One More Birthday Gift

A while back I wrote about getting ready for Garrison's birthday party and trying to figure out what his big gift would be from us, and our dilemma about outside toys.... our house sits on a hill, we have a tiny backyard, etc. Well, we finally made a final decision about what we wanted to get him, and then we finally found it so we could actually give it to him, only a couple of weeks late.

Here sits the little man on his new Little Tikes "Climber". He loves it and it actually fits in our backyard! Double yay!

It turned out being a pretty good bit bigger than what I thought it was going to be after seeing it online in pictures. But I love it because it isn't huge like the wooden playground sets, but yet it's big enough for him to have plenty of room to play and it offers a lot.... 2 slides, a tunnel, a play house/fort area with a door (a big deal to the little man), and multiple climbing spots to get to the slides. Plus it will grow with him and he'll be able to keep playing on it as he gets bigger. We can even switch things around if we want and change the spots of the slides and tunnel. (Another feature I really like.) We've only had it for a couple of days but he loves it so far and can't get enough play time on it.

Climbing up the tunnel

Ready to slide down the "big" slide

Action shot coming off the slide

Inside the house/fort standing behind the door...which like I said, is a big deal. =)
Happy Belated Birthday Garrison!!

Baby Selph/Pregnancy Update

Here are our 1st two pictures of our sweet baby. I have them on our refrigerator and I think I smile every single time I look at them. =) I can't wait to meet him or her! (Well maybe just a little while... Garrison isn't out of the nursery yet and we need a little more time to prepare for baby number 2.) When I was pregnant with Garrison I wasn't really able to document my pregnancy and how I felt and how much weight I gained and cravings I had, etc. I really don't have tons of pictures of myself pregnant with him either, except mainly at showers. So this time around I want to document it all so I'll be able to look back and remember it.

So far, I really can't complain about anything. I haven't been sick a single time and other than being really tired at various times during the day, (and really hungry too) things have been pretty good. I've only had one bad nauseous spell and a couple of times of feeling "faint". One of those happened again this morning. All of a sudden I'll just start feeling light-headed and hot and my vision will get sort of blurry like I'm going to faint but I just put my head down between my knees and wait until I can get up. Then I usually feel like I need to be sick but it passes fairly quick. But those episodes have only occurred like 3 or 4 times. Having an empty stomach is not my friend, but since I'm home most of the day every day, that hasn't been too big of a problem.

This pregnancy (so far) has been really similar to the pregnancy with Garrison. Which reminds me... right after we found out we were expecting this time I had a pretty strong feeling we were having a girl, and I still do.... sort of. Kind of like with Garrison I had a strong feeling he would be a boy. I always pictured us having a boy first and honestly every time I imagined myself with our baby, it was always a boy.(Although everybody else, and I do mean everybody, thought I was having a girl so I started to waver a little on my original prediction.) This time I've been pretty sure of a girl, except for the fact that the pregnancies have been so similar. So I just don't know. But that's okay, it's still really early and we have plenty of time for predictions and discussion of names. =) I think I'm going to start putting a picture up every once in a while too. I'll probably do the first one at 12 weeks. I do seem to be getting bigger, faster this time. I'm trying to be active (I'm not exactly sure if you can call it exercising) and to eat healthy, especially with my snacks. At my last appointment I had already gained 4 lbs. I don't know if that's good or bad because my doctors say it's okay for me to gain 30-35 lbs total, but I don't want to gain that much and since we're already discussing the potential size of the baby when it's born and the best delivery method, I don't need to gain that much. Anyway, I think that updates what's been going on with me and baby Selph.

Here are a few pictures I had to include of my little man outside yesterday. We've been enjoying the pretty weather as much as we can and Garrison has definitely enjoyed having his afternoon snack outside this week.

Ready for a walk in his wagon. Once he finishes his snack I've been pulling him in his wagon down the street before coming back and having some outside play time.

Drawing with sidewalk chalk... it makes a mess but he really likes it. =)

It's the letter A!

Covered in chalk dust

2 Year Check-Up

This morning we had Garrison's 2 year appointment with his doctor. Everything looks great with the little man, physically and developmentally. Other than him yelling at me to read to him while I was trying to talk to the doctor and him gagging and crying when she looked at his throat, the visit as a whole went great. He was a little apprehensive about everything but didn't seem to have this major negative association with being at the doctor, in the exam room, etc. Of course, he didn't need shots today so that was a huge help.

