Apologies to everyone for the weird compromised site messages. Google thought someone hacked the site. There were some suspicious lines of code in a couple of the entries, so I fixed that and reset passwords. We should be good now.
Well, it was about time we change up the way this thing looks, and make it a little more unique! I ditched the old blog software, and dropped in some WordPress goodness. Should make Mama’s job a whole lot easier when it comes time to post. Yes, she knows she’s not updated you in a while, and there are many photos & videos that she needs to get up on the website. I’m going to whip her into shape tonight!
Enjoy the new look!
We visited the Easter Bunny today and Garrett told him all of his secrets. He was not scared at all. He is now on antibiotics to get rid of this cough. Hopefully it will work. Branden in already on antibiotics and I am going to the doctor tomorrow. I hope that you don’t get this virus. It is nasty.
Hope the bunny hops you way!
Not more elbow splints! Wahoo!!! He received a gold star from the plastic surgeon. We can now wash his ear with soap and water. The suture will dissolve so we will watch it and pull it out when it comes loose. He does not have as much snot running out of his nose and his cough is better. So all in all he is on the mend!!
Garrett and I went to Cook’s Children’s Hospital this morning for his pre-op check in. Everything went well. We have to be there at 6:30am tomorrow and his surgery will start at 7:30am. He will be the first surgery tomorrow. We are happy about that so it won’t be too late when we get home.
When we get there Branden and I will take him back and change his clothes, I’m sure there will be more papers to sign and get him ready. They will give him a nose spray that will run to the back of his throat, the nurse that I talked to today said it will make him, “as drunk as a skunk”. When he gets drowsy we will leave him. That will be the hard part. They will put a mask on him that will make him sleepy. I was able to pick the smell of the gas that they will give him, I picked strawberry. After he is under they will put in his IV.
When each of the surgeons is finished with their procedure they will come out and talk to us. He will have his skin tag removed first then hernia repair. The surgeries should only take about 30 minutes. When he is finished he will go to recovery where a nurse will be with him while he wakes up. They will wake him up slowly. He will go to another recovery room called step down. We will meet him there. He will only be able to have 2 visitors at a time. So, I will stay with him and others can rotate with Branden. He will have to eat and drink before he can go home. But the things he gets to eat are jell-o, popsicles, juice, sprite things like that so it shouldn’t be a problem. I was comforted by the nurse when she said that he won’t go home until he is ready and not until we are comfortable and ready to take him home. We are not going to rush him. The nurse also wants us with him so we can tell them if he is nauseous or in pain.
With that said, I don’t know when we will be home tomorrow, or how he will be when we get home. Knowing Garrett he will be running around playing with his cars. But who knows?
Kids are very resilient and I know he will bounce back very quickly. We will keep everyone posted on how he is doing.
Ye-haw! It is rodeo time once again. This is one of my favorite things to do. I have been to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo since I can remember with my family. I am happy that we are continuing this tradition with Garrett. We went this morning to walk around the exhibits and barns before the rodeo which started at 2pm. Garrett was able to meet Elise the cow and pet her. He was very excited to be that close to a real cow. I really need to get him out more. He loved looking at the big tractors but did not want to sit on them. Next year we probably won’t be able to get him off them. We also talked to horses. He asked them how they were doing, it was too sweet. There was an exhibit of chickens, roasters and ducks. They were very loud and evidently that was very funny. We watched one very large chicken strut around in her cage, she slipped and he could hardly control himself. This kid can find humor in anything.
During the rodeo, he was about as good as I thought he would be. He would sit still for a little while and watch but then he wanted down and there was not room for him get down. Uncle took him for walks during the show and I took him as well. He is almost 2 years old and he missed his nap. What more can you expect from him? Sydney and Abigail were both getting antsy as well.
Branden was able to use his professional flash device and access the arena’s flashes. He took great action shots and he will post them soon. He was so happy to finally do this.
