gaige – ToadMama.com

November 23, 2010

My Grand Weekend

I did end up spending this past weekend alone with our oldest grandson, Gaige, in West Virginia. Hubby was down with the same bug I had last week (which is STILL lingering in both of us by the way) and was really not up to that sort of outing. So Gaige and I loaded the dogs into the truck and off we went. We missed having Hubby around, of course, but we managed to have a bit of fun anyway.

As you can probably imagine, I took a few pictures.

DSCN1742_bike helmet — Gaige was VERY proud of his new bicycle helmet.

Gaige is a bit of a character, so we shared quite a few laughs over the weekend. Starting with our visit to Target in Winchester, Virginia. He’d outgrown his bicycle helmet, so we stopped to buy one for him. He was super-excited about the cool helmet I let him pick out and insisted on wearing it as soon as the cashier finished scanning the thing, cardboard tag and all. Can you tell how excited he was?

Saturday dawned bright and early, thanks to my crazy dogs. Gaige watched The Wizard of OZ while I woke up. Then we took the dogs for a walk. We turned that everyday dog walk into a hiking adventure.

Gaige is a very active 7-year-old boy. He climbs on pretty much everything. He was super-excited to get a chance to do some mountain climbing.

I’m not sure what he enjoyed more, going up or coming back down…

He would’ve gone up and down that thing all day if I’d let him.

When he wasn’t climbing, he was running.

He was quite tickled to discover one, lone dandelion seed head that was just screaming to be picked.

As we were heading back to the house, we got to a spot where the hill is VERY steep. Note how steep in the picture above. It only got worse higher up. I decided to back-track a bit and take the easier route. Gaige, of course, wanted to scale the steepest spot. And he wanted to make it a race. Knowing how steep that hill is, I knew I’d beat him.

I was wrong. I wasn’t going slow or anything. He just went really fast, which is why he’s gasping for breath in that photo above. Look behind him and you can see how steep and BIG the hill is.

I did say he climbed pretty much everything there was to climb, right? This downed tree, which he referred to as broken, was no exception.

Gaige and Belle were playing together in the leaves.

Gaige really likes Belle and she likes him right back. Belle’s first family, who she lived with from 8 weeks to 18 months of age, had a couple of kids. So she actually likes hanging out with Gaige.

IMG_7642_not leaving belle — "You are NOT leaving me behind, Mama."

After our hiking adventure, I opened the back of the truck to load my bike. Belle, not wanting to get left behind (note the sad puppy expression on her face), hopped right in and immediately made herself comfortable. Gaige thought it would be fun to hang out there with her.

I couldn’t resist including this cow picture. It was the first critter we encountered along the C&O Canal bike path.

Gaige very obediently rode through as many puddles as he could, just like I instructed. Until he went through one that was particularly long and deep and got soaked.

He really likes his new helmet.

IMG_7693_muddy gaige — Puddle aftermath.

Riding through all of those puddles made him a little dirty.

Gaige’s new favorite movie is Dante’s Peak (I love disaster flicks). He watched it on Sunday morning, with Belle, while I straightened the place up.

Later in the morning, he and I explored the yard a bit. There’s no shortage of stuff to climb on back there, that’s for sure.

He really had a good time letting loose over the weekend. Yes, there were a number of pictures where I made him smile for the camera, but there were also lots of candid smile shots like this one, too.

I’m posting this last picture against my better judgment (I am in DESPERATE need of a haircut). I had to get a shot of the two of us together after our fun weekend.

DSCN1760 — Gaige and G on their Double G Weekend.

We need to take him back out there soon so we can build a tree fort. I wanted to do that this past weekend, but I didn’t have the proper tools with me. Next time, I’ll be more prepared.

October 11, 2010October 11, 2010

Happy Birthday, Gaige

I had every intention of doing a nice, long birthday post for Gaige this morning. Not that he reads my blog, but I did want to give him the appropriate shout-out. I had a bit of a stressful morning, however, followed by a pretty busy day. I just now logged off of the ole work computer and it’s 9:00 PM.

Anyway…

Our oldest grandson, Gaige, turned seven today.

Gaige 22months August2005 — Gaige at 22 months.

Many of my readers know all about my convoluted family tree. It’s not my parents’ fault (they’ve been married for 51 years!). The craziness started with me. I always did like to do things differently.

I’ve only actually given birth to one kid, Eric, who just recently turned 21. In 1993, I married Hubby and became the proud step-mother (at the tender age of 26) to Shannon and Amy. Since we already had three children between the two of us (not to mention two crazy, non-custodial exes) we decided we didn’t need any more children. A lot of people are of the “you should have had a child together” mentality. But I think that’s just dumb.

