September 22, 2011

Those pictures are of a pretty sick little monkey, although it can be hard to tell. Little man has been running a fever for the last 3 days. The first day was the scariest, all the way to 105 - yesterday it was in the low 100s and today it was mostly fine, just a couple of small spikes. J took him to the doc today and they said that his throat was pretty swollen, but he tested negative for strep. Told us it was viral, the throat is a result of sinus drainage and to come back on Saturday if he's still spiking a fever. Poor little dude. He's pretty cool for the most part, but he has some pretty pitiful moments from time to time. He's so congested and I can tell his throat is hurting him. It's been a LONG week. We're hoping that the fever is gone tomorrow.

That's really all that's new with the Monkey this week. Just trying to beat the sickness - tough little dude.

September 18, 2011

Here are a few pictures of the kiddo from this weekend. The first one is during a very interesting lunch conversation we were having, the second is a picture of his new BIG smile face at WalMart and the last two are a moving photo session before bedtime. He just walked back and forth in front of me while I took pics.

Not much new to report during this little post. Little man is a dancing machine, he will bop and shake to any old song - his favorite are the songs J makes up and sings for him. He spent a few hours with me at work on Friday and he had a great time running in and out of everyone's cubicles and charming people. He's eating more and more non-jarred food, which makes things so much easier when we go out to eat. He LOVES him some bananas. The talking is still pretty much nonstop and now he's added a lot of gestures - hands up with a shrug, palm out to prove a point. It cracks me up. We are putting shoes on him more often when we go out and I have to say that he's so cute in his sneakers - he looks so grown up. Daycare is still going well. We've had a little crying when J drops him off, but as soon as he's out the door it's fine. He seems to have a lot of fun there and he's less cranky when he gets home now. I think he's getting used to the schedule. Other than that, we are just crusing along - sleeping through the night, smiling all the time. I'm pretty sure there are some new teeth coming, but nothing just yet.

September 1, 2011

This has been a tough week for the Campbell family - and while the kiddo has been a trooper, it's definitely thrown him off his game a little bit.

A few new developments for Gage this week:

- I found two new TOP molars tonight - that makes 12 teeth total.

- He no longer wants to eat in the highchair, he wants to eat like a big boy on his own.

- He started daycare this week. It's going to be 2 days a week and he did his second day today.

- He has started to basically put himself to bed, coming up to Jason with his binky in his mouth and one of his stuffed animals when he's ready for a nap.

First things first: daycare! Because of the way the schedule works out, Jason took Gage up there both days to drop him off in the mornings. I packed his lunches the night before and we decided that if I took off to meet them there it may make things harder, so he was the strong one and did the drop offs. There were some hiccups the first morning, but not really with Gage. It was more about some confusion about what kids were supposed to be in what classrooms. According to Jason, Gage was ready to get in the mix as soon as they got there. No tears when he left - little man jumped right in and made new friends. I called to check on him around 11a and the director was blown away at how great he was doing. She said he was laughing and smiling, he had a great time. When I got home I could tell he was REALLY tired and a little fussy, but after his bath it was like a little re-set and he was good. We were nervous that since he would have a little more awareness today that he might cry on Day 2. Nope. Another quick dropoff and he jumped right in again. I decided to leave work early and do the pickup today because I wanted to see him interacting with everyone and see how it was going. When I got there he was throwing balls around with 2 other kiddos and having a great time. I opened the door and when he saw me he gave me a great smile and came running to me. We hung out at the house, he had a snack and a late nap. It was more tough for Jason since he's with him all day, but I was surprised at how comfortable I was. I did call to check on him, but I did not fret about it at all - I just knew he would have a good time. So going forward he'll be at daycare on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ok - the highchair thing: the last few days Gage has been crazy fussy in the highchair. I know he's hungry, but after a few bites he'll throw a fit and not take any more bites. I know he gets to sit in his own chair for lunch at daycare and I usually don't have a hard time feeding him if he's wandering around on his own, so tonight I took him out and sat him in one of the dining room chairs. He sat back, totally relaxed and ate the rest of his dinner - such a big boy. We'll need to get something to help secure him in those chairs - they don't have a solid back OR arms - but I think we are moving out of the highchair. He likes to be independent and sit on his own, and he likes to feed himself when it's possible - finger foods, etc. I need to start letting him work with the spoon himself as well, but I'm not ready for him to be that grown up!!

The "putting himself to bed" thing is actually pretty funny. Jason called me a couple of times last week and was like - uh, the kid is coming to me and basically telling me when he's ready for nap. He'll go put his binky in his mouth and then either bring his singing cow or singing elephant to him and that's the cue. He gives you the big blinking doe eyes and all you gotta do is take him into his room. It's been pretty similar at night as well - he was even getting to where he wanted J to put him to bed for the night, which was new. Such a cute little dude.

Molars? Self explanatory.

