randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

I haven’t had the chance to do a picture of the week in awhile… so I thought I’d post one and try my damndest to get back into the swing of things.  I took this today, it was Gage’s first time ever to the ocean.  My god he loved it, didn’t want to turn from the view.  I knew he would, to be honest.  He loves water and he loves to play in the sand.  If I let him, he would have made a beeline for the water and splashed his way to hypothermia.  Well, maybe not hypothermia… I don’t think the water was quite THAT cold, but cold nonetheless.  I could have stayed down there on the sand all day myself, to be perfectly honest.  The day included going to a little aquarium and Gage winning a stuffed fish at a fishing boardwalk game.  Maybe I’ll be able to take him to the shore when it’s a little warmer, when he can actually go in the water for a bit.

Gage put himself in the bath.  He plugged the tub and started the water.  Then he got undressed and got in all by himself.  Now there’s a kid who loves to have his nightly bath!  When he gets home from school, he doesn’t touch the bus tire anymore.  He just runs up on the neighbors porch and sits on one of the chairs.  It’s cute.  They’re ok with it, which is good.  I think they think it’s funny, actually.

I keep a little sculpey out for him to play with.  He makes things out of it.  I know he makes fish and castles.  I don’t knwo what the rest of the stuff he makes is.  I’m trying to figure it out.  I’m hoping that eventually he’ll leave the little figures as they are when he walks away and I can bake them.  So far, when he leaves the sculpey he smashes it up into a ball or something again.  It’s a shame.  I want to bake some of these and make them permanant!  I’ll get them eventually.  Maybe I should try some of that crayola modeling clay… it doesn’t require baking.

Ok, I just have to post about this stuff… Gage is adorable (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that), but even more so while he’s discovering language and trying to talk more.  Much of what he says is repetition, but sometimes he babbles on and on and I just KNOW he’s trying to tell me something.  Lately he’s taken to trying to get me to repeat after him.  I’m doing it, because maybe if I say what he’s saying it’ll start to make sense.  If I can understand what he’s trying to say, maybe I can correct the way he’s saying it and then we’ll be on the road to better communication.

Anyhoo… Gage likes to count.  He’ll sit there and count to 30 over and over again.  one… two… three… through the single digits to the teens, fourteen… fifteen… sixteen… and into the twenties, where it cracks me up, twenty seven… twenty eight… twenty nine…

twenty ten.

I don’t know where he gets it.  He’s said thirty before.  As a matter of fact, I’ve heard him count as high as thirty five.  Maybe he got it from one of his classmates.  I dunno, but it makes me giggle (although I DO correct him).

Today he repeated some phrases from one of his sign language DVDs, descriptionss of the signs to help remember how to do the sign.  The first one was milk.  To sign the word milk, hold your hand in front of you and squeeze.  Like you’re squeezing an udder, get it?  Milk.  The description is “Like squeezing milk from a cow.”  Gage was signing milk and said “like squeaking milk from a cow.”  That brought a good giggle.

Later he was doing the same thing with monkey.  To sign monkey, well… it’s basically the monkey imitation we all did as kids.  Both hands making a “scratching” motion under the arms.  The description is “like a monkey scratching himself.”  Gage signs it great, but when he repeats the description it comes out “like a monkey crapping himself.”  Yes, it’s stupid potty humor and I should be ashamed, but I laughed for about 20 minutes the first time he said that.

Cute, no?  He certainly makes every day interesting.  But at least he’s trying, even the lady at Conoco commented last time we were in that since he’s started school he seems more extroverted than he was over the summer.  Of course he was standing there babbling at her while he was trying to decide which color bag of Skittles he wanted.

At some point last night, Gage came in my room and slept with me.  He brought a blanket with him and laid on top of my comforter.  For some reason, he was curled up by my feet, and his legs were over mine.  Tiger was curled up next to me with his head on my stomach when I woke up.  Which was also cute.  I think Gage started out cuddled with Tiger but he moved, actually.  Tiger tends to move away from Gage’s cuddles.  Speaking of cuddles, Gage is turning into a real cuddle bug.  He sits with me on the couch all the time and puts my arm around him and snuggles up against me.  He’s fallen asleep a number of times like that over the past week.  Not just at night either.  While he’s been sick he’s cuddled up and napped like that.  So I grabbed a few Z’s myself a couple of times.  It’s nice.

Gage s loving Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  He keeps asking for it.  Last night he was singing the song Santa sings (jingle jingle jingle, you’ll hear my sleighbells ring…).  My mom has one of those little animated santas who walks back and forth and sings that.  I wonder where she got it.  Of course she’s also got one that sings something like “jump into Christmas” and jumps up and down.  I remember when we were there last time my mom activated it for Gage and Woody was jumping along with it.  It cracked me up like you wouldn’t believe.  Seriously, you’d have had to be there to know just how funny it was.  Anyhoo, Gage seems to love Rudolph.  I wish I had more holiday movies to put on for him to watch.  As it is, I’ll have to be content with whatever they show on TV this year.

