To Cute

Here are some picture we had taken last month at Target. We had a great time trying to go the two boys to get close and then smile and not play with each other while we were trying to get these pictures.  Our next picture venture will be family pictures just in time for Christmas. At least that is my plan.  It is crazy to think that Reed is almost 8 months and that Garet will be 2 1/2 in just a  week. Reed has just started to crawl normal and is all over the place. One of the first days that he was crawling grandma Rose sent me a picture of him and he had pulled himself up to standing by the couch.  It will not be long and I will have two boys RUNNING around the house.  Thank goodness the weather is going to be cooling off soon and we can spend more time out side. 

Vacation and Dr updates

Sorry it has been a while since I updated last. I have been having to go out of town a lot for work. We have moved to a new computer system and we are having to do a lot of training.  It has been hard being away from Matt and the boys for  a week at at time but I think it has been great for Matt and the boys to bond and have some good daddy son time.

We have had a busy past month. We were able to go on vacation with some of our family and had a great time.  It is so much fun watching Garet and Reed hang out with some of the cousins and meet new members of our family that they had never met before.  We went up to Helen GA and stayed in a cabin up in the mountains.  Matt got to do some long time needed golfing and we got to do some relaxing that was also way past due.  Below are some picture from our vacation.

 While daddy was golfing Garet and I were able to go on what they call a duck ride. It is a big bus that drives around the park area and then drives into the water and becomes a boat and gives you a nice relaxing ride around the lake. Garet was not sure of the whole thing till he got off the bus and saw some family that was wanting for us to get done and then it was the coolest thing of the day. he was telling everyone that we went in the water and then they gave everyone these duck bill quakers.  We finally had to hide that later that evening to get a break from the quaking.

 At the end of the first day we went and watch a laser light show on the side of the mountain.  It was nice but it was late and both boys wanted to have there mommy time. By the end of the show I had to sleeping boys in my lap and two arms that had fell asleep a couple hours prior.

 We found a nice little water area that had a waterfall and some really cool rocks. It was just what we needed to cool off for a little while. Garet thought it was so cool that he could just walk around in the water. Reed was not so sure what to think.

 While we were at the cabin a family friend bought Garet this silly caterpillar toy. (Garet names him Burt) Well needless to say Burt was not put together with very good glue and started to fall apart after a day or so.  The picture above is a picture of Garet with the pieces of Burt on his feet and nose. I think he had more fun with it after it fell apart.

There was a great group of people that we got to hang out with. There was family from up North that were there and then friends and family from Orlando and then some family from Jacksonville like us that came to visit as well for a couple days.

On to the dr updates. Right before we went on vacation Garet had a cardio appointment and it went well. They have finally reached to top out on a couple of his meds.  They have increased them as much as they can right now until he gains more weight.  He has been slow on gaining weight here lately but all of his dr's say that at this age they will slow down and then hit another growth spurt.  Well Garet is eating more food then I do most days so I am sure that growth spurt will be coming here very shortly.  His next appointment will be in October. We are now at going every 3 months to the Cardio Dr's. 

Reed just had his 6 month appointment and if Garet does not hit that growth spurt here soon Reed will be catching up to him in weight.  Reed weighed 18lbs 2 oz. and he is now 27 1/2 inches long. He is in the 75% is both weight and height.  He is a big boy.  Reed is doing really well sitting up on his own and if he can get his arms to work for him he will be all over the house crawling very soon. He will push himself up on his feet and hands all the time so I know he is strong enough it is just getting the hands and legs to work together. The next time Reed will have to go into the dr will be for his flue shot when they come in and then for his 9 month check up. 

Overall things are going really well with us. We are trying to stay cool till these hot Florida summer days pass.

I know there are a lot of friends and family that read this and I just want to ask for you all to add a couple people to your prayer list.  There are a couple of girls that are at Shands in Gainesville right now that really need our thoughts and prayers.  Emily has just received the gift of a new heart. She is now in the post transplant stage and will need a lot of strength to recover from such a surgery. Rachael is in very bad need of a new heart. She is on a ventilator and is having a lot of issues going on right now. I know there are a lot of families that need our prayers but there two  I know of by name and would love you to send you thoughts there way. 

Thank you so much to everyone for following what is going on with our family.

Happy 4th of July

We had a busy 4th of July weekend.  Saturday party Garet had a Birthday party to go to for a good friend of his. He is really getting into the birthday parties right now. Alot of his friends have birthdays around this time of year.  He now knows how to sing happy birthday and know that after we sing to the person that he should be getting some cake shortly after that. It is to much fun watching him with all the other kids at the party.

