Friday Blog Hop

For those of you who stopped by from the blog hop, thanks for reading and commenting! It was a treat being featured this week. I am disappointed I didn't have any profound post for today but time got away from me. There are a few things I'd like to post about (I just have to remember them) and will try to do so tomorrow. For now, I'll post 2 super cute pics I took today. After all, what else matters..

That's right, my raft is pink.

The pool is just awful on my hair.

Take a Looky...

I think I have completed this month's facelift for my blog!  Hope you like it!  I know, I know, most people just get a really neat background or even pay for one, perfect it and leave it alone.  However, I think one of the things I like best about my blog is changing and updating the theme.

A few weeks ago I started 'blog hopping' to see if I could get a little more traffic running through here to see pictures of my super cute baby!  I got a few more followers and got to read TONS of cool blogs.  Two weeks later, I am lucky enough to be featured in a blog hop that is used by roughly 250 people, not to mention it's on a blog that has over 2000 followers.  So head on over to Thanks, Mail Carrier,  Frugal Novice or Healthy Home Blog and check out the blog hop.  If you have a blog, link up, if not, just check out some of the other great reads!  A big thank you to Xenia, Christi and Charla for running the hop!

Wordless Wednesday Pics...

...seem to have a theme going on, no?  ha...this is not at all intentional. The first picture was just super cute and I hadn't looked at his newborn pictures in sooo long.  This week's picture was from Tuesday when we went down to visit my old stompin' grounds with Daddy for his birthday.  We had talked about visiting JMU this summer but being that it's always 100 degrees we were waiting for the perfect 'cooler' day.  Because Luke refuses to work on his birthday and because it was only going to be in the mid 80's we headed down for the day.  I love JMU's campus and get so excited every time I get to go there.  It is beautiful and they have put up a few brand new buildings that are just so nice.  Unfortunately when we got to the new tunnel and new theatre building I didn't have my camera on me...

Gage, Mommy and the Duke Dog

My cousin, Amber is going to be a junior at JMU in the Fall and she is living there for the summer.  We got to spend a few hours with her and I also got to spend WAY too much money at the bookstore on new JMU gear!

Gage (8.5 months) and cousin Amber

Family Action shot

Ok, now I've got to get to work.  I am being featured in a blog hop tomorrow that takes place over at Thanks, Mail Carrier.  TMC has over 2000 followers, so I might get some new traffic.  Have to clean this thing up and get it lookin' nice!

Wordless Wednesday- Go Dukes!

Happy Happy Birthday...

to my wonderful and talented husband. We have had a long day and are tired. Off to bed....see you tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

My husband, the pedophile...

Got your attention, huh? NO, MY HUSBAND IS NOT A PEDOPHILE. However, apparently some teenage lifeguard at our local gym/pool seemed to think so. Last week, I posted that I was disappointed that we weren't allowed to take pictures at swim class. Luke had come and was sitting beside the pool and took a few pictures before a lifeguard came by and told him that he wasn't allowed to. I was bummed, but he said 'eh, I can see why, I mean there are little kids in bathing suits...'. I still thought, 'well we are paying for it...AND it's part of our kid growing up'.

Anyway, I got over it until tonight at the beginning of class when there was a very excited Grandma w/ her camera. She began clicking pictures left and right and I waited for someone to tell her to stop. After a few minutes, and no requests from a dutiful lifeguard, I asked the instructor if we were allowed to take pictures. She said she had no idea why we couldn't. I told her about my husband being asked not to and wondered allowed if it was b/c he was a man. She thought it was odd and then asked her male boss and he said that for sure pictures were allowed...after all it was a swim lesson and people LOVE to take pictures of their kids. (I mean, don't get me wrong, I know why you can't go to the gym and just take pictures of random kids in the pool.) So my conclusion is that a little bit of sexism was practiced and because my husband is a MAN, he was asked NOT to take pictures during swim class. Maybe they thought he looked sketchy too, what do you think?

