Little Man

Blake always calls Gage "little man" and this post is all about our cute little monster.


Emmy will get the honor next time. Maybe when Hadley does something besides drool she'll get a whole blog entry to herself! Oh wait, she can roll over, and she has a really cute laugh, but I digress... Today's post is for Gage. Hadley will get her chance, and I think I'll find a few more things to mention about her than her excessive drool:)

Gage's favorite things:
Rocks (Rots)
Trucks (Ruts), and
His Blanket (mah-mit)

If you only got to know one thing about Gagey, I'd tell you about his love of rocks. It doesn't matter the size, shape, color, or amount of dirt stuck to it, he LOVES rocks!



At first his fixation was SO cute, but it has started to get old because we literally can not get him to walk past a tiny broken pebble on the way to the car without him hollering, "Rot, Rot, Rot!!!" and pulling away to pick it up and show it off. "Yes, rock Gage" we reply with a sigh, and tell him to put it by the car for later. Rocks have been banned from the car as at the moment of unbearable boredom during a car ride he will hurl it wildly and unwittingly toward his baby sister who sits in front of him. The fact that he actually lets it out of his hand is amazing because usually the only way to wrench it free is to trade for food.



Speaking of food, Gage is finally old enough to hold his own "big boy" cup and not do much damage.


Gage will be 2 in April, and he is really growing up fast all of a sudden. He actually isn't growing much bigger, but he is growing up. He started talking a lot in recent months and now frequently says two words in sequence. Emmy teaches him to count, so he can count to three sometimes on his own. He likes to repeat after Emmy as she counts to 20, but he's a ways away from doing THAT on his own I think. He isn't quite ready to dress himself either, but he does try putting on his shoes by himself.


The only thing Gagey loves more than rocks and his sisters is his blanket from Grandma Mimi. Actually, I think he likes his blanket better! He doesn't like to go anywhere without it, and I'm not sure he'd be able to fall asleep without it. He loves to dig his fingers through the holes, especially when he's really tired. He might just be the most happy in the world when he wakes up in the morning and drags his blanket to "his" rocker and climbs in.

He'll rock for an hour, just humming a little song to himself and holding his blanket. The only thing that will get him up is a promise to go outside and look for rocks!!!

He is temperarily over his obsession with cars and trucks, but still likes to get them all out of his drawer and line them up on the floor, couch, or table, and make little "vroom vroom" sounds as he drives them on the furniture.

Some other things Gage likes:

GIVING KISSES


TRYING TO BE LIKE HIS BIG SISTER



HE'S ALWAYS LOVED BALLS!


WHAT KID DOESN'T LOVE CANDY!!!


HE'LL DO ANYTHING OUTSIDE


and his favorite hobby of late? HUNTING SPIDERS!!!!




We Love Our Little Man!

First Beach Trip of 2008

I woke up Saturday morning at 5:30 thanks to Gage and his early morning hours. I actually like getting up early and I wouldn't on my own as often maybe so its a good thing, but I don't love jumping out of bed in the middle of sleep to get him before his hollering wakes up the whole house. While he drank his warm milk and rocked in his favorite chair (like he does every morning) I watched news footage of the winter storm that was blasting the midwest and northeast and decided that it was a good day to go to the beach!!! Ah, the weather in S California... It was in the 70s and perfect for a spring day at the beach.


Hadley wasn't overly impressed. Kids these days...they just don't appreciate what they've got:)


I rarely get the three girls together in a pic so I was so happy to catch them all smiling at once!


Time to go set the clocks forward an hour. We love this time of year because there's actually time and sunlight to play outside now after I get home from work. Summer is on its way!!!

Seeds

Thanks Grandma Silly for the seeds and planting tray. The little peat moss pellets were really fun to use. We had never seen them until now, but of course now that we know what they are we see them for sale in all the garden stores. They start out hard as rocks, but with some water they swell 3 or 4 times their size and the seeds poke right down in.


We love springtime every year and the peas and beans apparently love it too! We couldn't believe how fast they sprouted. It must have been the little greenhouse cover that comes with the tray. They are too tall now to keep the cover on. We'll have to find a place to transplant soon.


And since we're talking about Grandma Silly (who by the way would remind me not to start a sentence with "and"!), I learned most pictures are boring without people in them! So here's a couple of my favs from late 2007 that I never got time to post.


Happy March everyone!

Out and About in February

I was trying to keep up with at least one post a month, but even that's starting to slip. I have no excuses now though because we finally got wireless and upgraded from dial-up (yes, we still had dial-up at home... I know, hard to believe) so now I can sit on the couch with the laptop and post away. No excuses... :)

This post just has some pics of random things we did in February. We had the flu in early February (no pics of that!) and it drug out for 3 weeks before everyone worked through it. Besides that time though we've been trying to get out and do more fun things.

"HIKING" AT A PRESERVE IN IRVINE

I usually don't call it hiking unless you at least go up or down a little, but a lot of our regular weekend hiking spots we closed from too much rain so we decided to try something new and had a great time. It is right in town and you'd never think there was so much open space in the middle of Orange County, but they've done a good job keeping open space all around.


This was some drying algae, but Emmy called it spider webs. It did look a little creepy on an overcast grey day in the swamp. Emmy asked if there were aligators in Irvine. We got a kick out of that one.


BOOMERS

Emmy and Gage have sticker charts for their daily chores and if they get enough we get a special weekend treat. You can see their charts behind them on the wall. I love this picture anyway but it just happens to show the charts. Emmy and Gagey are both being their classic silly selves.

They did so well with their chores the last two weeks we took them to a little amusement park for a few rides and games.

Emmy really wanted to go on the ferris wheel and Blake couldn't believe it because she is terrified of them. She almost scared Emmy out of it:

Hadley thought it was a bad idea too :)

But Emmy insisted and we got on!

She did get a bit scared, but mostly enjoyed it.

After a little convincing Gagey went on a smaller ride too.


That was enough for him though. After that he wanted his blanket back and wanted to be held and just watch for awhile. He's having his timid phase.


Going inside for a little skee-ball was a good rest after the rides, and it's Blake's favorite game too.


Of course everyone's favorite after a fun day is to come home and relax.




Goodbye February 2008. No more leap years for 4 more years...