New Year, New Kid, New Look.

So, 2 posts in 9 months is a good average, right? Figured that Sophie Elizabeth is almost 5mo old now so we had better post some pics of her and update our daily lives before we completely forget.

It appears that the second kid really does get "the big screw" when it comes to pictures, videos and generally showing off. But it's not that you care any less with #2, it's more that you are so darn busy keeping #1 in line that #2 just can't get the same treatment.

What what's going on at the Barnett's you might ask? Well -- Sophie had her first bite of rice cereal today which went better than we really could have hoped for.

Toby was super-pysched to lend a hand...until he realized that she was going to be the star of the show. He took it like a champ though and was hoping for Round #2 at dinner tonight.

Toby has his own big moments these days. We started him in Pre-School this summer and he's going M-W-F to a great school nearby. He's also starting to skip the afternoon nap. While on one hand the early bed-time is nice to have, the downside of having a no-nap toddler at 6pm still outweigh the early bedtimes.  He's quite the songster as well. "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is still his favorite as well as the theme songs to his cartoons on Nick (Wonder Pets, Backyardigans, Dora, etc).

Sophie is turning into the smiley, happy little girl we hoped she would be. She is memorized by her big brother and will spontaneously start laughing at him while he does random stuff. She can roll really well from back-2-front but the other way is slow coming. Night time is as rough as could be expected...3hrs stretches and the occasional visit after 1.5hrs to flip her over (when she gets stuck) and pop a pacifier back into her mouth. Sleep "training" sucks but it's a necessary evil.

6 Days and counting

New baby Barnett is coming next Wednesday. We'll try to post 4mo worth of stories and pics by then....and if you believe me I have a bridge to sell you in NY!

Wow -- more time machine action

Nothing like having 2 months go between postings and you feel like it has been 2 weeks. Seriously, can someone hit the pause button on our home movie?

It's really impossible to try to document what happens on a day to day basis when everyday is so different.  Toby's vocabulary is crazy - lots of nouns but not too many verb/adjectives. He knows all the letters in his name, can count to 14 and can actually count objects (1, 2 or 3). We're working on learning colors, TONS of animals. He's using 3-4 words in each sentence and while he's thankful for everything, we're still working on "asking politely" by saying "please."

Toby's super-excited for Santa to show up. In fact, whenever we ask him, "who's coming over" his stock answer is "Santa."

Here's a pic of Toby making his "funny face" and of of course I had to do it as well.

Toby also has discovered that Birthdays = Birthday cake. It's not pretty but it sure is tasty.

We also discovered that Toby can climb up onto our bed. While he learned this out of the blue one day, he just as quickly forgot how to do it.



Ian & Amy & Toby

First Haircut

Wow --What a crazy few months. I just looked at the last time we posted and I'll I could think was, "July...REALY?!? What happened to August and September?"

August was crazy. Amy completed her first every triathlon (Tri for the Cure) and we spent 2 weeks in NY on Lake Champlain and the other half of the month was spent catching up! I ran my first ever 10K in September in record time! As a friend of mine told me, "I came in first place in my catagory. It all depends on how you define your category!"

Anyway, after 21 months of letting Toby's fro fly freely (say that 10 times fast) we decided it was time to tame the beast. We took him down to a place that specializes in kids haircuts. While Toby's stylist tamed the 'fro more than we wanted -- we certainly are not complaining about the outcome!

BEACH!

Wow -- super-fast 6 weeks just flew by. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the time. However, we just got back from a 6 day trip to Rye Beach, NH (sandwhiched between Portsmouth and Hampton Beach) on the NH coast. It's safe to say that Toby's first beach trip was a huge success. He spent hours sitting in the sand playing with the water and sand with his cousins. He even thought that he might try to surfing but couldn't quite figure it out. :-)

Pool Day

Man -- crazy two weeks. Toby's working on 4 molars now (1 3/4 are "in") while the other two are just showing their tips. The language explosion is in full effect. Yesterday Toby learned the following words (in his own way of course): Open, Closed, Buffalo, Seal, Goat.

My personal favorite is hearing him say "elbow" and attempt to look at his armpit.

However, his favorite words are still "Barty"(Barney), "Choo-Choo"(Train) and BUSSSSS.

Yesterday was gorgeous so we headed over before lunch for Toby's first dip in a pool. Of course, he thinks it's a giant bath-tub (he kept saying, "bath" and pointing to the water).

Another new tooth and lots of words!

Wow, Toby is lots of fun these days. He's not only getting cuter every day with his curls and blue eyes, but he seems to learn new words every time he opens his mouth. He knows his nose, toes, feet, sheep, keys, knees, truck and duck... his favorite is still bus (bussy), and choo choo. His cousin Elliot let him borrow his Thomas train set and it seems to entertain him every time he walks by the choo choos, mommy loves it too! He loves the outside, this morning he grabbed his shoes and started saying 'side' before we could get downstairs.
Grandma was in town from New York last week, other than all of us getting the sickness, we had a great time. Thanks to her help, we now have beautiful flowers, herbs and veggies planted in pots around the yard, I am really hoping I don't kill them before summer even arrives!
We went to the zoo with Elliot, Willa and Nani Tuesday and had a great time! Here are some fun pictures!


PS another new tooth is breaking through, possibly a molar