We love to look back on the little moments we have captured in our lives. Especially of Jesse as he is growing up.
This video was captured when he was about 4 months old. One of the precious moments shared by Mum and Bub in the wee hours one morning.
It’s so special to relive this time in our lives. And it makes me so excited to create new memories like this when we get to know our new little Bub soon.
Last Friday, Renee and I celebrated our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary!
And wow, what an amazing day it turned out to be!
We started the day with a drive into Brisbane City to participate in the Story Bridge Adventure Climb, which is apparently, one of only 3 bridges worldwide that the public are able to climb (legally).
We then had lunch at the Story Bridge Hotel before heading over to our hotel for the night to check in.
Our hotel? None other than The Treasury Hotel, the very same hotel we stayed at on our wedding night.
A fancy dinner at Alchemy along Eagle Street Pier ended our perfect day.
And the best thing about it, was that we filmed it all. It’s been a while since we’ve posted a vlog on our YouTube channel… But this feels like the perfect time to jump back into vlogging on the lead up to Christmas (Vlogmas version 2.0 anyone?).
It’s a fairly long video, but we hope you enjoy it none-the-less.
Parenthood is so wonderfully delicious. But sometimes it can be really bloody hard.
There have been some tough times in our house over the past couple of weeks. Jesse just wasn’t himself much of the time and we were all feeling burned out.
Thankfully, after the appearance of two lovely little molars and some much needed R&R for Mummy and Daddy, things seem to be getting back to normal.
But those hard bits inspired this…
Today I cried. And so did you.
I cried because I didn’t know what was wrong with you, my love. Because I couldn’t take away your pain or even know where it hurt.
I cried because nothing I tried seemed to soothe you.
I cried because for the first time I wanted, needed some time away from you.
I cried because the flutter in my belly reminded me there will soon be another and I worried how I will cope in times like this with two.
Today I cried.
I cried because when you felt better you smiled and laughed and played.
I cried because you cuddled me tight and my heart lightened.
I cried because the flutter in my belly reminded me there will soon be another. Bliss!
I cried. And I smiled.
Today marks quite a significant milestone for us. It is 10 years ago today that we started our married life together.
To celebrate we are spending an entire day and night together, just us. Tonight we will spend the night in the same hotel we stayed at on our wedding night. I must admit, as much as I’m excited about our plans for today, I’m also very excited about a solid night sleep!
But to mark the occasion we thought we’d take a little trip down memory lane and share some photos from our adventures over the last 10 years.
One thing is for sure. We have definitely got thinner, more attractive and better hair cuts (Kaine!) over the years!
Let’s talk about Saturday.
A day that will go down in our short stint as new parents, as probably one of the hardest days we’ve had to deal with.
To be honest with you, it was probably the first time since Jesse was born where I genuinely 100% questioned if I could do this, if this parenting gig was just all too hard and whether I should just quit and leave.
The day started out ordinary enough. Jesse woke up happy as he normally does. We got ready for gym. We dropped Jesse off at Nanny and Poppy’s on the way to gym. And then…
Well, then the drama starts… It was like we had picked up a completely different child to the one we had dropped off earlier that morning.
And for the rest of that morning, we had a very, very, very cranky boy. We just couldn’t work out what was wrong!!!
There was uncontrollably crying. There was a bloody nose (the result of a lot of nose wiping due to his runny nose and the fact that he had accidentally scratched himself around his nostril). There was grazed knees from when he fell over earlier in the day. There was writhing in pain. There was arching his back and kicking away from us as we tried to hold and comfort him. There was teething pain symptoms.
For some reason, it all just seemed to explode all at the one time… And it all just became a little too much.
With everything that was happening with Jesse, Renee and I then started arguing and yelling at each other which, given the circumstances, wasn’t helping the situation.
So with everything that had happened and everything that was still happening, I got changed into some yard clothes and left the house. Now I didn’t leave altogether, I just left the house because I knew I wasn’t helping the situation.
So I grabbed the weed killer and lawn feed, headed outside and started working on the lawn.
By the time I was finished and came back inside, Jesse was sound asleep, and the house was quiet again.
I just hoped to god that when he woke up, he was going to be back to his happy self again. And what do you know, when he woke, he was indeed back to his happy self. It was like the morning had never happened. But both Renee and I knew it had happened. And we were both bearing scars as a result!
Was it my worst day to date as a parent? Probably! But you know what, us as a human race have the great ability to learn from our past experiences. So I feel that because I’ve now experienced a day like I did on Saturday, that I will be able to approach the situation better the next time round.
But hey, let’s keep our fingers crossed that there won’t be a next time and that it will all be smooth sailing from here.
…Keep dreaming Kaine. Keep dreaming…
Last week we went public with our exciting announcement that Baby Barton #2 is on the way.
In case you missed it, here is how I surprised Kaine with the news and some of our family’s reactions.
I just knew.
I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but I just had a feeling. So when the first couple of pregnancy tests came back negative I wasn’t bothered. A far cry from how I felt when I would get a negative test when trying the first time. I sensed that Kaine was feeling pretty confident this month too.
We had decided back in January that we wanted to get straight into trying for another baby. Jesse was 7 months old. It seemed a tad crazy but we had to be prepared that it might take a while again. Plus we knew that chances were slim straight away anyway because I was still breastfeeding and my cycle hadn’t yet returned.
