Garrett's First Year Stats!

Newborn

3 Months

6 Months

9 Months

13 Months

This is a belated post! I should have done this a long time ago, but I was waiting for us to finally get his 12 month pictures taken. I can't believe our little chunka is one. Actually, he is almost 14 months. Here are his stats.

Weight: 23 lbs

Height 30 in

Likes: Putting EVERYTHING in his mouth, reading books, playing with cars, balls, and being chased

Dislikes: Long car rides, getting his diaper changed, and not being able to play like his big brother

Differences from Connor: There are so many to name! He will sit for a long time reading his books or playing with toys. Connor never attended to an item for very long. He is not really into watching TV. He would much rather be playing. Connor loved to watch TV at this age and still does. Garrett is an awesome eater! He will pretty much eat anything that you put in front of him, but his big brother not so much. He is behind where Connor was at this age with his gross motor skills, but I am not really concerned about that.

New skills: Garrett took his first steps on July 29th. It was only two, but it was awesome. He is super quick at cruising and will stand on his own for longer periods of time now. It is only a matter of time before he is running! Look out, Mommy! He is into everything! He loves the remote controls, to play with the water knobs on the tub, the toilet plunger, pulling everything out of drawers, playing with the fireplace grate, knocking over the paper shredder and destroying everything in his path! He also wants to do EVERYTHING that his big brother does. You can just see it in his eyes, that he just can't wait to be bigger. Whew! It makes me tired just thinking of what he does on a daily basis!

Evenn with all of that, his smile and blue eyes make my heart melt. I love to rock him before bed and just drink in his sweetness. He is one amazing little guy! We love you, Garrett!!!

Airing the Dirty Lanudry

When I envisioned being a parent, I did not envision perfect kids, after all I am an elementary teacher, so I know better than to think that kids are perfect. I did envision myself reacting perfectly to every situation. If the kid didn't want to go to sleep, then I knew the best way to make them go down. If the kid did not want to eat veggies, then I knew the best way to hide them in other yummy food. When I envisioned being a parent there was no problem I could not tackle with grace and patience. Then reality hit.... There are so many things I do wrong as a parent. What I kick myself for is that I know that I am doing them wrong, but I still do it anyway. (Kind of like eating that second brownie or having that 3rd glass of wine.) So in order to get all of this off of my chest, I am airing all of my dirty laundry. Here is how I am failing, or for a more positive spin, still need to work on as a parent of two young boys.

* Connor watches way too much TV! Right now he is watching Jake and the NeverLand Pirates while I am typing this. Now, we are potty training and it is like 100 degrees outside, so we have tried to find stuff to do inside. Still, I hate how much TV and Wii that he plays. Garrett on the other hand will sit and play for hours and is not really interested in much TV. He does like to watch the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club House, but that is about it. I guess I am batting 50/50 on this one.

* We have a horrible bedtime routine. Connor is a night owl. He would stay up until 11 or 11:30 if we would let him. One of us has to lay in his bed and fall asleep with him. Then in the middle of the night when he comes in, instead of marching him back to his bed we just pull him up beside us and let him sleep with us. I always envisioned the read two books, cuddle, give a kiss, and then say good night leaving the rest of the evening for some adult me time. This is not how our house is. Connor also likes to play games at bedtime, and I don't have the patience for it. Most of the time Jason has to put him to bed, because I get so frustrated with him. It has been this way since he got his big boy bed over a year ago. I keep thinking that he will grow out of it, but now I am afraid we could be sleeping with him until he goes off to college.

* I hate boy toys. Yes, I have two boys, but I hate boy toys. I can pride myself on building a pretty decent train track, but that is it. I really don't like all the big boy toys, Transformers, WWF guys, alien stuff, motorcycles, GI Joes, etc. The only thing to do with them is to beat each other up and make things explode. I don't understand swords, boxing, guns (Nerf or the water variety). Girl toys have a purpose and are nurturing. Girl toys teach life skills, cooking, hair styling, cleaning, etc. All boy toys do is to protect the nation from the evil Decepticons who have joined up the the Joker to plan a terrorist attack against GI Joe and his camp. Good thing that Mater has his trusty tow rope to lasso the Decepticons and bring them down before they can hatch their evil plot!

* The ONLY vegetable Connor will eat is corn on the cob. Garrett eats a good variety of vegetables for now, but I can't get Connor to eat any other veggie. Connor is even getting to the point now where he won't even try anything new. I tried to give him a Pop Tart at my sister-in-laws house and he would not touch it. He will only eat regular mac and cheese. He won't touch the Toy Story or Cars kind. Again, the hope is that he will grow out of it, but I am not doing anything to help him expand his horizons.

