8 months old...

As I sit here and type this, I'm thinking to myself "can this be right?". But yes, my calculations are correct and my little man is already 8 months old! He has brought so much joy in our lives and continues to bring us more each day! I am so thankful to have him!!!

It seems so crazy that just a couple months ago I made myself a mental list of the things I needed to do before Gage starts getting into things. You know..."baby proof" the house. To be honest, I thought surely I had a little time to spare and I would get to it soon enough. Now, he is can do so much more than I ever thought an 8 month old would do and there is nothing he isn't into. He "army crawls" anywhere he wants to go, and most of the time it's places he shouldn't be going. I'm guessing he will be crawling with a few weeks or so, and before long, he will be walking everywhere! I'm thinking I had better get with it before he tears my house to pieces ;)

He has started waving "bye bye" to people, but only after we have already left them ;) You know how that goes...kids never do what you want them to do when you want them to do it. They just simply wait until no one is watching! Oh well, he is so cute when he actually does it and one of these days, he will learn when the right time is!

We went to the doctor last week and found out that he has his first ear infection. I think we have been pretty lucky so far to have made it this long without one! Hopefully he won't take after Mommy on this one and have numerous sets of tubes in his ears to keep the infections away. I had HORRIBLE ears!

After a lot of thought about the H1N1 vaccine, we went ahead and got the first part of both his flu shots this week. I have been so indecisive about the new vaccine because of everything the media has had to say about it. I talked to several doctors and nurses and got several different opinions, but I decided I would feel pretty stupid if he ended up with the Swine Flu because I didn't vaccinate him so I went ahead with it. Hopefully I don't regret my decision. He has done great with both them and hasn't been fussy at all, we've had no fever, and no sicknesses to go along. I was really worried, but he seems to be handling it well. THANK GOODNESS!!!

Tonight is Halloween night and we are taking Gage Trick-or-Treating at all the Grandparents houses. I am so excited about dressing him up and I cannot wait post pictures when we get home tonight. It should be lots of fun! I hope you all have a great night tonight and be safe!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Pumpkin Carving...

As I told you in my last post, Michael and I decided to tackle the job of carving our pumpkin we picked, tonight!

Here he is sitting in our yard with the scary thing! Isn't this a cute one?

BOO!!! Does my pumpkin scare you?

We had a great time carving our first pumpkin together for Gage's first Halloween! I look so forward to many more pumpkin carvings to come!

The Pumpkin Patch...

Despite all the rain we've had here over the past few weeks, today was a gorgeous fall day in Central Arkansas. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect for taking Gage on his first trip to the Pumpkin Patch. I have never been to one, so it was more excited than anyone else! They had tons of pumpkins already picked that you could buy, or you could go pick one. We sat Little Man down beside the ones that were already picked and got some cute fall pictures of him! He looks like a little "big boy" sitting there, huh?

We took a hay ride down to the patch and decided to pick our own! It was a really neat experience to see all the pumkins laying in the field waiting to be picked! This was the one we decided to bring home with us! Gage had so much fun playing in the field with it. People were looking at us like we were crazy for setting him down in the dirt, but he didn't mind!

Michael was probably SO embarrased for me to do this, but I asked someone to take a family picture for us! I thought it turned out pretty cute, except the fact that Gage started crying about the time we sat him on the pumpkin ;)

This is my favorite one from the day! See how much fun he was having? He loves being outside! I'm so glad we went, and I can't wait until next year when Gage can enjoy it more! We are going to do our best to carve this beauty tonight, so stay tuned for the results. Michael and I have never carved one so it could be quite funny ;)

We're all bundled up...

Sorry for all the jabbering today. I have been so behind on my blogging (as usual), so I had to do several posts to get caught up!

This morning, my little brother played football so we decided we would go. The weather has been warm and rainy all week here...until today! It was freezing out there and I LOVED IT!!! This is by far my favorite time of the year! I love coats, sweaters, boots, etc. We bundled little man up and off we went!

He had fun playing with the girls for a little while, but it was short lived! We left about 15 minutes after the game started and now we are spending the rest of the day bundled up at home. What a great day to do NOTHING!!!

Bauxite Homecoming...

This week was Homecoming week for my cousin, Sunny. She is a Junior in High School and was voted Homecoming Maid for the first time this year! We went to her pep rally yesterday so that we could see her all dressed up since we wouldn't be making it to the football game. She looked absolutely stunning and was by far the most gorgeous girl on the court...that's my opinion anyway ;)She thinks Gage is the best thing ever...I'm pretty sure the feelings are mutual! This is Sunny, her friend Ashley and me. They are best friends and have been for a long time. That little Ashley has a special place in my heart as well! P.S. please ignore the nappy hair. It had been raining cats and dogs all day long!

Big boy bath...

Gage had his first bath in the sink this week. It feels so good to have moved past the huge plastic baby tub that is in the way of everything. I wasn't sure what he would think, but he seemed to really like it! I have never put bubbles in his bath until now. He looked at them sort of strange at first, but before long, he was trying to eat them. This would explain the Santa Claus beard ;) I have tried giving him other bath toys, but he always goes back to the Rubber Duckies! After his bath, we put him in his new "jammies" MeMe bought him. They look so cute on him, but they make him look so grown up :( What about that mohawk? Daddy hates it...we love it!!!

We have a sleeper!!!!

From the day we brought Gage home he has been sleeping in his pack 'n play in our bedroom. I have told myself several times that it was time for him to be sleeping in his own bed, but when the time comes I can never convince myself to put him in there. Well, I haven't wanted to speak too soon, so I have waited an entire week to say...

HE IS FINALLY SLEEPING IN HIS OWN BED!!!!

He has done so well with it, and I am so proud of him. The very first night we put him in there, all 3 of us pretty much had a sleepless night. He went to bed about 9:30 and woke up around 3. I thought I would be able to rock him back to sleep and he would be fine, but I was WRONG! He cried for 2 hours straight. I went in his room every few minutes to let him know he wasn't alone, but every time he looked at me like "seriously Mom, you're putting me in my own bed?", but I refused to get him out. I knew in my heart it would be better for us all in the long run. I WAS RIGHT!!!

HE IS FINALLY SLEEING ALL NIGHT!