Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a really nice weekend, we hung out with the Shumans on Thanksgiving day (yummy food and great company!) and then spent Friday putting up the tree. Garrett is very much into Christmas now-he LOVES the decorations!

No, I haven't forgotten. . .

I haven't forgotten to update my blog. I simply haven't had TIME since school started. Case in point, as soon as I sat down to write this post, Garrett woke up from his nap and is ready to go play outside.

We've been busy since last I wrote. Summer turned 1, although she still isn't walking unassisted yet. School has been busy, work has been busier. Nothing monumental, just life as usual. Garrett is getting bigger and bigger, he can identify numbers 1-3, can count to 14 without a problem, and is getting very good at coloring inside the lines, tracing, and doing lots of other "big boy" things.

I'm going to TRY to post some pics soon--in the meantime, be sure to check out FACEBOOK, that's the only thing I manage to do these days!!!

First Day of School -9/9/09

As usual, I am hopelessly behind on blogging. September was a whirlwind month indeed. The kids started school at the Butterfly Cooperative Preschool. I wouldn't have Summer there if she didn't need to be for Garrett to be enrolled. They both seem to really enjoy it. It is a LOT of work, but Garrett is loving it. Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

Summer is 11 months old

Can you believe Summer will be a year old in a month? She has gotten SO big over this past month, pulling up on everything and really acting like she is ready to GO. She had her first hair cut today (the first pic is post-haircut)--nothing drastic. I hate bangs, but couldn't take her hair hanging in her eyes anymore. Garrett, of course, wanted to be in on the picture too.

Silly Summer standing on brother's couch.

Uh oh, busted!

Another photo session from last week, at Garrett's request. Everyone was still in PJs.
She loves him so!

Garrett is so funny with Summer. They argue all the time, which you wouldn't even think is possible since Summer can not actually talk. Garrett makes up her end of the conversation: "No, Summer, you can not have my cereal, because you are a baby!" He gets upset because she never says his name. She will look at him and say "Dadadadada" And he will argue, "No, dadadada is at work, I am GARRETT, not Dadada!!" Silly, silly boy. Sorry posts have been few and far between-work has been terribly busy! But just to let everyone know, Aspen had his cardio workup and it came back good--he has a grade 2 heart murmur, but otherwise his heart looks good. No meds required--definately good news! Other than that, all is the same at the Compton household. Crazy as ever!

Garrett is growing up so fast . . .

I can't get over how big and grown up Garrett has gotten--what I said about having a toddler again, I meant . . . Garrett has been in the {preschool} category for a while now. He is doing WONDERFULLY in swimming lessons--yesterday he floated with NO help from his instructor, and then turned on to his stomach and swam to him when asked to. He loves swimming, I told him it was almost over and that we would take a break in the fall, and he said "But I like swimming lessons! Please, can I keep doing them!?" LOL.

He has a thing for puzzles. He's getting pretty good at them, and can usually get the major characters assembled with little help. Here he is finishing off one today--so proud of his work. He always wants to "show it to daddy".

Double D'oh.

It would seem that nice, quite time of NOT having a budding toddler is over. Summer finally discovered she can sit up on her own, and then stand up on her own . . . and apparently climb stairs on her own. Time to break out the baby gate for the stairs!

Sea World Weekend

We kicked off August with a trip to Sea World this past weekend. Garrett had been asking to go and we found a hotel for ridiculously cheap. It was SO HOT. We went with some great friends that I met at boot camp, the Quinones family, and had a wonderful time.

Hiding from the heat in an A/C theater to watch Elmo

Summer was LOVING Elmo, especially since she had a cracker to eat :-)

Last time we went, Garrett was too short to ride the roller coaster.
This time he was tall enough and LOVED it!
(He's in the middle)

Chillin' in the sling

Luau--Quinones on the left, Comptons on the right (G was passed out in the stroller)

Cool octopus

Garrett and Ayanna

Ayanna, Garrett and Rhea checking out the flamingos on their walk

Daddy and Summer

One last ride before we left
Wilene and Ayanna are in the front, Garrett is behind them with Rhea.

Good times!!

Random pics

Fun at the park in late July (HOT!)

Splash park

Watching Garrett's swimming lessons in the Cutest. Dress. EVER!

Sharing grapes with Hazel

Krome Ave Kruise In (7/18/09)

We have been trying ALL MONTH to take Garrett to see some classic cars, but have been botched at our every attempt for a variety of reasons. We finally managed to see some at Homestead's Krome Ave. Kruise In. Garrett had a BLAST . . .

Look, a Camaro!!.

AND IT HAS SEATS :-)

Bounce house = Great fun

It was hot, and past Summie's bed time, but she humored us for G's sake

"Look, A MONSTER TRUCK!!"

Sitting in the awesome fire engine at the historical society.

This was pretty cool, apparently Homestead's 2nd ever fire engine. The 1st was made of wood and was destroyed during a hurricane.

Swimming Lessons

Garrett is half way through his second session of swimming lessons, and I as I mentioned in my last post, he started swimming this past week. He enjoyed showing off his new skills to his instructor . . . it seems a switch has gone off and he isn't even the least bit nervous anymore. :-)

Guess who's swimming!

We spent some time at the pool on Sunday and much to our surprise, Garrett started swimming. No floaties, no nothing, just jumping in the water and swimming around. He's still getting the hang of the whole breathing thing, but he can do it. Its WONDERFUL, I'm so proud of him. It was so nice for Brad to be there when he started doing it too. I'll swear by our Y swimming lessons, that's for sure. He wouldn't even jump in the water WITH his floaties on a few weeks ago. Now he's jumping in, swimming to you, and then swimming back to the side to do it all over again. Summer had a great time too, of course!

4th of July-Fireworks and Fun!

We had an absolutely wonderful 4th of July this year. After Garrett's wonderfully fun morning running (click here to see some pictures the pros took of him), we spent the afternoon and evening at the small stadium here in Homestead where they have games, rides, activities and live music before the big fire works show. Summer had THE most darling dress in teh world to wear. At the stadium, Garrett got to do those fun things where you are attached to giant rubberbands and get to jump on a big trampoline. We didn't make it until the fireworks--at 8:30, Summer decided it was time to get home and go to bed. She did better than we expected, since she is usually in bed by 6, and it was HOT HOT HOT. It worked out really well though, we bought some small fireworks to set off at home and Garrett had a BLAST with his daddy. He stayed up until 11, which for him is REALLY late. It was such an amazing day!!

Garrett's first "Race"

Brad and I had a very competitive month in June--we did a 5K and I did the triathlon. Garrett heard and saw us training/talking about these things, and started saying he wanted to do a race too. As a part of the 4th of July 5K here, they have a kids race. Its a logistical nightmare to enter him if we are running, so we decided this one would be just about him. He was very patient waiting around for an hour for the adults to finish running, and had a blast during his "race". He insisted on wearing his "Cool racing shirt", even though the smallest size they had was an adult small. He ended up running 300 yards--not bad at all for a little man! He had a great time, and was asking "Can I do another race??" as soon as we were done.

Meeting the FIU mascot. He was obsessed with the "tiger"

Before the race in his "cool racing shirt" with his "cool racing numbers"

Following the "leader" - they had a runner lead each age group.

Happy finisher :-)