Easter weekend was so much fun. We started with a trip to the beach for the day just the three of us. No pictures as we have already ruined too many cameras at the beach. Sunday we enjoyed church in our new facility at Edgewater High School. If anyone is looking for a new church with fabulous people and open hearts I highly recommend you check out Grace Orlando. My parents joined us for church and Garrett got lots of Grandpa time as he is Grandpa's boy! We gathered with my brother and sister-in-law and their girls at my parents, joined also by my grandmother "Gram" and my uncle Vince. We had a great casual lunch and then all hopped into the pool after the Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard. A great day! Here are some new pictures. Unfortunately we tried three times to get a good picture of Bill and I, not sure if it is the photographers' fault or the people in the picture, but none were blog worthy. Here they are...
Just a goofy picture of our little musician! Garrett was having a great time drumming to the beat with his egg shakers. I just loved his face and caught it with the camera. Hope it makes you laugh as much as it did us.
Oh My! Sorry fellow bloggers for my long exit from this world. Life has been nothing but normal and I haven't thought for a minute to sit and talk about the everyday. We have just really begun our routine again, not too many exciting times to blog about. I will try for you to think of funny stories and reconnect. For now please forgive me and honor the cute stories that I didn't get to tell about our Christmas Celebrations.
Fun Moments from the End of December:
Our Christmas events were very fun. Garrett showed that he was in fact a good boy in Santa's eyes and our too. This year we tried to focus on the meaning of Christmas and spend time and energy with family and friends. Santa was very generous to Garrett with a new Spider Man bike, helmet and a bell for the bike. We have had fun getting out an about. My long big workout bike rides have shorted for now until G gets a little better at the distances and staying out of the middle of the road, since many places in our neighborhood do not have side walks.
However, I am not sure how to take the fact that Garrett switched gifts that he would like to get from Santa at the last moment and asked for a scooter and a Big Mack (18 wheeler) truck. Christmas morning he was a little disappointed that these requests were not heard.
Tis the month of birthday celebrations and festivities for the holidays. We ended last month with the BIG BIRTHDAY for BILL. He turned 40 this year and we had to celebrate. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house with almost 20 family members, it was great fun, lots of work but in the end a great time with family. We celebrated Bill and Garrett's birthday with the family after dinner with presents and a football birthday cake. We went out the Saturday after Bill's birthday for a little adult fun. The guys from the neighborhood took Bill out that afternoon and the ladies ended up meeting up with them for dinner. We were supposed to host everyone, but last minute changes led to dinner at a local Family Style Italian restaurant, where we were allowed to be just as loud as a 40th celebration requires! What a great time with friends. We decided this year to play Garrett's birthday low key and just had his buddies from the neighborhood over on his actual birthday (Wednesday). Most of the Dad's work nights and so Bill was the lonely man at the kid party. It was so perfect though, pizza and some cake and lots of fun for the kids to play together. I believe this was the least stress event I have ever had and Garrett had a BLAST! We felt truly blessed to have great friends and family to celebrate with.
Wow have we been busy! October and the Start of November have been so busy, sorry I just haven't had the time to sit down. October was started off right with my birthday and fun trip for Bill and I to Universal Studios and Blue Man Group.
We took some family time and went to do the corn mazes that are just a few minutes down the road. Garrett had so much fun and really wanted to take the trip on the hay ride but we didn't realize they were separate tickets and decided to save that one for next year, since the line was about 100 people deep.
For a while now we have been in the "naked phase". Garrett enjoys as do most boys running around the house in his undies or nothing on the bottom, sometimes a shirt is not even required. This all started during potty training but has continued for the last few months. The child cannot take off his own pants to go to the bathroom, but can take off his shirt to run around the house in the buff. This phase has forced us to make rules in our house such as...
1. You must wear underwear at the dinner table.
2. You must put on shorts and a shirt to go outside (back yard or front yard).
Anyways, now that it is out and you believe that I am a crazy parent or better yet that you will one day show up at my door with a naked child running around in the background. I have a story to tell.
A few nights ago, I put Garrett to bed. Now the only time that he wears a diaper is during his naps and at night. Bill checked on him before he went to bed but I stayed up a little later than he did, so I went in to kiss him goodnight. First I went to turn off his lullabies and before kissing him I noticed something at the side of his bed. I leaned down to figure it out, it was a diaper. Did I have to change his diaper before going to bed, I couldn't remember...So I slowly pealed back the covers. To my surprise, Garrett had taken his diaper off and was SLEEPING IN THE BUFF. I thought this was a phase that I would face later in life, like his teenage years. Did time lapse when I wasn't looking? This was my two year old right? Oh my, I rolled him over and put his diaper back on him, but I just got a great laugh out of the experience of finding my son naked in bed! Well at the least I have surpassed this first in my life and later I will not be surprised when it happens again.
The end of September and the beginning of October have been fun, yet also through staying busy with fun fall activities our emotions peek through at times. What am I talking about? Well, September 29th was supposed to be my due date with our son Jamie. I was very emotional to the buildup of the day and tried not to cry on that day, knowing that he would not have come on that day for he would have probably been a week or so late, as was Garrett. When we found out that he was due on the 29th all I could think about was if he was a week late he would arrive around my birthday. How special would it be that Garrett was born the day after Bill's birthday and Jamie would arrive just shy or right around mine. I do believe that was probably more emotional around my birthday than the actual due date. My birthday fell on Friday, October 8th and Bill and the day were fabulous. He had an amazing day for the two of us planned. We went to Universal and rode the roller coasters and saw the Blue Man Group and just had a day for the two of us. However, that Sunday at church was Baby Dedications. I cried when they originally announced the date knowing that we would have loved to introduce him to everyone at that time, but had completely forgotten about it until that morning at church. As the two couples stood at the front of the church, I could only pray that God and Jamie could hear my prayers and wipe my tears. The only thing that got Bill and I both through that moment was knowing that we don't have to raise him to know God, for he already rests in his arms.
We have a small box that sits on my dresser, filled with little things, the blanket we rapped him in, the hat he wore in the hospital, the cards and letters we received, those that we wrote to him after he passed and a few pictures. Some days if I really sit down to think about it, I wish that we had so much more than a box. What I would give to be up to my eyeballs, in diapers and baby laundry!
I pray each day and know that he lives with his keeper and that one day I will meet him again and my heart will be whole again. Until that time I miss him greatly.
First I must say, that my husband is a Steelers fan since birth and my son too. I have recently joined the Steeler nation when Bill and I married. Each football season we try to find new apparel for the little man in his size and this last fall, I got my first jersey, #43 Troy Polamalu. This weekend we traveled to Tampa Bay for the Steelers v. Bucs game. We had a blast and the Steelers had an amazing game, well a blow out, we won!!!! Here are a few photos from our adventure.
