Milestones for the G3

The happy Garrett baby

What a week! The Garrett family had a wonderful week. To start off the festivities, Zach's mom came to visit and she arrived on Tuesday the 14th. We were so excited to see her! She hasn't been here since March and was looking forward to seeing her little girl before she learned to crawl. Although Dylan is making progress in this area, she is still just sticking to her tried and true army crawl (as per her daycare teachers). No hurry though; she's getting into enough mischief!

Christina celebrated her 30th birthday on the 15th and spent the day with Jodie and Dylan. There was shopping, lunch and relaxing time with the three Garrett Girls. Zach came home from work about 4:30 and then Jodie spent the evening with Dylan while her parents met friends for drinks in honor of the big 30.

Dylan really likes cat toys

Alyssa, Dylan and Christina

On Saturday we all took a drive to CT to see Eric, Tammy and Alyssa and spent the day at the pool. It was a beautiful day, but the pool water was still very cold. Despite that, Christina still braved the temperature and joined Alyssa for a swim and some sloshing around on a new pool float. It was ridiculous to see but really fun. Dylan enjoyed her little pool but then joined the older girls in the big pool and didn't seem to mind the cold water at all. In fact, she made it about 30 minutes in there and kicked her feet and splashed.

We were treated to some homemade pizza and an ice cream cake to celebrate our birthdays (Zach's is today). It was a late night and Dylan was pooped but we all had a lot of fun sitting in the sunshine and catching up.

Today is Zach's birthday and very first Father's Day. Sadly it was the end of Jodie's visit but we really enjoyed having her here and also thoroughly savored her cooking! Dylan enjoyed having grandma around to play with and hug and hopefully we will see her again soon. Zach is going to enjoy and relax today.

A very good week indeed!

Oh to Boston We Go

Castle Island, South Boston

The Garrett family has had a pleasant and relaxing weekend so far. Yesterday we ran some errands and did our usual Target visit. We found some bargains at Ocean State (swimming items for the little one) and then relaxed. Zach found some time to go skate and the girls spent some quality time together and played and went for a walk. The weather has finally been nice so we wanted to make use of it.

Boston Skyline

This morning we took a drive to South Boston and walked around Castle Island; it's become one our favorite spots. The weather was fantastic and we showed Dylan the boats on the water and airplanes flying overhead. She seemed to enjoy it. After our walk we headed home for some lunch, did a little grocery shopping and cleaned up. It's nice having some time to ourselves over the weekend to get refreshed for another work week.

Time Flies

An inexcusable length of time has lapsed since my last post. I really need to make a midyear resolution to check in more frequently. Let's see, what has happened since September 2010. I'll give the briefing here: I had two baby showers in September (one in SC at Jennifer's and one in CT with the Welsches), I grew to amazing girths and our baby "due" date came and went by 10 days. Dylan Elise Garrett was born on November 30, 2010 in South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, MA at 1:22 a.m. I can safely say she overstayed her welcome "in there" as it became difficult towards the end, but fortunately, our little one arrived safely and healthy into the world with many excited family members and friends awaiting her. It's hard to believe that today, our little Dylan is 6 months old! Where does the time go??!!

Tiring pregnancy aside, I did pick the best time of year to have a baby. I was fortunate to be home during the holidays and through the beginning of the new year. Mom and dad came to visit a few days after we came home from the hospital and Brian made his second Christmas trip up to CT. It was a lot of fun, despite the ridiculous snowy weather and blizzard conditions. We even lost power in the middle of the night in CT and relocated ourselves and a pack and play to the basement to stay warm. Moving to the basement you ask. Yes, it was warmer there! :)

Jodie came to visit in mid January to meet her granddaughter for the first time and it was so nice to have her here. In February we flew down to SC with Dylan for the first time so she could meet more of her large family. We stayed for a week and had a wonderful visit. Dylan was an unbelievable little traveler and gave no grief on the flight and with all the shuffling about during transit. We also got to see Sarah in Moore and meet her newest addition Reagan, who was a delight. Reese has gotten to be a big girl too and she is such a cutie!

I went back to work in February and it really wasn't as difficult as I heard it would be. I missed my little girl but it was refreshing to be around grown ups too. Dylan had a difficult time adjusting to daycare because there was so much to see that it was often a challenge to nap. She's definitely in the habit now and seems to be doing quite well and enjoys seeing her friends every day.

April and early May brought some visitors to town. Zach, Dylan and I were able to meet up with Julie and Bryan Hatfield of Charleston and we had a great time. It had been at least 10 years since we had seen one another and it was like no time had passed. If only they lived closer to us, I could see us getting together regularly. We also had Jenny and Nils Noeppert for dinner who were traveling here from Germany. It had been even longer since we saw each other last and enjoyed catching up.

So, there you have it! The last few months have been full of joy, visits from friends and many a baby milestone. Dylan is currently working on her crawling technique and I think she'll figure it out at any time! She is very determined.