Success!

Garrett put himself to sleep without me in the room (with less than a minute of crying) last night. I wasn't planning on leaving him, but he was all over the place in his crib and just chatting away, so I decided to go out for a little bit to see what he would do. He also had an awsome night, he was only up twice and then when we left for work today. He has been napping GREAT today, too. Yay for the Sleep Lady.

8 months today

Its so hard to believe that Garrett is 8 months old today. Time has certainly flown. In one more month, he will have been on the outside of this world for as long as he was "cooking!" Now that is amazing.

He has hit so many milestones this month. He is really crawling, pulling up on EVERYTHING, able to get into a sitting position on his own. He said babyfood is for the birds and has transistioned almost completely to real table food. He still only gets one meal a day though, plus some cheerios, but that's all me. After a year, we can worry about all the ins and outs of a well-balanced solids diet, but for now its all about the milk. He loves fresh fruit (especially kiwi) and always wants to eat if he sees someone else eating.

With his new mobility, our monthly "couch" picture was a bit of a challenge today. He kept trying to crawl off of it. So this might be the last one of those, we'll see. Sleep training is going great, tonight it took him 7 minutes to fall asleep. Hopefully within a few weeks I can put him in and leave him to put himself to sleep. But for now I sit in the middle of the room until he is asleep. Its definately better than it was.

Not much else to report today. I spent the majority of the day passed out in bed catching up on some much needed sleep. Garrett spent the day with Daddy--they planted palm trees in the back yard, went to the fruit stand, and grilled dinner. Much needed break for mommy!

Busy weekend!

These pics are from 1/22. I think it was the first day he decided it would be fun to climb under the chair. It was quiet entertaining when he tried to stand up under it. That didn't work out to well. Anyway, I uploaded two new videos to YouTube, to get to them just click the link to the left that says "Utter Chaos on YouTube". I think you can subscribe to my webchannel, which basically means they will email you when new stuff is uploaded. But then, I know most of you check this thing pretty religiously anyway!

Brad and I spent the majority of the day working on our landscaping. My boss was kind enough to offer us some plants from his beautiful tropical yard. We pulled up the rest of the original landscaping in the front, put in new topsoil and planted a bunch of stuff, and added rock. Need more rock. Dr. Brand also gave us some palms for the back yard, tiny little guys but they will be big soon enough. On top of that, we also both had various duties to do for our property owner's association. That is always keeping us busy these days. And of course there is little Mr. I-don't-need-to-take-a-nap. The sleep stuff is going well--tonight was pretty easy, he only fussed for a little while. He was up at 11, and was so tired he kept standing up, then falling and folding in half. He is so sleep deprived lately, but doesn't want to miss anything. And he sure does love his puppies. When we were working in the yard today, I put his pack'n'play in the x-pen, he just sat there and talked to them. Sooo glad they get along.

Well, in about 12 hours, my little man will be 8 months old. Where does the time go?? My friend's son turns a year old on the 28th. Unbeliveable. Well, off to bed I go. Hopefully Garrett will sleep most of the night. (Yeah, right!)

Reallly Rotten Baby!

No pics, sorry Grandmas. But I do have to share my adventures in sleep training. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry :-D Anyway, I started putting Garrett to bed earlier today--I figured it took him an hour and a half, all in all, to get to sleep--we started at 6:30, he was asleep by 8 last night. My thinking was if I tried to put him down a little earlier, he would actually FALL ASLEEP when he needed to. Silly me. He just went to bed and its 9, we started at 6!! Before you think "Poor baby cried for 3 hours," read the rest of this. Last night he fussed for about an hour, then played for 30 minutes. Wellll, tonight, he played for 15, fussed for 30, played for another 15, took the shortest cat nap humanly imaginable. Then he stood up in his crib, fussed a little more, and proceeded to carry on an hour long conversation with Aspen and Haylee, who were laying by me feet. When Aspen would stand up to get some pets, Garrett would reach out to pet him. No joke. He would occassionally fall over from standing, and the poor tyke was so tired he would fall flat on his face and fall asleep for about 10 seconds, then immediately stand up and chat with the pups some more. I finally pried his little hands off the top of his crib, laid him down and rubbed his back for 30 seconds and he was out. At least he didn't cry much tonight. Clearly puppies are not helpful in getting your baby to sleep!! It was so funny, I couldn't keep from laughing . . . .

