Happy Friday!!

One of many book eating instances...

We hope you have a wonderful start to your weekend!!

Mmm! Mmm!

That is the sound you will hear from Garrison when he is eating. Well, I should clarify...when he is eating real food rather than most of the baby food. I don't blame him! It is really funny though how much he LOVES food. He is so animated in letting you know it too!

I am a major food lover as well, so this trait, he definitely gets from me! (Yay!) And let me tell you, he is serious about his food. It's so funny when he's in his highchair eating, he gets his "game face" on and cannot be bothered by anything other than the food on his tray. And don't even think about sitting him in there if his food is not ready. He gets MAD! When he is ready to eat, he is ready to eat...and I can totally identify with that!

Garrison is multicultural when it comes to food too. He likes Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern (hummus), and of course good 'ol American. I think his favorite is Mexican though...that's my boy!!

He also loves vegetables. Pretty much any veggie I put in front of him, he gobbles up! He especially likes broccoli and baby carrots. Hopefully he will not loose this love of vegetables.

Now I don't want you think that he only loves healthy food. He also LOVES, I mean LOVES ice cream. And although I love ice cream too, I think I have attribute this love to Bryan's genes rather than mine. Hmmm...maybe we'll do ice cream cake for someone's first birthday...

Children's Museum

Over the Christmas holidays, we went to the Children's museum and checked out all the cool stuff. Seriously, that place is amazing!! I think we could go there every week for at least a year and still not see all the stuff! So while we were there we went into the "Science" area and this is what happened...

He looks a little scared and confused but kind of excited too...maybe he'll be a scientist like his Dada!

By the way, this morning before we left the house, I had to go back into our bedroom and Garrison followed me in. As soon as we got into the room he said "Dada!" I think he's really calling us by name now. So cool!

Another side note...he is really walking now! Slow and little baby steps, but definetly walking! Oh and he's no longer eating "baby food." He has officially graduated to eating all table food. I know he's excited! I'll have to dedicate a whole post to my childs love of food...

We know when Garrison is tired when...

he makes this noise:

Isn't that funny?! He really isn't a very fussy guy, so I'll take this over crying any day!! He started doing this about 3 months ago...one of his many quirks. Love it!

10 steps and counting

It's only a matter of time before Garrison's crawling days are over! This weekend he was a lot more adventurous with the walking. And he looked a lot more stable. I just love how excited he gets when he walks!

It is so fun watching him grow and change. Have I mentioned lately that I love being Garrison's mom? It's pretty much my most favorite thing I've ever been.

Zoo!

Today was a fun day! Spur of the moment, we decided to go to the zoo. It was just so gorgeous AND we only live 10 minutes away! It was a brilliant idea from Bryan...I really can't take the credit. Anyways, we really enjoyed it. Garrison loved the elephants! He wasn't really too impressed with most things if they weren't moving (at least fast enough for his attention span). The elephant just happened to be right by the fence and it was eating...too cool! He also like this tiny little monkey that moved pretty quick. He was trying to talk to it!

Here are some pics from our day...

The last time he went to the zoo he was only 3 weeks old...

P.S.

Don't call him Gary. Ever.

Thanks!

And now for the cutest dinosaur ever...

Naming our child

I'm not sure everyone knows the story about how we came up with Garrison's name, so I thought I'd share. Well first of all, I'm totally a "planner" so I started looking in the baby name book and online from the beginning of the pregnancy. Bryan, on the other hand, was a lot more relaxed about it. We would toss names around every once in while, but I had a whole spiral notebook full of options. We both really liked the name Jackson, but it was getting so popular and we really didn't want anything in the "top 10" most popular category. We also liked Tyler, but wasn't completely sold. We knew somewhere in the name we'd use Bennett because that is Bryan's middle name and his late grandfather's middle name. We thought about using that as a first name but again, we couldn't decide.

And we couldn't decide.

And finally it's the week that my C-section is scheduled AND WE STILL DIDN'T have a name picked out!! I was getting STRESSED. So 2 or 3 nights before the surgery we were sitting on the couch watching TV and I was on babynamegenie.com (or something like that) and I was just throwing names out to Bryan and Garrison was one that I said. We both liked it but moved on to look at other names.

