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Stories March 11, 2009 - Time flies and Spring is just around the corner! The boys are doing great and keeping me very busy. Garrett is growing up so fast. He loves preschool and his Nana (Mimi) is his teacher. He has a very sweet disposition as long as Henry isn't playing with his toys. And he finally talks constantly. He's still going to speech, but he's really improving rapidly. Recently, he told us his name is not Garrett anymore, it's "lightbulb." We don't know where he got it from, but he corrects us all the time if we don't call him Lightbulb. Sometimes he's a green lightbulb and sometimes he's a black one. He likes to point out to me that lightbulbs don't take naps nor eat their veggies. But I just turn out the lights and say yes they do! He loves his bicycle, his four wheeler and his da-da the most. He loves to play with his "Pop" and he loves to go to the tree farm. This winter, he has become particularly fond of the inside McDonald's playground. He's very particular about the place he goes and he doesn't like to deviate. If we go to a different Publix or a different Wal-mart, he gets very upset and wants to go to "his" store, not the new one. Henry is my wild one. He is 19 months now and also talking up a storm. He loves to follow his brother and he loves to play with his pots and pans. He likes to watch the birds out the window at the bird feeder. He absolutly loves his Pop above all others and is spoiled rotten by him. He eats pretty well and he already wants to potty train. He also is saying new words almost every day. I've taught him some sign language which he loves. He loves books and tractors. He also loves babies and baby dolls. He is very social and wants to go to school so badly. July 1, 2008 - I've finally updated the website! I think this is the longest I've gone without adding new photos. The older Henry gets, the harder it is to find the time, especially if the other option is sleep. Garrett just turned 3 on June 22 and Henry will be 1 on August 10. They are both healthy, happy and busy little boys. I've decided to give you a paragraph about both: Garrett - He's finally talking! He's describing more and more and asking more and more questions. He likes things a certain way and if they don't go the way he thinks they should, he gets upset. He loves to antagonize Henry and he says, "No, Hen" the most. He really likes to do things for himself now and gets upset when I try to help. When something doesn't work, he thinks it's "dead." I guess he's heard us say that the batteries were dead so often, that's his answer for everything. The stroller wheels were flat and he told me they were "dead." Potty training is finally going great. We're working on our numbers and he's good with 1 - 5. Henry - Hen's almost 11 months. He is still a really good baby with a sweet disposition. He won't be a baby for much longer. He's growing like crazy and he's still a little chunky monkey. Last month, he totally stopped eating baby food and wanted regular people food. He'll eat anything you give him. He loves being around Garrett and wants to do everything Garrett does. He is such a climber and climbs lots more than Garrett did at his age. He's almost walking and goes anywhere he wants to. He can say 'mama' and 'dada' and 'baba.' He can also say 'more' in sign language and patty cake and brush his hair. They are both sweet, good boys and we are blessed to have them in our lives. February 27, 2008 - Wow! It's been a while since I had time to sit down and update the website. I haven't stopped taking pictures though, so I have a lot to add! Henry is growing like a little weed. I shouldn't say little. He's a chunky little monkey. He's 6 months old now and weighs over 18 pounds. He's a very happy baby and he loves to smile. He is absolutely fascinated with Garrett and will laugh and cackle at Garrett for no apparent reason. Garrett mostly ignores Henry still, except for when I'm holding Henry or trying to get him asleep. For some reason, Garrett is opposed to Henry taking a nap. If Henry is asleep in my arms, Garrett will start talking very loudly right into his face. If Henry falls asleep in the van, Garrett will start screaming trying to wake him up. It's like a game with him. It drives me crazy. BIG NEWS - Henry has started crawling on his hands and knees. He's doing this a lot sooner than Garrett did and Henry is obsessed with whatever Garrett is doing. So I see some major fights in the future over toys. But I'm trying to teach Garrett about sharing. Henry