Adios!

No new pictures, just a quick post to say we are off tomorrow for 8 days in Costa Rica, ALONE :-) We're really looking forward to some quality time together again. It seems like we JUST went to St. John, but Brad and I were reflecting on the fact that it has actually been 4+ months since we got back. It will be at LEAST 2 years before we get away again for anything major, I would imagine. But that's okay--kids grow up too fast to get too hung up in getting away.

We had a nice weekend, spent mostly cleaning and packing. We went out to breakfast on Saturday and that was nice. Garrett was an absolute gem at IHOP, he hasn't been that good eating out in forever. I got some mommy time when I got my hair bobbed (seriously, I have NO blonde left, I had forgotten how DARK my hair is naturally). Then Garrett got his 2nd professional haircut ever (first with clippers) and did great. He fussed at first, but then he sat on my lap and was content.

I always end up posting how fun he is, and I have to do it again. He's just an absolute blast right now. He is speaking SO much, he "walks" his toys, will strap blue puppy in the stroller and take him for a "walk", will beg to go swimming from the moment he wakes up, and will love on Haylee and Aspen like nothing else. Well, he loves on Aspen anyway . . . he tries with Haylee, but she won't have it. He's in love with milk shakes, but calls them "Ice shakes" because to him, Ice cream is the primary ingredient. Every morning involves cereal and cheese now, he LOVES Apple jacks ever since by little bro came to visit a few weeks back.

Yesterday he ran around the house, non-stop, at full tilt, just to be running. When he throws something to you, or would like you to chase him, he now says "Ready, Set, GO!!!". At night when we read, he insists his daddy or I cover up with one of his blankets while we read in bed, then asks for kisses for as long as we will give them. The other night he requested "Haylee, kiss! Aspen, kiss" so the doggies had to give him one too.

I know he is going to have a great time when we're gone, seeing how I have had to DRAG him out of the Crider house at least 2 times today. He wanted to stay and play after church, and he wanted to go over for dinner. "Inside, eat, play!" he demanded. So yeah, he'll be fine. Hopefully Haylee and Aspen will be too--I know they miss us. I honestly don't think Garrett will miss us at all . . . he really loves his "Isa, Shull, Randon, Mar mar, and Cair!"

I'm going to try and keep a travel journal this trip, and transfer it to the blog when I get home. I'm so overwhelmed by all the things there are to do in Costa Rica, I just want to REMEMBER what we did and what we did/didn't like . . .

I just hope I don't miss my little guy too much. When we went away in December, I was so desperate for a break I didn't miss him all that much until half way through our trip. This time around, he is so much more fun and less work (especially since the number of dirty diapers is down to 3ish a day, gotta love PT!). But I am sure Brad and I will find a way to survive.

So, until May--ADIOS!! By this time tomorrow, we will be chillin' in CR. :-)

Another Busy Day.

Everglades and the mall today. The kids had a blast. Turtles and gators make Garrett and the Crider clan very happy :-) Garrett would go "OHHH Turtle, see him!" whenever he would see a turtle, and a similar variation with "'Gader" for the alligators.

When we came across the third one (yes, he is partially across the walkway!), though, he felt the need to say " 'saur, roar!!" . . . He thought it was a dinosaur rather than an alligator, probably because he could have reached out and touched him.





At the mall, I got some adorable tanks at Lane Bryant (love shopping there because their clothes are long enough to cover the ever increasing belly, and I just buy a size larger than what I need. The quality is much better than Motherhood Maternity). I took the kids on the carousel and kicked myself for not bringing the camera in, then after the fact remembered I have a CAMERA PHONE. Grrr. Next time. Garrett was so excited to be on the "Horsie!," he was excited as soon as we saw it. Part of the reason he even got to ride on it was because after his excitement, he was willing to walk by and go play at the playground. Big improvement in the understanding department!

Spent the rest of the day doing laundry and cleaning. I'm waiting for a software key from work, so I'll do a bunch this weekend once I have it before we go. Not totally slacking off, just can't do much until I get the software key!

4 Cs and the Zoo

3 Criders kids + 1 Compton kid = 4 Cs :-) We went to the zoo today . . . my neighbors went on a cruise to celebrate a major anniversary milestone, and their three youngest are in my charge for most of the day. They are a blast! I've never really been one to want a large family, but hanging out with this family (the kiddos and their parents) makes me want one sometimes.

