Sweet Sweet Summertime!

Sweet Sweet Summertime you are going by too fast! I can't believe how time is flying by! Anyway, I am truly enjoying my life these days.  I am reminded constantly of all the wonderful things I am thankful for and I feel so totally blessed beyond belief.  Eloise is having a great summer and I love watching her grow up to be a kid. (She only has a tad bit of baby left in her).

Our summer so far (and probably until it is over) has been go go go.  Ellie girl takes 3 hour naps and I have to go in and wake her because we having something else to go go go to.  Poor thing. We have been going to the Atlantic Club and having fun in the pool, my mom's house for the beach, and just random field trips (the teacher in me calls outings 'field trips').  We went to Sesame Place which I think Eloise was a bit young for.  We thought it was a bust, but then came the Elmo Rock N' Roll show. Now, Ernie used to be Eloise's favorite. OH, but not anymore.  Elmo has won over Eloise's heart and now  pretty much 75% of our conversations these days have to do with Elmo.  She loves him.  And the show was no exception. SHE LOVED IT! I haven't seen her smile and dance so much. It made the trip totally worth it. Julian was even chosen to go on stage and be a backup dancer for Elmo.  It was really cute and seeing her that happy almost made me cry. (ok, maybe a tear or two escaped, but soon the laughter tears came due to watching Julian shake it with Sesame Street characters).

The only thing I have been worrying about lately is when I am going to hear what grade I'll be teaching next year.  A second grade teacher retired, and they are supposedly adding an additional 5th grade teacher to our school.  Also, today I just heard that one of our kindergarten teachers moved schools.  I hope I hear soon.  I am really blessed that I have a great job AND I get summers off to spend with Eloise.  I feel really lucky to have chosen this profession.  But, that doesn't make my patience any better :)

I also wanted to document some of the things Eloise is saying these days.

"I love daddy"
"I love boats" (it sounds like boots---she took her first boat ride and I am pretty sure it wasn't her favorite thing, but my dad taught her to say "I love boats" anyway)
"Beastbelle" is her term for Beauty and the Beast and it sounds like baseball.  If you don't know her well, you think she is asking you to turn on the game
"Beach"
"WaWa" for water
"Snack"
"Night-Night Mommy"

June Happenings

Nothing too exciting has been happening in these parts.  The beginning of June was pretty hectic! Julian's family stayed for about a week and although thats fun, it is also exhausting! It was nice to have breakfast and dinner made for me almost every day, though!

We attended SummerFest and had a blast! It is one of the things Julian and I look forward to every year, and it didn't disappoint.  I can't wait until Eloise is just slightly older so she can really enjoy it! She fell asleep while we were there in the morning. I guess she was bored. But, I don't think anyone else was bored!

But she partied in the afternoon! We sat and listened to the reggae band and she danced and climbed and ran.  She didn't want to slow down to take a family picture, but I forced her to, and she wasn't happy about it.

I took my last personal day and we were supposed to go to Sesame Place. But, it was raining that morning, so we quickly changed plans.  We drove into Philly and visited the Please Touch Museum which was very fun! I really love getting out and doing things with Eloise. She is at such a fun age!

Besides that, the school year is quickly coming to an end, and I am excited about having the summer off!  We have nothing really going on.  Her swim class has been over for a while, and music class recently ended, and her final gym class is this week.  I signed her up for a toddler mommy and me class, so that is all we are up to this summer.It should be a relaxing, low key, wonderful summer.