Garrison weighed 27 lbs 8 oz and was 34 inches long. He's in the 25th percentile for weight and the 25th-50th percentile for height. Unless something major changes it looks like he will always have my high metabolism (something he won't like or appreciate as he grows and wants to be big and strong) and hopefully be about as tall as his daddy (which means we-Terrell, probably shouldn't hold his breath on Garrison having a future as a professional athlete... but anything is possible.) She said that we'll know more about his potential height and weight as he gets older, but right now she predicts him being a very "average" sized adult. I had to ask her her prediction because I have a fear of Garrison being extra short and thin (and it will be all my fault so of course he'll blame me) and struggling with self-image. Oh my. It's way too soon to be thinking about that sort of thing. I'm not sure why I even let my mind go there.

We also discussed his diet, introducing the potty, child-proofing everything, language development, etc. I was able to answer yes to all the questions they asked me except him being able to jump, and him washing and drying his hands by himself. He has actually just become interested in jumping and has attempted it several times the past few days. Most of the time he does a little skip and can't get both feet off the ground at the same time. Although I'm almost positive that he did a real, live jump with both feet off the ground the other night. Of course I'm the only witness so I can't be sure. ha! As far as washing and drying his hands... we have a stool at his bathroom sink but he still can't reach all the way under the water so we're pretty much doing all the hand washing and drying for him at this point.

The little man also has a little cold right now so we talked about that. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be anything major. He hasn't had a fever and she saw no signs of an ear infection today so all we can do at this point is try to keep his nose cleaned out with a suction and by using saline drops. She did give me permission to give him Children's Benadryl at night, so we may try that if he gets any worse.

All in all, things looked great with the little man and it was a very successful check-up. He doesn't have to go back for a whole year. My baby is growing up. He even stood on the scale this time instead of getting on the baby scale. I guess he'll have to go back with his new baby brother or sister but the next time he goes for his own check-up he'll truly be a big boy. But I'm not going think about that right now. He just turned two so we're going to focus on the here and now (and enjoy the pretty weather today!) If he's up to it when he wakes up we'll be having snack time outside and I'll be taking him for a walk pulling him in his wagon. =)

Valentine Blessings

Valentine's Day has never been a huge deal to us ( well maybe when we were dating) but we definitely like to celebrate in some way just so we don't feel like it's a regular old day or like we're an old married couple. So we decided to go out to one of our favorite "upscale" restaurants, if you can call it that, with the little man on Saturday night. We had a giftcard to Olive Garden from Christmas and my parents sent us a monetary Valentine gift and card in the mail... so we splurged at our favorite Italian restaurant. We are so spoiled. We told them that they've set the bar really high for what we should plan to do for our grown children! My parents are the most generous people I know. They make us crazy sometimes for doing too much but we definitely love them and appreciate them for it!

Me and my two guys before going out on our date

I love this picture of me and my little man.

Daddy and his little man

Olive Garden was crazy busy on Saturday night, but I would say it was worth the wait. Our meal was delicious and we even had dessert. We had a great time and Garrison even went to bed like normal after we got home! Huge blessing!

Okay, I definitely have to elaborate on this for just a minute. Pretty much since he turned two, a whole week ago, the little man has had some trouble with bedtime. All of last week he decided not to go to bed until 9:00 every night. After a few days, this was wearing on both all of us. We would start his bathtime around 7:00, then have him ready for bedtime before 8:00. One of us would read him a few books, sing a few songs, say prayers, lay him down awake, stay in his room for a few more minutes, tell him goodnight, then leave the room. Just like we've done every other night for months. Well, for some reason, the little man would immeditately start crying for the other parent after we left his room. This would then start a cycle of one of us going in to sit with him for a few minutes, leaving the room with him still awake (he rarely can go to sleep with one of us in his room) and then him crying again. The crying was a desperate, panicked cry. I could deal with letting him whine and fuss but it was really hard to ignore the screaming sobs. Eventually he would just give up and accept when we left his room for the 5th time that he was tired of the charade or he would actually fall asleep from exhaustion while we were in the room. Friday night he didn't go to sleep until 9:45. After that whole episode I was spent and ready for an intervention. The new plan was going to be either timing him and letting him cry or going into his room but not acknowleding him... just sitting down by the door without speaking to him or making eye contact. So far, we haven't had to resort to either. 3 nights in a row have been great. We'll see if it lasts but as for now we're SO thankful we don't have to spend our evening from 7:00 to 9:00 trying to get him bathed, in bed, and asleep.

Okay, back to Valentine's stuff. Last night we decided we would go out to our favorite local Mexican restaurant. They were having a really good Valentine special, we knew it would be a safe (loud) place for the 3 of us to have dinner together, and best of all I wouldn't have to cook!