Um...NO!

So look forward to some pictures from swim....

Birthdays!

As you can see I have changed my new header to wish my husband a happy birthday. His birthday is not today, not even tomorrow- not until Tuesday, but I believe in having birthday WEEKS. ha. I have always been HUGE on birthdays and head up the fake 'party planning' committee in my department at school. Really it's just organizing who is making a cake for what month for whose birthday. Anyway, I LOVE birthdays and make it a point to say happy birthday to anyone/everyone I can find who is celebrating their special day. So I had to of course set up a new background for a week to wish Luke a Happy day.

If any of you would like to tell me when your birthday is, or your kids' birthdays, I will make sure to post a link to your blog and wish you a happy day. I know I know, nothing special, but sometimes it's nice to hear birthday wishes from all around.

This post was a little delayed since our power was out for 5 hours this afternoon in the middle of a heat wave. We survived and although it's hot in his room, Gage is now back in his crib...should cool down before long.

This week we're busy bees again- looking at more daycares, getting ready for Daddy's bday, hanging out w/ Daddy on his bday, our weekly playdate with Sawyer, a lunch date on Sunday and visitors on Saturday....whew! Enjoy your week.

Holy crap, I almost forgot! In honor of the post title, it's one of my old high school buddy's birthdays today. Happy 30th Lawren!

The search is on....

for a few things that is.

The first and biggest thing I am looking for is day care. Grr...I hate daycare. This week I have been to several different centers looking for the right fit for Gage and for our wallets. Of course, I know I shouldn't complain too much since Gage doesn't even have to go for another 5 weeks, but I hate all of them. I just haven't walked in one yet that I can see him going to. I feel like I would get a good feeling sooner or later, but I have just about exhausted all of my options.

There are goods and bad to all of them but haven't found one that has more goods than bads. I like something about one, but can't live with something else, etc. They are all pretty comparable in price, which all fall in the ridiculous range. I am still struggling w/ what I am looking for the most (other than for my child to be happy and safe) and trying to find a center that has a good preschool age program too, so that he won't have to move centers in the upcoming years.

I don't have much experience at daycares, so if any of you can jump in, please feel free to. My biggest problem right now is that most of the centers have classrooms for birth-1 year, 12-16-18 months, then 18+ months. That would mean that Gage would be in THREE different classrooms for the 2010-2011 school year. I don't think like that. That's too much moving in 10 months, especially getting used to a new place. The one center that I found that doesn't follow this pattern is kind of an alternative school where they do things much different than the 'average' day care. It is called The Compass School and is based on the Reggio-Emilia approach. If any one has had any experience w/ this, please let me know! I don't think it's necessarily bad, just different. I think we have officially ruled out the home daycare option, although I have had a few referrals lately. It's just so hard, being that I like NOTHING.

On a completely different note, last weekend I read a review on someone's blog about some kind of sheet saver that goes over the sheet on a crib to protect it from accidents. This week, Gage has peed on himself like 3 different times and changing his sheet at 6am, 10am and 2pm is getting kind of old since you have to practically dismantle the crib. I know that I read about a product that snapped on to the rails of the crib, but for the life of me can't figure out from whom's blog. We got these little "sheet saver" things for shower gifts that I registered for and now looking at them, realize they are more like 'bassinet' savers. That is how big and long they are-completely useless for an actual crib. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, or saw this review, please remind me.

In other news, the weekend has been mostly uneventful, Gage's Asian Auntie came to visit last night and we visited friends today. Nothing too super exciting. Still need to go and look for that big boy carseat soon.....and next week the day care search will continue...Oh the Fun!

Yesterday's picture...

Since it was truly 'Wordless Wednesday' I tried to keep it as wordless as possible. Yesterday was a picture taken exactly 8 months ago when Gage was one week old. It was such a sweet picture and I hadn't seen it in so long. He has his Hokie hat and booties on (to support Dad) and you can't see it in the picture but he has his JMU onesie on (to support me). The picture is priceless...well, to me anyway.

