Retired

Just a quick note to let any readers know that Harper is officially retiring from school because she wants to stay home with her baby brother.  On Wednesday I had picked Harper up from school and she proudly announced her intentions to me.  I have to say all I could do was smile, because of her minimal understanding of the whole retirement world.  Also at her willingness to give up her education in order to care for her brother. 

The Baby Jesi

I have been meaning to put up here a piece about Harper's love for baby Jesus.  I believe the official count of Harper's manger scenes is now up to five.  Sometimes at night she gathers all of her baby Jesi together and talks so sweetly to them and puts them to sleep.  Back in November when we first got the Christmas decorations out she spent two weeks sleeping with her Little People baby Jesus in her hand.  And I do mean sleeping all night while clutching the baby Jesus firmly in her grip.

My Son!?!?

It is now official.  Harper has chosen a "real" name for her brother.  No, it is not orangie, or diamond, or Reegie, or even her first sensible choice of Max.  Yesterday morning Melissa asked Harper what her brothers name was, Friday night we were discussing names with Harper and we gave her two choices.  The one she chose Friday night was Owen.  So Melissa decided to ask her Saturday morning to see how she still felt about her Brothers name.  Harper proudly proclaimed that her Brothers name was Owen.  So it has been decided, our son will be named Owen, which was my first choice going back to the night we found out he was a boy.

Little Santa

Today Harper was once again helping me in the garage because she had to go outside today, despite the fact that the temperature was steadily dropping.  While in the garage she found a small light-up santa that I had planned on not putting out this year.  I told her we weren't going to put that out this year...... She was having none of that, she said, "lets go dad, we're putting this outside".  She proceeded to go out to the Front yard and drop the little santa rigt where she wanted him to be.  I will put up a picture and you can see if you can spot Harper's beloved tiny santa.  I love how much she loves Christmas!

Team Chant

This past week in preparation for the upcoming spirit assembly at my school, I was discussing my team chant with Melissa.  She was curious to know what the chant was so I began to sing the chant for her.  As soon as I was finished Harper hollered out, "Sing that again dad!"  So we spent most of last week singing the team chant, and I think Harper learned the chant faster than many of my students.  Harpers favorite part is "look left" (clap, clap), "look right" (clap, clap).  This singing has been a general theme around our house this month.  We have been singing non-stop christmas carols, so my team chant was a very nice break.

Living Room Tent, Oh Yeah

This afternoon I finally got around to fixing my broken recliner.  In order to get to the broken rocking mechanism to put in a new bolt, I had to flip the chair up on its side.  I then went to the garage to get tools for Harper and I to fix the chair.  You see if I am fixing something my little helper has to also have tools to "fixer" with.  After we worked together to get the chair back to shipshape, Harper had a brilliant brainstorm.  She hollers out, I am going to go get my blankies to make a tent.  So I moved her chair around in front of the recliner and laid her blaket over the top of the two, as instructed.  She climbed inside with her blankets and pillow and watched an episode of the Smurfs on tv.  This whole thing took me back to my days as an excited little boy that loved nothing more than to build "forts" in the livingroom.  It was tons of fun seeing how much she enjoyed it.

It's Christmas

On Saturday November 22, Christmas had arrived at the Barlow household.  I know it was a week before Thanksgiving but we love to maximize the amount of time that we get to enjoy our Christmas cheer.  Harper was a huge help setting up the trees, yes that's tree(s) plural.  We have our family tree and we have a shorter version that belongs to Harper and has the decorating sense to reflect its owner.  We like her to have her own tree so she can decorate and re-decorate as she sees fit.  She also had a great time helping me put out the OSU christmas characters.  It was a great Saturday of decorating.

Why God made me

Today I had one of those priceless Daddy moments.  Harper and I were in the front yard "graperin" (raking in grown-up terms) leaves into a pile.  Of Course there was the mandatory jumping into the pile.  But the real kicker came when Harper was using her Fisher Price rake to help me and she says "Daddy aren't you glad God made me to be your helper".  I quickly told her that I thank God everyday for giving me such a great helper.  All the while I was thinking there are many other reasons I thank God for my little angel, but her graperin skills definetly need some fine tuning.  Just another great saturday spent with Harper.

Saturday Morning

I just have to say that there is something magical about a donut shop, a Dad, and a special little girl.  This morning Harper and I went to the barbershop and then to the donut shop.  We had a wonderful time sharing our donuts and Harper finished off breakfast by assembling her donut holes into a snowman.  I really love our daddy and Harper time!

Walk around

Last night we loaded up on the Barlow bus, with Grandma and Boppy and headed to Stillwater for Homecoming walk around.  This is always a very exciting time for me because of my intense love for my Alma mater.  What makes it even better is the fact that I get to share it with Harper.  Truth be told I am trying to cultivate a love for OSU from an early age hoping that it will carry into her teen years and eventually into her becoming a cowboy.  I think so far we have done a great job of cultivating the cult of cowboy in Harper.  Last night I was explaining to Harper that OSU is where Daddy used to go to school, I also explained to her that her mommy and many of her other relatives also attended OSU.  But when she began relating this fact to her mommy and Grandma she said very excitedly, "Mommy this is where Daddy used to go to school."  Her mommy quickly explained to Harper that she also went to school there, but Harper was having none of that.  I think eventually Harper was convinced.  Eventually we made our way to The Strip to begin walk around.  Harper spent most of the night scoping out the house decs from my shoulders and just being amazed by the crowds.  I was pleasantly surprised to run into one of my friends from school, Jason Cornwell.  I haven't seen Jason for like five years, so I was very happy to See him again and very proud to introduce Harper to him.  Overall it was a great evening spent with family in one of my favorite places in the whole world, I love being able to share such a big part of Melissa's and my past with our little angel.

Here goes nothing II.

After spending a lot of time reading Melissa's blog, I have decided to also jump into the blogging world and see how it feels to get my thoughts out there.  I suspect that many of my blogging entries from this point forward will probably sound very similar to Melissa's, so for many of you the information may get repetitive.  But my hope is to provide a different perspective on the goings-on in Barlowville.  I am also hoping for a way to archive many of my thoughts, feelings and experiences to share with my children when they get older.  I am also looking for a place to document the order in the midst of chaos that is my career, the teacher stories can go on forever.  So that sounds like the basics of what will be put up heree on my blog, so let the games begin.