Sea World x2

Brad's family met us in Orlando on Thursday night and had rented this wonderful house in Davenport, complete with private (and HEATED--woohoo) swimming pool. It was soooo fabulous. More on the fun stuff we did at the house in the next post. We spent both Friday and Saturday enjoying Sea World. This is Garrett's third or fourth trip there, and every time we go he gets something different out of it. He really enjoyed the shows this trip, especially the "Pirates" and the whale and dolphin show. He still says the giraffes are his favorite animal though, lol.

Summer and I on Friday morning.
Gotta love the Babyhawk, made the day sooo enjoyable.

Daddy and Garrett feeding/petting the stingrays

Feeding the dolphins on Friday
Aunt Stephie, Grandpa, Grandma, Garrett, and two hungry dolphins.

We all love the Clydesdales.
I honostly don't know who enjoyed this more--Garrett, Brad or I. We got to pet him after.
(PS--thanks to Jess for letting me borrow her sling, it fits SO much better than my other one!)
Summer was not feeling family pictures at one of the photo spots . . .

Three generations of Compton boys . . .
Seriously, they all three look a lot alike. Trouble, every one of them!!!

The whole family . . . again, Summer wasn't loving it.
Summer did, however, love looking at the foliage with Grandma


Garrett chowing down on cheetos before the "Believe" show
(He was "reading" the bag)

Garrett kept saying "Shamu is an Orca!"
How many almost-3-year-olds say Orca on a regular basis?? :-)Seriously . . . wow.

I have plenty more pictures to share . . . we still have another day of fun ahead, and I need to finsh packing for our trip home as well!

Orlando Trip--Visit with the Collins Family

On Thursday, Garrett, Summer and I got to visit with my fellow Work-at-Home mommy friend April in the Orlando area while Brad did some work for his company. April and I met who-know-how-long-ago on the Babycenter May 2006 boards, and have met in person a few times before this. Her younger daughter Alana is the same age as Garrett. Last year you may remember THIS post, featuring a picture of Lolly and Garrett smootching on his couch, lol. THIS year, Alana told her Mommy that she was going to marry Garrett in a church, lol. These two are going to be trouble!! :-) We had such a nice visit--no one really understands how hard it is to juggle the whole working-from-home thing unless they've done it, and its nice to hear you aren't alone. Not to mention the kids had such a fun time.

A note on the first picture. Garrett and Lolly were watching Wally, and Lolly decided to sit on Garrett. I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. In between saying "cheese" Garrett kept telling Lolly "Its time to get off now!!" He then came out and told April "Hers was riding me like a horse!" Oh dear :-) Thanks April for putting up with us for the day--we loved visiting, as always!!

Garrett and Lolly cruising in the Barbie Jeep

Summer and April . . .
Since we left at 5am, I did not bother to either change Summer out of her PJs or do her hair!

Lolly holding Summer's hand :-)

Miss Summer was worn out. Seriously, this child travels so well its borderline ridiculous!
(But then again, it helps compensate for Garrett!)

Seesaw, seesaw, everybody seesaw!

My sweet, sweet Garrett

Garrett has been feeling under the weather the past few days, to the extent that we have hardly left the house. He's even taken 2 naps over the past 2 days, in his bed--a true sign of how bad he is feeling.

Tonight he was sitting in my lap as we were about to put him to bed. He cuddled up really close and said "Mommy, will you hold me forever?"

Yes, please. Just don't grow up any faster than you have to.

Sorting fun

Garrett is just blowing my mind these days in the intelligence department. Its been amazing to watch him progress to some of the 3+ toys I have, and actually understand what he should be doing with them. Just now he asked to play a "sorting game" with his mini motors vehicles. He sorted them all by color, then proceeded to drive them all. He's so funny, he says "I need your help!" then proceeds to do it all on his own. Such a big boy.

Things will never slow down around here!

