It's officially a boy!!

My 20 week ultrasound today confirmed that we are having another boy! He looks very healthy and is measuring a little big (big surprise there)!

Once again the ultrasound tech was talking about how "busy" and "active" our baby is! He continues to kick and move constantly. I sure hope the little guy likes to sleep too though! Here are some of the pictures from the ultrasound. One of them shows his face, looking straight at the "camera". The next shows his "boy parts" marked by a little arrow and the third shows his precious legs and feet as he's kicking his momma. My midwife said that we will most likely induce just after Christmas unless he is measuring very large earlier than that. Now, if we can only pick out a name for our sweet baby boy. Until then, we love you and can't wait to meet you Baby G!

Family Fun (and a lotta frustration)

It seems like our Saturdays are always taken up by busy plans or chores but happily yesterday we spent the day just having fun. I had heard about a new "sprayground" (a water playground) that had opened up nearby and we went on a search for it. It was such a nice new park with a great water area, 2 large playgrounds, nice fields, and even a concession stand. There was even a farmer's market going on while we were there! Nicholas had lots of fun playing in the water although he is quite timid with the water and won't run through the fountains like most of the other kids. After a while in the water we moved over to the playground and continued the fun. After we'd had a little too much sun, it was time for lunch and then we went to a nice used bookstore. Nicholas really enjoyed the bookstore too and we all three picked out a book to buy.

Saturday evening we had a neighborhood social in the cul-da-sac. We met some new neighbors that had just moved in and they have two children. The little boy and Nick share the exact same birthday. Nicholas had a great time playing with his new friends with their wagons, frisbees, and chalk. We then left to join the family for dinner out. Aunt Carol and Uncle Cliff are in town and it was good to see the whole family. However, that leads me to my frustrations as Nicholas nearly drove me crazy with his tantruming and crying...

This has been such a difficult week with him. He has been sick with tummy troubles since Wednesday morning. I thought he was doing a little better but today the problems have persisted. So not only am I going through diapers and diaper cream like crazy but I am out of ideas of things to feed Nick that won't upset his stomach, might actually be healthy for him, and he will agree to put in his mouth. On top of that, the terrible two's have come out in a big way. It's like he flicked a switch and he has now decided that he will not cooperate in any way. The "tricks" that used to work with him, no longer do. And the crying and fussing is happening more and more often and is more frequently in public. Today we had to take him home from church after numerous tantrums. Of course I've been expecting these problems to arise but he'd been doing so well that I thought maybe it wasn't going to happen just yet. The interesting thing is that we haven't been able to find a discipline tactic that motivates him. He actually almost enjoys time outs! He will scream and cry and kick about whatever the issue that he doesn't want to do and as soon as we tell him he has to go to time out, he nearly runs to his room and sits like an angel and is very happy during the entire timeout. It's very strange.

So I am bracing myself for another week of bad tummies and bad behavior, but I'm praying for a turnaround!

Back to normal

It's always hard coming back from vacation and getting back to life as normal. For me it's meant that my week reprieve from morning sickness is over and I find myself sick again most mornings (it must all be in my head, or it's the house, I can't decide). Nicholas has been having difficulty adjusting as well. For a while now, he has been such a good boy and rarely, if ever, has to go to time out. But this week he's spent everyday in time out at least once each day. On Tuesday he had a huge tantrum at the register in TJ Maxx when I wouldn't give him the candy that was there by the register. Unfortunately, he became a little too dependent on "treats" while we were at the beach as I often had to bribe him with a treat at dinners to get him to stay at the table and eat. He now asks me for his treat every single day, even first thing when he wakes up. I hope to break him of this expectation quickly. Another thing that he started last week was saying the sentence "I don't wike (like) it". It's actually very cute how he says it in his little toddler accent which is probably a good thing for him at this moment because I'm sure that the cuteness will wear off quickly with me. He says this all the time! Not only about not wanting to eat or drink something but also if he doesn't want to do something like hold my hand in a store or get in the car.

Today we met my friend Lesley from Sunday School and her three kids at their pool. Nicholas had so much fun. He saw Hannah (5) and Emma(4) jumping in the pool and started jumping in to me too. I sure got an arm workout with how many times I was catching him and putting him back on the side to jump in again. I'm sad that the summer is coming to an end and our days at the pool are numbered.

Our week at the beach

Nicholas and I just returned from a fabulous week in Destin, Florida with Mimi, PopPop, and Aunt Ashley. It was so sad being away from Graham for an entire week (he had to work) but we sure did enjoy ourselves. I don't know if Nicholas has ever had so much fun. We stayed in a cozy 2 bedroom cottage near the beach. It was a perfect place. They had a golf cart shuttle that would take us down to the beach if we didn't want to do the short walk and of course Nick loved this. The pool was a lot of fun and of course the beach was beautiful. One of Nicholas's favorite things was watching the numerous helicopters and airplanes that would fly over the beach. I really think he's going to be a pilot someday, he is so interested in them. On two of the nights we went to two different shopping areas that had some wonderful things for Nicholas to enjoy. His favorite things were the fountains that he could run and play through. The first time that he was surprised by the fountain underneath him, he got soaked and was really scared. After that he would only run around the perimeter and wouldn't risk getting near the spouts again. But the second night, he made friends with 2 sweet older boys age 7 and 4 and he wanted to copy everything they were doing in the water. It was so adorable. I've included a little video of Nicholas playing with Sam and Max in the fountain. Other highlights from the week include lots of relaxing beach time, pool time, and shopping at the outlet malls. Thank you Mimi and PopPop for a wonderful vacation!

Then 2 hours after returning from the trip, Graham and I got all dressed up to go to my 10 year high school reunion. It was a wonderful night that we enjoyed so much more than we expected to. Many of our old friends made it out to the party at Horseshoe Bend Country Club. It was neat catching up with everyone, even those that I wasn't that close too while in high school. And Graham even enjoyed himself with Matt and some new friends that he made. Then after the reunion we went down to the W hotel rooftop bar for the "alternate reunion" that someone had planned. We joked about how this was the trendiest place that we've ever been to, and here I am pregnant at this club. Here we saw some of my old friends that didn't make it to the regular reunion and we continued to catch up with those that came to the first party. It was a great night all around and I'm sad that we'll have to wait another 10 years to do it again!

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!