HickmanFamily.org

March 2009 Update

David — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:24:35 +0000

So, like what are we doing?? Updating every 6 months or so?

Yes, unfortunately it is working out that way. Why? Busy - yes, procrastinating - maybe, lack of things to talk about - NO. Hey, at least the pictures are updated.

Not ever sure where to start. So much has happened in the last several months. Garrett turned 4, hard to believe. He is such a BOY now. He has learned how to ride his bike without training wheels, gone roller skating, sledding, ice skating - on and on.

Garrett is such a considerate kid. Just a few things that really stick out. On Halloween Garrett wanted to stay home so that he could hand out candy to the “customers”. On St. Patrick’s Day, when the leprechauns messed up his room and dropped their gold coins Garrett wanted to return them.

What, don’t know about the leprechauns? Well, apparently, they come into your house and make a mess of things (scatter stuffed animals everywhere, overturn chairs, etc.) and turn food green. Garrett liked the green cake they left, was not too sure about the green milk, and did not like that his room was messed up.

I think that it is going to be an interesting summer.

July 2008 Update

David — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:02:36 +0000

Slacking… that is what we have been doing. Actually, just really busy. So much going on, and so little time. First off, the web-site has a new look… and a new method for keeping it updated. Hopefully we will be able to get back to monthly updates.

So, what is going on with Garrett? Plenty! First of all, and this is a big one, Garrett is no longer wearing diapers, or pull-ups! That right, potty trained!! Mommy has finally had to admit he is not a baby anymore. Believe me, he is all boy.

In the last few months Garrett has been hiking, fishing (caught his first fish), camping, swimming, riding his big boy bike and scooter, helping dad in the garden, building and painting wooden models (with some help), trying new foods… the list goes on and on. Oh yea, he is also sporting a big boy haircut - keeps it short like daddy. Garrett has a new pet, a guinea pig. His name is Lightning (of course). It came back home from his trip to Illinois. Garrett is also learning “dangerous”, he will warn mommy when she is cooking by saying “Mommy that is dangerous, don’t touch” (refering to the stove). Too much kungfu (or at least references), Garrett has been known to tell mommy “patience grasshopper”. Also, “that makes me happy”, or “that makes my tummy happy”.

Lastly, we are considering changing Garrett’s name to “The Negotiator”… everything is subject to negotiation.

That is all for now, we will try to keep on top of the site.

01-03-2008

David — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:11:05 +0000

(I know, late again… we are busy) Mr. Independence! Garrett’s favorite phrase lately is “I can do it myself!”, and you had better let him. His balance and coordination is amazing, Garrett can stand on one foot, jump on one foot, and spin on one foot. He can also to a double front kick, although he lands on his butt. We took a trip to Illinois for Thanksgiving. Garrett did very well on the long drive (750 miles), only getting cranky during the last hour or so. He had a great time with his cousins, who are all into wrestling. Where Garrett got some of his moves we will never know, I guess he secretly watches WWF while we are sleeping. Of course, we went back to the John Deere pavilion. Big ole tractors that you can climb into, does not get much better than that. Garrett is speaking in long compound sentences, it is really amazing listening to him reason out things now. And he is counting in Spanish, up to six without any prompting. I guess counting in English is too easy for him now as he can count to thirty. Garrett has taken to “swiping” mom and dads stuff (socks, slippers, covers, towels, etc.), hiding them and then telling us “Ha, you are never going to find it now”. Garrett has had Dragons visiting his room at night. Took a while to figure out what the “dragons” were. Turns out it was the furnace in the attic… when it starts up it is somewhat noisy (it is a natural gas furnace), it rumbles, and then hot air comes out of the ceiling. Make sense that it was a dragon. Garrett has shown some interest in riding his “big boy bike” so we bought him a new helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads. They came in handy for ice staking, we went twice this year. Check out the ice skating videos. Garrett still loves train rides, so we surprised him with tickets for a local sight-seeing, Christmas themed, steam train ride. In fact, mema, pop-pop, and uncle Gary went along with us, what a great time. Garrett loves hats, all kinds, and sometimes more than one at a time. He has learned how to button his pajamas, he is so proud that he will show you over and over. Finally, Christmas… Garrett must have been really good this year, he had so many presents we had to take a break from opening them and eat brunch. He really cleaned up, new cartridges for his Leap Pad, tinker toys, a really cool work bench (he now knows the difference between a philips and flat screwdriver and how to use them), and many many more. His uncle Gary stole the show when he let Garrett open up his last present… A super cool powered car that Garrett can drive himself. He LOVES it, and drives it as if he has always been driving.