Wordless Wednesday...

A weekend in Chesapeake...and swim lessons

Friday night we headed down to Chesapeake to visit the grandparents and to see some friends I went to high school with. We did dinner with friends and their almost 2 year old girl. Unfortunately, I am bad and didn't get any pictures (give me a break, we were at a restaurant), but Gage again, is soo interested in touching other kids now. He was very interested in Caleigh, as she was in him. Sunday we also went to visit my friend Bonnie and her new baby boy, Bennett. He was soo cute and sweet. Unfortunately, her oldest son, Carson was napping and we didn't get to see him. Gage wasn't very interested in Bennett, probably b/c Bennett showed no interest in him, but he did practice his squealing skills and puked on Bonnie's carpet!

Other than that we just spent the weekend with family and Gage got lots of Grandma and Grandiddy time! Gage is super excited to see them in 5 weeks at their beachhouse!

Gage also had his 1st swim lesson last night. He did all in all pretty well but was very overstimulated. He was SOO excited to be there and couldn't wait to get in the water. He just kept squealing and squealing, seems to be his new thing. Although we were pretty disappointed that Daddy couldn't take pictures, Gage still had fun. The instructor used him a couple of times for an 'example' and he loved it. He did get his face in the water once and swallowed a little bit of water, but he's no worse for it! We'll see how he enjoys tomorrow night's class.

Playdates Galore...

Last week we had 3 playdates back to back, then skipped town to see the grandparents. It was so exhausting we didn't even have time to write about it. I am looking forward to a much quieter week this week.

Last Wednesday, we set off to Stafford (about an hr. drive) to go and see my friend's new house and have our kids meet. Her son, Theo is 2 months older than Gage and again, those 2 months are HUGE at this age. Although Theo is almost as toothless as Gage (he has 2 halves) Theo of course can crawl and stand unassisted. He isn't quite walking but can get around quite well alone. As usual when it comes to babies, their nap/lunch times didn't mesh and Theo and Gage only really played together for a few mintues. I didn't even get any pictures, as I had promised. I did get one picture of Malisa's older son, Gus and Gage.

Gage, 8 months and Gus, almost 5

Thursday was our weekly playdate with Sawyer and although it's next to impossible to get pictures of two babies at the pool with only two mommies, I did get a few pictures here before we left for the pool. Gage has recently become very interested in Sawyer and crawled up to his carseat immediately after he arrived. He wanted to touch him and looked as if he wanted to get in the carseat w/ him. Hopefully we'll get more pictures as the summer continues.




Friday was our final date with Jamie and Jacob at the pool. It was soo hot but we actually stayed longer than usual. Jacob was in a pretty good mood, but Gage wasn't (and hasn't been) in such a good mood these days. Not to mention Gage's float got a hole in it and he can no longer 'walk' around the baby pool. We were supposed to have a Mommy lunch but the boys were both tired so we both went home instead.

More to come on the weekend with the grandparents.

EIGHT months...

I just read last month's letter to Gage and I thought it was pretty damn good. Not sure if I can top it.

Dear Gage,

Eight months old, holy crap! That's 2/3 of a year old in math language, ha! Life is just getting better all of the time. I am now home with you ALL the time and I'm loving it. We have 7 more weeks of summer to enjoy each other's company. Alot has happened in this last month, let me see if can catch you up. You are now crawling!! Yahoo! I'm so excited that you are growing up but it's crazy to think that some time real soon you'll be ruling this place. We haven't yet put the gates up, but they are coming pretty soon. You just learned this last weekend so you're still a little slow;). In the last few weeks, Daddy and I have taken you to the zoo and the pool several times! The porcupine was your favorite at the zoo and currently your favorite activity at the pool is to use your float as a walker and 'swim' around the baby pool! It's pretty funny. A few weeks ago, you, me, Jake and his Mommy went to the beach. It was super hot so we didn't have much sand time but we did get to go to the aquarium and see some HUGE sharks! We've been hanging out with Sawyer and his Mommy alot lately too.