She had her 18 month doctors appointment and she is finally above 1% in weight! I am beyond happy about this! She is 50% head, 25% height, and 10% weight! She is 32" and 21 lbs 10 oz. She has so many words its unbelievable.  I wouldn't have thought her vocabulary would have exploded this much. She can pretty much *try* to say anything if we prompt her.  Here are the words she says that I can think of right now:
-Mommy
-Daddy
-Duke
-Gigi
-Papa
-Nan
-Pop
-NiNi (For my sister)
-ReRe (For Keri)
-Ia (pronounced eee-ya for Olivia)
-Jesus
-Please
-Cheese
-Yes
-No
-Bubble
-Rora (for Aurora, her favorite princess)
-Away (for go away, I don't want your help)
-up
-go
-peas
-more
-teeth
-potty
-Ball
-Bike
-Beach
-Water
-bagel
-Yum
-baby
-shoes
-ME (as in it's mine)
-she can do the sounds of the following when asked: horse, cow, dog, cat, baby (wa wa), elephant (weird?), sheep, lion and bear which are both ROAR.
-beep beep (for excuse me)



I am probably missing some, but that is all I can think of at the moment.

We leave the day after school is out and we are spending some time in Virginia.  It'll be a nice visit. It is Kate's 8th birthday and they are doing a carnival. It'll be fun to be there and celebrate with her. Oh, sweet summertime :)

Spring and Summer List

This is the official list of things that Julian and I want to accomplish this spring and summer. We know it is probably impossible to do it all, but we are hoping to do most of it. We already crossed out a couple! But, even if we don't get to do everything on our list, we can keep it for next summer. I am definitely a list sorta girl!! For real, though, I feel like summer flies by! If I don't have some goals in mind, the time will just slip on by! Ok here is the official Barker 2012 spring and summer to list that's hanging on our fridge:
(Bolded means accomplished)

* Attend a Blue Claws Game (we are planning to go on July 15)
* Attend Point Pleasant Environment Day (we did this in April)
* Visit Sesame Place
* Storybook Land in Little Egg Harbor
* Go to Jenkinson's Aquarium (we went in March)
* Go to the Boardwalk
* Go to the Splash Park in Colts Neck
* Take Duke and Ellie to the Dog Beach



* Swim in the new Arzonico pool
* Have Eloise dedicated at our church
*Hoffmans! (We do this way too much)
* Volunteer for VBS (went to the first meeting and I will be teaching 1st and 2nd)
* Go to the Please Touch Museum
* Beach!!!
* Picnic at Riverfront Park
* Summerfest!!
* Visit the Popcorn Park Zoo (went earlier this year)
* visit the Philadelphia and/or Cape May Zoo
* Hershey Park
* Rita's Italian Ice
* Six Flags Jungle Safari
* Peach Picking
*Easter Egg Hunt
* Attend the Memorial Day Parade on Bridge Ave.
*Bike Rides




So, that is 25 things on our list.  We have accomplished 8 so far! We have a date picked out for some of the things on that list, so we should be able to accomplish most of it! I love summer and can't wait to enjoy every second of it :)

18 school days left

I.can.not. believe that there are only 18 more days of school until SUMMER!! I am so excited.

Anyway, lots of things have been going on.  I had my first night away from Eloise. Yes, there have been times someone else has put her to bed because I was out.  But, I have never, slept away.  It went smoothly, and we had a good night away.  Eloise has been giving Julian and myself hard times about bedtime lately (depending on how over tired she is) So I figured she would be giving my mom a hard time, too.  She let her stay up way past her bedtime playing with Pop and Aunt NiNi in the basement and was over tired and pitched a fit about bed.  But, she eventually fell asleep and all was good :)

Once I heard she was sleeping, I felt more relaxed. I was able to enjoy the wedding and my vodka tonics a little more! It was nice to be away for the night and we even celebrated Mother's day with  Kelly and Jeff at Ihop the next morning (how classy).  It was nice to sit and talk with them and get some pancakes and bacon that I didn't have to make myself. We took our time and probably didn't get home until around 11:30-12:00.  We didn't do anything really special for Mother's day because we were all hungover and cranky (Ellie girl included...a too much fun hangover). We went to Sea Bright for dinner and saw Mike and Jen. It was a nice day.

