Its finaly summer

Garet has always loved music. Even before he was born we would go and listen to a country band that we know the members of. He is now getting quite a collection on musical instruments. he now has a recorder, maracas, electric drums, and a banjo. His Great Uncle Paul gave him an electric drum set.(Shown in the picture below) Oh my goodness goes he like to play with it. It is to funny he will only hit it with the sticks. Even though he knows it will make the noise if you use your hands he will only use the sticks.

We went to listen to the country band I mentioned above and Garet was helping them set up. He is going to be so spoiled by the band. The drummer was getting all his stuff ready and Garet walked up and started to watch him play a little. Well before I knew it I looked up on the stage and Garet was sitting on the drummer lap and playing with him. He thought he was to cool. Uncle Bryce is a drummer so we may have another drummer on our hands.
Memorial day outfit. We had a cook out and Grannies house for Memorial day and she had star beads that Garet decided he was going to wear most of the day. I just thought you should all see this picture.

Packing for vacation is one of Garets speciality. He normally helps me put stuff in the suit case but yesterday he thought he should be what went in the suit case. He could not figure out why he could not get it to shut. I wish I would have took video instead of still frames. It was so funny.

Sorry So Long since Last post

Good afternoon to all

I meant to get on here a while ago and update on Garets dr visit. We have been going threw a time of ear infections. It started a couple months ago with an ear infection in the left ear. Antibiotics took care of that one. Then about a month later or 3 weeks ago he got an ear infection in the right ear. At the end of the antibiotics for that one he some how got an ear infection in his right ear. So this time they gave him an antibiotic shot and then another 10 days of antibiotics. We are now on day 4 of those. We will see what the next week or so brings with the ears.

Garets dr appointment with his cardiologists went really well. I was concerned that when we went in because he has not been sleeping as well. After his heart appointment I am sure the sleeping issues are having to do with teething and ear infections. Anyway he saw the main hear doctor this time and they did an ECO and EKG and also a chest x-ray just to make sure his heart was not pushing on his lungs causing sleeping issues. When all that was done everything looks to be the same as it has been. About 1/2 strength. He did ask that we come back every month for a while so we can try to adjust some of the meds to try to get the function to increase more. We will be going back on the 24th of June. At that time he will have to have blood drawn to see what his level of different stuff is doing. And then I am sure they will do another EKG and ECO to see if the increase in meds is doing anything.

I have had a couple changes to our Garet Page. I still want to keep everyone up to date on what is going on with Garet and his health. I would also like to start to add all the fun things we are doing as a family. So I have changed the title of this page to The Howard Family Blog page now. Maybe this will keep me updating it more often. Well that is what is going on with us right now. We have a vacation coming up and can not wait to just relax and have fun with all of our family.

One Year old Pictures

We had Garets pictures taken this past weekend for his first birthday. He did such a good job I just wanted to share them will everyone. Just click the link below and you will be able to see them all.

http://myonlineportraits.com/ViewSession.aspx?id=e3e8eafd2ac842b18dea770981fb6f10

We were also able to go swimming this weekend and go for a bike ride. It was a very busy weekend. Below is a picture of daddy and Garet in the pool.

We also took the Three wheel bikes out for a ride. I think Garet has the best ride. He only likes to ride for about 5 mintues and then we better be somewhere he can get out and run around. I did get a new two wheel bike for mothers day and I am going to try to get a baby seat for the back and then I hope we can take longer rides on that bike.

Fun in the water

It is feeling like summer in Florida. This weekend we were doing anything that had to do with water to keep ourselves cool. Garet got a cool water table from Grandma Rose and Grandpa Charlie for his birthday and we finally set it up and had a lot of fun. Garet also got a little swimming pool for his birthday and we had a great time in that.
Saturday we played in the pool and at first Gare thought it was a bath until he realised he could stand up and splash even more than he could in the bath tub. Below is a funny face from Garet to make you all laugh. We can not wait till Granny gets her pool all open and ready for us. Garet loves the water and I know he will want to be in the pool all the time. We have all of our floatation devises ready to go. Garet has even put them on at the house to get used to them before we get to the pool.

