What color is my eye patch?

For a couple weeks in high school, I was known as 'that colorblind kid from biology class' thanks to my lab partner who turned me in when we were talking about colorblindness and dominant vs. recessive genes. At least I already knew I was colorblind. Another kid in the class found out he was, since he saw the same stuff on the Ishihara tests that I did. Surprise!

So I'm used to the 'what color is ...' conversation, if you can call it a conversation. It is generally not so much a conversation as a series of questions about what color various nearby items are. Out of nowhere today, Brynlee asked me what color my shirt is, but the conversation went a little different direction than it usually does.

Brynlee: What color is your shirt?

Rob: Red

Brynlee: You're not colorblind.

Rob: Yes I am. Color deficient is probably a better way of putting it. I can see colors, but some of them just look the same to me.

Ashlee: There's a boy in my class who is colorblind.

Brynlee: Is that the boy who wears an eye patch?

Ashlee went on to explain how he had a problem with one eye, so he needed the patch on the good eye so the weak eye would get stronger. I don't know why having color issues would make someone need an eye patch, but to a Kindergartner, it probably made perfect sense.

It's beginning to look...

Monkey's Birthday

My little Trevor turned 1 yesterday! We sang Happy Birthday to him at the Barton Christmas get together yesterday but we didn't end up cutting the cake since there were so many other treats. Today after church the kids were dying to eat Trevor's monkey cake. So we sang Happy Birthday again and let our little monkey dig in! We let him pick at the cake and then cut him a piece to eat. He pretty much inhaled the whole piece of cake. After the cake, he went down for a nap so he still hasn't opened his presents, yet.

No more cake? I guess I'll just eat the plate...

I think there are just a few more crumbs I can lick off...

The other night I was pretty emotional thinking about my little baby turning one. I fell asleep crying and then woke up in the morning and more tears started falling. I don't think I've ever been so emotional about my kids turning one. I think it was a combination of that, plus Ashlee turning 8 next month and being baptized that really got to me. I decided to write down a few of the thoughts that were going through my head the other night in the form of a letter to Trevor...

To My Little Monkey,
It’s so hard for me to believe that one year ago it was Christmas time. All the presents were bought and wrapped. I was all ready for Christmas early last year because I wanted to be ready in case you decided to join our family a few weeks before Christmas. You decided to wait, though, but when I saw my midwife the day before your due date and she gave me the option of being induced, I took it. Maybe it was a little selfish of me, but my only Christmas wish was for you to be in my arms. The next day I called and called and called the hospital to see when I could come in for my induction. They were so busy all day that finally at 10:00 at night I got the call to come in. Grandma Barton came to stay with your older sisters and brother, and daddy and I were off to the hospital. I was so anxious to see you! We got to the hospital around 11:00 on December 19th, and the nurse started the pitocin at midnight. Just 4½ hours later on December 20, 2007, you were in my arms, all 7 little pounds of you, and no one could wipe the smile from my face.

A year later, you are starting to show your independence. This morning I nursed you for the last time, but know that I will still hold and cuddle you as you hold your own bottle to feed yourself. I don't think I can give up that "just you and me time". At breakfast the other day, in an attempt to finish off the remaining box of rice cereal mixed with bananas and applesauce, you wanted to hold the spoon yourself with your right hand while shoving cereal in with your bare left hand. I have a feeling the days of multiple baths are in the near future. It’s bittersweet as I watch you learn basic new skills that will help you grow and take care of yourself.

Ashlee, Brynlee and Landon adore you as their baby brother. They affectionately call you T-Monkey, Monkey or just “T”. The girls squeal with delight when they see you first thing in the morning or when they come home from school and smother you with kisses. You are already forming a “buddy” bond with Landon as you follow him around, crawling from room to room to find where he is playing.

You are the cutest little thumb sucker. I may not think that if you are still doing it in a few years, but for now it’s adorable. It’s funny when you find something soft or fuzzy on the floor and play with it in your left hand or rub it against your face and ear while sucking your right thumb. You look so peaceful and content. Most of the time, I just want to squeeze you and cover your chubby cheeks with kisses.

