Video!

Ok, thanks to my sweet friend Britni, I can now post videos!  I tried to the other day of a cute video of baby Gary, but was having error messages.  Now I figured out how to post onto YouTube to share the videos (don't worry, the videos are private so the world can't see).  Here's a recent video of baby Gary having some tummy time and learning to sit up.

Here's a second video.  It might seem slow, but I was trying to get him "talking."

Also, here's a picture of Caleb's ocean habitat project for school.  :)

The last 5 months...

Here is my attempt at blogging about the last five months.  I’ve been wanting to blog ever since I had baby Gary, but it’s definitely been at the bottom of my priority list of many other things.  Needless to say, things have been very busy for us since Gary was born…or at least since we got our house in Georgia packed up.

Baby Gary was born April 17^th at 5:02 am.  I was pretty sure that may labors would be very similar to my moms, so I knew that he would come quickly (because I came very quickly for my mom).  I started early labor the day before, but awoke at 3am with unmistakable labor pains.  We left the house by 3:45 and were admitted by 4:15, and 45 minutes later we had a new baby boy.  I had planned on having an epidural.  It did not happen that way.  I was very much less than thrilled when the nurses told me they’d have to run my blood first before they could give it to me.  Really?  For those of you who have had a child naturally, you know how I feel.  Anyhoo, thankfully it was a quick labor and before I knew it I had a sweet little boy in my arms.  I had known for the past 9 months that I would have a little boy at the end of all this, but it was amazing to finally see him.  I didn’t get much sleep in the hospital between feedings and people coming in and out.  Thankfully, my mom had come in town just the day before, so it was perfect timing.  My mom and Caleb came to the hospital, and Caleb was so sweet.  He just had a huge grin across his face and loved his new baby brother.  I am so happy to finally have baby Gary and I just can’t get enough of him.

We were only in Georgia another month before leaving to move to Fort Campbell, KY (we live in TN).  We took some time for a little bit of a vacation and visited my family in TX before officially moving and checking into Ft Campbell.  I loved getting to visit home to see friends and family, especially now that we had Little Gary.  Once we got to TN, we stayed with friends for a few weeks before we were able to move into our house.  Gary’s mom visited us that first week we were in the house, which was perfect timing.  She was such a great help at unpacking and helping with the boys.  Gary’s dad and stepmom visited us July 4^th weekend and we had a great time with them. 

About the middle of July, Gary got to take some leave from work so we took a last minute family vacation to Washington, D.C.!  I had been before, back in summer after 7^th grade with my church youth group, but Gary had never been.  Luckily he has an aunt and uncle that live only 45 minutes from D.C., so we stayed with them for a week.  We got to visit that part of his family, and we took a couple of rest days while we were there.  Between the driving and walking all around D.C., we were exhausted.  But I have to say that I love D.C.!  We had a really great time.  We also took part of a day and drove to Annapolis – walked around the Naval Academy a bit, and the historic bay area around there and had lunch.  We were hopeful on being able to see the White House in D.C., but didn’t get to, although we did get a great tour of the Capitol building by our TX rep’s intern.  We got to meet up with one of Gary’s good friends from Ft Benning while we were there, too.

Since D.C., we’ve just been unpacking and trying to get settled.  We’re pretty much done, except we’re hopeful on being able to organize the garage enough to get both cars in there.  We’ll see.  Caleb started school at the beginning of August and is doing well so far.  He has more homework this year and he’s doing well.  The spelling and reading is definitely more difficult but he’s doing pretty well with it.  I like seeing him improve in his schoolwork.  We have him in Cub Scouts so far and he’s enjoying that, and we just signed him up for AWANA at church that started last week on Wednesday nights. 

Gary stays pretty busy with work and that’s going well.  He just finished his last triathlon for the year, until next spring (they stop at a certain point during the year because the water will start getting too cold for the swim portion).  In the triathlon on Saturday, he shaved about 8-10 minutes off his previous time.  It’s an Olympic distance triathlon, which is about .9 miles swimming, about a 30-something mile bike ride I think, and about a 6 mile run.  I’ve been staying pretty busy myself, between taking care of Little Gary, trying to keep up with cleaning the house, dishes, laundry, etc., getting together with new friends, helping Caleb with homework, and I’m now involved as the treasurer for our FRG (Family Readiness Group).  We have a great group and I enjoy our meetings and get-togethers. 

My mom got to visit us at the end of July right before Caleb started school, and my parents just flew up here last weekend for Labor Day weekend.  I’m glad they both got to come up and visit, and I can’t wait to come back home to TX for a visit.

Little Gary is getting bigger all the time.  Sometimes I wish he could just stay like this forever.  He will be 5 months on Saturday, September 17^th and as of last Friday he was 17 pounds.  He doesn’t skip any meals. J  He started rolling over at least a few weeks ago, but is doing it more often and better now.  He’s been drooling for a while now, so I’m sure within the next month or two he’ll start cutting some teeth.  When he’s in my lap, he tries to sit up, so I’m sure within the next couple of months he’ll be sitting up on his own, too.  I try to do tummy time (which I wasn’t doing much of), but he hates it.  I know it’s good for him, so sometimes I just have to let him be frustrated.  He can now sit up pretty well in his exersaucer.  He likes to “talk” and blow bubbles a lot, which is so cute.  I can tell he will probably be very active, just like daddy.  

More to come later, but I think that’s enough for now!  More pictures to come!