Shopping with Cody

Here is picture of Garrett and his friend Cody sharing a shopping cart at BabiesRus a few weeks ago. Thanks Adrianne for the pic! Cody's 1st birthday is just a few days away!!

Sorry I haven't been more diligent about getting photos up. We are still trying to get caught up from our vacation. I have a couple of cute new videos to upload, and a few pics of Garrett too. He is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. He can crawl on his hands and knees, but seems to still prefer his crazy commando crawl. Last night we started working on sleep training . . . Garrett stopped sleeping through the night at 5 months, and has been getting progressively worse. Here lately it has been a battle of wills to put him down for anything--naps, bedtime, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night. We are using a method developed by the "Sleep Lady" Kim West, it's laid out in a book called "Good Night, Sleep Tight". Last night went okay, I slept on the floor in Garrett's room. Now THAT was fun. Haylee curled up on my sleeping bag and kept me company. That's it for now--back to work!

Video

Check out Garrett's latest YouTube video, a vacation slideshow with video clips, by clicking here

Theres more

More pics where these came from--Brad took six roles of great pictures, we just need to scan some of them in. And I have another YouTube video coming. But things have been nuts since we got home, between work and the house and other committments. But hopefully we will get the rest up soon.

In other news, Garrett is pulling up on everything. He has been standing in his crib the last couple times I have come in to get him. He gets terribly frustrated if he can not stand IMMEDIATELY. He even stands up while nursing, its quiet a sight! Anyway, more to come!

Leinster Bay Plantation

Yet another awsome spot on the island is Waterlemon Cay/Leinster Bay. This is another spot you can only get to by foot--its a .8 mile walk along the shoreline from the Annaberg plantation ruins. Just inland from the walking trail, there are some extensive, but overgrown, ruins of the Leinster Bay Plantation. Brad joked that we needed a machete to explore these ruins, it was incredibly overgrown. The section for this plantation in the book said "Go back into the bush" to find the ruins. Again, we had to abandon the hiking backpack, and AGAIN I forgot my sling!! At any rate, these were some awsome ruins. The first image is of the water tower, the second is Brad and Garrett infront of one of the plantation's 3 wells. There was so much more of this plantation to see, but it was too overgrown. Next time we will go armed with pants and longsleeve shirts (and maybe a machete!!)

A little further up the trail (or rather a new trail), we came across the ruins of an old guardhouse, which boasted a spectacular view of the waterway between USVI and BVI.

Ruins at Brown Bay

Brown Bay is one of the most secluded spots on St. John. It can only be reach by a 0.8 mile hike over one of St. John's steep "hills". Because it is such a shallow embayment, the big yachts can not anchor there, so when you go, you are usually alone. Last time we went to St. John, we snorkled the waters surrounding the bay. This time, we went to check out the ruins.

The ruins at Brown Bay are some of the most extensive to be found on the island. If you ever go to St. John, pick up a book called "St. John: Off the Beaten Track"--it tells you all of the best places to go that you would otherwise not know about. To get here, we walked along the shoreline, following an overgrown trail. The brush was so thick that we had to abandon the hiking backpack for a while because we wouln't fit with it (and silly me forgot my sling--
I really don't know how anyone lives without one of those!)

The ruins were overgrown, but beautiful. (can you see Brad in the pic to the left?) Garrett was so exhausted after a day of exploring that he zonked out in the hiking backpack on the way back--this is what he looked like when I set the backpack on the ground to get him in the car. True to form, he woke up as soon as I moved him. He was such a good boy though, apparently he really likes exploring ruins!

Daddy and Garrett @ Cinnamon Bay

Local wildlife

Wild donkeys and goats--St. Johns most commonly seen wildlife. We saw alot of donkeys along the beach this trip. When Garrett and I were walking to the beach at Cinnamon Bay following a nap in the car, a little baby laid down in the sand in front of us and had a good ole role. They aren't at all skiddish around people

Ruins

In the 1700s and beyond, St. John was used extensively to produce sugar. The ruins of the old sugar plantations cover the entire island. These pics are from the Cinnamon bay plantation, which is right next to one of St. John's three whole roads!