After the rodeo we went to the children’s petting zoo that we always go to outside the coliseum. Garrett loved this! You walk in and there are animals walking around everywhere. Little goats, big llamas, chickens, ducks, bunnies greet you when you walk in. He is such an animal lover. We left for home after the petting zoo. Nono and Pop and the Keck’s stayed to look around.
Garrett was very tired when we got home. So I gave him a bath, he ate dinner and was in bed at 7:15pm and we have not heard a peep from him. Sleepy boy.
We went to Abigail’s house yesterday to play and pick up the rodeo tickets. She took Garrett for a ride in her Barbie Jeep that Santa brought her. They were so funny riding around the yard. I took a few pictures and a video. Check them out.
Have a great weekend and GO COLTS!!!!
That is right, Big G turned 18 months old on the 2nd. We went to the doctor and had a great check up. He did not need any shots this time so it was pain free. He still screamed at the nurse while she took his measurements and did not like the doctor touching him. But he forgave them and was passing out ‘high fives’ on the way out. He weighs 24.3# and is 33 ¼ inches tall. His doctor said it looks like his is going to be tall and skinny. Who does that sound like? He still has the hydrocele, so it is back to the urologist for us. http://www.webmd.com/hw/raising_a_family/ug1045.asp?pagenumber=1 We went a year ago and were told that if it was still there when he turned 18 months that he would most likely need surgery. We have an appointment on October 16, hopefully he will tell us that Garrett will grow out of it and he won’t need surgery. That is what I am telling myself anyway.
Garrett and I are back to walking now that it is cooler in the morning and are up to walking 1 mile in 15 minutes. The Breast Cancer Walk is in 7 weeks and I have about half of the money that I need to participate. We are having a garage sale to help us raise more funds. I hope that I get there! I will be very disappointment if I don’t raise enough money and can’t walk.
New pictures are up!
I am looking forward to vacation, the sun, sand and surf. I am just concerned. I am a new mother and I have new concerns daily. When I wrote my past blog those were my concerns at that time. I was having a moment. I reread the post and it sounded like I didn’t want to go. That is not the case. I know that we will have a good time and look forward to playing with Garrett on the beach and showing him the things that I loved when I was a child, and still do. We will have a wonderful family vacation that we will all remember. And you know that we will have pictures.
This past weekend we went back to the lake. But this time Branden’s parents joined us for a weekend of fun. They brought Miss. Montana their lab that is a crazy dog about water. We pulled the boat without incident this time. It was a rather boring drive. Garrett enjoyed sitting in his chair in the water throwing rocks and dumping water out of his watering can and bucket. Branden and I did decide that we can not go to the lake without my mom. She takes care of Garrett so I can have a break and spend time at the water. Garrett had fun with all four of his grandparents there to play with. All of us enjoyed the weekend.
We painted with finger paints today and Garrett loved it! I wrapped his highchair with plastic wrap and put a bib on him and let him go to town with his paints. He painted two masterpieces then he was finished. He did wipe his face with his messy hands but no worries. We used non-toxic washable paints. Let the creative juices flow. Of course I took pictures of the event.
Branden is home for the next two weeks and we are happy about that. We leave for our vacation in about 4 weeks. We are driving to Destin, Florida which is about a 13 hour drive. I am not looking forward to it. We have made the drive several times but not with G-Dog. I have received several pieces of advice and welcome anything that might help us out.
I usually can’t wait to go on vacation but not this time. Branden will get away from his job and will be able to relax. But for me, my job is coming with us, so I guess it will be a working vacation. I know how much time everyone will be spending on the beach as we have vacationed with Branden’s family before. And I am usually one of the first ones on the beach with them. But I am thinking to myself, I am not on vacation just on a business trip. Garrett will love the beach and water I have no doubt about that. Where is my time away? While he is napping? Three full hours, if I am lucky? Calgone take me away. I wish that my mom was coming with us. Then, I would truly have the best of both worlds. My baby would be with me and I could enjoy myself and relax knowing that he was taken care of.
I know that when we get there everything will fall into place. Garrett will adjust well and we will all be able to enjoy the beach and recharge. Or at least that is what I am telling myself in my daily affirmation.
