Gage

My sweet, sweet Gagers!  Oh, how much I love you and your sweet spirit.  Gage is definitely all boy, but he has these moments (they have to be his idea) where he will just come sit next to you or on your lap and wants to do nothing but snuggle!  It is the best!  When this mood strikes him, he will just sit completely quietly and sweetly.  One of his favorite spots on earth right now is my lap and that is just fine with me.  Every night when we say prayers as a family, he claims my lap before anyone else can and recently he has started asking me, "can we play a game, just you and me?"  Melts my heart.  I wish there were more time so I could accommodate this request more often (let's face it, it's hard for little people to get good one on one around here, they see you get out a game and they are suddenly swarming.)

He still loves his "blankee" and his "corner"  (a specific corner of his blankee that he can identify by touch alone).  I love the sweet innocence of his love for his blankee, but I'm open to suggestions on how to stop the finger sucking which inevitably accompanies the snuggling of the blankee.  When Gage is tired, upset, or just needs a little break from the chaos, you usually find him sitting in the recliner, left 2 middle fingers in his mouth and right hand holding his favorite blankee corner up by his mouth.  He has offered me one of the "little corners" of his blankee on multiple occasions when we are snuggling (he refers to HIS corner as the "big corner").  Just the other day when I was putting him to bed, he whispered to me, "momma, sometimes when I am going to sleep, I give my little corners to my stuffed animals."  Can you say sweet or what!  I wish I could freeze this sweet, innocence in time.  It doesn't get much better than that.

The series of pictures of Gage in his Texas Tech shirt!  The many faces of Gage and I love every single one!

While I would like to think that I am Gage's favorite person on earth, I'm lying to myself . . . Jackson replaced me quite some time ago as the top dog on Gage's list.  Gage would follow Jackson to the moon and back.  Most of the time Jackson if very tolerant of this (he's a pretty great big brother), but once in a while, it causes a typical sibling World War III.  Jackson and Gage have been spending a lot of time lately building with Legos.  It warms my heart to see these relationships blossoming.  Though I know they don't get it yet, I am trying to help them understand what an amazing gift the friendship of a sibling is!

I wish I could say that all of Jackson and Gage's interactions were calm, quiet lego building endeavors, BUT remember when I said Gage was all boy . . . well, we have some serious wrestling going on in my house lately.  With three boys, I knew it would be inevitable (and if I'm being honest, the girls get in on the action too).  Gage and Jackson are definitely the most aggressive wrestlers.  There are a lot of wrestling injuries at my house these days, but mostly you can find Gage and Jackson laughing while they attack each other in whatever game they are currently playing.  Gage is always in for a good time!

Gage continues to be my most OCD child.  He is constantly arranging something (usually cars) into very specific patterns or lines.  He actually will come home from soccer and put his shoes, shin guards, socks and ball away and they have to be lined up just so.  He will adjust and shift them until they are just right!  I actually hate the spot in his room that he has chosen for his soccer gear, but I know better than to mess with his system and he keeps it neat which is more than I can say for the others, so I can't really complain!  Probably one the funniest habits he has right now is during soccer games or practices.  I mentioned that Gage likes for things to be just so, well this applies even while in the middle of an athletic event.  While playing soccer, if Gage gets knocked down, he immediately stands up and brushes off every single pieces of grass he can find on his soccer socks.  He doesn't worry about falling down, just the grass that is on his socks as a result!  I think this is hilarious . . . Clint says we have to break him of this because . . . well I think it's obvious why this bugs his sports-obsessed father.  I personally think that this particular quirk will work itself out as he gets more competitive and "gets it."

Gage is also my resident "correcter" i.e. he corrects everyone about everything . . . grammar, pronunciation, accurate story-telling, etc.  It can be quite funny, but if it continues as he gets older, he may drive his siblings crazy!  The other night when I was passing out gummy vitamins, Gage heard Kynlee tell someone that her gummy was "Uriel".  Gage promptly corrected her and said, " It's not Uriel, it's ARIEL!"  To which Kynlee replied, "That's what I said, Ariel."  Gage's smarta** response, "THAT time you said Ariel."  Said just as condescending as you can imagine it sounding.  I'm not raising 4 year olds people, I am raising teenagers in four year old bodies!  These stories could go on and on!

Gage is such an amazing little boy.  He is smart, sweet, snuggly, sensitive, super silly, rough and tumble and independent.  We love him with all our hearts!