perspective

Gage has been one for just about 2 months now. Where does the time go? He is so fun right now and such a busy little body. As you can see he always is climbing up on the chairs to see what's been left on the table. When he smiles he shows his front teeth and it's cute and cheesy. He loves to be outside, in the stroller or not. Gage's communication is awesome. He signs more, please, thank you, milk, all done, and bye bye, which is also night night. He says, "momma", and "hi" which sounds like ha. He also throws tantrums when he is frustrated and points and grunts to what he wants.
Gage is a momma's boy but recently I have been known to be easily forgotten at the appearance of popcorn. The baby does love his popcorn! His other favorite foods are sweet potatoes, chicken, apples, pears, broccoli, and french fries, in no particular order.
Gage is a walking machine. He prefers to walk now over crawling and is still a climber!
His favorite toys are balls (loves all balls), trucks and trains, pretend phones, and the kids' markers which he isn't supposed to have but someone always gets a hold of. He has been known to color on the floor and most recently has been really into Adelle's lipstick. Messy!
Gage loves to sing songs and clap his hands. At church when I am trying to keep him quiet I take his little hand and spread out his fingers and play that, "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, woop, Johnny," game with his fingers and he loves it. He is completely memorized by it. Does everyone know what I'm talking about there? 
Another thing I must make mention of is the fact that he is an ear rubber. He plays with his ears when he's tired, or my ears, or whoever he is sitting with he will reach for their ears and rub and twist them when he gets tired. It's really sweet. It's also caused me to loose a few earrings. I usually just wear studs, and he likes to twist them right off ;)

It's been fun to just enjoy my sweet one year old. I have been thinking back over the course of the years with my other babies and realizing that uniquely enough now, at this time, I am totally content with just having a one year old. It's such a comfortable place to be and one that I cannot say I have always been in.

I remember when Braxton turned one I went into a crazy baby making mode. I knew that I wanted him and Adelle 18 months apart so as soon as he turned one I was ready to be pregnant. Like, Now! Well, that didn't happen so what do I do but get super paranoid and consumed in the fact that I wasn't pregnant and therefore things were just not going to work out. Thankfully my mom, in her loving, honest manner, one day finally told me, "Andrea, what if Braxton is the only child you were meant to have? Maybe you just need to enjoy him and this stage you are in at this time." Such real words that I needed to hear so badly. Obviously I was already enjoying him but it was a good perspective.

Then when little Adelle turned one I was already 3 months pregnant with Emmett. I must have been a lot younger then or had a lot more adrenaline. Either way that was a busy time and I remember sitting and just soaking up Adelle, knowing that she would soon no longer be the baby.

When Emmett turned one we were in the peak of our family depression. I don't say that to be funny, or casual, but to be honest and even thankful. There was so much stress during this year. I was so scared for my family, my children.  Looking back, their were such bounteous blessings. We always had sufficient. The thought of having another baby though ,was not even one that I considered for a minute. I often wonder if Emmett would be the daddy's boy he is today if it weren't for this year that his dad was out of work and spent so much time with him. This was the year I was barely staying afloat.

So here we are. Life is still challenging and busy. Their is still stress and expectations. There are dreams and fears of the future. There are questions the kids ask that I don't know how to answer. Things don't always go as planned. All I know right now is that things are just as they should be. They have always been just as they should be, I am just a slow learner. So Gage is one and guess what... I love it. Period. Exclamation point!