I’m getting way off track here. Sorry.

When Amy was 25, she married TJ, who had two kids from a previous marriage. Gaige was already about 16 months old before we even met him. The point of all this is that I don’t have any baby pictures of Gaige on hand to share. The earliest shots I managed to dig up this morning are the one posted above and this one.

Gaige 22months with Amy August2005 — Gaige at 22 months with mom-to-be, Amy.

Both of those pictures were taken when TJ brought Amy and the kids to the WV place, which at the time was the WV construction site, supposedly to “help” with the building. What he really came to WV for was to ask Hubby for his permission to marry Amy.

A little over a year later, the two got hitched and Amy had her own instant family.

gaige_ring bearer — Gaige the ring bearer.

Gaige was not thrilled with being the ring bearer. He liked the idea okay. Until it came time for him to walk down the aisle and he realized all eyes were on him, he froze. Of course, everyone was oohing and aahing and giggling at this cute sight. Gaige thought everyone was laughing at him, so he just dropped the pillow, covered his eyes, and refused to move.

gaige_ring bearer 2 — Gaige "Hollywood" Lloyd

Fortunately one of the guys from the wedding party came back down the aisle to retrieve the petrified boy. And Gaige stood patiently with the rest of the wedding party while Amy and TJ exchanged their vows. Patiently for all of about two minutes. Then he started walking around the altar area, looking at stuff, completely out of Amy and TJ’s field of vision. When he found a pair of pink sunglasses someone had left in the choir loft, I knew we were in trouble.

He immediately put them on then walked over and sat on the edge of the altar facing the crowd. People (including me) couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. I mean, it was so darn cute. I didn’t have my camera with me, but the photographer did manager to capture one shot of Gaige in the infamous glasses.

And here he is just a few years later at the WV place. He always was the cutest, most photogenic kid I’ve ever known.

Seriously. He’s just got the bluest eyes. And those dimples! Couldn’t you just eat him up?

He’s got a very expressive face. For better or worse. This series of pics I shot about a year ago is another favorite of mine. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

I can’t remember exactly how old he was in the baseball picture. I’m thinking he was four.

The guitar shot was Halloween 2009. Gaige strummed his sister’s pink guitar and sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It” to Hubby and me while his siblings got dressed.

And we can’t forget that gem of a shot I posted yesterday…

Gaige and Joey in their old man pants (as Joey calls them).

I could go on forever with the pictures, but it’s late. So I’ll stop now.

I hope Gaige had a fabulous birthday!

October 11, 2009

Happy Birthday, Gaige!

My oldest grandson, Gaige, turns 6 today.

This is his first year in school. He’s in kindergarten.

The picture at left is the most recent one I have of him. It was taken the same day that I took THIS PICTURE, which is my favorite shot of all three grandkids.

It’s not the best picture I have of Gaige, though.

I think the picture posted below is the best picture I have of Gaige. If not the best, it’s definitely one of my favorites.

He’s one of those kids that is just really photogenic.

He’s also one of those kids that likes to make faces when you take his picture. Like this one…

But he sure is cute, isn’t he?

Happy Birthday, Gaige!

May 22, 2008

Assume Your Field Position…

That’s what I said to my grandson, Gaige (age 4), earlier tonight before snapping this shot of him after his tee ball game.

About a month ago, that’s what he said to me while we were in his back yard waiting for his sister, Brianna, to hit the ball to us. He and I were the fielders. He looked up at me with those blue eyes of his and, being very serious, said, “Assume your field position, G.” (I am far too young to be called Granny, or Grandma, or Nana, so I selected “G” as the name for the kids to use for me.)

Of course, I complied. But I told him, “Okay, but I am not going to run or anything.” I was, after all, wearing slip-on type shoes that are hard to even walk fast in.

“I know,” he said, “because you’re old now and can’t run.” Quite the funny guy, isn’t he?

Before I took the next shot, I told him to look mean.

The last image shows Gaige with my youngest daughter, Amy.

Tonight was the night Shannon (my oldest), Amy and I enjoyed our monthly night out. We call it Thirsty Third Thursday. We try to do it the third Thursday of every month, but it doesn’t always work out. My hubby was kind enough to stay with the kids since Amy’s hubby, TJ, is off at Army training.

NOTE: If you put your mouse over each image and click, you’ll be taken to a larger view. Just remember to use your browser’s BACK button to return to this page.