Snow Day 2010...

For some of you, this probably doesn't qualify as a "snow day". For us, we take what we can get!

We started getting a little sleet and rain Thurday night. I didn't have any appointments scheduled for Friday, so I decided Gage and I would probably just stay at home out of the weather. Friday morning when we woke up, we realized that for once, our weathermen had predicted correctly and we did, in fact, get some ice and snow. Not much snow, but a little. We spent the day laying around the house in our pj's. I have to say, it was nice...until today. After 2 days of being stuck in the house, we were both a little stir crazy!

I made a pot of Homemade Brocolli Cheese soup and some Chicken spaghetti last night so that I wouldn't have to worry with cooking today. My Dad called this morning and had been at home alone for the past couple of days so we invited him over. I'm sure it was nice to be able to have someone to talk to! He got here right before time to have lunch with us! Gage enjoyed having his Papaw here to spend the day with. He can "get away with murder" when one of his grandparents are around! They went outside just for a second to see what Gage thought of the snow...

he wasn't too sure about it!

Around 2:00, my Mom called and was coming by as well. I think she had gotten a little stir crazy herself. She "needed" to go to Target, so Gage and I went along for the ride. Thank Goodness she came by and got us out of here for a while. We were likely to go nuts if someone didn't save us ;) A snow day wouldn't have been complete without some pictures of Gage and his MeMe, so we went outside one more time!

This is my favorite picture! Doesn't the best one always seem to turn out blurry? Ugh...drives me nuts!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day playing in the snow. If you got any, that is!

11 months...

I know, I know, I'm saying it again. I cannot believe Gage is already this old!

We have only one more month until the big day. The day that I'm sure will make me sob like a baby. Gage will be ONE YEAR OLD! He has grown and changed so much in the last month or so, and I know he is only going to continue to do more. As excited as I am about every little thing he learns to do, I'm sad as well. I catch myself looking forward to each new thing and each new step he takes, and when he does it, I think to myself, "he's growing up right before my eyes"! Maybe one day I'll get a grip with reality and it won't get the best of me anymore ;) But then again...who am I kidding?

Enough of the sob story and on to something much better. My little man is now 11 months old!! Have I said that yet? He is crawling (the right way) all over the place. He is into everything. He makes more messes than I can possibly keep picked up. Yet...I love him more everyday!

I have started planning his birthday party, and I can't wait to share all the details! I think I'll wait until it's over to do that, but who knows. Maybe I'll change my mind!

Handsome little man...

Recently when Michael and I have taken Gage out in public, we have had several people tell us what a cute little girl we have. Yes...girl! Now, never have I ever dressed Gage in anything even remotely girly. He doesn't have earrings (hopefully never will), and he is always dressed in boy colors. I never really think too much of it, but Michael always "gets his panties in a bunch" over it. It absolutely crushes him that Gage's sweet little curls remind people of a girl. And to be perfectly honest, there is nothing that drives me more crazy than little boys having hair that is long enough to put in a ponytail. I don't know, maybe I'm a little old-fashioned. Anyway...tonight was the big night. The one I haven't been looking forward to that couldn't get here fast enough for Daddy. I have never been one of those to have some crazy attachment to hair, but I really thought I would have a hard time cutting Gage's, in fear that it wouldn't grow back curly. His MeMe assured me that it would, so we went ahead with it!

Here he is before. You see, he was sort of getting the Bozo the clown look! As much as I hate to say it, it was getting pretty ridiculous!

I wasn't sure how this First Haircut thing would go at first. I never do them (unless they are for a REALLY good friend) because I am always so worried I will cut the poor kid. Kids aren't good at sitting still anyway, and certainly not when you are messing with their head. We thought maybe Daddy could hold him while I cut. WRONG. He wasn't having it and I almost gave up before we even got started!

MeMe took over-cookie in hand-and everything went better from there. I think he thought things were too serious when his Daddy had him.

He fought me for just a minute, but only until I let him have my comb ;)

All in all, I thought he did GREAT! He didn't cry. He didn't try to jump out of the chair. AND...I didn't cut him! Here we are after all the action took place!

And finally...an after shot! Isn't he the most handsome little man you have ever seen?

Later tonight, we both got in the bath and I put some finishing touches on the cut! I am so thrilled with how it turned out and even more thrilled at how he handled it all!

Gage, you made me a very proud Mommy today! I love you buddy!!!

Sickly Little Man...

Finally...I've found some time to relax...a little!

Wednesday afternoon, I got a phone call from Bridget (Gage's sitter) telling me that Gage had thrown up in the play room and he acted as if he wasn't feeling well. At the time, I had just made myself a sandwich and was sitting down at the computer desk to blog a little. Here I am, 4 days later, blogging a little. Ha!