I was trying yesterday to get the computer mom and Joe sent me to play DVDs.  It says I need a decoder, so I download and install one.  It doesn’t work.  Frustrating.  I was hoping that I could start playing Gage’s DVDs on it since the DVD player is dead.

Here’s the picture of Gage from Halloween.  It was taken post trick or treat, since he wouldn’t hold still for a picture before we went trick or treating.  Cute, no?  Not too bad for a costume made with no pattern.  I think it came out pretty good, and he made an adorable little bat.  Maybe next year I can dress him up as a character from Star Wars — since he seems to love it so much.  Of course that could change by next year… still, the tentative plan for next year is Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or something along those lines.  He’s already got a light saber.

Gage napped yesterday afternoon, and was feverish last night.  This morning he was still really pale, so I decided to keep him home again.  Good thing, too.  About an hour after the bus would have picked him up… the throwing up started again. 

Maybe it’s ridiculously early, but Gage is watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  I don’t know if I’m gonna have money to get a picture of him with Santa this year, but if I can I’d like to have him somewhat familiar with the character.  Unfortunately the only movies we have that really feature Santa are Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman.  I’d love to get more at some point.  Maybe I’ll get some videotapes and tape the specials when they come on this year, some with Santa and some that don’t have him at all.  There are a few I’d really like to get… Smoky Mountain Christmas, Polar Express, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, The Night They Saved Christmas and a few versions of A Christmas Carol. There are 2 “traditional” holiday movies that I’m not interested in, though… Miracle on 34th St and It’s a Wonderful Life.  Just never liked them.  Dunno why.

Gage woke up coughing.  No surprise really, once it starts getting cold he tends to get a cough and keep it most of the winter.  He takes after his mother.  He threw up, but I figured it was from coughing so I started getting him ready for school… then, while he was just sitting on the couch, he bolted for the bathroom and threw up again.  No coughing or anything like that that might have caused it.  So he’s home from school today.  So far he’s thrown up 4 times.  You can tell he doesn’t feel well when he doesn’t try to run outside when I let the dog out, he just stays on the couch and watches Star Wars.  Poor little.  He’s being a real cuddle bug today, too.  I wish I had some children’s pepto to give him… He doesn’t seem warm or anything, just apparently having tummy trouble.  He ate the lunch I packed him for school about an hour ago, and threw it up 20 minutes later.  It breaks my heart.  Even Poe knows, which is cute as hell.  Gage was laying on the couch, looking kinda dazed for a while earlier and Poe came up and laid with him, just like he’s always done with me or Woddy when we’ve been sick.  He’s a good kitty.

Speaking of good kitties… there’s a black cat that wanders the neighborhood, he’s getting food somewhere cause he’s got some meat on his bones.  It’s funny, Poe is a black cat, but he’s part siamese.  Seeing this tlack american short hair in contrast with Poe, the difference is astonishing.  Poes face is more angular, the others face is rounder.  Poe’s fur is very sleek and shiny, the others doesn’t have a sheen (though it’s very soft).  Poe is smaller and thinner, this cat is big (taller, too).  And the other cat has all of his teeth, LOL.  Anyhoo, we were at the bus stop yesterday, and he walked right up to us.  He rubbed against my legs and then against Gage’s legs, and Gage promptly sat down and grabbed him and then laid on him the way he does with Ziggy and Poe.  The cat didn’t mind, in fact he was purring.  When the bus came, Gage got up and got on the bus, and the cat got a little more petting from me after the bus left.  Sweet cat.

Gage was so cute this morning when I got him dressed for school.  He didn’t want to get out of bed, so he just laid there and let me dress him.  Holding up his legs for me to put on his pants and undies.  The only part that he protested was the socks and shoes.  But those got on and he put his jacket on happily when it was time for the bus.

He’s started saying mommy.  Not just randomly, but actually addressing me as mommy, which he’s never done before.  He’s drawing more pictures, too.  Not just the cow and stuff like that.  He draws stuff from his sign language DVDs, which is cute.  Some of it doesn’t look much like what he says it is, but it’s still really cute and I’d say he’s making progress.  He’s been singing a lot of songs, too.  The Wheels on the Bus, Hickory Dickory Doc, Old MacDonald, I’m a Little Teapot… it’s so cute.

He had a chewy jolly rancher last night (a bit of his Halloween booty) and he was playing with it.  Meticulously “sculpting” it.  In the end it was a fish.  There was no question, it was a fish.  He held it up and showed me and I identified it as a fish and praised him.  Then he made it “swim” along for a few minutes.  Then he flattened the bottom and pulled out 2 triangular side fins and pulled up a triangular top fin and showed it to me.  He turned a fish into a shark.  Then he ate it.  It was terribly cute.

