Haircut #4

Today, Garrison and I made the trip to Barnesville to see Emily for Garrison's 4th haircut. His very first haircut was a little over a week before Christmas when he was only 10 months old. (Anna made the cutest scrapbook page of that first haircut). Then he had his next haircut before his 1st birthday, then another one before Easter, and now he needed another one sometime before vacation. (His hair is like mine and grows really fast.) He has always done pretty well for Emily. I think it helps that she has little ones and knows how to talk to him and keep him calm. He just sits in my lap while she works and occasionally cries/whines for just a minute. Since I didn't have my camera with me for the haircut, I didn't attempt any pictures until after supper tonight. The ones I attempted didn't turn out so well because he wouldn't be still long enough for me to make the picture and he was quite moody tonight. Anyway, I finally got some pretty good ones when he was in the bath tub.

This one actually shows off the new haircut.

First shampoo with the extra short hair. I could really tell a big difference in the back. She used clippers for the back and sides and it's so cute!

Hair is rinsed and he's enjoying his play time in the tub.

Wasp Sting

Yesterday afternoon Garrison went for another swim in his pool in the backyard. He had the same reaction as the first time. It took him a minute before he moved around and actually started playing. But, after playing for a few minutes, he stood up and held his hands out to me wanting to get out of the pool. When he got out of the pool he just walked around the patio and played with golf balls that Terrell has collected on one of our tables and played peek-a-boo with me by hiding behind a chair. Finally he came back over to the pool, so he got in for a few more minutes before wanting out again. The second time he got out of the pool, he seemed to be into everything... he wanted to play with the grill, put his hands on our (nasty) recycling bin and trash can, pick up the hose pipe and try to move it around, etc. So, after telling him no for the 10th time, I decided it was time for us to go inside.

As I was gathering up everything we had taken outside and getting ready to pick him up to bring him in, I saw a wasp land on his hand. I think my very first reaction was "oh my, I have got to get that thing away from him".... then a split second later I heard him crying that cry, the one all moms recognize. That yucky, mean wasp had decided to sting my baby and would not fly off of his hand! I just started yelling at the wasp (like that was going to do anything to the wasp or help in any way) and swatting/shooing it away and finally it flew away. I couldn't believe how long it stayed there on his hand... at least it seemed like a long time. At this point Garrison is screaming and I am rushing him inside trying to stay calm. (I don't do so well at staying calm in situations like these. It's something I've definitely got to work on. ) As soon as we got inside I grabbed his juice out of the fridge and grabbed his Tigger cold pack out of the freezer and sat him down on the counter. I gave him his juice and tried to put the cold pack on his hand which had a red mark from the sting and was already starting to swell a little. The juice actually seemed to help because he would drink a little and then scream a little and then drink a little more and then scream a little more. But, his screaming finally turned to a more normal cry. In the meantime, I am trying to stay calm as I call Terrell to ask him what to do. (I would have probably gone straight to the internet to look up wasp stings, but our computer had a virus over the weekend so it was away and being fixed). Terrell told me to go ahead and call the doctor to see if I could talk to a nurse. I got the answering service at my doctor's office because it was after 4:30 and had to go through a long process to finally talk to someone. I had Garrison pretty much calmed down, but the swelling was getting worse and he wouldn't let me hold the cold pack on the sting so I was trying a cold wash cloth. The nurse told me to clean it with soap and water, keep an ice pack on it (off and on) for as long as I could, and to put a baking soda and water "paste" on his hand. She also went through all the things to look for in case he had a severe reaction. After talking with her for several minutes, I called Terrell back. He had looked up wasp stings on the internet and gave me some other information and suggestions. Then I called my mom to tell her what happened and she looked it up on the internet too and told me about her personal experience with wasp stings. So, once I washed his hand and we were both completely calm and composed we went over to Ingles and bought some baking soda, came home, made the "paste" and applied it to his little hand. For the rest of the night he was completely fine and the swelling and redness slowly started going away. He woke up one time during the night, but his hand was fine and he went right back to sleep after being held and rocked for minute.

It was a bit of a traumatic experience for both of us, but today all is well and the only thing you can see on his hand is a little red mark. Terrell got home late last night, but today he will be searching for a nest just in case there is one near our patio. I have actually never been stung by anything that I can remember, but my little man who isn't 16 months old yet has already been stung. I hope that doesn't mean we can look forward in the future to lots of incidents like the one yesterday... I just keep telling myself, "it was only a sting and it will probably happen again, but he's not allergic or anything... he'll be fine. I hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does, he'll be fine."

