Gage's 9 & 10 Month Letter

Size comparison photo coming soon to (an hurry up and un-pack the camera) theatre near you.)

Son, what a whirlwind two months…..remarkable ups and upsidedowns…

As always you are an amazing child and we are so lucky to have been given the gift to guide you here on this side of Heaven. You grow leaps and bounds daily and I still wish you would slow down a bit.

Some firsts/accomplishments/favorites from the last two months:

First…..

**Word – Jabba (grrrrrrrrrr)
**Saying Dada at the correct person
**Object other than food swallowing – stupid leaf

**Trip to the hospital which leads to
**Your first ear infection
**First time having Amoxicillin and allergic reaction to it
**First bath with Daddy
**First baby shower outside of the womb – welcomed closet in age cousin Mace

(at Mace's Baby Shower with Pappy)

**Packing and moving experience (and Last!)
**Time napping in your own room
**Taste of Mommy’s homemade baby food – you seem to be a fan
**First Flu Shot

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Your 9 month check-up went well and your stats are great (as always)

Weight - 26lbs 4oz

Height - 31.5 inches

Head Circumference - BIG

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Things you have accomplished…..

--3 more teeth – you now look like this (but not for long) 5 total now

Or the normal when you won't let me take a picture look...

--Locating your little man parts or what I call “tid bits” or “turtle”

--You have become a Turtle hunting/pulling pro
--Even grabbed Daddy’s turtle during a few baths (ha, you are going to hate that I posted that - one day in the future)
--Walking while only holding on to someone with one hand
--Getting two more viruses maybe even 3

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Some things you LOVE to do...........

_Bounce on any and everything

_Ride your brother like a horsey (a fit is thrown when the ride is over, oh boy)

_Walking in your walker

_Bath’s with Daddy
_Playing with Tupperware
_Shaking your Rattle (there is one you just love, I will snap a picture soon)
_Putting everything in your mouth

(even my camera lense cover, see!!!)

_Watching “Baby Signing Time”
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A couple of my favorite pictures from the last two months....

(love the goofy "Benadryl" looking face, so much personality in one little boy)

Times have been tough this year with illness/teeth and I see it getting harder as you throw around your new found FREE WILL. About two weeks ago you started throwing yourself down on your bottom when we are walking you somewhere you don’t want to go, you arch your back and throw yourself backwards if we continue in our path not yours, also crying and fussing during the whole episode. I have to admit it does make me giggle a bit but we are working on “NO” and what that means and soon I am sure one of your letters will include your first spanking and it will be for having a fit. I never knew babies threw fits at 10months, maybe it’s a fluke, or you may just feel icky with all the teeth, or just maybe you are going to be a strong willed young man who needs ack um, cough, cough, morespankingsthenyourbrothersneeded, um I mean more guidance. You have hurt yourself once so far by throwing yourself back after I let you sit there after you went WAAAAaaa and sat down because I would not let you go your way (Thank God our carpet is padded and your head is thick).

Even with all the tough times, I still am so excited to run home and snuggle/hug/play with your daily (and the fact you still want me all the time still melts my heart). I love you baby boy and Thank you for loving me.

PS: I hope I get back to every month letters now that we have moved…..

Love MOMMY

Radio Silence

Sorry for the lack of posts but here is why:

WE MOVED!

and HOly Crap we have a bunch of Crap, our last house was too small for everything so we had a huge 10ft by 10ft stacked to the brim storage unit. It took movers 7 hours to clear us from the house and clear out the unit. We are still unpacking (and will for weeks I am sure).

The new house is large, amazing, and perfect (except the sun room mystery leak and the sound of gunfire when acorns hit its roof).

I love my master bathroom that is all mine (no boyz aloud). I don't have to worry about falling into the pot at 3am in the dark, there is never extra tinkle on the seat or the floor, and the shower oh the shower is da bomb. He is the greatest shower I have ever had and his name is Flavor Flav (yes I may have lost my mind but if men can name their cars Besty, Susie, etc...then my shower is worthy)

Daimen started his new school and likes it, he has a gifted mind and this school has over 150 Gifted and Talented students from around the area that magnet to this school. He is getting challenged and is looking at joining the robotics and drama team. He is in band during the day and has chosen to switch from the Baritone to the French Horn (whew***I was having a hard time fitting the baritone in my rollerskate sized/shaped car)

I will take pictures of the house soon and hope to do Gage's 9&10 month letter also(since it is already late) so you can see what the munchkin has been up too, I will give you a hint....FREE WILL!!!