You are now eating 3 meals of solid food a day. Right before we figured out it was time, you were eating like a piggy-3 buckets each for breakfast and for dinner, so we thought spreading them out might be better. It has worked out and you're catching on. You have just started puffs and still aren't too sure (see previous post). We've had quite a spell with you lately being up some in the middle of the night. With Mommy not working and Daddy getting up before 5am I have been up with you the most. It doesn't seem that you need anything particular, just a cuddle in the middle of the night. This is commonplace for some, but is odd for you. I contribute this to all of our daily activities now. Your routine is not as stringent and your naps are sometimes off. On days you nap well, you tend to sleep better. You LOVE LOVE LOVE the pool and will be starting swim lessons on Monday.

Although you will learn soon I'm sure, right now you can get only get from sitting to your belly, but not back up to sitting. You can't quite pull up on anything, other than w/ my help, but you sure try. Your little legs are still like spaghetti when you try to stand, although you love to stand w/ Mommy's help. You have just in the last week discovered your doorway jumper. You've been put in it for quite a while, but now know what you're supposed to do. You love your backyard swing as well and have to hold on to one side when we're swinging you. You weigh about 18lbs and will soon be ready for a big boy carseat.

Gage, you are really the apple of your Mommy's eye. What working Mom is lucky enough to stay home and play with their baby for 3 whole months? (only teachers, that's for sure). I can never get this time back and am eternally grateful for this chance to stay home w/ you and have a career. I still love to stare at you and cuddle you before you fall asleep at night. Your smile lights up a room and everyone comments on your precious dimples. You light up when Daddy comes home from work. You are learning sign language and definitely know the sign for eat and kick your feet and squeal when I ask if you are ready. You are interested in petting Ace Cat although he's not thrilled when you do. You still love Mommy's songs, even if she can't sing- they are good enough for you. You are starting to get a little more squirmy and don't enjoy sitting for as long as you used to; however, you still love books and will always sit for one. You are still nursing and seem to still enjoy it. I hope it lasts for another 4 months! Every night we thank God for you know that we are truly blessed. Happy 8 months, little man! The summer has just begun...

Love ya, Momma

Summer time...and the livin's easy..

Ah...the summer time. This is the 1st summer in a LONG time that I haven't worked somewhere. Although summer school is great money, what teacher could ever resist staying at home with their new baby all summer long? We have had some fun already and it's only 3 weeks in. This week seems to be extra busy, w/ today being our only 'day off'.

Last week on Wednesday/Thursday we started our weekly play dates with Sawyer. I think I have mentioned Sawyer quite a few times now and yet no pictures, I know, I am bad. I will try and do that this Thursday. On Friday night, we went to a friend's for dinner. They have a 2 year old and one on the way, so it wasn't exactly a play date, plus Gage went to bed shortly after we got there. Either way, it was nice to have an adult dinner. On Sunday, Gage's "Aunt" Kelly came to visit and I'm so ticked I didn't get ANY pictures of them together. What was I thinking? He doesn't see Kelly very often and maybe I was so excited b/c I don't either but shame on me for not getting any pictures of the 2 of them. I guess I could Photoshop one together;)...ha, or just wait for next time:(

Yesterday we went to lunch w/ an old college friend of mine and Gage was a dear, as usual. We almost drown (from rain) but that is a whole other post. Finally, as you know Gage started 3 meals a day last week and this week is starting finger foods. We have begun giving him puffs and it's pretty hilarious. We'll have to get it on camera while he's still unsure. He has no idea why I'm putting a lump in his mouth and tries to spit it out. He has successfully gotten a few down and has pretended to choke/gag in the process. Oh well, just like anything else, he'll learn with time. I did try a sippy cup today for the 1st time though, w/ just some water in it and he seemed to love it. I guess we'll see how that goes too.