* I run out of patience... a lot of the time! As a teacher and a mother, I should be the picture of patience. I should never raise my voice or sigh (which Jason says that I do a lot!). I should know the best thing to say to make the situation better in a nice calm tone, but I don't. I continue to pray for more patience everyday. It really bothers me that I don't have any more than I do.

* I let Garrett cry it out. Sometimes I even turn the monitor down and just watch the lights for a while. I let Connor cry it out too, but I don't rush to Garrett's side as often as I probably should.

* If I can't handle watching what Connor is watching, I will go in the other room and turn on something else. There is only so much cartoons one woman can take.

OK. I feel much better now. I am sure there are many more items that I forgot to throw out there as well. I am not perfect, and I never will be. However, I do love my boys very much and will do anything to keep them safe and make them happy. I guess in the end if my boys know that they are loved every moment of everyday, then I am doing at least one thing right.

Connorisms

We all know that kids say the darnedest things, but a three year old will say some really funny stuff. Here are a few of my favorite Connorisms!

* At Disney World we kept telling Connor, "Maybe, If you are good, we will buy that for you." Well this stuck with him. When we got home around Easter the kept saying, "Maybe, if you are good, the Easter Bunny will buy me that." He now says this whenever he wants ANYTHING, but also adds in a few items for Jason and I. Some of the funnier ones involve our friends children. He as said to me, "Mommy. Maybe if you are good the Easter bunny will buy you Molly." (Our friends newborn baby) Also, "Mommy. Maybe if you are good, the Easter bunny will buy you Reese." (Our babysitters 9 month old.) He is so sweet when he says it, but we did have to explain that we can't buy Molly or Reese.

* Connor likes to know who bought him different items. The conversation always goes like this.

Connor - Mommy, who bought me this ___________. (Juice box, bed, bat, baby brother, etc.)

Me - I did, honey.

Connor - Thanks Mommy! (In the cutest voice ever!)

* He is obsessed with baseball, and he is getting pretty good at hitting the ball. After he hits the ball he asks us to say, "Good job, Connor!" or "Home Run!" He also calls foul balls, "bad balls."

* He also loves the movie Peter Pan. He likes to call me Wendy and Jason, John. We have to call him Peter Pan. One night before Jason put him to bed he looked at me and said, "Good night, Wendy. I love you." So sweet!

I am sure there are many more, but these are some of the cuter ones. He is definitely my hoot and a handful!

If My Walls Could Talk...

I gave this prompt for a 5 minute quick write to my 5th graders. Here is what I wrote during that time about the walls in my house.

If my walls could talk they would say, "Mommy, dance with me!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "You have to ask nicely the first time."

If my walls could talk they would say, "No more Michael Jackson for the Wii!!"

If my walls could talk they would scream, "Stop playing baseball in the house!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "Yes, Connor you can fly like Peter Pan!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "Slow down Bridget and enjoy the moment. The rest of this stuff can wait."

If my walls could talk they would say, "Slow down Garrett. You are growing up too fast!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "Your boys are the cutest things ever!" (They really are. The walls don't lie!)

If my walls could talk they would say, "Lower your voice! Your baby brother is sleeping!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "It is OK if Connor turns into a chicken nugget!"

If my walls could talk they would say, "You don't have time to watch all of the shows that you DVR."

If my walls could talk they would say, "Don't worry. Connor will eventually have a decent bedtime routine."

If my walls could talk they would say, "I like being covered with little finger prints."

If my walls could talk they would say, "Your mom is very proud of you."

Connor and Garrett's First Trip to Disney

Wow, look at the castle!

Trying on Woody's hat for size!

"Hey Baby Brother, guess what cool stuff we are going to see today!!"

I am Captain Hook!!

I will take one of everything, please!

Acting like Donald Duck

Where should we go next?

Me and my daddy waiting in line

We had to trade in our double stroller for two separate ones. Each boy got their own chariot that day!

So tired after my first trip to Disney!

On our way home from Jensen Beach, we stopped in Orlando to take the boys to Magic Kingdom for the day. It was an awesome experience! We got there around 9:30 and stayed until 11:30. Although it was a little too hot, both of the boys had a blast! We pretty much did everything that we wanted to do and even saw the Main Street Electrical Parade twice! Connor is on a Peter Pan kick and enjoyed Peter Pan's Flight and Pirates of the Caribbean. Garrett was able to go on most of the rides with us as well. I am not sure of his favorite one, but I do believe that he enjoyed being out of the heat for a while. The lines were not to terribly long, and we used the Fast Pass for just about everything that we could. The highlight of our day was getting to meet Micky and Minnie!!! The look on Connor's face was priceless, and he had a nervous giggle the whole time we were in the room. We had the Disney photographer take our picture with them, so we are waiting to get those back. Connor daily will talk about things that we did and that he wants to go back. He is obsessed with looking at pictures from the trip and a map of the Magic Kingdom that we brought home with us. Connor keeps saying, "Maybe if we are good we can go back there some day!" Yes, Connor, we hope to take you back there some day!!