It's been a big week in the life of Gage. I'm looking forward to the 3 day weekend so we can spend a little extra time together. We're going to find us something fun to do this weekend!

August 23, 2011

Here are a couple of pictures of the kiddo and I at the doctor's office. The first one is J's favorite and the 2nd is my favorite, so you get a double dose today. The doctor's office has been really busy, so it's actually 1 month past his birthday, but it's all good. The visit itself went great, his measurements are: 32 inches long (95th percentile), 24.5 lbs (70th percentile) and his head circumference was 19.5 inches (93rd percentile). His development milestones are all great and doctor said he's healthy as a horse. I was expecting a blood draw, since I knew it was their policy to do a blood panel at 1 year, but their lab was closed. So now we have to go back for that, which sucks. He had 4 shots and the first thing I asked was how do you give a MOBILE kid shots? It was so much easier when he was a little meatloaf that just laid there. It wasn't terrible - more traumatizing for me, I'm sure. The minute I picked him up he stopped crying and I gave him a cookie, which of course made it all better.

When they do his blood panel, they are also going to test the severity of this egg allergy we've noticed recently. The doctor doesn't think it's a huge issue since it's only shown up as a mild breakout, but he just wants to be safe. In the meantime, no eggs for the monkey.

He's been awesome the last few days, sleeping in, being super adorable and eating like a champ. We have one more week until he starts parttime daycare - I need to get some supplies this weekend to get ready for that. I need to think about what to pack for his lunches, get an extra box of diapers and wipes. I think he's going to have a lot of fun there, but I have to say that I am NOT looking forward to it.

August 21, 2011

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I wrote a blog post. In my defense, it's been a very hectic 2 weeks. I've been working on a ridiculously crazy project at work, the kiddo has been sick and so we all lost a little sleep the last couple of weeks.

Here are a couple of pictures we've taken - there are some others, but he looks pretty pitiful in those. He came down with a pretty nasty cold last week and between the snot, losing sleep, and feeling crappy, he was not a happy camper. Most of the snot is gone and he's definitely feeling a lot better. He was still a little whiny and clingy this week, but it's getting better. I think he's gone through a little growth spurt and we've upped his calories a little, which seem to really be helping. He's sleeping through the night again and we can tell the rest has done him good.

He's been cracking us up lately with his dancing and his facial expressions. He's the funniest little dude, alays hamming it up and putting on little shows for us. He and I have a lot of fun on our little weekend outings together. He likes to entertain wherever he goes, so we make a lot of friends at the grocery store, restaurants, etc. All three of us have tried to get in the habit of doing something all together on the weekends - usually it's hitting up Elevation Burger on Sunday nights. Kids eat free! Gage likes their grilled cheese and J and I love their burgers, so it's a win win.

J and I signed him up for a couple of days of daycare starting on 8/31. He'll be going on Wednesdays and Thursdays to a nice day school we really like. His 1 year check up is next week, so I'll have to get all of his records together and then he'll be ready to go. Neither of us is ready for it, but we know he'll have fun and enjoy it.

August 8, 2011

There has been a lot going on with Gage over the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to keep track so I could write one big blog post - here's hoping I hit everything.

- He got two molars this week...at the same time. I've known for about 2 weeks that teeth were coming. Between the intermittent crankiness, ear tugging and low grade fever, it was just inevitable. I checked his gums every night and then boom, overnight - 2 lowers!
- Walking is pretty much his chosen mode of transportation these days and he's pretty damn good at it. He's even starting to run away from us a little. Tonight I as walking down the hall to get him and he started squealing and motoring the other way. He was cracking himself up.
- He's also doing a lot of DANCING these days. It is SO damn funny (and cute). All of a sudden he's dancing and swaying to all of his musical toys and even if we sing to him (just any little melody), he'll sway and shimmy. It cracks both of us up.
- Talking is still pretty steady, but over the last week we've noticed that he'll mimic us more often. If I say something, he'll jabber back mimicing my tone and inflection. So even though there aren't real words, it sounds just like whatever we said. He's definitely trying to communicate with us, so we just talk back to him. He has started to talk to people on the phone - if J puts me on speaker and I talk to him, he'll respond to me with jabber. It's a fun little addition to my day.
- We have fully transitioned to both whole milk (no more formula, yay!) and sippy cups. I packed all of the bottles up last weekend. He's been doing milk during the day for a month now, but I would still give him bottles of formula if he woke up in the middle of the night - because it worked to get him back to sleep. Over the last week that changed because he 1) started sleeping through the night more often 2) I just bit the bullet and didn't take a bottle in there when he did wake up. So he has had a couple of wake up sessions - usually just one a night between 3-5a and I will just go in there and rock him for a minute and he'll go back to sleep. I've also gotten better about waiting until he's really awake/upset before running in there. There have been times when I thought he was really going to go nuts and I waited a minute and he went right back to sleep. He and I are getting it down, finally.
- He's also eating more table food. It's getting to where J and I can't eat in front of him unless we are ok with giving him food off of our plates. There are some meals I make that are a little too spicy for him, so we are still doing some jarred food, but he's eating more and more from our plates and from what I cook. We took him out to eat with us last weekend and I ordered him an applesauce side, then fed him some of my chicken and potato as well. He loved it.

