I was excited to spend the week with little man last week and planned some fun stuff as well as some not so fun stuff. We spent most of Monday at home, cleaning any laying around. I will tell you that I took a nap almost every day at the same time Gage did - it was glorious. Mimi came over Tuesday and I got to have a lunch with a friend and run some errands myself. Wednesday is really when the fun started for the kiddo. I took him to Jump Mania in Plano, which he loves. Jason came with us and we had a lot of fun watching him run around and act crazy. The have toddler mania there on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, so it's all kiddos from 0-3 and they get to run the place. We all had lunch on the way home and then it was nap time - for all of us.
On Thursday, GiGi came over and we had plans for a big morning out at Fair Park. I packed us a lunch and the plan was to hit up the Children's Aquarium and then have lunch at the Discovery Gardens. The Children's Aquarium in Fair Park is pretty cool! Now, it's small - but so is Gage, so I really though it was great for him. The price was very reasonable and they have some awesome stuff there. We thought the albino alligator and 75 year old turtle were both way worth the trip. The octopus was sleeping when we were there, but Gage had fun playing with the display. The employees there were so nice and we were the only ones there for about 30 minutes, so Gage got some one on one attention. They helped him climb up and touch some of the animals and stuff in the entrance tank - there was a weird lobster and I thought it was pretty cool. Gage had a blast running from one side to the other and checking out all of the creatures. We got there just in time for snake feeding time and got to watch the keeper feed him a fish. It's the most active snake he's ever gotten to see - when we've seen them at the zoo, they are always sleeping or hiding. After all of that, we headed out back and got to pet the stingrays! I've never done that before, and I was blown away about how much they are like puppy dogs. They were all clamoring over to us so that we would pet them and rubbing up against our hands. That was awesome. Gage thought they were cool and he pet them a couple of times, but I think he didn't like the slimy feel of them. They are by the big shark tank, so we settled in to look at the scary guys while we were out there. Gage really like them - he kept yelling, "Mama, shark!". It's so cute because we've really started to notice that when he's upset, he comes to me, but if he's scared or nervous, he'll go to Jason. So he always wanted Jason to come with him to see the sharks and to pet the stingrays.
It was getting close to lunch time, so we headed across the street to the Texas Discovery Gardens, which have a butterfly house. At this point, we could tell that our time out with the kiddo was skidding to the end, so we went outside for a few minutes and decided that maybe it would be best to just check out the butterfly house (I wanted to see the release at noon) and then go home to eat our lunch. The butterfly house there is pretty awesome. Gage loved chasing the butterflies around, but every time he would get close to one, he totally knew that he needed to be gentle and quiet. There was one that just hung out the entire time we were there and he kept pointed and yelling, "Fly butterfly, fly!" We stayed to watch the butterfly release at noon and had fun at the mini learning session. After that, we headed to the car and had lunch back at our house. We all had a lot of fun and it's always a great time getting to watch him learning and seeing new things.
Friday was a day of doctors appointments for him - we had to do a follow up with the allergist to see if he still has his food allergies. Hopefully the news next week will be that he's one of the 20% that outgrows a peanut allergy - everyone say a prayer!
The weekend was a lot of our normal routine - I had a race Saturday, so Grangingy and Uncle James came over to spend some time with him, which he always enjoys. Then he and I did our usual grocery store trip and hanging out. I took him back to Jump Mania on Sunday and we met a friend of mine and her grandkids. He really loves her grandkids and he had so much fun playing with them. They even encouraged him to climb a big inflatable slide and then slide down all by himself! Then he followed them through the obstacle course to another slide - another thing he has never done without me. He really had a great time. When we got home, Jason was talking to him about how much fun he had and he said, "Dada, I need to go night night". It was so funny. He went right to sleep, without a fight.
We had a really great time last week and I have missed him being back at work this week. Luckily I'm off again this week for the holiday - so it's been a nice time with a lot of Gage fun to be had. I noticed a few things over the last week or so:
- He's getting SO big. I was just saying something tonight about how big his hands are. When we go out and see other kids, he's almost the size of the 4 year olds. He's like a little dude now.
- His vocabulary is out of control. We are pretty much just having normal conversations at this point. Now, if you didn't know him very well, it wouldn't be easy to make out everything he is saying - but Jason and I are pretty fluent in "Gage".
- This kid is ridiculously sweet. He loves to give out hugs and kisses and he's always concerned about crying babies.
- He's more interested in helping now. He likes to help me put up the groceries and clean the house. He's gotten really good at helping with the groceries - it's pretty cute.
- He's currently addicted to yogurt..and fruit snacks.
- He's now singing along with everything. He can sing along with Muse, TV show theme songs, whatever. If he's heard it, he can sing it.
Here are some pictures from the fun last week:
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