Happy Birthday, Gage!

There's been a lot of firsts around here lately...

First birthday - Gage turned ONE almost 2 weeks ago!!! I know, bad mommy for not blogging before now.
First steps - Yep, Gage took 2 steps to Stephen Sunday morning. Hasn't done it since.
First tooth - Tonight after dinner while cleaning the tacos and pears off Gage's face, I saw it...a tiny little white line on his bottom gums. So what's a mom to do? Stick my finger in his mouth, of course. Yep, it's a new tooth!

Nana came to town for Gage's birthday. Thanks to all the Werners (minus Siri and Brooke) and Aunt Melanie, Uncle Josh and Skylar for helping us celebrate Gage's special day. It's true, Skylar was there, but you'd never know it because we're pretty sure she didn't leave the playroom all night! Many thanks to little Miss Laura for entertaining Savannah for hours! Of course, I'm pretty sure Laura was ecstatic to have her very own real-life dress up doll and Savannah was the willing participant.

Along the lines of first birthdays, Gage also had his first taste of cake...twice. Take one occurred Sunday afternoon following his mini photo session. I'm pretty sure he was cold and tired and wanted nothing to do with my camera or his cake. Here's my little grump man.


So we put his cake in the fridge and vowed to try again the following Saturday. We had a rocky start.


I think he must have just been upset we didn't put his hat on him before starting.


Once we cut the cake into quarters, he went to town. Needless to say, all hopped up on sugar, he didn't nap the rest of the day.


Top it off with some milk (yay! no more formula!!!)...


Gage had his one-year appointment with Dr. B last week. With the doctor visit comes 4 shots :( Gage took 'em like a champ and slept for a good 2 hours afterwards.

Stats:
Weight: 20 lbs, 5 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 48 cm (95th percentile)

Savannah Kate

Santa...the prequel

Yesterday Savannah and I headed over to meet Santa Clause at the Shoppe of Vinings. We have taken Savannah to the Phipps Plaza Santa for the last 3 years and still have our reservation for this year's visit next week. Last year she didn't disappoint, but with the Disney trip still in recent memory, we wanted to make sure she was not going to turn, run and scream this year. She did great!


Lots of hugs.


My only guess is that Aunt Melanie taught her this one..."Flash Santa and you'll get more toys." Yeah, that sounds like something Aunt Mel would teach her :-) Let's hope she keeps her dress down next week...I don't think the nice folks at Phipps will look too kindly on this type of behavior.


This is what Gage thought of me leaving him home while Savannah got to schmooze the big guy.


But he's always quick to forgive. It helps too that Savannah made sure to put in Gage's request for a train table.

This year we took flight

Gage's first Halloween! While Savannah wanted Gage to be a pirate, we opted for NASA Commander.


Savannah decided this summer that she would be Tinkerbell. We weren't sure she really understood what she was saying, but every time we asked what she wanted to be for Halloween, we got the same response, "Tinkerbell!" My mom keeps asking why we have not posted Disney pictures yet...well, I didn't want to give away Savannah's costume. Disney pictures will come soon!

Punkin Patch

October has been a busy month! Let's just leave it at that and post some pics from this weekend's annual pilgrimage to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. It was a beautiful, crisp Fall afternoon and the first time the 4 of us had done something as "just the family" since I can't remember when. It was a great day!

Disney World, Nana's, Amelia Island

Three trips in one...11 days out of town! I don't think I've been away from home that long since my honeymoon!

Our journey began with a sick visit to Savannah's pediatrician :( Yep, another year, a renewed relationship with the nebulizer...ugh! Not something we wanted to bring on a fun Disney vacation, but Savannah has taken to it this year like the trooper she is.

Friday night...arrive at Nana's house. This would be the first of several nights that Savannah got to sleep with Mommy and Daddy all night long! Great.

Saturday morning, Stephen, Savannah and I left Gage with Nana and headed toward Orlando. Once in Orlando, we stopped for lunch and swimming with the O'Donnells. Here's Kaitlyn (7), Abby (5), Savannah (3) and Megan (3). Megan is about a month older than Savannah. When Kaitlyn was just 2 months old, I had the privilege of holding her...at that time, she was the youngest baby I had ever held. Now she's grown into such a beautiful, smart, young lady!