A Day in the Life of Us

I stole this idea from another blog, but I loved it so much that I wanted to do it too. I hope I can do this on a regular basis because I think it will so neat to look back at this months or even years from now and remember life at this point in time...Garrison is 15 months old, Terrell is commuting to Elberton 3 days a week, we attend bible study at our friends/neighbor's every other Thursday night, etc. So this is all of the happenings of our day yesterday.

Garrison woke up around 8:00. After drinking his milk from a sippy cup (which he still takes like a bottle every morning, drinking it all at one time) he helped me empty the dishwasher. He loves handing me each piece of silverware one at a time and trying to hand me plates and other dishes too. While we were unloading the dishwasher I was on the phone with Terrell. We talk every morning that he has to make the drive to Elberton.

Then we had breakfast. Garrison had a piece of jelly toast, a cereal bar, and some peaches. He really enjoyed the jelly toast... he doesn't get that very often.

After cleaning up the kitchen, we went to make up the bed. Garrison always comes with me to make up the bed and he usually trys to help. He was really happy in this picture because I was being silly and trying to get his attention to make his picture.

After making up the bed we went and started a load of laundry before going into his room to play. He played with his toys, took some things out of his dresser to throw on the floor, and pulled several books off of his bookshelf to look at and "read". After playing and then cleaning up the mess (which he does most of the cleaning up now since he understands how to), we got ready for his morning nap. After reading a couple of books in the rocking chair and singing a couple of songs, I laid him down and headed into the office/computer room to get some of my work done. Garrison decided to take a short nap so I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I was still pretty productive. I emailed a few hostesses, prepared for my Friday show, entered orders from my last show, got dressed and put make-up on before going in to get the little man.


After his nap, I got him dressed we headed over to the public library. I strolled him around until I found a book and then we strolled over to the children's section. I picked out a few books for him and then talked to one of the ladies about the summer program and what's being offered for his age group. They are having something called "Toddle Tales" every Tuesday morning that I really want to try to take him too. You can go at 10:30 or 11:30, so if he's still taking a morning nap we'll go at 11:30 and if he's not taking a morning nap we'll go at 10:30. I'm really excited about it and I hope that I make an effort to take him.


When we got home from the library it was lunch time. Garrison had leftovers from the night before... beef tips and rice, green beans, and mac & cheese. Plus he had leftover peaches from breakfast. He mostly ate the green beans and mac & chesse, and of course he ate all of his peaches. He loves fruit. It's like dessert for him. We have to give it to him after he eats his veggies. After cleaning up from lunch he was pretty ready for a nap since his morning nap was so short. Again I went to work while he napped for 2 hours. Yay!

After I woke him up from his nap he had a snack of gold fish and yogurt melts and then we got ready to go outside for his first swim of the season. I got him dressed to swim with the swim diaper and everything and sprayed him down with sunscreen, then we headed outside. At first he wasn't sure what to do in the water. He was just sitting there like he was waiting for me to give him a bath. Finally he started playing with the toys I had in there and splashing and moving around some. He probably "swam" for about 20 mintues before he was ready to get out. Then he just wanted to play in the backyard so we stayed out even longer. He had a lot of fun. He would walk over to the pool and look in, so a couple of times I put him back in standing up to cool off.


After going inside, drying off and getting on a new diaper, it was time for me to start on supper. While I was cooking spaghetti, Terrell got home from work and gave Garrison a bath since we had bible study to go to. After eating supper and cleaning up the kitchen, we all got ready to walk down the street to our neighbor's house for bible study.

This is Terrell and Garrison outside our front door before we walked over to bible study. Garrison is back in his pj's since he goes straight to bed when we get home. Our neighbors, who have also become good friends, lead it for us and two other couples. We always enjoy going over and getting to be around other couples and participate in the bible study, plus Garrison gets to see his "friends". (A 5 year old, 3 year old, and almost 2 year old) He loves watching them and trying to keep up with them. Around 9:00 we were back at home and putting the little man in the bed.


Even though it was a pretty normal day for us, and it took me a long time to write everything down, I know it's days like these that I'll always want to remember and I know I'll always appreciate that I took the time to capture and record it all.

Making "Date Nights" a Priority

Recently, Terrell and I have been talking about making more time for going out on dates. We went on dates all the time before we had Garrison. Every weekend we went out to eat at a "slow food" restaurant at least once, and that's a date in my mind. (Being away from the house, just the two of us, and having someone serve us dinner). A date doesn't have to include a movie or an extra expensive meal, just time away from the house with each other. Right after Christmas we made a resolution for the New Year to go out on a date (without the little man) once a month. We were able to do that January, February, and March. April was really crazy for us with my mom's birthday and Easter and going out of town to Pigeon Forge with Terrell's family.... so we missed April, but we've vowed to get back on track this month. We're trying to plan for a Braves game sometime Memorial Day weekend. Our fingers are crossed that everything's going to work out for us to go.

