Gage's 7 & 8 Month Letter

(again a two month difference, beginning of month 6 (left) and month 8 (right), your face is changing from baby to little boy)

Gage,

WOW what an eventful two months young man, let’s highlight it, shall we:

What a ride young man, the last two months have been the busiest by far as it pertains to work, house buying/selling issues, and once again Daycare. You have also been busy in your new “tricks”, fine tuning skills, and firsts.

Month 7 began with spending lots of time getting accustomed to your new daycare schedule, the MDO (mother’s day out) program that was Tuesday – Thursday went pretty much like I thought, not much sleep but better environment and care. Then in the morning and on Monday and Friday you spend your days with M and her kids. Those days were my favorite and I think yours also, sleep was abundant, attention was great, and between these two months at M’s and MDO the most you were sick was a couple of days with the common cold.

On June 21st you were quite cranky to the point it was mysterious (you’ll see why so cranky below) so we figured that since you enjoy going ballistic in the bath and shower

that you might really dig the swimming pool, you were in awe of the water, and splashed the entire time, giggles we had not heard in days came back, you loved choking on the water when it splashed in your face (a bit weird son). No matter how much you choked you continued to splash and laugh, the hardest thing was holding onto your wet squirmy body mass and keep your head above water, I do believe just as your brothers are, you are going to be our third water bug.

Then your big/middle brother came down for 6 weeks and he just adores you, from my eyes you too look a lot alike, in Kollen’s words “Gage, you are husky, like me”.

The day Kollen got here June 24th, you cut your first tooth through (bottom front right), I knew you had been cranky and restless for a few days but I was still shocked when you grabbed my finger and bit me, after that you would not let me touch or even get close enough to take a picture of the new pearly white, I imagine it was sore, and that is when we learned you can clamp your mouth closed with as much ferocity as a Venus Fly Trap.

Kollen got here just in time to be at your Aunt Sarah’s wedding, where you made a grand appearance in your first tux at your fist wedding, a cute tux designed onesie because after all it was an outside wedding, the later part of June, in Texas, with record highs of 109’s.

The night before the wedding you went to what no other man was allowed, that’s right big boy, you were at your first (most likely last) baccalaureate party and demonstrated to all your angel side (ha, they have not seen you a few days previous while teething).

Even with a smaller than normal amount of sleep because you were partying hardy with us girls (watching movies) you still were very well behaved meeting all your relatives that traveled in and coping with the numerous amount of people, son I was proud.

The weekend after the wedding which happened to also be july 4th, we traveling back to M&Ps to have our annual family picture captured. We had the same photographer that took my maternity pics and your Aunt Sarah’s wedding came back and we are pleased that she took our family pictures. We did our immediate family first and I finally was able to see some of my complete family picture visions come together.

While doing the big family picture we always have kid drama and this year you added to the cast of characters, if you were not trying to bend in half to pull Mu’s hair then you were paying attention to your Cousin Nolan (who was also not paying attention), and not one bit interested in the photographer regardless of how much she shook your (favorite at the time) dragon toy, you would not even glance her way. I love the BIG family pics that contain drama and it makes me smile/giggle remembering the moment, so bravo to you and your cousins.

On July 9th you cut your second tooth (bottom front left), only two weeks after the first, you show-off. It was not as much as a surprise as the first because you went through the same 5 days of ick before it emerged; let’s just say the tooth fairy is not welcomed in our house anytime soon, unless she/he is going to start getting up with you every 30-45mins all night long for 5 days.

Some other firsts during month 7:

* Holding your toes, and you do it often.

*Trying carrots
*Getting your pacifier back into your mouth
*Pushing your upper body off the ground and moving backwards

Here are a couple of my favorite pics from your 7th month:

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MONTH 8

At the beginning of month 8 we had quite an adventure, an 11 hour trip to visit/meet your great grandparents in Alabama (more on that trip in another post). It was a hard 5 days in many ways but we were able to show you off to more family you have not yet met. The afternoon after we got to Alabama and were headed to the farm to meet up with the family we had to put you back in the seat you had not too long previous spent 11 hours in and son you had a first, yup, your first arms flailing, high pitch peeved off screech, baby tantrum, and son I completely understood, I did not want to get back in my seat either but I was working on 36 hours with no sleep at that moment and had no energy to throw myself on the ground and scream (but I did think about it).