is mostly interested in Garrett's crayons and coloring books. Garrett got a ton of tractors for Christmas and Henry likes those, too. Garrett's speech is slowly improving. He's finally mastered the word "no." I don't know whether to be happy about that or not. He's doing well with the potty training, too. My sister Meredith put some videos of the boys in a story below this one if anyone is interested in watching them. January 18, 2008 - "Mmmm" (Garrett calls Aunt Meredith, Mmmm) has joined the digital age and Garrett is already fascinated with her new camera, often having to help direct. Over New Year's Eve weekend, we all visited Norman Park and Garrett watched Grandma B's neighbor move some hay bales, and he even climbed up into a John Deere tractor, to his delight. Whenever Garrett sees "Mmmm's" camera, he has to watch the clip over and over (so she's not allowed to delete it!) Watch Garrett enjoy John Deere and here However, nothing is quite as sweet as hearing the boys laugh! Henry is quite ticklish! ---xoxox Mmmm December 2, 2007 - Wow! Time flies when you're having fun and raising two boys. Henry is growing like crazy and he's almost 4 months old. Garrett is doing great and really trying to talk more now. Still no sentences, but he's repeating a lot of words and learning sign language. The problem with that is he likes to make up his own sign language and I have to guess what he's saying! The new pictures go all the way back to October. Hope you enjoy! October 25, 2007 - Hello! Sorry I haven't updated the website lately. Two boys is a lot to handle! Although I must say that Henry is really a great, easy baby. Sometimes it's easy to forget he's even in the room. But his big brother Garrett more than makes up for it! I think Garrett gets upset and cries more than Henry does. Garrett is mostly sweet to Henry, but he definitely does not like sharing. He tries to climb up into Henry's swing and his playmat and his bouncy chair, even though he's way too big. And if Garrett thinks I'm holding Henry too much, he tells me to put him in the swing, using his sign language. For those of you who don't know, Garrett has a speech delay. He's very smart, but he mostly communicates non-verbally. The doctor doesn't think there is anything wrong, but he is seeing a very nice speech therapist once a week. He's doing really well with that and we also teach him a new sign language word every week. Even though he doesn't talk a lot, he's not a quiet or calm toddler, but we love him anyway! Speaking of, I am going to borrow from my friend Jeanine ( www.ateagueoftheirown.com) and list some of the many things I love about my boys: 1. I love the way Henry sucks his thumb, even when he's not hungry. He won't take a pacifier, but he will sure stick his thumb/finger/fist in his mouth. 2. I love the way Henry is fascinated by the fish mobile in his Fisher-Price Aquarium Swing. He loves his swing and will stay in it for what seems like hours, just swinging away. 3. I love the way Garrett is fascinated with his wrinkly fingers after a particularly long bath. He just does not understand it and it really concerns him when he gets out. 4. I love the way Garrett is a back-seat driver (I have no idea where he gets this from :-). He knows where he wants to go and he knows if we don't go the way he knows we should go. If we drive by Publix, he knows his favorite restaurant El Ranchero is right next door, and he is very quick to tell me that's where he wants to go. Almost at every red light, he has an opinion on whether we should go right or left. 5. I love the way Garrett kisses Henry's birthmark on his forehead at least 100 times a day. 6. I love the way Garrett loves for me to bounce Henry in his lap. 7. I love the way Henry falls asleep at night. I lay Henry in his crib and he takes a second to get really comfortable and he gives this little tiny grunt/sigh and then he's gone to lala land. 8. I love the way Garrett gets really really excited to help me carry in the groceries. It's a huge thrill for him, especially when I give him a bag and tell him it's really really heavy. 