Could it be??

Is it possible that there may actually be someone I can actually LIKE in the '08 Presidential Election??
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/palin.republican.vp.candidate/index.html
Sarah Palin is a former beauty queen turned governor of Alaska, a feminist who is pro-life, and a mother of 5 children. Her oldest son will be deployed to Iraq by the Army in September, and her youngest son has Down Syndrome. I honestly had never heard of her before, but so far I like her . . .

Make that a busy week!

Forget a busy Monday--its just been a busy week. Garrett and I seem to be in a how-to-get-work done routine of me working from 5 or 6 until 10 or so, when we head out for play date. Yesterday we went to a pool with our playgroup and spent WAY too much time in the sun. It was so relaxing though! Today it was a fun little parrot craft at the park. Garrett had a blast doing it, and playing with his little friends. He would grab one of them by the hand and say, "Come, play!" He LOVES to go to the "playground!" I'll add a picture of his finished craft later.

Garrett and his buddy Corbin

After the park, we did a few errands. We've been skipping naps this week, and it has REALLY helped out with getting Garrett to bed--IE he actually goes rather than fighting us for 2 hours. So I planned on taking him to the pool in the afternoon so we could cool down after running around outside all morning. The conversation of our plans went like this:

Me: Want to go play outside?
G: No. Too hot. Bugs out there. Inside. Play inside, trains!
Me: Do you want to go swimming at the pool?
G: NO! I too hot! I too tired!
Me: (Shocked?) Did you just say you are tired?
G: I tired. NO NAP!!

**sigh** Whatever you say little man. It ended up working out well, because my boss had left me a message with some things to do. Usually I try to hold off on finishing my work day until Brad is home and Garrett's in bed. But since Garrett wanted to play and I had a pretty good list going of things to do, I spent the rest of the afternoon working while Garrett did his thing. It was just another crazy busy day in a crazy busy week!

Wordless Wednesday-Fingerpainting in the Bath Tub

Garrett-isms Take 3

I just can't resist writing these down so I don't forget them. I don't really keep a baby book, so this blog is my record of Garrett's growth.

"That's a great song!" -- Listening to his Wee Sing CD Grandma gave him a long time ago. He is "reading" the book that came with it at the same time :-)

"Daddy take brownies to work!" -- Brad took Garrett grocery shopping this weekend and bought a box of brownies that had a Nascar on the front. AND little pieces of candy on them that Garrett thinks are M&Ms. Garrett, of course, wants to eat them all the time, but we explained the brownies are for Daddy to take to work (Brad is SUCH a healthy eater, lol!) Anyway, he says this frequently, and at the strangest times. For instance, at 3am when he gets up to go pee pee.

"I read this to Blue Puppy."--I got this one last night, again at 3am, when he got up to go pee pee. He has a little light he keeps on in his room now to keep the "scaries" away, and it is bright enough to read by.

"Let's see here . . . " When contemplating how something works. He definately gets this one from Daddy!

Busy, busy Monday

I took Garrett to My Gym for the first time in forever yesterday. He had a blast--its just amazing how talkative he has become. He insisted on waiting for the airplane swing (versus any of the other swings) because he WANTED to ride the air plane. He was willing to do anything if I just explained it to him first. His favorite part was a swing they stood on--I wish I had a better picture of that (see below). I didn't take my camera, so thanks again to our organizer, Haydee for the pictures! After My Gym, we went to the jeweler's to pick up Brad's dive watch, which needed a new battery. Then it was off to the tag agency to FINALLY get the car registration for the focus changed over. And last, but not least, the library.

Garrett was so good with all the running of the errands, but he was absolutely hilarious at the library. Every book I would show him, he would say "Ohhh, like this one! Read this one!" Then we found a Nemo book and he was on cloud nine. It had "Lure fish!!" in it. He used to be scared of the Lure fish in Nemo, but now he apparently likes it. We found this series with a dog named Biscuit in it, and that is already becoming one of his new favorites. I'll try to update his reading list soon. We took a lot of great books back. In fact, while we were in the car running our errands, he would ask for them (by name) and would turn the pages, examining each page carefully. Sometimes he would give me a running commentary of what he saw. So we definately need to start keeping books in the car!

