because I didn’t want to go through my photo archives; the choices were hard enough with just the photos on my computer. Anyways, in no particular order, here you go.

Phaedra. January 2010. One year old.

Alex. March 2010.

Man, I love messing with this guy. I had so much fun using my meager talent and knowledge of photography to attempt some senior photos for him (and get some photography class homework done at the same time). After I snapped this one, he said, “Wait. Did you just take a picture?”

“Studio Grandpa.” February 2010.

I love this one. I’m so glad my photography class gave me a reason to take it.

My girls. May 2010. One of our favorite places.

Eleanor and her daddy. May 2009.

Eleanor’s friend, Audrey. August 2009.

Eleanor. October 2009. Four years old.

My sweet girls in their bare feet. February 2010.

Eleanor. February 2010.

Phaedra. July 2009. Ten months old.

And here’s what my sweet girls looked like today, 10/10/10. (Right after church.)

I hope you all had a memorable Perfect 10 day!