More pictures of Gage... I promised!

So I got them uploaded today.  These pictures of Gage are really cute!  BUT- there were some really cute ones of Zane, too, so I will put those on here as well.  Oh, you know you love 'em both!  

So here are some rare smile pictures I got of him... all very adorable:

And one of his new favorite things to do is empty my kitchen drawer of dish towels and bibs.  One of the good things about this though is that he typically will put everything back in after he's done!  Can't get mad about that!  Although, I do seem to be doing a bit more laundry than I used to....  

And now for the few pictures of Zane that I uploaded that I really liked.  He loves to play outside in the back yard.  He loves his sandbox:

And MOST definitely jumping on his trampoline... or as he says, "My jump-o-ween."  Too cute!

You know... not to sound biased or anything, but DANG- I have some cute little boys!  Haha-  just sayin'.  After looking at these pics... well I have to say that I am proud to be Zane and Gage's mommy!   : )

OOH!  Real quick before I end this-  Zane's soccer coach finally got in touch today!  We will be meeting with him and the rest of the team this Saturday at 3pm.  It's typically co-ed, but somehow, Zane got on a team of all boys!  And they range from just turning 3 to just turning 4.  And so far, there are 8 of them.  His practices will be on Thursdays at 6pm, and games will be on Saturdays.  His first game will be on October 4th, I believe, but once I know the time and everything for sure, I will get that posted for those of you who are able and would like to come!  It should be a hoot watching all of those little kids chasing after the ball!  

Later!!  <3

Look-A-Likes

Okay, so I knew that when Gage was born, he looked an awful lot like his brother Zane.  As he started getting older, he began to develop his own look, but still, after seeing one of the pictures I had uploaded today, he definitely has a resemblance to Zane that lets you know that they can't deny each other as brothers! 

I composed a little photoshop combination of the two pictures, as I had done before.  I am going to share all of them with you today.  

This is both of them at just a few weeks old:

And them again, each at a few months old:

And most recently, both of them at 14 months old:

So anyway, I just thought that was a little something interesting I would share with you all.  I wonder if this trend will continue.  I wonder what our girl would look like... OH- nope, I didn't say that!!  No girls... no more babies.  Really.  Don't look at me like that.  

Fun night at Amy's

As usual, I enjoy going and spending time over at my best friend Amy's house.  Her oldest, Haleigh, and Zane get along really well, and eventually, when our babies (Joey and Gage) get a little older, I'm sure they will be great friends, too.  Right now, they just take each others toys and follow each other around.  When Keith is home, we all have a really good time, too, but while he is over in Iraq with the Army, it's nice to still get together and keep Amy company.  

Saturday night was no exception to our fun times together!  Amy also had another couple, Tandi and Aaron over with their little boy, so we all had a good time while the kids played and had fun as well.  I hadn't put any pics up on here lately, so I thought I would share a few from that night.

Here are Jody and Zane "playing" Guitar Hero.  Zane really doesn't grasp the concept quite yet, but it's cute to see him try.

Here is an extremely funny picture of me, Jody and Zane.  I do believe that Jody is tickling Zane here, which would explain a lot!  haha

And you know me- I gotta take every chance I can to pose!  Even when it's just coming back outside onto the patio!

Here are Zane and Haleigh showing off their "matching" tattoos.  I told Amy that as long as this isn't them when they're 18, showing up with REAL matching tattoos, I guess we're okay!  lol

And, of course, us cool chicks had to get a picture together!

OH!  One more!  I forgot about Zane's silly face!  I just LOVE this picture of him!  He's so funny!

And I do apologize about the lack of pictures of Gage.  He has a very routine 8:30 bedtime, and he was already asleep by the time we started taking pictures.  I do have a bunch of him on my camera that I need to upload, so as soon as I do that, I will put those on here!

By the way, a big thank-you to people who leave me comments on here!  It lets me know that my blogs are being read, and gives me a reason to keep them up!  The more comments, the better!

Anyway, my next blog will have pictures of Gage, and I will do that ASAP!  

Gage's 15-month check-up

I just wanted to write a quick blog about Gage's 15-month check-up.  First of all, he is perfectly healthy and right where he should be!  For only having one kidney, he sure has been the healthy one!  (Not that kidneys have anything to do with being healthy... it's just good to know that that wasn't the start of other problems to come.)  He was 21.4 pounds, putting him in the 10th percentile for weight, and he was 32 inches long, putting him in the 75th percentile for height.  That follows pretty much what he had been all along.  Zane was our rolly-polly.  He was usually in the 75th percentile for weight!  : )  

He had to have four shots today.  One of which was the flu shot.  Yuck- those hurt.  He did amazingly well though!  I was proud of him.  He only cried for about a minute, but by the time I had his clothes back on, he was perfectly fine.  

So anyway, that's the latest on Mr. Gage!  

Future Fitness Instructor??

Okay, I just wanted to write a quick blog about.... ME!  

So, for a little while now, (since I've been working out at 24-Hour Fitness on a regular basis) I have been interested in teaching the Group Exercise (Group X) classes that I attend.  I really enjoy working out in that setting, and I thought it might be fun to teach and work out at the same time.  Not to mention, 24-Hour Fitness got me in shape... how cool would it be to help other people get in shape??  

I had a couple of instructors tell me that I should teach, and that I would be good at it.  I even had a girl tell me that she watches me when she can't see the instructor!  Plus, they have a shortage of instructors right now with all of the new facilities going up in the area.

