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!