You have yet to take your first steps, but really, that is just fine with me. You can stay little for as long as you would like. I’m in no hurry. You love to copy sounds and actions of others, and Brynlee loves to point at you and laughs when you point back. You love to growl back and forth with me and pant like a little puppy and then laugh when I do the same. You shake your head and say “no-no”. Sometimes I think you just like to say the sounds but don’t really know what it means, but then the other night when you saw me touch an ornament on the Christmas tree, you gently reminded me to not touch the tree. You point at things you see and jabber while telling me all about it, as if I know exactly what you are saying. Sometimes your jabbering really sounds like you just said something and everyone in the room turns and looks at each other saying “Did he really just say that?”

Trevor, you have blessed our family with so much love. I thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with such a sweet, happy, cuddly baby. I love you Monkey! Happy 1st Birthday!

Love,
Your mommy

Barton Christmas Parties

Yesterday we had two Barton family parties. First was with all of Rob's extended family (Rob's grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins' kids). Here's all the adults getting ready for the ever exciting White Elephant game. There is talk each year that we are going to get rid of it, but each year it's part of the annual get together. I ended up with a bar of fruit cake and some candies and Rob got a DVD of the movie "Tristan and Isolde." This year everyone took a present (but didn't unwrap it) and we went around the circle. If you rolled doubles, you got to trade your gift with someone else. Rob's Uncle Kent makes pottery and his bowls are the gift that everyone is after. We brought a fish bowl with some rocks and a little frog statue in it (we also bought two feeder goldfish to give to the lucky recipient) and evidently everyone thought it was one of his bowls because it kept getting stolen. Then everyone opened the gifts and to everyone's surprise, it was not one of THE bowls! We went around the circle one more time and if you got doubles, you got to trade again. This time around the real bowl got traded multiple times.There was also a gift exchange for kids under 12. Rob's dad comes from a family of 9 children so the youngest grandkids are the same age as the great grandkids.

After that party, we went to Rob's sister's house for a smaller Barton get together. The cousins decorated cookies and exchanged gifts (we did books this year). The kids also got to open present from Grandma and Grandpa.

Rob's mom makes the cutest piece quilt books. We have a color one and a transportation one. This year she made a "touchy-feely" one for Trevor.

Brynlee and her Olivia books... Landon was so excited about his gift. On the way home, he insisted on holding it so I had to go fish it from the back of the car.Ashlee loves these "Rainbow Magic" books. They come in different series of 7 books. She has the Color Fairies, Jewel Fairies, and Weather Fairies. She is now starting her collection of Pet Fairies...

Grandma made cowboy vests and handkerchiefs for the little boys.

Thanks to everyone for the fun gifts and good times!

Elementary School Christmas Music Program

Ashlee and Brynlee had their school Christmas music program this past week. They do 3 performances during the day with various grades, since there is not enough room for everyone to see all the kids at once.

As the program was about to begin, Ashlee was excited to see Monkey sitting in the front row.


The first song the second graders sang was Jolly Old St. Nicholas.


Ashlee had the special task of handing out the bells for this fun song, Santa Claus Is On His Way.


Next up was a fun song, There's Someone In The Chimney, with a fifth grader helping out as Santa hiding behind the chimney.


The second graders left the stage and waited while the fourth graders came on and sang a few songs. Monkey was dancing to the music.


Lando was, well, playing with the camera.


The second and fourth graders joined up to sing a medley of Deck The Halls, Up On The Housetop, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Those are our neighbors waving at the camera.

The two afternoon kindergarten classes came in for the last session of the program. Their first song was Tell Me The Colors Of Christmas.


Next up, O Christmas Tree.


They finish up with the short but sweet I'm A Little Snowflake.

Sugar Plum Tea Party Performance

Ashlee's ballet performance was today. Each class performed a dance to the different songs from the Nutcracker. Ashlee's class danced to the Clowns song. At the end, the Sugar Plum Fairy from this year's Nutcracker performed. I was pretty bummed about one thing. The performance classes are supposed to perform in costumes but Ashlee's class was one of two (out of 10) that didn't have costumes. Her teacher has two classes for Ashlee's level and they both performed the same dance. There weren't enough costumes for everyone so they just wore what they wear to class. In May they have a recital for the technique and performance classes, but in December the recital is just for the performance classes. One of the main reasons I signed her up for performance class this semester was so she could perform in costume. Oh well...hopefully in May. Here is her dance. She is the second one in line.