Well, last weekend, 24-Hour was holding an Instructor Search... basically a free seminar to "recruit" future Group X instructors.  I decided to go... just to see if it really looked like something I would be interested in doing.  OMG, it SOOOO made me want to do it!!  Not only do you, your spouse, and your kids get free memberships, but you also get paid per class you teach, and you get free child care while you are there working out OR teaching!  And you get these benefits at ANY club in the nation!  The only downer was that in order to get certified, it was going to be $150 for the certification.  And we kinda really don't have that just laying around.

Sooooo, today, I had a fortunate thing happen.  Someone offered to take care of this fee for me!  You know who you are, and if you are reading this, THANK YOU!!!!   So now, I get to go to Instructor Training at the end of this month and the beginning of October to get my certification!  And then, all I have to do basically is audition, (and make it) and I get to start teaching Group X at 24-Hour Fitness!!!  I am so excited!  

Anyway, I never really write about things going on with just me, so I thought I would share.  So, wish me luck, and hopefully soon, I will be able to call myself a fitness instructor!  (How cool!)

Robot Dada

Oh so many funny things happen when you live with a three-year-old who has a very active imagination... and parents who help to feed it! 

The other night, Zane, Jody and I were on the couch right before it was time for Zane to go to bed. I think Jody was tickling Zane or something when Zane declared, "I don't love you, Dada! I only love Mama. I'm Mama's boy!" And he came over to my side of the couch and wrapped his arms around me. (He really always has been a mama's boy, too!) So I said, "That's not very nice, Zane. Poor Dada... what are we going to do? Should we get you a new Dada?" Zane grinned and said, "Yeah!! I don't love you, Dada. I want a Robot Dada!" Jody and I just looked at each other and cracked up! Where does he get these things?

So Jody, to play along with him, got up and said that he was leaving. He got about halfway to our pantry door (which leads through to the garage) and Zane suddenly looked very worried. I told him, "Uh-oh Zane. Daddy's leaving. You made him sad." As Jody opened the pantry door, Zane lost it! He started bawling! After a second, Jody reappeared, walking very stiffly. Zane paused, but didn't quite know what to think. Then Jody said, "I... am... Robot... Dada..." and continued into the living room. Zane smiled a little bit, and stood up from the couch. Jody said, "What... do... you... want... to... play...?" And Zane caught on quickly. He ran across the room and yelled, "Let's play tag, Robot Dada! Come and catch me!!" So Jody, moving all slow and rigid, started across the room. Zane ran around a little bit, but then began to grow bored because Robot Dada wasn't moving fast enough to catch him. So he picked up the paper airplane that Jody had made him earlier (and that he treasured VERY dearly because Daddy made it just for him), and said, "Let's play airplane now!" (He and Jody had been throwing it back and forth earlier.) So Jody, as Robot Dada, roughly picked up the plane, and promptly ripped and crumpled it up as he said, "Robot... Dada... does... not... know... how... to... be... gentle..." Zane absolutely lost it again!! OMG, it was soooo funny! (Not to poor Zane, but I was dying!!) He rescued the demolished plane, and ran to me all upset. Jody went on, "Do... you... want... Real... Dada... back?" And through the tears, Zane nodded.

So Jody went back to the pantry, and returned as Real Dada. He saw the plane in Zane's hand and asked, "What happened?" (How he was keeping a straight face at this point, I don't know!) So Zane explained to his Real Dada all about Robot Dada. And then, exactly to be expected went on, "I love you Dada. I don't want Robot Dada. I want you.... can you make me a new airplane?" 

So the new airplane was made, and Zane now realizes how much he loves his "Real Dada." It hardly gets any better than that!

The Scariest Bathtub Toy

I just thought this was a funny story, so I'm going to write a quick blog about it.

A couple of weeks ago, Zane found this toy in his game room that I think came out of a Go, Diego, Go! bath set. It was a little orange spongy starfish. He recognized that it was a bath toy, and wanted to play with it in the tub that night. Jody told him that it was the kind that would expand (or "get really big" as he put it) when it was put into water. Zane said, "I don't want my starfish to get bigger than me!" in kind of a scared voice. Jody told him that it wouldn't, so Zane was fine with it. 

Well, he left the starfish in this bucket that he has in the bathtub filled with water overnight. The next night, when it was bathtime, I looked in the bucket and noticed that the thing got HUGE! And not only that, but it had this horrible, slimy texture to it, and it was really heavy. It felt like a cold, wet, dead fish or something. I mean, you have no idea how gross this thing felt. But, I put it into the bath water anyway... I guess to see what Zane would think. 

So he comes into the bathroom, and gets into the tub. I told him, "Zane, look at your starfish!" (God, I'm such an instigator to my kids!) And he was looking for the little spongy thing he'd had the other night. When he spotted the "new" one, he cautiously started to try to pick it up, but it was so slimy and heavy that it just kinda fell out of his hands. He FREAKED out!! I mean, like, tears were practically coming out of his eyes, and he backed up to the complete opposite side of the tub crying, "I don't like my big starfish, Momma! Can you make it small again?" I was dying laughing at this point!! I mean, like, I'm almost laughing again right now typing this!! So I took it out of the water and put it into the sink. 

It shrank back down to it's original size after it dried out, but the poor kid still has no interest in it whatsoever!