For Now...

I have tons to blog about but for now, this is all you get.

We were driving home from church today and when I turned around to check on the kids this is what I saw. Christopher was so tired that he fell asleep with his binky in the wrong way. LOL Thank goodness for camera phones!!

Since I know I probably won't post until after Christmas I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I took some cute pictures of the boys for our Christmas card that I better share now, or I'll never get to it.

November has come and gone

Wow, I can't believe it's already December and I've gone a whole month without posting. Cory's been bugging me asking "when are you going to update the blog?" My latest response was "when the kids leave the house." I seriously feel like I have no personal time. It's midnight, Drew finally fell asleep 2 hours ago, I've showered, read my scriptures and am ready for bed. Why am I still up? I figure once I get this post out of the way I'll most likely go back to blogging a little more frequent (I hope). So here's a little recap of what's been going on in the Garrett household.

Halloween:

Christopher was a monkey (a really cute one may I add) and Drew was a penguin. I feel sorry for Drew having to use Christopher's last year costume, but I refuse to buy a new one. We had Cory's family over and the cousins got to go trick or treating together. It was fun to take the boys and to be able to pass out candy.

Christopher:

He's been speaking more and more by the day. He had his first official nursery day this Sunday and it didn't go very well. He was way too tired due to lack of sleep and cried pretty much the whole time. (I don't like 1pm church!! Can't wait till next year for a new schedule.)

He can jump out of his crib, jump the stairs' gate and plug and unplug the Christmas tree lights (oh and he learned how to do his all on Sunday before church). I forgot to add he can open our child proof locks in the kitchen drawers.

Our Christmas tree is only decorated from the top half, because I'm tired of chasing Christopher away from the ornaments. Although, he still finds it amusing to shake the tree and see ornaments drop from the top.

Andrew:

He's becoming a much more pleasant child!! He smiles and giggles often and is a very mellow baby compared to Christopher at this age. He can roll from his back to his tummy, but gets stuck and can't roll back. We are trying to get him on an earlier schedule (which didn't happen today). We are putting him down at 9:00 pm now (instead of 11:30) and are trying to have him fall asleep on his own. Lets just hope he gets used to this SOON!

Thanksgiving:

We got to go visit my sister in Florida. It was great to spend time with my family and see her new adorable baby girl. My mom was also there, so we had fun shopping the day after Thanksgiving and staying up late chatting every night.

As for the trip itself, all I can say is that my kids don't travel well. By kids I mostly mean Christopher. Making the LONG story short, he didn't sleep well while at my sister's because we were all sleeping in the same room, and we missed our flight back home because of HORRIBLE holiday traffic combined with Christopher puking TWICE in the car on the way to the airport. Luckily we made it in time for the last flight leaving Orlando that night and made it home past midnight.

Spike It

I took Christopher to get a hair cut today. I specifically told the lady "no clippers, but I want it short enough to spike it."

Well, she followed the instruction of no clippers, but I'm not too sure he's got enough hair for spiking! (LOL) When she was finished she asked if I wanted to have her put anything in his hair, and I said I wanted to learn how to spike it. The lady put some gel on Christopher's hair and tried to spike it, not very successful. She finally looked at me and said "Well, his hair isn't used to staying up (not true, his hair sticks up when long), but as you keep doing this it will learn how to spike." I just wanted to tell her, yeah, it will spike once it grows back in and there's hair enough for spiking!!!

Anyway, he looks cute (kind of). Actually,considering his wild behavior, you would think he ran away from a juvenile corrections facility.

This is Christopher with his new hair cut!! It's a little spiky.

On a side note. I took this picture of Drew tonight and he looks so much like Christopher when he was this age. I think it's the big smile.