We've had a very busy week (again) and I have no pictures to show for it. We've been doing every-day stuff, but have still had a blast. We went to Chuck E Cheese this week with our friend Bonnie, made two trips to the pool and who know how many trips to the Y. The kids are really enjoying the childcare room there, which makes me very happy :-) We have done some shopping (Garrett bought himself some cars with his very own money), played race cars on the floor more times than I can count, and Garrett has helped me paint our enormous living room. Its half done and I can not WAIT for that to be finished, let me tell you! Last, but not least, we got to see a whole bunch of long-lost-friends at a birthday party of some of our playgroup buddies. Their cowboy theme was adorable (and thanks Ingrid for this pic of the family). As an added bonus, Brad got to go with us. Hooray! This is the ONLY picture I have to show from our busy week.

We're in for a very short week this week, and on Thursday we are going to Orlando. We'll be meeting Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Stephie there for four days of fun, and will also be seeing some of my Work-at-home mommy friends who have helped keep me sane this past year. Very excited!!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - 6 Months Old Today

It was her brother that finally got her to smile for the camera. I can't believe she's 6 months old today.

The Lizard In the Tub

During bath time this evening, I was shocked to see our resident bathroom lizard (you have to live in Florida to understand . . .) floating in the tub. I thought he was dead. I scooped him up with the mat, and was happy to see he was not dead, just stunned from floating in the tub.

Garrett checked him out, said he was a cool baby lizard, and went back to his bath. The lizard stayed on the mat, and basically just watched our bath time chaos commence. Garrett and I sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat and "A pirate says ARRR" from the Backyardigans. I got the kids out, and Garrett talked allllll about the poster Randon colored and gave to him--you know, one of those fuzzy ones. It has a dragon climbing on a castle.

Garrett: Why is the Dragon eating the castle?
Me: I don't know, he needs more fiber?
Garrett: Ohh . . . okay. Does he get hit by a train? (Scene from cars)
Me: I don't know, maybe he would eat the train.
Garrett: Okay.
Me: What do you think the lizard in the bathroom eats?
Garrett: Trains!
Me: Uh oh, do you think he might eat your trains???
Garrett: (Gets a very concerned look . . . ) I'll hit him with a baseball bat if he does!
Me: We don't want to kill the lizard, we like lizards, and if you hit him with the bat you will kill him!
Garrett: We DO like the lizards. But we don't like dragons!

Here's the funny part--Garrett then RUNS in to the bathroom, where the lizard is still sitting on the mat, squats down and says "Hey Lizard, do you like dragons?" He then comes running out of the bathroom: "I asked-ed the lizard, and he says he doesn't like dragons mom!"

NEVER a dull moment. The poor lizard is probably scared for life.

Koni Challenge Weekend

This past weekend we spent a lot of time at the speedway. The track was having a fan appreciation weekend that included the Koni/Grand Am challenge. EVERYTHING was free to the fans, and allowed us to get up close and personal. We were able to walk around the garages, talk to the drivers, see the cars, etc. Garrett even got to sit on top of one of the crew stations (right behind the pit) and sit right in one of the cars. These people were so great with all of the kids! Garrett had a blast, and so did I quite frankly. I think I'm becoming addicted to racing, thanks to my son. Summer slept through it all, like always. I told Garrett he is awful lucky to have a little sister who lets him do all this fun stuff!!

Garrett was trying to open the door on one of the display cars:

"I just love those Indy Cars! They go FAST!"

Some of the Koni cars

We went to talk to this driver and the next thing I know, Garrett is sitting in the car. How cool is that?? Mr. Ackley, I will be a fan for life no matter how far you go :-)

Yum, Bananas!

Miss Summer had her first taste of "solid" foods over the weekend. I don't know who came up with the bright idea to call pureed goo "solid" food, it seems rather laughable. This was pretty fun, because Summer's first food came from our very own back yard in the form of bananas from our tree. We made Garrett's food from store bought fruits and veggies when he started solids, but Summer's is TRULY home made! :-)

She LOVED it, she ripped the spoon away from me and sucked all the goodies off. As soon as it was gone she screamed (and I do mean SCREAMED) for more. Dinner time has become a much noisier affair all of a sudden. Right now, we're sticking to bananas, since we have so many from our tree--she eats two (they are small) every night for dinner. Piggy girl!! :-)

Sitting up, boot camp graduation, and more!

It has been an INSANE week, which is why I haven't managed to get the blog updated much lately. So here's a run-down of what we have been up to . . .

