Tag: gage

Pinteresting with Gage

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I finally got on the Pinterest bandwagon, at least I jump on every few days when I have minutes to spare, and my favorite discoveries are the ones I’ve found to share with Gage.  As he gets older I am sometimes at a loss as to help him develop and grow and I have found some great fun ideas. 

Here’s the first one I decided to try (the pin here and the orginal post here), the alphabet box.  I did a few things differently, but the idea is the same.

I started by finding the perfect box (this part was easy since I’m a box hoarder. seriously, stop by if you need some and I’ll hook you up).  I put the letters on the top using stickers.  This week we have just started the alphabet over so I’m showing you my A and B box.  Every night I put the letter of the day, 3 or 4 items that begin with that letter and a notecard with each of these items spelled out.  I then place the box the designated corner between the kitchen and family room. 

Since this is our second time through I will be trying to add at least one new thing for each letter.

After breakfast we go to the letter box and I sing the alphabet song.  After I’m done I ask him to point out or say letters.  After just 24 days he can tell you about half of the letters.

Then we open the box and see what surprises are in store.  He loves the excitement of discovering new things in the box.

I can tell you that this letter box generates happiness all day long.  He will take stuff out and when I find it I just put in back in the box for him to find later.  Before his bedtime story each night we do the same thing with singing the alphabet and going through the box.

When I first tried this I couldn’t believe how much he got into it.  Now he is OBSESSED with letters.  Frankly I am so over Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but I am amazed at the learning that has taken place in a short amount of time.  Gage is 21 months old but I think this would work with any toddler around his age. 

Because of my success with this pin I’ve decided to join in Trish’s Pin It and Do It Challenge, Round 2.  I’m signing up as a Timid Pinner committing to 1-3 pins.  I look forward to seeing what other fun ways I can help Gage learn.+

Sorry for the funky formatting of the photos.  WordPress does weird things with pics and copy, no matter how many times I try to fix it!

Sundays with Gage – Parties and Allergies

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This is Maddie, Gage’s first non-family babysitter and her graduation party was yesterday.  She heads to the University of Dayton in August.

I love parties.  I love to mingle.  I like to talk to everyone there.  Imagine trying to do this with a squirmy kid in tow who only wants to run wild.  And this kid cannot eat anything with dairy or peanuts.  Being only 20 months old he is likely to put anything interesting he finds on a chair, table or floor in to his mouth.  At our last graduation party I barely grabbed a m&m off the floor before he saw it.  Hard to be social when you are trying to be vigilant.

We stopped taking him to church in January because he had graduated to the next nursery (walkers) and when I dropped him off the first time there were kids walking around with their bottles of milk.  I scared the woman who signed him in by telling her that one sip of milk would mean a trip to the hospital for us and after a tense 45 minutes of a sermon I don’t remember we picked him up.  She was holding onto him, reading a book.  It really wasn’t fair to her or the other kids so we’re going to wait.  Wait for the allergy to go away.

Gage’s allergist and tummy doctor disagree on his diagnosis but both think that we should try milk again when he is two (October).  And both of them want him in the ICU hooked up to an IV overnight.  This is not something we want to do but it would be a relief to know if the allergy has gone away.  Maybe then a party would be fun again.  Someday 🙂

Mother’s Day with Gage

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The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh

The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother’s Day are the good ones.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.  ~Linda Wooten

Happy Mother’s day to all.

Words with Gage

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Gage had a few words at 14 months and a few more at 15 months, Up, No, Uh-Oh, Pop and Wow being his go-to words.  Now he’s a big boy at 16 months and new words are coming more frequently.  His favorite word this month is That and he uses it ALL THE TIME.  The pointer comes out and he wants to know what everything is.  Sometimes it’s a blank wall and sometimes it’s the 15th time I’ve said sock that day.  Either way it’s nice to hear him use words even if we’re not exactly having a conversation.

So, what’s the danger of this explosion of new words?  Well, they aren’t exactly perfected quite yet and by far the most embarrassing is Gage’s love for clocks.  He tries to say it, he does say it, quite a bit.  Loudly and in public and without an important letter.  There’s no l in his clock yet and both Jason and I have had to laugh when people look at Gage as he yells his mispronounced word. I am sure they are asking themselves why we would use such language in front of our kid.