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Today is marked on some calendars as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and today I do remember my babies who never took a breath on earth but it is not the only day, I often remember them. I go through the "what ifs, and if only's" more times then a shrink would see fit. Jer and I tried for a baby for a LONG time and we had 3 babies, two pregnancies which made us over the moon with delight and were ripped apart when our babies were gone with nothing but memories of happiness and tons of ultrasound pictures.

It is said that the chance of miscarriage goes down to a very small number once the heartbeat is detected on a ultrasound, that was not the case for us, we saw our first angels heartbeat at 8weeks and then it was gone at 10 weeks (at Christmas). Our baby would have been 2 as of July 14th, he/she would be talking our ears off and doing a fine job at making his older brother angry by messing/breaking his stuff.

Our other babies were twins, a dangerous heterotopic twin pregnancy (thanks clomid), we got to watch every other day (ultrasounds) for about 3 weeks as one twin was expanding my right tube and the other "sparky" was growing, heart beating, all in the right place. It was a hard 3 weeks of watching, waiting, and planning. At the end of the 3rd week "Sparky" lost his/her spark and went to Heaven with his/her twin who had no chance snuggled inside my tube. Our twins would have turned one on September 23rd and surely be starting to walk while on the cusp of aggravating their older brothers, we miss you.

We love you, our Angels, we will meet again one day. Gone but not forgotten!

I would also like to say I am truly sorry to anyone who may be reading this that has lost a baby at any age of conception or after being born. I pray for you often and am honored that our babies are together in God's hands (I wonder if they are stealing each others paci's or pulling hair).

Cesspool

Otherwise known as a Hospital during kill babies quick flu season. (sorry G).


Also is where we visited this past Saturday night. Let me start off by saying that not only has this child made me an idiot he has also made me germaphobic (microbiology class didn’t help either). Taking Gage to the hospital with all the flu flying about is the last thing I would ever want to do no matter how good the food is, ha. However, when his sleep disruption and fussiness the last 5 days or so proved to be more than teething at the most inconvenient 7:30pm Saturday night when his temp spiked, we were forced to head to the local cesspool with gobs of sanitizer in tow.

We hid in the corner and I tried hard not to visualize the germs particles flying through the air as we waited to get called back. A cute little curly blonde haired nurse brought us to triage get vitals. Gage kept grabbing at all the wires and stethoscope making my anxiety levels creep to a unhealthy level and I acted fast to try and keep up with his germ exploration with sanitizer and then IT happened, a conversation with the cute little nurse.

Me – sanitizing baby’s hands – “sorry I am a bit of a germaphobe”
Nurse – doing vitals – “ha, we have a saying here, those who don’t come with the flu leave with it”
Me – still sanitizing – “thanks, that really helps the anxiety”
Nurse – still touching my baby with her dirty hands – “well, what do you expect, you just brought your baby to flu central”
Me – slapping cute nurse for being an idiot and making me feel stupid and wrong

Ok, that last thing did not happen but I wanted to. I mean geesh what was I suppose to do at 730pm on a Saturday night with a baby that obviously had a festering ear infection, is there a number you just call up and WaaLaaa they order you antibiotics, if so, well I guess I did mess up and someone please give me that number.

I thought I didn’t have couth!

And,
Gage does have an ear infection, poor baby.

I need to get some of this while I wait for my glands to swell and I start to squeal.....

Duct Tape?

How am I going to keep this kid alive for the next 17.3 years? He wants to eat everything and is really quick at the grab, snatch, swallow. Some examples.......


Here is a picture of a similar leaf that Gage swallowed last week. Do you see why I was worried about fungus and worms? It is a gnarly looking leaf.


Another example.....I am sitting right in front of him and he does these moves within seconds as I am snapping.

(so cute sitting there pondering)

YES- folks he is popping something in his mouth, no he is not playing with the envelope which is what I thought also, YES- he looks like a hobo baby, YES- sometimes I do suck at matching his clothes (often), NO- that was not the case that day, YES- laziness was the culprit.