Spectacular views

Sandy Baby

Mmmm, sand was fun, and tasted good! I think we are still removing sand from ourselves

Entertainment

Every night, the six of us would gather aound the table and watch Garrett crawl around on it. He loved being the center of attention

Water Baby

We were a little worried that Garrett wouldn't like swimming in the ocean, since he had never been before. We went to Francis Bay our first day on the island, and he wasn't too thrilled with it. When we went to another beach the next day, he was tenative at first, but by the end of the day, he was having the best time playing in the sand and water. He loved to float around in his little boat, would stick his face in the water while trying to reach his toes, and basically smiled all day long. Good--don't know what we would do with a baby who didn't like the water!

Little Paradise

We're back! We had an awsome time, and Garrett was such a good boy. He loved having both his Grandmas, his Nana, and his Aunt Steph to fuss over him. Gave mommy and daddy a chance for some much needed Rand R. It is just crazy how much stuff there is to do on such a small island--this is the 3rd time Brad and I have gone, and its not like we went to do the same thing twice any time. I have so many pictures, Idon't know how we will ever share them all. Working on a photo/video thing for Youtube of Garrett at the beach. Anyhoo, it was a bummer to come home, and Brad and I were having a hard time driving on the right side of the road after thinking "LEFT" the whole time we were in St. John!
<-Four generations of Comptons

Buh byeeeee

In about sixteen hours, I will be HERE. :-D No traffic!! No noisey nighbors! And not a care in the world!! This is the view from the house. **ahhh, I can feel the stress melting away already!!

It's so quiet

I took the dogs to my friends house this evening to stay while we are in St. John. Its so quiet, and a little lonely without them here. While I was uploading Garrett's latest pics, I happened upon these, taken in December of '04, back when my big grey boy was just a tiny bit bigger than his sister. It seems like a completely different time--we were still in our apartment!! (One place I certainly don't miss). My friend, Maria, who watches the dogs while we are gone has 2 kids--her youngest just turned 4. It goes by sooo fast, Garrett is going to be a big boy in no time, just like Aspen has gone from this little pup to a big monster :-D I miss my pups already!

Another couch pic

Belated 7 month pics

I finally am getting around to posting pictures from when he turned 7 months. This cutie outfit is from his Great-uncle Saeid and his family.

Uh oh, the time has come

I've been fearing it for sooo long. Garrett is definately 100% mobile and looking for trouble. This evening on the changing table he went from laying down to sitting up all on his own. Earlier today he crawled over to Aspen not once, not twice, but three times, to ask if he wanted to share his bone. Thankfully, Aspen declined very politely! Good dog, Aspen. He's squealing, squacking, crawling (commando, still) and rrying to pull up on everything. I am never going to be able to keep up!! Its fun, but scary. . . if I turn my back for a second, he is in to something new.

Garrett and Cody

Cody is my friend Adrianne's son. We worked together before we had our boys (lucky girl gets to stay home now!!) and were pregnant together too. Cody is 4 months, to the day older than Garrett, and will be celebrating his first birthday in a few weeks. We took the boys to the mall a few days afer Christmas . . . Adrianne (who always is on the ball and remembers her camera) took these. Cody is walking now, and had a tough time sitting still. Looks like Garrett is holding him down. :-D

Plaster + 7 month old = Pain in the butt!

My mother-in-law got us this cute ornament keepsake--its plaster, and you make an imprint of your child's hand. Yeah, sounds cute. But has anyone ever TRIED to do this with a baby? Garrett thought it was great fun . . . he squished it in his fingers (that made a WONDERFUL imprint, let me tell you), tried to eat it, and attempted to "splash" in it. I finally gave up and made one of his foot. :-D Maybe next year it will be easier. But I don't recommend it with a baby!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Compton household. Nothing fabulous happened here . . .Brad actually made it till midnight! In 5 short days, we will be in St. John, soaking up the sun with plenty of babysitters :-D

May 2007 bring many happy moments for you!