All About Christopher

Christopher has been talking a lot lately and I wanted to write down his words before the list got to be too long. Anyway, this post is mostly for my own information, since I know it’s kind of boring to read a huge list of words a 16 month old can say. In case you do read it “iP” stands for “in Portuguese.” I know I probably missed some words, so I’ll add them on as I remember. I tried to keep it to just words, not sounds (like uh-oh, yay …). He repeats a lot of words we say, but I tried to write only the words he uses consistently.


agua – water iP
all duh – all done
amen
Aplefur - Christopher
apple
baaboo (banho) – bath iP or when reading it’s Brown Bear
ball
be – asking us to sing “Jesus wants me for a sun beam”
beebee – baby
bubba - bottle
bubush – bubbles
bue or blue – if you ask him “what’s your favorite color?” he’ll always answer “blue”
byeye
car
Cheese-for both the camera and the food
chuchu – train
clock
coco – poop iP
cookie
Dew - Drew
dinner
down
ee up - clean up
eeboo – peekaboo
e-i-e-i-o – usually when he wants to watch a movie, or to specifically listen to Old Mcdonals
esse - this one iP
eww – ears
eyes
five (sometimes he’ll say 1,3 and 4 when counting, but I usually have to say those)
food
fower – flower
get dOWn
Guga – grandma Garrett
hat
hi
hot
how cooool (sun glasses are also called how cool because every time he puts it on I tell him “how cool)
how cuuute
hue – hair
I __ youuuuu – I love you (we say love)
I see you
lights
mais – more iP
Mamãe - mommy iP
mão - hand iP
mine
nanana - banana
não – no iP
nigh-nigh
okay
ouside – outside
Papa – grandpa Garrett
Papai - daddy iP
pe - foot iP
peepee – his privates
play
please
pop – ballon
ração (oração) – prayer iP
ready set go
sh** - shirt
shishi (xixi in Portuguese) – pee
shoes
shots - shorts
tan tu - thank you
teddy
tó - here iP
tss cold – puts the cold object to his cheeks and makes a “tsss” noise followed by the word cold
twee - tree
two
uck – stuck
up
Vovô – my dad
Vovó – my mom
watch
whasat – what’s that
wheggo – where did it go
WOW – usually when he sees a ceiling fan or when he finds anything amazing (like the garage door opening or closing)
you fufall – you’re going to fall (he hears this one a lot)

Refuses to say animal names, but can make the sounds. Animal sounds: meow, woof, roar, quack, baa, u-u-a-a (monkey), uuuh (elephant – accompanied by hand motion for the trunk).
On a not so related note, I took some pictures of the boys last night as they were ready for bed. They turned out kind of goofy, but since I haven’t posted pictures of them lately, here are a few.

Christopher was really happy when he saw me get the camera!!

Christopher took this picture of Drew and I think he did pretty good, even getting the baby smiling

House

This is going to be a quick post about the house because the baby just woke up and needs to eat.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the house. We bought a 3bedrooms, 2.5 baths, plus living room, family room and dinning room house. I didn't take pictures of every room (too much work and not everything is nice and organized). For now this is what you get (by the way, I'm terrible at taking pictures, as you will soon see!!).

The House!!

Living room (you can kind of see the family room in the back

The master bedroom (I don't know why the picture turned out so red. No our room does not have pink walls! We actually just have one color through out the whole house)
These are the 2 other bedrooms. Christopher was asleep when I took this, that's why the door is closed.

Phoenix Zoo

I took the boys to the zoo today with some of my friends and their kids. I'm sure you're expecting to write how we had such a great time and how Christopher saw a ton of animals (...) Well, the least I can say is that the trip didn't quite go as planned. Here's how our day went (in chronological order):

1. Get to Rachael's house 30 minutes late (well, I'm usually late, so that's no biggy).

2. Drive to the zoo.

3. Get flashed by a dumb speeding camera on the way (and I couldn't even hope it was the person in front of me that got flashed because I was following my good friend Dana).

4. Pull over into a restaurant area because Christopher puked all over himself.

5. Clean the HUGE STINKY mess with no more than 10 baby wipes.

6. Get to the zoo and buy Christopher a t-shirt, since the kid is roaming around in just diapers.

7. Enjoy a total of 3 animals at the zoo because it's too hot to go any further. (We are approaching the end of September and still dealing with weather over 100 degrees in Phoenix. Does it ever cool down here?)

8. Walk to my car, load up the kids, put away stroller and bag, turn on the car. Oh no, my car won't turn on!!! Can it seriously get any worse?!

9. Have my friend help jump-start my car (thank goodness it was the battery or I would have laid in the parking lot crying at this point).

10. Finally, arrive home safely (to find 5 cop cars in front of my neighbor's house. Man if they were in front of my house I'm not quite sure what I would have done).

