Sweet "tisses"...

Gage has started giving us all "tissies" lately, and there is nothing more precious in all the world! They are usually open-mouth kisses with huge smiles to boot, and just in the last couple of days he's started making the sound effect too. The funniest part of that is that it comes after the kiss. I love to get the kisses! I love to watch Gage giving Daddy sweet "tisses" (Gavin's word that there's no need to retire) at the gate before Brent goes to work! I love to watch Gage giving Gavin kisses...anytime of the day!

Kidnastics...

I'm bummed that all of these pictures turned out so dark, but hopefully you can still see how cute Gavin is in his little "Kidnastics" class. He goes for 50 minutes on Thursday mornings, and I usually watch him from above while walking around the track with Gage. (And sometimes I get glares and admonitions about getting out of the inside runners' lane as I'm trying to catch Gavin for his turn on the trampoline or balance beam. Oh c'mon...give me a break!) It's so fun for me to watch Gavin jump on the trampoline and try to follow the teacher's instructions and imitate her actions. And one of my favorite parts is watching the little Olympic bow they all do at the end of their turn. So precious!

This is Gavin's favorite part: the zip line! And he gets to fall into the pit of foam blocks for even more fun and adventure. He's always a bit bummed when the zip line is tied up during a lesson.

Gavin recently discovered this little ladder. Lately he's been getting into climbing it and falling backwards into the foam blocks. Jackson is another one of his little classmates; there are three boys and about four girls in his little group. A couple of weeks ago, Gavin informed me that he and another little girl had been put in time out during class. "Yeah, we weren't listening to the teacher." His new motivation for behaving well has become the chance to play in the rec center play area after his class. I'm glad that it's working! We've had no time outs to speak of lately!

Here he was doing a little bear crawl on the parallel bars.

I wish that there were a way to capture how quickly and haphazardly Gavin normally runs across these balance beams. It cracks me up! He can't be bothered to slow down enough to master the art of balancing most of the time. He's gotten better at this lately, and in this picture he might have been going backwards. I put down some masking tape on the floor in the kitchen to help simulate a balance beam at home, but there was nowhere for him to fall when he wasn't balancing so I'm not sure how much that helped.

This class has been so good for him! It's a great way for him to practice taking turns and waiting for his turn, following directions, waiting in line, meeting new kids when Mommy's not around, etc. When I see him talking with the other little kids in class I just have to wonder what in the world they're talking about. I love to imagine what those little conversations are all about. Can you picture it? One time he told me that one of the girls in class told him "no" when he was writing in the teacher's book. Not exactly what I was hoping for with the preschool chit chat, but it's a start!

Sleepy...

Gavin was so housed the other day that he fell asleep on the couch, which NEVER happens. Maybe he was getting sick too, but I can't remember now. The only consistent naps that he gets anymore happen when Daddy is at home to put him down. He will NOT nap for me anymore, so we're working on the quiet time concept (and sometimes I call it his "Gavin time" and my "Mommy time") which is slowly getting better over time. He's been doing great with big floor puzzles lately, and it's impressive to see what he can get accomplished all by himself.

More Gage at 1 year old...

Gage is a special gift from God. His smile draws you to him, and his laughter is contagious. He is our little snuggle bunny. Lately he's been melting on my shoulder after naps, just tucking his arms into me and nestling in. I could do that for hours. I'm only nursing him once now (in the morning), and the weaning is as difficult for me as it is for him. The lactation consultant at Avista (I love both of those women SO much!) reminded me how awesome it is that I've been able to nurse him for so long, and I am truly grateful for every second I've had being so close to him during that special time together. I know that weaning Gage is extra challenging, too, simply because he's my last baby. My new (and really only) motivation to wean him is to be pain free for my Mommy weekend away at the end of the month. I'm going to visit some dear friends (Sarah & Marie-Christine) in Portland, OR, on Feb 24, and I knew that I needed to be done nursing by then.