Back to the story....So, I leave lunch sitting on the desk and rush off to pick up my sick little guy. There is nothing better than your Mommy when you are sick, so I knew I had to get there quick ;) When I got there, he was a little warm, but seemed to be feeling ok. I got home. Checked his temp. It was 100.3. To be honest, I didn't think much of the fever. He has been teething, so I figured it was nothing more than that. Now, the throwing up, I wasn't so sure about. As the day went on, I noticed him having a terrible cough that continued to sound worse. A runny nose that I couldn't seem to catch. And...he didn't have much appetite...NOT NORMAL FOR HIM!

We had a pretty rough night Wednesday night. He had a little fever, but not much more than 102 or so. Yes, Mom...he slept with us ;) We were both up most of the night flipping and flopping and trying to get Daddy on his side of the bed. By the time the alarm went off, we were both exhausted and able to sleep for an extra hour or so.

Mom and I had planned on having Sushi for lunch on Thursday. I called and cancelled the plans and instead she came over for a few hours so that I could rest. Thank Goodness for that! Only problem was, my jewelry order came in and I was entirely too excited about that to sleep.

By bedtime last night, he was feeling pretty rough. His fever had been at 102+ for a few hours and didn't seem to want to budge. He had thrown up a few times, but nothing major. I think the main problem was that the cough was choking him. We started giving him Tylenol and Motrin hoping the fever would go away. At 9:30 I woke him to give him some medicine, only to find that his temp was 104.5! OMG...I freaked! I called my Mom, the doctors office, and my friend Beth trying to figure out what the heck to do. We decided to keep an eye on the fever and take him in to see Dr. Nolen this morning. Once again...severe double ear infection, one antibiotic shot, five days of oral antibiotics, and one tired Mommy!

We gave him, yet another, lukewarm bath earlier and his fever has finally stayed down for the last couple of hours! Please pray that it stays that way!

Mom took off work early to be with us today! Once again...Thank Goodness for that! She is always so good and keeps me from panicking when I shouldn't be. Also, Gage LOVES for her to be here! His MeMe is pretty high up on his list ;)

And another thing, for MeMe...

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP AROUND THE HOUSE AND WITH GAGE TODAY!!!! I will forever owe you for all you do for me!

Now then, I'm all caught up and headed to bed for a few hours. I figure after all the sleeping Little Man has done over the past couple of days, he surely won't want to sleep in on Saturday morning ;)

Double Trouble...

Today, Gage and I have done a whole lot of nothing. He decided to wake up this morning at 6:30 instead of his typical 7:30, so needless to say, we've had some time on our hands. As much as I would have loved the extra shut-eye, I got a lot done today! By noon, my house was picked up, Gage had been fed twice, I had been to the bank and to run a few more errands. There aren't many days that I get that much accomplished before noon.

This afternoon, we had some special play dates come to see us. Kristi brought Brittyn & Lexyn to play with Gage for a while and we visited. It was a lot of fun catching up with what is going on with the kiddos. Her girls are 18 months old and cute as can be! Gage is half their age and double their size, so it is always neat to compare the 3 of them!

They played really well together-for the most part-and had fun taking each others toys! At one point Gage tackled one of the girls to the ground. I realized then, that he is certainly ALL BOY! I have my hands full for sure! My Mom came by to visit and brought Ice Cream for all of them. I'm sure you can imagine how much fun that was!

All in all, we had a great day, and I can't wait for the girls to come back and see us!

(P.S. I know you are probably thinking, "Anna, did you not think get your son out of his jammies before company came?". To be honest, I really didn't think about it until I started taking pictures. Forgive me for this one ;))

What a mess...

I can remember-before having Gage-I would go into people's homes who had kids thinking "good grief this kid has toys everywhere". I never thought it was a bad thing, but I was pretty sure my house would never look like Toys R Us has exploded in my living room. Well...guess what? I think Toys R Us exploded in my living room!

I'm sure you remember in one of my previous posts where I talked about how much Gage loves this train. I'm pretty sure it isn't the train that has him so intrigued, though. It is the $2 set of blocks that came with the $50 train. Isn't it funny how kids don't have time for expensive things, but give them something cheap and they will play with it for hours? Bad thing is, at about 13 (or younger) all that changes ;) I can't tell you how many times a day I watch this little hand pick up all 26 blocks and throw them all over the living room floor. I wish I could tell you that when it is time to start learning the alphabet, all 26 blocks will still be there, but I can't! I'm pretty sure we have lost some already and we've only had the silly things for 2 weeks ;) All joking aside...we found this at Wal-Mart when we were looking for Gage's Christmas gifts and I thought it was the neatest thing. It has blocks with each letter of the alphabet and on the back it has an object that starts with that letter. When you put the block in the train, it tells what the letter on the block is and says what starts with that letter. Although Gage gets tons of use out of the blocks now, I really think he will love it for a long time. It is also a riding toy and you can take the trailer off and push the train! If you kids don't have it...I suggest it! They would love to!!!