After all the outside fun we had to have a snack. This is the spot that we have for snacks at our house. when we get home from Grandmas house and mommy is getting dinner ready Garet likes to eat his snacks at his little fish table. It is the perfect spot. He can still see the tv and eat his snack at the same time. It is a little close to the carpet but he is learning really well that we do not take food in a bowl into the living room. Saturday we had a snack of tomatoes and strawberries. I think there might have been some pickle in there as well. What a combination.

It is getting closer to out next trip to Gainesville for Garets check up. The afternoon of the 27th we will be in Gainesville getting an EKG and ECO done to see how his heart is doing now that he is becoming so active. He has been doing really well. You can tell when he starts playing hard because he will start to cough. When this happens we just stop playing for a couple minutes and it seems to go away. Other than that he does not seem to be having any trouble that I can see. We will see what his doctors have to say after his visits. I am sure they will do some medicine adjusting since he has gained weight since the last visit. Well now that it is getting to be summer I hope to have more pictures to post. We can get out of the house and do not have to worry so much about colds and flu's going around. Yeah!!

If we could eat like children

I remember the days when I could eat anything I wanted and never gain a pound. Oh those days were nice. Well we are running into those days some what with Garet. This child eats all the time and everything we put in front of him and he is still not up to the weight that his doctor wants him to be. At his dr appointment this past Thursday he weighed 20lbs 5 oz. This puts him in the 5% for weight. He is now 30 inches long so that puts him in the 50% for length. So now we are having to try to give him a higher daily calories intake. This can be very hard to do this in a healthy way. Most of the food that have high calories are not the best for you in other ways. Eggs and Avocados have now become our good friends and we are soon going to try out peanut butter to see how that goes.

We go back to the Gainesville in a month and we will see what they have to say and see if they have any other suggestions for us. Other than the weight Garet is doing really well from what we can see. He is a nonstop 1 year old. He is learning so fast that sometime is can be scary. He sees us do something once and he want to do it right away. It is so much fun to watch him learn and grow. I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to have all these special time with him.

Grandma Rose is living in Florida and is getting her house all set up the way she wants it. We will keep hoping and praying that Grandpa Charlie gets to move down here at some point as well. We really do miss seeing him all the time. Garet has now been staying with her during the day for the past couple of weeks. the picture above is Garet helping daddy replace the screens in the front window at Grandmas and Grandpa house
One of his new favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpas is sit in the wagon. From what I hear it is now the spot he sits for his snacks in the morning and afternoon.

We are getting all geared up for swimming season. It is going to be so much fun to have Garet in the pool since he loves the water so much. Well until next time. God Bless

Now and Then

I have been messing around with some photo art for a chat site I am member on. On this site there are about 40 or more moms and we all had our babies around April 2009. So we are going to make a short clip with all of our babies when they were born and close to there one year old birthday. I have taken on the task of creating the clip for out group. So I thought I would post a couple and see what you guys thought would be best. Final work will come from he group but you guys always have a work to input. I look forward to your comments.

Happy Birthday Garet

We now have a 1 year old on our hands. What the difference it makes. Since Garet has turned 1 he has really started to show his personality more.

For lunch on his Birthday his daddy and a bunch of friends and family guys took him to hooters for his birthday. From what I heard Garet ate a lot of chicken wings and really had a good time. There were no girls allowed so I can not tell you exactly how good of a time he had. Ha Ha.


After hooters Daddy and Garet headed back to Grannies house were Garet got to take a nap and get ready for his big night out. We met up with some friends and family at Chuck E Cheeses later that evening for some pizza and game playing.


Garet like Chucky as long as he was not trying to touch him. We had a great time and played a lot of games and visited with friend.
Cake time. This was his first experience with frosting in any large amount. Thank you to Ganny for the cake and making it with Whipped icing instead of this icing.

Overall it was a very good day and I think Garet had a great time. We are going to celebrate a little bit more when Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Rose come in town next weekend. You can never have to much party time for your birthday.