After lunch, we headed to the hotel...The Contemporary...posh! The view from our room was top notch!


After several failed attempts of obtaining reservations for Chef Mickey, we decided to head to Downtown Disney for dinner. However, once we got downstairs, the hostesses at Chef Mickey were practically begging folks to come on in. So we obliged. Little did we know that this was a grave mistake as Savannah was terrified of Donald, Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto and it set the tone for the next 2 days. Savannah's motto for the next 24 hours would be, "I just want to go home". Great!

After dinner, we visited the gift shop. Savannah loved the Chipmunk hats and wanted Daddy to wear one too.


Then she wanted to pick out a stuffed animal...or ten.


Sunday morning we went against all advice and headed to Epcot. Hint to anyone with kids under the age of 8...don't take 'em to Epcot! While Savannah was tall enough for Soaring, she was not quite emotionally ready for that adventure. But for the adults...best ride ever! Eventually we made our way over to Test Track which Savannah did not want to ride until she saw the cars. She happily jumped in the car and laughed hysterically (drool flying out of her mouth) during the part where the car goes really really fast around the track. She proclaimed that ride her "favorite". It wasn't Stephen's favorite, however. Right before we got on the ride, he realized that he lost one of our 2-day park hopper passes. That equates to a $200 loss. Great. He trucked it over to Customer Relations to see what could be done. Of course those Disney folks had it all under control and simply issued Stephen a replacement 2-day park hopper. So cool!

Later, we decided to tour the World Showcase and enjoy the Food and Wine Festival. We dined on several delicious treats and then about halfway through Stephen realized he lost his iPhone. That equates to a $400 loss. Great. He trucked it over to Customer Relations to see if anyone had turned one in, yeah right. No such luck. The last place he remembered having it was Test Track so he headed over there. Thankfully a really super nice, honest person turned it in, thus Stephen's roller coaster mood was back on the up swing. It was time to go back to the room for a nap.

After a little rest, we decided we better get Savannah to a "park" (ie playground) before she called a taxi to take her home. We walked over to Magic Kingdom (just a 5 minute walk from The Contemporary...sweet!). We decided not to force any rides on Savannah. We found a little playground in Fantasyland and she was finally happy! We let her play there for a good long time before asking if she wanted to try the Pooh ride. She agreed and actually liked it...score! Time to go back to the room and sleep.

Monday we were one of the first 100 people in Magic Kingdom and hauled over to Dumbo which Savannah declared as her "favorite". Then we rode Pooh again..."favorite". Peter Pan..."favorite". Small World..."favorite". Wow! We were on a streak! We then decided to head to Mickey and Minnie's houses and try our luck with Goofy's Barnstormer which Savannah declared as NOT her favorite. But she did enjoy touring Minnie's house!


Despite Savannah's strong desire to "just go home" and Stephen's roller coaster of emotions on Day 1, Day 2 was looking up. About 30 (or was it 60?) days before our trip, Stephen made our reservations for lunch at Cinderella's castle. He called at 7:00 am to get the reservation. After Savannah's reaction to the characters at Chef Mickey and any character we may have spotted in any park during the first 36 hours, we were certain lunch was going to be a miserable failure. Savannah wanted NOTHING to do not only with the characters with big heads and crazy costumes, but she also feared the princesses...we saw both Snow White and Belle at Epcot. Since Savannah had been saying for months that she wanted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween this year, we figured we'd splurge and buy her costume at Disney. So before lunch, we stopped in the shop and picked out her Tinkerbell dress. She gladly donned this ensemble and, in my opinion, it was the saving grace for a perfect lunch! Savannah, like many of the girls at lunch, was dressed as her favorite Disney "princess". I think the dress made her feel at ease. It sort of reminded me of that cute kid in Big Daddy (Adam Sandler...great movie) who wears sunglasses so that he cannot be seen. The Tinkerbell dress made her fit right in.

The first princess to come to our table was Snow White. Since meeting Snow White the day before was such a disaster, my expectations were pretty low for this encounter. Savannah, however, blew us out of the water. Not only was she not afraid, she jumped down off her chair and practically tackled Snow White showering her with lots of hugs. They even played peek-a-boo...

