What a difference a year makes....

I have just about decided I am the worst blogger in history. When reviewing all my previous blogs, in almost every one of them I promise to blog more often. Yet, here I am almost a year since my last post. A good friend of mine has a blog that she updates weekly, and I am so envious of her online documentary of what's going on with her family and watching her kids grow in pictures on the blog. So here I am once again, vowing to at least try and be more diligent about my blogging frequency.

Gage is now 14.5 months old, and needless to say has changed quite a bit from my last post. He is the hi-litle of our lives and an absolutel angel. We celebrated his 1st birthday with family and friends on Feb 11th. The theme was a snakes, and snails, and puppy dog tails theme. My Aunt Betty and Uncle George made 2 birthday cakes for Gage to celebrate. This in itself was worthy of celebrating. My Aunt and Uncle have made all of our cakes through the years, and I was more than pleased to have them carry on the tradition with my little guy. Gage wasnt quite walking as of his first birthday but he started shortly thereafter. Around 13 months he was walking 80% of the time, and only crawling when he needed to get somewhere fast.

He loves to walk now. And he LOVES to play outside. He's 27.5 pounds now and a heavy little sack of potatoes. His favorite foods are: FOOD. This boy can eat! He's a bottomless pit that we'll never be able to afford come the teenage years : ) Ha. In all seriousness, his favorite foods are strawberries without hesitation. He LOVES strawberries, toast with strawberry jelly, bananas, macaroni and cheese, little smokies sausages for breakfast, mandarin oranges, graham crackers, and yogurt melts. He is a good eater, not picky for the most part and doesnt seem to have his Daddy's distaste for veggies. He's off the bottle and onto whole milk, no more formula. He's been extremely easy to transition in almost every aspect. We havent had to really fight him on anything.

He is learning to blow kisses now and will wave "by-bye" when you leave the room. His first word was "Da-Da" but he is doing really well with expanding his vocabulary now. He can say these words: "Bye-bye, Momma, Boo, Ball, and if you ask him what does the puppy say...or if he sees a dog in the neighborhood he starts saying "woof woof" over and over. Its really cute. I am trying to get him to give kisses and he is getting better about it. Most of the time they are open mouth, bite your nose and slobber on your face kisses, but hey I'll take them.

This past Monday, Gage spent his first night away from home without us. Last September before I started this new job with Hines, Dustin and I took a quick overnight getaway to New Braunfels and my mom came to stay at our house with him. This past Monday, Jolene came into town and wanted to take Gage to spend the night with her in Lake Jackson. Dustin and I were really apprehensive, but wanted to encourage the relationship between the two of them so we relunctantly agreed and tried to focus on the bright side...no baby, meant date night for us. I really struggled with him being gone. It wasnt so much the time away from him, I was worried about him being in a new envinronment without me. He didnt have any constants or sense of familiarity so I was nervous. Gage did great and so did we. We missed him like crazy but it was indeed nice to have a night to ourselves and be able to go out to eat without worrying about someone throwing food, cups, etc across the table.

Without further ado, let me bring you up to speed in pictures....



Our 1st family pictures 10-6-11





  



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My first trip to the zoo! I loved the goats! 12-31-11



My first boat ride 4-1-12



Dreams about G....

I received my weekly TGIF email from my Dad today. He is evidently suffering from Gage withdrawals. My Dad has a long standing history of having very vivid dreams. Most of his dreams are about food, with the occasional dream about his grandbaby : ) When Gage was still in my tummy, my Dad had a dream that his house flooded and Gage came in the "game room" at my Dad's and told him he could come live with us. In that dream Gage was about 3 or 4 years old with sandy brown hair and a very inquisitive look. My Dad still remembers to a "t" what the little boy looked like. I guess we will have to wait and see if it comes true

See email below, Happy Friday!

I had a dream last night about Gage. He was sitting in a deer stand hunting with me, there was only one window straight in front of us and a long view of a clear cut with a line of trees. He may have been about 2 years old but was talking a lot. He was still small and sitting in my lap, his head was bigger than the rest of him. LOL. I told him we need to sit still and be quiet….

There were deer and all sorts of critters all over the place.

Everything that moved he would turn his head up and look at me and say: Gurmps! What’s zat? Gurmps! What’s zat? Gurmps! What’s zat? Gurmps! What’s zat? Gurmps! What’s zat?



Too cute.

I may need to rethink my choice of names as a grandparent.

A for effort!!

This morning when I dropped Gage off at school, the teacher stopped me and wanted to talk to me about G's bottles. I noticed that it took Gage a long time to finish a 5oz bottle..but I atrributed that to the amount that was in the bottle. A larger the quantity, the longer it takes to get it all down type theory. Anyways..the daycare teacher informed me that he was falling asleep a lot while taking his bottles and she thought he was ready for the #2 nipples. Gage is currently using the #1's. For those of you not aware, the #2 nipples have a larger opening, and therefore the milk comes out faster and the baby doesnt have to work so hard.

I mentioned to Dustin today that perhaps we should try her recommendation. Being the amazing Daddy that he is, he stopped on his way home from work and got some. Again, being the best daddy in the world...he removed them from the package and diligently boiled them to ensure Peanut's safety.

I just got the email below from Dustin..LOL...I give him an A for effort.

From Dustin:
I'm dumb! I bought 6 nipples and they had a #2 on them. Turns out it means 2 in each package. They are the same as we already had and I already opened and boiled them all. They didn't have any others at walmart

Oh..I also got this picture of our little angel

They start early...

