There you go

I wanted to tell you a couple of the funny things Gage has done lately.

He's been a real comedian these days.

If I ask Gage to do something he tells me that he has too much to do. I'll be, like, "Gage, get your shoes, we're going to the store." He'll say: "Gage lots to do," hop on his tricycle and ride away.

"Time for your bath."

"Gage lots to do."

And the tricycle. He's been 'going to work' all week. He kisses Lila on the head, hugs her around the neck and says "Goin' to work!" then he climbs on the tricycle, tells Lila "Drive safe!" and rides away. After he rides around a little bit he comes over to me and says "Gage work at Jackson's houes (his cousin). Gage saw wood, Jackson hammer nails!" and the whole process starts over again. It's too funny.

Last weekend Mike and I took the kids to Newhope. We ate lunch in our favorite restaurant, Mother's. It never seems like it's going to work with the kids, but they always make it work because they rock. We try hard to stay on top of Gage's behavior, because the last thing we want is for them to remember us and be mysteriously booked next time we're in town, LOL. So, whenever we're eating out and Gage raises his voice I talk to him real softly and say "All of these people are eating their dinners. They like to have things a little quiet while they're eating. We need to use a quiet voice in the restaurant." He squealed loud a couple of times at lunch today and I said, "Gage, what are these people doing?" and he sighed all dramatically and said in this really bored voice, "Eating. Quiet voice." At least something is getting through! I joked to Mike, "Another 897 times and I think he's got it."

And the other night we heard a strange noise in the house and Gage looked at me all wide-eyed.

He: "Hear that sound?"

Me: "Yes. What do you think it was?"

He: "Cookie Monster opening my door in my room."

Poor kid! He just can't get the damn Cookie Monster to leave him alone.

Today we went to a fall festival and there was a huge sandbox with lots of metal trucks - tranctors and dump trucks and diggers. Gage had a blast playing with them. They also had a couple of those big plastic climb-ons, you know, with the slides and tunnels and stuff. There was one that was like an RV and Gage, who is usually pretty shy about playing with other kids, was being fairly brave about sharing his space. At one point he and another little girl, probably about five years old, were in the back of the little RV and Gage was ready to climb out. He says, and I swear this is exactly how it happened, "Excuse me. Coming through." She moved a step away to give him room. Gage touched her lightly on the back, like to thank her, and said "There you go," before walking by her. I almost lost it. He's such a sweet kid, it drives me nuts.

I feel guilty for not having much to say about Lila.

She's doing awesome. She's almost five months old now. Typically she only gets up once a night, which is great, and sleeps for six hours before and six hours after that one time. Works for me. She's constantly on the move when she's on the floor - she isn't *crawling* yet but she's definitely moving. She rolls both ways and creeps on her belly, so she can move a good couple of feet every few minutes. She knows her mind, too. She loves to play with baby toys (Gage never did...?) but if she drops it, MAN does she go from happy to miserable quickly. She's laughing a lot now, too, which is charming. She loves to have her belly kissed (but, really, who doesn't? Oops - TMI)....