One of my Valentine dates

My other Valentine date =)

Things were a little crazy at the restauarant. Who knew the Mexican place would be so popular on Valentines? Anyway, we enjoyed our 3 course meal and ate way too much. Garrison loved the cheese dip. That may become something we have to start ordering for him. While we were eating we started talking and realized this was our first time to venture out to a restaurant on Valentine's Day in years. Maybe even since we've been married. We just always went out the weekend before and for the past few years we've gotten Long Horn take-out on actual Valentine's Day instead. (Which is probably what we'll end up doing next year.)

Anyway, Terrell surprised me with tulips when he got home from work (so sweet!) and we also had a little surprise for the little man. A card and a balloon! (Balloons are a really big deal!) It was sort of a last minute decision to give him a balloon so they didn't have much selection by the time Terrell went to get one, so he just got Mickey Mouse instead. =)

Reading his card... his expression is so sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last but definitely not least, I have to share about our biggest Valentine blessing. Yesterday morning, the 3 of us got to go to the doctor together to see Garrison's baby brother or sister! We are so excited about our new little bundle of joy but wanted to wait to share the news after seeing the ultrasound. I am 9 weeks pregnant and looking forward to welcoming the newest member to the family by September 17th. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! We waited and prayed for this baby many months and seeing him or her yesterday was so special.

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

Psalm 139:13-14

We actually found out I was pregnant when I had the flu. I knew I was due to start my period basically any day and when it didn't happen we decided I had to go ahead and take a test just to determine whether or not I could take stronger medicine. I was really scared to take the test because I was afraid a negative result would just make me feel worse. But, Terrell convinced me. In his words, "if you are, we'll be happy and maybe that will help you feel better. If you aren't, at least we'll know and can get some stronger medicine in you to help you feel better." I love my husband. It was a really happy moment finding out. Then we had to tell our moms because they had both been keeping close tabs on me and asking about what I was taking, etc. So they knew a few hours after us. Then a couple of weeks later we told our sisters. Then we told the rest of the family at Garrison's birthday party. The last present Garrison opened was a shirt that said "Big Brother". The picture I have of it is blurry but one of the only ones we got. There was definitely a delayed reaction but finally everyone caught on. My grandparents were hilarious because they seemed almost oblivious to the whole thing. Then I had my aunts and uncles smiling at me but not saying a word. Finally my cousin Kelly let out a scream. It was definitely a fun way to tell the family. Selph Party of 3... is now Selph Party of 4...!! Yay!

Happy Birthday Garrison!

Garrison's birthday was Saturday the 5th and we had a great time celebrating and partying just about all weekend! I think the little man had a great birthday and really enjoyed his party and all the attention he received (although at times he seemed a little confused and overwhelmed by it all). We are SO thankful for my parents letting us use their house and for all their help with the decorating, food, grilling, cleaning up, etc. We never could have pulled it off without them!

This is Garrison, on his actual birthday, February 5, 2009.

This is the 3 of us at Garrison's 1st birthday party, February 6, 2010

Okay, on to the present and how the big birthday celebration weekend got started....

Terrell was able to get off early Friday afternoon so we loaded up everything and the 4 of us piled into the car with Bailey in the front with Terrell and me and the little man in the back. As we got closer to my parents' house, Garrison started complaining about his car seat straps being too tight and crying a little off and on. I could see that the straps were fine, so I just tried to distract him and told him we were almost there. We were about half way down Evergreen North, just a few houses from my parents', when the little man threw up his lunch and snack. Yuck. It went everywhere. He was covered and so was the car seat. It was his first time ever throwing up and I think it scared him because he started to cry and looked at me like get me away from this mess! Thankfully we were really close to my parents' house and my sister had just gotten there too so she could help us out. Terrell ran in and grabbed paper towels so I could try to clean Garrison up before taking him inside to change him while he attempted to save the car seat. So gross. To top it all off, it was raining like crazy and had been all day long. To make a long story short, we got Garrison changed, his clothes washed, and eventually the car seat cover washed as well. Thankfully, Garrison didn't get sick again (I was so nervous about him being sick on his birthday) and it appears he just got a little car sick.

The rest of the night went great. Garrison even got to open one of his presents early. My sister got him a grill and wanted him to be able to play with it while the grilling was going on for his party.

The little man with his card from AnAn

It took him a while, but he finally got all the paper off

Thanks for my grill AnAn!