Planning date nights are pretty challenging for us (because there are only so many weekends in a month and ours fill up fast... plus we have to make sure we can get a baby-sitter) but we know date nights need to be a priority in our marriage. We want to be able to get away every once in a while, just the two of us and have fun together. We definitely don't want to wake up as empty nesters one day and not remember how to have fun together and enjoy each other's company because we've been solely focused on our kids for so many years. Even though it's still hard for me to leave Garrison (even for a few hours) and we're both tempted to include him in everything, we have to take time for each other every now and then too. We may not be able to have a date night just the two of us every single month, but we're really going to try hard.

Trip to the Zoo

Earlier this week, Garrison and I met Kara and Allison at Zoo Atlanta. Kara was nice enough to let us come as her guests and we were able to get in for free using her season pass. Garrison's favorite parts about the zoo were the "Petting Zoo" and the Parakeet exhibit. These were about the only times he could actually get out of the stroller and see the animals and birds up close and personal. The petting zoo was one of our first stops. The little man was very cautious at first and kept his distance, but he slowly got closer and closer to the sheep and goats and eventually touched one of them.

What is this thing and what is it doing?

Oh, I'm really close now!

Finally... so soft!

After going around to other exhibits and trying to keep Garrison happy in the stroller (and feeding him a snack... which always helps), we arrived at the parakeet exhibit. At this exhibit, Garrison and Allison were able to feed the parakeets and get really close to them. Garrison loved it! He walked around (and tried to get away from me) and looked at the mini waterfall, and looked at the parakeets, and finally decided to try to feed one when he saw Allison doing it.

The hand on the left is Allison's and the one on the right is Garrison's

Garrison and Allison trying to feed the parakeet... not sure if he's interested though

Our trip to the zoo was a lot of fun and we will definitely be going back, especially when he's a little older and can fully enjoy all the animals. I also think it will be more fun when we don't need the stroller. Anyway, big thanks to Kara for inviting us!

Garrison's "Leading Ladies"

Me, Mama, and Anna (My two favorite ladies!)
Me and Garrison as we wait in line for lunch on Mother's Day
Garrison and AnAn at Buckner's
Garrison and Granna in line at Buckner's
Nana with Garrison and Allison at Olive Garden

Mother's Day Weekend

Motherhood~ The toughest job you'll ever love.

-taken from a pillow at my friend's house

Yesterday was Mother's Day, so this weekend was for our family "Mother's Day weekend. " We always celebrate with Terrell's family on the Saturday before and with my family on Mother's Day. So, to start off the weekend we met Terrell's parents, sister, brother- in-law, and neice at Olive Garden for lunch. It's always fun when the 8 of us get together. We enjoyed lunch and gave Ms. Kathy her gifts, then went outside and made pictures of "Nana" with her grandchildren and each of our individual families. After lunch, Terrell's parents came back over to our house to visit for a while and to play with Garrison. Once they headed home, we let Garrison take a nap before heading out to Barnesville ourselves.

Saturday evening we grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs with my parents and sister. We enjoyed catching up and playing with Garrison until it was bedtime for him. That night we watched "Speed" since I had never seen it and stayed up until close to midnight. Somehow that always happens when we're at my parent's house. I think me and Terrell were the only ones to make it through the entire movie without falling asleep.

After we finally went to bed, we were able to get a little sleep (but not much) before the little man woke us up. He didn't have a very good night... He seems to always have trouble sleeping when we're away from home. But, we made it to church the next morning and actually felt pretty decent. After church we headed over to Buckner's for our traditional Mother's Day lunch. We met my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and several cousins. After waiting in line for probably about 30 minutes, all 19 of us were seated at tables side by side. The food was delicious and we all ate too much, including Garrison. We couldn't keep enough food on his plate it seemed like! After lunch just about everyone went back over to Granny and PawPaw's house but we decided to take Garrison home to my parents' for an afternoon nap. We also took a little nap while he did. Once we finally got home to Covington, Garrison had me a Mother's Day gift. So sweet!

Even though the weekend was busy, it was lots of fun and we enjoyed spending it with all the mom's in our lives. I am so thankful for my mom and everything she has done for me. I'm very blessed to have a selfless, christian mom who has set a great example for her daughters and now her grandson. I'm also blessed to have 2 wonderful grandmother's. They are also amazing christian women who have set great examples for their families. And, I'm very thankful to have such a sweet, christian Mother-in-law. Garrison is going to be surrounded by love and prayer from all of these women and for this I am extremely grateful.

