summer fun

Maybe I should title this post 10 on Tuesday.

1.  Booger started a new school this morning.  It's just for the summer.  Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-3:30.  He was a little tentative about staying in the room, but they had a shopping cart, so that was his security blanket.  We initially thought he was going to be in a room with two older ladies (who looked to be about 80 years old).  I was not as worried about him as I was his teachers!  But they actually moved him up to an older two year old room.  His teacher was about 30 years younger! 

2.  We have been playing outside a lot the past week.  Yesterday G had his first freezer pop!  I ate a blue one, and he ate a pink one.  I tried to switch half way through, and he spit out the blue!  That boy does not like change.

3.  We've also played in the dirt.

4.  And after he got dirty, we put him in the swimming pool.  Naked.

5.  Isn't his hair crazy???  I love it.  But we have an appointment to get it cut Thursday.  My mom asked, "You're going to get it trimmed again before Tim's wedding, right?"  Ha! 

6.  I've mentioned several times how much G loves to watch Will play guitar.  I can't express how enthralled he is though.  This picture was Sunday morning.  He sat still for an hour while we practiced.  That's crazy to me!

7.  I MAY have given Garrison a powdered donut for the first time.  That does not give license to any grandparents to start feeding him whatever they like.  :)

8.  Garrison has started saying the blessing.  He will close his eyes, mumble something, then say "Amen!"  It's pretty cute!  And honestly, his prayers are a lot more honest and pure than ours.  Who knows what that little boy is praying to God about!

9.  For some reason he thinks the corner of a pillow is a fish.  Any pillow.  He will point and say, "Fish" and not want anything to do with it!  I have no idea where he got that from!

10.  Here's a list of new words he's been saying:
mimi mouse (Minnie Mouse)

Oatmeal

Shampoo ("What do you wash your hair with?"  "Shampoo")

Peach

Sunshine (He sings certain words to "You are My Sunshine")

We turned in Wal-Mart the other day, and he said "Wa-Ma"

Big Burp

Big Toe

"Me sit down"  He and Will were at the house and Elmo came on Sesame Street.  He ran to the couch and said, "Me sit down" and sat down on the couch!

sweet cousins

This weekend we had to go to Oxford for a couple of photo shoots.  Stephanie, Tim, and the boys came to my mom and dad's for lunch on Saturday.  Garrison played hard with the boys - he slept an hour and 20 minutes in the car on the way home!  They need to wear him out more often!

I love to hear the little booger count.

singing

Garrison sings.  A lot.  Especially when he's playing this little Elmo guitar.  My favorite part of this video is when he picks his nose....it doesn't even stop him from singing!

lunch date

Will, Garrison and I went to lunch at the Back Door today.  I love it because they have chicken salad.  They serve mainly girl food, but there is one thing on the menu that Will likes.  So we don't go there often.  It's kid friendly, but a pretty quiet restaurant overall.  Will had to go to the bathroom, and when he got up, Garrison yelled, "Da Da tee tee....Da Da tee tee."  Yep, buddy.  Da Da had to go tee tee.  I'm sure the whole restaurant did not want to know that.

Then he sang a song for everyone.

10 on Thursday. On Friday.

1.  This 10 on Thursday challenge with Marianna is a lot harder than I expected it to be.  It takes a while to upload pictures and write about the week.  Obviously I didn't do it last week....but that does not mean I'm going to do 20 this week!

2.  Garrison's last day of school was Tuesday.  That deserves a post of it's own.  (Maybe soon I'll blog about it!).

3.  Mrs. Robin, his teacher, said that he and Ethan race shopping carts.  They say 1, 2, 3 together, and then Ethan says "Go" and they race! 

4.  One day last week we were running at the Riverwalk, and there was a turtle on the path.  I picked it up to show Garrison, but he was scared of it.  He kept saying, "Down.  Down.  Down."  I was going to bring it home - his first pet turtle!  But he was too scared.  I put it back down in the woods, and he said "bye bye".