Now I'll go ahead and grill up a burger and hotdog. =)

After he had his bath and went to bed, we got busy with decorating and tried to do as much as we could the night before. We made great progress, and I'm so thankful for all the help from my parents and sister!!

Saturday morning we woke up and immediately started talking about the party and telling Garrison "Happy Birthday". He had already been talking about presents and cake and telling everyone he would be two, so he seemed pretty excited and ready for his party that morning. We had to do some last minute things with the tables and the cake, but other than that we mainly started with the food preparations.

Garrison's adorable birthday cake. It turned out perfect!

The cake table

One of the things I really wanted to do for his party this year was something with pictures of him from the past year. Originally I thought about doing a picture from every month but then realized that wouldn't show a lot of growth and changes in him and if they were just random pictures they wouldn't be that special. Then, my mom or Anna (can't remember which) gave me the idea of just doing the major events and holidays from his past year. I loved it! I had already "stolen" and modified this idea from another birthday party and it turned out great! I'm so glad I went through with it because it was something really cute, memorable, and inexpensive. And it was a big hit with the rest of the family/party guests!

These pics are from his 1st birthday, Easter, Dollywood, and the 4th of July

These are from summer vacation, the first day of school, Halloween, and Thanksgiving (the only one you can't see is Christmas)

The presents table with Elmo and Big Bird at the head.

One of our centerpieces... Ernie propped against two Sesame Street books

Another centerpiece... his Sesame Street guitar on one side and Elmo book on the other

And on the big dining room table, we did Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, Abby, and Grover back-to-back so they would sit up

The birthday boy (refusing to smile) and Elmo

Enjoying his lunch

Time for presents! I love his expression in this one. You probably have to click on it to see it good, but he seems so "wowed"

Opening presents went great once he got the hang of it. He started off a little slow and I was starting to worry it would take us all day to open everything, but once he figured it out he got pretty fast. The cutest thing was hearing him say thank you to each family/couple for his presents. I hope you can hear it on the video that Terrell got because I always want to remember how sweet that thank you sounds.

Time for cake!

This is how he looked almost the entire time we sang Happy Birthday. His expression seemed to say, these people have lost it. I'm sure it's got to be overwhelming for a 2 year old to have 22 people singing Happy Birthday to him.

At the end of the song, everybody sort of cheered and the little man lit up. He was probably relieved the song was over. =)

Blowing out the candle with AnAn

Tasting his cake for the first time. He ended up eating every bite, plus ice cream. The cake was delicious if I do say so myself.

After everyone finished their cake and ice cream and we started cleaning up and people started leaving, the little man started playing with his new best friend, Meghan. He was attached to her the entire afternoon and still can't stop talking about her. It worked out nicely for them to have plenty of play time together since Meghan's parents stayed almost the entire afternoon. My cousin Kelly and her family traveled almost the longest distance for the party from Gainesville, but my aunt and uncle beat them out by traveling all the way from Suches. We were so glad they all got to come!

Sitting at his new table from Granna and Papa with Meghan eating the food they grilled

Putting ketchup on his hotdog. So cute!

I think Garrison's 2nd birthday party was perfect and I'm so thankful for all the help we had to make sure it was so great! Garrison racked up on presents once again and we're starting to have to get creative to figure out where we're going to put it all! I feel SO blessed that my little man is so loved by so many. His party was such a special day for him and for us and we're very thankful it was spent with the people we love most!

2 Years Old! (Almost)

Garrison will turn 2 on Saturday the 5th (at 12:33 to be exact... right in the middle of his party) and since tomorrow we are loading up all the birthday stuff and heading to Barnesville to get ready for the party, I wanted to go ahead and write about Garrison turning 2 a couple of days early. It's really sort of crazy for me to think about him being two. I think while I was pregnant I imagined loving, and taking care of, and staying home with... a baby. I didn't really think past him being 1. I knew he would grow up and he would be involved in little boy things like sports, and trucks, and playing with his daddy, but I didn't really think about what it would be like to have a full blown, active, talkative, big boy. My baby is past the baby stage, although he's definitely still a toddler, but he's truly becoming a big boy. Before we know it we'll be signing him up for tee-ball and school and I'll be parenting a much bigger boy, one who will probably be taller than me way before I'm ready. As long as he knows he'll always be my little man no matter how big he is. Anyway, before I get carried away thinking too far into the future, this post is dedicated to my big boy, Garrison Cade, as we prepare to celebrate his 2nd birthday.

