garrison's vancouver adventure

Amos got a floating holiday for the 4th, so we took it on the friday after. We thought it would be fun to go to Vancouver, because Amos and G got their new passports (A had to renew). We took the GPS, which took us some crazy way downtown. It did a better job getting home. We drove around a bit and stopped by the mall to get a dvd set of a canadian tv show that we like. Then after looking around a bit we turned around for home. On the GPS it says it will be 117 miles to where we want to go, but it takes like 4 hours or something to drive it. We thought we'd have some time to go to a park, etc., but no way. The return trip was even worse, because the wait at the border was bad. We had to stop for gas after we got across the border and when I turned the car over it didn't start. We tried having it jumped by a guy with SUV to no avail. He happened to work at the Bellingham airport and knew a hertz rental guy. He drove Amos to the airport (totally nice guy) and G and I waited at the place where we'd pushed the car--a strip mall parking lot. G and I went to the Ace Hardware and shopped, then started calling Geico (we have roadside assistance--which we've used 2, maybe 3 times). So the thinking is that we'll get the rental car and the tow will be to closest mechanic about 100 miles away from home. Amos returns. We wait for the tow. Adonis & Rali go over to let miles out. When tow guy comes he tries to jump us, and it starts! Luckily we have already gotten gas and just have to drive it home.

Saturday amos gets a new battery, installs it, but getting the old one out was a chore in itself. After Amos does all the car stuff, we have to go back to bellingham airport to return the rental car. So, G, MD A and I all head north. We drop off the car, pick up some food at the Fred Meyer and head home. Miles Davis loves rest stops. The car is running fine with the new battery, but we'll probably take it in for a check up soon. So, our short little day trip turned into a two day adventure. Thankfully we had some nice people help us out along the way or things could have been a lot worse. My advice to anyone traveling by car with a kid...always have a full weekend's worth of diapers and food, a stroller in case you get stuck somewhere and have to walk and plenty of sunscreen.

catch up vol. 1

I haven't written in so long I figure I've got lots of stories to tell, so I'll try to get started and fill everyone in one the comings and goings at casa del pequeno g (really, he answers to that better than he does garrison.)

We had a nice time with my mom and dad here. Garrison got to spend a lot of quality time with his grandparents, and I got some writing done! We had some good food and nice walks. As always, the visit was too short. I'll put up a slide show from the visit in another post.

So quitting bottles hit a snag the week of my last post. I didn't think G was getting enough to eat or drink, and he was crying all the time. The last time he did that was when he was essentially starving when he was a baby--I knew his cry was out of hunger. I had saved one can of formula, and I made an executive decision to use it. I realized that he had a fever at some point on like Friday, so we canceled band practice and stayed home and took some baby tylenol. That helped, as did watching like 3 or 4 straight episodes of hola bebe. Then he got this rash. It looked like german measels (not raised bumps, just red spots). So we figure he's reacting (not allergy) to the MMR shot. It gets worse over the course of a couple of days, and spread down his tummy, as it said it would. His eyes were red and swollen. It was a little unnerving. We didn't take him into the doctor, because as the rash got worse, he seemed to feel better. I was just giving him bottles first and then solids, and I think that helped rehydrate him and just made him more comfortable. After he recovered we got back on a more moderate weening schedule. We try to limit bottles to morning (before 9 am), and eat 3 meals + 2 snacks. We're transitioning to milk from formula gradually too. I think that was too abrupt for him. All of a sudden it's 6:30, he's hungry and he has to have cold milk from a sippy cup?

Fourth of July was quiet, but Rali and Adonis stopped by for a while. G slept through the fireworks. We listened to lots of them going off in our neighborhood. Even thought he felt kinda poopy he dressed for the occasion. G's a patriotic little fellow.

G has lots of new teeth. He's got one molar (lower right) and is working on at least 1 or 2 others. Finally the 3rd and 4th bottom front teeth are coming in. He's had 2 bottom teeth for the longest time. His smile is wide and getting very toothy. Note the new molar coming in on the lower left side (his right) in the picture