9. Garrett is the biggest "staller" when it comes to taking a nap. When I tell him it's nap time, first he tells me he has to use the bathroom, but he just went and I just changed his diaper. Then he tells me he's hungry, but we just had a snack. Then he tells me he's thirsty, so I give him his water bottle. Then he tells me he wants to watch Thomas the Train. I say no. Then he says he wants to watch Little Einsteins. I say no. Then he tells me he wants to go outside. I say no. Then he cries and then he will eventually fall asleep with his water bottle under his arm. Other kids have blankets and stuffed animals. Garrett has a water bottle. If anybody else has any stories to share about my boys, email them to me and I will post them online. Enjoy the new pictures. There's a whole bunch. We've been really busy the past few months. We had a great time at the Roswell Art Festival and we really enjoyed the Pumpkin Patch at Washington Farms in Watkinsville. Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Henry will be 1 month old tomorrow. He is such a sweet, good baby (I hope I'm not cursing myself by saying that). He is getting a little spoiled from everybody holding him all the time, but that's ok. :-) Garrett is adjusting ok, although he gets jealous of Henry's baby stuff, like his baby bed and his blankets. He's developed an interest in bottles and pacifiers. Garrett never used a pacifier, but now he wants to play with Henry's all the time. But overall, Garrett is very sweet to the baby. He thinks Henry's birthmark on his forehead is a boo-boo, so he kisses it all the time. Thanks to Robert Adams Photography for another great photo shoot. Robert and his wife Dana are wonderful people and really work hard to create beautiful family memories for us. Garrett started school last week as well, so he's really got a lot to handle right now. It went ok. I think it was just as hard on me as it was on him. He goes 3 days a week for 3 hours a day at a local church. There's only 5 kids in his class and he's the only boy. On Thur, the teacher said he only cried for 20 minutes instead of the whole 3 hours, so that's an improvement. I'm really hoping he can spend some time around other kids and enjoy playing with them. Also, Garrett has some delayed speech problems, so hopefully, it will help him talk more. In the photos, Garrett loves wearing my mom's old apron. She had it in her kitchen and he just had to wear it. And then he found an old bib that he to wear with it. Now, when we go over there, he wants to put it on everytime. He's also lots more interested in what goes on in the kitchen. He wants to help me wash dishes and he loves to push the microwave buttons. Garrett has also learned how to WINK! It is the FUNNIEST face you have ever seen. He winks with his mouth and with his eyes. He's also started dancing and stomping. Overall, we're settling into our new routine pretty well. I'm doing great (I would kill for 8 solid hours of sleep, though). And Tommy's busy working - somebody's gotta buy all those diapers!
Saturday, August 18, 2007 - Henry finally arrived last week! I started having contractions Friday morning, but I waited as long as I could before going to the hospital. Tommy and I checked in at the hospital at 7pm and Henry was born at 9:56pm. Everything went very smoothly and a LOT easier than with Garrett. Henry is healthy and perfect. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. Garrett's not too sure about the whole situation and mostly ignores Henry, unless his Daddy picks him up. Then he's not happy at all. Enjoy the pics and we'll keep you updated! June 19, 2007 - It's been a few months since I last updated the site and Garrett has grown so much and so fast since then! This latest bunch of pics includes a trip down to the farm in South Georgia, Tommy's brother Robert's wedding and a trip to Ormond Beach near Daytona. Some of Garrett's latest accomplishments include shaking his head "no" at everything and learning how to flip the dead bolt on the door. And now we have child proof door knobs on everything. I'm doing great, just getting bigger every day. Only 7-8 weeks left now! March 25, 2007 - Garrett and I visited the Atlanta Zoo for the first time last Friday. We met my friend Jeanine and her sons, Luke and Silas at the gate and we all had a great time together. Garrett like looking at the animals, but he was most impressed by the petting zoo. He loved running around petting the goats and the sheep. And then he really loved the hand washing station. Garrett is obsessed with water, tubs, sinks, water hoses, sprinklers, watering cans, etc. He had a good time riding the carousel and train as well. Thanks to Jeanine for inviting us along! March 8, 2007 - Wow! It's been a long time since I've updated the site! We have some great news. Garrett is going to be a big brother sometime in August. We find out soon if he's going to have a little sister or brother. I'll try to do a better job and keep y'all updated. The new photos are mostly from our beach trip in January to St. George Island. We had a great time and we stayed in an awesome house with the Mobleys and the Gongorras. There were 4 toddlers 2 and under and one 3 month old, so it was never boring! Garrett had a lot of fun playing with Rayna, Francesca and Selma. There's also some pics from Christmas and from when we went to visit Cousin Evan at CHOA Hospital. And of course, photos of Garrett working with his Daddy. Garrett has been exposed to so many big machines that a little lawnmower just doesn't do it for him anymore. Although he still likes them a lot.
