It's a Boy (we think)!!

On Tuesday at my doctor's appointment I got a nice little surprise. My sweet midwife, Mary (who delivered Nicholas), offered to play around with the ultrasound to see if we could see what gender the baby is. I am 16 weeks along and am not supposed to have the ultrasound to find out until 20 weeks but she said that sometimes you can see now. Well our little guy showed some pretty convincing evidence that he is a boy! Not only that, he's another very active boy (of course!). At first when she was finding the heartbeat, she found it right away and then he was suddenly gone. She had to dig and search all over my belly for a while to find him again he was moving around so much. Then during the ultrasound he was doing flips and rolls and moving around everywhere. I've been feeling him kicking for a few weeks now but to see him in action was pretty funny. Since Mary is not an ultrasound technician, there is always the chance that we could go for the ultrasound on August 17th and be told that the baby is actually a girl. But I saw the "evidence" and think that is highly unlikely. We are all very excited to have another sweet little boy coming into our lives and I know Nicholas will love having a baby brother. Now I'm just praying for some relief from this awful morning sickness so I can start to enjoy the pregnancy a little.

We've been keeping pretty busy around here as well. Last week Mom, Nicholas and I went down to Peachtree City to visit with Aunt Sue, Grandma, and cousin Matt. We had a great day and a wonderful lunch at their Country Club. Nicholas was so excited to have some good time with Grandma and Aunt Sue. Then after lunch, Sue took us on a great trip around Peachtree City in their golf cart, which Nick of course loved. Then on Saturday, we met Grandad, Kaki, Trip, Mimi, PopPop, and Ashley at Stone Mountain. We had a very long wait for the train around the mountain (which wasn't quite worth it) but after that we had so much fun. We had a great picnic and then the laser show was wonderful. Nicholas is still talking about the fireworks, he loved them so much. It was so nice to get both sides of the family together!

This week, we've enjoyed neighborhood playgroups and a great day with Aunt Lauren, Trip and Mady today. We are so blessed to get to have all of these wonderful experiences and special people in our lives. Next up--a week at the beach with Mimi, PopPop, and Aunt Ashley. Unfortunately, Graham has to work and will be staying behind. We'll miss him so much! But I am so excited to relax in the sun!

A day at the lake

Well this has been a bit of a difficult week. Poor Nicholas came down with some sort of stomach bug, on the way to see fireworks on the 4th of July no less. So the beginning of the week was spent home recovering. Unfortunately by the end of the week, it seems that Graham came down with the bug too. We originally had plans to spend the weekend at lake Blue Ridge with Holly and Matt and Nadine and Michael. With Graham being sick, we didn't make it for the whole weekend but Graham encouraged us to go for the day on Saturday. So Nicholas and I packed things up for our "adventurous" trip into the mountains. On the way up there, I struggled with morning sickness, getting lost a few times, very curvy mountainous roads, avoiding the numerous cyclists on the mountain roads, and having to pee for over an hour without one gas station to stop at. Nicholas and I both were so happy when we finally arrived safely! The first thing he got to do was go for a ride on Matt's lap in a kayak then some swimming in the lake. Soon he noticed all of the rocks on the shoreline and wanted to go play with the rocks. He picked up a rock and instead of being all timid in walking in to the lake (like he always is to walk in the baby pool), he went running into the water and kept going despite my screams until he was past where he can stand. Of course he was wearing his floaties and was not going to go under but it still scared him and me as I ran in after him. Thankfully the rest of the day went very well and we had a blast out on the boat. This was his first time on a boat and he was so excited. He loved watching everyone water ski and knee board out the back of the boat, although he would cry every time that they wiped out. We had so much fun with our great friends (and their dogs of course) and just wish that Graham could have been there too and we could have stayed longer. (I'll add some pictures when I get them)

Busy Week

We have had a busy week here in the Garrison household and I'm behind on my posting!

Last weekend, Nicholas had his first weekend visit to Grandad and Kaki's all by himself. I don't think he could have had more fun! He spent the weekend digging up their rocks, looking for bears in the woods, playing golf, and playing with cars. On Saturday they took him to the lake and reported that he was a little fish swimming to and from Kaki and Grandad and jumping into the water to Grandad. He was even putting his face in the water! They also said that he ate them out of house and home and loved the pizza and pasta Kaki made. Nicholas has been talking about his weekend at Grandad and Kaki's all week long. I'm so glad he had so much fun--hopefully they'll want him to come play again soon! Graham and I got lots accomplished here in Nick's absence as we cleaned out the guest room in step one of our process of preparing Nicholas for a big boy room and for the baby to have a nursery.

Then this week I took care of a friend's toddler for three days, all day long. It was very exhausting. I thought that Nicholas was an active toddler but he is nothing compared to this little boy. Nicholas did well though, having to share his toys for the first time. And despite my exhaustion, it gave me a sense of accomplishment that I was able to parent two kids. I even took them out 2 of the days--once to the mall and once to a playgroup!

I also had another doctor's appointment this week and the baby is doing well. I'm almost 14 weeks now. Nicholas came with me and did very well and we got to hear the heartbeat!

Then last night we went to my parent's club for fireworks (on July 2nd). Nicholas had SOO much fun. He talked about the fireworks the entire day before going and then repetitively as we waited for it to get dark. He enjoyed playing on the golf course although he was upset that we didn't think to bring his golf clubs. Then when the fireworks started our little chatterbox told us all about the "pretty yellow fireworks". He continued talking about the fireworks nonstop until he finally got in his crib (around 10:30 at night!). I am amazed everyday at how much he is talking now and how big his vocabulary is. I have a feeling that this talking may cause some problems in school ;)

Today Graham joined us at the pool for the first time. Nicholas had so much fun swimming with Daddy! It's been a great start to the Fourth of July weekend. More fireworks tomorrow night, and yes, Nicholas is already talking about those!