"Picture!"

I had the camera out yesterday to take pictures of something around the house. As soon as Garrett sees it, he starts saying "Picture, picture!" I took one of him, but that wasn't enough. "More picture!" What a ham. Of course, he was butt naked during this impromptu photo session. Oh, how fun it will be embarassing him with those pictures in his teenage and adult years :-) I was trying to get a good one of him kissing his blue puppy.

The night training continues to go well. We've had a few nights where he has slept through, but usually he is up at least once a night. But it sure is nice not to have to deal with diapers at all. Naps are out the window again, and he is a major crab because of it. Just when I think I have him figured out, just *a little*, he has to go and change things.

My Gym on Monday

Grandma Compton took Garrett to My Gym on Monday. I stayed home and slept . . . I just can't get enough rest right now! They had such a great time, and Grandma managed to not get lost in Miami--woot! Thanks to Haydee, our playgroup organizer, for the great pictures!

3 Generations of Compton Men. . .

Brad's parents came for a fairly impromtu visit this past weekend. Grandpa Compton can never seem to get off work, and hasn't been here since December. He only stayed for few days, but Grandma Compton is still here . . . its a nice help, since I am so pooped and have NO energy these days.

Brad HATES having his picture taken, so I had to BRIBE HIM to get him to do this. Garrett was super cranky, and also had to be bribed. By the end of it, this is what I had to work with!! Gotta love the face!

Nick and Lindsey's Visit

Here's Garrett with Nick and Lindsey's two oldest girls, Avery and Sage., from July 18th (Pardon the gross recliner--its so ugly, but MAN is that thing comfortable!) Garrett loved playing with the girls, even though we had no A/C . . . they ran around the house like a bunch of crazy people!

32 Week Belly Picture

I'm so far behind on posting pictures . . . I'll be 34 weeks on Thursday, but here is my tummy at 32 weeks.

All is well with Baby #2. I've been super tired lately and have had zippo energy, so we've stuck close to home pretty much all month. Its so HOT outside and the bugs are terrible, so its no great loss. Garrett is perfectly content playing around at home and just chilling out. We've been watching way too much TV, but oh well. I'm sure once we feel like going out again, he won't miss the TV a bit.

In the meantime, I am glad we have so many toys around the house!

Night training??!!

Soooo, Garrett's sleep routine has been pretty crappy for the past 6-8 weeks or so, but is SLOWLY improving. We can leave his room once we put him to bed, but he has to be able to see us in our room or he won't fall to sleep. He's still waking up 2-3 times a night, but I can walk him back to bed and he will go right back to sleep when I tuck him in. This is an improvement because I have been spending a LOT of time laying on his floor while he goes to sleep. That wasn't fun at all, especially not when you are as pregnant as I am. At any rate, he has been peeing whenever he wakes up for a while now. The past 4 nights, he has been dry when he gets up in the morning. Since we only have one diaper left, we decided to give undies a try last night . . . and he managed to stay dry. He was up twice, but went to the potty both times. If he's going to be up anyway, I'd rather just keep him in undies. He was so proud of himself for all of it too. We'll see how the next few nights go, but its looking like he might just be night trained. I wasn't expecting this any time soon, that's for sure!

I don't know what's up with the night time wakings . . . if its just a part of this seperation anxiety he seems to be having (which may or may not be related to the fact that he seems to know CHANGE is in the air due to impending baby), a part of his "scary" phase, or if he just worries about peeing at night, diaper or not. But we'll see. I will say it has been several weeks since he has gone with no nap, which is a major improvement in the sleep department as well, so I have hope his night time habits will get better.

At any rate, I am just in utter shock that I have a little boy who is not yet 26 months old, but is potty trained, day and night. Cool!

"Doin' stuff!"

This is Garrett's new favorite phrase when we ask him to do something and he is busy with something else. Its too cute.

I have pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet. Not many--Nick and Lindsay came for a visit on Friday with their 3 kids, which Garrett loved. Our A/C went out at the same time, which was just tons of fun. Poor Brad ended up fixing it at 2am, after the coils had finally thawed out . . . it was frozen, and that's why it wasn't working.

Oh, and my wonderful husband finally bought me a hammock! Yay. It makes the back yard all that much more fun. I've been wanting one for ages.

Baby Conversation . . .

One of our friends, Steve and Callie in NM, had a baby last month. We recently got the birth announcement for him and it was hanging on the 'fridge. The conversation went like this.