Garrett passed out in the car on the way there (the only way I can get him to nap--he naps for Brad JUST FINE on the weekends), so he slept for a little while when we first arrived. We spent the entire afternoon and didn't get too far. I can't tell you how OBSERVANT these kids are. They have a really strong appreciation for everything they see, which just isn't common in "young 'uns" these days. It was fun to listen to their excitement over everything, from yet another typical lizard to some exotic bird in the aviary. Total picture overload ensues.

Small miracle--napping Garrett.
He has who knows what on his face (I think a combo of chicken nuggetts, a slim jim, and sherbert!!)

Claire, Randon (so serious) and Mark (who Garrett calls Marmar) feeding the birds

White Bengal Tiger. These guys are nocturnal, so it was cool to see one up, even for a little while. I LOVE my camera, this guy was far away, and the lens brought him almost close enough to touch!

Cute Cs on an elephant (G still napping!)

Garrett woke up and we went into the indoor reptile exhibit. Its the second time we've been there in April, and Garrett LOVES it. He proclaimed that the juvenille alligators were "awefome" (awesome, a Crider clan choice exclaimation) and kept getting excited about the "Snake, snake" whenever we saw one. Then it was off to the aviary, which is probably my favorite place at the zoo. It has a cool water exhibit at the beginning, and then a fabulous habitat with 300 rare asian birds walking around like you aren't there. They were feeding the birds while we were there, so the kids got to see them really close up. And spring was definately in the air, there were nests everywhere. I couldn't take as many pictures of the birds as I would have liked, since Garrett discovered he could dunk under the rope and get into the areas that were NOT meant for little almost-2-year-olds! Oh, and did I mention he tries to climb EVERYTHING!?? Anyway, back to the pictures.

Turtle! Garrett says excitedly.

I have a similar picture of this from Garrett's first trip to the zoo, about 11 months ago. Click here to view it and others, and marvel at the change! That's something I've been doing ALOT as his second birthday looms.

I love Garrett's expression in this one. It's pretty much how he lights up whenever he thinks he is going to get to spend some time with anyone from this family :-)

Picture dump from the phone

I finally got around to pulling the pictures I have taken off my phone.

Jumping into the pool

Potty time in the back of the Yukon

Riding with Blue Puppy @ Home Depot

Sleeping with my new favorite toy in the car

Clean up your mess!

Garrett asked for ice in a cup this AM, which he mostly spilled on the floor, then asked for more. I told him to clean up his mess and then MAYBE he could have more. Right now he has a little cleaning brush his Grandma Sherry gave him and is cleaning the floor. I asked him what he was doing, and he said "Water, cleanup mess!!" (The ice had turned to water). He is hilarious, to say the least!

Updates and a few pictures

I have been really bad about updating (and taking pictures) over the past week or so. Things just don't EVER really seem to slow down here. This week was a whirl-wind.

Our community pool finally opened, and I was there pretty much every day (Monday-Wednesday) with Garrett and Claire (the little neighbor girl), and sometimes the older kids and their mom too. We've had an absolute blast, and Garrett is a SWIMMING MACHINE. He loves to jump in and is SO close to actually being able to tread water. Now when he jumps in, he intentionally misses his noodle, and will go underwater for a smidgen of a second before he surfaces again. Then he proceeds to sink like a rock :-) Small steps! He is great at the pool though, he will wait for me when I ask him to, so that I can always be right there where he needs me to be. If we go to the pool even twice a week, I expect he will be swimming proficiently by the time baby #2 arrives.

Speaking of Baby #2, I don't think I've written much on the subject. I was 18 weeks on Friday. So far, the net weight gain is still zero, thanks to losing 9lbs in my first trimester between morning sickness and the flu. Here's a picture of G and I from a birthday party on Thursday with our playgroup (taken by our Org Haydee, by the way!). I have broken out some of the maternity clothes because they are so darn cute, but my regular jeans are still fitting. I feel a little movement. We next see the midwife in early May after we get back from Costa Rica.