Sunday the Boys and I got up and went to Papa's new church. This Sunday was my dads first Sunday at his new church in Yulee FL.  It was fun and exciting to see him back up in front of the church sending out Gods message. Garet has gotten used to having Papa sitting with us in church and not up in front of everyone.  Garet just stared at him like why are you up there.  Then when Papa would sit down Garet would say that Papa was hiding and that he needed to come out.  The things that come out a 2 year old mouth are just to funny some times.

After Church Sunday we went over to Grannies (Matts mom) house to go swimming.  We had a very nice afternoon by the pool and cooking out on the grill. Reed got to swimming for the first time.  We have put his toes in the pool before but this was the first time that we put on his swim trunks and took him into the pool. He was not to sure at first but then started splashing his arms and legs.  He seemed to have a great time.  Garet is now becoming quite the swimmer.  When he has his arm swimmies on he does not want anyone to hold him. He want to swim all by himself. My prediction is that by next summer he will be swimming with out his arm floaties.

Onto Monday. We got up and went to the Middleburg parade.  This was both of the boys first time to go to a parade.  Garet thought the fact that people were throwing candy at him was the coolest thing ever. He would pick up a piece of candy and run it back to his wagon and then run back to pick  up more. Again to funny the way there little minds work.

Garet waiting for the parade to start.

 Reed in his 4th of July get up at the parade

 Matt had bought some sparklers and fountain fireworks for us to set off that night. So before bed we went back outside and did some sparklers.  It was lot of fun. The look on Garets face every time he does something new or sees something for the first time is priceless. I can no wait to see those expressions on Reeds face as he grown and learn. After everyone had there baths and showers for the night we went back outside and Matt did the fountain fireworks.  There were so colorful and Garet has been talking about them ever since that night.

Over all it was a very nice weekend and I think we need to have more 3 day weekends.  I hope everyone had a great weekend as well. 

Cerial Time

 We have been trying to feed Reed baby cereal at dinner time.  He is getting so big and is wanting to eat all the time so the dr said to try to start him on cereal to help fill up his tummy. We tried a couple days ago and it did not work out so well. All he did was spit it back out and I am sure he did not swallow any of it.  Well last night we tried again at dinner time and this time he did a little bit better.  The faces he made confirmed the fact that baby cereal does not taste very good.

Overall I think the cereal was successful last night. He got it all over his face but I do think that he swallowed a little bit of it.  We are going to keep working on it and here in a couple weeks try to add some veggies in there as well.  I can not believe that he is already eating baby food. He is growing so fast.

Garet as always wanted to help with Reed. He is such a good helper. When I started to take pictures he had to get in on that action as well.  It is a challenge to get a picture of him without his silly cheese face on. I think these were some of the best ones we have got in a while. 

This is one of my favorites. He is also getting so big. He is using his words really well now and even doing some complete sentences.  He has started to sing songs that he is hearing and it is to cute. His favorite song is the itsy bisty spider. I will try to get in on video for you all to see.

 Each night Garet and daddy have there play time just before time to relax. It is so much fun to watch the two of them play together.  Reed and I sit on the couch while daddy and Garet play, run and jump all over the living room. I can see it in Reeds eyes that he can not wait till he is able to go and play in that mess as well. He watches them so close and does not take his eyes off of them. We have had to have a lot of playing inside time the past couple of days because of the smoke in the air. We usually sit outside and relax after dinner and let Garet play in the yard the past couple of days have been so smokey that it is hard to do anything outside. They are telling us on the news to avoid heavy activity outside if at all possible. We do not want to have any respiratory issues so we have been listening to them.  We will keep praying for more rain to help put out all the fires here in Florida and home that no more start any time soon.

Reed is 4 months old

Reed has his 4 month doctors appointment yesterday. He now weighs almost 16 lbs. and is 25 1/2 inches long.  He had to get two shots one in each leg and he did not like that at all. I took Garet with to the doctors because I really think it is a good thing for him to go to the doctors when it is not his turn to have a check up. This gives him a chance to see the nurses and doctors as just people that he can trust. He did really well and even helped when Reed started to cry after his shots.

Here are some of the new things that Reed has started to do lately. Every since he has started smiling I don't think there has been a time when I have looked at him that he has not had a smile on his face. He is so happy most of the time. I think he is going to be a talker like his brother.  He has now figured out how to make noises and make those noises sound different.  Now on the ride home I have both of them talking in the back seat. I will have to say it is a lot easier when you know what they are telling you.  Right now I think Reed is just telling us that he knows how to make noises and that he is going to make them all the time when he is awake. 

Reed has also learned to rolls from his back to his belly and back to his back.  If you are not right there next to him talking to him when he is on his back then he is rolling over to his tummy. He used to get upset when he would get to his belly and not be able to get back. But now his arms are getting a lot stronger so he can lift the front part of his body way up in the air. He is also getting good and sticking his little booty up in the air and using his legs. We better watch out when he gets those two working together we are going to have to get the baby gate back out. There will be no stopping him.

