Barrett Lee - Summer 2014

I realize I haven't posted much on Barrett the past few months and how he is growing up! He will be 8 months on Sunday, and I'm loving how much he his learning and growing right now! I have always really enjoyed the after 1 year old stage of each of my kids, and I'm excited for Barrett to reach that age too.  Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying Barrett at the age he is now, but to be honest, he has been the most difficult of my children, so I can't help but look forward to him growing up a little!  Barrett was an awesome sleeper until about 4 1/2 months old.  Since then he has been up at least twice, if not 4-5 times a night...very exhausting for me! He also loves his Momma.  Goodness, I thought Brooks would be my Momma's boy, but turns out Barrett is just the same! Luckily, Barrett does a little better with other people holding him than Brooks did, but not much.  Everytime I walk into a room, Barrett wants nothing but me to hold him, and fusses until I do.  The only time I can really get anything done around the house is if I can get Barrett to play with some toys, leave the room, and not come back until I need to.  If I stay out of the room, Barrett plays very well on his own and entertains himself, but if he catches a glimpse of me walking by or coming into the room, play time is over and Momma is all he wants.  A lot of the time I try not to peek in on him too much and ask Brooks if Barrett is doing ok and staying out of things.  Brooks does a good job keeping me informed, and I think he likes the responsibility a little too! However, I have a feeling I won't be able to keep that routine much longer because Barrett is pretty mobile now and gets into EVERYTHING! fun new stage :)

Anyway, Barrett started sitting up on his own around the end of May, first of June.  I was so happy when he reached this milestone, and I think he was too! It just opens up a whole new world of play for him!

He really is a happy baby most of the time, and absolutely loves laughing at his siblings.  He especially has smiles for Brooks in the mornings.  I hope the two of them will have fun doing boy things as they grow up!

He also loves to watch Keely running around being silly, and she can usually make him laugh.  However, he does get overwhelmed with her and gets tired of her constantly in his face and taking toys from him.  She is not as good with sharing as Brooks was when Keely was a baby, and can't understand why she can't just take toys right out of his hand if she wants it.  Keely has also been a little rough with Barrett and has been known to push him over a few times and even kick him when he's been on the ground.  She thinks it's all in fun, but hopefully soon she will understand how naughty it is.  She's a tough one! 
I really like the picture of her helping him read his book, I think his face explains it perfectly, "Mom, save me!"

The next picture makes me laugh too.  One Sunday after lunch, I had to go help Brooks for a minute and told Keely to 'watch Barrett for me' and I'd be right back.  I come back to Keely feeding Barrett the rest of his rice cereal.  He tolerated it very well, and she was so proud of herself for helping! Needless to say, I haven't let this happen again for Barrett's sake!

 

 Barrett has also been known to play with Keely's princess castle.  He loves it.  Guess we need to find him a boy version for Christmas! He also loves his pacifier much more than Brooks or Keely ever did.  They never really used it during the day, and Brooks gave it up at about 4 months and Keely at about 6 months.  I have a feeling we will have a harder time getting Barrett to give it up...he constantly loves to have something in his mouth! He also finds the pacifier in his crib in the middle of the night to help him sleep.  It's nice he can find it some times, but if only it could keep him asleep the whole night! :)

 

Barrett definitely likes to stand up.  He loves being in his exersaucer (until I come in the room of course) and especially loves jumping up and down on my lap.  Very exhausting for me, and another reason why I am looking forward to his 'after 1 stage' because he will most likely be walking!

My boys :)

Since Barrett has been born, I have always taken him with me to Ace while I work.  I did that with both Keely and Brooks until they were about 6 months old.  It works out pretty well in the beginning, and Barrett did especially good just sleeping or playing in his bouncy seat the first 4 1/2 months, but lately he had become more and more difficult to get anything done with him there.  I've had Blake or a couple of our Ace employees walk around with him to give me just a few minutes of work time without a crying baby or wiggly baby on my lap! Thankfully, in the past few weeks, he reached the stage where I felt comfortable leaving him with our high school girl, Ashley, whenever she comes to babysit.  She was excited to have Barrett too, but I was a little nervous leaving all 3 with a 15 year old! I finally decided Barrett could sit up well enough and finally took a bottle decently that we'd try it.  The kids all did great, so it has been so much better on me now that she can watch all three!
One of the last times Barrett came with me, Blake got him to fall asleep with him.  It gave me flashbacks to Brooks as a baby being at Ace with us all the time when we first bought the store.

It hasn't taken Barrett long to show interest in crawling.  Just in the past couple of weeks he has become really mobile.  He doesn't really army crawl, but he scoots around somehow to get where he wants to go by either rolling, pushing, or pulling himself.  He finally learned to sit himself back up sometime last week (one of my favorite milestones because it makes my life so much easier!). After the past couple of days, I would have to say we officially have a crawler.  He has reached this milestone much sooner than Brooks or Keely did.  He is about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of Keely crawling, and about 5 ahead of Brooks.  Brooks started crawling January 31, 2011, and Keely the middle of January 2013.  Barrett just can't wait to keep up with the other 2 kids I guess! He is now pulling himself up along the couch, his activity table, and just tonight, against the cabinets in the kitchen.  Since he loves to stand, I really don't think it will take him much longer until he tries to walk, but we'll see!

Finally, all 3 kids taking baths together happened in the past couple weeks too.  So fun.  Brooks and Keely love having Barrett in with them, and I'd have to say Barrett was just as excited! Makes my heart smile to watch these three grow up together :)

PS...take a look at all these pics and notice how Barrett is always looking at me with the camera...I wasn't kidding that he always has eyes for his Momma!