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.