So what do you think was so yummy?

Perfectly shaped and sized for choking, filet-min-ACORN, marinated in acid rain and long roasted under mid-day sun for deliciousness!

muzzle, duct tape (what, I would punch holes), ideas?

J.E.L.L.O

In case you read the last post and were wondering; the texture of pOo in my house is making a turn from pre-fridge homemade jello to a nice post fridge texture. Solid Jello is the best kind jello and I am happy it came back from it's two week long water vacation.

I may be disgusting from time to time, but if you have a young child right now I bet you "get it" and if they are grown you may need to think back about diaper textures and disruptions, then I bet I get a "Amen" instead of ewww.

But the main thing on my mind is my biting child, no not me, he bites himself on his arm. He has done this in the past but never as bad as last night, his arm was really red and he left his teeth marks. 5 little chomper spots raised up in the reddened area. He does not cry when he is doing it and well I am perplexed? Just another way this kid has made me stupid, I just cant keep up.

Maybe I can get some shirts made of this:


Any Suggestions?
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On a good note he does have a good attention span for his age, he sits through 30mins of his favorite video, Baby Signing Time, he seems to love it.

I find myself singing the “diaper dance” tune while at work most days because he watches some of it before we leave in the morning.

"Tape it to the left,
tape it to the right,
so they don't fall down,
just pull them up tight,
let's dance, dance, do the diaper dance,
let's dance, dance, you've got fancy pants
just shake it, take it, scoot it, toot it,
just dance it, prance it, jump it, bump it, dump it, Wooooooooo!"

See, my brain has become a babbling pile of mush, I am not even wearing diapers, YET, I will be ready though as I am already practicing. SIGH, thanks "Baby Signing Time"

HaHaaaHaa or Waaaaaaaaaaaa!

The outline of life the last 10 days or “hell week or HW” is what I will call it in the future.
(I know a normal week is 7 days, but “HW” is 10 and counting, I hope just 10)

I am going to try to keep this as brief as possible and at the end of it you will see that extra time for detailed stories is not really plausible at this point. I will also try and keep the order correct, not only for your clarity but for my record of how events unfold during “hell week” (ha, the marines ain’t got nuttin on my life)<<<<

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Wednesday Sept. 23rd

Leaf swallowing
*picture of similar leaf and complete story coming soon* Fungus covered Leaf was swallowed at the (sarcastically) convenient time to assume the next two topics were caused by it and not a contagious virus.

Vomiting
*sorry no picture* Lot’s of vomiting, exorcist style, he is such a talented baby.

Diarrhea
*again no picture, sorry for the disappointment* Do I need to explain? Ok if so...it is when you pee poo.

M&P come over

to watch liquid spewing child while we were at the title company, what a blessing.

House sold

This house

Yay *insert hand clapping here*, we finally sold the one bedroom to small, laundry list of hunny do’s, currently cracked to pieces house. With a October 14th get the heck out or you will be paying hotel costs to live there rental lease was signing (remember that date, you will see it again)

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Thursday Sept. 24th

Vomiting

(see above explanation)

Diarrhea
(see above explanation)

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Friday Sept. 25th

New House failing inspection

This House
(failing - that’s what you call it when the inspector refuses to finish his job, failing?)
Um, I have nothing to say other than REALLY????? And 19 days until we have to vacate!! Inspector says "well there are a bunch of bridges in the area" SLAP!

Vomiting
(see above explanation)

Diarrhea
(see above explanation)

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Saturday Sept. 26th

Flu shot cancelled

Gage is still doing fluid expulsion tricks, I make a decision to forgo the shot. Stupid Leaf

M&P come over
Was suppose to be a packing weekend but turned to feverish house hunting after previous issue. They helped tremendously, even though much packing did not get done, lots of laundry and lawn mowing did.

House hunting (with new fear of homelessness)
(sigh) found a good house, make a offer

Pre-term labor
Sister-in-Law, Laurie calls, she is having contractions every 10mins and wants to join our party (we are closer to the hospital), the contractions peter out after keeping her up most of the night (I say she grounds that boy).