One of Gage's five words--and, by far, the one he uses with the most frequency--is "dog," though his version is really more like "dah, " which is always closely followed up by a "woof, woof." We got him this little dog that barks, pants and walks to him. But the nice thing is that we don't have to take him for walks or pick up his poop. (Can you tell that we're not pet people?)

My mom and Jim got Gage this adorable little CU onesie and sweatpants for his birthday. Gage still crawls with great velocity and, hence, has little motivation to learn to walk on two legs. However, as of today (Feb 9) he's crossing the floor and taking a lot more risks to walk from one thing to another. We keep saying this, but I think that he'll be walking soon, especially after seeing him today. And we're all so proud of him! Gavin loves to count how many steps he takes at a time.

Gage wanted to try on Mommy's sunglasses the other day. What a hoot! He's been playing hide-and-seek with me behind the glider in his room lately, and that's been so much fun. He has remarkable aim with balls, and he enjoys just sitting on the floor and passing the ball back and forth. I think that those are the very moments when Brent and I realize that Gage just has a much more easygoing demeanor than his big brother. He can sit and do one activity for longer than Gavin can most of the time, but of course it's hard to remember what, exactly, Gavin was doing at Gage's age too.

This is probably Gage's response to, "How big is Gage?" He holds up both of his arms, and then he usually gets tickled pretty promptly after that. It's so fun to hear how hard he laughs. And he hardly ever laughs harder than when Gavin is making him laugh. He adores his big brother, and the feeling has been very mutual lately. I have to say that, recently, the number of sweet moments with the boys together has, thankfully, outweighed the number of rough moments. For that I am always grateful. And there is no better gift for a mother than to watch her children loving one another well and really taking care of each other. Gavin's been asking to hold Gage in the glider lately, and then Gage nestles into his shoulder and Gavin rubs or pats his little back and takes it all in. He often waits to have his little brother's eye contact before he says things as adorable as this: "Gage, you're an extra sweet guy" OR "Gage, you're a birthday present to me." Are you kidding me?! Does it get any better than this? Well, yes, I guess it would also be nice if Gavin would lay off of the wrestling his little brother to the ground. All in time. We're just so happy to see how much the boys like being together, over all. Anytime that Gavin hasn't been with me to get Gage up after his nap lately, Gage looks around and motions to Gavin's room, and yesterday he even pointed to the picture of Gage and Gavin together on his dresser. He repeats something insistently, which I'm sure is his rendition of Gavin's name...not that it sounds a thing like it so far. He knows that something major is missing when Gavin's not around.

Gage's 1 year birthday...

Here's "Grandma Mike" (fondly named by Gavin because Pam is mother to Uncle Mike) holding her grandkids. In one arm she holds 2-year-old Madison, and in the other she holds 1-year-old Gage...and yet there is a very strange balance happening here. Though the kids are a year apart in age, they are apparently only ounces apart in weight. It's very funny to see!

Instead of a birthday cake for Gage, Gavin and I made a sugar cookie snowman with gum drop buttons and facial features. It turned out to be downright tasty, so Daddy's hesitation about no traditional cake was all for not. (An aside: Gavin is holding up his plastic pizza plate from his birthday party, not world's sturdiest and largest piece of rubber pizza, as it may appear.)

Of course, Gage had NO idea what to make of the whole singing, candle and sugar cookie snowman thing, so I took it upon myself to blow out his single candle. He was precious, as always.

I'm so glad for the occasional picture of the four of us together. Gavin was a ready helper when it came to opening Gage's birthday presents, as you can imagine, so I'm sure that stopping for a family picture was really delaying him in his "job."

Gavin and I made this sock snowman for Gage. We filled it with rice and put blue jingle bells on him to represent Gage's blue eyes. It was Gavin's idea to glue two of the orange pom poms together to make the carrot nose. A common line around our house for the weeks before and after Gage's birthday was: "Gagie, I love you so much that I'm gonna give you a birthday present. OK, Gagie?" And then each day Gavin offered something different. Here are some that I can remember: "It's gonna be my Legos...It's gonna be my tractor...It's gonna be my whole room." By the end, he really wasn't messing around! His whole room, huh?