Candy Houses

On Friday, Ashlee's class at school made candy houses. They just started a unit on traditions and this is a tradition from Germany. The parents were invited to come to the class to make them with the kids. Her teacher asked me to make the frosting so I had to go in about 45 minutes before school started to so it would be ready for them when they got to school. It was a fun activity and the kids were very creative with their houses and "acre" of land.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Lean Your Ear This Way

Last night was our ward Christmas party. Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance. I was wondering if any of my kids would refuse to sit on the Jolly Old Elf's lap but all sat willingly.
Brynlee wants a Baby Born...a doll that can swim.
Trevor just wants his thumb! I have another picture of him with Santa and Santa is holding his arm down to keep his thumb out....hahaha! I thought this was one cuter, though.

When we were waiting in line, Landon asked "Who's that lady with Santa?" I told him it was his wife, Mrs. Claus. He has been talking all day about sitting on Santa's lap and how he got a candy cane and a book from Mrs. Claus. When I ask him what he wants for Christmas, he says "A book and a candy cane."

Ashlee sang in the program with a group of 4 other girls. They made matching halos to wear...cute little girls!

One of the activities for the kids was to make ornaments.

Trevor just sat and sucked on his candy cane. I think he got a sugar rush because he was going crazy crawling all over at home and doing his "flapping arms" excited dance until about 9:45 that night :)

Landon really concentrates on his art projects. He always sticks out his tongue when he is coloring.

Ballet Class

Last Monday the parents could observe in Ashlee's ballet class. This was her technique class. In the first video, her teacher was quickly going through the moves before turning on the music so that's why she's doing everything so fast. Later, they moved from the bar and the girls took turns being on the front row but of course the video I got of her in front got an error on the camera and didn't turn out. She has a performance tomorrow so I'll have to get a video of that to post. For her performance, she's supposed to have her hair pulled back in a bun. With her new haircut, I'll have to get very creative....a trip to the store for some gel and mega hold hairspray may be in order.

Another Cute Giveaway

Want a chance to win some adorable handmade baby booties? Go to Make It and Love It! She has the cutest crafty ideas and you can win these darling shoes!

If I Were A Christmas Elf...

I was searching for a picture of a Christmas elf to finish a stocking and found a website that you put your name in and then it tells you what your "elf" name is. Here's our elf family...our last name is Smickleifigus!

Rob: Blinky
Kirsten: Zippy
Ashlee: Goofy
Brynlee: Happy
Landon: Chipper
Trevor: Puddin

Of course, if we're going to have elf names, we might as well "Elf" ourselves! You can only upload up to 5 pictures so I just did the kids.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Civic Literacy

I was watching Leno tonight, and they had Battle of the Jaywalk All Stars. There were several pretty funny answers by the contestants, including that Alaska is an island, the reason why there are 100 people in the Senate is to stimulate healthy debate, and Patrick Dempsey is famous for the phrase "Give me liberty or give me death."

A girl from Utah won. One of the questions she missed, however, was who was president of the U.S. during World War I. Leno gave her a hint, that his initials were W.W. She said "Wilford Woodruff." Leno just responded, "I don't know who that is." Oops, wrong president.

Coincidentally, I found an article today about general lack of knowledge about how our country works and its history. Don't read the article until after you take the quiz he refers to in the article, since he gives a couple of the answers in the article. So, first, take the quiz, then read the article, and finally leave a comment with your score. The average score is below 50%. I got an 88%, but I think I got one or two more right because of reading the article first.

An Act of Love

Ashlee got into the spirit of Christmas this year by donating her hair to Locks of Love. At the beginning of the school year last year, her student teacher told the class that she was growing her hair to donate to Locks of Love. Ashlee came home from school that day and told me she wanted to grow her hair out, too. She told me how some kids lose their hair when they are sick and she wanted to donate her hair for them to make wigs for kids. I thought it was very caring of her to want to do this. 15 months later...her hair was finally long enough. She ended up getting 12 inches cut off.

The "before" shot looks a little weird because I took it right after she took the pony tail out of her hair that she had it in all day.

Before: The lady that cut it did half at a time...so here's half and half!
That's a whole lotta hair! So short and cute!
She loves it and can't wait to go to school to show her friends and her teacher.