The princess lunch did not disappoint!

Savannah saw Cinderella's Fairy Godmother after lunch and though it was necessary to tell her she had a hot dog for lunch. Don't you think the Chuck Taylors make the outfit???


After lunch, naptime. Later we came back to Magic Kingdom...just in time for the rain. So what do you do at MK when it rains? Ride the Teacups, of course..."favorite". By the time we got off the Teacups, the rain stopped and we continued to enjoy lots that MK has to offer.

The most memorable (and I cannot believe I actually forgot to put this in the blog so I'm coming back in now to write it) was The Jungle Cruise. When we loaded onto the boat, the "captain" told Savannah to come all the way up to the front by him. He was a young, college kid and was very good at his job. We thought Savannah was going to be terrified because he would throw himself down onto this big wooden box in the middle of the boat and it would make a really loud BANG sound. He started with his Jungle Cruise spiel. I wish I could remember the joke he told, and I'm not even sure Savannah really got the joke, but she laughed out loud. Anyone who has been around Savannah for any length of time knows that when she laughs, it's a full on belly laugh. Well that was all the captain needed to keep playing off of Savannah which she then thought was even funnier. The two of them just kept playing off each other the entire ride. Savannah had the entire boat laughing and I was crying from laughing so hard. There were at least 3 families shooting video footage during the ride and everyone was cracking up. Each time she laughed, everyone laughed which just made her giggle even more. By the end of the ride, Savannah became known as "Giggle Girl". As we approached the dock to unload, the captain got his cohorts to watch as he made Giggle Girl chuckle some more. There is just no way to capture the hilariousness of this experience...I actually need to Google "giggle girl Jungle Cruise" and there is likely a video on You Tube!

That evening, we decided that since the lunch went so well, we should let Savannah meet her most favoritest of all...Tinkerbell! We met 3 fairies, but Tinkerbell was by far her favorite....the only one whose lap she sat in and the only one she tackled when she saw her.


After 2 days of Disney, it was time to depart Orlando, but not before a stop at Sea World. As we were getting out of our car in the parking lot of Sea World, another family was pulling into the parking space behind us. I noticed they were all pointing at us and laughing. I had to check to make sure my shirt was on, pants zipped, nothing hanging out of my nose, etc. Then they got out of the car and said, "Look, it's Giggle Girl!" and then we recognized them as the family that sat across from us on the Jungle Cruise the night before. It's a Small World afterall. Sea World was....HOT! I mean, it's not supposed to be 98 degrees in October...even in Florida! Savannah got to feed the dolphins!


The 3 hour car ride back to Nana's was pleasant for all. Savannah slept the entire drive!!!

So what was Gage doing during all this??? We like to call it "Nana Bootcamp". Kiddos don't leave Nana's without learning something! For Gage, it was crawling and pulling up on furniture. He had mastered both in the 3 days we were gone.




Savannah, Gage and I spent the next 3 days with Nana. On Friday, Susana and Sophie drove down and met Savannah and I at my mom's condo on Amelia Island. Gage continued his stay with Nana. The girls had fun playing in the sand and eventually the water too.





Three days at the beach...TIME TO GO HOME! HOME SWEET HOME!!!

Gettin' Ready for Some GA Football

Just a quick pick from last weekend. My little Dawgs for those of you who don't look at Facebook..Rainwaters, Barnetts :-)

Happy Birthday, Gage! (9 months)

Okay, so I'm a little late on this post...8 days late to be exact. So sorry, but life goes on. Gage turned 9 months old on September 3rd. He and Savannah both had appointments with Dr. B. Savannah just got her flu shot. Gage had 2 shots...round 1 of his flu vaccination and Hep B. Savannah went first and cried the most she's ever cried from a shot, therefore, Gage was crying before it was even his turn. Perhaps doubling up on appointments is not the best idea.

Gage is definitely a sympathy crier. All in all, he's a very happy baby, and Savannah can really get him tickled. But if Savannah cries (heck, even if she's just laughing loudly), Gage gets upset and starts crying. He loves to clap. He's learning some sign language...he now knows "more" and I think "milk", but he's also learning to wave bye-bye which tends to look a lot like "milk" since his wave is backwards as if to say "bye-bye" to himself.