A friend of mine that came to his birthday party warned me to look out because the personality would start getting bigger and bigger from that point on and she was right. It was like he started walking, turned 1 and now he's his own little person almost overnight. J and I are always commenting on how he looks like a little boy now, where did our little baby go? I will say that he's so much fun though. He goes out with us a lot - the grocery store, restaurants, people visits - and he's just great company. We all tumble around the house together and act silly, he has us laughing all of the time. We've decided that he's just the best kid ever.

July 31, 2011

Well the epic birthday celebration has come and gone. For those that have asked, no I am not stopping the blogs. The intent was a whole year, starting from 1/1, so there are 5 more months to go to finish up that year. Now I can't promise I'll do it every day, but I'll do my best to keep it updated. The first picture is a picture of little man playing with one of his new toys, please note the tongue stuck out as he is working very hard at his new workbench. The second picture is another one we took last night in the middle of his 2 hour fight over going to bed. I posted a really pitiful one on FB last night, this one shows that he was smiling a little bit, but he was exhausted. After the full day of festivities, it took us about 2 hours to get him to bed - 2 hours of screaming, kicking and being ticked off! Poor kiddo, he just had so much fun he didn't want it to end. He was EXHAUSTED though. He went all day with only a 30 minute nap - I have no idea how he did that.

The party was awesome and the kiddo had a great time. He was showing off his awesome walking skills and chatting up anyone that would chat back. I bought a sprinkler/crazy hose type thing for the kiddos to play in out back and Gage had a lot of fun in it. He stood there and just let the water hit him in the face for a few minutes - it was cracking us up. He got to tear up his monkey cake (that I made!) and got chocolate all over himself and me! He and I opened up his presents (mostly me) and little man cleaned up. I think we need to invest in V-Tech, that's for sure.

Thanks to everyone that came to the party and had fun with us. The kiddo is officially into his 2nd year. He celebrated that by throwing some pretty impressive tantrums today. I think he may have some teeth coming in - there was a lot of ear tugging during the fits today. At least I hope that he has some teeth coming in - because those fits were ridiculous and it will be easier to make them less in my mind if there was actual pain involved. Poor kiddo, it's tough to be a little boy.

July 27, 2011 - Happy 1st Birthday!

WOO HOO! It's the Monkey's birthday! I can't believe it's been a year since that precious little baby came into this world. I also can't believe he was ever as small as he is in that picture. I'm secretly happy that he's getting better at this walking thing so that maybe I won't have to carry him around so much. Although he still walks up and wants me to pick him up, so I'm probably fooling myself. J sang Happy Birthday to him when he woke up this morning and I sang it to him when I got home. He got a gift in the mail today, so we went ahead and opened that up and he got a super cute shirt, some jeans and a train from his great aunt and uncle.
He's getting really great at walking, it's turning into his preferred mode of transport - although when he wants to go somewhere fast, he'll still drop to a crawl. He has this toy that is pretty big and his current "thing" is to walk around with it and then randomly throw it on the ground. I'll be surprised if it still works tomorrow. It's really loud when he does it, but man it cracks J and I up. He'll just raise it up as high as he possibly can and then toss it down while he's walking around - did I mention we have concrete floors?
Happy Birthday to you, my little Monkey! You are the funniest little dude and I love you so much.

July 24, 2011

The first picture is just a little fun with the kiddo. The second one is an example of how excited he gets to see himself in the phone (or mirror). It totally makes his day.

The weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Monkey and I went to Gymboree, where he showed off his new walking skills by pushing the airlog without my help, and then later that evening we went to Southlake to take his 1 year pictures, stopped for dinner at our favorite burger place and then got him in bed around 9p. Did I mention he slept until 9:30a Saturday morning? He did get up for a bottle around 6a, but that's a whole hour later than usual. He took a good nap between Gymboree and the pictures and he was in a great mood, despite us being outside for them. Today was a little more laid back - he slept until 9a and then after playing for a while we all went to the grocery store, took a nap and then Monkey helped me make dinner. We had all dinner and just hung out this evening. Jason and I got his birthday present while we were out and I'm glad that's done.

Got a lot done this weekend, got another big weekend coming up.

July 21, 2011

Someone took a few steps today! J texted me and told me he had taken a couple of steps early in the day. He and I were hanging out in his room after his bath and I got a 3-4 steps out of him. The funniest part is that I knew he wanted to walk to me. I had his binky in my mouth (facing outward) because I was cleaning up his room before bedtime. I looked up and he was standing about 3 feet away from me, staring me down with a smile on his face. He has this look on his face like, "I AM going to walk over there and get that binky!" I stopped what I was doing and called him over and he took 3-4 steps to me! It was pretty awesome. He got the binky AND some kisses. We'll see if he keeps practicing over the next few days. It would be awesome if he was really toddling around before his birthday party.