5.  He is saying so many words lately.  He will repeat words after us, like elbow.  But he's saying a lot of words unprompted:
- hurt.  If he bumps his leg or foot, he will say hurt.  I tried cutting his fingernails one day, and he kept saying "hurt" over and over.  I had to assure him it wasn't going to hurt. 
- bath.  The first time I heard him say bath was after dinner one night.  I asked if he was ready to get out of his chair and he said, "bath."
- sit down.  If he wants one of us to sit down, he will say "sit down" and pull on our leg.  He will even add "Mama sit down" or "Dada sit down."
- more please.  We are trying to teach him to add please when he wants something.
- hot.  When we put food on his plate, he will say "hot."  Yesterday he was running through the house with Will, and Will said he put his hand on his forehead and said "hot."  So he's understanding the use of hot for other objects as well as himself.
- Bo Bo eat.  Last night the dogs were eating and he said "Bo Bo eat."  Will and I immediately looked at each other - it was the first time either of us have heard him say "eat."
- fish.  One day this week I met Emily for lunch at Stromboli's in Starkville.  There is a giant blow up fish hanging from the ceiling.  Garrison pointed at it and said "fish."
- work.  When I ask where Will is, he will say "work."  A couple of times he said "at work" for my mom.
- Riverwalk.  Every time we go to run at the riverwalk he says riverwalk.  It sounds more like "ri ri wa" but I know what he's saying!  He will say it even if we drive by the riverwalk and he sees it!
- big bite.  He had a mouth full of Frosted Mini Wheats and said "big bite."
- all gone.  This morning he drank all the milk in his cup and said "all gone."

I should have broken up all of #5 and I would have had 20 things!


6.  Both dogs have been sick.  Bo has an ulcer on his eye, and we have to give him eye drops 4 times a day.  Tozer had an allergic reaction to something and broke out in whelps all over his body.  We have to give him an antibiotic 3 times a day.  Yeah, we are horrible pet owners.

7.  My mom said last week she was reading a book to him and he licked his finger and then turned the page.  I think that's hilarious.  I wonder where he's seen that!

8.  Tuesday before school I had to run down to the studio to get something.  I left Garrison in the car (it was locked).  When I came back up Will had pulled up and we were standing outside the car talking.  I peeked in the window and Garrison had gotten his lunch box, unzipped it, opened the red container and started eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich!  We both died out laughing.  We didn't know he knew how to unzip it!  When I dropped him off at school I told Mrs. Robin so she would know why his sandwich was in pieces and half was eaten.  She said, "Mrs. Robin taught you well."  I remember last August when he started school they told us he had to eat lunch by himself.  I was so worried because at that point we still fed him everything.  How far he's come and how much she's taught him in just a short period of time!

9.  For some reason Garrison calls Tozer "Ka Ka."  The other day he touched Tozer's eye and said "Ka Ka's eye."  Then did the same to his nose and ear!  Sweet Tozer just lets Garrison pull and roll all over him. Bo runs from Garrison!

10.  Last weekend was Market Street Festival.  It was miserably hot.  Our friends Orlando and Shay, Kalyn, some of her friends, and Nazir all came by the studio to see us.  Kalyn and her friends had to use the bathroom.  We closed the bathroom to the public.  A little while later I walked to the bathroom and Lora, one of the cooks from the Cafe, poked her head out of the kitchen and said some kids had just used the bathroom.  I said, "Yeah, they are our friends."  She said, "No, they were black."  I said, "Yeah, they were our friends."  It was like she didn't believe me the first time I said they were our friends because they were black.  I don't want Garrison to grow up around racism like that.  I want to teach him that God made everyone equal, no matter our skin color.  He loves Uncle O just as much as he loves anyone, and I'm so thankful for that.

a week in the life...

So I'm really enjoying these weekly updates/reviews.  Although Marianna continues to post throughout the week, I'm doing good to give a week in review and actually write some of this stuff down.

1.  The little turkey likes to tease.  He recently started saying "Hi, Mama" or "Hi, Dada" so one morning I was trying to get him to say it.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Garrison, say, "Hi, Mama."
G:  Hi, Dada.
Me:  Garrison, say, "Hi, Mama."
G:  Hi, shoes.  And he waved at Will's shoes.
Me (laughing):  Garrison, say, "Hi, Mama."
G:  Hi, BoBo.  (I mean, really....he even said hi to the dogs!)
Me:  Garrison, say, "Hi, Mama."
G:  Hi, pee pee potty.