So the night before the C-section Bryan said that he had made his decision...Garrison. Well at the time I was in pretty painful labor (yes, I went into the labor on my own the day before the surgery...crazy!) and couldn't think, much less make a life long decision like naming our child. So still no final name for the child that was going to be born in less than 12 hours!! Let me tell you...I NEVER thought I'd be in this position! I thought I'd have the name picked out months in advance. I guess Bryan and I both were afraid to committ...it's a really big decision, ya know?!

Well 9:30 am the next day our son was born...with no name. Once I got into recovery and I'm holding my sweet boy I'm like "Okay, we gotta name this kid." And Bryan said "I already told you my pick...what's yours?" And at that moment I just knew that this little baby's name was Garrison Bennett. And maybe it was also the fact that I had just gone through 18 hours of labor, surgery, and hadn't come up with anything else on my own. No but really, I love his name and it's just perfect for him.

Happy 11 months!!

1 month from today our boy is going to be ONE!! Where did the past 11 months go?! It has seriously flown by. Bryan and I were playing with Garrison last night and he looked at me and said “Where is our baby?” And it’s true…G is no longer a little baby…he’s turning into a toddler! He’s doing so many cool things now and has his own little personality. Is it bad to say that I think I like having a baby this age rather than an itty bitty baby? I just love how he can interact now…it’s just awesome!

So I am going to try to do a post every day leading up to the big birthday. I’m thinking pics throughout the past 11 months and just random things about Garrison. Hopefully I can do it!!

Here's the 1st random thing about him...

* He loves to EAT books. Sometimes he’ll look at them, but he’s WAY more interested in knawing on them. Our bedtime story time is really not much of a story time anymore!

Here we go!!

I think my life as I know it is never going to be the same again! Over the past few weeks Garrison has ventured to take between 1-3 steps pretty regularly. This weekend it jumped to 5-6! He is on his way to being a walking boy! Here's a video to document the progress...

Other than the walking, he's gotta be cutting some more teeth because let me tell you...he has been CRANKY! Give him a teething biscuit or anything out of the freezer or fridge and he is much happier. I feel so bad for him...I know it's gotta be miserable. And on top of that when he woke up from his nap today his cheeks were bright red and he felt hot and sure enough, 101 fever. So it looks like we'll be going to visit our beloved pediatrician tomorrow.

Yesterday we had a fun day...a friend of mine brought her dog over for us to watch while she moved. Garrison just loves dogs so it was awesome to see them in action together. Here are some pics and video...

I'm not really sure what kinda move you'd call this one but it did catch little Flip attention...

So every night at least once...okay more like 2 or 3 times, Bryan and I go into Garrison's room to sneak a peak at him sleeping. And sometimes he just looks so freakin' cute we take a picture. Well last night was one of those nights. I mean look at him! Just precious!! He was soooo tired! We just love how he's totally sprawled out laying on top of his blankets.

Easter eggs hunts and more!

Garrison's first Easter was a good one! The holidays are so much fuller and more fun with him in our lives. So the festivities started with an Easter egg hunt at his school. It was so cute watching the 6 ten month old boys that make up his class crawl around checking out the eggs...

My little thumb sucker...

Garrison and all his buddies. And yes, he's crying because I put him down to take the pic :)

Then we went to Anauhac to the family farm house. It was nice and relaxing and lots of fun! I think my abs were sore from laughing so much!

Here's Garrison Easter morning checking out his Easter basket...

"Whoa, that's a big basket"

My little cutie!

"Do you think I can eat my way through the box to get the chocolate?!"

"Let me at it!!"

"Thanks Uncle Carter for giving me a taste of the bunny"
"I think I can take it from here.."

That bunny didn't have a chance...

What a mess!
Mmmm...

I love this pic! He was such a mess!!

After all the candy, Garrison had a GOOD nap!

Here he is in his "Easter-tastic" outfit. Bryan let me know that under no normal circumstances would our son ever wear this sweater vest. I think he looks dang cute!!

My boys...I love 'em!!

My son LOVES balls...

Here we are hanging out with the Easter eggs...

This was a special basket ball Easter egg...Garrison thought it was pretty cool!

I'm sure next year he'll be running around with his 2nd cousins, Layla and Jacob, during the Easter egg hunt...

And last but not least, a cute little video we took of the little man eatin' a peep...

We hope you had a great Easter too!!