Here are some interesting activities of Garrett lately. *He likes to take off his shoes and just ONE sock and then puts that ONE sock on his hand and sits in his car seat with his arms crossed. I guess it's his security sock. He feels better with it on. *He wants to feed everything and everybody. He rubs his belly when he's hungry or when he thinks somebody else his hungry. He tries to feed his stuffed animals, animals in the books, and even cartoon characters on TV. He sticks his hand out to them and says "Foo(d)!" *"Da" is his favorite word and he talks about him constantly - ALL DAY LONG. As soon as Da gets home, Garrett wants his keys so he can start his play car and Tommy has to push him around the house a few times. Garrett won't even let him sit down first. *He knows when it's around 7pm at night. He will be playing with his Da and ignoring his Mommy, when all of a sudden, he comes and grabs Mommy's hand and pulls her upstairs to the bathroom door and says "Ba(th)!" *Garrett loves to draw on everything, including himself, Mommy, walls, garbage cans, etc . . . *Every morning when he wakes up, the first thing he wants to do is watch Little Einsteins on Disney. He points at the TV and he pats his legs. The Little Einsteins go "pat-pat-pat" to blast off in their rocket. *He's obsessed with Horses. He's ridden my grandmothers horse and my uncles horse and any time we pass a pasture with a horse he gets excited. When he sees his great grandmother Ruby, he doesn't bother with her, he only wants her horse. He has no fear of them either and we took him to a stable down the road and they let him ride for free. Of course, Mimi rode with him since Mommy can't in her "condition." *At his other great-grandmother's house, he is obsesssed with her refrigerator. Or I should say he's obsessed with the water dispenser. On his tip-toes, he can reach the dispenser and put water in his cup and all over the kitchen. Luckily, we figured out how to turn it off very quickly. *He loves going to Gymboree. He likes the play/gym time, but he's really not into the Music class. He loves the art class and he's really gotten good at playing with play-dough. *Garrett knows a little sign language that I taught him, but lately, he's been teaching me. He's invented his own language I think. When I tell him to say "please" he rubs his hands either on his ears or on his ribs. And when he wants play-dough, he rubs his hands together like he's making little play-dough worms. December 12, 2006 - Just a few more of Garrett's quirks: He thinks any food you give him to eat is "hot," even if it's a grape out of the fridge! He will tell you it's hot and then he wants you to blow on it and then he will blow on it and then he will eat it. He also wants to share all his food with anyone near by, especially animals. I guess since he sees me sharing my food, he wants to feed everybody, too. He's also tries very hard to help me with the laundry. He loves throwing things in his laundry basket in his room. I always have to go through it very carefully before I just throw the clothes in the washer. And he loves carrying around my big wooden laundry basket full of clothes. He will carry it up and down the hallway, pulling out clothes and putting them in random places around the house. This is his way of "putting up the clothes." December 11, 2006 - Garrett is almost 18 months old now! Time flies! He's really developing a lot of new skills at this age. He's gotten really good at his "naughty" dance. He does this kind of dance where he cuts his eyes and you and kinda jogs in place and grins when he know he's done something he shouldn't do. He's also obsessed with trash bags and garbage cans. He gets so excited when I take out the kitchen trash. He has to follow me to the door to put it in the big trash can outside and then he runs, runs, runs to the cabinet where I keep the box of trash bags and he runs around and squeals when I put the new bag in the trash can. One of his other