I think I'll stay home for the rest of the day and wait for my "little" dark cloud to pass over. I need to go grocery shopping, but I'm pretty sure that can wait until tomorrow!!

Hope your day is going a little better.

This one is for you Cory!!

My dear husband has had to put up with so much in these last few months, and I just need to let him know how much he's loved and appreciated!!

This week I was having a rough day with the baby and Cory called to check on me. As I went off on how the child won't sleep, I can't get anything done, I'm tired (...) he just paciently listened and then we hung up. That evening when he got home he had this beautifull bouquet with red and white roses to cheer me up! I was shocked and absolutely loved them!!!! If you know Cory, you know he doesn't usually give me flowers, which makes this so much more special and totally worth blogging about.

Thanks hun! I loved the flowers and I love you!!!

What's for dinner?

I added a new section to the right side of my blog. I saw this at a friend's blog and thought it was a good idea. I'll try to post our dinner menu for the next two weeks (that's why the different colors). Anyway, if you start one it will definitely help me too. Hope you enjoy!!
Oh and if you want a recipe, leave me a message and I'll email it to you.

Can I have some privacy?

Yesterday while I was feeding/burping the baby, Christopher decided he needed some quiet, private place to do his reading. This is what he came up with.I was quite entertained just watching him dump all his books out from this little book stand, get himself in there (I have no clue how he manage to fit in it), and then close the door. He did it all on his own! I was excited I was able to find the camera fast enough before he decided to leave.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here are some more pictures of Drew.

Quick Updates

This will be a really quick post, since life with 2 kids isn't as easy as I was hoping. How do you moms out there manage to blog weekly when you have more than 1 kid to tend too?

My friend Rachael came over last week and took a ton of pictures of Andrew. They turned out really cute, but since it takes forever to upload images to the blog, you only get to see a few.

This is what TV does to a toddler (and this is how we were able to take pictures of the baby)

On another quick note. We BOUGHT A HOUSE!! Actually we are already moved in, reason why I haven't blogged lately. We closed on our house 2 weeks after Drew was born and moved in the following week. To make things even a little more stressful we blessed Drew the day after we moved and had friends and family over to the house to celebrate his blessing. CRAZY!! I don't know how I was able to find church clothes for everyone and the baby's blessing outfit, but somehow I did. My mom and mother-in-law were my life savers. My parents packed up the apartment and set up the whole downstairs pretty much on their own. My mother-in-law watched Christopher, did all my laundry, and made all the beds. What did I do? Took care of the baby and felt extremely overwhelmed. Thankfully that nightmare of house hunting, moving, and having a baby is all over!!! I'll post pictures of the house soon (well, first have to take them, so it might not be so soon).

Surprise

Andrew Cory Camargo Garrett born July 19, 2009 weighing 7lbs 3oz and 19.5in. He came 4 weeks early and caught us all by surprise. We have now doubled our family in just 13 small months.I woke up Sunday morning with contractions coming every 2-3 minutes, but since I was induced with Christopher and didn't know what it was like to go into labor alone I thought they were Braxton Hicks. Cory wanted me to call the doctor right away, but I'm a little more stuborned and refused to think that the baby would come earlier. In my mind for sure those were false labor pains and would go away on their own.

3 hours later I still had contractions but they were now every 10 minutes, and a little more intense. Cory paged the doctor himself because I just refused to be another women to go to the hospital early and be sent back home. I told him to get dressed for church because I wasn't going to the hospital. The doctor called us back and told me to just go to the hospital to get checked out. So we went to the hospital wearing our church clothes and I was convinced I would be leaving in 30 minutes proving to my husband that he was wrong.

Making a long story short, we got there and I was dilated to a 5 and was told I was having the baby today. That's when all the tears came in and reality started to hit. We went to the hospital with no bags packed, no camera and 2 dying phones. We managed to snag a few phone pictures of the birth in the OR before our phones died.

Life has been a little hectic around here lately but we are all doing well. The c-section has turned out to be a lot better than what I expected and I'm recovering well. Because Drew was premature he had a little problem with being Jaundice and had to go back to the hospital for another 2 days of intense light treatment. This is a picture of Drew during the light treatment at the hospital. He had to wear little shades to keep his eyes safe while under the lights. He is doing well now and we are all back home!!