Stephen is tickling Savannah here as Gage is happily swinging:


Savannah is pretending to eat...Gage found it hysterical:

Well...this video will have to come later...I'm having technical issues.

He's not crawling or pulling up or cruising or even attempting to take steps when we hold his hands while he stands. He sits and tries to get himself into a crawling position by rocking forward and putting weight on his hands, but he can't quite get his feet out from under him and behind him. He will scoot on his butt though. When it comes to pulling up, he'll reach up and pull on the furniture, but he's still not able to get his feet under him and use those leg muscles to get to a standing position. "They" say that the second child reaches certain milestones before the first one did as a desire to "keep up" with the older sibling. I think in our case, Gage has no motivation to be mobile since Savannah stays right with him and brings him anything he could ever need, want or desire. I wouldn't move either if someone was always there to bring my water, the phone, the remote, my laptop and entertain me.


"Lady, can't you see it's football season? Now, get outta here with that camera."


Gage is also still trying to master his pincer grasp. He mostly grabs food with his whole hand and puts his whole fist to his mouth...food deeply hidden in his grasp so it never quite makes it into his mouth. So really the only food he can feed himself is cookies that are large enough to stick out of his fist. He also likes to gum pizza crust. Can anyone tell me what ever happened to zwieback toast??? I always gave it to Savannah, but I have been to 3 Publix, 1 Kroger, 2 Targets and Walmart, and I cannot find it anywhere. Argh! Which reminds me, Gage has no teeth. Not surprising though since Savannah didn't get teeth until after her first birthday. He is starting to eat table food...sort of. He did eat a sweet potato tonight that was an actual sweet potato from a restaurant and not pureed.

So for his 9 month stats:
Weight: 18 lbs, 9 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 27 1/4 inches (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 47 cm (95th percentile) - According to Dr. B, all the Barnetts (including me) have big heads...thanks, Dr. B!
Adorableness: tied for #1 in this family

Poor Parenting? Perhaps.

With summer's end quickly approaching, the Barnetts are spending as much time at the pool these days as possible. While we do enjoy the pools in the subdivision and the super short drive to get there, there is really nothing better than a morning and lunch at Aunt Brencie and Papa Dick's pool, gardens and patio. We are so fortunate to have access to such posh amenities and I love that my kids get to grow up swimming in the same pool where I learned to swim.

Our mornings at Brencie and Dick's usually means that Gage must miss his morning nap. We've tried putting him down for a nap in his Pack -n- Play, but there's no way he'll stand for that. He must be in the pool! He loves his float and usually coos, kicks, splashes and plays while we all swim and dive and chit chat around him. Yesterday, however, before we knew it, Gage was asleep in his float.


Normally this wouldn't be a problem, however, the timing wasn't ideal. We were all about to get out of the pool and have our lunch in the cool shade of the muscadines. Do we pick him up out of the float and risk waking the perfectly content sleeping baby? Never!

What is it they say about necessity being the mother of invention?


Yes...that is a rake holding the raft in place so we would all have a clear view of Gage while we prepared and ate our lunch. Before you all start emailing me and bashing my parenting skills, Gage was perfectly safe...we were very close...4 adults watching...he was in the shade...and he woke up before we even started eating and spent the remainder of lunch on one of our laps.

Savannah is really turning into a little fish these days. She is jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder all by herself.

Motivation

Wikipedia definition: Motivation is the internal condition that activates behavior and gives it direction; energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior.

For at least the last 6 months, mornings from Monday through Friday consist of whining, crying, fits, temper tantrums, "No!"s, "umph"s, kicking, screaming, hiding under the covers, demands and anything short of spitting and biting. Did I mention we have a 3-year old? A wise person once told me that Threes are the Terrible Twos with an attitude. Mornings are dreaded in our house...and it's not my alarm clock that goes off at 5:30 am...in fact, I cherish that quiet time to myself between 5:30 and 6:15 when I get to shower and primp without interruption. But boy, when 6:15 rolls around, Hell breaks loose in our house. The daily grind is simple really: milk, potty, brush teeth, dress, hair and out the door. All can really be done in 20 minutes tops, but in our house, this routine can take upwards of 45 minutes to an hour...throw in a "time-out" and you see where I'm going with this.