We spent the afternoon dealing with our A/C issue--hopefully its fixed for good now. Brad got home early, as he usually does on Mondays and Fridays now, but it was 6 in no time and time for bed. Or, at least Brad and I thought so. Garrett, of course, wanted to stay up forever. Today we're just catching up on house work and work work, since I'm too wore out from yesterday to do much else!!

Stupid Comment of the Day

Our air conditioner is having issues again so we called a repairman. When he walked in to the house he said "Man, its hot in here."

Um. Yeah. If the A/C weren't broken, we REALLY wouldn't need you now, would we!!!!!

Morning Conversation

Garrett: I want cars
Me: We just watched cars yesterday. Do you want nemo?
G: I don’t like Nemo! Sharks in it!!
Me: But we like sharks
G: like sharks! Feed sharks! Like fun!!! (Clapping)
Me: Do you want to watch Nemo?
G: No. Cars. Need Accidents!

Garrett-isms take 2

"I don't like that song!" -- if we listen to anything on the radio which is not among his list of favorites. He's very particular. If a CD is not available, he will request you sing "Shoo Fly" and "Baby Bumblebee" for hours. And he will also sing Baby Bumble Bee. "Songs" can also be replaced by a variety of things, including (but not limited to): Bears, thunder, giants, etc. etc. All of those things can also be "scary!"

"This car come upstairs?" or "This car come bath?" Everything that is fun needs to come upstairs to either a) play on the train table or b) play in the bath in the evening.

"Mommy all done?" This one kills me. If I am working, he keeps asking if I am done. :-( I hate repeating "almost!"

"Pop baby out!" continues to be THE most popular phrase of the week. I am ready for that, please!

"Garrett do finger paints!" He loves finger paints. They are so messy though (even the color wonder ones, which I finally bought him more of). We just got some of the bath finger paints, jury is still out on those.

"Where is my car?" Or puppy. Or dinosaur. You name it. "I can't find it--mommy find it!"

Every day is something new and fun, and I know if I don't keep writing them down on the blog, I am going to forget them.

Fun with noodles

Garrett spent the day yesterday with a new babysitter/old friend. Since my neighbor is starting back to school with her kids, I knew it was time to find something new for childcare, and daycare here is RIDICULOUS! So I've found two moms from my playgroups who are willing to help me out as needed, either for the day so I can work or for a few hours so I can get extra done at home. This will DEFINITELY come in handy once new baby arrives.

We know Lisa and Austin from way back when both Garrett and Austin were tiny infants--we met at our local LLL meeting. She since has joined our awesome playgroup. Garrett had a ton of fun at their house yesterday, they did a noodle craft with the playgroup. He even took a semi-decent nap. I got a good amount of work done in the office, and it was nice to have "me" time, so to speak. Thanks to Megan and Haydee for the pictures, and to Lisa for taking such good care of my little man!

Tropical Storm Fay

It has been raining for 36 hours straight now. But this storm is hardly anything major. We've had wind, but not anything horrible, and rain, but nothing like Katrina. Never lost power. Garrett and I actually had a lot of fun on Monday--we cleaned and watched some TV. When the wind died down for a while, we went outside and he rode his scooter in the rain. That was great fun--I don't think he ever would have come in except for the fact that he fell and got a pretty bad owie on his ankle. The promise of a band aide was enough to get my little goobie out of the rain. This picture is from Sunday, but basically summarizes all the play we've been doing. Notice he has Tyrone, from the Backyardigans, as his passenger. He loves to drive his car around the kitchen really fast (and reckless!) while yelling "Nascar, nascar, accident!!" He's insane, and an absolute trip. Monday was a no nap day again, in part because we had a friend over in the AM and just missed our nap window.

With the tropical storm coming through, everyone has been talking about Wilma and Katrina and the 2005 hurricane season. It seems so long ago . . . Garrett was conceived during Katrina. Katrina was in August as well, but they were already to K for the named storms. Thank goodness this season hasn't been that active (yet). It's probably because we went out after that year and bought a generator, lol!!

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know we're none the worse for the wear. My office has been closed from Monday at noon until Wednesday, but I work anyway. Wednesday I get to go in to the office . . . we found a couple of great sitters from our playgroup, so we'll see how that goes!!

Melting Pot and Weekend

Brad and I went out for dinner to the Melting Pot on Sunday night, celebrating our impending second baby and the fact it could be our time any time in the next 4-6 weeks. Then who knows how long it will be before we go out again. Big thanks to Lisa and the Crider clan for watching Garrett for us. The last time we went to the Melting Pot was in December, when we were celebrating our anniversary and FINDING OUT we were pregnant :-) Mmmm, it was yummy, and as always, desert was totally the best part!