Garrett's just too much fun. His new thing is saying "Thank you, welcome! Thank you, welcome!" Since he reliably says "Pease" and "Thank you", I started working on getting him to say "You're welcome" . . . the result is he is having a dialog with himself. He has also been hilarious with his blue puppy. He insists that Blue Puppy have a blanket at night, and when we took him to Home Depot the other day he had to strap the puppy in next to him in the car/shopping cart. I have a picture of that on my new cell phone (explained below), so as soon as I dump the pictures from that I will have to post it. He just says SO much right now, and is such a character. He is OBSESSED with all things water and/or swimming related. He's drinking out of a big boy cup (without straw or lid) with limited spills. Oh, and he points to all the crabs in our aquarium and says "crap, crap!" Not sure why the B is a P, but he can't seem to get it to come out right. *Sigh*, there's only so much you can do!

I had to get a new cell phone this week--Garrett dumped mine in the dog water dish a while back, and it has been on the fritz ever since. It finally croaked. On the upside, I got a new phone that actually DOES cool things other than making phone calls. I had my old phone for something like 3-4 years, and it did NOTHING other than make calls!! The new one has a camera built in, and plays MP3s. Fantastic, I love it! I can listen to music at the pool or when I am working. And I have the ability to take fun pictures of the kiddo even when I don't lug the big SLR around. Granted, the quality won't be anywhere near as good, but its fun for documenting those silly things he does! And I can sych it with T-mobile, which allows me to keep track of my contacts should my phone *ever* find its way to the dog water bowl again!

One more picture from our Thursday birthday party--Garrett "discussing" something with Haydee's son Tommy. I promise to take more pictures this week. I have my neighbors kids until Friday while they are on their cruise, and then next Monday Brad and I are off to Costa Rica--woot!

Cooking with Daddy (4/5)

Garrett insists Brad make him pancakes EVERY weekend. He usually will eat two (sometimes more) of his "cakes". Here they are last weekend working on them together. I was SO freaked out Garrett was going to burn himself, but he kept pointing to the oven and pans and saying HOT! And then, of course, "Cakes!" and "Yummy!". I swear, I can't keep shirts on EITHER of my boys.

PT successes

Today was an awesome day for potty training. Garrett had zero accidents, despite an hour and a half long outing to get our ID card for the new clubhouse (opening Monday, woot!). I took his potty along, and when I got an affirmative that he needed to pee, we just went to the bathroom. He even did it with his shoes on and his pants around the ankles (seriously, this SOUNDS like nothing, but he always insists I take everything off!!) And he started trying to pull down his own undies. So major steps today!

The major *downside* today was me pushing him home in the stroller, on our RETURN trip from the clubhouse, with him screaming "SWIMMIN', SWIMMIN'" because he did not get to use the lovely pools at the clubhouse. If only a 2 year old could comprehend CLOSED. It was cloudy here, but cleared up in the late afternoon. we started to fill the pool, but SOMEONE insisted on spraying a fully clothed mommy with the water hose, which resulted in me taking the hose away from that someone. Temper tantrum ensued, tired mommy got annoyed, so we ended up back inside with major tears and throwing-myself-on-the-ground tantrum. Garrett, not me of course!

As I mentioned in my last post, this has been a nutty week for work. We spent all day out on Monday, and I worked while Garrett took his nap. We're busy prepping two posters for a national science meeting, plus a talk for next week. I've never been so glad for Friday to come, just because it means I might get 40 minutes to work without feeling like I am ignoring my poor kid or missing out on a nap. Thank GOD for the pool though, I have been able to get so much done while Garrett plays in that thing! We put a tie-out for the dogs in the backyard, so they can also enjoy the time outside without me having to worry about where they are all the time. They both love it--Aspen prefers the shade, and Haylee loves laying in the sun.

Garrett has officially started playing with his food. He was "driving" his bread across the table at dinner tonight, and spinning his portion of tomato on his finger. So we have to start the whole "take a bite or lose it" routine. He's already learning to keep his food in the kitchen, because I am so DONE with trying to clean juice and various other substances off my carpet. Thank goodness for the Dyson and my steam cleaner! That steam cleaner removed 2 day old OJ from my carpet last week . . . a fantastic thing!

Anyhoo, that's all for now. For all the family I haven't called back this week--I'm sorry. It's just been too crazy for words!!

Crazy week

Tons of work+toddler who refuses to nap+no car+no babysitter=tired, busy momma.

Here's some pics of our trip to My Gym on Monday to tide everyone over until I have time to post more! He had fun, and was a bit of a daredevil. At one point he was climbing a wooden ladder, mounted to the wall, that went no where. My crazy boy.