Now I know what the wicked witch of the west felt like..

Seriously, can it get any more humid and hot out there? Ok, I know its not that hot or at least not as hot as its going to get but I am roasting over here! We already have the A/C in the living room but I swear its not enough. I really do hate the heat and I know that I could NEVER live some where south. I am definitely a Northern NY girl. Give me lake effect snow over a heat wave any day! You can always put more clothes on but, but unless you want stares and possibly a ticket for indecent exposure, you can only take off so much. I think that I am quite possibly going to melt if the weather keeps up like this.

Ok, enough with my ranting about the heat..on to the other stuff.....

So I have been meaning to put up a few blogs from different play date Gage has had, but this baby is kicking my butt. So..I'm going to make this one long blog and put them all on here. Along with some awesome new things Gage is doing.

A few days ago Gage had a play date with Jaina (Beth's daughter) at the park. I haven't seen Beth in years and Gage and Jaina were born on each other's due dates. I thought it would be fun to have Gage play with someone so close to his age. Of course for the first part of the day Gage played on one end of the playground and Jaina was on the other. They eventually came to the same area. I also used it as an opportunity to play around with the LensBaby again. Here are some pictures...



Heading up to the slide



Deep in serious conversation..or maybe just a staring contest



Isn't she a cutie? It took a little coercing to get her to look at me...


Jaina loved Gage's toys and decided it was necessary to carry them to each part of the park she went to. Boy was Nemo dirty after a day in the sand.



He loves it outside


Checking out the toys



Being brave and going up the big slide

I of course took tons of pictures, but I cant post them all...It started raining towards the end of the day. I would say it was a pretty good day though, Gage had fun with Jaina and it was nice to chat with Beth, it really had been a long time. Here are two more pictures from that day.



It got a little windy...


Oh man do I love that face

A few days later..or maybe it was the next day. I don't remember...anyway, I figured it would be a good idea to take Gage outside to play in the backyard. I saw Donna and Will were outside so it was a good opportunity for an impromptu play date. Plus, with Will's outdoor stuff and Gage's outdoor stuff there is plenty to do! Of course, I again brought the camera with me and though of doing a little photo shoot with the kids.



So, Gage LOVES Will's sandbox and it was the first place he ran to. He has his own, but I haven't cleaned out the old sand and filled it with new stuff yet. By the time he was done, he looked like a Smurf.


Will came over to join in the Smurf fun and to give Gage a little smooch.


Yes, I know this is blurry..I just love the shirt he had on.


Again with the sand..

While Gage was playing in any sand he could find, I took the change to get a few pictures of Will.



Check out those eyes.



"Whatchu talking 'bout"



I'm glad someone likes Gage's trampoline


Seriously..I'm not kidding..I LOVE this face

So Gage and Will had fun. It was adorable when I asked Will if he wanted to take a picture for Mommy and he responded with "And Daddy?". So of course, we took a picture for Mommy..and Daddy. It's nice to have someone live so close that Gage can play with. I mean like close, close. I can smell what Donna is cooking for dinner on some nights. lol. We do need to hang out more, especially because we live thisclose to one another.

So now to the most recent...I apologize this is quite long..with tons of pictures, but believe me..I didn't even post half of what I took.

Yesterday Gage had a play date with Kasey (Erika's little guy). We had tried to do this before, but the weather sucked so we rescheduled. With Gage's schedule and Erika's it was hard to find a time. Is it sad that my schedule never posed a problem? Maybe that's because, I don't have a schedule. My schedule is whatever Gage's schedule is. Anyway...

We planned to meet at the park by the town hall, I got there a little bit before Erika and I felt like an idiot. I pulled in and saw a whole bundle of kids running around. Big kids, kids I don't like playing on a playground with Gage. They are older, rougher and faster. Not his crowd..or mine really. So I put on my glasses trying to find Erika and Kasey, because I didn't realize at the time they were not there yet. I was hoping she would want to go somewhere else because it was so busy. Luckily, she agreed. We ended up at the park behind the fire dept. This park is about 1/2 a mile away from my house when you drive, but about 10ft. if you walk. I didn't realize this until I went looking around, but we couldn't have walked..I don't want to go through some one's yard.

So...

We meet up and both Gage and Kasey are wearing their M&M shirts. I couldn't get one of them together, but I did get one of them separately.



It had been awhile since I had seen Erika, sure we have chatted on Facebook, but face to face its been awhile. I had never seen Kasey before, besides pictures. Well, he is adorable. The whole time he called me " Hey Lady". I thought it was hilarious.

Gage and Kasey didn't really interact much. Gage was all about the slide and Erika, while Kasey was all about being away from Gage. I think they warmed up to each other in the end and were able to be less than a foot away from one another. Again..I took a lot of pictures but, I'm only going to post a few on here.

Kasey took right to me taking his picture, which was fine by me. Here are a few that I took...


This is unedited and blurry..but I love the "Cheeeeese" face.



He really is a cutie.

Gage really, I mean really loved the slide.




It was a fun play date and we'd love to do it again. Around the time that they had to get going, Tony, Gage's speech therapist came to the park. I had called him to have him meet us there for Gage's session. It's nice to have a change of pace and not be stuck in the house all day long.

So, this is where the awesome Gage news comes in to play. For awhile Gage I think plateaued with his services. He wasn't doing what he knew very often and not picking up on anything new. He also was having some meltdowns when he was in therapy. Well..now he seems to just be going through a learning spurt. He is picking up on this soooo quickly.

For example: In the time that Gage had his session at the park with Tony, not only did he learn to sign "candy", he also said it! It was something like "Caynedeee". So of course, I have been having him do it over and over..which he obliges me for a dum dum lollipop. Win-Win.



My filthy, dirt covered kid signing "candy"!



Gage and Tony again, in deep conversation



Being pushed by Tony on the swing

Gage also has another new word. Now if you know me pretty well, you know when it comes to Gage, I tend to sing him things. I don't tell him its time to eat, I tell him "We're gonna eat, eat, eat...chickey, chickey, chickeeeeeennnn" or something along those lines. I have done it since he was a baby..its just my weird thing I guess. So that being said, Gage was in the tub and I put his shovel and rake from his sand toys in there with him. So I started taking the shovel and "shoveling" water on him and taking the rake and raking his belly. As I did this I was singing "Shovel, shovel, shovel...rake, rake, rake". Weird I know, but after two or three times I said the shovel part and Gage comes out with "wake, wake, wake"! I was so excited and surprised! Of course, why would an almost 3 year old need "rake" in his vocabulary, I have no idea..but at least its a word!

Oh and yes, bathtime is not longer hell!


as you can see here...it's wasnt a power struggle!

So as of right now Gage with say:

No, Yeeeeah(yeah), Rake, Niiii(night), Baaawl(ball), hi, by-eeee(bye), Caynedee(candy), Paine(Plane), Hoo Hoo(woo hoo)..along with a few mixed things here and there

Gage can sign:
More, all done, down, eat, want, drink, candy, thank you, please, rocket, help, swing..again, some others on occasion

Gage can now:
Make about 5 animal sounds, identify some vehicles and animals, point to 6 body parts, point to things instead of using his whole hand

So, lots of progress and he seems eagar to learn right now. So we're going to keep bombarding hiim with all we can.

Sorry this was so long, but so much to tell!



Really...how can you not love him?