We went trick or treating for about an hour, it was fun.  Gage did pretty good, he didn’t need to be carried except for the last few houses.  It was nice.  He didn’t say “trick or treat” though.  He did say “treat” a few times, he also sang The Wheels on the Bus, I’m a Little Teapot and Hickory Dickory Doc a few times.  He exclaimed “a clue!” while knocking on a door once, too.  He did eventually start knocking on doors himself, which was really cute and everytime we went to a house with dogs he said “doggy!”

His costume was quite cute, although he messed up his wings around the 3rd or 4th house.  No biggie though, it was still cute.  I’ll post a picture later.

I guess it’s a good thing that we don’t have a porch light.  that makes it unlikely that anyone will be coming to the door for trick or treating.  As much as I’d love to hand out candy to the kiddies in their costumes, I have no candy to hand out.  Besides, I’ll be taking Gage out tomorrow night.  His costume should be cute.  I haven’t been able to get it all on him yet.  I’m gonna put him in sweats with the costume over it, so he’ll be layered.  The hood will be the hard part, I think.  I have to find something for him to hold for the candy… he has a spider bag somewhere, but I think it’s packed up.  There’s a camouflage one he can use.  I’ll have to carry something to put candy in as it gets too full.  I also need to get my blinky leopard ears out and make sure they have batteries so I can wear them tomorrow night as well.  We’re probably only gonna do 1 or 2 blocks, and I’ll probably end up with Gage on my shoulders… but it’ll be fun.  Hopefully I can get him to say “Trick or Treat” at some point.

Gage just dropped trou in the living room and proceeded to pee on the floor. At least he’s got what I assume is the “proper stance” for peeing standing up, but that was not something that I really wanted to have him do. He’s been scolded, his pants are back on and he cleaned up the puddle, but still… I have to say though, he’s doing pretty good. Since he started school he’s only had 2 accidents at school and since he’s started using the potty he’s only peed the bed twice. He does still have his moments though. There have been a few times that he took his pants off outside and peed outdoors. While I know that boys are equipped to do that, it’s not exactly something I’d like him to be doing.

In other news… I’ve started reading the books from my “They made that into a movie” bookbox. I started with Little Women since I’ve heard so much about it over the years but I’ve never read it. Some of the books that came in it are going to be wild released without being read because I’ve already read them. A Christmas Carol and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, for example. I’m thinking I might read Chocolat next.

Gage stayed home from school today. He ate peanut butter toast for breakfast and lunch. Pretzels for a snack. He didn’t throw up all day. I made him some spaghetti for dinner. He just threw up. I don’t get it. I would try going a day or two without giving him spaghetti… but it’s just about all I’ve got that he’ll eat. Haven’t been able to get to the grocery store, and quite frankly don’t have the dough to buy much more than spaghetti or mac & cheese. Unless he has an issue with the thickness of the spaghetti. Somehow I grabbed thin spaghetti last time I went shopping instead of angel hair. I doubt that’s it, though.

My little baby angel is sick.  His tummy is not happy apparently.  He threw up a couple of times today.  He’s a little pale and a touch warm, too.  I gave him one of his pepto tablets, and I’m trying to get him to wind down and go to sleep.  It’s not working.  The cats keep coming by and stirring him up again.  I’m about to put them in Tigers crate if they don’t knock it off.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been letting Gage fall asleep on the couch and transferring him to bed.  He falls asleep between 9 and 9:30, and when I move him to his bed he wraps his arms around my neck and cuddles into me real close.  It’s so sweet it just melts my heart.  The other night he curled up against me on the couch and covered us both with a blanket and then fell asleep like that.  It was so comfy I almost just passed out right there on the couch with him.  I might have if he didn’t have school in the morning.

Gage is addicted to A New Hope.  To the point that the tape is wearing out.  Of course, these aren’t new tapes.  We got them at a pawn shop 5 or 6 years ago, and it’s the box set of the original theatrical release (digitally remastered) that was released 10 or so years ago.  So definitely not new.

Anytime I’ve tried to put Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi in the VCR he’s ejected the tape and given me A New Hope to put in.  So today I mixed them up, put the wrong movie in each case to see if I could get him to watch Empire or Jedi.  He got home, pulled out A New Hope, looked at it, and then pulled the other two movies out of the cases and put them back in the correct cases.

Now I just need to figure out if he’s actually reading the title on the tapes, or of he’s just memorized the shape of the letters.  Probably the latter, but the former wouldn’t surprise me.  I did manage to get Empire in the VCR while he wasn’t looking.  When the George Lucas interview started he gave me this look like “Do you really think you fooled me?”