Talking with Nana!

Ellison is getting more and more interactive day by day. She loves to make noise (typical girl) and is very expressive. One day while my mom was over, Ellison had a lot to say about the plans my mom was making for her...

My funny kids...

Okay, so in these pictures, Ellison isn't that funny, but she IS aDORable! I was trying to get her to smile for the camera, and she kept sticking her fingers in her mouth, causing this shy-but-cute pose. I guess she is funny because the wider she smiled, the farther she put her hand in her mouth!

One finger...

Whole fist...

Garrett is more and more like Doug everyday... at least he tries to be. When Doug was shaving the other day, he got so upset because he wanted to shave too. So Doug gave him some shaving gel to put on and he was happy.

They grow up so fast, don't they?

Random Summer Fun- July '09

Doug's favorite part about Ellison's bath is her hair afterwards. Her hair gets so fuzzy after it's been washed and dried. Doug did the honor's of bath time...

Then, we had to get the fuzzy head shots...
Both Garrett and Ellison love standing up at this age!

I walked in one morning to wake Garrett up and found him sleeping like this...

We visited Mimi and Papa camping in Holland State Park and Garrett wanted to try his cousin Nathan's two-wheeler with training wheels.

Ice cream with the cousins: Carmen, Shelby, Madison, Nathan, and Garrett

Madison, Nathan, and Garrett

Garrett is really into wearing my shoes, especially if their sandals or flip-flops. These are my heeled sandals...

Auntie Gwen came home last weekend to visit, and bought Garrett a special gift- big boy underwear! After his bath one night, we put them on him to see his reaction...

He didn't pee... this particular night.

Yesterday I put the underwear on him starting after he went pee in the potty. He went downstairs to play with his toys, and about a half hour later, he starts coming up the steps saying, "I sorry, Mama. I sorry, Mama" over and over again. I thought, "Oh, no. What did he do?" He told me he peed in the basement. I checked his underwear and sure enough, the front was wet, but just a little. So I made him sit on the potty, but he didn't go anymore. We got some dry underwear on and he went back downstairs to play. Not 5 minutes later, Garrett is coming back upstairs saying he's sorry again. I tried putting him on the potty, but he screamed and cried. He didn't want to sit on the potty. So I just put a diaper back on him. If I can't even get him to sit on the potty without a tantrum, there's no point in trying the underwear. After getting a diaper on, we went downstairs and looked for the pee. I couldn't find anything. Twenty minutes later, Garrett comes upstairs again yelling, "I found my pee, Mama!". We did find a puddle on the floor that I had to clean up. The joys of potty training...

First day back...

Well, I had my official first day back to work yesterday. It went okay. I felt like my brain was in a fog all day. My usual routine that my brain is currently wired for is wake up, change diapers, feed Ellison, feed Garrett, play, eat, naps, change diapers, feed, play, change diapers...etc. But suddenly having to think about where drugs are in the pharmacy, remembering all the little details of things I have to do to get my job done... well, let's just say I was a little foggy all day.

I was a little concerned about pumping at work since I've never done it before, but it worked out okay. The only real problem came when daycare called me at 2pm to say that Ellison wouldn't take a bottle and hadn't eaten since I fed her at 7am! I started getting really worried because I only packed 2 bottles, and they had to dump 1 because she wouldn't take it. If she didn't take the second bottle, they'd have to dump that one too. I had to work until 5:30, and I didn't want her going 4 more hours without eating! So they tried a third time to give her the bottle. Sarah, the assistant director, told me later that Ellison fell asleep with the pipe in her mouth, and they snuck it out and replaced it with the bottle. She protested a little at first, but finally started sucking it down.

I was pretty upset at work. My boss was GREAT about it. She had no problem with me leaving work to go feed Ellison. I knew that if she didn't take the bottle, that's what I would need to do, but I still felt bad leaving work, especially since another coworker just left sick. Luckily Ellison finally ate, and I stayed at work.

Now that I'm home with Ellison and I know she's okay, I can take a couple days to recover before I have to go back. Thankfully I'm only working two days a week!

Pat-A-Cake

We have a Mother Goose book that has probably hundreds of nursery rhymes in it. Garrett has taken a shine to it and prefers Little Miss Muffet (who sits on muffins, according to Garrett), Rub-A-Dub Dub, and his favorite... Pat-A-Cake. Here's Garrett showing me his rendition...

Garrett's Swim Lessons

This week Garrett took his first swim lessons. One of my neighbors signed up with Julie (the instructor) and invited other families to participate. Since the weather this week was pretty cold, the lessons ended up getting moved to the Super 8 Motel in Hudsonville. Garrett was pretty excited at first, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he cried the entire time he was in the water with Julie. Of course she's used to it, but I still felt bad for both of them. Even though Garrett was crying a lot, he did surprisingly well!

Julie first gained his acceptance by playing peek-a-boo with him

Next, she had him learn to blow bubbles in the water

Once he got the bubbles down, she dunked him underwater to help him learn to close his mouth and hold his breath.

Eventually he got to the point where she had him doing "reach and pull" with his arms and kicking with his feet while she held his chest up and his head down in the water. All on the first day!

Day 3 (Wednesday) she took him to the deep end and had him swim to the ladder and learn how to get up.

Once he could climb up the ladder, she reminded him of how to "reach and pull" while kicking and keeping his head down...

And in he goes!!! I was so nervous!

But he made it! There are no pictures of him getting out because she wanted me at the ladder to encourage him to kick harder and reach for it. Julie dropped him in 3 times on Wednesday and 4 or 5 times on Thursday! Garrett did so good! He opens his eyes underwater, too! There were a couple times where it took a little longer to get to the ladder and I started getting really nervous, but Julie had complete confidence in him and he did it. Of course he came up crying every time, but once he calmed down when his turn was done, he kept saying "I did really dood. I sim in the deep en. I simming!"

Julie thinks it would really benefit him to take another week's worth of lessons next week, but unfortunately I start back to work next week and can't take him. So, more lessons will have to wait. But at least I know how to encourage him and help him when swimming the rest of the summer. I'm so proud of him and glad that he did well. I'm hoping that we can get Julie to come again next year. I would really like for him to take lessons every summer so that he gets the information and experience to swim really well. I never had swim lessons; I had to figure everything out on my own. And I want him to be able to enjoy himself in the water without the fear and self-consciousness that I felt.

Chatterbox

I had Ellison on the floor the other night, and even though she started to get whiny by the time I got the camera rolling, she was still pretty talkative...