July 19, 2011

This is almost the only way I can get a picture of the kiddo's face these days. If I turn the camera around so that he can see his face, he's all about it - otherwise, he's too busy to smile at the camera.

I'm pretty sure that he's getting in his last two top incisors. I can see the white and they are taking FOREVER to break through. He's pretty much fine during the day, but they give him some trouble at night. After those, I think there is just one more bottom set before there's nothing but molars left. Eek. I'm a little scared of the molars.

Still not fully walking, I'm certain he decide to do it the day AFTER his birthday. Oh well, the way he's been tearing it up lately, we should probably do what we can to DISCOURAGE him from getting more mobile. He was in a good mood tonight when I got home. He had a little dinner, took his bath and then went to bed pretty early. He hasn't been sleeping great - back to 2 wake-ups a night. We have been weaning him off of the formula and getting him into whole milk. He doesn't notice a big difference other than it's cold. He's been eating more and more table food, sharing from our plates and drinking from our cups. He's just getting so big. Everyday it seems like he looks different, getting bigger and more grown up.

This weekend we are going out to Bob Jones Nature Preserve to take 1 year photos of the Monkey. We are all going this time I think, so hopefully we'll get a couple of pics of all of us. There are not a lot of pictures of all 3 of us, so I'm excited.

July 18, 2011 - The Monkey in Action

July 16, 2011 and a recap of our trip

Well we managed a 6 hour road trip, sleeping away from home for a 3 nights and then another 6 hour drive back and we are all alive. The kiddo actually did pretty well on the way down there and I think that stopping in Houston for a few hours helped a lot. The drive back was a little more iffy, but it wasn't terrible. He was REALLY happy to be out of the car and back at his own house, though - we all were. He slept great the first night out of town, but the 2nd and 3rd nights were tough. He ended up sleeping in bed with me, which he NEVER does. Even when we've tried to have him snuggle and nap with us, he won't do it. He's always preferred to sleep in his own bed, by himself. I was pretty tired, but I got some naps, so it wasn't too bad. Truthfully he did much better than we expected and got right back on schedule when we got home.

He had a BLAST while he was there. The night we got there, he was so happy to be out of the car and in a new place that he was just cracking us up. There was a lot of yelling, laughing, waving his hands and playing with his toys. We stayed with J's aunt and uncle and Gage spent a lot of time talking to them, throwing their stuff around and having fun in their living room. He hung out with both of them outside, looking at squirrels and sitting on the swing. He really enjoyed spending time with them. We spent the majority of our first full day there at J's cousin's house - Gage went crazy playing on their floors. He took a good nap while we had lunch, but other than that, he partied his butt off. They have 2 boys who are 13 and 8 and Gage really liked them. They would get down on the floor with them and he would touch their faces and try to kiss them. He liked watching them play with their friends too - the big boy rough housing was very interesting to him. We spent the second day at J's aunt and uncle's house (with a quick visit to another of his aunt and uncle's) and Gage not only had fun, but took an insanely awesome nap during a thunderstorm. Afterward we were all hanging out on the back patio and he wanted to get into their yard so bad, but the mosquitos were coming out, so we headed back inside. Overall Gage really enjoyed visiting new people and crawling around in new places. He was a complete charmer, handing out the smiles and chatting everyone up. He was really cute and behaved so well. The sleeping wasn't great, but it worked out fine.

The first picture is Gage with his great uncle, the second is with J, the third picture is him hanging out with his favorite thing in their house - the air purifier, and the last picture is from today. He has really gotten into his image lately, so if I turn the camera on it and set it up so he can see himself, he loves it. He's also super into the mirror lately, he gets so excited and happy when he sees himself. We thought for SURE he would walk while he was in Orange, but it still hasn't happened. He will take one step and then he drops to the floor. He will do full squats to the floor without needing any support and he'll walk with just one hand on something, but he will NOT take an unsupported step. We'll see if it happens before his birthday. The chatter is hilarious now - it is clear that he truly is attempting to communicate with us, but we still don't know what it is he's saying. His new thing is to wave his hand in the air when he's talking to you, he really tries to illustrate his point with hand gestures. He's just go go go these days. If he's awake, he's crawling, standing, playing, yelling, talking or spinning. We have a lot of fun just watching him most of the time.

Just 11 days until that little monkey turns 1.

