Savannah Kate and Gage Martin: Happy Birthday, Gage! (5 months)

Today Gage turned 5 months old. This month's new skills include: rolling over (both ways), pushing up on his hands during tummy time and playing with his feet. He also enjoys his ab workout with Daddy...he pulls up on Stephen's fingers all the way to standing position and then laughs with delight at his accomplishment and new view.

Gage continues to fill our lives with joy and loves his big sister! He lights up when he hears her and she has learned how to make him laugh. Savannah, however, is not too thrilled with one of his new activities...hair pulling. He tends to grab a handful of her hair and it takes me prying his little hand open and removing her hair clump by clump from his grasp. Shadow, one of our black cats, has also encountered the grip, but uncharacteristically allows him to do it over and over again. This is the same cat who bites me and has bit Savannah twice. For whatever reason, she likes Gage and has been overly tolerant of him. No worries, all kitty contact is supervised.

Aunt Brencie opened the pool today to gear up for swim lesson season. Bren is not teaching this year. She is passing the torch to my cousin, Michelle, who has been teaching with Bren for many years; Brenda, who teaches the more advanced swimmers and my Aunt Vickie, my mom's twin, who is "in training" right now. So we brought Savannah and Gage over for their first lessons. Bren typically starts infants as early as 5 months so I was excited to get Gage into the pool. Unfortunately, the heater on the pool went out and the pool temp which usually hovers at 90 degrees, was a chilly 80 today. Needless to say, Gage stayed completely dry! Savannah, on the other hand, gladly braved the chilly water for her lesson. I think it helped that 2 other 4-year olds went before her and were both very brave. She did GREAT! Not unlike any other 3-year old, however, she did not like putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. It probably didn't help that she drank A LOT of water and I think that was the end of her rope. Later, after everyone was all dry and the pool was covered, she asked if she could jump off the diving board. So I have high expectations of this swim season. My goal for Savannah this year is to not only jump off the diving board, but to swim to the ladder without floaties. So here's to a great season! Good luck, Vickie!