Over the next few months we weaned and four cycles later I couldn’t shake the feeling that we had been successful. I took another test and a beautiful yet faint second pink line confirmed my suspicions. It only took four months… I swallowed hard at the realisation that I was now that woman that long term TTC’ers want to throat punch. I know all too well how that feels.
I couldn’t wait to surprise Kaine with the news, and I had a plan to do so the following day. So when he asked me if I had got my period yet, I lied. I could sense his disappointment which only fed my excitement to tell him.
Thankfully, it all went to plan and I surprised him with the news that Jesse was going to be a big brother.
Fast forward a bit over a week, I went to the doctor who confirmed the test result and I went for a dating scan. I left the scan feeling confident. There was a gestational sac, its not Ectopic, however, it is early days and there is not yet a foetal pole to measure. I’m told its normal for this early and to come back in about two weeks.
But the doubt starts to creep in. My mind races with questions. Is there no baby in there because there isn’t one? Suddenly I’m protective with the news. I was so excited to tell our immediate families but now, I’m not so sure. We keep it our little secret for a bit longer.
Fast forward a couple of months and the secret is out. All is going well, and now that I’m not feeling like crap all the time, the excitement is starting to kick back in.
This time around I think I’m both more excited, and more terrified. Excited because I know how wonderful having a baby and being a mum is, but terrified because I know how hard it is.
We could not be happier though. No doubt these next six months will fly by, but we will take joy in our time as a family of three while we wait for Baby Barton #2 to join us.
So Jesse absolutely loves the outdoors!
So much so that it doesn’t even matter if its 8pm and pitch black out… He still wants to go outside to play.
So that’s why we try and give him every opportunity we can to get outdoors, get his feet in the grass or in the dirt or in the sand… and get dirty!
And going by his squealing in this video, he was absolutely loving his time outdoors yesterday!
Just recently, there seems to be a lot of chatter in the news about children and screen time on electronic devices such as tablets, smart phones and even television.
Now I know that this topic isn’t exactly a new one by any means. But because this hot topic has hit the news outlets again, it got me thinking about how we do things in our house. Are we ‘Pro’ or ‘Anti’ screen time? Are we doing right by Jesse when it comes screen time? And are we bad parents if we let Jesse have screen time?
The first, an article by the New York Post titled ‘It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies‘. This article talks about how screen time can be extremely detrimental to kids development and even uses a real life example of a mother who found her 6 year old son in a trance from having too much time on his iPad playing Minecraft.
The second, an article titled ‘Lisa Wilkinson says parents who let kids under five use screens are ‘crazy’‘. An article (and associated video) about how one of Australia’s most well-known morning presenters thinks parents who let their children have access to screens before they are five years old are “crazy” and that this lack of discipline will “come back to bite”.
So after reading these articles, I decided to do a little googling to see if I could find any common ground regarding if, and how much screen time should kids be having.
At this point I will say this, we are well aware that when it comes to kids development, nothing can replace the amazing benefits of active and outdoor play, reading books, educational toys etc etc. And these are all definitely activities we encourage Jesse to participate in everyday.
But, on the other hand, we do allow Jesse to have some screen time. It’s not a lot, but after these latest articles, we are again wondering if we are doing the right thing in letting him have this screen time.
So what does google say? Well it appears that the general consensus on many Government websites relating to parenting is, that children under two should simply steer clear of the screen altogether. Further to this, children aged 2-5 should have no more than an hour a day, and children aged 5-18 should have no more than two hours a day.
Now in response to this I say good luck getting a teenager to have no more than 2 hours a day of screen time. I will also say that many people believe that screens are just part of modern day parenting.
But after this google search my biggest concern now, is are we bad parents? Jesse is only 16 months old and we let him have screen time. And not only that, are we creating lifelong bad habits with Jesse by letting him have this screen time?
Now I will say that having an iPad in the car was a saving grace for us when Jesse was younger due to the fact he absolutely HATED the car. The only way we could get him to settle and not cry the whole drive, was to hang the iPad on the back of the chair with some Peppa Pig or The Wiggles playing. It would instantly settle him and stop him crying.
But now, Jesse has gotten into the habit of grabbing our phones, climbing onto our lap and waiting for episodes of Peppa Pig to watch. And while it’s incredibly cute, it’s a little worrying that maybe he is starting to expect screen time.
However, while he loves his Peppa Pig, he also loves to grab our hands and lead us directly to either the front or back door so he can go outside and play. He LOVES being outside, so much so that there has often been tantrums thrown because he couldn’t go outside when it was dark out.
Back onto screen time though, I have to admit that we also almost constantly have the television on of an evening and night. And while it’s mostly ABC Kids, again I am starting to wonder if the television should be turned off in favour of play and story time before he goes to bed.
With all this said however, it will be interesting to hear what everyone else’s thoughts on this topic are.
Do you let your children have screen time?
If so, how much screen time do you allow them to have?
If these recent articles have taught me anything, its that I need to be a little more proactive when it comes to Jesse and his screen time, versus having active and outdoor play, reading books and playing with toys.
In the end, both Renee and I know how we want to raise Jesse. But it is good to get a reminder about things like the negative impacts screen time can have.
So I was home alone all weekend. The wife was in Melbourne. Jesse was with Nanny and Poppy.
Home alone all weekend… What on earth could I do…
I know… 😉
Embrace the Dad Bod!!!
not so secret life of us 