favorite activities is walking my mom's dog, Boo. He loves putting Boo's leash on her and taking her outside. I'm not sure who's walking who, Garrett walking Boo or Boo walking Garrett. One of my next babyproof investments will be a toilet seat lock. Sometimes the bathroom door gets "accidently" left open (no names blamed), and certain household items find themselves floating in the toilet! Some of the items found: Mommy's boot, Mommy's keys, Daddy's socks, a hand towel. We have put up a big Christmas tree and so far the baby corral/fence we have put around it has deterred the little troublemaker, but everyday he gets closer to figuring it out. I just know my tree will be destroyed before the big day! October 5, 2006 - Garrett is now 15 months old and turning into quite a handful! I thought I would update y'all on some of his daily activities. I'll start in the morning: he loves when I use the blender (every morning I make a smoothie) and he makes "vroomvroom" noises whenever it comes on. BUT he HATES the mixer when I make cakes, etc., (not very often). The mixer really scares him. Also, in the kitchen, he loves me to hold him when I cook and he likes to help stir. He is obsessed with the dishwasher and I have tried the safety device to stop him from opening it, but it didn't fool him. He loves turning the knob and hearing the dishwasher come on. He likes to knock on the oven door and peer inside. I think he might be a garbage man when he grows up. He is always trying to get into the trash can and he wants to throw his toys into it. He is also obsessed with the toilet paper rolls on the wall. The next investment will be something to keep him from pulling it all out! He loves when I turn on the hair dryer and I always have to blow his hair too. At first he runs away from it, but then he'll run to me and pull on my leg until I blow his hair too. Every morning, he has to lay on his stomach on the floor and peer underneath our bed to say hello to the kitty cats. But, outside is definitely his favorite place to be! As soon as he finishs eating in the morning, he runs and gets his shoes and I have to put them on and then he runs really fast and brings me my shoes and then he runs really fast over to the backdoor! He's so cute! He also loves to fake cough. Anytime anyone makes a sound even remotely resembling a cough, he will cough back! And he keeps coughing until someone laughs at him. Everytime I sneeze, he coughs, too. August 8, 2006 - I have had lots of requests to update the site and I made time (over two hours) to add lots and lots more pics to the mix! Garrett is changing so fast every day! I hope everyone enjoys the pics and make sure to leave a comment! June 14, 2006 - Finally! I just finished uploading new pictures. The photos date all the way back to April. We've been really busy since then. Included in the bunch are pics from Rayna's 2nd Birthday Party and Garrett's other girlfriends, Francesca and Selma, 1st Birthday Party. In May, we also got to spend time with Tommy's sister and her husband, Lizette and Sean. They were visiting from San Diego and we had an awesome time with them. This was their first time meeting Garrett and we all had a blast. We just got back this week from a week at the beach with Tommy's mom and dad. We were all the way down at Ormond Beach, near Daytona. Garrett loved it! He loved playing in the sand and swimming in the pool. I think he looks especially cute in his bathing suit, but I got a lot of comments from people on the beach thinking he was a girl. I don't think his suit looks girly, but his daddy agrees that it is sissy looking. It's just such a great suit for keeping away the sunburn! Garrett is still not walking on his own yet, but I know it will be any day now. At ten months old, he received his first bottom tooth and last week, he had two top teeth come in. So now he has 3! He's eating well and he absolutley LOVES blueberries. He knows what the container looks like and if I take it out of the fridge, he goes crazy! We're so excited about his birthday and I promise to update more quickly next time! March 27, 2006 - I just thought I would share some of Garrett's daily activities and events. He's learned sooo many things this past month. He's definitely getting more active every day. He can move anywhere he wants. He pulls up to his knees now and this morning, he pulled up on his feet in his crib! When he's crawling, he'll get frustrated and pushes up on his tip toes with his bottom in the air! It's also neat how he knows exactly how to push his hand/arms through