Last week was our last week of boot camp . . . at the weigh out, I had lost 13lbs and over 14 inches. Woohoo!! We had our victory celebration on Saturday at Bayfront Park. Garrett had a blast playing Frisbee with Daddy, and also enjoyed going to look at the boats. It turns out that I was awarded with the "grand prize," so to speak, of boot camp -- a 6 month family membership to the Y. I was so excited--we've been using it a lot this week, which is part of the reason we've been so busy. I've still got a ways to go on my weight, but am headed in the right direction--I ran 5.5 miles on Sunday, which was amazingly not as hard as I would have thought.

Some of the boot camp girls (and our trainer Mikey in the background)

Post Boot camp me
(never mind the hair, its too long to leave down and the layers are too short to pull up).

Summer is almost 6 months old. She is sitting up well on her own, and is cute as a button! Her hair is getting easier and easier to put in pigtails, and actually NEEDS to be in them because it is so blasted long. She's been staying awake a LOT longer during the day and is down to 2 naps. We still haven't started on solids--she is interested in our food, but still has major tounge thrust stuff going on so we're waiting longer. Garrett was already on solids, but he didn't give us a choice. I also think I am putting it off because I am DREADING making food again, but I know I owe it to her to go as natural as possible in that regard.





And Garrett. Oh, my Garrett. He is amazing me. He LOVES building things. He plays with his blocks daily and builds walls, towers, whatever . . . he had his blocks all sorted by color the other day. He likes puzzles too--we get 25 piece puzzles at the dollar store. He needs major help putting them together, but he gets the basic concept and can sort them based on the parts of the character. He can do his little opposite pairs puzzles on his own. We got a generic set of lincoln logs at Walmart, and he is loving those, although he needs major help with them too!! I can't believe he is going to be 3 in 2 short months. He already has his birthday cake picked out, and mentions it to me weekly. The theme?? Why, Race Cars of course.

Speaking of which, we will be spending the next 4 days at the speedway, the Koni Challange will be here this weekend and has a ton of cool things going on. Garrett is going to love it! The sad part is that I am getting as in to "race cars" as he is!

Last, but not least, Brad and I have been climbing as often as possible (see Wordless Wednesday). We had a month long pass, which we got at a discount, to the climbing gym, and we used the heck out of it (Thanks largely to Dana's babysitting services!!). It has been so fun, we really enjoy it!!

Wordless Wednesday - Rock Climbing

(I promise updates soon--its been a very eventful and busy week!)

From the Mouths of Babes

This is going around on Facebook . . . Garrett's responses were pretty cute, so I figured I had to post here!!

Garrett -- 3.5.09 (2 years, 9 months)
1. What is something mom always says to you?
Be Good

2. What makes mom happy
Garrett

3. What makes mom sad?
If Garrett doesn't be good

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Like a piano!!

5. What was your mom like as a child?
A baby!

6. How old is your mom?
Big

7. How tall is your mom?
Black (??)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
A job

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
She goes

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Nuffin

11. What is your mom really good at?
At letters!

12. What is your mom not good at?
Number 2

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Climb up. And paint something

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Chicken

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
I'm cold (he had just drank a smoothie)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Cartoons are bad!!

17. What do you and your mom do together?
We go to somewhere else

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We like to play

19. How are you and your mom different?
I race!

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
I miss you when I love

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Moo

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Exercise!! And my favorite place is Chuck E Cheese to play race! car! game!!!!!!!!!!

She laughed!

Of course Summer's first laugh would be at her brother. She and I were sitting in the hammock while Garrett was playing with the neighbor's dog through the fence. She thought it was funny enough to warrant her first laugh. I forgot how darling those first little giggles can be :-)

She is so very close to sitting up to, she can go about 60 seconds on her own before she flops, and can sit for a while if I just put her in the bobby pillow. She's always chewing on something, her teeth are driving her (and me) nuts!

Piggies

I realize that many moms have to literally wait years before they can get their little girl's hair into pig tails. Summer on the other hand . . .

I'm wondering when little girls get used to getting their hair done. This is how Summer feels about it right now . . . If she even SEES me get out hair ties, she cries.

And Garrett, who is still obsessed with that darn checkered flag.