11-15-2007

David — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:10:30 +0000

Mema and pop-pop bought Garrett the Jungle Book DVD and it came with a CD of songs. Garrett absolutely loves the CD, his favorite song, which he sings out loud to, is “Bear Necessities”… the “Necessities” does not come out quite right, it is so cute. Before it started to cool down we played in the fountains, one in Market Square (where mom and dad hang out on Saturday mornings) and at the World’s Fair park. We went to a corn maze (or is it maize?), which had two separate mazes with close to 4 miles of trails… Garrett still talks about it, definitely something we will do next year. Garrett went trick or treating twice, once at the Zoo and again in our neighborhood. He did really good saying “Happy Halloween”… and occasionally “Happy Birthday” (at least he was happy) as well as thanking everyone who gave him a treat. We went hiking in the mountains with mema, pop-pop, and uncle Gary (thank you for carrying him most of the time)… the fall colors were “beautiful” (Garrett’s words). And he only fell in the stream once. Garrett is finally agreeing to wearing his bike helmet (now that it is too small) and wants to ride his big boy bike. I guess that it is time to get a new helmet. Garrett and mom have been busy enriching their minds, between story time at the library (and crafts!) and Zoo class that are getting smarter by the week. Garrett got to see, and pet, Jake the snake, a Vietnamese pot bellied pig, a hissing cockroach, a hairless mole-rat, a real rat, tarantulas, and a giant toad. Nana came down to visit, Garrett did not let her sleep past 7:30. We are still trying to get Garrett back to normal (nana spoils him just a little, so do mema and pop-pop). Garrett’s phrase of the month is “sure”. If he is agreeable (big if) to something you ask him to do he will respond with a “sure!”.

09-26-2007

David — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:09:56 +0000

It has been a busy summer. Last month we went swimming at Big Ridge state park. Garrett had a ball. In the swimming area there are floating platforms… Garrett spent most of the day jumping off of the platform and into daddy’s arms. Garrett was doing pretty well learning to swim. He was moving his arms and kicking at the same time. Then we went to the Smoky Mountains and did a little hiking and playing in a stream. Garrett collected a lot of rocks to bring back home (he has figured out what pockets are for). We went on our first geocache, which is kind of a modern day treasure hunt. We found a cache and took a fire truck and left a stuffed dinosaur. The following weekend we went to a Bluegrass festival at another state park and listened to music, danced, and saw lots of butterflies. Garrett also was able to pet an Angora bunny, so soft. We have sorta settled into a routine on Saturday mornings… we head down to Market Square in downtown Knoxville, mom and dad drink coffee and eat fresh danishes while Garrett plays in the water fountains. Intellectually Garrett is growing by leaps and bounds, he is now speaking in complete sentences (and clearly). Garrett is still very much into trains, and as we live close to some tracks Garrett gets to see real freight trains all of the time. But that does not keep him from wanting to play with Thomas at the book store, hobby store, or wherever else he finds Thomas. Wednesdays are also getting to be busy days… Garrett and mommy head down to the library for story time, crafts, and to get books. Garrett loves to get new books and read with daddy at night.

08-12-2007

David — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:09:21 +0000

Busy, busy… Garrett is getting more and more stubborn. It is his way or the tantrum way. He is getting really good at making pouty faces when he does not get what he wants, take a look at the pictures. When he does get his way he will tell you “I love…” everything. When he gets upset he will say “get a hug, make baby feel better”. Demanding, we a working on manners constantly, but he is a little Napoleon. He will ask mom or dad to get him something and say “I wait for you to come back”. On the other hand, Garrett will catch the moon (and rain, and wind) and bring it to you. When he feels that something is amiss he will ask you “You OK?”. The other day I was asking Garrett what he wanted for breakfast and he told me “wait a sec, let me think”. If you hear Garrett say “I’ve got an idea” better look out. That is usually followed by jumping off of something. And Garrett loves to jump; off the couch, rocks, beds, or boats. We went swimming in Lake Tellico and Garrett jumped off of the boat into Daddy’s arms over and over again. We are starting to show Garrett how to swim, he absolutely loves the water.

07-01-2007

David — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:08:40 +0000

I know, we are late again. However, you get two months of pictures for the price of one. As I mentioned, we have moved to Knoxville and boy have we been busy. We bought a new house and have been working on making it our home. So, what is up with Garrett? Whenever Garrett wants to do something on his own and you try to help him out he will tell you to “back it up”. We bought a keyboard for Garrett to play with, he loves to “play my music”. There are a few pictures of the budding pianist. In addition to playing music, Garrett loves to dance. He is always asking for us to turn the radio on so he can dance. Garrett’s computer skills continue to expand, now he calls the laptop “mine computer”. Sesame Street is one of the web sites his visits and Grover exercises, so now Garrett exercise. Whenever Garrett wants your attention, or when he is doing something he is happy about, he will yell “look at me”. If you do not pay attention as quickly as he would like he will grab your face and say “are you listening to me?”. He has started to remember what he has done during the day. He and mommy go to the zoo quite often, and if you ask Garrett what he saw (or did) while he was there he can tell you quite a bit. Garrett has also realized that “baby has brown eyes, daddy has brown eyes, and mommy has blue eyes”. Garrett now will scream “letters” whenever he sees them in unexpected (to him) places, and will then tell you what they are. He was obsessed with tractors, and now he has moved on to trains. In fact, mommy to him to the children’s museum (which we had not been to in 6 months) and Garrett to go to the train display first. The other day we were out shopping, while we were talking about the next place we were going to stop at we told Garrett that he could walk through the store, but he would have told hold our hands. Then I asked Garret if we had a “deal, or no deal”. Garrett, of course, said “no deal”. Our new house has two stories, with a large playroom upstairs for Garrett. Mommy yelled upstairs for Garret to ask him to come down for dinner. His response has “coming sweetheart”. We apparently have watched the movie Cars too often, whenever Garrett’s glass is empty he will ask for more by saying “fill me up”. The local grocery store is really cool, they have kid size shopping carts. Garrett helps mommy shop, pushing his own cart and putting things into it. He even helps unload the cart at the checkout counter. During shower time Garrett now undresses himself and puts his clothes in the hamper and his diaper in the garbage.

