Vacation

was SO much fun!! It's nice to be home and get back in the routine of things, but we would go back in a heartbeat if we could. We had a busy filled week visiting family, relaxing, and doing some fun stuff ourselves. Here are just some of the pictures throughout the week.
On a side note - While I did great with taking pictures most of the time- I did forget to take them one place....and Aunt Prissy and Uncle Bobby's :( Sorry guys. We did have a great visiting with them on Tuesday evening :)


Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Florida without a haircut from Pepe

 

 

Then Nana and I decided to make a dessert to take to Lori's Sunday.

 

Yummy - to bad the dessert never made it!! We forgot it, and remembered it about 30 mins. down the road. Eat up Grandpa!!! :)

 

Park with Pepe and Tina

On Saturday we went to the park with Pepe and Tina (the exact park that Pepe and Meme took me to when I was little). We had so much fun. Garrett and Granny got into a leaf fight, and Garrett got Pepe on a swing!!! What memories :)

 

Dinner at Lori and Greg's

Sunday we went to Lori and Greg's for dinner (well luper). I got so caught up in eating, imagine that, that I forgot to take pictures!! Then the boys and girls split up and went shopping (the girls gone ALOT longer than the boys). Here are the few shots I got from that night

How many people does it take to put a straw into a juice box?

 

Look Mom, they figured it out ;-)

 

Yummy Strawberries

 

Me and my handsome man (well, one of them anyway!)

 

Florida Aquarium

This year instead of Sea World - we decided to take it alittle easier (and cheaper) and go to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. On most days they also have a boat ride that is a dolphin tour, which being the dolphin lover I am, was SO looking forward to it-and one of the selling points for us going....but wouldn't you know the day we went there was a chop advisory out which meant no boat ride :(. But we had a great time regardless and were able to take our time and just enjoy the peacefulness of the fish.
Garrett was excited just to see Nemo!!!

 

Happy Birthday Pepe

It was Pepe's birthday - we got together with him and Tina, as well as Tim, Audrey, Jake, Jordan, and CJ to celebrate. It was great to see everyone!! We went to eat at a place called Cherry's - it's a sports bar type place with a game room for the kids. Garrett came away with 5, yes 5, bouncy balls b/c he kept getting more money from Pepe!! I on the other hand got my cuban sandwich!!

 

 

 

 

Yummy eating

My Nana

 

We went to a yummy restaurant that had the most delicious home cooked food. Garrett didn't like the dessert at all did he??!!

 

 

Nana and Grandpa

 

Nana and I went and got our feet did!

So- obviously this isn't about our pedicures- put I wanted to get this picture in. Nana, Garrett, and little Parker

 

Becoming our yearly tradition- when your in Florida your feet have to look pretty. Kevin offered to watch Garrett for us one day to go to a movie- we decided to go get pedicures instead. Here is the foot shot.

 

Garrett was jealous and wanted his feet in the shot too.

 

Garrett and Parker

 

Yankees Game

Wednesday night we went to a Yankees spring training game with Greg and Lori. We had a great time. Greg even got Garrett a signed baseball (by the other team though). He is still talking about how Greg got him a baseball!!!

 

Parksdale here I come

Parksdale is a hugh stand that sells local fresh produce and flowers. They also sell the biggest, most fabulous strawberry shortcakes you have ever had. YUMMY!!!!

 

 

 

Manatee watching

Growing up I loved Manatee's - still do. Not far from Nana and Steve's is a Manatee watch point. It's a body of water that their local energy company owns. The water their is warmer than other places so that manatee's "flock" to that area. There were TONS of them there that day. Didn't get that great of pictures but all those lumps in the water you see are the manatee's. I could have stayed there all day.

 

 

 

 

The air ride home

How exactly do you keep a kid quiet during a flight???, you give them a sucker stolen from their Pepe during their haircut!!! Worked like a charm!! :)
Actually Garrett does great during flights - but having the sucker didn't hurt!!

 

 

 

 

Potty Update

Just a quick update to let you know how our "big boy" is doing (and I HOPE I'm not jinxing it!) Garrett has gotten 5 out of 7 rows full on his sticker chart!!, AND yesterday....he stayed dry ALL day!!! We were SO proud of him. Kevin told him that b/c he did so good he could pick dinner - his choice?, chicken nuggets and a 'nilla milkshake. He chose to drink the shake and not touch the nuggets(that's my boy!)! Last night he even told me at one point that he needed to go!! We are really heading in the right direction I feel. This is something that I have DREADED for months now...but I must say it is going pretty easy!!

Potty Training

If you had asked me a week ago how Garrett was doing with potty training I would have informed you that my child would be going to kindergarten with a pull-up on (Ok-really I know that's not so true- but it was how we felt). Fast forward to this weekend and it's a completely different story! On Friday Garrett's teacher informed me that he had used the potty all morning and had kept his pull-up dry - so I though why not keep this going. Kevin and I had no real plans Saturday or really Sunday so it was a perfect time. We woke Saturday morning and put Garrett straight on the potty. Now, I must inform you this is not his most favorite thing to do right upon awakening - but he deals. We had success (this wasn't too exciting just because he often does this anyway if we can catch him first thing in the morning - however previously that is as far as we went), put him into big boy underwear and we were off for a day of the potty!! Now I won't bore you with every potty trip - but I will say he has done EXCELLENT!!! He has had a total of 4 accidents (2 each day), which I don't think are too bad. He is yet to tell us he had to go(hopefully that will come soon) - but pretty much everytime we sit him down he goes.

If you talk to other parents you will commonly hear that #1 is easy (well, easier) than #2. Well, not my child. Both are going along equally - so for that I am thankful. To not have to be told to put a pull-up on so he can go, or to have a child crying because they are scared (yes, I have heard both of these) are a great relief to me.

To help aid in this whole adventure - we decided that "rewards" of some type were probably going to be a good thing. Daycare uses GummyBears, so we went along with that for everytime he goes. Something I added to the mix was a sticker chart. Not knowing if he was going to truly "get" the sticker chart, I decided to try it - but told myself we maybe ditching it very soon. Well, he DOES get it, and is very excited about it. There are 7 rows across and 7 day (for the days of the week - but we aren't really following that). For every row, on the last box I colored it red. I told Garrett everytime he got to a red box he was due an extra surprise (I bought ALOT of cars, some spiderman markers, and his new found love of icecream(it's ABOUT time!!)). Today he reached one of those boxes and asked for icecream (with chocolate syrup of course).

Garrett's sticker chart


We are hoping we have reached the milestone of having a non-wearing pull-up or diaper kid. Keep your fingers crossed - and I will keep you updated. We are so excited to have a "big kid now!!"

Baseball

Today was a beautiful day! After lunch at Maw-Maw's we decided to get out and get some fresh air...and what better way to do so then to play alittle baseball. Garrett did great considering it's been awhile since he has hit.




Maw-Maw even came out to play (she hit the ball too, GO MAW-MAW!!!)

ABC's

Garrett has started singing his ABC's within the past month or so. I think it's adorable when he gets to "L,M,N,O" - watch what he does with his tongue during this!! It's so exciting to realize how much he is learning!! This past weekend Grandma Kaye took Garrett to his first circus (and us too). We had a great time, Garrett is still talking about it!! Unfortunately the program I use to upload photo's is not cooperating this evening - I will try to get pictures up this weekend of the fun we had.
On a side note - I want to apologize for you having to listen to my singing along with Garrett's. He does better with alittle assistance during most songs, if we don't this is what we hear "A,B,C,D...how I wonder what you are"!!! :)