Buddy Walk - 2009

This past weekend, we went to our first Buddy Walk! It was a lot of fun to see what it was all about and we had a great turn out! I have been serving as a board member for SUDSA (Southern Utah Down Syndrome Association) so I was excited to see it all come together and be so much fun!

Gage posing with the Road Runner's mascot! He was so confused about the huge bird following him around!

Home Depot came and provided kits for the kids to make different things out of wood, everyone was having a blast! Derek and his sisters were making different things so I was taking a picture, so the bird thought he would join in!

Here is some of "Gage's Gang"! My little brother made us some awesome shirts, I loved them!

On the right is my cute SIL Staci, and these are the girls she lives with. (I work with Staci and all of these girls except one!) They all came to walk with us! Here they are in a picture with Lane. Lane and his wife both have Ds and are celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary this week! They are so stinkin' cute together. Lane has been driving for 28 years now, how awesome!!

Beginning the walk!

Gage was all ready to go, and having fun with everything going on!

But then just walking while snuggling got pretty comfy so he zonked out!

More of the "gang"!
Gramma Jill, Derek, Kasi, Tiff, Lola, Lolo, Papa Jo

Gage and his best buddy, Justin.
Justin came with his mommy, Grandma, and some of his cousins, too! All to support Gage, how blessed we are!

Thank you so much, everyone that came and supported us on Saturday, and for the past year and a half! We are so lucky to have so many people there for us, we love you all so much!


--------------------------------------------


Gage has been doing really well with his arm. Derek took him to get his permanent cast yesterday and they decided that where his break is, it should heal just as well with a splint thing, so at least we can take it off for baths and things! Gage acts like he really likes the new splint, he is really comfortable in it and doesn't act like he is in pain anymore!
I was sure that having a broken arm was going to slow Gage down, but I sure was wrong! For the first few days, I was sad because I missed watching Gage move around and honestly, I missed all the messes he makes! Not the actual mess, I just love watching his curiosity and watching him explore everything! But luckily he is back to his old self, tearing up the house and everything! I can tell he loves being able to get around again. He still loves to stand up to anything and everything, so I get nervous he is going to hurt his arm or something! But I can tell he knows his limits with it, so I just have to let him do his thing. Thanks so much for all your well wishes, he is doing great, and I think he is going to heal quickly!

These pictures just melt my heart. Can you tell how much Gage adores his Papa Joe?
LOTS!
And he loves hanging out in the den and looking at the deer and other animals. He says "deer" over and over as he points toward the den, and then just LIGHTS UP when you go in there!

So do you notice what is different in these pictures? I'm sure you did! Yes, that is a temporary cast on Gage's arm, waiting for the permanent one coming on Monday once the swelling goes down. He broke his arm... in 2 places.
Gage turns 1 1/2 in a month, so apparently having his tongue clipped, 2 spinal taps, open-heart surgery, tonsils and adnoids removed just wasn't enough all slammed into 17 months, so he went ahead and broke his arm as well! Oh this boy, good thing he is a little angel to take care of with such a sweet personality! It is so sad to see him with a cast on.

I love...

how practically every drawer I open, I find another toy stashed inside! Maybe it's a sign that Gage will be really good at cleaning up after himself! ;)

piCtUrES!!

I FINALLY figured out how to get pictures up on the blog! I'm so excited! For some reason, it just isn't the same when I can't post cute little pictures with my posts!
With Gage's physical therapy, he has gotten down cruising along the furniture. So now we are working on standing up to flat surfaces and standing solo in the middle of the room. He will stand for a few seconds on his own, but we are working on tummy muscles to help with his balance! He also has his own miniature "old person" walker. I'm going to have to post pictures of him using it, it is so funny! This picture is of Gage practicing standing up to a flat surface while doing something else with one hand. I started off with shaving cream, but as you can see, it ended up in his mouth so I changed to whipping cream!

I got this idea of using the paper from Joel's mom, Heidi. I told you I was going to have to try it someday, Heidi! I remember thinking it was a great idea because Gage has such a love for all things paper! :)

And just a little update of some of the pictures I have been wanting to post... Halloween. Gage was a cute little caterpillar. Here he is fueling up on his pretzels for a night of trick-or-treating! My parents were so sweet to keep Gage for the night on Halloween. We had a fun party at the cabin with a bunch of friends.

Hanging out with Lolo and Lola!

Waiting for more trick-or-treaters!

Gage just LOVES his kitty. He kept climbing across the couch to get to her, and then would just snuggle on her. Look how happy he is!

eww gross...

Gage ate a dead cockroach today. I got half of it out of his mouth, and boy was he mad. I really do feed him! But.. apparently he prefers other food. ewwwww....

And the final decision is...

We are headed "up north"! Derek is accepting a job with a great firm up there, so we will be moving next year! I have mixed emotions about the move... most of our family is in the southern part of the state, so it will be hard to move away from them, but I have met LOTS of great families that are in the northern part of the state, so it will be fun to live near them. We also have a little bit of family living up there right now, so it will be so good to be able to see them more!

Get comfortable... it's a long one!

So, I'm super sad. I have tried so many times to upload some of the CUTEST pictures and they just won't work! Has anyone ever had this happen before? I guess I am going to have to try a few more times and then maybe I will have to start a new blog or something if it doesn't work? If you have any advice... please let me know! I want it to work!

Just over a week ago, Gage and I headed up to Salt Lake for some appointments he had at PCMC. We left early Monday morning so we could get to Emily's house for a get-together! Of course, this is one of the things I wanted to post pictures of because this was about the cutest bunch of kids I have ever seen! If you look on Emily's blog, she posted pictures of it all! It was so much fun, thanks again for the great times everyone that was there! And especially Emily for having us over. I can't wait for next time!