Besides that, Eloise's vocabulary has really blown up.  I am amazed at the things she says.  She is putting together two word sentences and I am sure she is going to grow up to be one of those kids who thinks she's the smartest thing EVER because I keep boosting her little ego about it ;).  She will see my shoes on the stairs and say "Mama Shoes".  She refers to herself as Ellie (totes adorbs) and can name people by looking at pictures.  Any kid her age or younger is still "baby" and Duke is her best friend BY FAR.  Their relationship has really blossomed and she'll find a ball and entertain herself and Duke for a good 10 minutes throwing it for him and then making him drop it for her so she can run around with it and he chases her, she laughs hysterically to where I think she can't breathe and then throws it again. 

Julian, Eloise, and I joined the church down the road from us and we are so blessed that we found it when we did.  I just feel we are exactly where we need to be (as far as church is concerned).  It is a small church but growing by leaps and bounds and I am super psyched that we get to be apart of the growth.  There are a lot of young families and the pastor has a gift for speaking.  The music is good and the people are so incredibly nice.  Julian joined the softball team and has really been enjoying it.  He has become friends with the guys and they are all around the same age with young kids.  I am now on nursery rotation and will sit down in the nursery with the kiddo's about every 5-6 weeks.  I am also planning on volunteering for Vacation Bible School, so we will see where my teaching skills can come in handy this summer.  I am really excited to not only be a part of our church more, but it's really helped us become more apart of our community.  We are feeling more connected. We always liked living in Point Pleasant, but joining Life Chapel and having a baby, and doing things with her, really makes you LOVE your town. I love that I can walk to my park and that everyone bikes everywhere.  I love that they are putting a frozen yogurt place down the street and that Hickory Hog is now closer. We are really learning to appreciate more about what we have and not worrying about what we don't have. 

Summer weekends are booking up fast and I can't even believe it.  Time flies.  I might need a new planner with all the use it's been getting lately. 

(Pictures are giving me issues...they're coming later)

Nothing Much

I have nothing important to talk about but I wanted to update some things for my own sake.  Eloise just turned 17 months and her vocabulary has really started to blossom.  I was worried (typical first time mom) about her reaching the 15 words by 18 months.  Julian and I listed all the words she says this morning and she has 15 for sure.  She doesn't pronounce every sound of every word but she can say most of the words and we know what she's saying.
Eloise's Words 17 months old:
-Mommy
-Daddy
-Gigi
-Papa
-Nan
-Ni Ni  (for Aunt Nikki)
-Dee (Duke)
-Beee (Beach)
-Ball
-Uh-Oh
-No
-Shoe
-Peas (she uses this in context for peas and also for please)
-Ba (Bath)
-Hi
-Bye
-WOAH
-Shhhh
-Woof
-Baaa (What a sheep says)
-Meow (what a cat says)

Besides that, Eloise has started giving us a hard time about bedtime.  She understands now that when it's bedtime, that it means no more playing.  She run and hides and yells 'NOOO' and tries all the tricks in the book to not go to sleep.  My mom says get used to it.  Soon she'll be asking for one more story, or another glass of water, or anything to avoid bedtime. At least that is what we used to do as kids.

Our friend is getting married in a couple weekends and it will be my first night away from Eloise.  I know that seems crazy (17 months and not one night away). My mom has decided to stay at our house to make life easier (plus then we don't have to worry about Duke).  I am looking forward to it and can't wait to see how Eloise does.

Spring Break!

Spring Break has been going so fast! It needs to slow way down so I can enjoy it more!! Julian's parents were here from Thursday until Tuesday, so that might have something to do with it!

We didn't do much on Friday except get Eloise's picture with the Easter Bunny:



5 seconds after this picture was taken she was flipping out....

Saturday we woke up early and had breakfast at The Kitchen Witch before the Easter Egg Hunt. We walked about 30 minutes on the beach from my parent's house to where it was held and that was the most fun part! The egg hunt was pretty busy, and on the beach, so they weren't really 'hidden'. Either way it was good memories.

Easter Sunday was perfect!
The Easter Bunny spoiled Eloise and she was really cute opening her gifts. She got some puzzles and a bible coloring book and crayons and bubbles and some chocolate. She eventually caught on to finding the eggs around the house and liked doing that!