July 11, 2011

Cute cute Monkey! We had a fun day today. The three of us got up and had breakfast at the Circle Grill. The kiddo shared some of my eggs and pancakes while acting silly for the crowd. Once we came home, Gage helped me clean up the kitchen and dining room while J took the car for an oil change and cleaning. After his lunch we played a little more and then I put him down for a nap. I was able to get the living room cleaned and laundry done while he slept, which was nice. The Monkey tries to help, but I definitely move a little faster when he's napping. When he got up. he and I had a lot of fun playing in the living room. He was examining my hands and giggling when they would "come alive" and get him with the claw. He is talking, talking, talking these days - it's pretty much nonstop. He'll get some excited about something, anything, and he'll screech really loud while getting red in the face and balling up his fists. It cracks us up.

Tomorrow we are hitting the road for a 6 hour road trip - a stop in Houston to hang out with family there - and then we cruise on to Orangefield to stay for a few days. We are a little nervous about the kiddo in the car for that long, but we're determined to be strong. I think it will be fun. I won't be blogging much for the next few days, but I'll post pictures on Facebook when I can. I'll put up a full report when we get back this weekend.

July 9, 2011

Today was a busy busy day for the kiddo and I . This morning we hit the lake around 10a for a little walk/run and we had a blast. He was chatting and playing with his guitar while I did all of the hard work. It was quite a bit cooler, so that was a nice break from our evening outings. When we got home I had to jump in the shower and then get him cleaned up so we could head to Gymboree. I was a little nervous, because at this point he had been up for four hours with no nap in sight.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about, he was a WILD man in Gymboree today. Today HE was the loud kid, yelling and squealing, cracking everyone up. We had to work on our sharing today, Gage wanted to play with anything that was in someone else's hands. He had a lot of fun on all of the obstacle courses, he even ventured into one of the tunnels, which he usually avoids. As expected, he completely crashed on the way home. Of course as soon as I got home and got him into his room, he was up and ready to party again.

A couple of hours later he and I drove up north to a birthday party for my friend's 2 kids. He slept the whole 45 minute drive, thank goodness - so when we got there he was up and ready to go again. He had a lot of fun at the party, playing with everyone and chatting them up. Funny story: They have really nice grass out in their yard, so we were in the backyard and I put him down to crawl around and play. Well it didn't occur to me that Gage has never really sat on grass before and he was kind of blown away by it. He kept lifting his legs up off of the ground and instead of just crawling forward, he would pat it with his hand. We were all cracking up and I felt a little embarrassed that my baby was so unfamiliar. Truth is, our yard is not bare skin friendly, so he's never really rolled around outside on the ground. Man it was funny.

Tomorrow we need to hit up the grocery store and run a few errands before our big roadtrip on Tuesday.

July 6, 2011

See what happens when you let your kid's hair air dry and the A/C is turned up full blast. That little whisp dried completely standing up - hilarious. This morning I overslept so the kiddo actually got up while I was still home and...he said "Mama"! It was so strange - all of a sudden he just had full ability to crank out the "m" sounds. J said he was saying it most of the morning, like he was practicing. When I got home I got a few more of them - it was pretty awesome. J said he was great today - he's actually been on quite a run of good moods and acting awesome.

When I got home he and I met our running friends at the lake. The group is getting pretty big and he loves the attention. He got a little upset when I first put him in the stroller today, so I gave him a cookie and he calmed right down. That's right, I'm THAT mother. He was cool the rest of the time, even chatting with us while we were out there.

We got back to the house and shared some dinner. He had some of his normal dinner and a little bit of my chicken. He's starting to get to where he doesn't want HIS food or HIS drink...he wants YOUR food and YOUR drink. I guess it's a fair trade since we like to eat his cookies. He and I laughed a lot and had some fun. Same went for bath time, he and I were cracking up, splashing and having a good old time. We played in his room and a little bit in the living room before bed time. He was in a great mood, laughing, smiling and partying like a wild man. We had a whole lot of fun tonight.

We have a birthday party this weekend and then next week is our planned road trip. He's been pretty impatient in the car lately, so we're a little nervous about it - but oh well. We're just going to take the plunge!

July 3, 2011

I haven't blogged in a week, I know. I even missed doing a post for little man's 11th month. It's just been one of those weeks. Between working late, overnight guests and just life in general, I haven't been able to get on the computer at night. I have taken some pictures though, so I posted a few of those on this post - there are also a couple I uploaded straight to Facebook.

So we are less than 30 days from G's 1st birthday! I can not believe it has almost been a year. The last week or so he's gotten REALLY good at standing on his own. He walks really well just barely holding on to one of our hands, but he's still a little too nervous to step on his own. He'll do a little half step between the couch and the coffee table, but when we try to get him to go further, he drops down to crawl. Used to, he wouldn't walk if we held his hands - but now he does really great. I can really see the difference in his Gymboree class - since moving up to the bigger class, he's stepping out and doing more after seeing those kids walking and getting wild. We have a walker that we've put him in for months just as a place to "put" him when we were working in the kitchen, etc. He's been able to touch the ground with his feet for a while, but he wouldn't walk in it - he would fuss until we pushed him or he could only go backwards. Today I put him in it so I could clean and he followed me all around this house. I don't know if he'll walk before his 1st birthday, but we're expecting it any day now.