This is my mom and Drew the day we left the hospital the second time.

Busy

We've been pretty busy lately.

I've been wanting to make baby #2 a quilt for his crib that will match Christopher's. Anyway, I got the fabric for it a few weeks ago and last week my friends Rachael and Dana helped me out with it. This is a quick picture of the finished product.

Last week we also took Christopher to get his 1 year pictures taken. Here are some of our favorites.

Yesterday I did my first Craigslist purchase. I've been wanting to buy a little playground for Christopher and I finally found one for a good price. I was so excited about buying it that I called my mother-in-law right away to come out to the place and help me pick it up. We some how managed to fit the whole thing in our 2 cars. Now all we need is a yard to put it in. This is what the playground looks like, although this is not my playground nor my yard. :(

We're still house hunting. It's getting pretty frustrating and I'm growing exhausted of having to go up and down our apartment stairs 2-3 times a day carrying Christopher. I was hoping we would be moved out by the time the baby comes, but it doesn't seem like it will happen.

I Can't Believe He's 1!!!

I can't believe my little baby turned 1 this week!!! Time seems to just have flown by. He is the happiest little guy and it really has been a great blessing to have stayed home with him this year. I have to admit that not everyday is amazing in a mother's world, but we definitely had far more great days than bad ones.

We celebrated his birthday with a little "Puppy Party" with our family. Since we consider Christopher to be our little puppy, (if you haven't read the puppy post scroll down and this will make more sense) we threw him a doggy party complete with hotdogs, pupcakes (served in a dog bowl), and the cousins got to take home little doggy bags. The kids got to go swimming, and it was a very pleasant day overall. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Cake Table

Gifts and Party Favors

He LOVES the pool (which is a little scary)

Singing "Happy Birthday"

I thought he would hesitate a little before touching or trying the cupcake, but he just attacked it!

Since this is getting kind of long, I made the pictures smaller.

Cleaning up cake mess and opening presents.

This post is supposed to be all about Christopher, but I guess since he's got a little brother on the way soon, he'll need to learn to share the attention. My great friends Rachael and Dana threw me a ward baby shower on Friday, even though I insisted I didn't need one. The theme was movie premiere "Baby Garrett II". I got lots of diapers and wipes (everything I really wanted!!) Thanks girls!!!!

Dana, Me and Rachael

As you can see, Rachael is really talented. She made that delicious and cute cake, and came up with all the decoration ideas! (We even had a red carpet and paparazzis stalking us as we walked in.)

Birthday Help

I have a dumb dilemma that requires some girl help. I scheduled my c-section about 2 weeks ago and found out my doctor is delivering my baby on his birthday. Should I get him anything (besides paying the fat check he'll send me in the mail a few weeks later)?

I know this sounds really trivial to some of you, but birthdays are a pretty big deal for me and I feel like since I'm forcing the man to work on his birthday I might as well bring him a treat. Do you think I can sneak some cupcakes into the OR? (haha- wouldn't that be funny?!)

Anyway - please give me your suggestions on what would be an appropriate gift to your OB.

On a not so related birthday note. Happy Birthday Cory!!! He turned 25 yesterday and is now officially my age. I invited a couple of friends with their families over for pizza (great excuse to not cook) and boy, the realization that our birthday parties will consist of much chaos for the next few years hit us pretty hard. We still had a good time though.

Did I Bring Home a Baby or a Puppy?

Lately I've been wondering if I brought home a baby or a puppy from the hospital. Here are my top 10 reasons why I think I have a puppy. (In no particular order)

1. Likes to chew on shoes.

2. Bites other dogs' tails (or at least tries too).

3. Carries things around with his mouth.

4. Likes to curl up with clean laundry.

5. Loves to chew on leather (I have to explain the picture - this is my piano bench that is now covered with a blanket because I got tired of stopping Christopher from chewing on it. I just got this piano for Christmas and he has chewed a few holes through the bench already).

6. Growls at you when mad.

7. Plays in/with the trash.

8. Eats food from the trash.

9. Begs you for food when you sit to eat.

10. Likes to go on walks (I know I'm not supposed to put pictures of naked babies on my blog, but he has a diaper on. That counts, right? Anyway this was taken after he got back from his walk. We can't put the stroller away right away or else he throws a fit, so he was playing with it).