Get in touch with your creative side this week, or just eat non toxic paint. Evidently it tastes pretty good.
New pictures are up. Enjoy!
We had a wonderful holiday! The 4th of July party that we had on the 1st was fun as always. The final head count was 37 people and 7 of Garrett’s friends. We had people waddling around everywhere, and we loved every minute of it. There was not a volley ball game this year but there were lots of swimming babies.
We attended the parade and picnic in Double Oak again this year. It is always a good time. Garrett enjoyed watching the parade go by. He was very interested in the tires of the fire trucks. We rode the Boogie Woogie Choo Choo he thought that was very fun. He also rode on top of the fire truck this year. He was okay until they blew the horn then he was very clingy. No crying but he was ready to get back to Daddy. We did get hot, but had some ice cream and drank lots of water. We did not watch fireworks this year. With Garrett having a 7:45pm bedtime it would have been a long day for him. When we arrived home from lunch the Pulk’s we all took a good long nap. We woke Garrett up at 6pm, let him play, then fed him dinner and he was ready for bed again.
Branden and I went to the Fort Worth Symphony Concert in the Gardens 7/3 with my cousin and Branden’s friend Russ and his wife Crystal. They go every year with his fraternity brothers and invited us this year. It was a lot of fun. I was worried about rain but it held off. They did fireworks while the symphony played patriotic music. It was very moving. So, since we saw those it didn’t bother us that we missed the festivities on the 4th.
We LOVED having Branden home this past week. Garrett enjoyed playing with his Daddy and I loved a much needed break. One night I went with the ladies from our playgroup and we laughed so hard it hurt. We closed down the restaurant and can’t wait to do it again.
It was back to reality today when Branden left for the airport. He will return on Wednesday which is nice. Branden had a late morning flight so Garrett was able to see him before he left. Garrett did not understand why his Daddy could not play with him when he waddled into his office this morning after breakfast. I guess I’m not the only one that liked our new schedule. Garrett cried when Branden left us upstairs when he left for the airport. I took Garrett to the window in the upstairs front bedroom to watch Branden get in his Tahoe. He waved and said, ‘Dye, Dye, Dada’. He moved along the window as he drove away. When Branden didn’t come back he just sighed and walked away. Garrett and I will get back to our old routine soon.
And that leads us to getting kicked out of the church nursery. Okay, so we haven’t attended as regularly as should but Garrett was doing very well in the nursery. (They did officially kick us out but that is not as dramatic.) Last time when we walked in he started getting upset right away and was fine after we left. But, but this time when we walked in he was fine. So he should have been fine right? Wrong, oh so wrong. He sat down and started playing with one of the teachers we gave him hugs and kisses and he watched us leave. I waited outside to see if he started crying and I didn’t hear anything so I left. About um, 20 minutes later the nursery pager started going off. I went back to check on him and there was a teacher in the hall waiting for me. She said that he was very upset and they could not calm him down. I asked if he had been upset the entire time and she said no that he would be fine then get upset and did that a few times. She did say that a lot of the babies were upset and that they were feeding off of each other. I was not the only mom that was paged. It was a bad day in the nursery and they did not have enough teachers. I took him out in the hall to talk and was able to calm him down. I went back in the nursery to get his bag and he started up again, he was frantic. I have never seen him that upset before with us leaving him. Branden and I tried to listen to the sermon in the lobby but Garrett was ready to go home. When we started driving off Garrett started talking and clapping, he was very proud of his victory. I’m not sure what we are going to do about this. I don’t want him to get in the habit of screaming so we will come back but I don’t want to traumatize him either. I have received great advice from my friends with kids. The teachers in the nursery don’t need to be punished while we ‘work this out’. Oh, the pains of growing up!! He is old enough to know that we are gone but too young to participate in Sunday School.
And on that note…. There are lots of new pictures up, some of the 4th of the July pictures I stole from Branden’s father. Branden said it was okay, thanks Papa.