I know this is just the beginning of embarrassing things Gage will say and I’m looking forward to it.  Now that he’s repeating words I’m really going to have to watch what I say!

His other new words this week are Cracker, Cookie, and Dog.  But just today he started saying Ball with his friend, Brooke.

And he just said Car for Daddy. I wonder what his next word will be?

Sundays with Gage – Retirement means more Grandma

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So, how do you make sure a woman will LOVE her surprise retirement party and not just wish everyone would get out of her house?  Make sure she sees her only grandson first thing.

My mom officially retired before Christmas but with it being a busy time of year we decided to wait until this weekend to surprise her (and my dad) with a party at their house.  A fun time was had by all, even if the retiree everyone was there to congratulate was over an hour late due to a very busy restaurant.  My aunt and uncle were anxiously watching my dad eat steak while we were all munching away back at the house.

So, what does this retirement mean for Gage?  Way more time with Grandma.  She still lives over 2 hours away, but the visits will be more frequent.  Win for Gage, win for Grandma, and a win for Mom.

Sundays with Gage- Mothering is hard

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Much like the black eye that Gage got at My Gym this week, being a mother also comes with some bruising.  I am a relatively cheerful person and like I said in yesterday’s post I don’t like airing dirty laundry.  I think putting a positive face on most anything will make you happier.  But, as I started reading the very funny book, I was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids, I felt such a release and lightening of my mothering load.  See, mothering is hard.  And the dirty little secret of the book is that we are not always happy, fulfilled or holding it all together.  And if I say this it doesn’t mean that I don’t love my son.

The first year of being a mother was the hardest thing I’ve ever done (as a friend told me at lunch on Friday, Gage put me through the ringer) and I wouldn’t trade it.  It stretched me further than I thought possible and I didn’t break.  I’m stronger and tougher for it.  But, in all honesty, I didn’t always love it.  I always loved Gage, but not my life.

But with distance comes perspective and with time comes competence and here we are at 14 months and life is pretty good.  But the thing that I’m starting to realize is that being a mother (at least for me) isn’t the whole picture, it’s a large piece of the puzzle.  I had grand expectations before giving birth, like all mothers do I’m sure, and the reality to this point has been nowhere close to my vision.  So, with distance also comes a reassessing of expectations as reality hits me in the face.

I’m sure that I will gush about this book after I’m done, but it already makes me feel freer to accept that feeling overwhelmed and having less than positive thoughts does not make me a bad mother.  I mentioned it was funny, right?  If you have a friend (or it’s you) who needs to feel like there are other less than perfect moms out there I think this would be a great recommendation (keep in mind I’m only 30 or so pages in).  I Was a Really Good Mom Before I had Kids by Ashworth & Nobile.

Next week I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled lovefest with Gage 🙂

Walking with Gage

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We have take-off.  Gage has been getting more brave with cruising from couch to couch over the past month or so, but it’s just in the past few weeks that I’d say he’s officially walking.  Sometimes, more like a drunken sailor than an athlete, but I think it’s cuter that way.

He still likes to hold my finger when we’re out so he’s not feeling completely independent.  My back is already looking forward to not having to carry him every single minute.

Cute, right?

 

 

Sundays with Gage- Age

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I grew up thinking I’d have lots of kids.  As an only child I thought the grass was greener in the big, noisy home, I guess.  Then I went off to college and after moved on to Washington DC with a serious relationship or two under my belt, but nothing that stuck and babies seemed as far away as Brad Pitt. So, when I married Jason at the perfect age of 27, I kinda figured kids would happen a few years later.  Every time we had the discussion kids were always a few years away until 36 hit and I suddenly felt my eggs drying up at an alarming rate.  Yes, I could feel them 😉

Anyhoo, we had a miscarriage a month after we started trying to have a baby and it took us over a year to try again.  We considered our life together and whether children had to be a part of it.  Honestly, I was scared to try again.  We both decided our lives would be great either way.  And over a year later Gage was cooking.