Last year this time, you didn't know how to walk yet, you could only say a few words, you took two naps everyday, and your favorite thing to do was crawl around all over the house. My how things have changed in a year! You are a very active, talkative (you talk all the time and repeat almost everything we say), busy little boy now. Your favorite thing right now is anything Sesame Street. You request to watch "Elmo" everyday. Even though Elmo is probably your favorite, you love all the characters and know them by name. You have lots of Sesame Street toys, books, and even a couple of DVDs. So far, Sesame Street is about the only thing you'll watch on TV. You typically watch the first 10-15 minutes sitting on the couch, then you have to get up and play or do something while you watch. You also love playing basketball with daddy. Just about every night after supper you and daddy throw the balls into the goal together. You love to say, "bounce" and "shoot it".

You go to bed between 7:45-8:15 every night and wake up between 7:15 and 7:30 every morning. You take an afternoon nap everyday that lasts about an hour and a half on most days. I always have to stay in your room in the rocking chair until you fall asleep for your naps. Somehow that's just become the routine and the guaranteed way you'll take a nap. I really don't mind because it gives me a few minutes to rest too!

Your bedtime rountine consists of one of us reading you 3 books (that you insist on picking out), singing songs with you and saying prayers together before laying you down. You like mama to sing certain songs with you like Count Your Blessings, Amazing Grace, and Go to Sleep Little Baby. And you like daddy to sing songs like Old McDonald Had a Farm, Jesus Loves Me, and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer . My favorite thing about singing you songs is that you're laying in my arms looking up at me and trying to sing with me. It's just precious! After we finish singing songs, you sit up and we say prayers together. You've just started repeating us whenever we pray. It melts my heart.

Once you wake up in the mornings you like to lay in bed and talk a little or throw everything out of your crib onto the floor while you wait for us to come in and get you. We usually go in about 7:45 to get you up. If you're really getting impatient, you'll start to yell for us... "maa-ma! maaaa-ma!" or sometimes "daaa-da!". Then we know we better hurry up! The new thing you do now is take your pants off whenever you wake up in the mornings or wake up from a nap. You don't take them off every single time, but you defintely will every time you have a "poopy" diaper.

This is what I found when I went in your room one morning this week. No pants on, and every single thing thrown out of your crib... your pillow, blanket, and even Cookie Monster and Rudolph who you sleep with every night.

You are very smart (of course I think so!). You know all of your colors now, even the hard ones like black, brown, white, pink, and purple. You also know how to count to 10... you haven't mastered counting objects yet but you definitely know how to say your numbers 1 through 10. You recognize the letters A and B with consistency and sometimes C and G. You're also learning the alphabet song and sound so cute trying to sing it. You know the names of all the other "students" in your class at school plus your teachers' names. You are actually one of the only ones in your class who knows and can say everyone's names. You even recognize all of your classmate's parents and call them by their child's name.

Your newest hobby is coloring. For about a week and a half you have asked to color everyday. I can't wait until you get your birthday present from Granna and Papa so you won't have to sit in your high chair to color. You mainly color in a Sesame Street fun book I found for you at the Dollar Store.

You still love to eat. I think meal times are your favorite parts of the day! You are always excited when I tell you breakfast, lunch, or supper is ready. You love every single meal we give you for breakfast. I think breakfast food is your favorite.... fruit, muffins, waffles, grits, cereal bars, yogurt, biscuits, etc. Your favorite lunch or supper food is probably spaghetti, but you also love corn (it has to be your absolute favorite side). You like almost every vegetable we give you but depending on your mood, we might have to bribe you with bread or fruit to get you to finish your veggies and your meat. For some reason, meat (unless it's in spaghetti or lasagna), is your least favorite thing to eat. Recently you've become a pretty big fan of chicken nuggets so we're grateful for that!

Yesterday you got your hair cut and you were such a sweet boy! Granna and I were so impressed with how still and quiet and patient you were the whole time. I talked to you about getting your haircut on the way to Barnesville and it seemed to prepare you for the experience. You were such a big boy and we were so proud!

We've also been talking about your birthday party and that it's going to be at Granna and Papa's house and that you'll get to eat cake and open presents. You're finally catching on and starting to talk about it. You can also tell everyone that you'll be "two" on your birthday. I'm so excited about your party and I hope it's so much fun for you!

Even though you wear me out and rarely let me sit down and I feel worn out once you go to bed, and even though we've had some battle of wills and major meltdowns that I assume are a preview of the terrible twos, you bring us more joy and laughter and happiness each day than we ever imagined. We are so thankful God blessed us with our sweet, loving, adorable little man. We love you Garrison Cade!