G: Baby!
Me: Yes, baby Joshua.
G: See Baby!
Me: Would you like to hold baby's picture?
G: Yes, hold baby Josh!
(I give him the picture)
Me: Would you like a baby?
G: Yes! Baby SISTER!! (??)
Me: You want a sister?
G: Yes, I want baby sister!
Me: What about a baby brother?
G: Uhhh, Baby sister!

He seems convinced we're having a girl. I used to swear BOY, but at this point, I haven't a clue! He's still carrying the baby announcement around. :-)

We've officially entered the inquisitive stage

Every other sentence is "what dat?"

And G man is speaking in complete sentences these days. "I want milk" "Mommy, come play!" "Where is Daddy?" Its super cute. Sorry I STILL haven't taken any pictures!

A new all time low in bedtime stalling

Garrett informed me "Change Blue puppy diaper" just now. GO TO BED MONKEY BOY!!! As I write this, he has placed Blue Puppy in a toy bin and is covering him up with the blanket. Is that a crib??? I don't know, but I wish he'd go to bed so I can go to bed!

The continued adventures of blue puppy

Still no pictures. I know, I know. Its just been that kind of month so far.

Fun things Blue Puppy has been up to lately, with the assistance of Garrett:

1. Blue Puppy Rode Aspen. Garrett proudly announced "Blue Puppy Ride Aspen!" when Brad got home . . . Poor Aspen seemed to prefer Blue Puppy to Garrett as a rider. No surprise there, given the weight difference!

2. Blue Puppy was told to get "out kitchen" by Garrett at bed time the other night. This is something we tell the dogs when we are eating. Apparently Blue Puppy needed to get out of the kitchen too. Who knows. Blue Puppy promptly received "spankin'" for not listening.

3. Hide and Go seek.
Bedtime has been a nightmare lately, and we have on more than one occasion resorted to taking Blue Puppy to get Garrett to lay down in bed. So he has started to HIDE Blue Puppy, especially from Daddy. He thinks its a great game.

4. Regular bathing
Garrett asks almost every day for "Blue Puppy Bath". . . which Blue Puppy needs, since he goes everywhere, and Garrett is often using him to WIPE HIS FACE these days. Baths consist of Garrett throwing him in the wash with the clothes, then assisting in placing him in the dryer. He likes to get a towel to "dry" him off with afterward, for posterity sake.

Not much else to report here. Garrett was NOT impressed by fireworks on the fourth of July. No surprise given his propensity to be scared of everything. Today, alone, he has been scared by the UPS truck, the trash truck, and the Dremel for Aspen's toes. I don't know how I am going to get poor Aspen's toes trimmed with Garrett screaming the whole time!! He's working on ONE second year molar, and is a bear. Why can't he get all four, or at least 2 at once . . . ONE??? You mean I have to deal with this little bear 3 more times before he gets the rest of those teeth?

He's been loving to color lately. Today he told me "I need pink!" . . . he wanted the pink crayon. Which I am sure daddy appreciates to no end. His favorite color is definately red though, no doubt due to his favorite animated 4-legged friend. "Clifford, Red Dog!!"

When did my son become a scaredy-cat??

Still no new pictures--long story short, my laptop cord has a short in it and I have to rely on our crappy desktop. But I still haven't taken many pictures . . . we've just been busy doing things. We took the dogs to the park on Friday, cleaned out the garage all weekend (we can fit both cars in it now, woot!), and have attended 3 birthday parties since Saturday. We've gone to the pool with Xander, and spent time just playing.

I had my 29/30 week appointment with my midwife . . . all is well with the baby. S/he showed extream dislike for the doppler, just as Garrett did, by KICKING the midwife while she was trying to find the heartbeat. It was one of those ironic moments, because she asked if I had been feeling a lot of movement and my answer was Um, YES!! After the kick, she knew what I meant. We haven't done any new belly shots lately, hopefully we'll do that this weekend.

Garrett is Garrett. Rotten as ever, and just plain silly. Apparently, and this is total news to me, he has become a little wuss over-night!! Today he ran to me during a thunder storm and announced "Scared, that!" every time it thundered. And this evening when a car alarm was going off, he held on to my leg saying "Scary car, scary alarm" Um, yeah, 4th of July should be REALLY interesting with this new development. My child usually has no fear, except of our trash truck. In general, trash trucks are cool, but not the one that comes to our neighborhood and takes our trash. And now this. We were planning on taking him to see fireworks on the 4th, we may have to re-evaluate that one . . .

Anyhoo, that's life in a nutshell. Busy as ever!!