Some of my favorite things about being Garrison's mom

• Answering to "ma-ma"


• Getting a smile and hug from him every morning (almost every morning anyway)


• Being at home with him and watching him change and grow and learn new things everyday


• Watching him play with his daddy


• Listening to him laugh


• Rocking him before naptime and bedtime


• Feeling his head on my shoulder when he's tired


• Making things "all better" when he's upset


• Having him hold my hand when we take a walk somewhere...in the house or outside


• Reading books to him everyday


• Watching him take those same books off the shelf and "reading" by himself


• Having him follow me around when I vacuum


• Having help unloading the dishwasher every morning


• Listening to him say new words


• Seeing him play with his hair and knowing that he's sleepy


• Watching him play with Bailey (our other child... a mini schnauzer)


• Hearing the pitter patter of footsteps around the house


• Smelling his "baby" smell right after a bath


• Pulling him in his wagon around the neighborhood


• Experiencing all of his "firsts" with him

These are just some of my favorite things. Even though being a mom is really exhausting and draining on lots of days, I am so thankful for Garrison and feel extremely blessed to be his mom.

First time eating Spaghetti-O's with a spoon by himself

Yay! He was finally able to get something on the spoon and the spoon into his mouth! Next on our agenda... a bath before naptime.

Now, he's attempting to use his spoon and his hand

Okay, so holding the spoon but using his hand...

Naptime dilemma

Okay, Garrison has been consistently taking two naps a day since he was about 4 months old. Once I was done with the school year and back at home with him, I was able to establish a consistent routine with his naps. One in the morning that lasted 1 and a half-2 hours, and one in the afternoon that lasted 1 and a half-2 hours. Now... he's about to be 15 months old and I just can't decide what to do about his naps. He is still taking two a day, but they usually aren't two good naps. He actually takes his best nap in the morning. He settles down easily, goes to sleep quickly after being laid down, and typically stays asleep until I go in to wake him up. The afternoon nap on the other hand is a whole different story. He usually plays/talks/sings for several minutes before he finally goes to sleep in the afternoon. By "several minutes", I mean like a good 30 minutes on average. Most days he will eventually go to sleep, but only for about an hour before I have to wake him up. And, the days he doesn't go to sleep are not fun for mama and daddy because he's so ill up until bedtime.

My dilemma is.... Should I still allow him to take 2 naps a day until he starts resisting the morning nap? (Because the morning nap is what will be eliminated eventually) Or, should I start to shorten the morning nap so that hopefully his afternoon nap will be better? Or, should I try eliminating the morning nap altogether to see how that effects our day and the afternoon nap? The reason I'm making an issue over it is because one- I know that one day that morning nap has got to go, but that he will still definitely need a good long afternoon nap, and two- I know how important those naps are to me. Naptime for Garrison means "work time" for mama. That is when I accomplish 99% of my Premier "stuff". One nap a day is a scary thought to me. But, if that one nap is a good long one every afternoon, then I think I'll be able to manage okay... although it won't be as easy as having two naps.

Decisions, decisions. Right now I think I'm just going to be really strict about keeping that morning nap short- no more than an hour. Then, hopefully he will still take a good long afternoon nap. I guess we'll find out in the coming weeks.

Garrison is walking!

It's Official! Garrison Cade is walking!!

Well, it's now official that the little man is off and walking! We've been anticipating this for a while now, so we are very excited and proud. He will be 15 months old May 5th, so this was something we'd been patiently waiting for. He actually took his first steps on April 3rd (the day before Easter) when he greeted his Granna (my mom), Nana (Terrell's mom), and AnAn (my sister Anna). At 3 different points that day we got to see him take 2-3 steps. So, for the whole month of April we've been waiting for him to really get the hang of it and gain the confidence (and balance) to take several steps consistently. For the longest time he would take just a few steps to greet me or Terrell each day, but as soon as he got close enough to touch us, he would fall forward into us. He would also walk really far distances holding onto to one of our fingers. But, as soon as we let go he would stand there for a second and plop down on his bottom. Then he got a little braver and started taking steps between the coffee table and couch or between the crib and bookshelf in his room. Finally, he got really brave and would just let go and take a few steps until he lost his balance and fell. He gradually took more and more steps and became better and better. Now, he's walking all over the place! He still crawls a lot too, because at this point crawling is a little faster than walking. (I will have to put up pictures soon!)

The very best thing about Garrison's almost month long journery of learning to walk, is that I got to witness it all! It was amazing to see him literally become more brave and confident each day and to see him going from walking 5 steps without falling to walking 15 steps without falling. I'm just the proud mom whenever he takes off down the hall or across the living room. I love to stop what I'm doing and watch because it's such a milestone and he's worked so hard to figure it out. He really seems like a big boy now. He's definitely more toddler than baby... which is really bittersweet. But, I know that "toddlerhood" will bring lots of challenges and fun and I'm really looking forward to it.