The chatter has also been turned up for a week or two now. It's a constant stream of "aaabbaaadaaaagaaaa" and he LOVES to have screaming contests - he usually wins. He'll look at us and scream "aaaaahhhhh" and we are supposed to scream it back - the same tone and length. He can do this for a long time - which is why he wins. He's been saying "dadadadada" for a while, but never really with purpose. Tonight...he was standing at the gate in his doorway and J stopped by on his way down the hall to kiss him and say hello...and when he got up and kept walking toward the kitchen, Gage fussed a little and then yelled "Da-Da!"...and then after a few seconds he yelled it again, "Da-da!". OMG. It was awesome. J came back and I'm like, "did you hear that?!" Of course it was absolutely the ticket - J grabbed him up and took him to the kitchen with him. So we're calling that official: Da-Da is his first word, and he said it right before his first birthday. It was pretty exciting - I'm still working on Mama, but there's not a lot of "mamamama" coming out of his mouth - M sounds may take a minute for him. It's so much fun to listen to him talking while he plays and while he rides in the car with us.

We had fun at Gymboree yesterday, a couple more of his friends from his other class moved up, so we got to see some more familiar faces. He's starting to get more into the social aspect of the class, spending time trying to talk to the other kids and give them kisses. That's right, I have the kissy kid. It's so cute though, he's just such a little lover. He and I have been doing our walk/runs out at the lake and he really enjoys that as well. We've been meeting up with a lot of my friends out there and he likes to hand out the smiles and chat with us while we run. He and I have some great conversations out at the lake. I think next time we go up there I'm going to bring some bread so we can feed the birds at Sunset Bay. We saw them all hanging out there yesterday morning and Gage was really excited, but they can get a little cranky if you don't have any food, so I didn't want to get in there and mix it up.

It's been a fun week. We are all going to visit some friends and their new baby tomorrow and then it's back to work for me. We have fun stuff this month, birthday parties, photo sessions, etc. The summer is just flying by.

June 25, 2011

The kiddo and I had fun today. We had our usual playtime and breakfast session, he took his morning nap and then we headed out the door.

We had a good time at Gymboree today, a couple of his friends moved up from his old class and it was nice to see some familiar faces. Gage was more into socializing than playing today, he spent a lot of time chatting with the other babies. There were a couple of little ones that like to yell when they say hello and it was hilarious to see G crawl up to them with a big smile and then they would yell in his face (a completely friendly greeting on their part) and it would just stop G in his tracks. So funny. They worked it out and got to laughing together, but his confused face was priceless.

After Gymboree, we made our weekly trek to the grocery store and the kiddo hung in much better this week. It was completely uneventful - we had fun, got the groceries and headed on back to the house. He actually took an afternoon nap today as well, which he's been skipping lately. It was nice - it meant a much more pleasant kiddo during dinner and before bedtime. There was more standing up today - he's getting a little less wobbly each time he tries it out. Tomorrow we got a whole lot of nothing planned, which will be nice. I have a night out planned, so J will be handling the kiddo's dinner and bedtime while I'm gone.

June 23, 2011

Here is the kiddo's surprised face. There was a lot of standing up alone today! It wasn't just pulling up and then letting go, either - he stood up all on his own from a sitting position. He can only do it for a few seconds and it's a little shaky, but he's doing it more and more. He has had a couple of great days, been in a great mood and had a lot of fun with J. He's still chattering a lot and at bedtime I think there was something that sounded like "Mama". I'm not getting my hopes up just yet, but it was nice to imagine I heard it.

Looking forward to spending some time with my little Monkey this weekend.

June 21, 2011

Couple of new pics of the Monkey and I being silly this evening. Got a little extra time with him this afternoon, since I got home a couple of hours early. We all hung out in our bedroom, watching him crawl around on the floor and talking to us about how he was doing. He and I had a great walk/run on the Katy Trail last night and he was totally ready for bed when we got home. We are going to hit the lake with a couple of friends tomorrow night. He's a great rider, he just kicks back and plays with his feet, takes in the scenery - chills out. It's fun to have him out there with us.

June 19, 2011

Happy kiddo - you can even see most of his teeth in this picture. Today started early again - 6:30a wakeup, so we watched a little Elmo and then we made breakfast for Daddy. He got pretty grumpy early, so I put him down for a morning nap and he slept for a couple of hours. We did the grocery shopping when he woke up and this was not an easy trip. There was some kicking and screaming about being in the cart today - he's ready to do his own thing and he can get pretty pissed about it when he doesn't get his way. We toughed it out, but it wasn't much better when we got home. He was just cranky and I was starting to think he might be having some tummy trouble, so I gave him a little medicine. I snuck out for a pedicure and J put him down for a nap a little while after I left - he was still asleep when I got home. He woke up in a much better mood - and with a REALLY stinky diaper, ha ha!