Here is the big family picture.

and the reason for the trip, to meet your Great Grandma & PawPaw

After we returned from our adventure, it was time to say forget fruit, they all seem to upset your stomach and moved onto vegetables, you loved everything we gave you and then the spider monkey was born. I don’t know, maybe because your sensitive stomach caused you to be late starting consistent solids, baby jars are cool, anything tastes better than your hypoallergenic formula, or you just enjoyed watching me trying to catch flying baby food, whatever it was you transformed into a spider monkey on crack when you put you in your chair to eat. The first time your un-expecting mother put the bowl in arms reach and within milliseconds you, myself, and the floor was covered in pureed carrots, then it was the lightning fast hands that were determined that they could shovel faster than me, and if that was not enough, a nice raspberry zurbert thus spitting food in a spray like fashion after every bite, which should explain your spider monkey feeding status. Our ceiling still has sweet potatoes on it, yes son, they stain. I do wish we would have gotten the fiasco on tape because it was hilarious if you were not the one dodging the spray of food why trying to navigate the faster than lightning hands and after a week or so you figured out that sitting mostly still and controlling your grabby limbs equaled food faster, so all we have is memories of that week and most of me is very ok with that. You tried lots of different vegi's and sweet potatoes are your favorite with peas on the other side of the spectrum. From then to current your stomach is doing much better with digestion and you each 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and even are able to consume apples with your cereal in the morning (instead of sweet potato oatmeal, yuck)

You had another set of shots in August, a new nurse was the morbid pain administer, and she was great. I will admit his normal nurse has like 35 years experience so when I saw this young new thang I was worried, she had all three shots done within 3 seconds, I picked you up right away and the crying stopped even before a tear formed, I was amazed and pleased. I looked at Gage, neither one of us with a tear in our eyes, and at that moment I realized we were both becoming big boys. Onto some stats, your weight has finally slowed a bit, you were gaining ½ pound a week since birth and even then you were a week early and still weighed 9lbs 1oz, so add that with two pounds a month after and it sums up your nicknames “thunder thighs, peanut butter, chunky monkey, etc ..”

Stats on 8/7/09 at 34weeks or beginning of month 8
Weight 23lbs 4ozs
Height 29 ¾ inches
Head 18 ¾ inches

Some firsts this month include but surely not limited to:

*Sitting up by yourself (once put in that position by someone and you can do it without the cushion, just mom is a scaredy cat)
*Your first house hunting adventures, just for reference, you are NOT a fan

*Your discovered our animals and squeal real loud when they come close (which does drive them away, or maybe it’s the hair pulling, hmmmmm)

*That brings us to a whole new level of hair pulling, with your quicker than most, spider monkey hands, which also lead to your first (maybe last) doll, to distract you from my hair I hoped this little doll with long tough yarn hair would do the trick, *sigh* you are not dumb and the fake hair does not seem to fullfill your hair obsession.

*Your first time laughing at me when I said NO real sternly to you after a consistant hair pulling session at 11pm one night (post to come soon)

*You ate your first mashed potatoes, and did so by yourself for the first time, at a very busy restaurant (which directly lead to your next first)

*You were stripped down to only a diaper in public, at the dinner table in a populated restaurant, before we took you out to the car. Made me wonder if “No Shirts, No Shoes, No Service” was intended for all patrons because if so, you broke rules for the first time and didn’t even shed a tear about it.

You have also learned some new things recently, some cute new tricks during month 8 are:

*You bounce on any and everything, excersaucer, walk, bouncer, hips, legs etc….We need to get you a horse soon because similar to gummy bears, I believe you are going to bounce to get to a destination instead of walk. You have strong legs because of all the bouncing….

Look at all that muscle, haha
*You are a rough houser and your daddy is happy to oblige, you like to wrestle, be thrown up, down, around, through etc….We do a shark game where I make the JAWS soundtrack noise, dah domp………..you smile,… dah domp……..you flip over,.. dah domp…..you try to crawl away, arms and legs flapping, face down on the bed, dah domp...dah domp..dah domp.dah domp, SQUEAL (even before I touch you), and then laugh when I get your side with a raspberry.

*Then you have a quiet side where you like to read the Bible to Daddy (exspecially turning the pages)

*And Lastly, one of my favorites, you wrinkle your nose when you are really happy and also do it when you are mad (Jeremy calls that the “I hate You” look) I have only caught a few almost pics of this wrinkle you do quite often because as soon as I get the camera you quit what you are doing and jump for it. (Here is a "almost wrinkle" picture)

Below are two of my favorite 8th month photos, I do enjoy the smiles but am a sucker for the

solemn almost sad photos, and most of all, your eyes are starting to shape out like mine (downdroop puppydoggish) and because nothing much except your jacked up pinky toes resemble me, I am tickled that I can see my eyes in yours. Pssst.... you big brother has then also.

Son, you are such a blessing, even in the darkest of teething sleepless nights. I am proud to be your mom and just love watching you grow and learn. I can not wait until one day you can look back and say “my mom technologically kept up my baby book on her blog”, ok so you are a boy and most likely won’t care, but I will.

Love, Mom

(sorry this turned into more of a book, then a letter, but you are changing to fast)