Wanted:

One friend to soothe feelings of overwhelming loneliness. Female. Able to forgive selfishness and self-absorbtion. Willing to go out of their way to stay in touch with me without expectation of reciprocation. Understanding of crazy. Able to make me laugh. Getting together outside of my house on a semi-regular basis preferred. Doesn't consider my religion stupid or my conservative beliefs extreme. Loves me despite major personality and character flaws.

I've been sending out this message for years now (just not in writing). I wonder why no one has applied?

Fitz is 3

Fitz at 3

Fitzwilliam Thomas Barker turned three on March 29 this year. He is one of the cutest little boys ever to walk the face of the earth. Being his mom (just being around him, actually) is one of the greatest joys I have in life. Fitz is rough and tumble, but sweet; super happy, but somehow just as cute when he’s sad; a good boy, but a mischievous little rascal. He’s just one of my favorite people of all time.

Fitz with his planes, including the one Alek made him out of Legos

Katie was committed to helping us get a good picture of Fitz, much to our chagrin

Fitz loved his airplane cake

Fitz loves airplanes so we had a plane party for him. Kim, Alek and Katie helped me decorate. Fitz loved the paper planes on the wall and tried to pull them off and fly them around the room. After the party, he wouldn’t let me throw them away. He was so cute.

He loved his gifts. They were just perfect for him. He loves his Mega-Blocks car set from Auntie Kim and Uncle Aaron and is good at putting the parts together himself. He loves the trampoline from Grandma and Grandpa and has a great time jumping on it (so does Charlie).

Fitz really got into opening his presents

Fitz tries out the trampoline

Fitz with his Mega-Blocks track

Charlie with trampoline hair

We also did a mini-celebration for Fitz's Uncle Jake, whose birthday is just a few days before his. I slyly got a shot of him with one of his gifts.

Jake and his girlfriend, Chelsea

A few days after his party, Josh bought Fitz a Captain America helmet to go with his shield and Fitz loves to go around in that get-up, fighting Hydra Nazis (Alek and Katie and sometimes Dad). Alek and Katie like to wear the helmet and shield too.

Over the past month or so, I have seen Fitz blossoming – growing up, learning, expanding his vocabulary, improving his interaction with others, so many positive things. Yet on March 28, the day before his birthday, he was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Right now, today, I kinda feel like, “so what?” The diagnosis doesn’t feel that bad. I see so much potential in him. And I re-read a post from three years ago, a post I wrote about Fitz’s blessing. He was blessed that he would be a mighty man, physically, mentally and spiritually. That sounds right to me.

The Geers Were Here

The whole gang -- Dad was there in spirit

Last November, we had our first ever Bill and Gail Geer Family Reunion. It was awesome.

The end.

Okay, not really. But that does pretty much sum it up.

The reunion began on Friday, November 25, the day after Thanksgiving (which is not my anniversary – shout out to Josh). Josh and I piled our 5 kiddos in the car and got on the road about an hour later than I wanted. The trip to Anaheim from Sacramento is about 7 hours and everything was going just fine, until, about two hours in . . . Patterson. Curse you, Patterson! I will never darken your streets again!

It’s probably unfair to blame that little town for the fact that our van died just minutes after passing the exit to it, but the blame has to be placed somewhere. On the way up a hill, our van lost speed gradually until we were traveling at just a few miles an hour. We got off the road at the next exit, which led to . . . a beautiful dirt patch! Ah, California! We stopped in the beautiful dirt patch and called my in-laws. Gene and Aaron were on the case and were going to come help us whatever way they could.

Meanwhile, Josh said that we might have to consider turning around and going home – missing the reunion. There’s no point in going in to the ugliness that followed, but let me just say that there is still a part of me that is surprised Josh didn’t leave me on the side of the road that day. I would say my reaction was unreasonable, but that would be like saying the sun is hot. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Josh did not react well to my “unreasonable” reaction. It was not our best moment, as a married couple.

Katie is 6

Katherine Anne Barker, Six-Year Old

My dear Katie turned six on Thursday, November 3. We had a birthday party for her that weekend – a pink party. Most of Josh’s family came over and Katie had a great time. Katie was so excited to turn six. She loves that she is growing up. She loves kindergarten, but is so excited to become a butterfly and fly off to 1st grade (a Waldorf thing – right now, she is a caterpillar). Katie is a sweetie, spunky, funny, full of personality. She is also developing some of those normal unlovely traits that children take on as they get older and start trying to figure out the world. She’s a good sister and loves, loves, loves Jane. She still loves sharks, superheroes and Star Wars, but also loves dress up and princesses and Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy.

She loved her cake, although it was not my best effort

A princess dress!

Katie was so excited to get a dress up box full of clothes
and shoes  and a fairy wand

Recently, she made up a song about Tinkerbell, accompanied by my niece, Alesha. This was completely spontaneous. They recorded it and it is one of the best things I’ve ever seen. And so typically Katie. If you haven't seen it, go to my Facebook page and watch it. It was posted on March 30.

I love this girl.

What You’ve Been Missing

I was reading through a journal of mine last night that spans the years of 1999-2011 – and it’s not even full yet. Almost every entry in that journal begins with me apologizing for not writing for so long. I won’t do that here. But I know everyone has been missing my wit and wisdom, so I figure it’s time to get back to blogging.

Besides my post about Fitz and autism, the last thing I wrote about on here was the birth of my Jane girl. As you might imagine with the passage of nearly 8 months’ time, Jane has changed quite a bit since she was a newborn. She is crawling, pulling herself to standing, walking along furniture, babbling. She has four teeth and drools like nobody’s business. She’s a big girl. At her six-month check-up, she was 27.5 inches long and weighed 19 lbs. 7 oz. – both in th 90th to 95th percentile.

Jane on her blessing day, December 2011
Love the face -- "Seriously, Mom?"