Saturday was a fun day too--we went to the beach in the morning. Garrett was a trip, he just played in the sand and drove his truck around. He would wade up to his chin in the water and absolutely refused to wear his water wings. There were some people diving offshore a bit, and when Brad pointed them out, Garrett exclaimed "Scubie Divers coming!!". He loved seeing all the airplanes and boats that passed by. We had a blast!

36.5 Week Belly

I am HUGE!!! Its ridiculous how much bigger I look (and feel) than when I was pregnant with Garrett. This was taken Sunday. We were supposed to meet with our midwife on Monday, starting weekly appointments, but we decided to postpone until Friday due to Tropical Storm Fay. Gotta love South Florida in the summer . . .

TGIF

While I realize it isn't quite Friday yet, I am really, really glad it almost is.

Reason #1, I am 36 weeks. Wooh hoo! All of a sudden, it seems very imminent that we will have a little one in the house again soon. Of course, with my luck, it could still be another six weeks . . . lets hope not QUITE that long though!

Reason #2, I miss my husband. It's insane how much I look forward to having just a little extra time with him during the weekends. Not to mention that on Fridays (and Mondays) he goes in early so he can leave at 3. Major perk. This weekend, it looks like the work schedule shouldn't be too heavy, so we might actually be able to spend more than a little time together. We are planning to go to the beach tomorrow, and on a DATE on Sunday (a mystery date, no less--I'm so excited!!) Garrett loves having both of us home to harass :-)

Reason #3, School starts on Monday, which means NO MORE SUMMER CAMPS at all our favorite hangouts.

Reason #4, This week has just not been fun. The mosquitoes are horrible, so its impossible to go outside. Its been raining all the time, every single day, especially in the afternoon. Garrett has not napped well. Which means I am sooo not rested. I'm ready for it to be over and start fresh next week.

I promise a new belly pic sometime before Monday. It's so hard to photograph Garrett these days--I can't seem to keep clothes on him. On the upside, we have completely graduated from the cursed little potty, which is just gross to clean. Garrett is no capable of getting up on the big potty by himself, with no assistance other than his stool. He's been so great, we haven't had a daytime accident in forever. We've had a couple of night time ones, but that was bound to happen. Poor Garrett, as I'm giving him dry pjs and Brad is changing his bed, he says "Garrett bad! Pee pee bed." No honey, accidents happen, we don't like to pee in our beds but it happens. Poor guy!

Speaking of accidents, Garrett watched Nascar with Brad last Sunday. He now has two obsessions: the M&Ms car (a toyota, boo) and ACCIDENTS. All of his cars, trains, airplanes, etc. promptly flip over and he goes "ohhh, accident!" with a big grin. He'll even INTENTIONALLY flip over his ride on cars and say the same thing. He'll then proceed to get his tools and fix the engine on the ride on car before he can get back on and ride it again. Silly goose!

Garrett-isms and power outage

We had an awful Thunderstorm this evening that knocked out our power for a while. Of course, this had to be while Garrett was trying to get to bed. He's much better than he was, back to the point where we can do the bedtime routine and go lay in our own bed until he falls asleep. But with no power he comes and says "Fan on, songs on!" He listens to music at night (Discovery Toys' Sounds Like Fun, of course!), and always insists on having his fan on. So we had to explain to him about the power being out. Brad did a good job putting it in Garrett terms: The battery was out, and someone needed to fix it, and Daddy couldn't. You must understand, Garrett is obsessed with "New Batteries" the minute one of his toys dies. He knows Daddy is the fixer of all things, including new batteries. So when the power came on, he of course says "ohhh, Daddy fixed it, new battery!" Silly man.

Among my favorite "Garrett-isms" to say these days are:
"Oh, I'll get it!" Often followed by "Not you, stay here!"

Or if he can't get whatever "it" is: "I can't get it, Mommy (or Daddy) do it!" Or in the alternative "Help Garrett!"

Favorite night time (or way too early-to-be-up) stall tactic is "Mommy, I'm hungryyyy" in the most pitiful voice ever. Ya know when Rolly, the fat puppy in 101 Dalmatians is always whining he's hungry. Yeah, like that. Pitiful you-never-feed-me stuff.