First of the year, firsts...

Wow! I realize it is only the 3rd day of the year, but it has already been an eventful one for us! I think Gage is afraid his first birthday is going to be here before he gets all his "firsts" out of the way ;) The day before Christmas, we started noticing that you could barely feel a little tooth starting to come in. We were starting to think Gage may never get teeth! Just kidding about that, but I have been wondering where they were. A couple of days ago, it finally poked all the way through. Sorry about the lovely mouth full of food, but this is the only way I could get a picture of that little guy. Gage keeps him hidden from us unless he is eating.

Last weekend Little Man had a terrible runny nose, a nasty cough, and an oozing eye that wouldn't go away. On Tuesday, I took him to the doctor to see what in the world was going on with the poor guy. To be honest, I didn't think it was anything other than the nasty Arkansas weather causing all this, but I would have felt pretty silly if I'd have been wrong so I took him in. Turns out he has another ear infection and is on another anti-biotic for 10 days. Isn't this a sad little face? Even though he didn't feel well, he was still pretty chipper! I'm so blessed to have such a sweet baby. I just love these Paul Frank "jammies"! I thought maybe they would make him feel better if he wore them ;) I decided that before I start back on my diet, I would make one last batch of homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies! I took them out of the oven. Walked out of the room to do some laundry. Came back in the kitchen, and this is what I found. You got it...Daddy and Gage had already demolished half the cookies! I couldn't help but take a picture of Gage eating his first cookie! (Mom-I realize you give him cookies when I'm not looking, but I'm pretending I don't know ;)) I decided that since I can't seem to keep Gage out of stuff, I had better rearrange all the cabinets so that he wouldn't get his hands on anything dangerous. I cleaned out one of the bottom drawers and put all of his "tupperware" in it. I'm pretty sure he thinks he isn't supposed to be in there which is why he loves it so much! Mom called this morning asking if I wanted to go to the movies with her. I haven't been to the movies in forever, so I couldn't pass up the offer. I debated for hours about taking Gage with us and finally decided I would keep Daddy on stand-by and go for it. I was pretty nervous about how he would act, but I felt sure the movies wouldn't be terribly packed on Sunday afternoon. WRONG!!! We went to see It's Complicated and I'm not sure there weren't many empty seats. The movie was great and Gage was great...until the last 5 minutes. He slept for about an hour and when he woke up, he decided he would turn around and try to talk to everyone behind us. Needless to say, I had to take him out! I was still really proud of him for being so good! I'm leaving you with one last picture for the night. Kyleman bought Gage this dancing tower for Christmas and HE LOVES IT! The little bear on top dances in circles and keeps him entertained for quite a while! I just love that little smile!!

Happy New Year...

Can you believe it is already 2010? I mean, 2009 was over and gone before I could blink my eyes! I was a great year for us, just really fast! I'll bet you can't guess what my favorite thing about 2009 was...yep, you guess right! GAGE!!!! I am amazed every day by how much joy he brings to my life. I know I have said that a million times before, but honestly, I'll probably say it a million more!

Mom volunteered to keep Gage for us on NYE and we took her up on the offer! My family has a NYE party every year and it is always a lot of fun. I LOVE to dance and it turns out that my Dad is the best dancer EVER, so I look forward to getting to do some dancing on occasion. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I don't :(

Unfortunately my new year didn't start out as well as I planned. I have (had I guess I should say) an iPhone. I loved that I phone with all my heart and used it for EVERYTHING! Instead of dealing with an appointment book at work, I used my calendar in my phone. I have always been so good about backing it up on my computer in case something happened. Well, guess what...I hadn't backed it up since December 4th and it was stolen from me at the NYE party. I was and still am sick about it! Hopefully that isn't any indication of how my 2010 is going to be! Keep you fingers crossed please :)

On New Years Day, Nana cooked dinner for the family. We stayed there a pretty long while playing games and catching up! Here is Gage with one of my cousins, Justin. I have never seen Justin around kids and was shocked to see how good he was with little man. Gage seemed to really enjoy playing with him too!

I hope all of you have a wonderful 2010! I look forward to another year of blogging!