All of this is just to show that I didn’t set out to become an older mom.  Sometimes the years get away from you and it happens.  But, there are a few distinct differences between older and younger moms.  For me (certainly not all), I was in so much better shape when I was younger and now that Gage is starting to walk I realize that even when I lose some weight there will be aches and pains that wouldn’t have been there 15 years ago.

Also, I know so much more than I did in my 20’s.  This is both a good and bad thing.  From watching news (something I didn’t do much of back then) I am more aware of the dangers of pregnancy, childbirth, what to feed them, organic vs. not, etc. but there is something to be said for going into motherhood blind and full of naive excitement.  Let’s be honest, we’re all a little naive until we are trying to comfort a screaming baby at 4 am when there’s been no sleep for days.

I do know myself and am happy and content with life, which is a good thing for Gage to see.  At 27, I was still trying to figure out how to make that happen.  I spent my late 20’s and early 30’s moving a few times, traveling quite a bit, trying a few different jobs and having lots of very cool experiences.  But I know lots of friends that were happy and content to be having kids at that age and their kids will also benefit from personally fulfilled mothers.  A few of my friends are grandmothers already, something I will have to wait a while to experience, if ever.

So, for every child rearing experience there are two sides and one is not necessarily better, they are just different.  I do feel my age with Gage, but when I take him to storytime or to the gym, the younger  moms are surprised that I’m 40, so I must be wearing it well 🙂  (Of course, they only say they are surprised if my gray hairs  have recently been returned to their rightful dark brown)

What was the best thing about the age that you (or your mother) became a parent.  For me, being an older mom, the best thing is being exactly where I want to be in life and having some great experiences and wisdom to pass on to Gage.

Sundays with Gage – Mom who?

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I wanted to participate in the Read-a-thon but couldn’t really ask Jason to do 24 + 6 (recovery sleep time) hours of dad duty so I suggested to my mom that she and my dad might like to come and help out for the weekend and being the awesome grandparents they are, they came.  Gage was having so much fun that he did not even notice that I was taking the day off.  

Jason was never that comfortable with me doing Sundays with Gage and I told him that I would only do it til Gage turned one.  But I’ve heard from so many of you via blog, Facebook, and email that you would like it to continue.  So, I’ve been thinking about it and decided that I’ll continue to feature Gage on the weekends in someway.  Maybe Weekends with Gage?  I’ll try to be little more focused.  Once a month I can do a weekend with books, one with a special baby or mommy issue, one with a special trip we’ve taken, and the last one is open right now.  So, Gage will continue to show his cute face for a while longer, maybe til his next birthday?  I don’t know.  I like having the weekly update.  I’ve been better about documenting firsts here than anywhere else.

Also, I haven’t really addressed his health scare from February (post here).  We weren’t convinced that it wasn’t formula related in some way and have had him on soy  formula since and we have been extremely (too) careful in introducing foods.  In July he spent another night in the hospital after I fed him a cracker with cheese and milk.  So, that’s where we are.  We are not feeding him dairy even though his allergy test was negative.  He has been the picture of health otherwise and I’m hoping that week in February will be the scariest week of his childhood!

 

Sundays with Gage- When Organic Matters

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I read this post by Constance Marie when we were starting to plan for Gage’s arrival and wanted to do as much organically as possible.  The no VOC paint was the easiest thing to do.  It dried fast and there were not fumes.  I also became convinced that an organic crib was the way to go, but when I started researching them they were expensive.  Jason and I went back and forth on whether to invest in an Amish organic crib and in the end we bought it.  Kids Collection uses organic wood and stain (if you pay more) so that no chemicals will come near your baby when they sleep. Or in Gage’s case, come near his teeth!  This is what Gage works on when mom and dad are sleeping.

 Do you see those teeth marks?!

I also signed up for Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-Thon next weekend. I’ve asked my parents to come up and help with Gage for the weekend.  I’d like to see if I can make it the whole 24 hours.  As a newish mom I can get by on a lot less sleep now, but I know I’ll miss that afternoon nap!  If you haven’t already signed up you should. Here’s the link.  I’m sure some of that time will be spent reading to Gage so that he can participate too 🙂