Anyway, we're off to Target when Gage gets up from his nap and tomorrow we have a play date with Theo (I'll promise to get some pictures this time) and Thursday with Sawyer. Fri. am we are supposed to have breakfast with another old college friend of mine and have yet another play date that afternoon with Jamie and Jake at the pool. Fri. pm we're headed down to Grandma and Granddiddy's for the weekend. See you tomorrow, when Gage is EIGHT months old!

Another car seat question??

For those of you w/ older babies, older than mine that is, do you still use any kind of neck support/pillow, etc? Gage's head is very small and he has just now outgrown his baby head support (I know, laugh it up) and although I know he doesn't need it to support his neck, he seems very upset about the fact that it is gone since it was quite a comfy way to nap. Do they make these for bigger kids and if so, any good recommendations? Thanks.

One more thing...

A friend of mine is a stay at home Mom to an almost 2 year old and has started to make bows for little girls in her spare time. Although, most of you are parents to boys (what's up w/ that??) I thought I would pass on the link just in case you are interested or need a shower/baby gift for a friend. Here is the site. Thanks so much!

Gage is on the move....

Finally! ha... at 8 months old, my baby is on the move! Not crawling on hands and knees, but nevertheless, he gets where he wants to go. (Mostly to the computer or our cell phones.) It won't be long now, my estimate is about a week, before we'll have to put up our gate. We bought it awhile ago in case we needed to all of a sudden put it up, since many of our friends said, it'll just happen overnight. In the last week we had seen Gage get stronger and stronger and more determined to move. Every day he was doing a little bit more. However, today, he was really movin' w/ a mission and I got it on video. Yes, not too graceful yet, or symmetrical even, but it's pretty darn cool either way.

Also, I'm ticked with playlist.com. I tried to download Phil Vassar's "Just Another Day in Paradise" and I failed to listen to it 1st. So some of you may have noticed that it was playing "God Bless the USA" instead. I'm so annoyed. They don't have any other versions of the song so basically that means they don't have the song at all...grr. I don't think I can really download it from another website either since that's the only free one I know of to post on your blog.

Here is what I think of teething...

My defintion of teething is- WHITE TEETH THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE COMING THROUGH THE GUMS. Enough with this a baby can teeth for months nonsense. It is hilarious to me that everything you read says that a baby can "teethe" for months. How about babies just put things in their mouth b/c that's what babies do? How about some babies drool more than others? My baby has been drooling since month 1. How about some babies are just fussy and have stages where they just don't sleep through the night? How about some babies just get a touch of a fever when they are trying to fight something off?

I get it. People are trying to 'name' what is going on with their child. If they have a fussy baby they want to believe it's for a reason and not just b/c their kid is having a bad day, or a bad week. If their baby is not sleeping but their friend's baby is, it's easier to just say, oh "he/she is teething". Everyone just wants to think that it's not a part of life and that babies don't go through stages. I learned early on that babies go through stages and that once you think you have something figured it out, it either stops or something else starts happening.

So the literature says a baby can show signs of teething for months and it's funny to read people's posts online that says "my baby started teeting at 3 months and didn't get his teeth until 10 months". Maybe your baby was just fussy or was exploring the world with his mouth (that's what babies do), but I seriously doubt you can look back 7 months and say, "that's what it was, it had to be the teeth". It's just so bizzare to me. I think my favorite is when people claim their baby's teeth are coming through and I look and their gums look exactly like my baby's toothless gums. They say, "I can just tell". Or.....again, maybe your baby is sick or fussy or gassy, etc.

Ok, I'm done w/ my rant. We have decided we're no longer looking for Gage's teeth. They'll show up when they want and just like water boiling, staring at his gums are not going to help things move any quicker. I'm sure one day when I'm feeding him and have given up on the tooth situation altogether I'll feel his teeth, instead of see them. For now, I think my toothless baby is pretty darn cute the way he is!

Just some pictures...

