

Gage continues to grow and change so quickly. Zoe and Gage have started to really play together. Today they spent the morning coloring and doing stickers together. Gage has mastered holding, opening, coloring and even not eating the markers! His major form of communication (which is making me a little crazy) is crying for something, although he can say, more, milk, Bella, Uh-oh, Momma, Daddy just to name a few. He babbles a lot, and talks gibberish, although he mostly relies on me figuring out what he wants without making any attempt to try and say what he wants. It is very clear that he understands what we are asking him to do, and he can respond to commands well (when he wants to). Which is so fun, cool and sweet to see. He continues to be totally strong willed, and throws several temper tantrums a day - mostly when he doesn't get what he wants. Today for example, he opened the fridge to get his milk, we each had a clear understanding that he wanted his milk, except because it was first thing in the morning, I didn't have a milk cup for him yet. So as I went to work getting his cup ready, he proceeded to scream and wail at incredible decibels, refusing to sit down or calm down. At this point he is effectively communicating his opinion and his desire. I was doing my best to help him out, but couldn't believe the over the top display of emotion. It kills me to reinforce his temper tantrum - although in this situation it was hard not to. Disciplining him for this hasn't helped any, so we are in a process of trying to embrace his strong willed personality without it over running us. He is a lot of fun, and continues to amaze us with all the things he is learning and doing. (PS - For those of you who noticed, Yes - Zoe is wearing a bathing suit and floaties...why not?!)