Florida 2011

I love my baby brother!

My first happy hour in Florida

So cute dressed in blue!

Let's go DAWGS!!!!

My boys cheering on Butler

Brothers

Hanging out at the Beer Bust!

What is this sand stuff? Get me out of here!!!

Love from my daddy!

Get in the hole!!

I did it!!!

Love swimming with the ducky!

Hanging out in the lobster!

Now it is baby brother's turn!

Our family

Mommy and her baby boy!

The Smith family had another successful pilgrimage to sunny Florida over Spring Break this year. I say successful because we had fun and made it back in one piece. The drive both there and back was a bit hairy! Garrett was not the model car rider, and at night refused to fall asleep in his car seat. He would nap just fine in the day, but at night he wanted OUT! He pretty much cried off and on for 8 hours straight. Needless to say once we were actually at Jensen Beach, we had a great time! Connor loved swimming in the pool, playing in the sandbox, watching his dad and Great-Grandpa play tennis, and playing putt-putt golf. Garrett enjoyed playing outside during our daily happy hour and taking his first dip in the pool. We watched both Final Four games down there as well. We celebrated another Butler trip to the championship game. We were disappointed they didn't win it all but had fun during the ride yet again. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa Biery in Florida. Connor keeps asking to go back, but NONE of us are eager to spend that much time in the car any time soon!!! Give it a little time though.

Spring in the Smith House

All my boys together!!!

I am ready for the beach, but Mom, can you get me a hat that fits???

Butler Pride!!!

Let's GO DAWGS!!!! Sweet 16 Bound, Baby!!!

Brothers

It is about time that it was nice outside, so I can ride my new Schwinn Trike!

Catch me if you can!!!

Ahh Spring!!! How I love it so! Here is a brief look at what my boys have been up to this month.

Garrett - He is just as cute and smiley as ever! The funny thing is that he is not crawling yet, and he is almost 10 months old. Right now he just rolls from place to place. He can almost push himself up onto all fours, but most of the time when he is excited on his tummy he just kicks his arms and legs. He just has not learned to put it all together. Maybe he will just skip crawling all together and just walk. He has two bottom teeth, but is working on two more on the top. Unfortunately, not the middle two, but the ones next to the middle ones are coming in. I guess we will look like some redneck old guy for a while until the middle ones come in. He is over 20 pounds and enjoys his new big boy car seat. He is my chunk-a-monk!

Connor - After a two night stay at the hospital for a nasty stomach virus, Connor is home and feeling much better. He enjoyed riding his new trike that Grandpa Mac got him for his birthday yesterday. He is still my hoot and a handful. He loves to play the Wii with us. He likes to play Wii sports with Jason, and to dance with me. His favorites on Just Dance 2 are the Austin Powers theme song, and Ke$ha. His favorites on the Michael Jackson Experience are Thriller (The Halloween One) and Beat It! He knows the words to these songs as well as a lot of the moves. It is a hoot to watch him dance with me, and I have to say that I love to dance with him.

Jason - He is SUPER excited about the Bulldogs trip to the Sweet 16 again. We are hoping that they can pull out a win over Wisconsin on Thursday. He is also training for his 14th mini marathon in May. He is also counting down the days until we all pack up the "Mule" aka his Pathfinder and head south to Florida. It is less than 2 weeks away!!!!

Brothers

I hope that I raise these boys to understand how special it is to have a brother. I hope that they continue to have the unshakable bond that they do now. I hope that they always watch out and care for each other. Finally, I hope that they are always there for each other no matter what.

8 months goes by too fast!!!

I love Ernie!

Should I knock this down?

I love those beautiful baby blues!

All giggles, all the time!

I cannot believe that Garrett David is 8 months old! It just all goes by way to fast! Here are some of the fun things that he is doing now.

* He can sit up unassisted for long periods of time. He has been doing this four a couple of weeks now. This is a big switch from his older brother, who sat up and crawled in the same week.

* He has his two front bottom teeth. This is also way different from Connor. Connor did not get his first tooth until he was 10 months old.

* He is not really crawling yet, but that is fine with me! I am enjoying this sit up and play stage.

* He really is this giggly and happy all of the time. He is such a calm, happy baby. This is much needed in a house with a boisterous 3 year old.

* He adores his older brother. No matter how hard Connor yanks, tugs, hugs, or tackles Garrett smiles and laughs at him. Connor can make him belly laugh like no body else can.

* He is a pretty good eater but is now refusing to eat his baby food cereal. He won't even eat it if I mix in the fruit. He clamps his lips shut and shakes his head. It is pretty funny!

Oh how I love this baby boy!