Church was super amazing and Eloise stayed in the nursery the whole time! When I picked her up (1 hr and 15 minutes later) the lady in charge said she won the best behaved award! I'm such a proud momma! After church we went to the park and enjoyed the day. Later that afternoon we went to my parents and had dinner. It was a great day!


Everyone at Easter spoiled her, too! My cousins got her two more princess dolls, my aunt got her bubbles and a tinkerbell purse with a tinkerbell in it and my grandmother got her stuffed animals and some chocolate chip cookies. And of course my mom got her some old school sesame street dvds, sidewalk chalk and candy! She was also introduced to m&m's and had a super sugar high that night. No fun.
She loves her dolls:


In other news, my uncle who had the heart transplant last year needed a kidney transplant. Luckily, my other uncle ended up being a perfect match and they are currently in recovery and the kidney is working! Yay!

Today I got to go to music class with Eloise and Julian! I felt like I was in that Up All Night episode where the working mom goes to the music class and dies everything wrong haha! It was really cute to see her little friends and do their normal Thursday routine.

The rest of spring break is going to be low key. I have more dr's appointments than ever before (taking advantage of the week off). We have Sesame Street Live at the State Theatre tomorrow and that's about it. I hope Eloise likes it!

I'm ready to begin relaxing!



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Catching UP

I haven't blogged in a while (darn work gets in the way of the important things).  I figured I would do a random catch up....

* Things are going well. Besides my house is in a constant state of MESSINESS, I don't mind working.  Princesses are everywhere.  I'm not joking.  Eloise lines them up on things and knocks them down, and then takes them in her bookbag to the next room and lines them up again.  I have stepped on Pocahontas and Mulan more times than I can count. She also is a fan of carrying all her toys everywhere she goes. I hope she isn't becoming a hoarder.

* I am pretty much done getting Eloise's Easter basket together.  We got her some PJ's, a coloring book and crayons, a couple puzzles, and a farm animal noise toy that I think I had when I was younger.  We also are getting her a little kid table and chairs for upstairs.  She has one in the basement, but I think she needs another and IKEA has one for like $20. Her big gift for Easter is we are taking her to see Sesame Street Live next week.  She loves Elmo and Ernie and I think she is going to get a kick out of the show! Even though putting the tickets in her basket is useless because that means nothing to a 1 year old, I might still do it. Weird?

* I was reading my friend's blog and she updated on her son's height and weight (Hi Noah!) and Eloise is pretty much exactly the same size as him (30 inches tall and 19.7lbs). He is 6 MONTHS YOUNGER than her.

*We joined the Atlantic Club for the summer.  I am so glad they have a summer membership! It is pretty expensive but you get the pool (indoor and outdoor), a gym membership, and the kid's club which offers 3 hours of babysitting a day. We aren't going on a summer vacation this summer (boo) so we figured this money would have gone towards that. They serve alcohol at the pool. We plan on spending most days there. At first I was nervous that Eloise wouldn't like the kid's club babysitting thing.  But, Julian took a tour before he signed us up and they put her in the kid's club and she cried when she left.  She didn't care about being there, she just wanted to keep playing and not leave.  good sign.

* I saw Hunger Games and I LOVED IT. I can't wait to see it again.  I read all the books twice and I might go another round with them.  SO IN LOVE.  I also am excited to read Divergent and 50 Shades of Grey.  I have heard great things about both but right now I am trying to finish my bookclub book. I have a list of books I really want to read!!

* We have tons of things to do this weekend and my in-laws are visiting! We have an Easter Egg Hung on the beach and getting Eloise's picture with the Easter Bunny.  We also wanted to dye eggs with her.  We will see what we accomplish :)

*Eloise's new words are: Hi, Bye-Bye, Shoe, and bibbidi-boppidi-boo (which sounds more like bipbopboo).  She also has started shaking her head yes or no.  "do you want ice cream?" head shakes yes. "do you want your diaper changed?" head shakes no.  It's awesome to see her start doing this! What a great age! Oh, and she will use a running start to hug.  It's the coolest thing. she runs right into your arms for a big hug. LOVE IT.