the shirt holes now, too. He loves the bath and is fascinated with the drain in the bottom of the tub, no matter how many toys are in the water with him, he wants to try to reach the drain! He loves the tupperware cabinet - it's the only way I get supper done nowadays. He imitates people now, too. If you cough, he'll cough. He has his first phone conversation with Mimi by doing that! She coughed on the other end and he coughed back! Garret is SLEEPING!! It is a miracle. For those of you who don't know, Garrett has not slept through the night since he was 3 months old. And even then, he only slept through the night for about 2 weeks. And we're not talking about only waking up once or twice. He would wake up every 1 -1.5 hours and if I was lucky, he would sleep for three hours straight. And then wake up screaming forever. But all this changed last week! He went to bed at 8pm and he slept until almost 5am! So, we pray that this time it will last and he will have normal sleep habits the rest of his life! Garrett still has NO teeth. But you can tell his gums bother him. He wants to chew and gnaw on everything. He's doing okay eating the baby food, but he really wants to chomp down on something. He loves mashed potatoes, which I learned at a church dinner with my grandmother. I think he could have eaten a huge pot by himself. My other grandmother (Uce) gave him a teething cracker to gnaw on and he loved it. Then he had a pickle with us at lunch and sucked it dry! He's doing better with the crawling and now he can sit himself up when he's laying down. He also can rock back and forth on his knees. Now, when I go to the crib when he's crying, he's just sitting there crying instead of rolling around. We'll be lowering that crib mattress real soon. The whole house is his obstacle course now and it is his goal to find the smallest bit of dirt or crumb in the carpet and go after it. And heaven forbid if you should try to take it out of his fingers - he gets so upset and cries about a little piece of crumb! He also likes to go up to the spring on the wall behind the door (I have no idea what its called). He pulls the spring off the wall and tries to stick it in his mouth! Tommy had to remount it to the base board! Garrett is crawling! And getting into everything. It's kinda like an army crawl - he's not totally up on his knees yet, but he can push himself up with his arms. He almost found the kitty food bowl the other day. He's also eating more foods now and if he sees anybody else eating, he has to have something too. He likes gnawing on carrots and eating strawberries in his mesh food bag. But still NO teethies! He's definitely trying though! Healthwise, he's doing better, but he still has a runny nose from a cold. If he even sees a tissue, he starts screaming. He hates having his nose wiped. Garrett also still does not sleep through the night. We've tried everything. He screams for hours and still doesn't fall asleep. Oh well, maybe one night soon we'll all get some rest! We went to a wedding last weekend in Helen for my boss, Dave Mobley. It was a beautiful wedding and fun reception. And Dave's new wife Karen looked radiant. Garrett was really good the whole time and had lots of fun dancing on the floor with his girlfriends, Skylar, Rayna and Kayley. Then, Garrett had his first hotel stay in downtown Helen and hopefully did not wake up too many guests screaming in the middle of the night. The next morning, there was snow on the ground and it was really pretty. Mommy is sick. I have the flu now. Garrett is staying at Mimi's house and I miss him sooooo much! But I don't want to risk him getting sick again. I feel awful. Even my teeth hurt. The past few weeks have been busy for us. I turned 30 a few weekends ago and Allison and Tommy gave me a wonderful surprise birthday party. I was totally surprised. The next day(Sunday) we all went down to the Aquarium. It was really nice and Garrett LOVED looking at the fish, but it was way too crowded. We will have to go back during the week sometime. Garrett's little friend Grayson came to visit and they had fun playing and laughing with each other. Grayson is only four weeks younger than Garrett and his mommy Jessica is my sister's best friend since third grade, so we're hoping that the boys can be best friends too. Garrett seems to be the instigator and was really pulling hard on Grayson's hair, but then Grayson found Garrett's ear and evened the score. The "G" Boys definitely had fun together. Enjoy all the new pics!
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