And he waved at the potty.  He knows what it's for!!!  I know it's time to start the process.  I say that every week, don't I?  One day I'm going to write a post on actually potty training him.

2.  Garrison's favorite number is two.  Pretty much anytime you ask him how many items are in front of him, he will answer, "two."  One day he was eating grapes and wanted more.  (And before anyone freaks out, I don't give him whole grapes.  I cut them in quarters).   I said, "Do you want lots?"  And then I thought.....hmmmm....I should ask him an open ended question, not just one he can answer with yes or no.  So I said, "How many grapes do you want?"  I just assumed he would say two, but he said, "yots."  ha!  The next time I asked he did say, "two." I think he ate about 50 grapes that night.

3.  I feel like we are having more and more conversations with Garrison that are hard to express on the blog.  So I tend to get a little long winded telling them.  But I don't want to forget the details.

Me;  Garrison, where is your ear?
G:  Points to his ear
Me:  How many ears do you have?
G:  With a finger on each ear, "Two"
Me:  Where is your eye?
G:  Points to an eye.
Me:  How many eyes do you have?
G:  With a finger on each eye, "Two"
Me:  Where's your nose?
G:  Sticks a finger up each nostril and says, "Two" before I can even ask!

4.  It's amazing how he is learning opposites and things that are associated with each other.  He was squatting and said "Down."  Then he stood up and said, "Up."  He knows when the light is on and when it's off.  Lar and Grandaddy Reedy came Wednesday.  Tuesday night I told Garrison, "Tomorrow Lar is coming to see you" and he responded "Bebe?"  He associated them together!  Grandaddy Reedy wanted to go see his sister, Aunt Francis in Artesia, so Will and Garrison followed them out there.  Will said he had the best time playing with all of Uncle Ed's old tools.

5.  I've blogged before about our prayers at night.  I only get to rock G if Will isn't home, and a few nights this week he's been gone at bed time.  One night I asked Garrison who he wanted to pray for, and he said, "No, Mama."  I said do you want Mama to pray?  He smiled and grunted (like he does instead of saying yes) and closed his eyes!  I guess I've told him to close his eyes enough when we pray that he knows he is supposed to!  I peeked though, and he quickly opened them once I started praying.  I'm sure he was afraid he'd fall asleep too quickly if he kept his eyes closed for too long.  I really do love that time at night with him!

6.  The church had an auction and Will bid on and won a bowflex.  No, I'm not kidding.  All we need is one more thing in the house.  But, as Caleb said, it will serve well as a clothes rack.  (I'm kidding Will!).  This is Will and Caleb trying to load it into Caleb's truck.  There was a funeral procession that drove by as Caleb was strapping it into the truck.  I thought there was going to be a wreck because EVERY person who drove by was looking at him!

7.  This weekend I had a wedding in Natchez.  Will stayed in Columbus, and Garrison was in Oxford.  I have never been in Natchez by myself.  So Friday I decided to drive to the cemetery where all 4 of my grandparents are buried.  I couldn't remember where the graves were and walked around for a little bit before going inside to ask.  I sat by Grandma and Papaw's grave for a long time and wept.  I realized Grandma (my mom's mom) passed away 17 years ago.  I didn't cry necessarily about her and all the things she's missed in my life. But I cried because I don't want to live for 17 years without my mom.

I texted Tim and told him where I was and told him I was smoking a cigarette at Grandma's grave.  (She was a smoker).  He texted back and said, "You better not be smoking."  I guess only God and Grandma know the truth.  And Will.

I also drove past Mamaw and Pop's old house.

8.  I bought Garrison a cap at Walmart.  I think his curly hair sticking out is pretty cute!

9. We started Garrison on Flintstone Vitamins today.  They are his first Flintstones!!  He chewed it up and kept asking for more!

10. And last but not least, we finally got our Explorer back and RUNNING!!!  I think everyone who reads this probably knows we let our friend Krucial borrow the Explorer for a year and a half.  The day we got it back it died.  So it sat in the driveway for a few months.  And last week we had it towed and fixed.  It's up and running....with over 300,000 miles!!!