For whatever reason, Garrett is always telling Aspen "Careful Aspen, Watch Garrett" when they go down the stairs together . . . they had a collision a few weeks ago, and I think that's probably why.

Sometimes when you ask him if he needs to go potty, he'll say "No, I'm fine!"

If you ask him to bring something to you, he will do it and go "Here go Mommy!"

If he really wants something, he will demand "Gimmie Milk" or "Gimmie Cereal", but will gladly add a please if you only ask.

"Oh, Thank you daddy!" When Brad makes him a cake cake in the AM or gives him something.

He also is really into his daddy, and really missing his grandma after his visit. Every day he says "Daddy work, miss Daddy!" And often in the evenings he'll say "Miss Grandma"

He'll drive his little blue car and say "Going work! Good Day! Love you" (Meaning have a good day). He'll come back and say "Home!"

If I say we are out of something, he'll automatically say "Oh, Daddy Get it!!" Because again, Daddy is the fixer of all things.

He will sweep our walls with his broom and say "Garrett paint wall!" He will also "fix" the wall with his toy tools.

At night time, we invariably go through a list. Garrett will say "Mommy loves you, Daddy loves you, Jesus Loves you, Grandma Loves you, Grandpa Loves you!" After that, the list will change depending on the day. The neighbors may love him, or other family members, or Aspen and Haylee.

Last, but not least, we must always say Thank You during Prayers for Lightening (he has a stuffed car from the movie Cars) and Blue Puppy. :-)

And that's the everyday stuff. He is always doing something silly to make us laugh. Never a dull moment!

Weekend in Review

We had a really nice weekend around here, with a good amount of family time. Our community had a pool party on Saturday, so we went and lounged by the pool. Garrett has such a good time jumping in and swimming around. His new thing is that he doesn't like to wear his wings, and is learning to swim in between Brad and I without them. Time to work on REALLY teaching him to swim! We called it a night early and just had a nice evening.

Sunday was a very lazy, very rainy day. Brad may argue the "lazy" part, since he ran to the store, worked on the aquarium, and mowed the lawn . . . not to mentioning dealing with Garrett so I could catch up on some sleep.

Garrett has been so funny, every time I whip out the camera he poses and goes "picture, picture, more picture!" He's such a goofball.

We did some construction projects with his blocks while daddy was mowing. We built Lightening a garage, but after he crashed through it several times, we decided a tunnel would be a better choice. Garrett had a blast stacking blocks on top of the makeshift roof and driving Lightening through it.




Last, but not least, the picture at the top of the post is Garrett peaking out the window at Daddy while he was mowing. Garrett is STILL scared of everything, and isn't a big fan of going out in the heat/bugs to where the evil ducks are. Strangely enough, it isn't the mower that scares him, but the bugs and ducks!

Wordless Wednesday

34.5 Weeks

I'm 34.5 weeks now . . . I have a feeling these last two to six weeks are going to DRAG by! I'm pretty much ready to meet our little one, although I am not sure I am really ready for a newborn quiet yet. Preggo stats, I'll be 35 weeks on Friday, I have gained 12lbs, and everything is right on track. I'm still just flat out drained, and don't do much other than take Garrett from one room to the other and play. Might as well enjoy it, because I won't be able to do it much longer!

Garrett seems to be over his indifference about the belly again. He kisses it, and the other day stuck his toothbrush in my belly button, saying "Brush baby's teeth!!" He also keeps telling us to "Pop baby out". We keep telling him he'll have to wait a few more weeks, at least!


We had 14 moms from our playgroup over to the house on Friday, they were doing a baby "sprinkle" for the 3 of us due in the next 2 months (Me, Megan, and Carla--see pic below courtesy of Haydee!). It was a blast, Garrett loved having his friends over. Anyway, the last picture is of him the day of the party.

Brad's mom left Sunday, after a wonderful 10 day visit. Garrett is missing her big time, and so am I . . . We had a quiet weekend, Brad worked on the aquarium, he and his mom took Garrett to the pool so I could have some alone time. We spent a lot of time lounging in our hammock! Brad and I did go out to see the X-files, since Grandma was handy, and that was very nice. It was our first date since late May when Grandma was here for Garrett's birthday! (We go to our appointments with the midwife alone, too, but that's hardly a date!).