Another kodak moment I have some adorable pictures from is the sleep study that night. Last time we had a sleep study, Gage was soooo good. The nurses kept complimenting him and were loving it! So this time... I was worried. I know Gage sure has grown up since then and knows what he likes... and DOESN'T like! I was more than pleased when he acted like an angel again! Yes, he was trying to crawl all over the bed as they were sticking all the annoying things on him, but he wasn't fussing or crying or getting angry at all! The first half of the night, they had the room quite warm, so Gage didn't sleep very well. Once I had them cool it off, the rest of the night was alright... I guess as good as it could be during a sleep study! All those annoying wires, I don't think I would cooperate as well as he did! We are still waiting on the results though, hopefully we will get those at the beginning of next week.

The next morning, they woke us up bright and early. We stayed at the hospital since we had a cardiology appointment just an hour later. Gage had to get sedated for his echo, and it was a pain, as usual, for then to get in the IV. Poor kid! I must say, I HATE holding Gage and watching him as he is sedated. I really never want to watch that again, it was so hard for me. After the echo, we were heading up to recovery and Gage was SO out of it, but still tried waving to all the nurses as we walked past. It was so cute, he is such a flirt! Recovery went smoothly, so we only had to wait an hour before we went to wait for the doctor. We ended up waiting quite a while for him... only to get the news I didn't want to hear. It ended up being a really hard day for me. You know how we kept Gage on oxygen 24/7 for 6 months? Well, that was to try to get rid of the pulmonary hypertension. When the doctor came in, I was really scared because I was afraid of the news he could give me. Unfortunately, Gage's pressures are the exact same as they were way back in March. No change at all. Not even ONE number less. So the doctor and I had a heart to heart about our options. Derek and I had decided already that we are done with oxygen. Gage is so much happier without it, and so are we. It felt good when the doctor agreed with me and told he would have made the same decision. Please keep Gage in your prayers, I know that even though the doctor doesn't think his heart is going to get better, Heavenly Father has his own plan! I sure hope we get good news in January, when we got back again for another appointment. Sorry for the sobs, I just know that some of you have been wondering about how it went. Thanks so much for all your support and good wishes.

Last weekend, we got to go to St. George to hang out with our family. My brother and sister-in-law were down from up north and it was great to see them! And even better to hear their good news, I finally get to be an AUNT! I am so excited for them, they are going to be such great parents. We love you guys and can't wait to meet the baby! :)

On Tuesday, Gage's occupational therapist came over. It was just the second time he has come. The first time, he was doing an evaluation to see where Gage was at. As he had Gage do different activities, he kept asking me for different things to try. I kept thinking it was weird that he didn't come with the things he needed, but eventually he told me he just didn't bring a lot of the things because he didn't expect Gage to get as far into the "test" at his age as he did! I was so proud of him, he really is doing so well. But the other day when the OT came again, Gage wasn't too excited to cooperate, I guess that is the way it goes! Come to find out, he was getting a fever and has been sick the past few days, so I don't blame him. We took him to the doctor today and it looks like something viral, so hopefully he will get over it soon!

Gage picked up a new sign today, he says "more"! I love the way he personalizes each of his signs. I will have to get them on video and upload them (yeah... if I could ever get it to work!!). He signs "more" "dog" and "alligator". He also says a few words vocally... but no, it isn't mommy and daddy. He says "kitty" and "Jesus". It is too cute. Eventually he will say mom, right?! haha He also broke his 9th tooth today, poor kid! Maybe that plays a part in why he hasn't been feeling good.

So one last thing before I end this forever long post with no cute pictures added! Tomorrow is a big day for our family, we find out where we are going to end up next year after graduation! I am so proud of Derek and all the hard work he has put in these past few months while recruiting has been going on. He has had more interviews than anyone I know of, so I think that says a LOT! I couldn't be more proud of him! I love you babe!

...

Just letting you all know... we are still here and I have LOTS to post about! But I have some super cute pictures that I want to post as well, and it won't let me :( I have tried like 3 or 4 times! So.. stay tuned, cute pictures to come... eventually!

Our little guy's name!

A few days back, Cathy tagged me in a post asking how we came up with Gage's name. Yes, I know it took me a few days to post, but better late than never!
Derek and I decided that we weren't going to find out if we were having a baby boy, or a baby girl. So we had to come up with names for each. We both "agreed" on a girl name, although Derek would beg to differ. The boy name was harder for us though. Derek was set on one name. I'm not going to say what it is though because I would hate it if someone came across this blog that I don't know and happened to have a child with that name. :) It wasn't that I hated the name, I just really didn't see it as our little boy's name. So really, the way we came up with Gage's name was while Derek was searching for names on the internet! When he brought up the name, I knew that we already had a family member with the same name, but since we both liked it I knew that was what it was going to be! So I just later told my mom's cousin that if we had a boy, we were going to have sons with the same name! So, really, Gage's first name didn't come from any great family history or anything, we just liked it! Gage's middle name, Russell, is a family name though. Derek and his dad both share that middle name, so I really wanted to have it be our little guys' middle name. I think his name flows so cute, I just love it!
Gage Russell Anderson

-----------------------------------------------------

I watched this video and fell in love. I am so excited to see what Gage's future holds!

You Caught Me!

The picture pretty much says it all! I lost track of him for like... 30 seconds while cleaning up breakfast and this is where I found him! Like a good mom, I let him continue his snack while I grabbed the camera! :)