Yesterday Dustin went to pick Gage up from school. When he got there Gage was laying on the floor on his tummy. Because his little neck muscles are not quite that strong yet, when he is on his tummy it sort of resembles a little turtle stretching their neck out of their shell. Its really cute the way his head kind of wobbles back and forth. Anyways, he was on his tummy looking at this little girl who was also on the play mat. She is about 6 months old..or as Dustin says…twice his age..

She was on her tummy too and they were just staring at one another with great curiosity. When Dustin bent down to pick up Gage the little girl's tiny chin just started quivering, her bottom lip puckered out into a full pout and then she started crying as hard as she could…

Evidently Daddy had taken her little friend away! Guess he wasn’t born on the day of love for nothing : ) The little cupid

Pics of Gage

Maternity Pics (courtesy of my sister)

These were taken two weeks before Gage was born

The Days and Weeks After

To say that Dustin and I had a horrible stay at the hospital following Gage’s birth is an understatement. All the magic and euphoria was almost immediately ripped away by careless nurses and poor treatment. I will spare any further details on that..but it was not one of my favorite moments. The day we were to come home from the hospital Gage came down with a pretty significant case of jaundice. Although this is common in babies the first few days and weeks of life, it through this mom for a loop to see her baby hooked up to a special glowing bed with tubes coming out every which direction. The doctor’s and nurses informed us we would have to have a “bili bed” in order to take Gage home. A home healthcare company got up set up and we were on our way to life at home with a new baby. I was exhausted by the time we pulled into our neighborhood. I had a total of 5 hours sleep in 3 days, and a constant parade of nurses and staff at the hospital made it impossible to get any rest there. Our home looked a lot like heaven as we pulled in the driveway! Maybe that was because two little angels had been working away while we were gone. As we pulled down the street I saw a cloud of blue balloons, a huge “It’s a Boy” sign in the yard and a wreath on the door. My heart was once again overjoyed and I was so touched. My mom and Dustin’s mom had really out-done themselves making our homecoming special. I was so touched. As we walked in the door the sweet aroma of a home cooked meal touched my nose and I took a deep breath. I felt the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. I was home, with my little angel. I could shower, brush my teeth, and SLEEP in my very own bed. And I did just that. Not only that, but I got to put on my very own comfy pair of pajamas that had not fit in months. It fit again and I was thrilled! I will even admit I poured myself a glass of wine that first night..and it too was GLORIOUS!




The next day we were to meet with the pediatrician to have Gage’s bilirubin levels checked. This would be my first time out of the house with my brand new baby and it was a wee bit harder than I expected. I diligently packed all of his essentials in my new diaper bag. Diapers, check. Bottles, check. Burp rags, wipes, boogie pickers, binky, check check check! I was ready! Off we went. My mother in law was driving and commented that my brand new car was not driving right? Hmm I thought. We pulled off the freeway, into not the best area of town…of course! And my car DIES! Here we are, in the ghetto, in a broken down vehicle, and running late to a doctor’s appointment. I was already worried about driving with Gage in the car..and now this. Ugh! Daddy to the rescue again. Dustin came and traded vehicles with us so we could go on to the doctor and he stayed there until the nearest Lexus dealership would come to tow my car. We get to the doctor almost an hour late and I am a bit frazzled. Gage has of course pee’d in his diaper which has somehow soaked all of his clothes as well. And there it was..the one thing I forgot in his diaper bag…a change of clothes. I put myself up for mommy of the year right then as I drug my 3 day old baby into the doctor’s office to have his heel pricked with a needle, wearing no clothes, smelling like pee, and wearing a dirty diaper. Yup, I win! I was then scolded for not having socks on the baby…and I literally wanted to smack the nurse and tell her look lady I am lucky his head and my head are still attached at this point. And by the way..I just had my first baby 3 days ago…could I get just a little slack? Sigh, those first few days and weeks were trying. Gage was a perfect prince. He went with the flow and he DID cut mommy some slack. He didn’t mind that he didn’t have socks on, that his diaper wasn’t changed immediately, or that he had to sit in the ghetto and wait for Daddy to come rescue us. When they say that babies are resilient, they were right again. My little man was a trooper.


We continued to have Gage’s bilirubin levels checked daily for the next 10 days. This sounds like a relatively easy process..go to the doctor and then you’re done..right? Nope..going to the doctor as a new mom with a new baby is ten times harder than you would ever think. The task that used to take you 1 hour, will now take 3 hours to complete. It was draining , but most of all I hated hearing Gage cry every time they pricked his little foot with a needle. All of this, and not to mention..I just had a baby! Momma was pretty tired and still trying to recooperate myself. To wrap things up and spare too many details..mom had some complications during week 2 that also required us to go see the doctor. When I said Gage I spent the first 2 weeks of his life going to a doctor’s office daily, I wasn’t kidding. We thought we had that obstacle tackled and then week 3 ½ ended with mommy having surgery. NOW we are back on track and have enjoyed our very first week home together with ZERO doctor’s appointments.
Now I am truly getting to enjoy my time home with Gage and focus on just loving on him and holding him. And working on his birth announcement etc etc. I have so enjoyed being a mommy. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be this fulfilling. I love taking care of him. And I don’t even mind the lack of sleep or getting up in the middle of the night. I actually enjoy it. That one on one time spent with him is priceless. I love watching him quietly suck on his bottle while the rest of the house sleeps peacefully. These are the moments I will hold on to forever and ever. I should also mention that aside from a fantastic baby, I have one fantastic daddy as well. Dustin is the perfect doting father. He is great with Gage and I really don’t know how I would do this without him.


So..there it is..the skinny on what has been going on in our lives the last month. And I do promise to update this blog more often. I know, I know..I always say that : ) Thank you to all our family, friends, and loved ones who made this journey with us. The outpouring of love and support, home cooked dinners, help, and visits have been more than we could have ever asked for. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.