5-30-2007

David — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:07:29 +0000

Whew, barely made it… we have a good excuse… trust me ;^) It has been a very busy month. To start with, Garrett was sick the first week of April. Poor boy, all he wanted to do was sleep. Once he got better he had to make up for some lost time. Garrett is recognizing more and more letters and takes every opportunity to point them out. He probably knows the whole alphabet but we have not been able to get him to repeat all the letters back yet. He loves to play memory games, both the old fashion version with cards or on the computer (more on that later). He also loves to put puzzles together. We have had to increase the challenge level of his puzzles twice this month. He is now up to 24 piece puzzles. Garrett has become quite the computer whiz. He knows how to use a mouse and how to navigate his favorite sites. Rally floors me with how well he does. The April 07 pic on the main picture page is an example of Garrett showing a “cheesy face”. All we have to do is ask Garret to make a cheesy face and he will make some sort of goofy expression for us. Garrett is getting as bad as mommy in the morning… he can not start his day without his “baby coffee” (chocolate milk). We set out eggs for Easter and Garrett LOVED it. We had to set out eggs on several other occasions so that he could find them all over again. Mommy has learned that she has to watch her mouth now. While packing (packing???) she dropped something and said “oh crap”. Garrett immediately grabbed mommy’s face, looked her in the eyes and said “oh crap mommy”. Also, now when anything goes wrong Garret will announce “oh no”. So what was the excuse, and what gives with the “packing”? Well, we have moved. At then end of the month we packed our bags and moved to Knoxville. More about that adventure next month.

4-9-2007

David — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:06:47 +0000

Garrett is starting to be a home body, he only wants to go to the library, school, and park. Anywhere else and he is likely to tell you “Done, home”. At the park he is becoming more of a dare devil. He climbed up a tall corkscrew slide and mom was concerned because it was so high so she followed him up. Garrett turned around and told his mom “backup, go away”. When dad tries to drain the tub during his bath he will say “No” and close the drain. After a few attempts of opening the drain Garrett will say “stop doing that” and close the drain. He can now put his shirt on by himself and is working on pants. At the end of dinner he will pickup up his plate and bring it to mom in the kitchen. Garrett is also getting his two year molars, we will be glad when they are all in. He will now “kiss” ouchies (other peoples). We think we have a budding chef on our hands, he likes to smell the various spices in our spice rack… and he can identify quite a few by smell alone. He is getting very creative with his playtime, he will makes hills out of the rug to play with his cars on. Oh, we have moved to the “what’s that” phase. Every other sentence is “what’s that”. And finally he can peddle his trike, until just recently he would just push himself along on his tippy toes.

3-19-2007

David — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 00:06:07 +0000

We know… later and later every month and less and less pictures. It’s Garrett’s fault. Lets just say he is two, and a boy, and leave it at that. He climbed out of his crib, so we have moved him to a toddler bed. Bedtime is so much fun now, Garrett go to bed. Garrett go to bed. Garrett go to bed. Garrett go to bed. (Sorry, he was out of bed again). Mommy went out to get the mail, closed the front door behind her, then heard a “click”… Garrett locked mommy out of the house. Fortunately the windows were open. Garrett go to bed. He is recognizing more and more letters, pointing them out on various signs that we encounter in the street, park, zoo, where ever. He has lots sayings now: “try again”, “ok, great”, “sit down”. You know your child has seen the Cars movie too many times when he falls down and says “baby wreck”. Oh yeah, “nakey baby” is yet another favorite, he is always undressing himself… sometimes in public. Garrett go to BED. He has started washing himself during bath time. He puts his own shoes on, “crocs on”. He loves playing airplanes, running around the park with his arms outstretched (occasionally mom and dad join in, much to the amusement of the locals). Garrett is still drawing on his easel, now he is “drawing” cats and lions. Best of all, Garrett is giving lots of hugs. Garrett go TO BED