The Kid. (Not the baby)

This is Garrett's "relaxed" position. Not kidding. He always sleeps in this position. He's most comfortable lookin' like a relaxin' rancher.

Garrett’s sure growin’ up lately. As previously stated back in June, Garrett’s developed his own way of doin’ things. He is quickly becoming his own person, with his own thoughts, opinions and voice. Oh Heaven help me.

When he wants something he comes over and grabs your hand, “hand, hand” he says as leads you to wherever he wants. He tried to do this to me the other day but I was busy so I asked him to wait. “Help” he says, and again I tell him to be patient. Garrett then rubs his open palm on his chest, something I taught him last year but he’s never actually done. He’s signing “please” and smiles so sweetly as he begs “please, please, mom”. So of course I follow him as he takes me by the hand to the kitchen. He’s pointing to a cabinet and then says for the first time “bo-o-wLL”. I hand him the smallest bowl in the set of stackable mixing bowls. We went through this process til every bowl in the cabinet was gone. I did not give them in any particular order but when I went to see what he wanted all the bowls for I was kind of surprised. He’d lined them up from largest to smallest, including the bowls that weren’t apart of the mixing bowl set. I thought that was neat! I took a look it at again later and within the bowls he’d placed toys. Smallest toys in the smallest bowls and the largest toys in the largest bowls. I was impressed. My one year old organizes. Now if only he’d do it when I want him to.

Daddy makes a face...

Garrett makes a face.

Garrett brushes his own teeth. Grabs his or Isaac’s diapers when I need him to and he’ll throw them away as well. He’s been known to put his clothes away too but that’s not consistent. He loves to sing along in the car or at church. He’s definitely a dancer! He loves to dance and has been “bopping” to the beat since he was around 6 months old. Garrett loves any kind of ball but a current favorite is a football. The real pigskin, not the baby version of a football. Which is suitable since he is a small man these days. He loves Disney’s Cars and is fanatical over anything with Lightning McQueen on it. His speech is ever improving and he’s constantly talking and by “talking” I mean telling me what to do. His favorite phrase is “No no!” to the tune of the ding-dong of a doorbell. He has a favorite blue blanket that is connected to him most of the day which he refers to as “Bin”. Garrett loves baths, running, Sesame Street, playing outside, cheese, watermelon, Bambi, nursery at church, books, candy, mac’n’cheese, Uncle Joe and has gotten pretty good at lovin’ on Isaac too.

Cereal Socks

Cereal Socks...it's the next big thing!

So yesterday as I was nursing Isaac, Garrett comes over and steals Isaac’s socks right off his feet. I asked for him to return them but … big shock…he did not. I looked for those little socks, the blue ones that look like tennis shoes, later on in the day but I couldn’t find them anywhere. I gave up and figured they’d come up eventually. Today as I was taking care of Isaac and busy-ing about the house I wasn’t paying particularly close attention to Garrett. I could see him but I didn’t notice what he had at first. He’d asked for small bowl with some dry cereal earlier and now he was filling the missing baby socks with it. I guess you can snack on the go and if your feet get cold just slip it right on. Honestly that sounds like something that would be useful to him. I’m not kidding. Also in a state of emergency I’ve used socks for burp cloths, wash cloths, mittens, and…ya know maybe Garrett got his resourcefulness from me.

ps- that's his "Smile!" face, not sure why it looks like a disabled wink. He's just special that way.

A name, a name, what's in a name?

I realize as we get closer and closer to the due date of our second little guy I am asked more and more if we have a name for him yet. And the answer is... we're hoping he'll tell us when he gets here. Which we're hoping is any day now. When I saw our OB two weeks ago she was worried that I might be delivering another "large baby" so she had me do an ultrasound. As of two weeks ago the baby was weighing about 7.5 lbs...estimating a weight gain of about a half pound per week...making him just about the same size as Garrett was by the time he's born (assuming this baby cooks as long as Garrett did). While we're praying that this baby comes a lot sooner rather than later I am honestly not worried about "how big this baby is". My first birth was to a 10lb 8oz child without any medication...I got this! Unless he's 12 lbs or bigger, I'm not worried. I never thought I could look back at that experience and feel "empowered" as most women say. I looked at myself as merely more of a "survivor". But as the time draws closer for us to help Heavenly Father bring new life into the world I am feeling more confident that I can not only "endure" or "survive" the experience but that "I got this" without worry. Yes, it'll hurt but everyone says second labors are shorter and besides, I had the trail blazed by a bulldozer.

As of Friday I am 80% thinned, 3 centimeters dilated and the baby is in -2 position. Any day now we'll let you know what he wants to be named. We have a few names in mind but we want to see him first. I know it may sound silly but a name is something I haven't taken lightly. I don't want to name my kid something that just "sounds cool" or something trending on twitter. I want a name with meaning and substance or at the very least a role model.

"Garrett" means "Strength". Garrett is also the middle name of one of the strongest people I know; my brother. My younger brother came to this world with a strong spirit and I can only imagine the things he would do if his physical body did not limit him. Dean Garrett is an incredible teacher, the most determined and hardest worker and the wisest soul I know. He is the best role model I could ever imagine for my son. My Garrett is outright silly, so stinkin' stubborn, loves music and has a lot to teach me...just like my Dean Garrett. I hope that Garrett will have even half the passion for life that Dean has. Dean has cerebral palsy and will be 26 this month, despite the many professional opinions who said he wouldn't live this long. Someone who rises against all odds and does so with a smile.-Yes, that's the role model I wanted for my son. Even if that name means nothing to others I hope it means something to him.

We have a few names in mind for our next child and just like Heleman we have been prayerful in our selections. We can't wait to see him and snuggle him and have him whisper what he'll be known as.

...too bad Gwyneth didn't listen for the whisper...poor little "Apple" girl.

Earlier Post complete!-Aquarium-ness

So in earlier posts I referred to our time with my sister and our adventures and mentioned that we went to the Moody Gardens Aquarium. I finally had Brad look at the videos and help me get them posted! I know I had more to say about these videos but now I can't remember what it was. So here ya go, the videos I promised without any comments from the peanut gallery.

Aquarium Fun

Cheap Bird Fun

So, we wanted to do something special for Garrett and bring him to the aquarium. We wanted to show him all of the wonderful exotic creatures from all over the world, culture him a little bit, things like that. Well, that'll teach us for spending so much money on the aquarium, he had more fun in the parking lot with the seagulls (the rats with wings...). He'd have gone on for an hour if we would have let him, and if we had enough crap to throw at the dumb birds. - Brad

Brad's Joy

Anyone who knows Brad, knows he loves to catch, kill and/or eat animals of every kind. He is particularily grateful that our current location allows for many opportunities to do all three. As a combined Birthday-Father's day gift Brad got an out of state fishing license and all the stuff that goes with it. He's been fishing a few times and CRABBING as well. This video is of the first time he caught a crab big enough to bring home and eat. He did all the research to make sure we knew what we could eat and how we could eat it. And he loved every minute of it.