This was supposed to be a post about My Gym closing this week.  The My Gym that Gage went to 3 times a week and where we both made friends.  I’m going to need find a new morning activity for us.  Yesterday Jason was going to go and take pictures, but on Saturday morning at 2:30 am when I went to check on Gage, I found a sick boy.

We have hacking coughs, a runny nose, runny eyes, diarrhea and a fever.  All in time for Jason’s dad to visit from Michigan and for his last class at My Gym (Where I’m sure he got the cold in the first place.  Maybe I should have continued the circle and taken him anyway !)

He acted fairly well for as sick as he was and I thought for sure he’d sleep well last night.  Little ones really don’t care what their parents think.  Gage ended up in bed with us at 12:30 and was up because he couldn’t breathe through his nose/coughing at 2:30 am.  Again.  So, Jason and I took shifts until I finally got him to sleep from 8 til 9:30 in the guest bed with me (I didn’t want to interrupt Jason’s few hours of sleep).

Somehow Gage operates better with little sleep than his parents.  This is Gage’s first real cold and I am not a fan.

I asked my mom if she’d come up and Gage-sit while I went to the British Tea, an annual charity fundraiser put on by New Clevelanders.  This is the newcomers club I’ve belonged to for 10 years and I’m currently the club’s historian, aka photographer.

My mom decided to invite my aunt Judy, my aunt Betty and cousin Kelly too.  So, the foursome arrived on Wednesday and left on Friday and, of course, I wait until they are getting ready to leave before snapping a photo.  Seems like Gage is always getting photographed in his high chair, but I guess that’s the only place he’s still enough.

Gage is going to be an only kid and I wish we lived just a little closer to my family.  It’s a little less than 2 1/2 hours and that’s great for weekend trips, but not as easy for stop-ins.  I want Gage to be surrounded by his extended family and I am always so thankful when they visit.  Gage always loves an appreciative audience and they were definitely that 🙂

As a first time mom, I am somewhat clueless about how or when babies and toddlers learn things.  Each month I religiously look at the milestones from the What to Expect book, oh wait, Gage is now 18 months and I haven’t looked yet, okay, I ALMOST always take a peek at milestones.  It’s nice to be aware of what should be happening or what’s about to happen, but the books don’t explain everything.

For instance, kinda thought that once I put a straw into Gage’s mouth it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes for comprehension.  I mean, he does suck on a bottle every night, right?  Well, it’s taken weeks and I finally broke down and bought the little juice boxes so I could squeeze it through the straw.  After a few days of this he finally caught on that he could do this himself.  I know he is late to the party and other kids have been doing this forever, but what can I say?  He’s been busy doing other things.

Like he is a master nose blower.  When we tell him to blow he shows off his lung capacity.  But, when he wants to be a big boy and  blow bubbles himself this is a problem.  We tell him to blow and, well, let’s just say that he gets very upset because his nose blowing doesn’t produce any bubbles.  It doesn’t matter how many times this has happened, I get a good laugh every time.

Watching Gage learn is fun.  One thing we have not had to teach him is love balloons.  Here’s a bonus picture of him running around the house like a madman with his balloon.

Gage loves belly buttons and zippers.  We thought it was cute and encouraged his interest by letting him lift our shirts and push our belly buttons to make us laugh.  Same with zippers.  Why not let him try to zip up mom’s jacket?  Oh, the dark side of cute toddler obsession.  Several times now at My Gym or library storytimes Gage will go up (only to little girls) and try to unzip whatever they are wearing.  So far, none of them have been too happy about it.  The moms all laugh and tell Gage he’s going to have to wait a few years before the girls will like it.

Last Sunday my best friend from college and one-time Arlington, Virginia roommate and his family stopped by for a visit on their way back home.  There wasn’t a zipper in sight, but when their daughter said hi Gage thought a proper greeting would be to lift up her shirt and look for her laugh button.  I didn’t capture it on film but you can see from these pictures that he really thinks they had something special.

He’s already working on his moves for the ladies 🙂

The first thing Gage saw at the Easter egg hunt yesterday was Elmo.  He loves Elmo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jury is still out on the Easter Bunny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gage getting ready for the ‘hunt’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gage collecting one of his 4 eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

 

We took Gage to the library and he had a blast in the large kids area pushing a shopping  cart around and playing with the train set, but no matter how distracted he was he always came back to the girl reading in the fire truck.  He was mesmerized and would watch her until we pulled him away!

In honor of the day I’ll give you 5 Gage statements and you can see if you can tell the truth in the lies.  I’ll reveal the one true statement in a few days.

1. Gage likes his Mom to chew his food and spit it in his mouth, ala Alicia Silverstone.

2. Gage crawls out of his crib every few nights.

3. Gage brushes his own teeth at night.

4. Gage rocks out to La Bamba.

5. Gage is the tallest kid in his My Gym class.

We’re still consumed with March Madness here, so Gage has had many opportunities to say one of his favorite words.  He likes pointing to the tv and yelling, “Ball!”

Ohio State has made it to the Final Four 🙂  Go Bucks!

Jason holds a slight lead in our brackets, so I need Kansas to win (for today only).  C’mon Jayhawks.

It’s March and that means it NCAA tournament time which means that Gage can get into all kinds of trouble while mom and dad are distracted.  When it came time for Ohio State to play I realized that he didn’t have any OSU clothes that he could fit into!  A quick online shopping trip rectified that and when OSU plays in the Sweet Sixteen next week he’ll be ready.  Dad’s Michigan State team plays today and he will be decked out appropriately.

Every year since we’ve been married Jason and I have had our own NCAA pool with the winner choosing the next 5 theater movies.  After the first round I’m already down 5 points and it doesn’t look good (unless Kansas somehow wins it all).

Who are you rooting for to win it all?