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Sunday Sept. 27th

Vomiting

Stops!!!!!!!!!!!

Diarrhea

Still present, accounted for, and a pedialyte induced neon green color! (aren't you glad you read that)

Worms

Sunday night September 27th Jer and I scoop the baby up and rush him to the hospital because he is pooing hundreds of black ¾ inch long worms in his still flowing diarrhea. Crying, thinking how much I suck as a mother because now my kid has worms from eating a rotten leaf off the floor. Then, it comes to me, “could it be the seeds in the banana’s he has had all week to help curve the diarrhea, naw, Jeremy will you look that up on your phone” Insert stop at the store for a beverage. Jeremy hands me the phone and waaLa, it is written all over Google, I am officially a crazy paranoid idiot, my baby does not have worms, instead just a case of the banana’s or undigested banana seeds because of his fast flowing intestines. HA, you laugh now but would you have known? I giggled all the way home because not only do I feel stupid but I am not the only one, seems as though many parents have been perplexed by banana worms in the diaper. Hmmm I wonder how many of them had a child who ate a fungus covered leaf just days before the worms? Does that make me less stupid? Is less stupid proper English? Ok I am done.

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Monday Sept. 28th

New House Contract

Yay this house is awesome and the seller accepted the offer, and it is a better looking house then the lemon we were going to buy. see!!

Vomiting
Came back and dirtied my bed, AGAIN! Poor little guy, stupid leaf.

Diarrhea
Still HERE!

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Tuesday Sept. 29th

New House Inspection

Wow, 35pages, the guy is thorough and takes lots of pictures, 2 majorish issues, the rest is because the house was build in 1965 and codes change.

New house issues being addressed
More to come on this soon, I hope, 12 days until homelessness

Vomiting
I was prepared for it with his morning bottle in one hand and a huge bath towel in the other, squeezed my butt cheeks every time he coughed, just waiting for the title wave and tada, nothing but smiles.

Diarrhea
Still present but getting better.

A Tooth Emerges
That is 5 now and here is the placement. PS: I hate the toothfairy, oh wait that is me, right?

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Wednesday Sept. 30th

Vomiting
Ha, you thought it was Gage still, well you are wrong, I woke up vomiting, continued on the way into work (thank you Styrofoam cups on my floorboard). Then I had a realization, that Gage must have had a virus and the leaf was bad timing because I did not eat any leafs, sigh. This kid has made me a moron, or I was a closet moron and he just opened the door, I dunno, I feel too stupid to figure it out. If we knew he had a virus we would not have had my, about to drop my baby nephew Mace any second sister in law and family over for obvious reasons dealing mainly with their and the new babies health. Sigh, sorry guys, stupid leaf.

A Beautiful Baby is Born
Mace was born 9/30/09 at 9:45am weighing in at 8lbs 13oz and 21 1/2inches long. Here is a picture right after birth.

Mace: “What the heck just happened and who the heck are you?” (you can insert your own words, but my blog is rated G, remember)
He is a cutie and I hope to see him when I am virus free. Congratulations: Blake, Laurie, Audrey and Nolan. Welcome to the family Mace!!

A Love Affair
Get your mind out of the gutters: I *heart* Zofran (leftover nausea med from pregnancy), after all I am a mom and being sick is NOT allowed.

New House Issues

being addressed More to come on this soon, I hope, 12 days until homelessness
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Thursday Oct. 1st

A Love Affair Continues

I *heart* Zofran A LOT

A Flu Test
It was negative so no time off for me, pull up the big girl panties that say “Friday” and go to work.

Carpet Burns

(haha, bet you are in the gutter again, sorry my life is not THAT interesting)
I thought a stupid mosquito was biting the top of Gage’s feet for days, they just kept getting redder in different places, even on the tops of his toes, until last night when he showed me his new trick, it goes like this: Stand up and run as fast as you can in your walker, then sit down real quick, and make sure you drag the top of your feet on the carpet until you stop, wash, rinse, repeat! I told you, this kid has made me an idiot, SIGH!

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TODAY...

Vomiting

None, whew, so far, however I have my lover (Zofran) close.

Diarhea

Still not solid in diapers in my house, soon I hope!

Everything Else

Still stable as of Now! HW may be coming to an end!

EXHALE........