We ate dinner before him, so I put some cheese puffs on the coffee table next to where I ate so that he could snack a little while I ate my meal. He likes to stand at the table, but he's never really stood without holding on. Well apparently giving him enough puffs so that he could hold one in each hand was incentive enough for him to stand without support. I looked over and he as standing there with a puff in each hand, wobbling on his own two feet! It was pretty exciting.

Oh, and we officially have 8 teeth - both of the new bottoms are at least halfway in. He's gotten more interested in our food and drinks, I've been getting more brave about letting him try food from the table. It's been easier for us to eat at restaurants that way, I can just order a side that is easy for him and he snacks on crackers and bread until the food comes out. He's doing well with the sippy cup, but he actually likes to drink from our bottles and cups when we'll let him. It's so crazy how big he has gotten even in the last couple of weeks. Growing up every day. Make it stop, please...ha ha.

June 17 & 18, 2011

The kiddo and I have been pretty busy the last couple of days. I took yesterday off of work and he and I drove out to west Fort Worth to shop and have lunch with some of my cousins, their kids and one of our aunts. Gage had a pretty good time, he liked his cousin Gabriel (2.5 yrs) a lot - they were talking and laughing for a bit. He didn't pay much attention to his newest cousin Harper (3 months), but I got to hold her for a while and that was fun. She's super small compared to my big 'ol linebacker. He hung out in cousin Sharon's and Aunt Libby's laps and was being super sweet with them. He slept pretty hard in the car and by the time we got home he was up and ready to go again. He was still pretty worn out though, so he was fed, bathed and in bed by 7pm (early for him). After that, I passed out for a couple of hours myself - we were both pretty tired. He was also up pretty early yesterday morning.

Today he was up at 6AM. That's early for what he's been doing lately - even he though so, since he woke up pretty crabby. We watched a little Elmo and hung out for a bit and then he went back to bed at 7a and slept until 9:30a - at which point he was in a much better mood. We headed up to the lake and did a little 30 minute walk/run. He started to get a little cranky toward the end of the walk, there was some feet kicking and grunting, but nothing unmanageable. We got home and he stayed pretty cranky - he was just not a happy dude.

I got us cleaned up and we headed to Gymboree. I was a little nervous because of his attitude, but I figured it would at least wear him out a little. He actually did great in Gymboree - he settled in more with the big kids and was talking up a storm with a couple of them. He loves the teacher, Miss Allie and he crawled over and stood up at her legs while she blew bubbles during parachute time. He only came to check in with me a couple of times, so I knew he felt more comfortable.

He and I stopped to get my phone fixed on the way home and we probably spent about 20 minutes hanging out there. He sacked out on the 10 minute ride home from there and I managed to get him to his bed without waking him up. He took an hour long nap and when he woke up - you guessed it - still pissy. Actually he was a little worse - tears, throwing himself backwards, throwing stuff - just CRANKY. We had a big dinner planned with my family and I was a little nervous, but figured he would just pass him around until someone made him happy.

Dinner ended up being a lot of fun. He spent a lot of time in my lap - it's been a "stuck to Mama" kind of evening - but he actually hung out with a lot of people over the course of the hours we were there. He had fun sitting with my PawPaw and Doris, he hung out with my Aunt Terre and Aunt Libby and even talked to his little cousin Harper for a minute. Back to my cute little charmer - smiles, chatter, laughing. He had some sweet potato from my plate and enjoyed the bread as well. He was pretty tired when we left, but he was being really cute in the car, getting tickled and clapping along to the music - turns out he likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We would look back and he would be slapping his leg or clapping to the beat and cracking up. When we got home, it was bath and then bed time. I'm hoping that since he went to bed closer to 8p tonight, he may sleep in a little tomorrow - here's hoping.

Tomorrow it's just back to the normal weekend stuff - we'll clean up the house, go grocery shopping, etc.

June 14, 2011

These are a couple of pictures that J texted to me today. The first one is the face we get when the Monkey comes after the phone - it's also pretty similar to the face that comes at me when I'm about to get some slobbery kisses.

According to J, today was a good day. He's starting to let the kiddo venture around more areas of the house and it makes him pretty happy. J said Gage followed him around about 2 feet behind him this morning while he vacuumed the house. He was in a great mood when I got home and since he was running loose, he came crawling around the corner to meet me at the door. News for today: tooth #7 is here! I had a feeling we could expect one shortly - the return of the drool, the tugging on the ears, the slightly cranky disposition - and I was right. It's the tooth to the right of his bottom teeth. I'm sure #8, the matching tooth on the left is not far behind - the gum is swollen and it will show itself pretty quickly.

