We made it...

Yesterday when Gage woke up from his afternoon nap, he was acting a little strange. Normally, he only takes about a 30 minute nap (if that) and he's ready to go! When he woke up yesterday, he crawled straight over to his Daddy to be picked up. When Michael sat him on his lap, he immediately laid his head down on his Daddy's chest. Although I thought it was really sweet, I knew there had to be something wrong. Michael felt his head and sure enough...something was wrong. We checked his temp-102.5. Seriously, a fever again! We just got finished with a round of antibiotics for these demon ear infections he's been getting and now it is something else.

At around 3am, his fever finally broke. To be honest, I blamed it on his teeth. He's bound to be cutting some since he's almost one year old and only has 2 teeth ;) Anyway, I sent him on daycare. He was acting fine, no fever, chasing his Daddy all over the house. Nothing seemed to be wrong.

Think again...after lunch Bridget called and said he was pulling at his ears and wouldn't stop crying. He hadn't had a nap all day, and wouldn't eat or drink. So off I went to pick him up. When I got there, he looked horrible. His eyes were red and puffy and he has 2, yes TWO blisters on his lip. I had no idea babies got fever blisters, but with this child anything is possible, right?

Michael took him in the doctor today and to our surprise, his ears looked great! THANK GOODNESS!! Bad news...he has "viral stomatitis". It is an infection that causes fever and sores on the inner surface of the lips, gums, and throat. No wonder the poor child won't eat or drink!

Another bad thing about all of this is the fact that he had his first Valentine's Day party at daycare today and it was going to break my heart for him to miss it. Good news is...it is only contagious when fever is present. He had no fever! So, against Daddy's better judgement, off we went! I was so happy he wasn't going to have to miss it!

We had so much fun at the party! Thank you, Bridget, for taking such great care of my baby boy! We love you!! Hopefully this will clear up soon and we can get back to normal. Until then, keep my little man in your prayers! And Mommy may need a few too ;)

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!!!

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!!

Up we go...

Until this week he has never pulled up. I guess I should say, I have never seen him pull up. Well, Sunday night we put him to bed just like always. Usually when he wakes up we hear him "talking" to himself on the monitor. We go in his room and he's usually laying on his back playing with his passy. Monday morning, instead of hearing his usual talking, we hear a horrible thud, followed by a scream. Michael ran into his room and found Gage laying on the floor :( We hadn't moved his mattress down yet because we didn't think we had any reason to. Gage tends to be pretty lazy and never took any initiative to try to pull up at all. Apparently he thought the middle of the night would be a good time to practice. As soon as his Daddy picked him up he instantly stopped crying and gave him the biggest grin ever! I assume he thought his "trick" was pretty funny...I didn't think so! It scared Michael and I to death! He is now pulling up on everything and loves to stand up! I guess he was waiting until his "tricks" were perfected before he showed them to us! As bad as I hate to say this, I have a feeling we are going to have many more years of things like this to come! Gage is a very mischievous little boy who is afraid of NOTHING, and I'm not sure he feels pain. If he does, I've never been able to tell. I suppose he has inherited his Daddys clumsiness and his Mommas pain tolerance. HA!

Just so you know, we have moved Gage's mattress down as far as it will go!

First Illness...

This, my friends, has been the hardest week of motherhood by far. I had a jewelry party at my house on Monday night, so my Mom came early Monday morning and picked Gage up so that I could get some things done around the house before the party. He woke up that morning not feeling to well and had a terrible cough. When they came back for the party he was VERY cranky and pretty warm. I checked his temp and it was 102.5 so of course, I almost had a panic attack. This was the very first time in almost 9 months that he has had a fever AT ALL. He had been drooling for a couple of days and chewing on everything that came close to him, so I convinced myself it must be his teeth.

He didn't sleep very well at all on Monday night and fought the fever like crazy. On Tuesday he woke up with no voice and he kept pulling at his ears. He had such a sick look in his eyes that it almost brought tears to mine. Needless to say, off to the doctor we went.
Dr. Nolen did a Strep test and a flu test on him and both came back negative. He had a slight ear infection in the same ear as last time and she sent us home with a perscription for that and one for the flu. Although his test was negative, she said there is a 40% false neg on those tests (wouldn't you think they would do something about that) and she felt sure he wouldn't have the high fevers with ear infections or teething.

We had a very hard Tuesday. He wouldn't eat anything. He wouldn't drink anything. He wouldn't even suck his passy. His throat was obviously hurting pretty bad. We alternated Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours and by the middle of the night he was fever free and has been ever since!!! He is still very tired and cranky at times, but much better than 2days ago. I am so thankful that nasty mess has run its course and my little angel is feeling much better! After my 2 day experience, I have realized how lucky I am to have a healthy baby. My heart goes out to each of you who have sick little ones and you are all in my prayers! I can't imagine how hard it must be for you!

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 ;)

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!

New things...

This week has been a pretty eventful one for us. We haven't had much "important" going on, just simply busy! If you'll remember a few posts ago, I asked about car seats. We finally broke down Thursday night and bought one. We ended up with the Evenflo Symphony and we really like it so far! I have been dreading the day that we retired "the bucket" because that would mean we would have to use high-chairs and shopping carts. I know, there shouldn't be a problem with that, but there is...Gage can't sit up! Well...guess what? We have a sitter...just in time!! On occasion he does fall, so he just makes the best of it! I walked out of the room the other day and walked back in to find this. He was playing in his toy basket. Forget the toys, I'll just play in the basket!!We went shopping with MeMe on Saturday and before we got there I was thinking, "I'm going to have to carry him throughout the entire store". We sat him in the buggy, strapped him in, and he was such a big boy! (sorry the picture is so blurry, I took it with my iPhone)Gage has another trick that doesn't make Mommy quite as happy. It is really cute when he's playing, but when he's asleep...not so cute! For some reason he feels the need to put his passy in his mouth backward and play with it. I guess he does this in his sleep too because he wakes me up at least once a night fussing. When I look in his crib, this is what I see!Over the past couple of days, he has learned how to hold his bottle too! He doesn't do it much. Why should he when I'll do it for him, right? MeMe bought him a new sippy cup and he seems to like it too! Gosh...he's getting to be such a big boy!

An old time county fair...

This week was "Fair Week" in our town. For most families, the fair is a "treat", but for my family it is a week long event! Since I was a tiny baby my family has always been a big part of our County Fair. Most of them are on the fair board so they spend a lot of time preparing and getting things ready for the week. I have always loved this time of year and catch myself getting excited about it months in advance.

As you know, this was Gage's first fair! I think it was fun for him, but it will be better next year! We walked around through the rides several times. He normally isn't a fan of loud noises so I was afraid he would throw a fit...but he didn't! As a matter of fact, I think he liked it! Here he is watching the rides with MeMe. He couldn't take his eyes off them!

Rance was able to make it one night! Gage LOVES to ride on his wheelchair with him!

My cousin, Sunny, carries the American Flag during the opening ceremonies of the rodeo. She always does such a good job and looks so pretty!

The fair is over now, so it's back to normal life. Good-bye for now!

>