Reeds Doctor told me yesterday that we can start to give him a little cereal with our dinner to try to get him to sleep the rest of the night. Right now he is sleeping from about 8 in the evening till between 4 and 5 in the morning. This is not bad at all I think.  Garet did not sleep the entire night until he was almost a year old. So I have no problem dealing with a 4 or 5 o'clock feeding.  That is close to the time that I have to get up for work so it works out well. 

Well that is about all my updates on Reed. We may be taking him camping for the first time this weekend. We have a friend that is having a birthday camp out. It will be only for one night and I think we are just going to use the van as our tent. It will be a nice first time in the the woods for Reed.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very busy memorial day weekend. There was so many things to celebrate. 

First off Friday late afternoon we drove down to Orlando for Justina's (Our cousin) high school graduation.  She graduated Saturday morning, it was so great to be able to see he walk the line and get her diploma. She graduated with honors and we are so proud of her. After the graduation we went back to there house and had a big graduation party. There was lots of swimming and squirt gun fights going on that day.  The weather was beautiful and the pool was just the right temp. We got up bright and early Sunday morning so we could start the drive back home.  On our way to Orlando we saw some signs were we could pick our own blueberries. So on the way home we stopped and had a lot of fun watching Garet pick blueberries for the first time.  We had a lot of green blueberries in our pail when we were done. I think Garet just like the look of the green ones instead of the Blue ones.  It was so much fun.

When we got home Sunday we did some relaxing the rest of the evening.

Memorial Day was very nice. We did not have any set plans so we were not in a rush when we got up Monday morning.  We decided that we were going to go to Matts moms house to do some swimming and cook out.  It was not a big party and that was so nice.  Garet was able to get used to the water since there was not a bunch of people in the pool splashing around.  This was the first time that he let go of us and was swimming around the pool with his floats on all by himself.  He did such a great job. It is so cool to see his face when he learns something new. He was so proud of himself, all he kept saying the rest of the day was " I was swimming all by myself" So awesome.  We have to be careful with Garet and how much he swims. He gets tiered a lot faster than normal and then does not understand why he is not feeling well and has no energy.  This means a very crabby Garet. He was ready to go home by about 6 and fell asleep for the night on the way home. It was an early bed time for everyone last night.  Overall a very nice weekend. I can not wait till vacation in July.

I love long weekends.

Garets Shand Visit

Good morning all

Yesterday was Garets bi-monthly appointment at Shands with Dr Fricker.  These days seem to get longer and longer.  I think this is just in my head since Garet is at the age that he does not like going to the dr.  We talk the entire way to Gainesville about what they are going to do and he is all good with. He asks me if he is going to get any ouchies at the dr. He does not get upset as long as I tell him that there will no ouchies.  When we go to Gainesville he really does not get any ouchies just a couple test that they stick sticker all over him.  Well after talking to him in the car I thought that the day would go smooth. Not so much.  We got there and only had to wait a couple minutes to go back and get his weight and height.  Garet is now 36 inches tall and his weight is 26lbs. He started to get a little whining while we were doing that. He did not like when they put the oxygen sensor on his toe and said it was an ouchy when they took his blood pressure. Once we got back out to the waiting room he was ready to go home.  All he wanted to say was time to go home. All done.   We finally got to go back to a room and they came in to the EKG.  As soon as the tech walked in the room he started saying NO WAY.  She tried to talk to him and get him comfy with her but no such luck.  We have found that with Garet you just have to do the test. As soon as he sees what you are doing and that it is not hurting him then he relaxes and lets you finish.  This is what we finally did after the tech tried for about 15 minutes to tell him it was not going to hurt.  One test down one more to go.  The next thing we had to do what to have an ECO done.  This one is normally a little harder. We have to go to another room and he has to sit up on a table for about 15-20 minutes or so.  They do have a tv in this room and we always pick out one of Garets favorite movies to take with us in hopes that it will help him to be calm.  This time we took the land before time movie.  Dinasours are awesome.  He screamed for about a minute and then he realised it was not hurting and he was missing his movie because he was crying. He still had to sit on my lap or in this case lay down with me for the entire test but at least I did not have to hold him down to the table this time.  I think a couple more times and he will understand that at this dr's he does not get ouchies.

  Onto the important stuff. Dr Fricker said that the walls of his heart are starting to thicken a little bit. This is good as long as they do not get to thick.  He heart is still working at only about 35%. This has been very stable for the past year.  His body seems to be compen sating very well for the low heart function.  As long as he continues to grow and eat wall then we will just watch and wait.  Overall a pretty good appointment.  Hopefully it will be another 2 months before we have to visit over there again. 

Thank you to everyone that has been continuing to think and pray for Garet. He is so special to us and is an awesome little guy.