My eyes were opened this past weekend to a truly amazing phenomenon...motivation. I think I finally learned what motivates my 3-year old...and I bet you all want to know the secret to my success. It's quite simple really. Three-year olds apparently like to win. We first tested this with eating green veggies. Now Savannah has always been a good eater, but as of late, she tends to turn her nose to the green veggies...they are not her "favorite". But if Stephen or I picks up a green veggie and challenges her to a race, she's very eager to shove green veggies down her throat as quickly as possible to "beat" us. Not sure why it took so long to sink into my thick skull to apply this concept to mornings, but this morning, I challenged Savannah to "beat Daddy". While Stephen showered, Savannah was to go potty and brush her teeth before Daddy could finish his shower...and was she ever up for the challenge! She finished her business, brushed her teeth and beat Daddy getting dressed. She was even eager to get her hair brushed and styled so that she could "beat Mommy" getting ready. Savannah was out of bed and ready to walk out the door in 20 minutes. She even got to "wake up Baby Gage" and kiss him good-bye. It's funny...as I type this, and without even knowing what I was doing, Stephen came in and said that Savannah commented on the way to school this morning, "Daddy, I didn't cry." So she KNOWS when things go smoothly and she's proud of herself when they do. So why the drama??? We're going to give this a try again tomorrow. Wish me luck!

We got to play outside a lot tonight with Sophie. The weather was actually pretty nice for August. And the sky looked really cool!


And I had to re-create Stephen's picture of Gage on the trike (Stephen posted his iPhone version on Facebook)...

Just a picture

Just posting a new picture of Gage. Stephen and Savannah ran some errands this morning and Gage and I rotated his clothes...finally packed away all his newborn-6 month clothes. This is a chore I dread and put off more than anything else. But it's done...woohoo!

Hot Wheels

Savannah got a new trike...and she loves it! She had a tricycle, but it was no fun. I think she was always too big for it. Sophie had this Schwinn trike (long before she could ride...like most things we get our children I guess). Savannah was pretty good at riding Sophie's so we found one for Savannah. Now the girls like to ride up the sidewalk to the Elko's driveway and then pedal as fast as they can back down the hill to the cul-de-sac.


Gage is doing great. He'll be 8 months old on Monday. He's getting bigger, er, well, longer I should say. He's very lean.

Summer Lovin'

Man, it gets harder and harder to come up with titles of these posts...especially when all you want to do is post a few pictures for the family. "Summer Lovin'" works.

We've had a fabulous summer so far! I finally signed Savannah up for actual swim lessons with Miss Michelle. Until now, I've been taking her to Aunt Brencie's for her "lessons" with me while Bren coaches me on what to do with Savannah and how to teach her. It's NOT EASY to teach your own child to swim! So I'm outsourcing! But I don't feel too bad about it. Bren says that even she could not teach her own children to swim. Savannah had her first lesson last night and I could already see the pieces starting to click together for her. We have 3 more lessons to go and Brencie and Michelle are confident 4 is all we'll need this year.

Recently our friends, the Joachims, came to enjoy the neighborhood pool with us. Last year at Savannah's birthday party which we held at the clubhouse, Lauren's boys spotted the water slide at our pool and were upset when they couldn't stay to swim and go down the slide after the party. I didn't get any great shots of the boys, but here is Savannah making her one and only solo run.


Big G was there to catch her, and can't you just read the misery all over her face???


Since last Friday was a holiday, both kiddos were at home with us. Savannah has been such a helper. Here she is giving Gage his bottle. This was not just a few moments for me to snap a quick picture. She fed him his entire bottle and took her job very seriously.

She loves her Baby Gage.


Saturday was the 4th of July. We started with a morning swim at Aunt Brencie's house with the hopes of wearing Savannah out enough to take a nap before the evening festivities. I'm happy to report that she napped! Later we trekked up the hill to the King's for good times with the best neighbors, delicious food and plenty of Guitar Hero to boot. Many thanks to Nana for holding down the fort while Gage and Savannah slept and Stephen and I got to hang out later with everyone.

Yeah, Gage is donning his cammo.