We all ate our dinner together tonight, which was fun, and then we hung out in the kiddo's room for a while after his bath, which was also good times. He was in a really great mood. He's chattering and talking up a storm and I SWEAR there was a "Da-da" tonight. He crawled out of his room and into the office where J was playing video games and there were a couple of "Da-das" - but we still aren't sure if we are ready to declare it. To be honest, he says a version of "kitty kitty" when he sees Nala - it's kind of a high pitched "gee gee!" - so that could very well be his first official word. Still NOTHING that sounds like "Ma-ma", but that's ok - I know he likes me best. Ha ha.

Friday and Saturday we are having some family time - lunch/shopping with cousins on Friday, dinner with even more family on Saturday - and I'm excited to get out more with the kiddo. We've also planned our first road trip for next month to visit some of J's family down south. We have a stopover in Houston and then we drive to Orange for a few days. We are both anxious to see how Gage behaves in the car for the long drive, how he sleeps somewhere else and how much he can tear up a new environment. Ha ha. It will be fun though, we all need a little vacation. Lot of fun stuff coming up!

June 12, 2011

It's been a busy weekend around here. Three of these pics are from this evening and one is from yesterday afternoon. Yesterday there was house cleaning, grocery shopping, playing and then J and I went out to dinner for our anniversary. GiGi came over and hung out with the monkey - even put him to bed. Then today the kiddo and I had a birthday party to attend and we had a lot of fun hanging out over there.

Monkey and I worked together to get the house picked up and the laundry done yesterday. Then the three of us headed out to the grocery store and we had fun there. Gage loves to people watch when we are at the store. He'll get someone in his sights and follow them around with his eyes, wherever they go, until he can't see them anymore. Yesterday afternoon/evening got a little sketchy - that little dude can get pretty ticked off when he doesn't get what he wants. I fed and bathed him so that when GiGi got here he was dressed for bed. She said he played for an hour or so after we left, but was in bed by 8p. He slept pretty good last night - there was a quick 11:15p wake-up, but after that, he slept until 8a.

When he got up this morning he was in a really good mood. He and I had some breakfast and then we played in the living room while we watched Yo Gabba Gabba and Olivia. He took a good morning nap and as soon as he got up we headed to the party. He had a lot of fun at the party, playing with the toys and staring at the ceiling fan. He loves ceiling fans - they totally hypnotize him. He crawled around and talked to a few people - he also tried to "pet" a few people. He was really cool and laid back, but after a couple of hours he was pretty tired. He didn't fall asleep until the last 15 minutes of our drive, and then once we got home, he popped right back up and was ready to play. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to nap for the next hour and finally gave up around the time J got home. He and J got to play for a little while and we all hung out in the living room before it was time for G to eat. It's so funny because he was his usual wild man self here at the house - tearing through his toys, laughing and being silly - but he's more mellow when there is a crowd he doesn't know. There were comments about how laid back he was and I was like, "uh, you really gotta see how he acts at home." Ha ha. But he had some ice cream and cake today and he REALLY liked that.

We had a fun time. His sleeping is changing again, but it seems like he's continuing to sleep (mostly) through the night. There's always one little minor wake-up, but I'm getting a pretty solid 6-7 hours most of the time. He's cut out his afternoon nap this week, but he's still going to bed later, which is unusual. I actually like having him up a little later, but the fact that he usually doesn't get a late nap means that he's pretty tempramental in that last hour. He's still loving bathtime and I'm going to stop by one of the rec centers over here to get him in swim lessons this week. I have some swim trunks for him, I just need to get him something to float in and then we can invade some of our friends' pools. He's also been talking a LOT the last few days - still only babble, but it's pretty constant and it's starting to sound more and more like real words. We finally got him into a convertible car seat this weekend and he liked the big boy ride on the way to the party today. He was looking out the window and having a lot of fun - mostly chattering the entire time.

Next weekend we are having lunch with some of my aunts, cousins and their kiddos and then Gage and I have to come up with something awesome for Fathers' Day. I have an idea - but since J reads this (hi babe!) - I can't disclose. Hope everyone has a great week.

June 9, 2011

Listen - don't let that big smile fool you, that is a TIRED kiddo. He was so tired that before I snapped this picture, he was laying his head on his high chair tray between bites of dinner. If you look closely you'll see the red-rimmed swollen eyes of a little dude that skipped his afternoon nap and terrorized his dad today. Cute? Yes. Capable of mental terrorism? Oh yes. I was met at the door by J and he simply said, "There's a monster in there. " So funny. He did give J some kisses and have some fun with him before bed though, so it's all good.

I got dinner in the kid's belly, gave him a quick bath and then started trying to put him to bed. It took a while and there was one false start, but he's officially snoring and has been for about 30 minutes. Poor Monkey - he's like his Mama when he gets tired - CRANKY.

June 8, 2011 - Playing with Daddy

Here are some fun photos from tonight when we were all playing and laughing together before Monkey's bedtime. They are blurry because J was being silly and cracking little man up.