Playing around with a new picture program. (Thanks to Stefani.)

Happy 4th of July!

Now that I think I have most of my blog issues fixed, thanks to some web strangers out there willing to give a HTML novice some advice, I am ready to post my pictures from our 4th of July and I guess I owe you some pictures from Grandma and Granddiddy's visit.

Every 4th for the last 4-5 years we have gone to our friends Jamie and Brad's house. They live near where the city lights off fireworks so we have always cooked out at their house and then walked to see one of my very favorite things- fireworks. This year however, we did not walk to see the fireworks. Jamie and Brad also have a <1 year old son and we didn't think the boys would like it too much. Plus my guy's bedtime is pretty much non-negotiable. He slept like a champ in the Pack n Play and the fireworks didn't even wake him. This year Gage and Jake got matching outfits from Old Navy. We didn't manage to get any good pictures of the two of them though. I was the only one concerned w/ the pictures, but I figured if we bought them matching outfits, we should get proof, right?

This was the best picture that we got. Although they're not looking at the camera, you can see their outfits.

This is Jamie holding the boys as they try to beat each other up.

We did however get a few super cute shots of me and Gage before we left. One of them is in my new banner, but it's kinda small so I might post it again!



It was a fun night, probably not as fun as in the past, but what are you gonna do when a couple of babies ruin it for you?:) Just kidding, people, just kidding!

Contest..

I realize I have way too much time on my hands this summer after having finished grad school, but I entered Gage into a silly "Kids w/ Hats" contest on Parents.com. Apparently, he's one of the 'top' contenders (I know they send everyone that email) but if you get a second, please click here and vote. Voting is from today until Sunday. Thanks!

Still working on it..

As you can see, I got most of my look back. Thanks Casey for your help! However, all of my page elements are at the bottom you see. I still can't figure out why. Yes, I know how to go to the elements page and they are all still where I left them 48 hours ago, on the right side bar, but obviously that's not the case on my acutal blog. Any more suggestions?!? Thanks.

Formatting...

Why the hell does my blog look like this? It's jacked up, it didn't look like this just a few days ago, or hell, maybe even yesterday. Can anyone help??

Reston Zoo...

This morning we took Gage to the Reston Zoo. It's a small zoo, the perfect size for little kids. It is more of a petting zoo than a traditional zoo. You can feed goats and sheep and take a hayride to see buffalo, ostrich and zebra. It is pretty affordable AND the gift shop is shockingly not over priced. In hindsight we should've gone yesterday before it got too hot again, but we didn't get up early enough. It wasn't too bad today, we were in and out by 11am.

The first thing at the zoo is the 'petting' part where you can feed the goats and sheep. The goats are incredibly loud and Gage was scared right away. He started to cry and I thought, oh no, we're in for it.... However, he was comforted pretty easily and once we got him away from the noisy goat we were fine. He actually liked the baby goats.




They had some pretty cool animals and you were able to get pretty close. We bypassed the hayride this year because it was getting late and Gage was getting tired AND hot. The porcupine was by far Gage's favorite and he was mesmerized by it. I think he thought it was a giant spiny kitty. Luke and I liked the monkeys but my favorite was the "Clydesdale" chickens. Have any of you seen chickens with feathers all the way down their legs?? They looked like they had bell bottoms on...when one trotted around the corner, it looked like the feet of a little Scottie puppy. Very weird. This picture doesn't do it justice.


Here are a few more pictures of the day. Overall it was a good time.

Very cool tortoise.

Gage wasn't too fond of being a monkey.

Big spiny kitty.

ROARRRRR

Hangin' out w/ the bunnies

We wanted to get him a little souvenir from his 1st trip to the zoo. Like I said the gift shop was reasonably priced, so although we didn't see one today at the zoo, we came home with a stuffed knit zebra, pretty cute and age appropriate. I took this with my phone so it's a little blurry.

Tomorrow is the 4th! We have a birthday party and the annual Hughes' visit. See you then.