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.